I think it is pretty clear that Rondo won't be back. It is interesting that there are not many suitors out there for him. The way it is looking we might end up being the only option out there for him and even then I am far from convinced that we want him back.
I am petrified with all the Waiters talk. He played well in the WCF against the Warriors but he just is not the player we should have even remote interest in.
Everyone seems to be overpaid by about $7-8million per year but there are some smart, solid signings out there. Utah did a great job in getting Johnson.
Let't hope we do well in terms of free agency and we trade well. Some of our contracts have great value because they are dead set bargains by today's standards.
I am petrified with all the Waiters talk. He played well in the WCF against the Warriors but he just is not the player we should have even remote interest in.
Everyone seems to be overpaid by about $7-8million per year but there are some smart, solid signings out there. Utah did a great job in getting Johnson.
Let't hope we do well in terms of free agency and we trade well. Some of our contracts have great value because they are dead set bargains by today's standards.
Sacbee said Anderson will pass on our offer
http://www.sacbee.com/sports/nba/sacramento-kings/kings-blog/article87061347.html
I wanted nothing to do with Anderson do to our full frontcourt, but still. Can't even overpay the local boy to come here.
Ouch.
http://www.sacbee.com/sports/nba/sacramento-kings/kings-blog/article87061347.html
I wanted nothing to do with Anderson do to our full frontcourt, but still. Can't even overpay the local boy to come here.
Ouch.
https://twitter.com/hoopballtweets/status/749142544638881792
So now even Anderson expected to pass on the Kings. Such a crap free agent class and we can't even get a home town product to join us!
I am almost of the opinion that we should offer a max, 1 year deal to some of these PGs and SGs and go hunting next season when the free agent class might be more inviting.
So now even Anderson expected to pass on the Kings. Such a crap free agent class and we can't even get a home town product to join us!
I am almost of the opinion that we should offer a max, 1 year deal to some of these PGs and SGs and go hunting next season when the free agent class might be more inviting.
If this was a WWE event, the Kings fan base would be in the ring getting beat up by Chris Mullin, Vivek, PDA and Karl. Here comes Vlade and Joerger running from the back. They slide in the ring and whoop their asses until they leave. Vlade and Joerger stick out their hands to give us a hand shake and let us know the dummies are all gone and everything is going to get better now. When the fans go to return their handshakes, they turn on us and power bomb us all. The lights dim, the music hits and Dion Waiters emerges from the back. He enters the ring and signs a 4 year $70 million contract as the fans are out cold, motionless on the ring floor.
The frontcourt really isn't as full as some people think it is. One All NBA center. One backup center. And then a whole stack of kids who still thought girls had cooties a few years ago.
Should note BTW, that little blurb above, which I'm sure was scooped up as a tweet, doesn't exactly mean what its going to be quoted as meaning.
The entire set of paragraphs reads:
And its not actually a statement coming from Anderson or his camp at all. It does not even appear to be a statement made after the Kings met with him. its a prediction, by "league sources", based on the tired old #Kangz trope. Might well be an accurate prediction, but its a far cry from Woj saying "Have heard that Kings pitch to Anderson went poorly, and he will be looking elsewhere".
Until Koufos is gone, I disagree with you. You have an All NBA center, a good backup on a very team friendly contract, a promising PF/C athletic shotblocker and yes, two young rookies who may not play much. But personally, I would rather spend our $$$ on PG/SG/SF (if Gay is traded)...although it may not matter if we can't get anyone other than Waiters to come.
Somehow JR Smith's name has not popped up yet in the FA lists. He can shoot just about as good as anybody and he plays good defense. I would prefer him by far over Dion Waiters (whom I don't want). Crabbe is a good player well worth trying for. Afflalo, Alan Anderson, Barbosa, Ian Clark, Jamal Crawford, Randy Foye, Eric Gordon, Brandon Rush, Garrett Temple, etc., etc... There are plenty of player available, so there's no need to panic at this point. If we are talking about a trade, Iman Shumpert could also be available. What about Ricky Rubio at the PG. He is similar to Rondo and I think Minnesota could be ready to think about it. And the list goes on.
