Current Team Discussion and Possible Trades

[Flopi]

About Bledsoe, while I agree with the concerns about his knees, I disagree with many that call him "injury prone".
During his 6 seasons long NBA career, he had exactly a grand total of TWO injuries. Unfortunately, it happens that it was 2 important injuries, one on each knee.
And after the first one, he recovered pretty well as he played a 81-games season, and didn't seem to have lost any athletism.
Again, I completely understand having concern about knee injuries, but it's not like he is the new Derrick Rose...

 

[bajaden]

About Bledsoe, while I agree with the concerns about his knees, I disagree with many that call him "injury prone".
During his 6 seasons long NBA career, he had exactly a grand total of TWO injuries. Unfortunately, it happens that it was 2 important injuries, one on each knee.
And after the first one, he recovered pretty well as he played a 81-games season, and didn't seem to have lost any athletism.
Again, I completely understand having concern about knee injuries, but it's not like he is the new Derrick Rose...

I think we can agree that there's risk involved. He's played in 352 games out of a possible 492, missing almost two full seasons out six. He may go the rest of his career without a significant injury, or, this may be the beginning of an injury plagued career. If only we had a crystal ball.

 

[Noble]

Anyone think we can just run Rudy at the two as a primary ballhandler? Temple, Gay, Barnes, Wcs, Cuz while Collison is suspended?

 

[upinsmoke]

Anyone think we can just run Rudy at the two as a primary ballhandler? Temple, Gay, Barnes, Wcs, Cuz while Collison is suspended?

 

[SacTownKid]

I would imagine Afflalo was brought in to play the role he did pre-NY and Portland where he ran a good deal of PG and handled the rock quite a bit.

 

[King Baller]

Anyone think we can just run Rudy at the two as a primary ballhandler? Temple, Gay, Barnes, Wcs, Cuz while Collison is suspended?

IMO the Kings need at least one more Veteran Ball Handler. A guy like Mario Chalmers, Norris Cole, Dre Miller, Donald Sloan, Beno Udrih. I remember one year when Francisco Garcia was forced to play the point.........ouch! That was the year the Spurs released Beno and Petrie snatched him up. After watching Cisco at the 1 (bless his heart) Beno looked like the second coming of Pistol Pete Ty Lawson is still out there looking for a gig. Ty could be this years image rebuilding project since it worked so well for Rondo last season

The above is unless Vlade and Company know something I don't know about Collison's possible games missed and Garrett Temple as THE Lead Guard. It would seem like the Front Office would sign up one of those grizzled Ball Handlers. Maybe there is a trade brewing and we are watching a master poker player exhibit patience

 

[The_Jamal]

But I assume that's mainly because you think we still can turn things around in SAC, meaning get into the Playoffs this year and resign Boogie before he tests FA.
And that's the crucial point in most of these discussions. Win now vs build for the future. Nobody can claim he knows, what Boogie will do, except maybe our FO and his agents.
If we decide to trade Gay for young players with upside, it's pretty clear, what our FO thinks about the chances of this franchise to become a contender in the next few years (as rightfully pointed out our draft this year can be interpreted as a first hint).
We missed out on impactful FA's this year. The season needs to be played first, before we can think about next years FA. But next year Gay can walk for nothing.
This is not a comfortable spot we are in right now, because we need to make the decision to keep the core of Gay/Cousins or move on this upcoming season until the deadline and with every day we wait Gay loses more value in a trade.
I think it will be very difficult to trade an expiring Gay for a starting PG. Bledsoe may be a possible target, but that's pretty much the only starting PG we have any chance of trading for. And that's only because the Suns have plenty of guards and Bledsoe has damaged knees.

I completely agree. I noted this same exact thing starting with our draft. People were saying"Well Rookies never contribute anyway! There was no one available who could help!!", but every draft has guys who can and will be ready sooner than others. All 3 of our picks were guys "projects" and guys we couldn't nor shouldn't depend on for consistent production out the gate. In particular, we passed on quality upside guys at positions of need (PG, wings at the time, even Elenson to back-up WCS) in favor of a big 7'0 C who has no chance of ever sharing the court with Cousins for meaningful minutes. And with Koufos signed for 3 years at a bargain, you have to wonder if Papagiannis was a pick to get ahead on the post-Boogie life rather than a complimentary piece.

FA went the same way. We didn't make any significant moves that turn the needle, nor did we commit any real money to a guy long-term. Temple got the 3 years, but his $8mil salary essentially is the new staple for a good bench rotational player in the NBA market.

