The official "Fire Smart" thread

[RIPskaterdude]

I'm sick and tired of this guy. He waits too long to put our best player back in. His rotations are the worst I've EVER seen. And to top it off, he is literally the WORST coach in the history of the NBA at drawing up plays out of a time out. Iso to brooks? Are you kidding me?

GET
THE
****
OUT
OF
TOWN!

[Inigo_Montoya]

Maybe it is a just a knee jerk reaction but I'm on board. No players will be willing to stick around if they have to put up with Smart managing their minutes.

Pretty sure that Tyreke's brothers are on board too: https://twitter.com/Bluprintceo

[RIPskaterdude]

I mean, if anyone needs to see evidence of this, just look at JJ Hickson. He did absolutely nothing for us, and then we CUT him (after giving up Casspi + 1st round pick) and he's playing well and starting for the Blazers. Terrible.

[deNIEd]

INB4 King's blame Smart as the root of all of their problems, fire him, find another coach who is hyped up and achieves relative success in the second half of the season. Has a mediocre year as the head coach for a full season. Sucks going into his 2nd full year and King's blame this new coach as the root of all of their problems.

Wait...hasn't this happened before?

[RIPskaterdude]

Smart achieved relative success last year?

[blind prophet]

All I know is on that last play I would have Tyreke isolated at the top of the key area. Thorton, Brooks, Jimmer beyond the arc, and cousins near the key...

Brooks getting stripped was a joke, Reke would have beat anyone off the dribble forcing the D to collapse and either takes the shot, dishes to cuz, or hits one of the others for a perimeter 3.

[KF10]

I hate to say it but the Kings organization are simply horrible from top to bottom. And given that the Maloofs are completely broke, I doubt any moves are going to happen unless somehow the league makes coupons.

[SacKingsPejaFan]

He's basically been running team A for the 1st and 3rd quarters and team B for the 2nd and 4th. He better just be experimenting to see what lineups work. If this is a long-term plan, it's really, really foolish. Players need to get and stay in rhythm to win in this league. If you're going to be asking guys to just magically turn it on and off and expect results, you're living on another planet.

Where I will cut Smart some slack is that I frankly wouldn't know what to do with our five guards. Evans, Thornton, Brooks, Fredette, and Thomas are all very good. But at the same time, when you're constantly shuffling them in and out, it's hard to maximize their abilities. Tonight where 4 of them played really well is more of an exception than something to expect night in and night out. In a perfect world, 3 of them would get big minutes, and the 4th would just give breathers to the others here and there. But 5 extremely serviceable guards...really, what do you do? It's a shame they're all getting screwed out of minutes while we play extremely subpar SF's plenty of minutes just because we have nobody better.

[ADoaN17]

Agreed. His rotations are terrible and he doesn't seem to adjust based on how well our players are doing.

[VeeJay24]

It is certainly headed this way; simply put he was the reason this team loss last night.

It was obvious from the start that no one could stay in front of Reke and he was feeling it but he's sitting for basically the entire 4th quarter, even Harpring mentioned why isn't Evans in the game.

And to spend 3 possessions going through Cousins, when he was struggling not to mention that he probably has the most difficult matchup on the floor whether it was Flavors or Jefferson; it was really puzzling.

His rotations are horrible; Brooks should've never seen the floor again. Thornton was rolling, so was Reke; they should've been in the backcourt together.

Put this one on the coach; you can put many of this team's problems on the coach!!!

[Cruel_Ruin]

It seems like he's got lineup configurations pretty much figured out. The Evans/Brooks backcourt has worked really well, and Thornton is thriving off the bench.

My issue is with timing. He ran Reke and Brooks for the ENTIRE third quarter, iced them, and threw them back in with 3 minutes to go expecting them to close out the game. In the meantime, the bench builds a nice lead against the Jazz bench, and then loses it against the Jazz starters. Shocker there.

If I was Smart, I would go:

Evans/Brooks until 4 min left in the third quarter
IT/Thornton until 8 minutes left in the fourth quarter
Evans/Brooks until 4 minutes left in the fourth quarter
Evans/Thornton closes out the game.

[boogie-reke]

Smart is a minor problem compared to all the problems we have.

We need to cut the head of the snake, I think we're all aware of that.

Problem is they won't let us.

[kevin44]

Even if we could get Smart out of here the big problem is finding someone who is better & will come here. A quality coach will cost some big money & I doubt the Maloofs would be willing to open their wallet.

[bjax24]

JJ got chances last year and sucked. He never wanted to be here and let it be know .

[boogie-reke]

While I agree he has a fair share of the blame and was really a sack of potatos while on the court - it has to be said that he was not really put in a position to succeed - like tbh most if not all of our players.

I do agree though that how he's playing now - hustle, rebounds etc pretty much cleaning up after everyone - is something he could have easily done with us aswell even if to a lesser effect.

Another thing is Portland are the worst defensive team in the league and are content with it cause of their superior offensive firepower, so it's a different scenario.

[deNIEd]

it has to be said that he was not really put in a position to succeed - like tbh most if not all of our players.

Putting players to succeed is the responsibility of both the coach and the frontoffice who construct the rosters. None of our players are in a scenario where their talents will be maximized simply because our roster makes no sense and has no thought behind it.

[ICMTM]

JJ got chances last year and sucked. He never wanted to be here and let it be know .

AND

Jason Thompson outplayed him. Time to put the Hickson stuff to bed. JT outplayed him. He didn't like it and was let go. Omri Casspi is gone. He didn't pan out anyway. We took a chance on Hickson but in the end Jason Thompson just proved he can play better.

[edit]

I think we're just now seeing some pieces come together with the new lineup. Hayes is healthy and contributing. We have our big man rotation settled. I would like to actually see if T-Rob can play a little 3 at some point. Brooks and Evans have some chemistry in the back court. I feel like we finally have a direction.

[VeeJay24]

JJ got chances last year and sucked. He never wanted to be here and let it be know .

AND

Jason Thompson outplayed him. Time to put the Hickson stuff to bed. JT outplayed him. He didn't like it and was let go. Omri Casspi is gone. He didn't pan out anyway. We took a chance on Hickson but in the end Jason Thompson just proved he can play better.

[edit]

I think we're just now seeing some pieces come together with the new lineup. Hayes is healthy and contributing. We have our big man rotation settled. I would like to actually see if T-Rob can play a little 3 at some point. Brooks and Evans have some chemistry in the back court. I feel like we finally have a direction.

Agreed, I think right now Cousins is holding the team back. He has to play with more maturity, he has to play in the post more and stop picking up so many fouls.

Also, would like to see Reke & Thornton in the backcourt together more often.

[Keshavarzi]

The thing is even if you fire him...Kings will never get a respectable coach as long as the Maloofs are around. Serious, what decent coach would want to work for these idiots.

[YC42Balla]

Can we fire the Maloofs instead? ...