Warning: Vlade Rant

#1
Based on the information I gathered listening to a few podcasts tonight, I think the "better trade two days ago" Vlade was referring could have been Fournier and Vucevic from ORL. It sounded like Boogie's agent sabotaged the deal by telling ORL his client would not sign extension. The reason of course was the higher payday by staying with SAC under the hometown rule, which would earn agent more commission. Here's my problem: Vlade should have anticipated this. Does he not realize these parties have agendas and are going to act in their best interest? That this is not personal. This is business. Vlade needed to get out ahead of this by conveying to other teams Boogie rewards loyalty and love, and the acquiring team would have sufficient time (15 months) to show him this appreciation. Additionally taxes are favorable in FL vs CA.

Vlade should not have required or expected cooperation from an agent looking for the financial interest of himself and client. But he was in over his head who botched this with impulsiveness and panic. What he didn't seem to realize is he held the cards. He controlled the desirable asset. He didn't have whole league knocking down his door, but enough to negotiate from a position of strength, not weakness. Vlade was weak at the press conference. He exuded weakness. He sounded defeated. You cannot get what you want from this posture. Why for example did Vlade not insist on NOP taking Barnes off our books or find third team to absorb his salary? A GM worth his salt who does this saves his owners $8M and more importantly creates cap space going forward. And why did he presume the offers would get worse over time, between Sunday and this Thursday? Dell Demps and Alvin Gentry are on the hot seat. They are on outside of the playoffs looking in with a crappy patchwork roster. You don't think their desperation and self-preservation would have kicked in closer to the deadline to up the ante and create the Most Talented Twin Towers the NBA has ever seen?!

I think Jeannie Buss cleaned house in Laker Land partially because their front office was NOT aggressive enough in going after Boogie. She was probably furious Buss and Kupchak sat on their hands when Boogie was being pawned off for pennies on the dollar. SAC would have traded Boogie to LA for Ingram and Clarkson. If I am the Lakers I make that trade. LAL needs a superstar and Boogie would put butts in seats and be receptive to being Laker long term. As painful as would be for Kings fans, if it meant Ingram and Clarkson over the poo-poo platter we accepted, you make this deal. But Vlade did a terrible job of pitting teams against one and another, testing their mettle, affording teams opportunity to outbid each other, exploiting pending deadline to squeeze every last asset out of a trade partner. Its Negotiating 101 and our GM has no instinct or acquired skill on how to play poker and give these front office vultures a taste of their own medicine.

If you want more basis to feel disconcerted over way this dreary scenario played out, on Woj podcast it was asserted this deal was unlikely to have gone down if All-Star game was not held in New Orleans. Apparently Vlade is not too fond of conversing by phone. He is difficult to get ahold of, having Catanella take incoming. It was face-to-face meeting with NOP brass that facilitated this deal going down. Ponder that for a moment Kings fans.... Trading the most dominant big in NBA was a matter of convenience! In other words if All-Star game were in Chicago, Boogie could be a Bull! If SAC becomes good with the current decision makers in place, feigning insight and authority, it will be due to luck, not preparation or prudence. Having pulled off one of the worst trades in NBA history, the writing is on the wall. Vlade sucks at his job and only good fortune and Basketball Gods shining down on G1C can save us now. I look forward to Ben, Willie and Buddy getting their touches, strutting their stuff, proving their careers are more than footnotes, formidable in 2017-18. I also think we can hope for a prospect or pick for Collison within 48 hours to give dejected fans ray of hope, and set up the team up for brighter days ahead. Assuming, of course, Vlade can inconvenience himself to make the call.
 
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#3
I was going to bring up the Woj pod. That was really damning stuff in there. Basically, the awfulness of the trade was 1. Vlade worried about getting Vivek Approval + 2. Vlade not doing the extra phone work and liking that the New Orleans people were there directly.
 

kingsboi

Hall of Famer
#5
Just another chapter in how to not run a franchise, courtesy of Vivek "snake" Ranadive and his accomplices; Vlade & Pete. The Puppet Master pulls the strings and every thread is bound to break at any given time, that is a dangerous thought to fathom. The next scapegoat in all of this? you guessed it...Dave Joerger. He is signed to a three year deal only, he won't be here for much longer either IMO. It will be a miracle if his contract actually runs out with this franchise.
 
