There has been plenty of dialogue around these parts about what Monte McNair’s offseason strategy should be for Vlade Divac’s old roster.
Is Divac’s aging core salvageable? Should McNair try to fix some of the more obvious problems, and push for the playoffs in 2021? Should he trade Buddy Hield and some of the other veterans for younger pieces, and quickly rebuild with youth around De’Aaron Fox and Marvin Bagley?
I’m sure we’ll find out what McNair’s intentions are during his introductory press conference Wednesday, but I am heavily in favor of tearing Divac’s roster down to some degree, preparing for a rough year in 2021 while securing top draft position, and retooling with a younger roster around Fox and Bagley, if the latter proves himself worthy of that distinction next season.This big picture context is important if you’re going to argue that Derrick Jones Jr. should be a priority free agent target this summer.
I don’t think the Kings should be looking to add any long-term veterans. They need to get younger players with potential that line up with De’Aaron Fox’s prime years. No more multi-year contracts to the Dewayne Dedmon’s, Cory Joseph’s, Nemanja Bjelica’s, or Kent Bazemore’s of the world. Vlade Divac’s recent strategy of handing out long-term contracts to aging veterans has resulted in the worst possible NBA roster type: old, expensive, and bad. It’s a problem Monte McNair has been tasked to fix.
Derrick Jones Jr. represents a unique opportunity for the Kings in free agency. It’s very rare to find a 23 year old unrestricted free agent with elite athleticism that gave his Eastern Conference Finals team a productive 23 minutes per game. Jones Jr. was a key fixture off the bench for the Heat, averaging 8.5 points, 3.9 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 1.0 steals, and 0.6 blocks on .527 shooting from the field, but most importantly, again, he’s a 23 year old unrestricted free agent. He fits the timeline. He’s a worthy investment for a rebuilding team.
The big knock on Jones Jr. is legitimate and glaring. He’s not a 3-point threat at this stage of his career, but he’s not a non-shooter, either, if that’s any consolation. DJJ averaged a career-high 2.2 3PA in 2019-20, hitting at an uninspiring .280 clip, but there is a lot to like if you can get past the idea of a wing that won’t space the floor without some serious shot development.
Despite his poor 3-point shooting, Jones is a highly efficient offensive player. According to Cleaning The Glass, Jones scores 126.9 points per 100 shot attempts, good for 93rd percentile among NBA wings. His 59.5 eFG% is 91st percentile among NBA wings, and if you’re looking for a hint of optimism on his outside shooting, he actually shot 39% on non-corner 3s last season. There is some hope.
But you aren’t really signing Jones Jr. for his scoring. That’s a bonus at this stage of his career. Jones has two far more developed skills. First and foremost, he is an elite athlete, and I mean actually elite. The list of NBA players that can jump with Jones Jr. is incredibly small, if it exists at all. Pairing that kind of vertical athleticism with Fox’s speed is exciting for obvious reasons.
Even more important than Jones’ elite athleticism is his developing defensive versatility. DJJ has always charted well in basic defensive metrics. His block percentage has been elite among NBA wings since he entered the league in 2016. Over the last two seasons, he’s bumped his steal percentage up to elite levels, too, but numbers only tell you part of the story.
The Miami Herald’s Anthony Chiang wrote about DJJ’s developing defense back in December, and it’s all very promising stuff
He has the physical gifts, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of Jones. He moves extremely well. He’s stronger than he looks. He really has put a lot of time in the weight room, as well, to transform his body. And he has been in our system now for two years. It has taken him some time to really get comfortable. Two offseasons of a lot of work. He has gained a lot of confidence defensively. And we’ve seen it now for a period of time that I trust him defensively.
I especially appreciated Jones’ own mindset on his defensive contributions. He seems to understand that in order for a younger player to earn NBA minutes, and this is even more important on a playoff team like the Heat, he has to defend at a high level or he won’t be on the court. We have certainly seen some young players prioritize offense over defense in Sacramento over the years, and it hasn’t worked out well for the organization, or the player.
I want every challenge that I can get. That’s how you grow as a basketball player. If I want to be a Defensive Player of the Year one day, I got to take the challenge. Why not take it now when I’m 22 years old before I even get close to reaching my prime? Why not take the challenge now?
As long as I’m locking down people on defense, it’s going to be pretty hard to take me off the floor, Jones said.
He earned big minutes on an Eastern Conference contender with his defense. That’s a huge feather in Derrick Jones Jr.’s NBA cap.
