What do we have to do to have a winning team?

[KingMilz]

1). Trade Rudy Gay for the Morris twins

Markief Morris is one of the best creators at the PF spot (he is undersized) and is feisty on D and can make the nice pass he's like a more selfish Paul Milsap , he's also a #1/#2 option on a team that's won more they have lost this year in the west. His brother is more of SF (back up) Marcus Morris he's a shot first player who shots roughly 40% from 3 point land and while neither are what you call great defenders they both really compete (Marcus more so) and have a similar sort of personality to DMC (which can be good or bad depending).

2). Offer Khris Middleton a decent contract if we have cap space, dude is a gun catch and shoot player and also is roughly a 40% 3 point bomber he's really grown since all the injuries on the Bucks and can fill it up and is roughly the same length/size as Rudy Gay (less weight than Rudy) and he also competes on D.

3). Depending on our draft pick, try get WCS or someone like that to develop or try trade for Noel as well if that possible

4). If the chance is there try trade for Ty Lawson, the guy racks up assists like Dre and has the speed of Darren Collison.

C: Cousins
PF: Markief Morris
SF: Middleton
SG: Ben?
PG: Darren or maybe someone we trade for

Good luck zoning up on Cousins, we also got a number of guys now that can step up as #2 guy rather than just relying on Rudy.

 

[206Fan]

1). Trade Rudy Gay for the Morris twins

Markief Morris is one of the best creators at the PF spot (he is undersized) and is feisty on D and can make the nice pass he's like a more selfish Paul Milsap , he's also a #1/#2 option on a team that's won more they have lost this year in the west. His brother is more of SF (back up) Marcus Morris he's a shot first player who shots roughly 40% from 3 point land and while neither are what you call great defenders they both really compete (Marcus more so) and have a similar sort of personality to DMC (which can be good or bad depending).

2). Offer Khris Middleton a decent contract if we have cap space, dude is a gun catch and shoot player and also is roughly a 40% 3 point bomber he's really grown since all the injuries on the Bucks and can fill it up and is roughly the same length/size as Rudy Gay (less weight than Rudy) and he also competes on D.

3). Depending on our draft pick, try get WCS or someone like that to develop or try trade for Noel as well if that possible

4). If the chance is there try trade for Ty Lawson, the guy racks up assists like Dre and has the speed of Darren Collison.

C: Cousins
PF: Markief Morris
SF: Middleton
SG: Ben?
PG: Darren or maybe someone we trade for

Good luck zoning up on Cousins, we also got a number of guys now that can step up as #2 guy rather than just relying on Rudy.

I wouldn't oppose to this idea, but if we're getting rid of Rudy, I'd much rather use him to net us a better PG. I like the idea of the Morris Twins because they have such a dominant offense.

I love Middleton and I think he's highly underrated. How much would you offer him in FA?

 

[kupman]

IMO we need a decent SG. Ben is trade-bait. I know many around here like his "potential," but I am done with "potential" guys. We have too many main pieces in place to wait for the potential to maybe one day happen.

There are probably 25-30 SGs in the league right now better than BMac. He shoots inconsistently, to the point where if I were they other team I would leave him open and beg for him too shoot. He may make a few, but he will never beat you. His passing just stinks and/or is nearly absent. He turns the ball over more than he gets assists. How can a guard who has DMC and Rudy on the floor with him only get 1.5 assists in 33 minutes?

Teams cannot excel with such a major hole in the starting line-up.

 

[sdballer]

IMO we need a decent SG. Ben is trade-bait. I know many around here like his "potential," but I am done with "potential" guys. We have too many main pieces in place to wait for the potential to maybe one day happen.

There are probably 25-30 SGs in the league right now better than BMac. He shoots inconsistently, to the point where if I were they other team I would leave him open and beg for him too shoot. He may make a few, but he will never beat you. His passing just stinks and/or is nearly absent. He turns the ball over more than he gets assists. How can a guard who has DMC and Rudy on the floor with him only get 1.5 assists in 33 minutes?

Teams cannot excel with such a major hole in the starting line-up.

