Whatever happens today, the Maloofs will have no qualms about lying to you about what really went down.
As far back as 2008, the Kings jettisoned the salary of productive players like Bibby, Salmons, and Artest to start a rebuild. That made sense. At the time, some fans were upset that the Kings didn’t get enough back for those players. Because the Maloofs were reportedly having money issues, it appeared the Kings might have been more interested in keeping the trades salary neutral or better as opposed to paying to extract young prospects or high picks. For example, I’d give you a good pick or a prospect for Bibby if you took bad a so-so contract with another year remaining, and you’d get less if I’m sending you expiring deals which hold value. (Subsequently, it became clear that since 2008 the Kings primary goal has been cost cutting and that’s often accomplished via trades.)
This is just context. My point is not to rehash what we got for those players or speculate whether we could have gotten more. Instead, the team had everybody on the local radio saying, that fans shouldn’t be disappointed the players were leaving or the abilities of a Sheldon Williams or Noc, because these salary dumps were going to lead to “pay roll flexibility” in both the summer of 2008 and 2009.
Don’t worry Kings fans, there is a plan. With the new salary relief, the Kings can take back more money in a trade.
After the Kings didn’t take on a big salary in a trade in 2008 or 2009 (which was the right move), fans were directed to turn their hopes and attention to the summer for 2010. This would be the first summer that the Kings had cap space and there would be a lot of very good free agents. Just wait until summer 2010 Kings fans.
And when the summer of 2010 passed without the Kings opening their wallet in a significant way, Peaches went to the microphone and told the public, “They need to wait for the new CBA which will be more beneficial to the small teams.” At the end of the 2010 season, the owners said on the radio they would systematically bid on every top free agent. New CBA passed. The Kings made a few offers, but even if Delambert or AK47 (no reason to believe they were willing to pay both) took a deal, they still would have been under the cap and among the lowest players in basketball.
At this point, the team isn’t even pretending that they intend to sign anybody significant in the future. And they are hiding behind the “We can’t get anybody to come to Sacramento. (Wonder who’s fault that is)” Perhaps when there is a new arena in 2015 or 2016 the team will spend.
For the past five years, they’ve kept payroll basically as low as possible for the team. For two years, fans were misled to believe might take on a big salary with a major trade. Then we were sold a big free agent signing 2010. And then the goalpost was moved until after the new CBA. This is what deadbeats do. They will always pay you tomorrow.
During that time, cut rate coaches failed to properly develop the talent on the roster.
As report after report stacked up, they told you that things were improving at the Palms. They said, thus it was so. So stop talking about them selling, right now the team isn't for sale.
On the arena, they’ve been floating along an interest only loan, while deferring or neglecting most of the maintenance of the place, knowing they have the legal right to dump the mess back onto the city if they don’t get everything they want in an arena deal.
The publicly liked the new arena deal, but allegedly disliked it behind close doors. Until they had to spend any money, then they publicly hated the deal but were still 100% committed to staying in Sacramento. At the same time, they are breaking their commitments to both the league office and the city and privately laying the ground for a lawsuit to leave town.
They are dishonest people, who have no trouble intentionally misleading you. Based upon the glaring facts above, they are banking on your blind loyalty to block out the obvious fact that their extreme penny pinching has done major damage to the team’s brand around the league, the roster, and the arena.
They put this team into the dumpster with several years of willful neglect. Now, you you need to patient and endure several more years of penny pinching because they’ve unforeseeably stumbled into a rough patch. Otherwise, they will have to leave, even though they really want to stay. Got it?
You can reply by quibbling over the compensation for one trade or pointing to some small move. The fact is the Maloofs have no qualms misleading you about their intentions or finances to keep you buying tickets as they work to leave town. Grant is either willfully blind or a willing conspirator.