The more I think about, the more I think we made a mistake not blowing it up this offseason. Rudy, DC on the last year of their deals. Boogie on the way out. We never really had or will have much of an opportunity for impact FAs. Would have given us 2 years to suck and collect top-end young talent before we had to give our 2019 pick away. Honestly, the top end of this roster as is probably 44-45 wins and probably closer to a 40-42 win team. Neither of which might be good enough for the playoffs in the west. And then we're gambling on Boogie's last season.

 

[dude12]

@ESPNSteinLine: Greg Monroe and Rudy Gay, league sources say, continue to be two of the NBA's most prominent proven vets known to be available via trade.

I'd like to know who his sources are.

 

[Letsgokings13]

Anyone think we can just run Rudy at the two as a primary ballhandler? Temple, Gay, Barnes, Wcs, Cuz while Collison is suspended?

No. He has such a high, careless dribble. Bad things happen when he handles the ball.

 

[mac]

I completely agree. I noted this same exact thing starting with our draft. People were saying"Well Rookies never contribute anyway! There was no one available who could help!!", but every draft has guys who can and will be ready sooner than others. All 3 of our picks were guys "projects" and guys we couldn't nor shouldn't depend on for consistent production out the gate. In particular, we passed on quality upside guys at positions of need (PG, wings at the time, even Elenson to back-up WCS) in favor of a big 7'0 C who has no chance of ever sharing the court with Cousins for meaningful minutes. And with Koufos signed for 3 years at a bargain, you have to wonder if Papagiannis was a pick to get ahead on the post-Boogie life rather than a complimentary piece.

FA went the same way. We didn't make any significant moves that turn the needle, nor did we commit any real money to a guy long-term. Temple got the 3 years, but his $8mil salary essentially is the new staple for a good bench rotational player in the NBA market.

The more I think about, the more I think we made a mistake not blowing it up this offseason. Rudy, DC on the last year of their deals. Boogie on the way out. We never really had or will have much of an opportunity for impact FAs. Would have given us 2 years to suck and collect top-end young talent before we had to give our 2019 pick away. Honestly, the top end of this roster as is probably 44-45 wins and probably closer to a 40-42 win team. Neither of which might be good enough for the playoffs in the west. And then we're gambling on Boogie's last season.

Is it technically possible to "blow up" a team that just had its first season of winning 30 games in a gabillion years? It's like blowing up rubble that's already on the ground.

 

[King Baller]

I completely agree. I noted this same exact thing starting with our draft. People were saying"Well Rookies never contribute anyway! There was no one available who could help!!", but every draft has guys who can and will be ready sooner than others. All 3 of our picks were guys "projects" and guys we couldn't nor shouldn't depend on for consistent production out the gate. In particular, we passed on quality upside guys at positions of need (PG, wings at the time, even Elenson to back-up WCS) in favor of a big 7'0 C who has no chance of ever sharing the court with Cousins for meaningful minutes. And with Koufos signed for 3 years at a bargain, you have to wonder if Papagiannis was a pick to get ahead on the post-Boogie life rather than a complimentary piece.

FA went the same way. We didn't make any significant moves that turn the needle, nor did we commit any real money to a guy long-term. Temple got the 3 years, but his $8mil salary essentially is the new staple for a good bench rotational player in the NBA market.

The more I think about, the more I think we made a mistake not blowing it up this offseason. Rudy, DC on the last year of their deals. Boogie on the way out. We never really had or will have much of an opportunity for impact FAs. Would have given us 2 years to suck and collect top-end young talent before we had to give our 2019 pick away. Honestly, the top end of this roster as is probably 44-45 wins and probably closer to a 40-42 win team. Neither of which might be good enough for the playoffs in the west. And then we're gambling on Boogie's last season.

Concerning "before we had to give our 2019 pick away." I think Vlade already made up for that with the Marco trade. And I expect we will see something similar with future trades.

As far as blowing it up what do you mean? Is there a team out there who has done it to use as an example?

 

[The_Jamal]

Concerning "before we had to give our 2019 pick away." I think Vlade already made up for that with the Marco trade. And I expect we will see something similar with future trades.

As far as blowing it up what do you mean? Is there a team out there who has done it to use as an example?

No he didn't. 2019 could end up atrocious for us if Boogie doesn't resign. That will absolutely be a top 5 pick.

