The New Man in Town

Contributed by Larry Yocum

This post is a little late in coming, but I’m still trying to iron out all the bugs and grasp this blog thing.  The Kings announced last Tuesday that Paul Westphal would be the new Kings coach for the upcoming 2009-10 season after signing him to a contract that would pay him $1.5 million for each of the next two seasons with a team option at $2 million for the 2011-12 season.

Westphal will become the fifth Kings coach in the last four years as the Kings have struggled mightily to find a replacement since the team and Rick Adelman parted ways. He has compiled a 267-159 record in stops in Phoenix and Seattle and led his teams to the playoffs in four of those seven seasons and to an NBA Finals appearance in his first year with Suns. Westphal also played 12 seasons in the NBA from 1972-1984 with stops in Boston, Phoenix, New York and Seattle. 

So, the first question that fans and fantasy basketball owners are likely concerned with would likely be what kind of coach is Paul Westphal?  I decided to look at his track record in the four seasons in which he was allowed to coach the full season in order to compile some numbers. 

Using basketball-reference.com, I wanted to compare the offensive and defensive numbers of Westphal coached teams to the rest of the league during the four seasons in which was the coach. Basketball Reference uses a system to compile an Offensive Rating scale and they define it like this: “Offensive Rating (available since the 1977-78 season in the NBA); for players it is points produced per 100 possessions, while for teams it is points scored per 100 possessions. This rating was developed by Dean Oliver, author of Basketball on Paper.”

They also compile a defensive rating scale that uses the same premise of points allowed per 100 possessions. Here is how Westphal’s teams stacked up in points per game and using the Offensive and Defensive Rating scales.

In 1992-93, the Phoenix Suns scored an average of 113.4 points per game and allowed 106.7 per contest. They ranked as the number one offensive team according to the Offensive Rating Scale and as the sixth best defensive team on the Defensive Rating Scale.

In 1993-94, the Suns averaged 111.7 points per game and allowed 106.8 per contest and once again ranked as the number one offensive team according to the rating system, but slipped to 16th on the defensive side.

In 1994-95, the Suns averaged 110.6 ppg and allowed 106.8 points ppg. They ranked third on offense on the Offensive Scale and 19th on Defense.

In 1999-00 as the head coach of the Seattle Sonics, his team averaged 99.1 ppg, ranking them as the ninth overall offense and they gave up 98.1 per contest which put them at 15th in the league.

So, it is quite obvious from the numbers that unless Westphal has undergone some drastic change in coaching philosophy, the Kings are going to be a very offensive oriented group heading into next year and will be looking to push the tempo. That is probably ideal for their style of players and the current offense. Whether they have a new point guard to lead the charge will very likely depend on draft day.

With all the numbers aside, let me tell you why the decision to hire Westphal had to happen and why it may turn out to be a good thing. The Kings are strapped for cash and they also needed a coach with some experience. Westphal fits both bills and the 58-year-old still has something to prove at the NBA level. The Kings need this to work. The one thing that I am hopeful of is that Westphal has an offensive plan. That is one thing that this team has sorely lacked over the last few seasons. Eric Musselman seemed intent on running a slow down game that didn’t at all fit his personnel as he had a complete lack of big men with the post up game necessary to grind out defensive wins. Reggie Theus wanted to run a hybrid type of offense that combined the Triangle with the Princeton Offense. I called it the Tripod as it just seems like a lot of players stood around and wanted to take pictures of either Kevin Martin or Ron Artest dribbling the ball. I don’t know if anyone knew what Kenny Natt was doing offensively including the players. He did a very good job of looking disappointed on the sidelines though for a very disappointing team.  So, Westphal is looking to pick up the pieces and will be the new man in town. The first thing he needs to do is install a plan. There is a lot of talent on this Kings team, but they need leadership from both the head coach and from the point guard position.  Two question marks that will be looked at with a lot of scrutiny as we head into the 2009-10 season. Hopefully one of those areas has now been addressed and the other question mark may be taken care of in the draft.