#7
Don't take Woj as gospel people he's a pawn himself. There will be life after DMC in Sac just like there was before because it's a team game. I'm going to white knuckle this thing out because I bleed freakin purple. If Vlade thinks Cuz wasn't fit to be the face of the franchise after working with him everyday he's probably right. Let's dig up those old draft day threads where the general opinion was VERY high on Buddy now he's "trash" as some have said.
In Vlade I STILL TRUST.
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#9
Don't take Woj as gospel people he's a pawn himself. There will be life after DMC in Sac just like there was before because it's a team game. I'm going to white knuckle this thing out because I bleed freakin purple. If Vlade thinks Cuz wasn't fit to be the face of the franchise after working with him everyday he's probably right. Let's dig up those old draft day threads where the general opinion was VERY high on Buddy now he's "trash" as some have said.
In Vlade I STILL TRUST.
I think you put entirely too much stock in predraft projections apparently. Same thing with Ben. Mean absolutely nothing once you see the guys in the NBA vs. NBA competition. All the rest is just an educated guess that's wrong a good 50% of the time. I don't think there's ever been a draft when the Top 10 guys were the ten best in the draft. I actually doubt there's ever been one where the Top 5 guys were the 5 best in the draft. Buddy is an old rookie (23 already, same age as A.D. or Ben) who hasn't shown much to get excited about thus far. 8pts on 39% shooting and a 9.9PER sounds like all the rest of the young SGs the Kings have tried to bring through in the Vivek era.
 
#10
How can you guys blame Vlade when he had zero expierience before taking this job?

Honestly, Vivek needs to fire him and hire someone who is good at rebuilding a team, someone like Sam Hinkie. And Vivek should give him 100% authority and a promise to not interfere what so ever.
 
#11
I seriously doubted Woj for ahwile. His sources were agents and he never had a Sac contact, but he was very deep in the Cousins trade. The stuff he was tweeting was detail for detail what went on. Someone in the Kings is leaking to him like an Oroville spillway.

Which means there is once again another schism.
 
#12
How can you guys blame Vlade when he had zero expierience before taking this job?

Honestly, Vivek needs to fire him and hire someone who is good at rebuilding a team, someone like Sam Hinkie. And Vivek should give him 100% authority and a promise to not interfere what so ever.
Usually when you hire a guy with zero experience, you don't expect that guy to immediately break your most valuable China set in year one.
 
#15
I think other teams GM are drooling every time they get a call from the Kings.

What else can Vlade give away for nothing next? KK and DC for a 55 protected second round pick maybe?
 
#16
Everyone is believing everything they read, in particular from Boogie's agent. I think that is a mistake.

Example: If Boogie's agents were busy sabotaging a 10 day old deal with Orlando, then how could they have taken to heart Vlade's alleged assurances "yesterday" that they weren't trading him?

Things just don't add up. Not saying I wouldn't have liked to have a 2019 first in the mix too... but I don't think people should believe everything they read about what Vlade said, to whom and when.
 
#18
I think you put entirely too much stock in predraft projections apparently. Same thing with Ben. Mean absolutely nothing once you see the guys in the NBA vs. NBA competition. All the rest is just an educated guess that's wrong a good 50% of the time. I don't think there's ever been a draft when the Top 10 guys were the ten best in the draft. I actually doubt there's ever been one where the Top 5 guys were the 5 best in the draft. Buddy is an old rookie (23 already, same age as A.D. or Ben) who hasn't shown much to get excited about thus far. 8pts on 39% shooting and a 9.9PER sounds like all the rest of the young SGs the Kings have tried to bring through in the Vivek era.
He had a bad month and a half to start rookie year but his shooting percentages since December have been excellent for a rookie. Shooting above 40 percent from three in that stretch I believe. Also someone like JJ Reddick struggled big time as a 4 year college rookie and he has gone on to be an excellent NBA player. I think Hield compares similarly to Reddick.
 