The best example is the Boston Celtics and them breaking up their Rondo/Pierce/KG core a year before they fell off a cliff and didn't have any value. They basically got to skip the rebuilding process because of how proactive they were with making deals and dealing their championship core. It's always better to make a deal a year too early than it is to make a deal too late.

 

[The_Jamal]

Is it technically possible to "blow up" a team that just had its first season of winning 30 games in a gabillion years? It's like blowing up rubble that's already on the ground.

No I agree. Just thinking we're going to be in a world of hurt by 2019 as Kings fans when we could have actually been on the right path to building a real championship contender had we gone the other direction by then.

I'll enjoy the hell out of this season watching Boogie, but I have next to zero confidence we're going to resign him long-term. For example, what does Boogie say when Pop, Kawhi and LMA come calling in 2 years?

 

[CelticsFan]

For example, what does Boogie say when Pop, Kawhi and LMA come calling in 2 years?

Thanks Kings it's been real! Should've attempted to put more talent around me

 

[whozit]

Thanks Kings it's been real! Should've attempted to put more talent around me

And if next year is a repeat of last year to cap off the turmoil of his first years here, who could blame him? If next year things change and he still walks, that is his prerogative. Won't like it but it will be what it will be.

 

[funkykingston]

If this year is a disaster then Cousins will be traded, either at the deadline or more likely in the offseason.

Cousins won't walk because either the Kings will take a leap forward to being a competitive team and he'll be happy to be part of the franchise's turnaround or things will go off the rails again and it will be time to start over.

I hope it's the former because I'm not sure I'm interested in sticking around for the latter.

 

[whozit]

If this year is a disaster then Cousins will be traded, either at the deadline or more likely in the offseason.

Cousins won't walk because either the Kings will take a leap forward to being a competitive team and he'll be happy to be part of the franchise's turnaround or things will go off the rails again and it will be time to start over.

I hope it's the former because I'm not sure I'm interested in sticking around for the latter.

I think on one part people who are concerned about Cousins walking in free agency have a legitimate concern. But I also think they need to remember that just because others jumped that he will too. By all appearances, Cousins is simply a different animal (and his own). To trade him just because he can walk is simply accepting defeat.

 

[Bricklayer]

No I agree. Just thinking we're going to be in a world of hurt by 2019 as Kings fans when we could have actually been on the right path to building a real championship contender had we gone the other direction by then.

I'll enjoy the hell out of this season watching Boogie, but I have next to zero confidence we're going to resign him long-term. For example, what does Boogie say when Pop, Kawhi and LMA come calling in 2 years?

Depends whether we are a) a playoff team; ad b) family.

Cuz is not a coward like some of the noveua stars. He's not building a brand. One of the things that pisses me off about a lot of his naysayers is that he easily has one of the most appealing sense of loyalty/family approaches of any modern star. If he does leave we'll have absolutley nobody to blame but ourselves. This is a career one-team player if that one team was even remotely competent, had even remotely just settled in and built something.

 

[John Galt]

To trade him just because he can walk is simply accepting defeat.

Michael: "But won't they take that as a sign of weakness?"

Vito: "It is a sign of weakness."

I for one will not kill Vlade if he decides to shift gears if things feel/smell wrong to him re DMC this off-season or early season.

 

[kingsboi]

I think on one part people who are concerned about Cousins walking in free agency have a legitimate concern. But I also think they need to remember that just because others jumped that he will too. By all appearances, Cousins is simply a different animal (and his own). To trade him just because he can walk is simply accepting defeat.

I think more than anything, it's not willing to take a risk on him walking for nothing when you could get something in return...you can talk about his loyalty and his demeanor being different than other stars, however, I see no reason why he shouldn't test the free agent market and see what best suits him and gives him the best chance to win.

 

[King Baller]

No he didn't. 2019 could end up atrocious for us if Boogie doesn't resign. That will absolutely be a top 5 pick.

The best example is the Boston Celtics and them breaking up their Rondo/Pierce/KG core a year before they fell off a cliff and didn't have any value. They basically got to skip the rebuilding process because of how proactive they were with making deals and dealing their championship core. It's always better to make a deal a year too early than it is to make a deal too late.

The Celtics were quite a different case because Championships. Danny Ainge did fleece The Nets with the ghosts of KG and Pierce. Then did it again to The Mav's trading the most free wheeling PG in the Association to the most controlling Type A Head Coach who were guaranteed to butt heads.

 

[whozit]

Michael: "But won't they take that as a sign of weakness?"

Vito: "It is a sign of weakness."

