Comments on: Sacramento Kings fire Paul Westphal as coach

By: skids003

skids003 — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:48:25 +0000

I disagree. The GM has gotten talent. He can’t always be sure where their “heads” are. I wish more teams would just dump these prima donnas, instead of giving them their little entitled ways. Let them get a real job, they are too stupid to realize how lucky they are.

By: ed289

ed289 — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 06:38:46 +0000

Westphal dug his own grave. Something like 50 wins and over 120 losses. A lot of those losses before Cousins even arrived. Westphal had lost the team and he knew it that’s why he went public. Cousins is averaging a double double this year in around 27 minutes of playing time. He’s 21 years old and a head case. But a coach with Westphal’s experience should have handled it differently.

By: garyrocktown

garyrocktown — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:37:14 +0000

It can’t get much worse, can it? Cousins will now believe he can act out however he wants because he is more valuable than the coaching staff and his teammates in his immature mind. I understand firing Westphal because they are going nowwhere fast but the timing is terrible. Well let’s see what this bunch of under-achievers use for an excuse next. I don’t think it is the coaching staff shooting in the low 30′s and failing to show any desire to play defense. I honestly have no idea how they fix this, maybe moving down south wasn’t such a bad idea afterall.

By: chicagofan

chicagofan — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:14:32 +0000

Westphal was out of a job after those comments by players ,other than Cousin’s, about the lack of offensive structure in Sacramento.Westphal’s misshandling of the recent Cousin situation got him fired quicker. Cousin is lucky no other team wants to give up anything for a pain in the ass like him or he would be gone too.

By: brianspider

brianspider — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:52:44 +0000

What efforts by the Maloofs?

They are eager to move the team. All the effort to retain the Kings in Sacramento has been spurred by the fans, mayor, and city itself.

By: jbraxton3rd

jbraxton3rd — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:31:10 +0000

Unfortunately, the next coach will still have to put up with Cousins’ BS. You heard it from me first!!

By: letsgosharks

letsgosharks — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:07:50 +0000

I’m still convinced they’ll leave Sacramento.it may not be Anaheim but this franchise is doing nothing to keep the fans interested in Sactown.

By: tomshoe

tomshoe — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:34:19 +0000

Looks like management lost this power struggle. They needed to hold strong and let him get over it and grow up. If they continue to be this weak, Cousins is as good as gone.

By: henryd3rd

henryd3rd — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:24:51 +0000

This episode could not have come at a worst time then right now. One must remember that the Kings are trying to convince the city to build them a new stadium. When one adds this episode, poor won and loss record plus the recent work stoppage to this plot it makes the Maloof brothers’ efforts a lot harder to sell to the City of Sacramento.

They might as well can the GM, move the team and trade Cousins before his trade value plummets to “junk bond” status.

By: stayhigh_247

stayhigh_247 — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:32:55 +0000

it’s time to trade some players. Westphal is a proven coach but times do change even the zenmaster couldn’t get more out of his veterans last season. But Cousins is a disaster, they shouldn’t just stop at the coach, they need to oust the GM that assembled this group of underachievers.

By: bparmalee

bparmalee — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:29:41 +0000

I think Laimbeer could be a good coach but I would hate to see this be his first head coaching job. They already cut the legs out from under one guy and now everyone in the locker room knows that the next guy wont have any real power. If he is offered the job I hope he passes. The players they have wont play defense and Laimbeer may try to kill Cousins. They should throw Jim O’Brien in front of this bus. He will let them all shoot as many 3′s as they want and he could careless what they do on defense. A bad coach for a bad team.

By: bparmalee

bparmalee — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:22:52 +0000

I agree on Cousins…I really dont think he can be salvaged. If you’re the Kings I dont know what you do. Tyreke Evans hasnt been playing very well but I’m not sure he is the problem. This team just seems very selfish. Marcus Thorton is going to shoot every time he gets the ball, Salmons is inconsistent, Thompson has shown signs and then disappears and you have no real lock down defenders. Seems like it might be time to blow it up… trade everyone and start from scratch. The roster is just so mismatched.

By: sasquash20

sasquash20 — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:13:40 +0000

I agree. Half this team is head cases that need to be put in there place. BL isn’t the usual retread that doesn’t get the job done anyhow. So why not give him a shot.

By: birdsflynorth206

birdsflynorth206 — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:09:28 +0000

The Kings need to do what the Pistons should of and hire Bill Laimbeer. He will bring toughness and a defensive mindset to that team.

By: slopmcflop

slopmcflop — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:07:04 +0000

While an unfortunate side effect of the firing may be that Cousins thinks his poo don’t stink, the fact is Westphal handled the entire situation extremely poorly. This is a guy who obviously doesn’t know how to handle an attitude. Plenty of NBA coaches have had to deal with head cases and still found ways to win/coach up the other players. It sounds like Westphal got entirely too bogged down in the whole Cousins thing, and focused too much on that instead of the entire team.

They have talent, let’s see if Smart knows what to do with it.

By: brooklynbulls

brooklynbulls — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:05:08 +0000

Although I agree with you regarding Cousins (I could picture him ignorantly nodding his head in approval and feeling justified with this news), Westphal clearly needed to go. He had no clear offensive or defensive game plan and had absolutely no control over this team. The press release was particularly tacky and I believe played a huge role in his termination as well.

Personnel does play a huge factor (too many shoot first players) but a change was definitely needed.

By: fmlizard

fmlizard — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:47:48 +0000

This type of action will only encourage a guy like Cousins to believe that he is bigger than the coach or the team. Darwin help the next man in the job.