No. He's the least of our issues. There aren't even 25 better sg right now but of those few are as young as him with the potential to get better. If the right trade came along would I include him? Maybe. But we have much bigger problems to solve.

He has been an inconsistent shooter but he's improved considerably this year and if used more appropriately, that could get better.

He's demonstrated the ability to be a very good defender and has the physical skills to continue to get better there as well.

In terms of his passing, I don't know that you measure that by his assists. He's rarely involved in plays where he is in that position.

Bottom line, fix all the other problems before trading one of the only good young pieces we have.

 

[PoundForPound]

1). Trade Rudy Gay for the Morris twins

Markief Morris is one of the best creators at the PF spot (he is undersized) and is feisty on D and can make the nice pass he's like a more selfish Paul Milsap , he's also a #1/#2 option on a team that's won more they have lost this year in the west. His brother is more of SF (back up) Marcus Morris he's a shot first player who shots roughly 40% from 3 point land and while neither are what you call great defenders they both really compete (Marcus more so) and have a similar sort of personality to DMC (which can be good or bad depending).

2). Offer Khris Middleton a decent contract if we have cap space, dude is a gun catch and shoot player and also is roughly a 40% 3 point bomber he's really grown since all the injuries on the Bucks and can fill it up and is roughly the same length/size as Rudy Gay (less weight than Rudy) and he also competes on D.

3). Depending on our draft pick, try get WCS or someone like that to develop or try trade for Noel as well if that possible

4). If the chance is there try trade for Ty Lawson, the guy racks up assists like Dre and has the speed of Darren Collison.

C: Cousins
PF: Markief Morris
SF: Middleton
SG: Ben?
PG: Darren or maybe someone we trade for

Good luck zoning up on Cousins, we also got a number of guys now that can step up as #2 guy rather than just relying on Rudy.

Rudy Gay for the Morris twins? No thank you, Rudy Gay is a premier offensive talent in this league, while the twins are just two tough-nosed hustlers with limited talent. Playing with a great point guard like Dragic really made them seem better than they were, last year. The Suns are now on the outside looking in this season

 

[Albatros]

IMO we need a decent SG. Ben is trade-bait. I know many around here like his "potential," but I am done with "potential" guys. We have too many main pieces in place to wait for the potential to maybe one day happen.

There are probably 25-30 SGs in the league right now better than BMac. He shoots inconsistently, to the point where if I were they other team I would leave him open and beg for him too shoot. He may make a few, but he will never beat you. His passing just stinks and/or is nearly absent. He turns the ball over more than he gets assists. How can a guard who has DMC and Rudy on the floor with him only get 1.5 assists in 33 minutes?

Teams cannot excel with such a major hole in the starting line-up.

Because he can't handle the ball, so he can't create for himself or others, doesn't see the floor particularly well either IMO.

 

[IfAt1st]

What do we have to do to have a winning team?

Well, the conspiracy angle is:
(TL: DR version)
We simply need to have an ownership/front office that wants to win.

(Reasoning)
I could make a pretty easy argument that for the past 9 seasons, the ownership/FO has not wanted to win, and actively wanted to lose. The Maloofs, because of already-stated or surmised franchise relocation reasons, and Vivek because they deliberately blew up this season, proving their repeated words that they want to wait until 2016 to be winning.
Pete's words that Malone would have been fired even if Boogie had not gotten sick and the team had kept winning at .650 pace is an indication of their true desires.
Vivek and company quite clearly like the draft process WAY too much to give up on another shot (see: War Room 2014 video).

What if they fired Malone not because his "style and vision" was for defense and slow, vs pace and jazz - what if they fired him because his "style and vision" was to win now, not wait til 2016?

I firmly believe, based on every single thing that has come out of Vivek and Pete's mouths for close to 2 years now, that they simply have no clue what the pulse of this city is.
They want to dictate to the fanbase to wait until the new arena to be a winner. They want to be able to tinker, to play with the draft and all the shiny buttons in the FO for awhile.

They do not understand what the fanbase has gone through, and their lack of patience for this rebuild.
(For anyone scoffing, I successfully observed and predicted these aspects before the firing and subsequent rebellion against the FO occurred, BTW - see sig)

Malone knew Cousins can't wait till 2016 to be a winner. So he got the team to win, so he had to go.

To become a winning team, it may be as simple as having Vivek and the FO want to have a winning team more than they want to play with shiny buttons and dictate to the fanbase.

 

[KingMilz]

Rudy Gay for the Morris twins? No thank you, Rudy Gay is a premier offensive talent in this league, while the twins are just two tough-nosed hustlers with limited talent. Playing with a great point guard like Dragic really made them seem better than they were, last year. The Suns are now on the outside looking in this season

I'm going to have to disagree while Marcus (the back up SF) is somewhat a limited player as you want to say, Marikeff is not, he can create as well as anyone from the PF spot and has plenty of skills similar to a Paul Milsap.

Also you say playing with Dragic helped them last year and again that's not true because the system actually helped Dragic and allowed him to get plenty of easy buckets in transition, Dragic has been rubbish for the most part in Miami's half court game. The Morris twins are half court players imo who are playing in a fast-break type game. There was nothing "great" about Dragic this year in the 3 PG line up and the year before it was Channing Frye playing with Dragic as a starter at PF not the Morris twins who played with the bench so I fail to see how playing with a great PG like Dragic makes them "seem better".

 

[KingMilz]

I wouldn't oppose to this idea, but if we're getting rid of Rudy, I'd much rather use him to net us a better PG. I like the idea of the Morris Twins because they have such a dominant offense.

I love Middleton and I think he's highly underrated. How much would you offer him in FA?

Does the new contract thing kick in next year (more salary or whatever it is), I was thinking off somewhere along the lines of 5-8mil per year range over like 3 years.....he could and probably will get more but depending. a 6'9 dead eye shooter who competes on D most of them get roughly that kind of money e.g Wilson Chandler I believe is on roughly 6-8mil.

 

[9x1x6]

Rudy Gay for the Morris twins? No thank you, Rudy Gay is a premier offensive talent in this league, while the twins are just two tough-nosed hustlers with limited talent. Playing with a great point guard like Dragic really made them seem better than they were, last year. The Suns are now on the outside looking in this season

You have no idea what your talking about haha.

 

[9x1x6]

Does the new contract thing kick in next year (more salary or whatever it is), I was thinking off somewhere along the lines of 5-8mil per year range over like 3 years.....he could and probably will get more but depending. a 6'9 dead eye shooter who competes on D most of them get roughly that kind of money e.g Wilson Chandler I believe is on roughly 6-8mil.

It starts after next season, probably after a lockout.

 

[randymoss1881]

Stauskas over Payton was a mistake of massive proportion. Dude will be the best pg draft since Irving and is better than every pg in this draft. Yes I'm taking him over Lillard.

 

[gunks]

Stauskas over Payton was a mistake of massive proportion. Dude will be the best pg draft since Irving and is better than every pg in this draft. Yes I'm taking him over Lillard.

He had a near triple double tonight. I was on team Payton going into the draft as well. Jimmer over Kawhi all over again (hopefully Nik ends up better than Fredette).

 

[Tetsujin]

Stauskas over Payton was a mistake of massive proportion. Dude will be the best pg draft since Irving and is better than every pg in this draft. Yes I'm taking him over Lillard.

But he doesn't stand a chance of beating Chris Mullin in a three-point contest, so what would be the point of drafting him? (Sadly, Elfrid "Can't shoot" Payton has a better overall shooting percentage than Nik the sharpshooter, with both guys being abjectly horrid from behind the arc.)

 

[flamecrow]

He had a near triple double tonight. I was on team Payton going into the draft as well. Jimmer over Kawhi all over again (hopefully Nik ends up better than Fredette).

Nik IS Fredette.

 

[Tetsujin]

Nik IS Fredette.

The thing is that Jimmer may have actually shown us MORE in his first season than Nik has thus far.

 

[PoundForPound]

You have no idea what your talking about haha.