Brick has a good point. One injury to Cousins and the whole team colapses. We would have to either play Rudy-Wcs-Koufos (terrible offense) or Rudy-Casspi-Wcs (terrible defense) for big minutes. More over Rudy looses his efficiency and no one can pick up the slack. With Anderson in the mix you can at least survive until Cuz comes back. Rudy-Anderson-Wc with Anderson as the first option and Rudy as the second option is playable.
Based on reports I can see the following happen:
S&T Koufos for Courtney Lee (4 years 60 million)
Sign Ryan Anderson (4 years 70 million)
Sign Vet PG (Chalmers, Udrih, Jack)
Based on reports I can see the following happen:
S&T Koufos for Courtney Lee (4 years 60 million)
Sign Ryan Anderson (4 years 70 million)
Sign Vet PG (Chalmers, Udrih, Jack)
The difference between them and us is they have James Harden. He plays in a style that sees him carry the Rockets on his back at times with his scoring and play making. In that late season run in to get into the play offs he had some huge games and helped them get over the line. If you take Harden out of the team in any of his four seasons with Houston, arguably they would have finished with a similar win-loss record to us. As long as he stays healthy, they will be a play off contender; and with a better supporting cast, they'll be back to competing for a top four seed.
Sure, we have our own all star in Cousins who is dominant in his own way, but he hasn't had that same affect with us that Harden has with the Rockets. He's been here six seasons and we've finished 14th, 14th, 13th, 13th, 13th, 10th in the western conference. We've had 24, 22, 28, 28, 29, and 33 wins. I suppose if we take Cousins out of the team we might not have even got that many wins, so that says a lot about his supporting cast. But whereas Harden has been a huge factor in carrying his team to the play offs on his back, Cousins hasn't really done the same.
At the end of the day if you compare these two teams, both have their flaws, but Houston have an all star that has carried his team to the play offs, whereas our all star has kept us from a top lottery selection. In terms of who is most likely to trend up, and who is most likely to trend down, I think Houston are more likely to rise up, and we are more likely to fall down, because as unstable as they might be, we are generally far worse...
Since Rick Adelman, we are on our ninth head coach (two of which were interims), whereas the Rockets are on their fifth head coach (one interim). Since coming to Sacramento in 1985 we are on our 18th head coach (this includes interim head coaches), whereas the Rockets are on their 12th since coming to Houston in 1971 (this includes interim head coaches). Only one of our head coaches has a winning record, and only three of them have managed to coach into a third season or beyond; whereas eight of the eleven Rockets head coaches have winning records, and only one full time Rockets head coach has not coached at least three seasons (their first in Houston). Their last three head coaches have all coached four seasons before they made a change, whereas we have changed regularly. It doesn't bode well for a team's reputation if they consistently swap and change head coaches like we have. Sometimes it has been warranted because they were a bad hire, but making a bad hire doesn't give a good impression of a stable franchise either. Likewise, hiring a good candidate and not giving them the chance to do what is necessary also doesn't give a good impression of a stable franchise. Since Vivek came in, he's been very hands on and that hasn't helped. Likewise, our front office hasn't helped, though Vlade seems to be doing a fair job so far, but time will tell if he gets it right. So in a sense we rightly have a reputation as an unstable franchise because our head coach record in Sacramento outside of Rick Adelman has been pretty damn poor, and outside of that era, we have failed to put a winning product on the court. Now I have high hopes that Joerger is going to buck the trend and take us back to those glory days, but we have all felt or thought that before and been let down. That is part of what being a Kings fan has included since they came to Sacramento, whereas the Rockets have generally been a play off team and have competed for and won titles. They might not be the most stable of teams in the league, but they are certainly a lot more stable than us, and arguably are in a better position us.
Sure, we have our own all star in Cousins who is dominant in his own way, but he hasn't had that same affect with us that Harden has with the Rockets. He's been here six seasons and we've finished 14th, 14th, 13th, 13th, 13th, 10th in the western conference. We've had 24, 22, 28, 28, 29, and 33 wins. I suppose if we take Cousins out of the team we might not have even got that many wins, so that says a lot about his supporting cast. But whereas Harden has been a huge factor in carrying his team to the play offs on his back, Cousins hasn't really done the same.