The next question is, of course, can the Kings afford him? The short answer is probably. Barring unexpected changes, the Kings won’t have traditional cap space this summer, but they will have access to the full mid-level exception that was projected to land around $9.76 million per year, pre-pandemic. I would expect the average annual value of Jones’ next contract to come in below $9.76 million.
I like Derrick Jones Jr. quite a bit, and the unique nature of finding a player this young with his skills and raw athleticism in unrestricted free agency is something I’d love to see the Kings take advantage of. These opportunities don’t present themselves too often.
Jones is certainly interesting, though for some reason he strikes me as the kind of guy some team is going to overpay for.
Without having any idea what McNair’s vision will be, a few of the guys that I think can either provide good value to contract or could be low-cost, high-reward signings. Which is what I think the Kings have to be looking for. What I absolutely don’t think they should do is overpay (the Sac Tax), even a little bit, to sign role players. Which has been the Vlade approach.
Giles
Korkmaz
Juancho
Harkless
Nwaba
MCW
Uthoff
Mason Plumlee
O’Quinn
Among, I’m sure, a number of G-League guys that will become available as teams make moves.
KOQ and Nwaba will both be Kings one day. We are going to will it into existence. I also kinda want Jakarr back. He doesn’t have any untapped potential, but I just like him as a 10th man.
I simply don’t get why the Kings would pay real money for Bazemore when they could sign Nwaba for the minimum.
McNair’s old team signed Nwaba during the bubble free agency period though. Normally I’d think a team like that wouldn’t exercise their team option for 20-21, but they signed him knowing he couldn’t actually play this season due to injury. I assume they’ll exercise their option this offseason. Otherwise, they just gave him $900k for nothing essentially.
Korkmaz has always been very intriguing to me. Good ball handler, decent shooter, high IQ guy just not sure if much of a defender. I’d say he’s the most likely on this list to be a Mcnair guy
Can DJJ can treated as Kent Bazemore role ?
If he can provide what Bazemore give to the Kings, then I would say yes……
As Tony Xypteras is right, fits the timeline is one thing. Can provide spark is another thing
I’m not personally a big believer in the idea of “timeline,” especially when talking about rotational role players. The Kings are going to churn through multiple rosters before their “window” opens. The chances that a guy signed this offseason plays key minutes for the next good Kings team is pretty slim. As such, they should be more concerned with value, both in production-to-contract and potential future trade value, than whether or not the guys is young enough to match up with Fox.
I think the premise of signing guys in line with the timeline is that if you sign a young guy and he makes a leap, you can keep him to be part of that longer term core.
I get the premise. I just think it’s heavily over-rated. Or at least heavily over-discussed by fans.
First, because it doesn’t happen often. The fact is this roster is going to see a lot of changes before it’s good. Most of the people currently on the roster and those acquired this offseason are unlikely to be on that team.
Second, because I think actually timelines don’t work that way. I mean, you couldn’t be more off on theoretical timelines Butler and Adebayo. Half of the Lakers key players are in their mid-30s and the other half are in their mid-20s.
I think “matches the timeline” is a thing worth considering, but only after A LOT of other factors. More of a “if we’re comparing two options and all other things are equal” kind of thing.
You acquire Jones because you think he’s a good player with attributes your team needs that you can acquire for a cost that ensures he’s likely to remain an asset. You don’t acquire him because he’s kinda close in age to your theoretical future stars.
Which brings up another issue I have with “timelines” specifically for teams like the Kings. We’d be basing our timeline on the idea that somebody on this team is or is likely to be a player worth building a timeline around.
I do agree with a lot of your points, but I think there is more to someone “fitting the timeline” than just trying to make sure all your young players are all good at the same time. I agree, that’s hard to determine and match up this early in the process.
But part of that phrase, to me, also includes contract value retention and in some cases, players gaining more value over the course of a contract. I know you mentioned this in your original post, but I think it heavily applies to DJJ.
Cory Joseph is less valuable now after a year with the Kings than he was when they signed him. His value will likely continue to decline next season. You can say that about most of Divac’ signings. Dedmon, Joseph, Barnes, Hill, to name a few off the top of my head.
That doesn’t happen with all veteran contracts, but it happens to most of them when your team also isn’t very good. Bad teams have to overpay for veterans, and those veterans often lose value by playing declining minutes when that team realizes they are bad and prioritizes minutes for young players. Sometimes they play well when they go to a winning team later, like George Hill to the Bucks, but the contract was still absurd for the Kings to give out in that stage of their timeline, and had to dump him a few months in.