You don't think Rudy Gay is a better player than either of the Morris twins? I'd have to say you're the one confused. I like the Morris twins. In terms of hustle and passion, they play with just about every ounce of it that they can generate. There have been many times throughout the season that technical fouls have become a constant issue for the Suns, and it usually comes from the twins, including a couple crucial techs during late-game situations that I recall. Who can forget the verbal shouting match/exchange with head coach Hornacek? I don't want that bad attitude, as if we needed any more of that. Marcus Morris is more limited than his brother in terms of what he can do on the court, Markieff is a solid role player who can create for himself, shoot well, as well play tough hard nosed defense. Rudy Gay, however, is a premier small forward in this league who's offensive abilities are as smooth as the Kings have seen in a long time. He has a great relationship with Cousins which I think speaks volumes in terms of his value and what he brings to this organization. Not to mention, Personally I feel much more comfortable with the ball in his hands for a game-winning possession rather than Cousins. He may not be the most consistent threat but there's no way I'm giving him up for the Morris twins.

 

[206Fan]

The thing is that Jimmer may have actually shown us MORE in his first season than Nik has thus far.

Stauskas needs more PT. People forget that Jimmer actually got a few starts early in the season.

 

[Albatros]

If Nik gets the mental part of the game he could be decent scorer, even a sixth man, he's got good passing instincts but you can see he's not up to speed with any part of the game yet.

He'll either be traded or in 2-3 years we'll see if he's a bust or not, but I liked the pick at the time and I still do, I'm rooting for the kid big time.

 

[John Galt]

What do we have to do to have a winning team?

Well, the conspiracy angle is:
(TL: DR version)
We simply need to have an ownership/front office that wants to win.

(Reasoning)
I could make a pretty easy argument that for the past 9 seasons, the ownership/FO has not wanted to win, and actively wanted to lose. The Maloofs, because of already-stated or surmised franchise relocation reasons, and Vivek because they deliberately blew up this season, proving their repeated words that they want to wait until 2016 to be winning.
Pete's words that Malone would have been fired even if Boogie had not gotten sick and the team had kept winning at .650 pace is an indication of their true desires.
Vivek and company quite clearly like the draft process WAY too much to give up on another shot (see: War Room 2014 video).

What if they fired Malone not because his "style and vision" was for defense and slow, vs pace and jazz - what if they fired him because his "style and vision" was to win now, not wait til 2016?

I firmly believe, based on every single thing that has come out of Vivek and Pete's mouths for close to 2 years now, that they simply have no clue what the pulse of this city is.
They want to dictate to the fanbase to wait until the new arena to be a winner. They want to be able to tinker, to play with the draft and all the shiny buttons in the FO for awhile.

They do not understand what the fanbase has gone through, and their lack of patience for this rebuild.
(For anyone scoffing, I successfully observed and predicted these aspects before the firing and subsequent rebellion against the FO occurred, BTW - see sig)

Malone knew Cousins can't wait till 2016 to be a winner. So he got the team to win, so he had to go.

To become a winning team, it may be as simple as having Vivek and the FO want to have a winning team more than they want to play with shiny buttons and dictate to the fanbase.

Conspiracy theorist recognize conspiracy theorist!!

I think this is pretty well spot on. I met one of the owners (one of the top three guys) shortly after they saved the Kings. He knew damn well about the protections on the pick and VALUED the pick... said almost verbatim "you hate to lose a chance to add a good piece". That was before they tanked (by dumping off Evans for parts, declining Lopez) and wound up with Nik F Stauskas for their trouble. I ABSOLUTELY believe they have the mindset to try again... and that their mindset is not at all inconsistent with the 'conspiracy' you propose. These guys are schmucks and they take us for schmucks. But they had to panic and hire Karl to put a good look on things or they were getting their ass kicked on ticket sales.

We will win next year, all going according to plan. Season ticket holders this year and last... took it up the bum for the greater cause I guess.

