Eric Musselman is Crowned

by Atma Brother ONE on Jun 4, 2006 9:22 AM PDT in News Comment 5 comments

Sacramento Kings fans want to know. Golden State Warriors fans can only remember Mitch Richmond, Chris Webber, and Rick Adelman. Damn even Jimmy Jackson! Over the past 14 years the Warriors have become a pit stop for future King greats. Sacramento is the Bay Area's understudy in every imaginable way- economically, socially, and culturally, but when it comes to the NBA, Sacramento owns the Bay Area like our neighbors to the North own 3 cows each.

Let's make it simple: The Kings got a helluva a head coach. He's superior to the guy the Warriors (mis)management replaced him with in almost every imaginable way.

Muss, Jamison, JRich, Arenas, and Boykins. Good times!

Eric Musselman > Mike Montgomery.

From the first day Muss got to the Bay Area he aggressively tried to change the culture of one of the worst franchises in all of sports. Monty has done nothing to change the culture of losing. If anything he's made things worse.
Muss had a clue and made in-game adjustments. If the team's two stars Arenas or JRich were struggling-- here's a new concept for Monty-- Muss would sit them down and play someone else. When was the last time you saw Monty make an in-game adjustment?
Coach Musselman was a real man. There's no way he'd let Baron Davis walk over him. Let's just say that under Monty, Baron goes through a new pair of walking shoes every week.
Muss didn't care what management thought. He played who deserved to play, not who management thought was good. Exihibit #1: Coach Musselman's handling of Mike Dunleavy
Players may have disagreed with Muss and maybe even hated him, but many of them actually improved under his tenure. Muss gave both Gilbert Arenas and Earl Boykins a chance when many people doubted their abilities and helped them earn huge contracts. JRich and Troy can also credit Muss for putting them in a position to succeed. Eric Dampier aka LA-Z-Boy owes Muss millions. Has anyone really improved under Coach Monty? Everyone except for JRich seems to have regressed this past season.
The greatest part about Muss has to be that he got under the skin of the clowns. Pissing off incompetence is a good thing. Coach Montgomery's tenure with the Warriors has just been incompetent.

If you're a Kings fan you should be delighted. Muss continues the lineage of Warriors stars/ mediocres who went on to blossom up in hick town.

If you're a Warriors fan you can't help but cringe and blame the clowns who conveniently couldn't find a pen.

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Surprise, surprise

But for the cheap Dunleavy shot (perhaps if MD had played at all under Musselman he'd be better now, and JRich was positively dying in the Musselman choke-hold), I couldn't agree more re your Musselman-Monty comparison. L'il Eric SHOULD have played the kids more here, but hopefully he's learned that lesson.
Regardless, he is a much better coach on all the levels you've cited: overall approach, substitutions, mid-game adjustments, clock management, etc. His fire -- as opposed to Monty's laconic "What, me worry?" attitude meant that one didn't fear the fourth quarter of W's games. I had hoped that Mully might have figured this out by now; apparently not. Too bad, because it looks like another dark winter for us unless someone can unload Murphy and/or Foyle for a genuine big man AND BD transcends his two-man game/no hope longshot approach and gets back to what he did when he first got here.

by johnl on Jun 5, 2006 9:18 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Hahahaha

perhaps if MD had played at all under Musselman he'd be better now

You're joking right?

One thing I miss about Muss that I forgot to mention was that he was a workaholic. He'd stay up late watching film. Monty just seems content to collect paychecks. I don't see that same drive and fire from him.

by Atma Brother ONE on Jun 5, 2006 3:45 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Ho-Ho-Ho

Muss treated both Dun and JR like dirt; you're just blocking that out, I'm sure, because Monty's been such a disaster as the anti-Muss. L'il Eric was petulant and punitive on a team of near rookies. His good game coaching brought more wins in the short term, but he couldn't have stayed with the bad blood he'd generated -- and he sure wouldn't have known what to do with three rooks last year. That said, he's two years older and, I'd suspect, more mature now, and given how horrendous Monty's been -- as we've both agreed all season -- EM would have been a big step up. (As would have SVG, Mark Few, Ernie Kent, my grandmother, etc. . . . Finally, glad to see you're at least sticking to your guns with the big hate-on for Mike D, and he certainly deserves your constant stomping for the poor year he had, but what are ya gonna do if he actually starts shooting this year? (You can say it'll never happen, and you may be right, but what if?) And how will you continue the grand love-on for tin man BD's disastrous two-man game if he's as bad this year -- and that shooting percentage made even Dun look OK by comparison -- as he was last year? Hmmmm. Doesn't look very good for our W's, does it?

by johnl on Jun 6, 2006 9:41 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Dun blowing up

Finally, glad to see you're at least sticking to your guns with the big hate-on for Mike D, and he certainly deserves your constant stomping for the poor year he had, but what are ya gonna do if he actually starts shooting this year?

I'll have a new favorite WNBA team?

Hahaha, just kidding.

I know we disagree on BD and Dunleavy completely, but I always enjoy your comments. Keep posting!

by Atma Brother ONE on Jun 6, 2006 9:58 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Mussed Up

I like Musselman, and suspect he will improve upon Adleman's work in Sacramento. I was always impressed with the fearless manner in which Muss coached. He had no problem benching guys and/or giving castoffs like Boykins and Cardinal important minutes.

I don't think Muss was necessarily anti-rookie as much as allocated minutes strictly by merit. This method is good for the win column (and should develop a healthy spirit of competition amongst players), but inevitably will cause tension with the front office as it shines a light on a GM's mistakes in the draft and/or free agency.

Johnl: I liked your Ernie Kent reference. I think the chances of him sitting in the top chair for the Warriors are about equal with the odds of Dunleavy becoming a true marksman. I do agree with you that Baron gets a relative pass for his poor shot selection and accuracy when it probably does more harm to the team overall (because he takes more shots).

Still annoyed that we drafted Tod Fuller

by teagle on Jun 6, 2006 10:45 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs