New Year, New Era!!!

First off, I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  I am geared up and ready to hit the blogosphere world with more Mr. Armchair post.  Let's get it on. 

So.....the new era of Sacramento Kings basketball I was talking about at the end of my year-in-review, that lasted all about 11 days.  Today, the Sacramento Kings fired their head coach Paul Westphal, and named assistant coach Keith Smart as new head coach.  At the end of a 2-year plus stint, Westphal posted an overall record of 51-120.  He started this season, 2-5; but it was an ugly 2-5, with the team in the midst of a 3-game losing streak and looking disinterested and dysfunctional.  And to top it off, Westphal got into a public spat with the Kings highly talented, yet highly immature center, DeMarcus Cousins; issuing a public statement suspending Cousins for a game sighting an argument between the two, a disagreement in philosophy, and demanding a trade.  Cousins has since refuted Westphal's account of the incident.  This course of action, one which I disagreed with, was the ammo the Kings needed to pull the trigger on firing Westphal.  It doesn't matter who you believe was right or wrong in their dispute, the coach can't go public with matters that should be resolved in-house.  Westphal over-reacted to the situation, and his handling of it only signified that he lost control of this team.

Kings fan knew that eventually, with the way the Kings were playing, that somewhere down the road Westphal would be fired; it just wasn't clear how long it would be.  Some thought mid-season, others thought maybe he would last the season and just not have his contract renewed.  But me, I saw this coming a lot sooner.  When watching the debacle of a game the Kings played against the Denver Nuggets were they lost by 27 points, I turned to the current Mrs. Armchair and said "Paul Westphal will be fired in 3 days." It didn't even take Kings management one day to make the move.  While Paul Westphal may be a great person off the court, and I'm sure he knows a thing or two about the game of basketball, this was a move that was necessary and should have been made.  Westphal had completely lost control of the team and it was apparent that the players started to tune him out.  The play on the court reflected that, and it was time for a change. 

The Kings are now in the hands of Keith Smart, who last year was the head coach of the Golden State Warriors, accumulating a record of 36-46 in one season.  While some will look at this as just being a 10-game under .500 record, I'm hear to tell you that that is an impressive 10-game under .500 record.  Warriors fans won't admit this, but the Warriors were an over-achieving team last season, and it was a direct effect of the coaching by Keith Smart.  His running style of offense was taylormade for the Warriors talent, and he got the most out of that team.  Now, the reason Smart is still not the coach of the Warrior is because the Warriors are under new ownership and they made the decision that they wanted their own guy in as head coach.  I respect that decision, but many feel that Smart got a raw deal and should have been retained.  Needless to say, I'm also happy about that decision because it enabled the Kings to sign him as their lead assistant coach for this very reason; to take over for Westphal in the event that management had to make a mid-season coaching move.  The writing was on the wall for Smart to take over this team. 

Smart gets thrown into the fire tonight with a game against the Milwaukee Bucks.  After listening to his press conference on the way home from work, even I was ready to grab my Jordan's and go lace them up for him.  Smart sounds confident, reassuring, energetic, and pun intended, smart.  I found myself having a renewed sense of energy and enthusiasm for Kings basketball, and I hope the players will feel the same.  Judging by the 103-100 Kings victory over the Bucks, overcoming a 21 point deficit, and the big three of Cousins, Thorton, and Evans playing well together and having good games; my assessment is that the players did. 

Even while watching the Kings fall to that 21 point deficit, I noticed that the offense and ball movement was much better, and the extra pass was being made, maybe even too many passes.  This coming from a team that is last in the league, and I mean last by a good amount, in assist per game.    There was extra effort made when going after loose balls and defensive rebounding, and the energy level was noticeably high.  Now the question is: will this carry over to the next game or just be a one-game infusion due to the coaching change?  I'm hoping that is not the latter.

There is no denying that this Kings team was too talented to have been playing the way it was under Westphal.  And I don't want this to come across as if Westphal is a bad coach; I just think that he wasn't the right coach for this team, and I am dating myself back to when he was first hired.  While I respected Westphal's knowledge of the game and his cred, I questioned rather he would be able to relate to a younger generation of player. 

What the rest of the season holds for the Kings remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure, this team is re-energized and looking to prove some people wrong.  So we begin the Keith Smart era of Sacramento Kings basketball with a victory.  New Year, New Era!!


Mr. Armchair Speaks!!