I think people are jumping at shadows a bit when it comes to losing Cousins to free agency. The bottom line is that the ball is absolutely in our court. We have the ability to build a contender around him pretty quickly.
What we did this off-season is sort of kick of a mini re-set without losing ground. I know that sounds a bit of an oxymoron but hear me out.
Last year we had a team that should have made the plays offs. People will argue one way or the other, but on paper, in terms of talent, we should have been a play off team. For various reasons, we flopped to 33 wins but at times still looked like a dangerous team that could do some serious damage along the way.
So what the front office did leading up to the draft is sit down and evaluate what we have now, what we are to have in 2 or even 3 years from now. We have Cousins at least for the next 2 years but if we are to seriously rebuild quickly around him, we needed to re-set a bit and get some much needed quality, talented youth to address the needs for longer term.
People will complain about our free agency but what we did here was extremely smart. PDA led front office would have blown the cap room on someone like Anderson in hope that adding veteran talent will get us into the play offs. What this front office is doing now is not for the short term (get into the play offs at all costs) but actually try and get there but still have future bright enough to be a contender for years to come.
Let's assume that we are not going to pull of any trades from now on and what we have is a bunch of expirings and a whole heap of valuable contracts. The canvas is pretty blank for us to do what we think it's best around Cousins. The draftees that we drafted this year, along with WCS should be better in 12 months time than they are now. Some of those draftees will be ready to spend some productive minutes on the court. Bogdanovic will at least be a good solid player on the team. Most of our signings are practically expiring contracts.
In 12 months time we will have salary cap room for potentially 2 max players. With Cousins as a centre piece and the inevitable change in culture that will take place, Sacramento will become a better free agent destination. So what if we lose Gay and Collison for nothing? We will gain more flexibility.
While a lot a writing off our season as a lost cause based on the signees and draftees, I tend to disagree. Like Bricklayer pointed out, many teams have been built around a franchise center and a bunch of role players. Defence will be the key and all our signings are good to excellent defenders.
If we manage to get into the play offs, we become a more attractive destination. Even if we just miss out, the appeal is there for the free agents as long as Cousins is around.
So in 12 months time, we will have Cousins, cap room for 2 max players (or there abouts), a bunch of draftees of which at least 1 will be able to contribute solid minutes with significant scope for improvement. A capable SG in Bogdanovic coming over to fill in the gap.
Sign a couple of high quality free agents, re-sign Boogie, sign Bogdanovic, WCS should be better, Skal and/or Richardson will be ready to contribute some minutes. All of a sudden that is a very different team.
What we did was re-set to Malone's second off-season in charge. Set the culture of grit and grind, smash mouth basketball. Get players to fight for every second they are on the floor. Build a team or a family if you like and all of a sudden this team is no longer a laughing stock. There is direction and a clear path forward.
Worst thing the Kings could do this off-season was blow the cap space on player who do not improve us significantly. There was KG and a bunch of question marks this free agency period. Things will be different next year.I suspect that with the salary cap money we would go shopping for a high quality SF and possibly PG and the rest of the cards are likely already on the roster, young and cheap.