 

[dude12]

To the original question, we can't miss this badly with our draft pick. Was on team Payton before the draft. Was completely not on board with Stauskas and he has been brutal. I don't have patience for the lets give him time line, when he can't contribute anything. If he could contribute at least something, we could be patient. Should have traded down in the draft and got multiple picks and there were other SGs who we could have taken. Drafting at 7, you should never go for a role player,such as Stauskas. You go with most upside and we had a PG who could have helped us just sitting there. They need to not miss so badly with the draft.

 

[hrdboild]

It's astonishing how quickly the mood here shifts one way or another. Anyone who's been a fan of the Kings since the early 90s knows how quickly a team which seems to be heading nowhere can suddenly turn around and become a national headline. Once you get the right mix of players and the right coaching staff leading the way, you can start to build an identity over the course of just one season. (See also, from recent history: Atlanta, Toronto, Phoenix, Golden State, LA Clipps, OKC, Boston)

That's why I was so adamant about keeping our draft pick this year. We're right at that precipice where successful teams find the two or three missing pieces that carry them for the next 5 years. 90% of the active posters were telling me how wrong I was to insist on keeping the pick this year. As if giving up on this season was somehow tantamount to giving up on the team. George Karl is a great coach, but he's no instant panacea. So now that he's shown us once again how good of a coach Mike Malone was, we're back to mourning past failures? It's not worth it. Not when there's still so much to look forward to...

Get George Karl a great group of players and he will lead them to the playoffs. He's proven it over and over again. DeMarcus Cousins, by any measure, is a top 10 player right now. Rudy Gay is playing the best basketball of his career since he got to Sacramento. I questioned at the end of last summer if that level of production was sustainable, and he's proven that it is. He's equalled or bettered what he did for us last season in almost every way. Very few guys can make scoring 39 points look as easy as he did last Friday. He's more than solid as a second option. Collison is one of the best values in the league at his current level of production and contract. Remember how he captained the defense for the first month or so of the season? He'll be back fresh next year to pick up where he left off. Other than Landry and Thompson's relatively modest 2 year MLE deals, we have no dead weight on our salary cap.

That is to say, if you can look past the rollercoaster of this season, there is very little about our present situation worth being depressed about. So why focus on the mistakes? I'm done talking about IT and Tyreke and failed draft picks of the past and who's at fault for the firing of Coach Malone. Can't we just pretend this is 1997 again? How lucky would we have felt to have players like Cousins and Gay proudly repping for Sacramento every night on the court? To have a hall of fame coach on the sideline who's poised to pass Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, and Jerry Sloan on the all-time wins list over the next few years? To watch NBA games in a brand new arena that's in the heart of the city, not a barn out on the side of the freeway somewhere?

The way I see it, the decade of depression is officially over. The black uniforms are back. Vlade is now in the front office of his adopted hometown. Doug and Bobby are hovering around the sidelines eager to contribute in one way or another. We don't need hope or luck anymore to propel this team into the playoffs, we simply need to be aggressive and make smart basketball decisions. We have a bear of a first option, a dependable second option, a steady veteran PG (or two) and an exciting young pup or (two). Wherever we draft in the top 10 there will be valuable assets still on the board. Let's get ourselves a defensive big, a quality backup frontcourt player, and an exciting scoring guard tis off-season. None of these pieces are beyond our reach. Put the right group of guys together and the chemistry will click. And when it does, nobody is even going to want to remember what this season (and the 9 before it) felt like.

 

[Bricklayer]

It's astonishing how quickly the mood here shifts one way or another. Anyone who's been a fan of the Kings since the early 90s knows how quickly a team which seems to be heading nowhere can suddenly turn around and become a national headline. Once you get the right mix of players and the right coaching staff leading the way, you can start to build an identity over the course of just one season. (See also, from recent history: Atlanta, Toronto, Phoenix, Golden State, LA Clipps, OKC, Boston)

That's why I was so adamant about keeping our draft pick this year. We're right at that precipice where successful teams find the two or three missing pieces that carry them for the next 5 years. 90% of the active posters were telling me how wrong I was to insist on keeping the pick this year. As if giving up on this season was somehow tantamount to giving up on the team. George Karl is a great coach, but he's no instant panacea. So now that he's shown us once again how good of a coach Mike Malone was, we're back to mourning past failures? It's not worth it. Not when there's still so much to look forward to...

