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The Kings have extended head coach Keith Smart's contract through the 2013-14 season, the team announced today.

"Keith's extension gives us the stability we need to continue the development of our team," Geoff Petrie, president of basketball operations, said in a news release. "He has the commitment, energy and vision necessary to succeed in building a winning team. We are all looking forward to working with him as we pursue an exciting and productive future."

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I like Smart, but kinda soon, yea? Probably more of a financial thing with the broke Maloofs.

They found an average coach for cheap....that's what they wanted....I'm okay with it as long as we keep improving and Cousins stays on track, which he seems to be doin with Smart

Yeah this is one of those moves that just...while it looks great for the team, blah, blah, blah, it's just another move along the lines of other moves that have been made that in the end, don't mean much unless this ship is righted right out of the gate against all common sense. Ride the ship down for awhile, but not all the way down. If this looks as bad as it could at the start of next year, Petrie has to find that common sense.

It's like this whole thing with the team showing up for "chemistry". They can all love eachother off the floor but can they work ON the floor? Are the talents of these individuals able to mesh regardless of any off the floor chemistry?

Meh. I hope that he can leave small ball behind and improve team defense.

The timing is weird. Too early.

Why not decide whether or not to extend Smart during midseason? By then, we know what we are getting.

This screams "Maloofs are cheap and do not want to pony up if Smart coach a semi-decent season."

That said, is Smart really the answer to this team?

The front office seems to be sure.

I'm not.

This is a decent call, not good or bad....

May as well roll with Smart if they are not going to bring in another Adelman caliber coach. Cousins and IT have developed well with him, rest of team seems at least neutral with him besides maybe Tyreke and Jimmer.

Smart may become our next Gary St. Jean, a few decent years, decently respected by the team, overall fairly well liked by the casual fan.

Too early to extend Smart. He is still learning & I don't think he should be a head coach yet. We need a real coach with a lot more experience to guide this team, but the Maloofs won't pay.

I think the extension is good for now. It keeps Smart from being a lame duck coach. He works well with the players and has a good relationship with Demarcus Cousins. He may not be a coach who can win a championship but I think he is good at developing players which is all I want for now. It could be worse.

Hey if Smart can make this team of mismatched pieces look decent and keep all their egos in check, he'll be the next big name and he'll cost a LOT more next go around. Obviously this is a move that could only really hurt the Maloofs pocket book. This isn't like overpaying for Jason Thompson before you even know what his role with be. This isn't like blowing all your cap space mostly on personnel who didn't fit the criteria you were looking for.

Coach Smart has his work cut out for him that's for sure. He's got a lot of talent to work with, but if he goes with that thing where he plays guys for 40 minutes one game, then none the next and then cites "matchups" as his reason, he'll either be gone before the end of next year or this team will be blown sky high.

Smart's the guy that will get our young guys' skills developed, but he has shown zero ability so far to actually coach. Dumbfounding move by the FO

It's the right move.

Smart has shown something that no other coach has been able to do since Adelman which is take at least a step forward. That deserves praise around here.

ICMTM wrote:It's the right move.

Smart has shown something that no other coach has been able to do since Adelman which is take at least a step forward. That deserves praise around here.

Wait, what? We took a step forward last year? I mean, compared to Westfail, anything is a step forward, but ....

I'm looking at old tapes from last year, holy $hit! I forgot of how Smart burns out a lot of these players in the first half. The game I was re-watching, (against the Rockets, Mar 26) he played Evans for a possible 21.5 minutes out of 24 minutes in the first half and ended up playing 17-18 minutes in the second half, 39 minutes in total.

I'm afraid Smart's minute distribution will be even more bunkers with the additional players we now have.

We took a step forward under Theus. Baby steps in mediocrity aren't worth extending.

Baby steps with guys coming off rookie deals isn't a great either. I'll still stick by my assumption that no rookie is going to leaven extension money on the table but you never know. Walls are closing in and another unnecessary 3-4 year rebuild to get out of the mess they may create may very well seal the deal.

KF10 wrote:I'm looking at old tapes from last year, holy $hit! I forgot of how Smart burns out a lot of these players in the first half. The game I was re-watching, (against the Rockets, Mar 26) he played Evans for a possible 21.5 minutes out of 24 minutes in the first half and ended up playing 17-18 minutes in the second half, 39 minutes in total.

I'm afraid Smart's minute distribution will be even more bunkers with the additional players we now have.

The thing I hated worse, and I'm sure the players did as well, were the times a player would play starters minutes then be banished to the bench. That's a chemistry killer no matter how good of a guy Smart is, players will turn and now that this team is loaded with volume scorers, it could turn in a hurry. Hell, at the start of the year you even had Jason Thompson starting to belly ache a little, that says a lot coming from a guy who just doesn't do that period.

SacKingZZZ wrote:

KF10 wrote:I'm looking at old tapes from last year, holy $hit! I forgot of how Smart burns out a lot of these players in the first half. The game I was re-watching, (against the Rockets, Mar 26) he played Evans for a possible 21.5 minutes out of 24 minutes in the first half and ended up playing 17-18 minutes in the second half, 39 minutes in total.

I'm afraid Smart's minute distribution will be even more bunkers with the additional players we now have.

The thing I hated worse, and I'm sure the players did as well, were the times a player would play starters minutes then be banished to the bench. That's a chemistry killer no matter how good of a guy Smart is, players will turn and now that this team is loaded with volume scorers, it could turn in a hurry. Hell, at the start of the year you even had Jason Thompson starting to belly ache a little, that says a lot coming from a guy who just doesn't do that period.

Smart is a Nellie disciple. Enough said.


Another thing I don't like about Smart is that he tends to rotate all of his starters with the reserves. He almost never intermingle them together. I have always said that you need at least 1 or 2 starters on the court at all times. Without doing this, you really mess up a player's rhythm and sync in the game. You see a guys like Thornton or Reke having excellent 1st halves but are average in the 2nd halves of games. This happened all the time last year.

I'm afraid that Smart hasn't learn his lesson yet.

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!

And if it fails, have the balls to do this thing the right way. Smart deserves another chance, no question. I have more problems with what Petrie has done than what Smart has done. Lets see what Smart can do, so far Petrie could very well have botched it this summer by putting Smart in an impossible situation with too many bodies needing shots and minutes.