I think wallace would definitely fill a need on the team, but i have a feeling that the asking price is too high. This years draft looks too great to give up our 1st rounder and i don't know if a package around one of our mediocre bigs would get it done. If portland had showed interest in Dalembert, a sign and trade might be a viable option, but they stil have Camby. He is old as hell though, you never know!
that's precisely why our first rounder has so much value as
trade bait. its looking to be a very deep and absolutely stacked draft, but what good is that news to the kings? what good could possibly come from adding another young player to this team who needs to develop, no matter how much potential they have? if you look at the kings roster as it stands right now, it is replete with youth and mismatched confusion. another undeveloped talent is precisely what the kings
do not need heading into the 2012-2013 season. the kings drafted tyreke evans. they drafted demarcus cousins. they traded for marcus thornton. at a certain point, a consistently lottery-bound team has to stop waiting for the next big thing to come along, especially when the next big things might already be
on your roster. you have to give the talent you have time to coalesce. it doesn't happen overnight. you bet high when the right hand comes along, then you cash out. its time to cash out. its time for the kings to start
winning...
this season will be exciting. but it will still be developmental in nature. it will still likely result in a lottery selection. however, regardless of the shortened nature of this season, it should represent a (to-scale) improvement on last season's win total. and the hopeful chants being shouted down from the rafters next season should sound something like "PLAYOFFS!! PLAYOFFS!!" that should be a realistic possibility. the 2012 offseason might, in fact, be the last time the kings are in the lottery for a long time, if evans, cousins, thornton, et al. live up to their potential. the 2012 draft also happens to be one of the best projected drafts in recent memory. all of those mismatched parts currently on the kings roster might not look so good to potential trade partners today. however, throw a 2012 lottery pick into the mix tomorrow, and, all of a sudden, the kings may actually be able to swing a truly difference-making trade. gerald wallace is just one of those kinds of acquisitions. by trading for wallace last season, the injury-rattled portland trailblazers were able to buoy their playoff hopes. wallace's toughness, hard-nosed defense, and rebounding ability helped to catapult them into the playoffs, when by all rights they should have fallen out of the hunt after brandon roy's knee surgery. imagine what adding that kind of veteran presence could do to a young team on the upswing!!
now, its clear that the kings aren't necessarily working to acquire gerald wallace, but i salivate at the notion, because, similar to the offer sheet the kings put on the table for andrei kirilenko, its precisely the kind of bold move they need to be pursuing in order to craft a
winning team. you know what i don't salivate over anymore? the lottery. the kings pulled two of the top five players out of the last three drafts, and they traded for another in marcus thornton. time to take that last potential lottery pick and cash it in for complementary pieces...