Sacramento Kings Fire Paul Westphal. Keith Smart Takes Over for Now, Anyway.
by Evanz on Jan 5, 2012 11:35 AM PST
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KBergCBS The Kings have sent out a new release that they have fired coach Paul Westphal. 1/5/12 2:29 PM |
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KBergCBS Assistant coach Keith Smart will coach the team tonight against the Bucks. 1/5/12 2:30 PM |
No doubt this was precipitated by the DeMarcus Cousins tantrum. Sacramento made a choice. They chose Cousins.
Uh, discuss. Good for Keith Smart? Will he just be an "interim"?
SB Nation's Sactown Royalty appears to have an answer for the time being:
It's worth noting that the release doesn't deem Smart the new interim head coach -- it states that "Keith Smart will serve as head coach in tonight's game versus the Milwaukee Bucks." My money is on Smart becoming the interim head coach for the remainder of the season, but that could leave open the possibility of the team seeking to bring a new head coach in or allowing one of the other assistants the opportunity to take the job.
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It was a lot of things.
Deciding Martin and Tyreke wouldn’t work and shipping Martin out for pennies. Alienating Hawes with public derision. Running Dalembert out of town. Generally being a giant dick, etc.
by Spider Jerusalem on Jan 5, 2012 11:50 AM PST reply actions
agreed 100%
Westphal was lucky to keep that job as long as he did
"The way I do it is I tell the athletic trainers the instant pain I feel and this is the worst it has been" - Steph Curry on his ankle 1/4/2012
by Duby Dub Dubs on Jan 5, 2012 12:15 PM PST up reply actions
Bad news for Jimmer
He’s going in the doghouse
HARBAUGH FOR PRESIDENT 2012
NINERS SUPERBOWL OR BUST
FREDERICK P. SOFT NOWHERE TO BE FOUND
by Tom Huddlestone on Jan 5, 2012 12:00 PM PST reply actions
Jimmer has been shooting inefficiently though
I think he gets Acie Law minutes
If you're watching a blowout, you can pass the time by counting the double teapots.
Samurai Champloo > Macross
by doubleteapot on Jan 5, 2012 12:02 PM PST up reply actions
Jimmer
just needs to start texting Smart
"The way I do it is I tell the athletic trainers the instant pain I feel and this is the worst it has been" - Steph Curry on his ankle 1/4/2012
by Duby Dub Dubs on Jan 5, 2012 12:16 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
Good thing Keith Smart is used to jumping in and trying his best to manage a sudden coaching vacancy
When will he get a chance to start off a season rather than jump in and try to pick up the pieces? I’m kind of curious to see what he can do with a team that is truly his.
But frankly, he will likely be shown the door when he is unable to revive Sacramento. Totally unfair but that’s the way the NBA is.
"I gots ta say the nay no." - Pootie Tang
by Tremendous Hops on Jan 5, 2012 12:02 PM PST reply actions
I think he will be shown the door because he is a bad coach
If you're watching a blowout, you can pass the time by counting the double teapots.
Samurai Champloo > Macross
by doubleteapot on Jan 5, 2012 12:02 PM PST up reply actions
Maybe
It won’t matter how good he actually is. Bottom line: If he doesn’t win, he’s out.
Same way he got done in GSW.
"I gots ta say the nay no." - Pootie Tang
by Tremendous Hops on Jan 5, 2012 12:12 PM PST up reply actions
How do you know that?
Because the Warriors had a losing season under him? You could say that about every coach and every player we’ve had for most of the last 18 years.
"I gots ta say the nay no." - Pootie Tang
by Tremendous Hops on Jan 5, 2012 12:21 PM PST up reply actions
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr2T48tfTAU
classic example of god awful coaching. monta bailed him out.
Not saying he's a coaching genius
Obviously, Smart is not at the pinnacle of coaching talent or he’d be a head coach, not a stand in. But not even Phil Jackson could have taken last year’s Warriors to the promised land.
"I gots ta say the nay no." - Pootie Tang
by Tremendous Hops on Jan 5, 2012 12:31 PM PST up reply actions
Not necessarily
The Kings chose Westphal because he came cheap. I don’t see them going out and paying significant money for a high profile coach, so Smart might have a chance at sticking around for a while.
Smart did start off a season
And it ended with his firing. Smart is a bad, bad coach.
by randolphforpresident on Jan 5, 2012 6:29 PM PST up reply actions
good job Sacto...
wish the 94 warriors had the guts you guys just showed.
by JimBarnett2KevinGarnett on Jan 5, 2012 12:10 PM PST reply actions 1 recs
Showing the guts to side with a horrible basketball player over a horrible coach isn’t exactly something to give props to.
you take the horrible basketball player with potential
over the horrible coach….every day of the week….
by JimBarnett2KevinGarnett on Jan 5, 2012 12:24 PM PST up reply actions
Nellie was a great coach.
