The Gerbil

I could follow a certain trend here at KF.com but I plan not to ask if there are any questions. Instead, can I ask that we find a different name for him? Petey D sounds pretty cool to me. Whatever we call him, we hated his choices (I never did haha) but he is showing to be pretty capable. Let's give the man some respect.

Omri Casspi is almost making him look like a genius, on his own. He may turn into the best one year minimum contract signing of all time

Have you been gone? This has been discussed several times in several different threads.

I totally agree that he deserves credit and respect. Omri alone is worth a better nickname.

He needs to do one more trick and that's get McGee over here. Dude barely players in Denver now.

I don't think he fits with the chemistry and culture focus

I lurk. I just don't want to be one of the bandwagon posters. However I must have missed the thread giving him a new nickname. Because that's what I am aiming for.

PDA seems just fine to me.

Thank you! The guy has taken some serious heat here. Totally transformed this roster and has given us players that seem to fit and are fun to watch. Even if things go south this team is definitely more fun to watch this year.

You all got it wrong its not the Gerbil it's the Alchemist cause of his ability to turn crap into gold

He's made some ballsy moves.
How about Peter Draggin?

Petey Ballsy

Always called him PDA... with maybe 1-2 or exceptions when I was really upset. I remember reading a book about a disabled individual with cerebral palsy and the title of the book was Petey. One of the better books I have ever read. The name Petey brings back some memories that taught me something in life, so I wouldn't mind Petey either, though I think PDA works just fine.

I did a search to try and verify this but I'm pretty sure I've never referred to D'Alessandro as "Gerbil". That's not to say I haven't been critical of a number of his moves. I most definitely have. But I've always tried to include the disclaimers that (1) I understood that it was going to take some time to remove the Maloof stink that had permeated the franchise and (2) that when I disagreed with the moves I'd rather be wrong and have the team succeed than be proved right by seeing the Kings struggle.

On the first point it's pretty clear that there's been a culture change throughout the Kings organization but especially when it comes to the guys on the floor. Rudy Gay choosing to not test free agency and sign an extension in Sacramento for less than he could have got on the open market speaks volumes about the state of the franchise.

And D'Alessandro HAS been proved right on more moves than he's been proved wrong. I disagreed with the Landry signing. One because it was somewhat tied to the decision to let Tyreke go in a sign-and-trade. And two because he seemed like a luxury signing (non rebounding, non-passing, undersized, low post scoring PF who doesn't really mesh with Cousins and thus can't start) that a bad team couldn't afford. Now that the Kings are seemingly a good team, Landry is proving his worth with the second unit nearly every night. I though the Casspi signing was a "meh" move and even voted exactly that in the poll that was created. He's been astonishingly good for us off the bench. The jury is still out on Stauskas but McLemore and McCallum are proving to be very good picks relative to their draft slot. Sessions is a move I was very much in favor of and he's struggled a bit but I think he'll come around and the team got him at a good price regardless. I still wonder how much of this is luck and how much is by design. Did anyone think Casspi would be this good? That the defense would improve this much? That Collison would be such a good fit?

I think the team is playing above even D'Alessandro's expectations but I think back to that Zach Lowe article from the summer ("Kings of Confusion" I believe) where D'Alessandro said there was a plan in place and they were just thinking outside the box. At the time I cynically chalked that up to the same "positionless basketball" or "NBA 3.0" talk that didn't seem to mean anything. But later in the article Lowe states that "D'Alessandro told him that they had numbers that said Collison would be a much better fit than Thomas. I thought it would help to have more ball movement but I didn't expect this much from Collison. Maybe D'Alessandro did.

Whatever the case, as I've always said, I'm happy to be wrong. I really like the way this team is playing and it looks (barring injury of course) to be sustainable which is huge.

Personally I usually go with Pete or D'Alessandro. Occasionally I shorthand it with PDA but obviously that either makes me think of "Public Displays of Affection" or (and this is showing my age a bit) "Personal Digitial Assistant" neither of which conjures up the right image to me.

God no.

Concur.

Good start would be to change the name of your thread to new nickname instead of reinforce the name

I would celebrate a McGee pickup! Would love to have him come off the bench with Landry

P diddy? Fiscal Pete?

I did a search and I have used that term one time since July, which btw was about the time that draft videos and other evidence made me begin to suspect too many Maloofs in the front office kitchen. There WAS a gerbil in our power structure, but all of a sudden it did not have to be PDA and it didn't seem right to tag him with the label if it wasn;t his nose that was twitching. And as I've mentioned before, the most likely culprit for the series of little veteran roleplayer moves made to steady us is precisely the GM.