I for one will not kill Vlade if he decides to shift gears if things feel/smell wrong to him re DMC this off-season or early season.

That's shifting the goal post. There's a difference between trading him because he COULD walk and trading him because something feels or smells wrong. I don't see them trading him this off-season, but once the season is going all bets are off if something is going sour and at that point, I wouldn't kill Vlade either.

 

[whozit]

I think more than anything, it's not willing to take a risk on him walking for nothing when you could get something in return...you can talk about his loyalty and his demeanor being different than other stars, however, I see no reason why he shouldn't test the free agent market and see what best suits him and gives him the best chance to win.

And if you do this, what are going to do if Skal or some other rookie blows up? Are you going to live in fear that any All-Star you possibly could get is going to bolt at the first chance? Fortunately, the summer he becomes a free agent the salary cap isn't expected to take another jump like this or next summer.

 

[kingsboi]

And if you do this, what are going to do if Skal or some other rookie blows up? Are you going to live in fear that any All-Star you possibly could get is going to bolt at the first chance? Fortunately, the summer he becomes a free agent the salary cap isn't expected to take another jump like this or next summer.

By that time, it won't matter. The Kings, hopefully, by then will all ready established some good morale from around the league and maybe by then have become a winning team.

 

[The_Jamal]

Depends whether we are a) a playoff team; ad b) family.

Cuz is not a coward like some of the noveua stars. He's not building a brand. One of the things that pisses me off about a lot of his naysayers is that he easily has one of the most appealing sense of loyalty/family approaches of any modern star. If he does leave we'll have absolutley nobody to blame but ourselves. This is a career one-team player if that one team was even remotely competent, had even remotely just settled in and built something.

Absolutely. But take a look at his Durant comments. Maybe that was because 3 Warriors guys were 100 feet away and he didn't want to make waves, but he didn't talk about team loyalty or trying to win a title for his team. That Durant did what was best for himself.

The other issue is do you really think Cousins stays if we sneak into the playoffs this year to get beat up by the Warriors? Is that really enough when he'll likely have 10+ teams looking to swoop in on him? I think we're finally on the right path to building a great team around him, but we're just out of time. We don't have the 3-4 year window to learn how to win and play with each other under a new coach. We have one.

 

[ESP47]

If the Kings hadn't been screwing this whole thing up for the last decade, Cousins would strike me as the kind of guy who would give us a home town discount to stay and keep the team competitive. He's been as loyal as a player could possibly be in this situation. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if he stayed here for the rest of his career and it wouldn't surprise me if he took the first ticket out of here in free agency. I wouldn't blame him one bit if he did.

You can question a lot of things but you can't question his loyalty and if he decides to leave I don't think many Kings fans would be mad at him personally for at least wanting to see what success feels like.

 

[kingsboi]

If the Kings hadn't been screwing this whole thing up for the last decade, Cousins would strike me as the kind of guy who would give us a home town discount to stay and keep the team competitive. He's been as loyal as a player could possibly be in this situation. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if he stayed here for the rest of his career and it wouldn't surprise me if he took the first ticket out of here in free agency. I wouldn't blame him one bit if he did.

You can question a lot of things but you can't question his loyalty and if he decides to leave I don't think many Kings fans would be mad at him personally for at least wanting to see what success feels like.

No jersey burning here for Cousins is warranted, I think he will be a goner eventually, just can't say whether it's after this season or next...either way, he needs to start winning and I'd like to see it, whether it's here or elsewhere.

 

[John Galt]

If the Kings hadn't been screwing this whole thing up for the last decade, Cousins would strike me as the kind of guy who would give us a home town discount to stay and keep the team competitive. He's been as loyal as a player could possibly be in this situation. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if he stayed here for the rest of his career and it wouldn't surprise me if he took the first ticket out of here in free agency. I wouldn't blame him one bit if he did.

You can question a lot of things but you can't question his loyalty and if he decides to leave I don't think many Kings fans would be mad at him personally for at least wanting to see what success feels like.

No reasonable person could fault him in the least. Unless we barely lose a bitterly contested 7 game series with the Clippers for the Western Conference Championship, and he bolts to the Clippers.

Then... the jerseys burn baby burn!!! Not that any ballplayer would ever do such a rotten thing.

 

[ParniValjak]

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.

 

[New Era]

If our record is poor around the time of the trading deadline this season I don't think there is anyway Cuz stays. I think at that point the organization would realize that we just aren't going to win with him and cut bait.