cap flexibility is really not all that interesting anymore. in this economic climate, the salary cap itself is plummeting annually. free agents are nervous. they want to get paid, and they aren't sure that leaving their present teams will net them the most money. their agents are nervous. they want to get paid, and that happens when their clients get paid. every team is nervous, because they want to retain their talent, but they don't want to go broke while doing it...
sacramento is not a particularly attractive destination for free agents, at the moment, because its a small, struggling market of little note around the country. the winning atmosphere of the early '00's put sacramento on the map as a basketball city, but that national sense of good will has diminished considerably since then, especially with the arena situation being what it is. arco arena used to be a place to ball, because the 17,000 strong were the most raucous fans in the nba. but now its just an empty, obsolete, barn of a building that i can't imagine most top tier free agents would be interested in making their home court. forget lebron. forget dwayne wade. forget chris bosh, too. those are the [pipe] dreams. so, who's left? amare stoudemire? no thanks. the last thing the kings need is another soft frontcourt player. tyson chandler? he's a solid defensive big, but emeka okafor is comparable, defensively, and more talented on the offensive side of the ball...
this kings team is getting better right in front of our eyes, but they aren't done yet. the VERY last thing the kings need is geoff petrie to revert back to his sit-on-my-hands attitude from the middle of this decade. waiting for some savior to land in sacramento through free agency two, three, four years from now is kinda foolish, at this point, especially when tyreke evans might very well be the superstud the kings have been looking for all along. so, i say bank on 'reke, and start filling in the holes around him. you can definitely do worse than a good, defensive-oriented, 27 year-old, double-double center in the nba, so the kings need to at least consider a thomas for okafor trade, especially when the next best thing is the uncertainty of tyson chandler via free agency...