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Remember that imagined fight between Henry Abbott, J.E. Skeets, and Tom Ziller? Back then I thought Ziller might come out on top. He’s a smart guy, that Tom Ziller. Over at Sactown Royalty he’s making a case for Mike Budenholzer as the next Kings coach. He writes:

When Steve Kerr wrote for Yahoo!, he offered this anecdote in a January 2004 column on the importance of scouting and knowing your opponent.

The perfect example of all of these defensive factors coming together occurred at the end of Friday’s San Antonio-Phoenix game. With the Spurs clinging to a two-point lead, the Suns called a timeout with three seconds left to set up a play.

San Antonio assistant coach Mike Budenholzer grabbed a clipboard and diagrammed a play that he had seen Mike D’Antoni run late in a game against Chicago several weeks ago. It’s a beautifully designed back-door play that attempts to draw the defense out to the perimeter and then counter with one player making a quick cut to the rim for an open layup.

Budenholzer repeated to Hedo Turkoglu several times during the timeout, “Don’t follow Joe Johnson to the three-point line! They’re setting you up for a back door!” When the play developed, the 6-foot-8, 230-pound 2-guard Turkoglu started to feel himself drawn to the perimeter but remembered Budenholzer’s advice, stayed at home and broke up the play. The Spurs hung on to win.

More recently, Budenholzer has been single-handedly teaching Drew Gooden the Spurs’ system. Further, and less Bud-specific, work by Dean Oliver has indicated coaches can affect defense more readily than offense. Scott Skiles’ impact in Milwaukee would seem to reiterate this.

I guess the general sentiment involved on my end is this:

The Kings have a long way to go in every facet of the game. The offense is bad, with tools available but ineffective implementation rampant. The defense is beyond awful, with only the most minor shreds of material to work with. After four coaches in four calendar years, it’s time for stability. How better to make a move in stability’s direction than to hire Gregg Popovich’s right-hand man, a kid no one has anything bad to say about? Doesn’t the top assistant of a coach who has won four titles in the last decade, has a 67% winning percentage (63% in the playoffs) — doesn’t he merit consideration? What’s the problem here?