Kings free agency, part 3

Maybe a plan b if josh smith does not sign? Do we need to buy out his euro contract just to get a look at him? Is ot too late to play him in vegas?
 

kingsboi

Hall of Famer
bringing in a Euro project? I guess it won't hurt to see what he can do...too bad he doesn't qualify for the summer league. Since Vlade has minimal assets to work with as far as draft picks go...he might as well look for undrafted rookies that might be a diamond in the rough.
 

origkds

What- Me Worry?
He seems to see the floor really well and has great timing on the blocks. Two things that are tough to teach. To get a better read I'd like to see what he looks like against D-league players.
 
You know, I have never heard of him before and don't know what the level of competition was, but that's a very impressive highlights package. At 7'0" he drops in a nifty series of moves at the 34 sec mark, and a couple of minutes in you see him repeatedly doing the Euro-Boogie, squaring guys up and taking them to the rack hard. Very mobile, gets off the ground, can stay with guys and track them as a shotblocker. Unless he's playing against kindergartners that's impressive. Hard to imagine us just signing him straight to the big club, but bringing him over and seeing what he looks like in camp and up close in Reno would make sense.
Thats the same club Anderson played on, maybe a weaker domestic league but they do play in the Euroleague as well, noticed part of the highlights were vs Barcelona. Looked impressive, Euro Bigs have been good 2nd round finds of late, maybe we got a nice piece there.
 
You know, I have never heard of him before and don't know what the level of competition was, but that's a very impressive highlights package. At 7'0" he drops in a nifty series of moves at the 34 sec mark, and a couple of minutes in you see him repeatedly doing the Euro-Boogie, squaring guys up and taking them to the rack hard. Very mobile, gets off the ground, can stay with guys and track them as a shotblocker. Unless he's playing against kindergartners that's impressive. Hard to imagine us just signing him straight to the big club, but bringing him over and seeing what he looks like in camp and up close in Reno would make sense.
The more I think about it, I think Philly made these 2 second round picks for Vlade and the Kings.

I don't think these players were selected by accident. Vlade probably tried to trade Stauskas for a late 1st rounder and when there were no takers, he lined up this salary dump trade for two of Philly's second rounders this year during the draft. I think he probably told Philly which players to select for the trade.

I think both players have some potential to be contributors on the Kings in the near future. Gutatis I think could be a bench player this year, but may benefit from staying in Europe for one more year.

The good thing about these players is that I am confident that Vlade has a lot of connections to scouts in Europe and they probably told him to watch for these kids. Hopefully they can eventually come over in the next year or two and contribute.
 
You know, I have never heard of him before and don't know what the level of competition was, but that's a very impressive highlights package. At 7'0" he drops in a nifty series of moves at the 34 sec mark, and a couple of minutes in you see him repeatedly doing the Euro-Boogie, squaring guys up and taking them to the rack hard. Very mobile, gets off the ground, can stay with guys and track them as a shotblocker. Unless he's playing against kindergartners that's impressive. Hard to imagine us just signing him straight to the big club, but bringing him over and seeing what he looks like in camp and up close in Reno would make sense.
I thought Gudiatis (sp.) was 6-10.
 
I reallly hope Gudiatis comes over, and sooner rather than later. I think he has a chance to be a legitimate contributor in the NBA. Hopefully he can come over and give us a boost in a year or two. He has the size, athleticism and skills to be a rotational player in the NBA, and maybe more.
 

funkykingston

Super Moderator
Staff member
I liked what I saw out of WCS yesterday but I still think the Kings have to sign at least one and probably two veteran bigs. Josh Smith and Ryan Hollins (now that it looks like my 1st choice for a 3rd string C Cole Aldrich is headed for the Clippers) would do the trick.

