I have been giving the Geoff Petrie as our GM a lot of thought as of late. Initially, my thought was that it's not his fault. I have very much felt that he has done a good job as a GM for the Maloofs, with the thought and assumption that he has done his best given the limitations the Maloofs have set. I figured the Salmons trade was to acquire a SF, and put the team at the minimum payroll, which we must admit, served its purpose. We got a vet SF and we hit the minimum after the acquiring and signing of MT23 as well. For the longest time, I couldn't figure out any other reason why a GM would make so many trades for the same player (cash considerations). It became embarrassing (See Marquis Daniels trade)fast, and I don't know of any GM that would wake up and be happy and willing to continue doing their job if it truly was the owners setting limitations, and Petrie just going with the flow. The questions that always came back to me were: He built a team, when the owners were knew, wanted to make an impression, and had money to spend...that became the "greatest show on court," so he has vision, it is not him, so it must be the owners, right? He drafts extremely well - JWill, Peja, Kmart, Tyreke, Omri, IT22, Hedo...some of these are still in the air, but for the most part, he has found the jewel, right? The more I think about this, the more I doubt that GP can still do this job, or ever really could. You could argue that the team he built was average at best and Rick Adelman was what made them great. He has always been known as a great coach, with a knack for getting the most out of his players, scoring points, and managing egos. He is one of the best coaches in NBA history for a reason. You could also credit Adelman for turning his players into who they became. It was the coach's offense that made Cwebb better, turned Bibby into a spot up shooter vice a pure PG, found ways to Hide Peja’s lack of D and put him in the right spot on the court to max his potential as a pure shooter. Coaching is huge, it is what makes average or above average teams contenders (see our greatest show on court days), and bad teams into average teams (Ron Artest days). You could look at our team right now, and really since he left, and argue that we would be at least average had we not had Mussleman, Knatt, Theus, PW, maybe even Smart running the show. So how much of it was GP’s doing? Vlade, Christie, Jwill, Hedo, all about average guys…CWebb abd maybe Bibby and Peja above average (Cwebb maybe all-star to elite) but were knocking on the door to the Finals. You could also argue that his drafts have been good, but risky at best. DMC has mental issues, Tyreke still can’t shoot, Thomas is too short, Omri had a weak mind, Jimmer is not athletic (I still think the Owners made that pick), Douby failed, and many of our good draft picks left anyway? Every pick is a gamble, but there were a lot of very good players we passed on also. For every good pick we had, there was another good pick we missed somewhere along the way. Drafting is important, but as long as we don’t have David Kahn drafting…Keeping GP might not really be helping. And let's not forget, prior to the Adelman days, the kings and GP weren’t exactly the best team in the NBA for years…the Mitch Richmond (My fav King) days were plagued by losses and scratching at the playoffs. He has had more losing seasons than winning seasons as a GM…so are we over estimating his skills? Would he be better suited as our lead scout? Would a bunch of other teams really snag him up if we let him go? Has he lost his visions? Would any other not cheap owner have already sent him packing?