And Webber was on the cusp of being a great player. Different.
by GovernorStephCurry on Jan 5, 2012 12:16 PM PST up reply actions
Nellie
Offered to step down as coach, but Webber still did not want to be here
Do you really think he was sincere? He was probably just playing his usual head games to get his way. Nellie got in a pissing contest with a 20 yr old when he should have been the adult in the matter. Maturity was never Nellie’s strong suit.
by Pippen on Jan 5, 2012 1:35 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
I think he was
he was also playing GM at the time and he knew Webber was a special player.
But since he still wanted out it doesnt matter. My recollection was that Web had a list of reasons he wanted out. first he didnt want to play center, than he was pissed because they traded his buddy (for a center), than Nellie yelled too much.
I sure wish they would have figured some way to keep him here though.
by azw on Jan 6, 2012 4:37 PM PST up reply actions
*Stategist
rather than coach. Great coach is a title that entails so many things Nellie just didn’t do well.
Phil Jackson was a great coach. Pat Riley was a great coach. Chuck Daly was a great coach. Red Auerbach was a great coach. Greg Popovich has been a great coach.
You get the point. He doesn’t compare to some of the NBA’s best ever coaches. Not even close. Plenty of guys go ahead of him on the list than just these guys.
http://nbawarriors.wordpress.com/
I don't agree after looking back on what he did.
He really did revolutionize the game and his teams would have all been a lot worse without him.
by GovernorStephCurry on Jan 6, 2012 1:59 AM PST up reply actions
Sac did something smart.
"If God made us in his image then he must be dumb too, and a little ugly on the side."
Frank Zappa
They’ll be even smarter if they try to get rid of Cousins as well for something of decent value as soon as possible.
by WYK on Jan 5, 2012 12:16 PM PST up reply actions 1 recs
I can hear the champagne bottles being popped...
at Sactownroyalty from here.
by JimBarnett2KevinGarnett on Jan 5, 2012 12:33 PM PST reply actions
O.t. but Klay was looking real smooth yesterday coming off the screens
Give him some time, I think he’s gonna make you guys really happy.
we’re cheap, like to drink and are pissed off.
WHO WANTS A FREE SHARPIE?? -- Blake Griffin
Klay can only get better. I expected him to come in shooting great like Jimmer. Rarely do SG’s come in and be good as a rookie.
I was referring to this:
Rarely do SG’s come in and be good as a rookie.
Marshon Brooks and Alec Burks disagree.
by GovernorStephCurry on Jan 5, 2012 2:42 PM PST up reply actions
Lol
Pretty much anyone could be scoring 14 a game for New Jersey. They’re already one of the worst teams in the NBA, but they also don’t have Brook Lopez. Humphries and Williams have already missed 3 games, too. They’re scoring a horrid 83 points per game, the league’s worst offense.
And Burks is averaging 11 minutes a game, and half of his minutes came in one game in which he went 1 for 6. How is he good? Just because he’s shooting a better percentage so far? That’s far from being good.
http://nbawarriors.wordpress.com/
Totally agree on Burks
I haven’t watched him play, but his numbers don’t backup GSC’s comment
Ultra-projectable
I feel like I want to rage. Right now.
by fjm on Jan 5, 2012 5:16 PM PST up reply actions
Maybe i'm looking at the wrong data..
by GovernorStephCurry on Jan 5, 2012 5:24 PM PST up reply actions
I figured.
I’ve liked him when he’s played so far. The worst thing about signing Nate (which I actually liked), is that Ish’s minutes are ABSOLUTELY going to be disappearing now. They were already being taken away and given to Jenkins, but now his chances of getting them back are next to none.
http://nbawarriors.wordpress.com/
Klay can only get better
Ain’t that the truth. He can’t get much worse.
by Evanz on Jan 5, 2012 1:58 PM PST up reply actions 4 recs
I expected him to come in shooting great like Jimmer.
So far in his young NBA career, he is actually shooting exactly like the Jimmer.
Unfortunately, the Jimmer is shooting horribly. :-(
There will be no extra point!
he had one pretty good game
I guess that counts for somethin
"The way I do it is I tell the athletic trainers the instant pain I feel and this is the worst it has been" - Steph Curry on his ankle 1/4/2012
by Duby Dub Dubs on Jan 5, 2012 4:11 PM PST up reply actions
He's gonna be good eventually
I’m so tired of the Klay haters. He didn’t have a summer league or pre-season and people on here a killing him because he didn’t come out of the gates on fire. Let the kid get some PT under his belt before you write him off. I think the one thing you can take away from the few minutes he’s played is he has a smooth stroke and a quick release.
