The Sacramento Kings hired Paul Westphal to be their new coach on Tuesday after agreeing to a two-year contract with a third year as the team's option. Here's what they're saying out in the ether about the pick ... Sam Amick, Sac Bee:
"Westphal simplified the process that led to his hiring. According to
sources with knowledge of the process, he reached out to the Kings
earlier than the rest of the field to make it clear he wanted the job.
He then laid out the hypothetical financial terms, indicating that he
would work for a rate that would fall within the current comfort zone
of Kings co-owners Joe and Gavin Maloof. That deal, which should be
finalized today, includes two guaranteed seasons at $1.5 million each,
with the third season a team option worth $2 million. There are likely
incentives in the deal that could reward Westphal if the Kings improve
even moderately next season." Adrian Wojnarowski, Yahoo! Sports: "Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Kurt Rambis wanted more time to consider an offer on Tuesday, but the Kings’ owners, the Maloof brothers, and general manager Geoff Petrie balked and turned to the eager Westphal. Petrie wanted the three candidates — Westphal,adidas adiZero Boxing Chic Mid, Rambis and Boston Celtics assistant Tom Thibodeau — to agree to terms on a contract on Monday before an offer was extended, sources said. This way, the Kings wouldn’t offer the job to someone who might reject it." NBA FanHouse: "While Westphal has strong credentials (a 63% winning percentage as coach, including a 55% playoffs winning clip), he comes with questions. Specifically, he had a terrible run coaching Pepperdine of the Western Athletic Conference, and is seen as having quickly let Seattle go to rubble in 1999 and 2000. It doesn't help that the Kings reportedly put a fairly tight budget on the coaching hire, leaving big-time options on the sidelines. Amick reports the deal will pay Westphal $3 million for two years. It is believed Phil Jackson has in-grown hairs bigger than that." Sactown Royalty: "There's no use screaming for help in a black hole, especially when you're wearing a boomerang called Reality. As in, there's no way this team could possibly go 17-65 again, even if Eric Musselman's Tamagotchi were running the show. How can we the reasonable masses complain now,Adidas CC Ride, after all that we have been through? We should complained louder before. We're at the bottom. This can't turn out bad ... in the short-term. Unless Westphal refuses to teach in practice, or refuses to hire teachers for his staff, or refuses to start the Jason Thompson(notes)/Spencer Hawes frontline from Day 1, or refuses to find some minutes for Donté Greene, or refuses to punch Peaches in the face at least twice per season, this can't fail. Our team just won 17 games in 82 tries. You can only complain while remaining reasonable if the team does not change course (it was the most active team at the deadline, and has remarkably few guaranteed contracts on the books) or if the team repeats mistakes (hey, Muss didn't get a Jordan-like return opportunity! three cheers for small victories)." Kings co-owner Joe Maloof: "I think we've got a gentleman who has a wonderful reputation around the league. He's had a great winning percentage, over 62 percent of his games he's won in the NBA. He has been an experienced coach in the NBA. We knew that he was very strong offensively, and that he had all those great teams that scored a lot of points,adidas Titan HyperMOTION, but you don't get into the NBA Finals [as Westphal's Phoenix team did in the 1992-93 season, losing in six games to Chicago] if you don't teach defense as well. He went through some of his ideas on defense, which made a lot of sense to us."
Related: The Internets are alive
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