When I’m saying DJJ fits the timeline, I mean everything that comes with that, not just the hope that he will still be here when the Kings are good. I’m saying a team like the Kings has no business overpaying more veterans. They aren’t winning next season. I want them to stop the cycle of overpay-decline-dump.
DJJ is, in theory, a better fit for the Kings timeline, not only because hey, maybe he will still be here in 4 years when the Kings are good, but if he isn’t, at least you have an asset on the roster whose value projects to increase instead of decline, and when all of this roster turnover happens that you and I both agree is likely, someone will be paying you to take DJJ instead of having to pay someone to take Dedmon.
I think this is especially important when you are able to make a realistic assessment of your next 1-3 years. The Kings are not making the playoffs next season. Stop sinking the cap space with veterans.
The Butler example you provided is different in that Miami was close to the playoffs the year before, in a much weaker conference, and had the ability to add a multi-time All-Star. We’re talking about the Kings, a team projected to be at the bottom of the Western Conference, with the ability to add someone with the MLE. They don’t have max cap room. They couldn’t land a veteran like Butler if they wanted to.
The list of players that fits the criteria I’m looking for: someone that will retain value through the contract at worse, increase in value at best, while being young enough to fit the team long-term if it all works out perfectly (all things I would put under the timeline umbrella) and will come here for the MLE, and is actually a pretty good fit now, too, is very short. DJJ might be at the top of it.
I think a lot of that depends on the contract Jones Jr. signs. At any age, if the contract is an overpay, it gets better as an “asset” as it ages because the commitment lessens. I’d say Joseph has more trade value today than he did the moment he first pulled on a Kings jersey. Or, rather, less negative trade value. Approaching neutral from below.
If he gets the full MLE, then I think that’s likely a mistake. You want to give him 2/10-12 with a team option 3rd year? Great! Better him than Bazemore.
Agreed – also worth noting a lot of the current and recent elite teams had players on different timelines.
The Warriors had David Lee and then acquired Bogut (28) and Lee (29) when Curry and the other Warriors were 24 and younger.
Clippers signed / acquired Gallo (29), Bradley (28), and Beverley (30) to go with SGA, Harrell, and their rebuild and then flipped those assets.
Nuggets acquired Millsap (32) and Chandler (30) to go with their young players.
Even our Kings in 1999 signed a 29 year old Vlade – and many fans complained he didn’t fit the timeline as well as Yogi Steward.
I think there’s some wisdom to getting your 2-3 core players on the same timeline. But especially with careers being extended with modern medicine, regimens, and rest days – I think there’s wisdom to getting good players around your core and winning. And then as winning team, it becomes easier to sign and acquire players to replace those role players.
No disagreement, but I think it’s also a matter of where you’re at in that process. The Kings have Fox and Bagley, but that alone is hardly worth considering as a young core. Vlade tried to do what you’re describing, adding the vets around the young pieces, before he had a solid core. The emphasis on signing players on the same timeline as Fox is to find additional pieces that could be part of the young core. Not all will work out, but you keep the ones that do and THEN add the vets.
Speaking of Bagley on being apart of the “young core,” has there been any updates to his injury? From the NBA’s current projected timeline, we are only about 2 months away from camp for next season. Will Bagley be ready?
See, I’d say that because the Kings are here:
They’re actually at a place where the age of their acquisitions matters less. Because those acquisitions are most likely to be transitional guys. It’s all about acquiring assets. Some of those may be the type of lottery ticket you’re talking about (ala Christian Wood). Others may be undervalued vets that could bring a good return at a trade deadline (ala Marcus Morris).
I think that’s a fair point. Although, I would also consider that Vlade tried to add “veteran mentors” and we can debate whether or not that was helpful.
However, if you are trying to organically build a team up instead of just tanking – you would want to add veterans who were impact players as opposed to on their last legs.
While it’s a sample size of one – I’d look back on the Warriors example. They were ridiculed for the S&T of Lee and trading for Bogut due to timeline (arguably signing Jack as well). But it helped them to improve as a team.
Ultimately, I think it comes down to this:
If you have an/some currently elite player(s), your timeline is now.
If you don’t have any currently elite players, you don’t have a timeline yet.
Yogi Steward would have been a hell of a General Manager.
He sounds like a good fit, but is there any point bringing in a young guy to play under Lose Walton? If you look at all of the high draft picks LA used, are there any that became above-average players while with the Lakers? All of them got a lot better the moment they were traded to new teams.