And he’s not scared to keep trying to score. Seems he has confidence.
Over
by cybermaldonado on Jan 5, 2012 2:51 PM PST up reply actions
I agree Pippen. It is just hat some turkeys in here were talking about him replacing Reggie, and he is at least two years away from doing that
-if Reggie stood still and never grew anymore…
He didn’t have a summer league or pre-season
Neither did any other rookies.
They aren’t all looking as utterly lost as he is. I don’t think anyone should be jumping down his throat, but if you aren’t concerned, you aren’t paying attention.
by Spider Jerusalem on Jan 5, 2012 3:06 PM PST up reply actions
Smart is better than Westphaul
extrabaggs
"Just your typical Giants scoring rally: A faceburger on the basepaths, two errors from the second baseman and a bases-loaded balk."
Apparently so
"I gots ta say the nay no." - Pootie Tang
by Tremendous Hops on Jan 5, 2012 1:12 PM PST up reply actions
haha I feel glad for Keith Smart, he's a respectable guy
but for the Kings, it can go both ways. Smart is probably better than Westphal, but they still won’t get many wins under Smart
Westphal or Smart can be good coaches
they just need good teams, not this rag tag crew in Sac Town. They are not the guys to coach a half in/half out team with no leadership on the floor. (hell, how many people are?)
Smart is screwed and probably just happy to have a paycheck for now while he figures out who to assist next season.
I'm happy for coach smart
I think he got a raw deal here . He had serious injury problems last year and still improved our record over the previous year so I’d have given him one more year instead of running him off for someone who was not willing to learn coaching by coming up thru the ranks .
Mirror on the wall
Here we are again.
by Skeptic con Urquell on Jan 5, 2012 1:53 PM PST reply actions
OH, Skeptic....you have to be sugaring me!
Not intentionally. I thought we had a pretty good record last year up to the point where DLee got Vampired in the elbow? Then Binky had a few sprains etc.? We also beat some pretty good teams last year when things were going right so another year with Smart woulda been justified. I think these new guys are just more into the entertainment aspect of marketing instead of the basketball mechanics of playing so they thought that more fans would be attracted to jackson than Smart cause jackson was a talking head on the TV.
Mirror on the wall
Here we are again.
by Skeptic con Urquell on Jan 6, 2012 10:31 AM PST up reply actions
important note:
Kings have almost identical record as the Dubs…just saying
"The way I do it is I tell the athletic trainers the instant pain I feel and this is the worst it has been" - Steph Curry on his ankle 1/4/2012
he will be a somewhat successful head coach again then....
….jeff van gundy will replace him. lol. damn espn analysts taking his job. poor keith…
Westphal got fired for Vin Baker when he coached Seattle.
Baker turned out to be a massive alcoholic and completely worthless as a player for the rest of his short career. It was sad seeing a coach lose his job to a turd athlete just because the athlete had a huge contract. That’s one reason I despise NBA guaranteed contracts.
Seems Westphal never did learn his lesson about dealing with spoiled players. I’m sure he will be happier doing something else.
Over
Westphal was awful in Seattle.
For a lot more reasons than that.
by Spider Jerusalem on Jan 5, 2012 4:24 PM PST up reply actions
Westphal was also a bad coach
But I like how you are trying to compare two completely different situations to each other
If you're watching a blowout, you can pass the time by counting the double teapots.
Samurai Champloo > Macross
Different how?
But I like how you are trying to compare two completely different situations to each other
This is exactly the same thing you accused me of the other day under completely different circumstances.
Over
by cybermaldonado on Jan 5, 2012 6:33 PM PST up reply actions
When did I do that?
If you're watching a blowout, you can pass the time by counting the double teapots.
Samurai Champloo > Macross
As to how they were different:
Paul Westphal constantly feuded with Gary Payton, who liked the previous coach, George Karl. This was the reason he was fired; Payton didn’t respect him, and eventually Westphal lost the whole locker room, because Payton was basically their star player. Also, he wasn’t that good a coach, as he has shown with the Sacramento Kings. On the Kings, he was fired because he failed to develop young players like Tyreke Evans and ran an offense that was mostly made up of isolation shots.
If you're watching a blowout, you can pass the time by counting the double teapots.
Samurai Champloo > Macross
If Smart wins with the Kings...
I might just have to get extraordinarily drunk. (can’t bring myself to make a shoot myself in the head joke – I am already too depressed.)
Man - this kool-aid is really good! What did you put in it?
