our rivals? since when, exactly?! its been damn near a decade since that rivalry actually mattered. do you know how many kings are left from the team that took the lakers to game seven of the western conference finals? zero. hell, kobe bryant and derek fisher are the only lakers left from those days...
a perennial title contender and a lottery-bound basement dweller are NOT rivals. they just aren't, no matter how many bitter kings fans still cling to events from eight years ago. however, there is the wonderful possibility that the kings could, one day, reignite the rivalry, but that requires the kings to continue pursuing this rebuild as intentionally as they can. this includes putting the team in the best possible position come draft day. the kings are an insignificant speck of dust to the lakers right now. they're not even a spoiler worth the effort of the lakers to trot out their best players...
repeat this with me, over and over again: turner, wall, cousins, favors...
one of those names very well could appear on the back of a sacramento kings uniform at the beginning of next season, and the chances of that happening increase GREATLY if the kings are able to lock down the third worst record in the league. personally, i favor a couple of those names over the other two, but no matter which of those four an individual perceives to be the best of the bunch, or the most likely fit, each could go a long way in helping the kings achieve their goal of competing in the playoffs again...
just look at oklahoma city's trajectory. i like their trajectory. its appealing to me, because it ends with them getting a shot at toppling the lakers in a first round playoff series. how did they do it? they drafted well. they hired the right coach. they preached defense. and, most importantly, they put the ball in the hands of their franchise player. the kings could follow a similar trajectory. we've drafted well so far, but more pieces are required to make this team go. we've hired a coach who has the potential to develop a special and symbiotic relationship with his young players, provided we shove the rest of the vets aside. and we've put the ball in the hands of our franchise player...
all signs point toward a positive future, but i like that future a HELLUVALOT more if it includes a starting backcourt of evans and turner, or wall and evans, or a starting small-big combo of evans and cousins, or evans and favors. the potential of ANY of those scenarios is worth salivating over, and THAT is where the kings would have their chance to make noise in the nba. THAT is where the kings would have their chance to reignite a rivalry with the lakers. that moment is not now, though. there is work to do. a loss tonight goes a LONG way toward reaching that goal, because tie-breaker or no tie-breaker, the balls still have to bounce the kings way, and i, as a kings fan, will play the percentages EVERY SINGLE TIME...