JJ Hickson Bought Out

Glenn

Hall of Famer
#31
I don't know what "sunk cost" means. I didn't want us to get anything back except the cap space he represents as I think the real action will be done this summer but that's a whole other story. Does this put us under the salary minimum?

In a way I feel sorry for him as he went from a 30 minute a game starter to a nothing in one year. And truly, I was shocked at his inability to do much of anything for the Kings. I was hoping for his "John Salmons moment." He's athletic with an NBA body but somewhat scattered play. Perhaps personal issues were involved. Very odd.
 
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#32
At the very least minutes that would have been wasted on him this year will be spent on either guys we aren't sure about (greene) or projects (Whiteside). I mentioned a few days ago that at this point there are some guys that shouldn't get on the floor the rest of the season because they aren't in the teams plans and we aren't getting the playoffs at this point and he was the primary player I was thinking of.

Not everyone liked the trade last year and this just highlights it. We fully expected to be hitting the playoffs this year and we knew with the number of guys that decided not to go for the draft in a lockout year that this next draft would be the deepest in a very long time. We were basically trading away a potentially very good pick for a 1 year rental unless we really screwed up.... which we did. Forgive me for not being thankful that we suck...
 

bajaden

Hall of Famer
#33
Hickson's stock was much higher that time. In fact, earlier, Cavs had refused to include him in a trade for Amare. If I recall correctly, his arrival was almost universally welcomed by the fans here.

As for the pick, this year, it's safe. Subsequent years, not so much. This is what I got from the Cavs website (don't blame me. Google threw it up first).

will get a first-round pick in addition, although the pick is lottery-protected in 2012. The pick is then protected in 2013 (1-13), 2014 (1-12) and 2015-2017 (1-10). If the pick is not conveyed by 2017, then Sacramento will convey its 2017 second-round draft pick to the Cavaliers protected (56-60.)

http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2011/06/cavs_may_trade_jj_hickson_to_k.html
Yep, knew all that. My comments are in hindesight. The point being, that if not for the 1st round pick, it would be easier to digest the whole thing. But I know why the deal went down like it did. Wouldn't surprise me to see him end up back in Cleveland.
 
#35
Funny thing, I can remember dicussions on this board last summer talking about how unfair of a trade this was in our favor. Seems pretty silly now. I bet if someone took the time we could find the old thread(s).
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
#36
You know, lost in all this talk of "we traded Omri for this?" is the fact that Omri is playing like a turd sandwich this year.
 
#37
Just buying him out is odd. Must be some sort of back door deal? It does make our FO look silly for what they gave up and hinders any type of future play until that 1st is dealt.
 

Glenn

Hall of Famer
#38
Yep, knew all that. My comments are in hindesight. The point being, that if not for the 1st round pick, it would be easier to digest the whole thing. But I know why the deal went down like it did. Wouldn't surprise me to see him end up back in Cleveland ......


..... playing as well as he did before coming here.

The lesson to be learned is even what I thought was a sure thing (a guy with a demonstrated ability at the NBA level) is not necessarily a sure thing.
 
#39
Obviously very few people really know what is going on behind the scenes, but this whole situation just screams arrogance and lazyness by Petrie to me. I have noticed what i think to be an increasing trend by our front office of just making the easy deal, or passing up other deals because they start getting complicated. Hollinger has brought this up a couple times, it just seems like the front office is lazy, or it is beneath them to waste their time trying to salvage a 2nd rounder for a guy like Hickson, if that is all he is worth. A second rounder is better than nothing, which is what we ended up with, and I have a hard time believing there wasn't one team in the league that would have given up a 2nd for him.

Petrie is a very good talent evaluator and I'm sure has been around long enough to know all the games a GM has to play with agents, but it just doesn't seem like he ever maximizes value out of his moves. He has been the type to reach in the draft rather than try and trade down and pick up an extra asset, he has overpaid guys that most likely could have been had cheaper (Garcia, Beno) which hurts their value in trades. I thought there would be more value in trading down in last years draft, but it seems like Petrie just focuses on the guy he wants and doesn't ever squeeze out anything extra. He can get away with it for the most part, like how he turned Martin into Landry into Thornton and a decent contract. But I thought maybe he could have gotten more assets considering what the Rockets picked up when Mcgrady was swung to New York.

I just think that Petrie seems to be too comfortable, not worried about losing his job, and he just doesn't seem to want to worry about the little stuff anymore.
 
#42
Funny thing, I can remember dicussions on this board last summer talking about how unfair of a trade this was in our favor. Seems pretty silly now. I bet if someone took the time we could find the old thread(s).
Yeah. I'd say reaction around here was probably 97% positive, and 15% very positive, me among them.

Could be that he just turned totally selfish and that once he figured out that Cousins AND JT would be ahead of him in the rotation, that he would just make himself unlikable/uplayable and maybe even untradable... so that he would get waived and basically become a free agent sooner, and have his choice about where to go. Maybe he wants back to Cleveland?

He probably thinks he's starter material, and he probably could be in the right situation. To be honest, I don't blame the guy if that's what he did. I mean we're talking about a difference of tens of millions of dollars over his earning career if he can find a place to flourish as a starter, vs. being a 3rd or even 4th big here in Sac. If I'm him, I'm sure as **** going to do whatever I can to be in a position to sign a 4 year 45 million dollar contract vs a 4 year 18 million dollar contract. I think this was more of a case of just bad timing than anything.
 
