The Future of the Sacramento Kings: My First Post

[Pittsburgh Kings Fan]

Hey I'm new here at Kingsfans.com. I wanted to make a big, interesting first post to show you guys my love for the kings, haha. To tell you about myself I am 16 years old and from Pittsburgh. I play basketball for my high school and I started watching the NBA in 1999 probably, where I started watching the Kings. I knew Pittsburgh didnt have a team, and the Kings became my favorite. I just loved the Kings. How they played, their players. Now I watch every game of the year with NBA League Pass. Anyways, here is my view on the Sacramento Kings future.....


The Future Of the Sacramento Kings
- MY FIRST POST

Right now, the Sacramento Kings are 14-20, Fifth in the Pacific Division. Although they are only 3.0 games out of the 8th seed and making the playoffs with 48 games to go, do us kings fans want the Kings to make the playoffs? At best, they might be a 7 or 8 seed, which is losing in the playoffs. Now I came to this fourm because I am a die hard Kings fan. Although I'm from Pittsburgh, I watch every game. I want the Kings to succeed as much as you guys do. We know that the Kings arent going to succeed this season unless something big happens, whether its a Kevin Garnett trade, which is unlikley, or something else of that matter. But this leads me to a conclusion. Let's rebuild. The Kings could trade pieces like Mike Bibby, Kenny Thomas, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, and Brad Miller to stack up on youth and picks. I say we totally trash our team. Their are numerous players in the draft that the Kings could get. Greg Oden, Joakim Noah, Josh McRoberts, and Hasheem Thabeet are just a few of the big name centers. Kevin Durant and Brandan Wright are SF/PF like Tracy McGrady and Kevin Garnett who can shoot, rebound, pass, and defend. Even in the later picks, there are guards like Corey Brewer, Ronald Steele, Daequan Cook, and Alando Tucker who could help the Kings, who already have a few good young players in Kevin Martin, Justin Williams, Ronnie Price, and Francisco Garcia. If they draft well, and trade well, this team could put the Kings onback on the map. Look at the Chicago Bulls right now. They are young, talented, and good. With their youth, and cap room, they signed Ben Wallace. Who says that the Kings cannot get 2 or 3 first round draft picks this year, and get great youth on the team, then sign a big name Free Agent. Who knows what the Kings will do. This is just my two sense for the Kings. Hopefully, you accept me here at kingsfans.com and will welcome me into your kings fans community. I will accept criticism from you. Remember, all I am trying to do is give great Kings Basketball talk to the fourm.

 

[jcassio]

Welcome.
No major disagreements with what you say, or what you suggest. There's a growing group of people on this board who are ready for a rebuild. So the question is, what model do we use?
The Petrie model never gets bad enough to get into the lottery. But a lot of people here see the lottery as our salvation. But nobody wants to get so bad that we become a regular at the lottery trough. Just a one-time showing to pick up a stud, and then back on the winning road - if we could manage that.
I think a lot of us thought the Kings had a decent chance to beat the Spurs in the playoffs last year, and our current personnel is really only one Bonzi away from that team. So, although we suck right now, and our coach is suspect, we may very well have enough talent to get back to the level we were at in last year's playoffs. So if the team begins to play better (or 'play like a team'), then I think a lot of the folks now saying 'Rebuild, rebuild!' will go back to being hopeful that our 8th seeded team can surprise in the playoffs and get past the first round. After that, as they say, anything is possible. I think Petrie and the Maloofs fit into this category of 'hopefuls.' So those of us who are ready to dip into the cyrstal waters of the lottery are probably not on the same page as the real decision-makers.

 

[Pittsburgh Kings Fan]

Right. I think a quick rebuild fits this team best. Look at the Phoenix Suns. The 2002-03 Season was alright for them, they made the 8th seed, lost to the Spurs. They realized they cant win with that team. So they rebuild. They traded Stephon Marbury to the Knicks for Antonio McDyess, Howard Eisley, Charlie Ward, Maciej Lampe, two first-round draft picks and cash.. They got basically nothing in the deal, but cap room, two first-round draft picks and cash. Next season, they went 29-53, picked up Nash, Q-Rich, Joe Johnson, already with Marion and Amare. They were right back on track. A 62-20 season followed and right now they're in the hunt for a championship. I know there has been teams who has unsucsessfully tried this way, but the Kings should try it. Ron Artest is a good piece to keep, unless they get a good offer, and so is Kevin Martin. They have a chance to be great in a few years, lets see what they do.