I’m cool with a rebuild, but why would a young guy with so much potential want to waste a crucial developmental year by playing for an inept coach?
Agree that Walton doesn’t seem like much of a development coach. I think Vlade hired him to put this team on a playoff level. I think he was that delusional about how he built this team.
Having said that, I’m all about building wing depth. I just looked on BBRef and none of the roster is listed as a SF, which is pretty sad. The Kings will have Barnes for at least one more season, hopefully will retain Jeffries which should be pretty cheap, Justin James, and at least one of Bogi/Buddy. I don’t know if the Kings can sign both Bazemore and DJJ but I’d be interested in keeping both if possible.
Just don’t pay much to do it. They’re both roughly replacement level players. No reason to pay much more than the minimum to keep them.
I’m guessing signing both would be about 12M total, just over them being able to split the MLE. But I believe we can sign Baze without using our MLE since we have his bird rights.
I see no reason why the Kings would sign Bazemore. He is old and the team needs to get younger and keep the payroll sheet open for asset acquisition. Let a 2nd round pick (Justin James, etc.) have his minutes and see what they can do.
…or Jeffries
DEFINITELY sign Jeffries
I think cost matters, and the fact that he can be signed with bird rights. If signed correctly, he can both be a stopgap and a future tradeable asset moving forward. I’d say 3/$20M is as high as I’d go.
But you’re right. Jeffries and/or James should be given a chance at minutes. James would probably benefit from a half season in Stockton.
I don’t think Bazemore would have any future trade value on that deal. And I think you can easily get his production for less in both money and commitment.
Baze is a glue guy off the bench now. A blue collar veteran. How old is he? 31? 32? That’s mature, but not old by NBA standards. I think Curry maybe 32. This guy gave us HELLA effort when he came here. Contract year, but I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt. I read somewhere that he likes the team. Likes his surroundings. Sign that man. 1st year guaranteed, 2nd year non-guaranteed. We need that type of effort and grit on this team.
It’s also the best 20-something game stint he’s had in 5 seasons. I’m feeling that this isn’t something he keeps up in the long-term, and slides right back to the very meh player he’s been throughout his career.
Even those 20 games were very meh.
Has there been any player who has improved under Lose Alton’s coaching? Even LBJ regressed under him….
I know this is a discussion of a possible target in free agency, and it has an excellent article to kick it off, but I’m going to go on a tangent.
I feel the Kings should play no part in free agency. IMO, and hopefully McNair agrees, the Kings should be using their cap space to take on other team’s unwanted deals as long as they come with future assets. The Kings are not going to be relevant anytime soon so I’d hope they realize their path to improvement is a season or two away with solid draft assets.
IMO, the Kings current core leaves very little room for free agency improvement, so why waste the money. The bulk of minutes are going to be eaten up by Fox, Buddy, Bagley, Bogi, Barnes, Holmes, and Nemanja. No free agent is going to have a meaningful impact on the rotation as the team is currently constructed.
Now, if the roster gets turned over and cap and roster space opens up, I still say use the space to acquire even more future assets. A depleted roster can always be eaten up with 2-way deals and the multitude of 2nd round picks the Kings have. Just keep the costs low, plan for the future and lay a foundation for playoffs 2-3 years from now.
I get that Jones Jr. is just 23 years old and fits the timeline, but I don’t think he is a piece that will be apart of the next Kings playoff team. Truth be told, I’m not sure there is a single player on the current roster that will be apart of the next Kings playoff team.
Tangent done… now fight me.
A big issue of that is the Kings have their fair share of inflated contracts. Unless the Kings can turn Barnes and Joseph into net positive assets, next season will be about cleaning up the mess more than bringing in assets.
I think Joseph and Barnes are still quality players that other contending teams would love to have. It is just a matter of possibly eating a worse bad deal, with compensation, to move them and have it viewed as a long term positive.
I also want to add, that Barnes and Joseph’s deals really aren’t that bad. Joseph only has one more fully guaranteed year and Barnes is descending deal. Both of those aspects are major positives to cash strapped condenders
An example could be sending Barnes to Philly in exchange for Horford’s deal plus draft compensation. I’m not necessarily endorsing it, but something like that might be wiser than using the available cap space on additional players.