Get George Karl a great group of players and he will lead them to the playoffs. He's proven it over and over again. DeMarcus Cousins, by any measure, is a top 10 player right now. Rudy Gay is playing the best basketball of his career since he got to Sacramento. I questioned at the end of last summer if that level of production was sustainable, and he's proven that it is. He's equalled or bettered what he did for us last season in almost every way. Very few guys can make scoring 39 points look as easy as he did last Friday. He's more than solid as a second option. Collison is one of the best values in the league at his current level of production and contract. Remember how he captained the defense for the first month or so of the season? He'll be back fresh next year to pick up where he left off. Other than Landry and Thompson's relatively modest 2 year MLE deals, we have no dead weight on our salary cap.

That is to say, if you can look past the rollercoaster of this season, there is very little about our present situation worth being depressed about. So why focus on the mistakes? I'm done talking about IT and Tyreke and failed draft picks of the past and who's at fault for the firing of Coach Malone. Can't we just pretend this is 1997 again? How lucky would we have felt to have players like Cousins and Gay proudly repping for Sacramento every night on the court? To have a hall of fame coach on the sideline who's poised to pass Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, and Jerry Sloan on the all-time wins list over the next few years? To watch NBA games in a brand new arena that's in the heart of the city, not a barn out on the side of the freeway somewhere?

The way I see it, the decade of depression is officially over. The black uniforms are back. Vlade is now in the front office of his adopted hometown. Doug and Bobby are hovering around the sidelines eager to contribute in one way or another. We don't need hope or luck anymore to propel this team into the playoffs, we simply need to be aggressive and make smart basketball decisions. We have a bear of a first option, a dependable second option, a steady veteran PG (or two) and an exciting young pup or (two). Wherever we draft in the top 10 there will be valuable assets still on the board. Let's get ourselves a defensive big, a quality backup frontcourt player, and an exciting scoring guard tis off-season. None of these pieces are beyond our reach. Put the right group of guys together and the chemistry will click. And when it does, nobody is even going to want to remember what this season (and the 9 before it) felt like.

Our draft pick is an ANVIL. It is one of the reasons we are still here. It has stopped us from doing anything significant. In fact to the degree we may even have intentionally destroyed this season to get it, it could LITERALLY be why we are here.

And next year? unless we get a Top 3 pick? That kid is STILL going to be junk. 19yr old kids are completely ****ing worthless in Western Conference playoff races. Give me a break. Quick, point out the 19yr old kids anchoring those rotations in Golden State, Memphis, Clippers, San Antonio, Portland, Dallas, Houston.

Please. Reliance on kids of that age means your window is 3 years off, at the least. Three years off is also the time when Cuz will say f this and be outta here. And at this point I think I'll congratulate him and pat him on the back.

 

[hrdboild]

Our draft pick is an ANVIL. It is one of the reasons we are still here. It has stopped us from doing anything significant. In fact to the degree we may even have intentionally destroyed this season to get it, it could LITERALLY be why we are here.

And next year? unless we get a Top 3 pick? That kid is STILL going to be junk. 19yr old kids are completely ****ing worthless in Western Conference playoff races. Give me a break. Quick, point out the 19yr old kids anchoring those rotations in Golden State, Memphis, Clippers, San Antonio, Portland, Dallas, Houston.

Please. Reliance on kids of that age means your window is 3 years off, at the least. Three years off is also the time when Cuz will say f this and be outta here. And at this point I think I'll congratulate him and pat him on the back.

Brick, we're never going to agree on this. Point to one trade we definitely would have made and didn't make because we didn't have a draft pick to trade. Look at the top 40 scorers this year (link) ... how many of them have actually been traded in the last 3 years? It's a total straw man. Team's rarely get dramatically better by shipping off a fleet of future picks. Often it's the opposite. What those future picks represent is an opportunity to acquire a player. And you know what? So was our #7 pick in 2011, #5 pick in 2012, #7 pick in 2013 and #8 pick in 2014. And players drafted after those spots in all of those drafts are already playing huge roles on their current teams.