 

[Oskor]

I'm on board with you Pittsburgh. I'm basically at the point now where I'm counting losses the way I counted wins in 2002. Each game getting us closer to a possible monster player that we need. I do not feel the kings need to blow up the entire team. With the right trades and good first round pick I think we can be back on track in a season or 2.

Then again, by basketball IQ isn’t in the same league as Brick or many others on these forums. But I do know a lot of others here feel the same way we do.

 

[Smills91]

Now to play devil's advocate. Let's say you "trash" the team and the picks you make don't pan out. THe flip side is now you're completely suck A LA Portland/Atlanta and could take YEARS to finally rebuild the team.

Rebuilding a contender doesn't happen in a year, it takes years. I'd rather this team remain somewhat competitive as the Kings rebuild. I have enought faith in Petrie to pull out the right deals at the right times. He continues to hit the metaphoric "singles" and "doubles" and sooner or later he'll hit another homerun.

 

[Vlade4GM]

artest would have to go too, he will get us the most in return. miller would have to be a salary dump. but other than that you're right on, i think most fans here are starting to accept that this is our only chance at getting back on our feet. if only the FO would agree with it too.

 

[Pittsburgh Kings Fan]

Now to play devil's advocate. Let's say you "trash" the team and the picks you make don't pan out. THe flip side is now you're completely suck A LA Portland/Atlanta and could take YEARS to finally rebuild the team.

Rebuilding a contender doesn't happen in a year, it takes years. I'd rather this team remain somewhat competitive as the Kings rebuild. I have enought faith in Petrie to pull out the right deals at the right times. He continues to hit the metaphoric "singles" and "doubles" and sooner or later he'll hit another homerun.

Yeah, maybe only trading a piece, getting some salary.. Who knows. We all just want them to win.

 

[Gary]

Now to play devil's advocate. Let's say you "trash" the team and the picks you make don't pan out. THe flip side is now you're completely suck A LA Portland/Atlanta and could take YEARS to finally rebuild the team.

Rebuilding a contender doesn't happen in a year, it takes years. I'd rather this team remain somewhat competitive as the Kings rebuild. I have enought faith in Petrie to pull out the right deals at the right times. He continues to hit the metaphoric "singles" and "doubles" and sooner or later he'll hit another homerun.

That's not totally true. We have owners that will spend to build, and a GM that has done pretty well to bring talent.

As long as we keep a couple core players that have been there and done that than we should be OK in a couple years.

 

[whozit]

That's not totally true. We have owners that will spend to build, and a GM that has done pretty well to bring talent.

As long as we keep a couple core players that have been there and done that than we should be OK in a couple years.

Their willingness to spend hasn't been evident the last several years as they have been a cost cutting mode. That idea that they are willing to spend I think is a lasting effect from first impressions on how they opened the pocket book (IMHO by necessity) in the beginnig. As far as Petrie goes, is the glass half full or half empty? When his decisions are based on talent as the deciding or primary factor, he has a very good record. When his decisions appear to be based on the bottom line, his decisions have been far less than stellar. What mode (motivation) he will be allowed to be in going forward, I think will have a large effect on how effective he is.

 

[hearns]

A rebuilding is not as easy as people think. It's not one bad year, draft a MVP and land in the free agency another MVP. San Antonio and Phoenix are good examples, but there's also other teams like the Celtics or the Hawks, 20 years without doing ANYTHING.

 

[BMiller52]

That's not totally true. We have owners that will spend to build, and a GM that has done pretty well to bring talent.

As long as we keep a couple core players that have been there and done that than we should be OK in a couple years.

Yeah I agree.

BTW Pittsburgh Kings fan that is pretty much how a lot of us feel right now. There are still some people who hope we can get the eighth seed and stuff, but that isn't going to get us anywhere. Trade for expiring contracts, young players, and draft picks. Sign someone in FA like Billups, draft a good young player(hopefully we can continue to lose for this season), sign a young center(maybe Darko Milicic), use the rest of your cap room on role players who won't make much. So if you can end up with maybe 7 or 8 young players with potential who can learn from the vets we'll have, and the other half of the team veteran players.

 

[BMiller52]

A rebuilding is not as easy as people think. It's not one bad year, draft a MVP and land in the free agency another MVP. San Antonio and Phoenix are good examples, but there's also other teams like the Celtics or the Hawks, 20 years without doing ANYTHING.

The problems is that the Celtics did a poor job of surrounding Pierce with talent but they even went to the ECF a couple of times. The Hawks didn't keep around enough veterans and never learned how to win, and they're just starting to get a core group of players. The Joe Johnson signing really helped them though.