In any case, not everything gone right here is PDA anyway:
-- Cousins was Petrie, retaining him was Vivek and Shaq.
-- Thompson is Petrie. Making him into a defender maybe Malone.
-- Rudy is...unclear. A PDA idea inspiring his owner? Or an owner directive?
-- Ben and Nik appear to have largely been owner driven, and maybe Mullin driven.
-- Collison...I am betting Collison was PDA.
-- Landry was Malone.
-- Malone was Vivek directly.
-- McCallum seemed to be Vivek or Malone, forgot who knew him from before.
-- Williams = ? That's unclear. PDA brought in Mbah a Moute, and I have come to believe Luc fits much more with the sorts of little moves (Reggie, hollins, Casspi etc.) he has made elsewhere. So who immediately turned Luc into Williams?
-- Getting Cousins and Gay onto Team USA for that critical experience = the players themselves, not on our front office
-- where I can most confidently point to PDA would be on the smaller moves. In consultation with Malone perhaps. But Reggie, Hollins, Casspi, Moreland etc. scrappers and defenders important to team culture.

PDA and our FO have made some moves which have obviously been great. Rudy tops the list along with Collison. Ben is looking like a legit threat to develop into quite a good player for us. Omri was a steal, the steal of the offseason IMO.

However, our FO's complete inability to address the backup center spot is quite a blemish on their record, one which may ultimately cost us down the road this year. If you believe we're a playoff team and if the FO/ownership believes this is a playoff team which will be judged on wins/losses, not addressing our defense up front when Cuz is off the floor in shocking negligence. We're still playing Carl at backup center and that was after playing Reggie at backup center.

And while Carl has had a real bounce back year and has helped us, paying Carl and DWill a combined 13M while not having a defensive presence up front is a glaring mistake, a mistake this FO is accountable for.

Too many try to make this a black and white scenario(which is an issue I just commented on in another thread as well, is there any middle ground around here?) where you either praise PDA/our FO or eat crow. He and our FO have done some good, they've also done some bad. They've built a good core going forward in Cuz/Rudy/DC/Ben-have to re-sign Omri, and they've also hurt the supporting cast with highly questionable decisions. Some holes might be fixed in Feb, or maybe they won't. We're clearly moving in the right direction though and are impressing across the league.

The story with Gay was that D'Alessandro told Vivek as part of his interview that Rudy was the type of player he'd go after - good players on bad contracts that could be had in trade without giving up too much of value and that Vivek told D'Alessandro after hiring him to "go get Rudy".

McCallum was definitely D'Alessandro with an assist from Mike Bratz and Lou Carnesecca.

People put too much stock into that draft video. Who knows how much of it was edited to add suspense.

PDA is fine.. Because whenever we say it we're giving out some public displays of affection to him.. So I always have liked PDA. I am not sure if I called him Gerbil ever though so I guess this thread isn't for me. I can remember other more active members here calling him Gerbil. Never understood it because he's doing everything the fans have asked of him.

I doubt if many people will disagree. What I think is remarkable is that the defensive backup center may be the only player we are missing. That's a huge change from even last year.

It really was an unfair nickname. People wanted success right away, but forgot Pete was taking over a franchise that has not won more than 30 games in a season in 6 years.

I'm sure Pete is working on finding a backup center, but it takes two to tango. It's easy for us to play armchair GM and say to just go make a trade.

Yes, PDA has spoken a few times about his experiences scouting McCallum while he was still with the Nuggets.

Why does there have to be a new nickname? I personally think some work too hard to assign a "clever" nickname when it's not necessary. Just my two cents.

I object to calling it a complete inability. It takes two (or more) to tango. I'm pretty sure the FO is even more aware than we are of the need for an adequate backup 5. It's not an easy position to fill - as other GMs are not blind to our deficiencies and are not willing to part with anyone we could actually use.

There's no other Pete involved with this team, so why not simply call him "Pete". Everyone knows who that is

I agree on the subject of back up center. I've been hammering the same idea. I still say that Chris Kaman would look good sitting on our bench instead of Hollins, who is more image than substance. And Kaman was available this past summer. Not that it had to be him, but he at least is a guy your not afraid to put out on the floor when Cuz takes a breather, and someone you could live with for a while if Cuz ever had to miss some games. I also agree that down the road, unless this problem is addressed, it could be the difference between making the playoffs of not.

I also agree about finding middle ground. It seems that what ever the subject is, a general manager, a player etc. they're either horrible, or great. If someone wants to criticize a player, he's a scrub and should be sent to the D-League, or traded. Coming out of summer league, McLemore sucked and Stauskas should be given the starting job. Now Stauskas sucks, and McLemore is great. Sometimes, it boggles the mind.