Yeah, I think Barnes and Joseph could be positive, or at least non-negative, assets to the right teams. For example, I could see Chicago being interested in Barnes as a reliable vet presence for a young team that has trouble staying on the court. So something like Porter plus a small-ish asset (though simply having Porter’s expiring at the next deadline may be enough for me) for Barnes + Parker, could work.
Agreed, and that, combined with a serious tanking season, is the only viable reason I can think of for Monte to accept the Walton stays edict and waste another year.
Any other ‘viable’ reason for accepting it does not fill me with confidence that he is the guy.
[Warning; doom and gloom rant]
I mean, we were all excited about Gupta with Monte as his number two, but Gupta was passed over while there is also a report that other potential candidates declined because of the Dumars situation.
And now we are celebrating Monte getting the number one job, with Dumars having a direct line to Vivek outside Monte and touting his business success and ignoring his numerous GM gaffes after building a championship team. It’s like people convincing themselves that a field goal being down 12 is better than a touchdown.
I’ve been there before. I need to see a clear plan and tangible results. And that will take time. In the meantime we will likely see other franchises overtake us from all directions while we discuss Bagley as a main piece of our core. I am not sure I have the faith and patience to deal with it.
I look at it like this…there is absolutely nothing the Kings can do to this roster to make it a playoff team next year, and likely the one after. The West is just too stacked and the Kings don’t have the current pieces.
To sort of use the great quote, they are likely a few pieces away from being a few pieces away. Does that mean we will see a “clear path and tangible results” anytime soon? Probably not, and accepting that will be the hard part, but a hard part I feel we must endure.
Must endure?
Why?
We’re celebrating Monte because he’s actually qualified to take the position, while hesitant to see how he fills out his staff. I’d imagine if Dumars came off as imposing, he would have told the Kings to kick rocks. Personally I think McNair and Vivek speak sort of the same language, both being regular speakers at Sloan. Also, Dumars is by far the most qualified advisor Vivek has hired, and giving him an actual position and title is a good thing. It cleans up the shenanigans a bit.
Dumars’ responsibilities extend far beyond basketball operations. Of course he’ll have a direct line to Ranadive. Do you really want Joe Dumars needing to go through McNair about real estate acquisitions or charity events?
The Dumars thing is overblown. I’m as pessimistic as they get, but this “problem” isn’t an actual thing.
“Yet,” he conceded as a possibility.
Pete D was considered qualified at the time, and had a decent track record as well. They both had exactly zero amount of experience as GM when they started.
People’s view on Pete D are very much influenced by how things worked out with him, but at the time of his hiring he was highly regarded
“It looks good on paper” doesn’t mean much with this franchise.
I agree completely. Any cap space they have should be used on taking on contracts for additional assets and/or signing either young, guys with big upside, or undervalued vets with potential future trade value to extreme value contracts.
Why not resign DaQuan Jeffries for less money instead?
Why not both?
It’s more money. Similar role.
But the Kings literally have zero small forwards on the roster. Go look at BBref.
Depends on how you look at it. I see Hield as a 3 because he has no guard skills. I see Barnes as a 3/4. DaQuan as a 3/4. They can add another guy in the draft. Some other guys can play it in a pinch.
It isn’t really important they have people that BBRef refers to as a SF on their roster. Those designations (PG, SG, SF, PF C) are pretty arbitrary and meaningless. They have players that are of traditional SF size and can perform that role.
I mean I know it isn’t a perfect representation. But this team has a history of signing SGs and PFs and trying to fit them into the SF slot. It means less than ever these days, but the rebounding suffers quite a bit.
Why would the rebounding suffer from us putting a PF in a SF spot? The Kings have struggled with rebounding because we’ve had poor rebounding bigs, not because out SFs have been out of position. Guys like Bjelica and Barnes are just poor rebounders wherever you put them. All that said, the Kings weren’t especially bad rebounders this year. They were 9th in DRB% and 20th in ORB%. Which would put them roughly middle of the pack. Which isn’t great and obviously needs to improve. But it’s above the usual King’s standard. /Sad.
At this point I would definitely re-sign Jeffries instead of Bazemore, and not just because he will be cheaper. It’s about take a chance on a possible diamond rather than a diminishing Bazemore. Truth be told, neither one is likely to move the needle much on the win/loss column. The Kings might as well swing for the fences.
I like DaQuan also. Good defender and rebounder. he can knock down open 3s. Role player.
Very possible – especially since in our draft slot, there’s a good chance that we wing up with another wing.
Considering ticket sales won’t be a consideration for next season, it would be an ideal time to tear it down.
