So we should be content with another year of our young guys not having any structure, system or anything that leads to growth. We're not a playoff team. We're young and have the talent to do something in the future. But you need a teacher and someone that can work with young players. That is not, nor has it ever been, westphal. I dont know the answer at coach, but frankly we can ill afford another wasted year.
Fire Paul Westphal
- Thread starter TheWileyVet
- Start date
My biggest issue with Westphal is that he seems to be TERRIBLE at developing young talent. And seeing as how we're the YOUNGEST team in the league, that spells trouble.
None of our young players have improved, and there has been marked regression in some. Westphal is ****n up the youth movement. Thats the future.
That being said, I agree with those saying we could have it even worse. Theus to Natt all over again would suck (but probably get us a top 4 pick).
We need to have a good replacement lined up, unfortunately our owners are broke and cheap...So we're probably going to just get another lame duck headcoach after Westphal.
None of our young players have improved, and there has been marked regression in some. Westphal is ****n up the youth movement. Thats the future.
That being said, I agree with those saying we could have it even worse. Theus to Natt all over again would suck (but probably get us a top 4 pick).
We need to have a good replacement lined up, unfortunately our owners are broke and cheap...So we're probably going to just get another lame duck headcoach after Westphal.
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I would be fully supportive of switching coaches and I do not think Westphal is going to be the coach that turns us into a contender. But it doesn't seem like the players have turned against him yet and we have a long season ahead of us. Let's worry about finding a good coach next summer when his contract is up. In the meantime, I am excited to watch our young guys improve despite the bad coaching. Coaches are one of the easiest pieces to replace, and I think we have all the difficult to get pieces already.
The problem is that from all indications Westphal is a "players coach", where we obviously need a coach that will discipline our players. We need a coach like Tom Thibadeou or Greg Popovich, Jerry Sloan. We pretty much have a poor mans Rick Adelman. Heck Mark Jackson seems to have the Warriors playing great defense, and team basketball. You don't need a guy with years of head coaching experience, as long as he can teach these players discipline and demand respect.
Firing a coach midseason just means there will be no structure, system or anything else either. It will be back at square one. How can a coach come in during this compressed schedule and do anything to make adjustments that will impact fundamentals and make the team play more like a team? How can you put structure into things playing 4 games in 5 nights and having some crazy string of like 20 of 28 games on the road coming up?
People can say Rick was a "players coach" all they want, but I guarantee he drilled into them every sort of play they should run so that it was routine. Not this all over the place stagnant offense **** the Kings run now. There was no 1v1 small ball.
And every second of the game he was up on his feet. Yelling at his players, the ref, whatever. Not twiddling his ****ing thumbs on the bench and shutting up like I always see Westie on TV.
And every second of the game he was up on his feet. Yelling at his players, the ref, whatever. Not twiddling his ****ing thumbs on the bench and shutting up like I always see Westie on TV.
There arent any of those things now and westphal has shown no ability or willingness to institute them soon. Will a new coach be just as bad? Maybe, but i think you have to take that risk. Young players either develop good habits with the right coaching or bad habits without. Our entire future is banking on our youth's development. Why would you stick with a coach that doesnt excel at that?
He's not the future or the present. Honestly, what are his strengths as a coach. Its not developing young guys. Its not instituting a good offensive system. He's clearly not a defensive coach. He doesnt seem to teach fundamentals or be a good motivator. You can't even really say he's a players coach with some of the spats and veteran's feedback the last coupl years.
Think it's more than win/loss. Even if we had won this game (and we could have if we had hit a few more FTs), the problems on offense would not go away.
I'll repeat what I have said after the last couple of games, and which lot of others are saying too. There is far too much isolation play, and virtually no structure. We had closed to within a point at 74-73, had the ball for the lead. MT ran up, did a couple of dribbles, didn't even look around for his team mates, and launched a 3 with lot of time remaining on clock. The Bulls came back and scored. Next possession, Reke tries to drive, ends up in a jump ball with Boozer, MT goes to sleep as an older Rip runs down for an easy fast break layup. Within a couple of possessions, the lead goes back to around double digits, the crowd goes off the game, and we lose the momentum. All this time, we don't even look to pass, either drive and force up a prayer, or throw a dangerous pass outside, or just take a contested 3.
We had 13 assists on the night. There were times when we had that many between our big men. Cousins had 0. Every time he received the ball in the post, he tried to go in (not a bad habit by itself. Hopefully, over time, he shall hit some of the things he missed). However, some of the times, he needs to take his time and find the shooters (and we have several now). And he should shun shooting those 15-18 footers.
I feel that the coaching staff is responsible for such "structure", but it's possible that to some extent, players are responsible. Maybe, that's the case, but if so, coach has to break these habits. I know it's tough, but PW hasn't inspired any confidence that he has some structure in place, that players can use and get away from these habits.
