Sam Amick says Geoff Petrie is in sync with Eddie Jordan (or something)

Sam Amick in his analysis of the coaching search stated a few interesting things. First quote:

Rick Adelman held the position has a Kings coach been so in sync with the team’s basketball president. There is the shared history, as Jordan was the Kings’ coach under Petrie from late in the 1996-97 season before he was fired after the 1997-98 campaign. There is the shared hoops vision, as Jordan – who followed his Kings tenure by spending four seasons as New Jersey’s lead assistant and five-plus seasons as Washington’s head coach before his firing early this season – runs the very Princeton offense Petrie created by his mentor, former Princeton coach and Kings consultant Pete Carril.

But, that wasn’t the thing that stuck out to me. It was this:

After Theus was shown the door in mid-December last season, interim coach Kenny Natt and Petrie were widely perceived to have a positive working relationship. But Natt’s 11-47 record and the general decline of an already bad team did little to convince the Maloofs he should return and so he was let go.

In that regard, this could be a case of history repeating itself and intriguing irony. Before Jordan was fired on Aug. 18, 1998, he went 3-26 down the stretch with a roster that was lacking in star power and where rebuilding was an obvious necessity. Petrie – who was entering the final season of his contract then, just as he is now – opposed the firing by then-owner Jim Thomas and was clearly frustrated.

2 things. First, if Natt had been retained as head coach, I would have thrown up. Being able to work with Petrie isn’t the only criteria here, nor should it be overlooked. Kenny Natt did have the opportunity after all to do that with Petrie for a chunk of the season. What Natt didn’t do is win when the Kings had the real opportunity to win games. However, all is not lost. The Kings have a guaranteed top 4 pick as one result of Natt’s coaching. (To be fair, that record was not all just Kenny Natt though.)

If the signs say that Eddie Jordan is to be the next head coach for the Kings, I can live with that. Petrie has a history of working well with coaches that he has a voice in. Despite his protest of firing Jordan in the first place (in 1998), it still came about in a process of positive culmination with the hiring of Rick Adelman. (Unless you think EJ is a better coach than Rick. I don’t, but well, EJ has a shot to prove how “great” of a coach he really is.)

If Eddie Jordan and Geoff Petrie work together well here, which I think is a major objective in all of this, then the next idea is how viable long term Eddie Jordan is? That’s my remaining concern here. I don’t know how well he’ll work with young players, but I do believe he’ll have no choice here.

Thanks Sam. More hysteria and angst in months filled with it. Thanks alot!