At the end of the day if you compare these two teams, both have their flaws, but Houston have an all star that has carried his team to the play offs, whereas our all star has kept us from a top lottery selection. In terms of who is most likely to trend up, and who is most likely to trend down, I think Houston are more likely to rise up, and we are more likely to fall down, because as unstable as they might be, we are generally far worse...
Since Rick Adelman, we are on our ninth head coach (two of which were interims), whereas the Rockets are on their fifth head coach (one interim). Since coming to Sacramento in 1985 we are on our 18th head coach (this includes interim head coaches), whereas the Rockets are on their 12th since coming to Houston in 1971 (this includes interim head coaches). Only one of our head coaches has a winning record, and only three of them have managed to coach into a third season or beyond; whereas eight of the eleven Rockets head coaches have winning records, and only one full time Rockets head coach has not coached at least three seasons (their first in Houston). Their last three head coaches have all coached four seasons before they made a change, whereas we have changed regularly. It doesn't bode well for a team's reputation if they consistently swap and change head coaches like we have. Sometimes it has been warranted because they were a bad hire, but making a bad hire doesn't give a good impression of a stable franchise either. Likewise, hiring a good candidate and not giving them the chance to do what is necessary also doesn't give a good impression of a stable franchise. Since Vivek came in, he's been very hands on and that hasn't helped. Likewise, our front office hasn't helped, though Vlade seems to be doing a fair job so far, but time will tell if he gets it right. So in a sense we rightly have a reputation as an unstable franchise because our head coach record in Sacramento outside of Rick Adelman has been pretty damn poor, and outside of that era, we have failed to put a winning product on the court. Now I have high hopes that Joerger is going to buck the trend and take us back to those glory days, but we have all felt or thought that before and been let down. That is part of what being a Kings fan has included since they came to Sacramento, whereas the Rockets have generally been a play off team and have competed for and won titles. They might not be the most stable of teams in the league, but they are certainly a lot more stable than us, and arguably are in a better position us.
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Well, Waiters eFG% on non-C&S shots was .420 this year. Rudy had .495, and everyone wants to get rid of him. Hell, even Benny had .487eFG% on non-C&S, although on lower amount of shots, particularly pull-ups, but Waiters' %s are actually brought down by having just .369eFG% on those.
Signing this guy to anything above $8m/starting role is almost fire-worthy mistake.
Eric Gordon for $12-14m/1 year is a much better gamble: his knees haven't caused him to miss a game for 2 years now; I don't think, he even had any procedures done at the same time frame. Gordon still gets freaky injuries all over his body, but 60-65 games played is a reasonable expectation. Not a full season, but for those 80% of the games, you get a guy, who shoots .570eFG% on reasonable amount of pull-ups, so he's actually good at creating his own offense. In a funny twist that's actually his most efficient part of the game by quite a margin as he had just .512eFG% on C&S opportunities and .482eFG% on shots, he creates around the paint.
Edit: even Arron Afflalo, who doesn't like to play defense and is selfish, is a much better choice, if Kings are looking for shot creator.
Signing this guy to anything above $8m/starting role is almost fire-worthy mistake.
Eric Gordon for $12-14m/1 year is a much better gamble: his knees haven't caused him to miss a game for 2 years now; I don't think, he even had any procedures done at the same time frame. Gordon still gets freaky injuries all over his body, but 60-65 games played is a reasonable expectation. Not a full season, but for those 80% of the games, you get a guy, who shoots .570eFG% on reasonable amount of pull-ups, so he's actually good at creating his own offense. In a funny twist that's actually his most efficient part of the game by quite a margin as he had just .512eFG% on C&S opportunities and .482eFG% on shots, he creates around the paint.
Edit: even Arron Afflalo, who doesn't like to play defense and is selfish, is a much better choice, if Kings are looking for shot creator.