On the positive side, saw Reke with a backdoor cut, and once, he tried to post up.
The only thing I would say in PW's favor is that unless we have some replacement (Smart?), it doesn't make sense to fire him. We've seen this movie in the past with Muss, Kenny, Theus etc. However, if PW is losing the team, he shall lose his position
I'll repeat what I have said after the last couple of games, and which lot of others are saying too. There is far too much isolation play, and virtually no structure. We had closed to within a point at 74-73, had the ball for the lead. MT ran up, did a couple of dribbles, didn't even look around for his team mates, and launched a 3 with lot of time remaining on clock. The Bulls came back and scored. Next possession, Reke tries to drive, ends up in a jump ball with Boozer, MT goes to sleep as an older Rip runs down for an easy fast break layup. Within a couple of possessions, the lead goes back to around double digits, the crowd goes off the game, and we lose the momentum. All this time, we don't even look to pass, either drive and force up a prayer, or throw a dangerous pass outside, or just take a contested 3.
We had 13 assists on the night. There were times when we had that many between our big men. Cousins had 0. Every time he received the ball in the post, he tried to go in (not a bad habit by itself. Hopefully, over time, he shall hit some of the things he missed). However, some of the times, he needs to take his time and find the shooters (and we have several now). And he should shun shooting those 15-18 footers.
I feel that the coaching staff is responsible for such "structure", but it's possible that to some extent, players are responsible. Maybe, that's the case, but if so, coach has to break these habits. I know it's tough, but PW hasn't inspired any confidence that he has some structure in place, that players can use and get away from these habits.
On the positive side, saw Reke with a backdoor cut, and once, he tried to post up.
The only thing I would say in PW's favor is that unless we have some replacement (Smart?), it doesn't make sense to fire him. We've seen this movie in the past with Muss, Kenny, Theus etc. However, if PW is losing the team, he shall lose his position
Plus that half season in cleveland shouldnt even count. Their star player was ricky davis. That was truly one of the worst teams in the past 30 years. If you just went by his team last year, he did a decent job. And really, what would he have to do to be worse than Westphal. Throw feces at our players from the sidelines.
I've figured out that the extremely bad part about Reke is that he has zero court vision. It's either that or he's extremely selfish. I like to think the former, because when he made an effort at some points last season he would pass the ball around, offense would flow a little. But right now he fodders around and is not doing wonders. People need to have set roles to follow on this team.
Firng Westphal to try out Keith Smart or Bobby Jackson is at best a lateral move and maybe a regression. The ownership is too damn cheap to hire a great coach. THIS is where the ultimate problem lies. Until we get owners willing to pay for a coach and pay for great FAs, we will continue to be mired in mediocrity which unfortunately is becoming the culture of the Kings. Open up the purse strings and prove to everyone in the NBA that you are trying to build a great team. Or sell.
I used to place the blame on the players before the coach, but after seeing what happened when the 49ers got Harbaugh, I'm convinced the problem here is Westphal.
There is no offense, no structure, no defined roles. There's no tough coach getting on to the players when they make the same mistakes over and over on transition D. There's nothing.
Last night it was street ball vs. a well coached NBA team. Who do you think is going to win?
We obviously have talent. A team without talent doesn't go out there and give one of the best teams a run for their money by playing 1 on 1 all game. We just don't have an offense. We set the laziest screens. When we do set a good screen, we don't use it and just drive on the opposite side of it. No one ever gets open shots. Everything is contested because our entire offense is the guy with the ball playing 1 on 1 and everyone else standing around watching.
Coach needs to go and we don't need any of the assistants stepping up. We need a real coach who has experience and can come in and implement a gameplan, define roles and demand respect from these players.
There is no offense, no structure, no defined roles. There's no tough coach getting on to the players when they make the same mistakes over and over on transition D. There's nothing.
Last night it was street ball vs. a well coached NBA team. Who do you think is going to win?
We obviously have talent. A team without talent doesn't go out there and give one of the best teams a run for their money by playing 1 on 1 all game. We just don't have an offense. We set the laziest screens. When we do set a good screen, we don't use it and just drive on the opposite side of it. No one ever gets open shots. Everything is contested because our entire offense is the guy with the ball playing 1 on 1 and everyone else standing around watching.
Coach needs to go and we don't need any of the assistants stepping up. We need a real coach who has experience and can come in and implement a gameplan, define roles and demand respect from these players.
I believe in this case any change would be addition by subtraction. I have felt like that since before last season his flaws as a coach were obvious and we were given the same arguments then the youth needs stability and changes in the middle of a season aren't good for young players and so on. We already knew he isn't an answer for us at Head Coach at any level I would rather take a flyer on anyone else at this point.