Smart's contract extended through '13-14

[pillwenney]

You guys are killing me!

The roster is filled with hope, what ifs, and I think this can happen when...and we have a coach that has taken that and made the team almost competitive! Theus had vets, Mussleman was just wrong for the job. Westphal was a complete fail, and Natt was just something to pass the time. Smart has done the one thing that none of them could do which was to get the team to compete night in and out.

That is progress for this club. Give the guy another million and a year to see what else he can do!

This team was 20-39 under Smart last year, and got blown out plenty of times. that is not almost competitive.

Now, it's fair to say he deserves a shot with a training camp, but it's wrong to act like he's already really accomplished much.

[SacKingZZZ]

Here's a negative/positive thing about Smart last year. Negative is that he forced a run and gun system that didn't fit this team or it's talent except maybe Tyreke as a poor mans Lebron, the positive is that, while still a little late in catching on, he openly admitted his mistake in a press conference and in his own words basically said been there, done that and it's getting ditched. However as the season wore on, this team got less and less competitive depending on lineups and it also came at the same time this team started to almost go with a non-stop pick and roll game. He even had Chuck Hayes being used in that set. Now as for coaching, things like that? Yeah, they scare me. Just from the attitude shift of the team he certainly deserves a training camp, but good attitudes die quick on a sinking ship. If this looks as bad as it does on paper or even 1/2 of what it could potentially be, that is when the organization heads need to dust off the old thinking cap and put it on.

[ADoaN17]

I thought the run n gun offense was good. Otherwise we would watch ISOs every time.

[SacKingZZZ]

There was no system early in the year, none. Smart chose to run and gun at first, and I'm talking full on Nelly style, just like Westphal tried to do at one point and failed at just as harshly. The problem was this team was still struggling to reach over a hundred points and it led to some ugly, ugly, embarrassing losses. You know you're not good at something when teams that don't even want to play that style just say, "what the heck" and cream you at your own game. He then went to more off the ball movement, passing, spread offense and it worked. They still played up tempo but more controlled, before they were literally jacking up shots 5 seconds into the clock.

[deNIEd]

There was no system early in the year, none.

That's not true, the system has always been Hero-Ball without the hero.

[SacKingZZZ]

Action/reaction. The guys were lost and each player really didn't know any better. They had a coach in place to teach a read and react offense that didn't know step one on how to teach his players anything and connect with them. This team moved on to Smart who knows how to connect with this players but so far hasn't shown that he knows step one on what a consistent coaching philosophy is.

[pillwenney]

A lot of that is approach too though. There's not one player that we have that approaches the court with the attitude necessary to run a real offense, save for maybe Chuck Hayes.

[deNIEd]

A lot of that is approach too though. There's not one player that we have that approaches the court with the attitude necessary to run a real offense, save for maybe Chuck Hayes.

So does that put the blame on Petrie and the FO?

[SacKingZZZ]

Oh, from the coaching hires, to trades, to signings, to the overall way the team is constructed and the lack of a quick response to fix things, this is most certainly a mess that will fall on Petries lap and nowhere else. The Maloofs spent money! Just have to hope that we all don't regret that they did.

[SacKingZZZ]

A lot of that is approach too though. There's not one player that we have that approaches the court with the attitude necessary to run a real offense, save for maybe Chuck Hayes.

The offense got a lot better as the season wore on, before they semi-ditched what was working of course. The philosophical problems start at the top and work their way on down. A team full of volume scoring types should be interesting for sure. If you think last year X100 on the suck-o-meter is "interesting" that is.

[ICMTM]

You guys are killing me!

The roster is filled with hope, what ifs, and I think this can happen when...and we have a coach that has taken that and made the team almost competitive! Theus had vets, Mussleman was just wrong for the job. Westphal was a complete fail, and Natt was just something to pass the time. Smart has done the one thing that none of them could do which was to get the team to compete night in and out.

That is progress for this club. Give the guy another million and a year to see what else he can do!

This team was 20-39 under Smart last year, and got blown out plenty of times. that is not almost competitive.

Now, it's fair to say he deserves a shot with a training camp, but it's wrong to act like he's already really accomplished much.

Who's acting like he's hit a major milestone???? The team has signs of being functional!!!! We haven't had that in years. Keep the beat going.

[deNIEd]

This team was 20-39 under Smart last year, and got blown out plenty of times. that is not almost competitive.

Now, it's fair to say he deserves a shot with a training camp, but it's wrong to act like he's already really accomplished much.

Who's acting like he's hit a major milestone???? The team has signs of being functional!!!! We haven't had that in years. Keep the beat going.

INB4 the King's struggle again this season, which will be due to players not fitting together whatsoever, poor leadership from the front office and a negative atmosphere coming from the front office.....and the King's blame the struggles on the coach and Smart is cut/fired by the end of the season instead of fixing their real problems.

[SacKingZZZ]

You guys are killing me!

The roster is filled with hope, what ifs, and I think this can happen when...and we have a coach that has taken that and made the team almost competitive! Theus had vets, Mussleman was just wrong for the job. Westphal was a complete fail, and Natt was just something to pass the time. Smart has done the one thing that none of them could do which was to get the team to compete night in and out.

That is progress for this club. Give the guy another million and a year to see what else he can do!

This team was 20-39 under Smart last year, and got blown out plenty of times. that is not almost competitive.

Now, it's fair to say he deserves a shot with a training camp, but it's wrong to act like he's already really accomplished much.

Who's acting like he's hit a major milestone???? The team has signs of being functional!!!! We haven't had that in years. Keep the beat going.

Not entirely accurate. This is almost an exact duplicate of last summer. Towards the end of Cousins' rookie year this team was once again "competitive" and things were looking up. This team went out and stocked up on offensive talent and filled holes with the exact opposite of the type of player they needed and then watched it burn into the ground because they had hardly any players capable of providing a support role. We watched a chunk of that offensive talent be misused or underutilized which left this team watching a player they just dealt a first rounder for walk out the door. They made a bunch of moves that left EVERYONE wondering why. They went after a player like John Salmons when they needed shooting at SF, not playmaking or slashing. Questionable moves like that, that turn out the exact way many thought it would means somebody made a boo boo. If you can't see the potential correlation from one summer to the next then I don't know what it will take. I just hope we don't see Thomas Robinson walking out the door for scraps mid-season because guess what, 7-9 shots a game in 15-20 minutes makes him look like a 5 and 5 bust.

With the amount of individual talent this team has there is always a chance though. Not a chance that this team fixes what it said it needed to fix at the start of the summer because a lot of that had to do with personnel flaws and flawed rotations but it has enough offensive talent to where if it does work they could potentially put some points on the board. Unless the system, whatever it is, regresses. My only hope is if that this looks like it's not going to be able to develop into a future contender, which is where the building needs to start heading, that Petrie doesn't sit on his hands like last year and he starts making the needed changes if for nothing more than to not once again watch all the value of his assets drain away.