Dear Mr. Petrie, I would like to take a few moments out of you day to reach out to you and express my concerns as a life long fan of the Sacramento Kings. As I’m sure you are aware, many of the fans have become increasingly frustrated with the direction of our young team. I am not a basketball genius as many claim you are (myself included). I have however followed basketball in general, and the Sacramento Kings in particular, for the last 15 years. Here is what I have noticed. First and foremost, Tyreke Evans is not a point guard, and continuing to initiate the offense through him will continue to cause problems. He walks the ball up the court, and as a result we take too long to get into our offense. Tyreke Evans needs to be set free and allowed to do what he does best, and that is score the basketball. Players like Derrick Rose, know when to run offense, and when to get into attack mode and take over the game. Tyreke needs to be in attack mode 100% of the time in order to be effective.

The Kings have been painful to watch the last few years mainly because of our lack of offense. Everything goes back to this. We don’t run any plays. As a result we allow teams fast break opportunities, and with players not being in rhythm we are missing free throws. Many believe that the players we have don’t run plays, but this is nonsense. We acquired many new players this year, and the offense (or lack thereof) is the same. Paul Westphal unfortunately has failed miserably as a coach for this team. I have never seen a clearer example of a coach needing to be fired. While I am sure I do not have all the information you do, I would submit to you that when Mr. Westphal was hired the criteria by which he would be judged was simple: winning games and player development. His record speaks for itself with regards to winning games. When it comes to player development I would argue that not a single player has developed since they have gotten here. Tyreke Evans is the same player or maybe even worse than he was as a rookie. Demarcus Cousins maybe too early to tell. Donte Greene, Jason Thompson, and Omri Caspi while he was here, have also shown little to no growth. If it were one player I would say it was an isolated incident; but we see a pattern here. He has run Spencer Hawes, Kevin Martin, Samuel Dalembert, Omri Caspi, and now potentially Demarcus Cousins out of town. Numerous times coming out of timeouts I watch a big for the kings shoot a 17 foot jumper with 14 seconds left on the shot clock within two seconds of catching the ball; these are the plays he draws up during time outs. His substitution pattern is bizarre. I understand lack of winning makes coaches try different things, but starting Jason Thompson as a small forward, or having players start one game and not play the next is bizarre. I acknowledge the team is lacking in certain departments, like a designated play-maker, but I refuse to believe we lack the talent necessary to compete for a playoffs spot.

I could site numerous examples of obviously incorrect decisions the coach has made but I don’t want to take up too much of your time. I hope you give Keith Smart an opportunity as I believe he overachieved last year with a Warriors team that is not more talented than we are.

Sincerely,