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If we can sign Lee and trade for Tyreke (Kosta and McLemore), it would be a nice 3 guard rotation when you add Collison. With that trio you would always have at least 1 player that is a solid shooter on the floor and some pretty solid defense. For some stretches you might even be able to play all 3 together.
Sign Anderson as a FA as well and the bench has some good fire power.
C: Cousins / Papagiannis / Labissiere
PF: Cauley-Stein / Anderson / Acy (???)
SF: Gay / Casspi / Butler
SG: Lee / Evans / Richardson
PG: Collison / Curry (???)
Evans would split time between SG and PG and cover all the back up minutes in the frontcourt. He could start as a PG while Collison is out suspended.
Cousins, WCS and Anderson cover most of the front court minutes with some Casspi at PF when going small.
Rudy and Casspi use up all the SF minutes with some Butler if needed.
That team is better than last season's version with more shooting and backcourt defense.
All of Reke, Collison, Gay and Casspi are practically expiring contracts after next season which could prove troublesome.
Sign Anderson as a FA as well and the bench has some good fire power.
C: Cousins / Papagiannis / Labissiere
PF: Cauley-Stein / Anderson / Acy (???)
SF: Gay / Casspi / Butler
SG: Lee / Evans / Richardson
PG: Collison / Curry (???)
Evans would split time between SG and PG and cover all the back up minutes in the frontcourt. He could start as a PG while Collison is out suspended.
Cousins, WCS and Anderson cover most of the front court minutes with some Casspi at PF when going small.
Rudy and Casspi use up all the SF minutes with some Butler if needed.
That team is better than last season's version with more shooting and backcourt defense.
All of Reke, Collison, Gay and Casspi are practically expiring contracts after next season which could prove troublesome.
Reke is a PG, or rather, he has to play PG to be effective. Putting him in a SG position is kind of silly because he can't shoot. Unless you allow him to handle the ball all the time at the SG position. If anything, Collison is far more suited for a bench role. He can be relied on to score and can shoot effectively.
I am not fussed either way to be honest. What I am interested in having is a strong 8-9 man rotation, with enough defense and firepower to keep us in games when Cousins sits or is out injured.
Tyreke worked well as a PG both in his rookie season here and the year he helped Pelicans make the play offs...he was the key to their run.
He is never going to be Korver but he has a respectable set shot, is able to make an entry pass and has improved his off the ball game, though granted he is best with ball in his hands. He also played a fair bit of SG with Pelicans when both him and Holiday were on the court together.
I want us to have multiple players that can create off the dribble and are good defenders and passers. Tyreke is capable of that and if there are enough shooters on the court with him, the lane opens up.
He is nowhere near as bad as some make him out to be. Truth is we have not covered the gaping hole on our roster since he was given away 3 years ago.
He is far from perfect but he fills a need, can covers multiple positions and has familiarity with some of the key players on the roster. He is certainly MILES better than Waiters or overpaying for other options out there.
Tyreke worked well as a PG both in his rookie season here and the year he helped Pelicans make the play offs...he was the key to their run.
He is never going to be Korver but he has a respectable set shot, is able to make an entry pass and has improved his off the ball game, though granted he is best with ball in his hands. He also played a fair bit of SG with Pelicans when both him and Holiday were on the court together.
I want us to have multiple players that can create off the dribble and are good defenders and passers. Tyreke is capable of that and if there are enough shooters on the court with him, the lane opens up.
He is nowhere near as bad as some make him out to be. Truth is we have not covered the gaping hole on our roster since he was given away 3 years ago.
He is far from perfect but he fills a need, can covers multiple positions and has familiarity with some of the key players on the roster. He is certainly MILES better than Waiters or overpaying for other options out there.
I know, but, seriously, what are we going to do? Assuming Rondo is gone we have a huge hole at PG and SG. All of the free agents are getting gobbled up. At this point, we could only make trades to fill holes but Gay is really our only decent trading chip and nobody wants him.
The only other option would be to trade DMC and blow it up.
The only other option would be to trade DMC and blow it up.