But in any case I don't think the Kings can go into the season with Cauley-Stein having to immediately play a huge role or one injury away from having to give Moreland significant minutes.
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
P.S. NBAdraft.net lists as Gudiatis's NBA comparison: "Darius Songaila". That is completely effing ridiculous and lazy. From what I saw in that vid the grand total of similarities between Darius and this kid is that they are both Lithuanian. Otherwise you could hardly have hit upon a less apt comparison. It would be like giving the NBA compairson for Greg Monroe as Marcus Camby, because, both American you know?
 
P.S. NBAdraft.net lists as Gudiatis's NBA comparison: "Darius Songaila". That is completely effing ridiculous and lazy. From what I saw in that vid the grand total of similarities between Darius and this kid is that they are both Lithuanian. Otherwise you could hardly have hit upon a less apt comparison. It would be like giving the NBA compairson for Greg Monroe as Marcus Camby, because, both American you know?
Well both Monroe and Camby are 6'11".

Joking aside, NBA.com says he's a "Poor man’s Jonas Valanciunas".
http://www.nba.com/draft/2015/prospects/arturas_gudaitis
 
P.S. NBAdraft.net lists as Gudiatis's NBA comparison: "Darius Songaila". That is completely effing ridiculous and lazy. From what I saw in that vid the grand total of similarities between Darius and this kid is that they are both Lithuanian. Otherwise you could hardly have hit upon a less apt comparison. It would be like giving the NBA compairson for Greg Monroe as Marcus Camby, because, both American you know?
Nbadraft.net has been pretty bad for years now.
 
Koufos is a low post guy that was breaking out last year.
It all depends on who starts. At this point, my money (and hope) is on Koufos, but who knows with training camp and Karl's offense. Karl himself may be more inclined to use Bargs (stretch 4/5) because it looks juicy on paper, but man our defense would take such a hit I don't see it as worth the risk.
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
In regards to the seemingly likely future signing of Bargs, at least it adds some shooting to the bench unit, although I am not sure what his role is going to be... backup PF or C? Regardless, our bench unit now has better shooters than our starting lineup:

Rondo < Collison
Ben < Marco
Rudy > Casspi
Cousins < Bargs (from 3 anyway, mid range I am unsure about)
Koufos = WCS (both will be for clean-up duty, easy buckets offense)

The major problem when looking at the bench (I may be forgetting someone, correct me if I am wrong) is that we literally have no low post scorer. Bargs is the closest that comes to a low post scorer, but he's softer than a boston creme donut. Problem could be solved if we put Bargs in the starting lineup in place of Koufos which would certainly open up space for Cousins, but our paint would be like a cleared runway for guards and Cousins would foul out in 15 minutes.
Might be:

Cuz/Koufos
WCS/Bargs (platoon)/Evans?
Gay/Casspi/Butler
Belinelli/Ben (platoon) /Anderson
Rondo/Collison/Miller

Koufos must have gotten guarantees of some sort to come here (hopefully not Karl guarantees that sooner or later you get to start). But he and Cuz together are a bit lumbering. I'm sure they'll play together -- indeed looking at our roster depth I'm struggling to figure out who is going to lose out in minutes -- but I doubt its as a starting duo.

Again, what is the fear of starting WCS? Its what he was brought there to do, and it balances things nicely.
 
Might be:

Cuz/Koufos
WCS/Bargs (platoon)
Gay/Casspi/Butler
Belinelli/Ben (platoon) /Anderson
Rondo/Collison/Miller

Koufos must have gotten guarantees of some sort to come here (hopefully not Karl guarantees that sooner or later you get to start). But he and Cuz together are a bit lumbering. I'm sure they'll play together -- indeed looking at our roster depth I'm struggling to figure out who is going to lose out in minutes -- but I doubt its as a starting duo.

Again, what is the fear of starting WCS? Its what he was brought there to do, and it balances things nicely.
I agree that WCS starting is ideal and makes it all fit easily, but the concern is that he's not ready yet. I didn't see the summer league game yesterday but I read that such fears may have some validity. Still, just one game, and October is still some ways away.