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#43
Did anyone watch the game last night? Where is JJ gonna fit in on the Kings???

Classy move by the front office to cut him loose to make another team.

KB
 
#44
Did anyone watch the game last night? Where is JJ gonna fit in on the Kings???

Classy move by the front office to cut him loose to make another team.

KB
Petrie has a history of being kind to his players, possibly too kind. However, there also seems to be positive vibes being built within the team right now, no reason to allow someone or something to poison that.
 
#45
Petrie has a history of being kind to his players, possibly too kind. However, there also seems to be positive vibes being built within the team right now, no reason to allow someone or something to poison that.
Until the next two game losing streak anyway...
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
#46
Petrie has a history of being kind to his players, possibly too kind. However, there also seems to be positive vibes being built within the team right now, no reason to allow someone or something to poison that.
According to reports, Hickson watched the game from within the locker room as opposed to out on bench with his team. Albeit, he's be fighting "back spasms" so maybe he was just getting treatment for it.
 
J

jdbraver

Guest
#47
I dont get it. Y not just tell him to stay home if he is gonna b a jerk? Y do we give him another opportunity to play this year. Are the maloofs that cash strapped that we are begging another team to take over part of his salary? Awful!!!
 
#48
he had terrible hands, and very little basketball intelligence. he was pretty much a poor mans version of Kwame Brown mixed with Stromile Swift(or any other pogo stick with no sense for the game). Cant believe we gave up a young scrappy talent with potential and worse a first round pick for him. I hope the Cavs dont get a steal with that pick and make the trade look even worse.
 

rainmaker

Hall of Famer
#49
I dont get it. Y not just tell him to stay home if he is gonna b a jerk? Y do we give him another opportunity to play this year. Are the maloofs that cash strapped that we are begging another team to take over part of his salary? Awful!!!
It's not amnesty. Pretty sure since it's a buyout we paid an amount equal to, or more likely below what he's owed the rest of the year, and he's a FA come wednesday. So anything he signs for now has nothing to do with his contract under us. His contract no longer exists, so teams aren't paying us or him anything related to the bought out contract.
 
#50
Just because he may not be positive for the team right now, it doesn't mean he's a jerk. Let's not throw that around. It could very easily be that he knew they were trying to trade him, failed at trading him and felt unwanted and no longer a real part of the team. You can tell a guy like that "it's just a business", but the truth that he'll be a free agent really gives him no reason to invest into a losing team with a messed up situation.

I don't doubt that a guy like Outlaw would rather be playing with someone who was winning or giving him more time, but he's got a three year deal to honor and can't just check out until the end of the season.

Since the rest of the roster has been gelling in the past two games and Hickson has sucked(and was always overrated, WHY DOES NOBODY LISTEN TO MEEEEEEEE), it wasn't worth keeping him around if he wasn't vibing at the same level as the rest.
 
J

jdbraver

Guest
#51
with...

It's not amnesty. Pretty sure since it's a buyout we paid an amount equal to, or more likely below what he's owed the rest of the year, and he's a FA come wednesday. So anything he signs for now has nothing to do with his contract under us. His contract no longer exists, so teams aren't paying us or him anything related to the bought out contract.
So is it safe to assume that the buyout is less than what he was owed for the remainder of the year? If so, we really did make a trade for cash. This concept I'm familiar with.
 
#52
Why didn't we trade him for at least a 2nd round pick or even a highly protected first round pick like the one we sent to the Cavs to get JJ?

Maybe Petrie can't get quite well these days with all the new GM's in the league.
 
#53
all i can say is, we better play whiteside more. no pun intended but we royally f'd up giving up a pick for hickson. magoofs got cheap by trading down the draft to save on $$$ owed to a 7th pick and fill a hole with the fish. they picked up outlaw and signed our midget big man. surprised they didn't bring back what was working at the end of last year.
 
#55
I'm not surprised but I am disappointed. Only because we didn't get anything at all in return at the deadline.
i agree. what i want to know now is where are those that said they're glad we didn't trade jj for a second rounder. that he is worth more than a second round pick. apparently we found out you were wrong sooner than later. instead of getting that second round pick that wasnt good enough for you, you now get a truck load of nothing. congrats
 

Spike

Subsidiary Intermediary
Staff member
#56
Meh. Part of me worried that the FO was wondering between whether to go after JJ or JT this offseason. I think JT's play has pretty much guaranteed that the Kings will match any offer put out there, unless it's absurd. Signaling the end of the JJ era to me just means that JT's going to be the guy, and now they're going to see what they get out of Whiteside.

And yeah, Casspi playing like crap right now doesn't make me feel any worse about the trade.
 
L

LWP777

Guest
#57
If Petrie could have gotten anything for him at the deadline he would have. Hickson has ZERO value right now. He couldn't even find minutes on a horrible team. Why would another team want him?

It was a poor decision to trade for him in the first place but we can't do anything about that now. Petrie is just cutting his losses and getting rid of him because he knows he is useless on this team.
 
#59
i bet we could have traded him for SOMEONE at the deadline, but it was likely just another garbage player on a worse and longer contract. maybe? it does look like some teams have interest in him right now as a FA