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#20
Everyone is believing everything they read, in particular from Boogie's agent. I think that is a mistake.

Example: If Boogie's agents were busy sabotaging a 10 day old deal with Orlando, then how could they have taken to heart Vlade's alleged assurances "yesterday" that they weren't trading him?.
I believe every word of what Boogie's agent said. I don't believe for one minute that DeMarcus would allow him to lie about what they were promised. That's not how he rolls. But We know the Kings have rolled that way in the past, especially Vivek.

But to answer your question, once the Kings started talking to a few teams, word got back to Cousins and his agent which is why they then told teams what they told them. But they certainly expected the Kings to honor the commitment they made weeks ago. Now it makes a bit more sense why DeMarcus seemed on edge and stressed out recently.
 
#23
Just another chapter in how to not run a franchise, courtesy of Vivek "snake" Ranadive and his accomplices; Vlade & Pete.
To be fair to Vlade after spending 1000 words bashing him, there is a point worth mention. I don't know if it has merit but worth throwing out there. Allegedly Vivek fell in love with Buddy when he saw him pre-draft workout and spent 15 minutes meeting with him afterwards. The Curry comparison supports notion Vivek was head over heals. Whether this reflected the way the front office felt about the kid, or if Vivek led this charge, is impossible to say. Reports before the draft were we were trying to move up, so it is conceivable Vlade and Vivek held him in similar high regard. In fact Vivek may have been swayed by glowing reports received by him from our scouting department before the workout ever took place.

Allegedly in the many months after Vlade took the position and before the trade Vivek was the only holdout among the higher-ups in regards to keeping Boogie, and potential trades were nixed by Vivek because he wanted Boogie around long term. Vivek would NOT grant his GM ultimate authority. Otherwise Vlade would have traded away Boogie long ago (for a lot more in return) if the owner would let the GM do his job. Vlade then presents a trade offer that happens to include "The Next Curry" and for first time gets his owners reluctant approval. The eagerness to do the trade was rooted in the possibility Vivek would change his mind before the deal could be completed. Vlade jumped at opportunity and closed off other avenues once he got his precious approval.

If there is validity to this theory, it gives credence to why Vlade did not wait until Thursday to try to extract more assets (from NOP or another team). He needed to act before Vivek pulled the rug out from under him. Again, I don't know this to be true. Just putting it out there in fairness to Vlade.
 
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#25
I believe every word of what Boogie's agent said. I don't believe for one minute that DeMarcus would allow him to lie about what they were promised. That's not how he rolls. But We know the Kings have rolled that way in the past, especially Vivek.

But to answer your question, once the Kings started talking to a few teams, word got back to Cousins and his agent which is why they then told teams what they told them. But they certainly expected the Kings to honor the commitment they made weeks ago. Now it makes a bit more sense why DeMarcus seemed on edge and stressed out recently.
Sports agent trumps Kings legend and international diplomat in credibility contest. Man bites dog.
 
#27
Yeah because of Kenny Thomas, Corliss Williamson, and Something Skinner...
Are you serious? You can't be. I've always seen you as a rational and level-headed guy.

Trading a broken, 32 year old Chris Webber w/ a 123M contract is not at all comparable to trading a 26 year old in-his-prime and free of major injury DeMarcus Cousins. When dealing with healthy players w/o dead weight contracts, he managed to land a prime Webber for Richmond and Bibby for JWill. Much different track record.
 
#28
Sports agent trumps Kings legend and international diplomat in credibility contest. Man bites dog.
Sports agent releasing info on behalf of a player that has a lot more credibility with regard to being honest than Vivek/Vlade. When has Boogie been known to lie?

I really don't understand what you are trying to argue against. Vlade stated for the record that he wasn't going to trade DMC and that they were working on the extension. This is all in print. Then he reneged on his commitment. But he's more credible?