Ever since that video came out people have been working pretty hard to spin it as "owner bullies basketball operations folks into taking his pick". But it's all based on some very speculative reading between the lines. There is so vastly much more that went on in the war room leading up to the draft that we don't know about than the tiny bit that we've seen on tape. Maybe PDA said that Payton was the best player in the draft over and over again, and Vivek went against his hand-picked people and ordered up Stauskas. Maybe Vivek had no idea who to like, and got wholly sold on Stauskas by the basketball operations people to the point that when Stauskas was available, he was giddy as a schoolboy - "I say Stauskas! You guys all say Stauskas, right?" (Well, of course, if that's what they'd been saying all along.)
The point is that we simply don't know. Again, the assertion that the Kings tried to get another pick to acquire Payton could potentially indicate that the basketball operations folks were after Payton and were trying to rectify their owner's meddling, OR it could indicate that even though Stauskas was a higher target, they also valued Payton. Maybe they had been trying to line up a second pick in the draft since long before, knowing that there were two guys they were after. In fact, the latter would seem a bit more likely than this: "Gee boss, now that you overruled our desired selection of Payton, we're going to try to get another pick in the draft so we can get the guy we really wanted and fix your screw-up." I mean, that's not going to go over well.
They also cut him, which is at least some indication that basketball trumps the pet projects of the owner.
The point is that we simply don't know. Again, the assertion that the Kings tried to get another pick to acquire Payton could potentially indicate that the basketball operations folks were after Payton and were trying to rectify their owner's meddling, OR it could indicate that even though Stauskas was a higher target, they also valued Payton. Maybe they had been trying to line up a second pick in the draft since long before, knowing that there were two guys they were after. In fact, the latter would seem a bit more likely than this: "Gee boss, now that you overruled our desired selection of Payton, we're going to try to get another pick in the draft so we can get the guy we really wanted and fix your screw-up." I mean, that's not going to go over well.
They also cut him, which is at least some indication that basketball trumps the pet projects of the owner.
