It's official: Musselman in as Adelman's replacement.

[[Q]]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-kings-coach&prov=ap&type=lgns
Great replacement, I felt that he did a great job with the Warriors a few yrs back... but I think Adelman deserved at least a full year with the new team w/ Artest. The big question now is how Artest will deal with the new coach.

[Donatello]

Just caught this on realgm.com ( http://realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/ ... musselman/ ) but you beat me to it.

I agree- he's a quality coach and is a good choice for a replacement, but they shouldn't have ousted Adelman.

[dada]

they shouldn't have ousted Adelman.

Ditto. With all of that happening I thought they would have brought in a bigger name. Oh well, we will see what success this guy can bring to Sacramento. I smell a flop.

[BIG GREEN]

They fired an Adel-man for a muscle-man? Seriously, how is this guy gonna do any better after his wonderful performance coaching golden state?

[Andrew]

Not a bad selection but count me in as someone else who believes Adelman shouldn't have been shown the door just yet. Still, what's done is done and it's Musselman's team now.

What do you think would be a reasonable expectation of Musselman in his first season? Considering the Kings made the playoffs two years running during a re-tooling period, took the Spurs to six games and as it stands still have a good lineup, I think it will be somewhat of a disappointment if they don't at least make a good run at keeping their streak of playoff appearances alive.

[cklitsie]

I think expecting him to take them to the playoffs again is fair. Then based on the season they could adjust the expectations to 'make the 2nd round'.

I agree the Kings are kinda in a rebuilding stage right now, since they traded away their core guys that made them 'title' contenders a couple seasons ago.

Then again, they still do have Brad Miller/Artest/SAR/Bibby/Wells (I wanted to list about 3 players so this kinda shows how deep they still are).
They've now got Kevin Martin coming up, Francisco Garcia should be able to really contribute next year, maybe add a nice rookie and a solid MLE signing and they should be good to go for the 2nd round IMO.

[John WB]

I'm glad Adelman's out, but don't know about this coach. The Kings should have waited it out to see what happens with LB and the Knicks.

[Stevesanity]

The Queens were better off with Adelman and the replacement for R-Ade is pathetic, Musselman is at best an assistant coach and isnt capable of controlling a playoff level team. I doubt waiting on Brown would be worth it but they should have looked at someone with a better resume.

[benji]

Musselman is a phenominal coach who probably should've been COY in his second season.

His first season he went 38-44, with a 3rd ranked offense and 29th ranked defense. His team featured Gilbert Arenas, Earl Boykins, Erick Dampier, Mike Dunleavy, Adonal Foyle, Antawn Jamison, Troy Murphy, Jason Richardson, and Bob Sura.

The next year the team was a 39-43 team, with 11th ranked offense and 18th ranked defense.
His team featured Brian Cardinal, Calbert Cheaney, Speedy Claxton, Erick Dampier, Mike Dunleavy, Adonal Foyle, Avery Johnson, Mickael Pietrus, Jason Richardson, Clifford Robinson.
Only Cardinal, Cheaney, Richardson and Robinson played more than 75 games.

Think about it, Arenas was let go for nothing and Jamison was dealt for Van Exel who wound up being broken. So the Warriors lost their two best players for nothing and yet they were just as good. And Brian Cardinal who had washed out of the league played a valuable part of the team, as did Calbert Cheaney who has never been a good player. The Warriors finished the year without a point guard, not in the meaning that the point guards they had sucked, but in that they didn't exist. So Musselman didn't bother with a point guard going with Pietrus-Richardson-Dunleavy as his SF-SG-PG rotation and the team went 12-5 to close.

Just wonderful stuff. Far more deserving of COY than his second place finish the year before, which was kinda silly.

The Memphis Grizzlies assistant [Musselman] is said to have arrived with enough information -- individual scouting reports on the Kings, position papers on his basketball philosophy, outlines of his practices, etc. -- to overload a Web site.

Wells is probably not going to be on the Kings much longer, that playoff performance ensures a big payday. With Martin and Garcia I doubt they'll resign him for large $$$.

[Axel]

I don't like this selection for head coach. I think Musselman is more or less fresh meat for Ron Artest... he isnt a veteran coach by any stretch, and I think you have to have someone like that to keep a guy like Artest in line.

The Kings need to at least make the playoffs next year. With San Antonio getting older and older, they should be expected to make it past them next year... I'm thinking at least conference finals or semis is a realistic expectation. A 50 win season also sounds reasonable to me. I think anything less than that with what they have now will have made the entire process of firing Adelman pointless. Musselman has to surpass him in the playoffs, and possibly reach the Finals in two years or so.

[Andrew]

That's setting the bar pretty high for a team that's in a rebuilding/re-tooling/transition phase. Also, I don't think San Antonio is about to fall out of the elite simply because they didn't make it past the second round this year. Yes, they're getting older but we're not talking about a group of 70 year old men. It seems premature to suggest that we've seen the end of the Spurs as legitimate title contenders.