Agreed. They should really think about tearing it down next season. Makes too much sense to do it. Aside from no ticket sales which means no crowd and a possible bubble environment once again, it saves them some money since we all know they are currently cash strap. And 2021 is loaded with talent so doing a hard tank for 1 year is really ideal.
you got me on board.
100%
Yes Please Mr. McNair.
Although I like what Jones Jr. can do on the court, I dont think he’s worthwhile for the Kings. Guys like him who are limited end up coming here and struggle due to the lack of talent/bbiq on the team. I would prefer we give the role DJJ has to Daquan Jeffries on a cheaper deal and see what he can do 23 minutes a game.
I’m hopeful we have a whole new look to our roster next year, young/flexible/ tanking team is the goal for me. Trade Buddy+Parker for Horford+pick 21. Look to move pick 35+43 for a first next year.
Fox/Joseph/Bolmaro(21 stash)
Bogi/James/Trevelin Queen (52)
Barnes/Jeffries/Nate Hinton (2-way)
Bagley/Pokusevski (12 stash)
Horford/Holmes/Bagley
I agree. They need to aim for the fences with high upside picks and future assets so that they can get out of this mess. Keeping quality vets around and trying to chase an 8 seed is going to put us in the same position we have been the past few years. I would like to see more moves as well to get something back for Barnes/Joseph.
If we were able to move on from Barnes and Joseph I would too; although I wouldnt want to break Fox’s spirit and not have some guys capable of maintaining professionalism while tanking, and they wouldnt really affect the win total.
After watching so many clips of Poku, I dont see why we shouldn’t take a chance and draft him if you are comparing to other reasonable outcomes of the guys at 12. He wasn’t great against a really low level of competition, but hes got a lot of skill, his body needs about 2 years of training though. Bolmaro seems like a good player already, let him play overseas and next year when Joseph is gone you already have a guy who can defend close to his level but also playmake waiting in the wings.
First mention for Nate Hinton! (That I can recall at least)
He’s definitely on the list of deep sleeper SF-ish guys that could be interesting with the 52 or as an UDFA. Along with guys like:
Queen
Diane
N’Doye
Naji Marshall
Matt Mitchell
Tinkle
CJ Elleby
I heard Tony Jones mention him as an NBA player on Sam Vecenie’s podcast, and I think I might have seen his name one other time on here. After watching a bit of his game, I really like his role player ability. If we could walk away with Poku and Bolmaro as stashes while bringing along Queen and Hinton from late picks/UDFA’s this draft, we may be onto something. Although I struggle with Bolmaro vs Theo Maledon at 21 if we were able to get that pick, Bolmaro tilted the call with his defensive ability and a tad bit more size.
Nice find in Nate Hinton. Seems like a good 3&D guy who can defend both guard spots and switch onto bigger players. Top 40.
horford’s contract is really bad. You’ll be crying. If you really want Bolmaro, you can probably get him at 35. There are a lot of good players who will be available at 35 and probably at 43 also.
I don’t think Bolmaro will be there at 35, but if we really wanted him, would probably be cheaper to flip multiple 2nds and trade back into the first round.
It’s pretty bad. Which is why I’d ask for more than just the #21 in that deal. Both taking on Horford’s contract AND giving up Hield are each probably worth a decent 1st. But IF we could get them to give up the proper value, I wouldn’t mind having Horford on the team at all. At the moment, he’s still a good player that provides a lot of elements the Kings sorely need.
Anyone know what time they are holding the introductory press conference? Is it today Wednesday 9/23 or next week?
The press conference is today (9/23) at 11:30 a.m. PT
It will be interesting to hear him navigate the various storylines. Here’s what I’m most interested in hearing discussed:
And who will ask these hard-hitting questions?
I doubt they’ll be hard hitting, but I can’t see a situation in which most of these topics aren’t covered. So they might not ask did Vivek’s reputation of a meddling owner ever give you pause before taking the job? but, they could ask something like what is your first impression of Vivek’s ownership style?
The questions I don’t like are the ones that are just obviously leading someone to a safe answer. Ham will do that a lot. He’ll start with something like you traded away your second round pick, but then he’d lead Vlade to a cop out answer with something like is it just that you didn’t like anyone available with the 37th pick?. If it were me I would’ve asked was that the plan going into the draft? It’s still innocuous, but forces Vlade to freestyle his way towards an answer.
Off topic question…Is there a way to mark comments as “read” like there was on that other website?
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