The NBA coaching carousel
is so ridiculous. It must be nice being a GM, not being able to field a team (fault or no fault), and then fire the coach, who has minimal impact, over the results. I can’t believe these corporations/businesses/organizations conduct their business in this manner. The only rational explanation for firing him at this point in the season is if he egregiously mishandled the Cousins situations, e.g. lying about Cousins demanding a trade…
cousins will ruin that place
in three years, he’ll be demanding to go to a large market team
It's lonely being the only Warriors fan at UMass :(
LOL Chris Webber talking about the Cousins-Westphal situation.
He said he wished for more patience on this decision. Didn’t know the facts. Why couldn’t you take your own advice back in 1995 huh Chris?!?!
Pot. Kettle. There it is.
"I thought it was going in," Warriors center Chris Hunter said. "It looked like the invisible man tipped it away at the last second."
"He's chicken curry right now. He'll become beef curry a little later on."
-Keith Smart
i guarantee Chris only said that because it was Sacramento
had it been anywhere else his tone would’ve been different saying something like “maybe players and coaches dont mix and arent meant to be. I had a similar episode and ended up in Washington after winning ROY because it was the best decision for both sides at the time.”
The realist keepin it real amongst the surrealists
I was in Baghdad before these little B.G.'s was in they daddy-bags.
by starbury_to_s-jaxci2000 on Jan 5, 2012 7:41 PM PST up reply actions
Look, Chris learned from his mistakes
He’s a pretty good analyst now.
If you're watching a blowout, you can pass the time by counting the double teapots.
Samurai Champloo > Macross
Looks like...
Keith Smart is going to be the head coach for a while… (through next season).
Have fun with Smart Kings… the Warriors sure did lol.
Keith Smart has agreed to a two-year coaching deal with the Kings, source tells Y! Sports. Agreement guaranteed through the 2012-’13 season.
by Warriors Fanatic on Jan 5, 2012 4:30 PM PST reply actions 1 recs
This is from
@Wojyahoonba twitter account by the way
by Warriors Fanatic on Jan 5, 2012 4:30 PM PST up reply actions
I like this
really glad Smart is going to get another shot at coaching
for all I bitched about his rotations, most guys had a good year, our record was right about where I expected, and we didn’t have any major problems
"The way I do it is I tell the athletic trainers the instant pain I feel and this is the worst it has been" - Steph Curry on his ankle 1/4/2012
by Duby Dub Dubs on Jan 5, 2012 4:38 PM PST up reply actions
Good for Keith.
Hope he does well. Just not so well the Kings become better than the Warriors.
http://nbawarriors.wordpress.com/
yea~!!
Smart gonna ask Cousins to work on his 3’s and shoot 3’s at first offense runs in every game.
by ILoveWarriorsGirls on Jan 5, 2012 5:41 PM PST reply actions
Secret Agent Double-Oh Keith Smart.
The worst possible rotations as well as a supreme ability to stunt young player growth. Also, a lack of hip hop clubs for young black male athletes will make his job a living nightmare.
by Anonymous1337 on Jan 5, 2012 6:02 PM PST reply actions 1 recs
please destroy Cousins for us, Smart.
since we can’t have him. thanks.
by ILoveWarriorsGirls on Jan 5, 2012 8:07 PM PST up reply actions
Smart got his first win
Kings just beat bucks 103-100
Mirror on the wall
Here we are again.
by Skeptic con Urquell on Jan 5, 2012 9:40 PM PST reply actions
Kings just beat bucks 103-100
haha, someone over on the kings site said the win was “a dead coach bounce”
Mirror on the wall
Here we are again.
by Skeptic con Urquell on Jan 6, 2012 3:01 PM PST up reply actions
I read this somewhere. I don't like bringing up the past but really Keith Smart had no bench last year.
"Former Warriors coach Keith Smart did everything to keep his job.
He figured out a way to make Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry co-exist. He installed a semblance of a system to a team that was run based on the delusions of a bitter old man. The Warriors, the fucking Warriors, won 38 games.
And yet he was done in by Golden State’s new owners who desperately wanted to divorce itself from the legacy of the delusional Don Nelson.
Too bad Smart learned the ropes from Nellie himself, having spent about eight years as an assistant coach.
Unlike Nelson, whose patternless coaching drove even his players nuts, Smart stuck to a starting five that didn’t defy logic. He installed a clear delineation of offensive duties between Ellis and Curry, imposing an amicable solution that has squelched talks of giving up at least one of the team’s prodigious scoring point guards. Hey, he made it possible for Golden State to icing the cake and shove it down their throats! You want offense, here’s offense. In a way that works, without giving the team, and its fans, heartburn.
And yet he’s gone."
"Ain't no way."- Monta Ellis. (when asked if someone can guard him)
Follow me @Kjestrada_ on twitter.
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