Sacramento Kings

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Lip, The original mistake was not trading Derrick down in the draft. They should have picked him and then made a move. I believe they made the same mistake the year before, where they should have picked Cousins and then traded down. Derrick's trade value was never higher than it was on draft night. It's only gone down since then. So while I (somewhat) agree with your assessment, I think this all goes back to yet another bungled draft. That is by far this franchise's biggest problem, and it doesn't seem to matter who the GM is.

[Coolbreeze44]

I just think it would be nice to have a guy on our bench who is capable of going off for 31. Other than the maddening JJ, who else do we have that can do that? Our head coach took a negative view of DW from the beginning, and never had any interest in developing him. I hope he explodes for the Kings.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Cool, I don't disagree with the desire for bench scoring punch - it's a major problem right now. And I was really hoping that D-Will would develop into a Antawn Jamison/Al Harrington type of scorer off the bench for us this season. But it just didn't happen and I think that's as much Derrick's fault as it is Adelman's.

[bleedspeed]

I wonder if Flip was coaching if he would have had Cunningham or DWill coming off the bench?

[Squishypoo [enjin:6648839]]

Here is something to think about:

Since leaving it seems Beasley, Wes Johnson, and D Williams are playing better then when they were here. That has to be on the coach.

How do you figure they all played better since leaving mn? Beasley was garbage last year for the suns.. And wes is no better then he was back in mn.. DWIll i'm not sold on his one good game befor that game he was making a handful of bad defensive plays per game and he gums the offense up a bit by not staying in his lane,

Rember beasly one year had>>>19ppg...5rpg,,,2.2ast...45%fg...76%ft.... kind of hard to beat them numbers...Just saying

[markkbu [enjin:6588958]]

Here is something to think about:

Since leaving it seems Beasley, Wes Johnson, and D Williams are playing better then when they were here. That has to be on the coach.

How do you figure they all played better since leaving mn? Beasley was garbage last year for the suns.. And wes is no better then he was back in mn.. DWIll i'm not sold on his one good game befor that game he was making a handful of bad defensive plays per game and he gums the offense up a bit by not staying in his lane,

Rember beasly one year had>>>19ppg...5rpg,,,2.2ast...45%fg...76%ft.... kind of hard to beat them numbers...Just saying

I'm with you on this. Beasley played well enough to get asked to leave the Suns. Wes was good enough to get traded. D-Will has had a good game.

This conversation seems pretty absurd to me.

[thedoper]

Derrick was the "x-factor" for this team this season. How can you say that in an introductory presser then not play that player. Maybe Adelman mean he would be an x in the lineup. That is my main problem. They propped him up without pushing him above Dante in the lineup, and then traded him for a worse player talent wise.

[worldK]

Only player I would like to get from sac is mclemore. He was pick 7th and we had the 9th pick and dw and shved who were intriguing young players at that time that could be worth something along with luke's expiring deal and even jj barea.

I know flip wanted oladipo and work his butt off to get him and failed. but mclemore could be had I believe. I agree with lip that flip should have traded dw in the off season. He did sign bud,brewer and martin. Drafted shabazz and with dante here, it was obvious dw have to outplay 3 guys(bud,brew,dante) to get a shot at the regular rotation.

I also believe that we should have drafted antetoukompo when we made that swap with utah. Flip somehow talk himself into hoping that bazz could be a sg when he is a natural sf.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Here is something to think about:

Since leaving it seems Beasley, Wes Johnson, and D Williams are playing better then when they were here. That has to be on the coach.

As for the moves Flip:
Hit gold with Brewer and Martin
Overpaid for Budinger (I am thinking Adelman had a lot to do with this)
Seemed to have missed out on drafting the burke, greek freak, and Hardaway/Bullock

Beasley went to Phoenix and stunk so bad they cut him. He's producing in Miami because the situation is perfect and he knows that it's his last chance in the league. I seem to remember Beas averaging 19/5 here. Hasn't topped that since.

Johnson also stunk it up in Phoenix. He's producing something in LA, I'll give him that. It works out for him since D'Antoni's offense is all about chucking up 3-pointers. I'm honestly surprised he's hitting them at the rate he is (45%). He's still only averaging 8 PPG though and still a below average NBA player.

D-Will has ONE breakout game and all of a sudden he's a star... Some of you on this board need to stop being prisoners of the moment. Wait until there's a legitimate sample size. Previous to this game, I don't believe D-Will did anything that he wasn't doing in Sota other than getting more minutes.

Martin and Brewer have been terrific for the most part. Bud... We'll see. I have relatively high hopes for him, though. I don't wanna toot my own horn, but I was all over the Reggie Bullock train pre-draft. Could not quit posting about him.

Q -- Yes, this is only one game and no telling whether this is a sign of things to come from Derrick. But this wasn't just one good game. It was a career scoring performance with 31 points. It was also a terrific defensive performance with 5 steals ]

Lip, whether he put up 18 or 50 points, I don't care. It's one game. One. Tell me, what has he done previous to this showing? Notta. Notta damn thing. He'll always be the same D-Will, just with more PT. I hope he does contribute for the Kings because I actually like him as a guy. Don't think it's fair to rip the FO after what's happened here, though. Had we traded him in the off-season to move up in the draft (which Flip tried) or for a veteran producer (also sure he tried), I would bet almost anything that a bunch of posters on here would have crucified Flip for giving up on D-Will's potential blah blah blah. So instead of getting killed in the off-season, he's getting killed now after one productive game from Derrick Williams. Please. It's ridiculous.

[TAFKASP]

Derrick was the "x-factor" for this team this season. How can you say that in an introductory presser then not play that player. Maybe Adelman mean he would be an x in the lineup. That is my main problem. They propped him up without pushing him above Dante in the lineup, and then traded him for a worse player talent wise.

It's highly possible they were simply trying to give him some confidence in the hopes he would step up his game, both on the practice floor and in games. How long do you spoon feed a kid?

He may well blow up in Sac, it isn't all that unusual for a player, free from the burden of the expectations of a high draft pick to finally breath once he can be just another young talent given an opportunity. Then there is the second reason he may well develop, Sac has no illusions of competing this year so for the first time in his career his team can focus on his development rather than his errors costing them much needed wins.

As others have said, he should have been traded on his draft night, with Love here he was never going to fit in. Fit, not just with a coach, or system, but with your teammates is vital for success and he didn't fit here and never would.