We've had plenty of opportunities to get better over the past 5 years. That's exactly my point. We're not bad because of luck. You don't need to win the lottery to win at the draft. San Antonio, Indiana, and OKC are constantly bolstering their playoff teams with mid-late picks. Golden State has 4 players in their starting lineup that they drafted between 2009 and 2012 and none of them is a top 3 pick (Curry = 7th overall, Klay = 11th overall, H. Barnes = 7th overall, and Draymond = 35th overall). And there are a lot more examples of teams adding key players with later picks: Damien Lillard, Michael Carter-Williams, Gordon Hayward, Kawhi Leonard, Elfrid Payton, Jusuf Nurkic, John Henson, Gorgui Dieng, Rudy Gobert, Nikola Vucevic, Jimmy Butler, Andre Drummond, Greg Monroe. All of these guys were drafted in the last 4 years, none of them with a top 3 pick, and they've been playing big roles for their teams. No they might not have led their team in scoring as rookies, but they were impact players right away. And that's all we need right now, guys who can step in and play a role.

But this was a tiresome argument to begin with, I don't really feel like rehashing it again. All I was trying to say is that we didn't need a George Karl miracle to turn the fate of this franchise around. And the fact that we're still losing right now says nothing at all about our fate next season. Maybe you're too bitter to recall how a couple of kids named Jason and Peja helped to jump-start the first winning season in Sacramento history. Or how a couple of 30 year old veterans and a guard nobody wanted were the key additions Petrie made which took that upstart team to the brink of the Finals just three years later. In 1998 we had a 32 year old star fading into "what could have been" obscurity and a team of misfits which somehow won 27 games. In 1999 we had a winning record, a playoff berth, and most of the key pieces in place for an 8 year playoff run.

You can stew in your discontent as much as you want. For my part, I'm done with it. There are so many more reasons to be hopeful for the future than there are reasons to lament the present or bemoan the past. I think it's time we developed a shorter memory and a greater appreciation for the gravity of the moment. The difference between winning and losing in the NBA is not all that great. It's a combination of little plays that add up over the course of a game, a week, a season. We've seen a whole mess of good and bad this year and ultimately I'm left feeling kind of numb, and (surprisingly) a little happy. Cause damn was it a wild ride! And I'm excited to see what happens when DeMarcus, Rudy, Ben, Darren, George Karl, and whoever else might join the gang in the coming years get into a winner-take-all playoff series because that's when anything can happen. And that feeling (win or lose) is what makes it all worth it in the end.

 

[lawlman91]

It's astonishing how quickly the mood here shifts one way or another. Anyone who's been a fan of the Kings since the early 90s knows how quickly a team which seems to be heading nowhere can suddenly turn around and become a national headline. Once you get the right mix of players and the right coaching staff leading the way, you can start to build an identity over the course of just one season. (See also, from recent history: Atlanta, Toronto, Phoenix, Golden State, LA Clipps, OKC, Boston)

That's why I was so adamant about keeping our draft pick this year. We're right at that precipice where successful teams find the two or three missing pieces that carry them for the next 5 years. 90% of the active posters were telling me how wrong I was to insist on keeping the pick this year. As if giving up on this season was somehow tantamount to giving up on the team. George Karl is a great coach, but he's no instant panacea. So now that he's shown us once again how good of a coach Mike Malone was, we're back to mourning past failures? It's not worth it. Not when there's still so much to look forward to...

Get George Karl a great group of players and he will lead them to the playoffs. He's proven it over and over again. DeMarcus Cousins, by any measure, is a top 10 player right now. Rudy Gay is playing the best basketball of his career since he got to Sacramento. I questioned at the end of last summer if that level of production was sustainable, and he's proven that it is. He's equalled or bettered what he did for us last season in almost every way. Very few guys can make scoring 39 points look as easy as he did last Friday. He's more than solid as a second option. Collison is one of the best values in the league at his current level of production and contract. Remember how he captained the defense for the first month or so of the season? He'll be back fresh next year to pick up where he left off. Other than Landry and Thompson's relatively modest 2 year MLE deals, we have no dead weight on our salary cap.

That is to say, if you can look past the rollercoaster of this season, there is very little about our present situation worth being depressed about. So why focus on the mistakes? I'm done talking about IT and Tyreke and failed draft picks of the past and who's at fault for the firing of Coach Malone. Can't we just pretend this is 1997 again? How lucky would we have felt to have players like Cousins and Gay proudly repping for Sacramento every night on the court? To have a hall of fame coach on the sideline who's poised to pass Phil Jackson, Pat Riley, and Jerry Sloan on the all-time wins list over the next few years? To watch NBA games in a brand new arena that's in the heart of the city, not a barn out on the side of the freeway somewhere?

The way I see it, the decade of depression is officially over. The black uniforms are back. Vlade is now in the front office of his adopted hometown. Doug and Bobby are hovering around the sidelines eager to contribute in one way or another. We don't need hope or luck anymore to propel this team into the playoffs, we simply need to be aggressive and make smart basketball decisions. We have a bear of a first option, a dependable second option, a steady veteran PG (or two) and an exciting young pup or (two). Wherever we draft in the top 10 there will be valuable assets still on the board. Let's get ourselves a defensive big, a quality backup frontcourt player, and an exciting scoring guard tis off-season. None of these pieces are beyond our reach. Put the right group of guys together and the chemistry will click. And when it does, nobody is even going to want to remember what this season (and the 9 before it) felt like.

IMO the only big reasons to have hope is because George Karl is committed to development and because he's looking for someone who will carry the torch as Head Coach in the next few years. I'll be very, very excited if the FO commits to stability as well. Once we stop worrying about trades and who's getting fired, we can start focusing on basketball itself, and what we can do to develop our players -- those that are on the team right now -- into players that fit into a system.

 

[PoundForPound]

3 or 4 page game threads.
lackluster effort night in night out.
weak crowds (to be expected)
Things are pretty depressing right about now for us Kings fans.

I'm starting to feel more and more frustrated with this organization. This year was supposed to be about "wins and losses." I honestly don't care who's coaching this team as long as we're seeing winning basketball. As a fan you try and be as positively optimistic as possible, but when you're in the midst of a 4 game losing streak and it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel, reality begins to set in. DeMarcus Cousins is a premier talent in this league, but I honestly believe that he can be twice as good if only he weren't drafted by our dysfunctional franchise. Even though this team lacks talent dearly, they should not be this terrible.

 

[SacKings384]

I think we all (including the players) have given up on this season. No reason to get all worked up about losses. Just want to build some chemistry, and get B-Mac/Stauskas some additional development.

 

[kingsboi]

Since this is an experimenting season, why not start Nik for a few games and give him a good look with 30+ minutes? See what he can do with the ball in his hands for an extended period of time and plus get all those minutes in a lost season where the Kings won't be winning probably more than 5-7 games left on the schedule. Nik to me at least seems to be picking the game up faster than Ben has, that's not to say Ben hasn't come a long way but it wouldn't hurt to give Nik an extended look here.

 

[PoundForPound]

Since this is an experimenting season, why not start Nik for a few games and give him a good look with 30+ minutes? See what he can do with the ball in his hands for an extended period of time and plus get all those minutes in a lost season where the Kings won't be winning probably more than 5-7 games left on the schedule. Nik to me at least seems to be picking the game up faster than Ben has, that's not to say Ben hasn't come a long way but it wouldn't hurt to give Nik an extended look here.

I'm fine with bringing him off of the bench for extended minutes. But a starter? No thanks.

 

[Bricklayer]

I think we all (including the players) have given up on this season. No reason to get all worked up about losses. Just want to build some chemistry, and get B-Mac/Stauskas some additional development.

You can't build up chemistry this way. Exactly the opposite in fact. The trust sand respect is dying right in front of our faces, and we are looking at maybe about the fifth or 6th rebuild of the past decade again as we retool for yet another system and another coach and...just such total nonsense.