How is your Sacramento Kings team is going to look?

TheJewishKing

TheJewishKing

G-League
Let's think about a scenario here, the season is now over, you can now trade players and sign free agent players to the team, your goal is to make it the playoffs and maybe even further (championship caliber team?)

You need to make some logical and realistic trades and acquisitions, what is going to be the complex of your fantasized kings team, are you going to assign some promising young players, some experienced players with a big contract, or maybe you would like to really make a big time trade for a superstar?

What would you want on your team? an athletic beast? a three-point specialist? an elite perimeter defender? natural point guard or maybe an athletic point guard? a veteran with experience in big moments, or a promising young player who still needs to develop?

I would like you to write here on how is your Sacramento Kings team is going to look in the beginning of the next season, and what you think you can accomplish with this team.

Try to be realistic and logical with your trades and acquisitions, it would be interesting to see how everyone here in this forum are picturing their Sacramento Kings.
 
1.) trade Nik/DWill/ a 2nd for Wilson Chandler at the deadline.

2.) sign Gary Neal to 3-5mill per in the off season.

3.) trade our pick and landry for Thaddeus Young on draft day

4.) buy a late round pick and draft tyus jones or the PG Kris Dunn.

Last but not least back hand Vivek/Mullin for what they have done.

Collison/Ray/Dunn
Ben/Neal
Gay/Chandler/Cassipi
JT/Young/evans
Cousins/Hollins/Moreland

I keep our starting line up cause under malone they proved they can play playoff basketball and elite defense. I add scorers off the bench Young/Chander/Neal 2 of these guys will average 12ppg + off the bench and with beal they are all shooters. Add in cassipi and tgat is a top 10 bench that would rarely be outscored. Chandler/Neal/Ben are our shooters which we need and Young is a stretch 4. We also have versatile players chandler/young/Ben/JT/Gay can all play multiple positions. Our defense would still be very good as Chandler is an elite defender and can take Bens spot when struggling.
 
Nice idea!
I like realistic scenarios so I decided not to make substential trades and concentrate on realistic FA additions. I will also exclude any possible first round pick and will focus on developing the young talent we have, namely Mclemore, Stauskas, McCallum and Moreland.
After picking up the options on McCallum and Moreland, the salaries are at ~57million, that leaves ~9 million in cap space for me to be used.

The roster now is the following:
PG Collison/Sessions/McCallum
SG Mclemore/Stauskas
SF Gay
PF Thompson/Landry/Moreland
C Cousins

The biggest needs I see with the roster are a veteran SG and a PF/backup C. None of the targeted players should be ball dominant because we already have Cousins and Gay. They need to be at least good defenders or good shooters and willing passers.

- resign Omri Casspi to a 3 year 9 million deal
- SG: I would love to get Aaron Afflalo if he opts out, but I doubt he would accept a deal at 6 million per year, so I would look at Shumpert, Henderson, Bellinelli, Neal or Danny Green at a 2 year 7-12 million deal
- PF: I think I'm going with Orlando's O'quinn and try to get him though he is a RFA. O'quinn has improved his range and is now shooting 3's (though at .297 with 1 attempt per game he is not reliable yet) and you also have to respect his midrange jumper. He is a decent rim protector though at 6,10 he is a bit undersized for the backup c position altough he has the bulk for it. He also is a very good passer for a big game. His game seems to suit Cousins really well if he can reach his potential (which will probably take 2-3 more years) .. and I doubt Orlando would match a 5 million offer sheet (MLE) over 4 years because they will likely draft a PF in this year's draft.
- The last move I would make would be for a minimum big back up C like Cole Aldrich

The final roster:
PG Collison/Sessions/McCallum
SG Mclemore/Neal/Stauskas
SF Gay/Casspi
PF Thompson/O'quinn/Landry/Moreland
C Cousins / Aldrich
 
I would probably make the following changes in our roster.

I would trade Jared Sullinger from the Celtics for Reggie Evans and Nik Stauskas, Jared is really looking decent this season therefore, I am not sure the Celtics would agree for that kind of a trade.

I would sign the center Brandan Wright for around 4 mil to come off the bench for DeMarcus Cousins.

I would also sign Danny Green for an estimated salary of 5 mil, since he is going to be a free agent as well.

I would release Ryan Hollins.

I would also trade Ramon Sessions for DJ Augustin.

I would also release D. Will and sign Mirza Teletovic for approximately 3 mil.
So our Kings squad will be looking something like that:

PG: Collison/D.J. Augustin/ McCallum
SG: McLemore/ Danny Green
SF: Gay/ Casspi/ Teletovic
PF: Sullinger/ JT/ Landry
C: Cousins/ Brandan Wright/ Moreland
 
We need shooters and guys who can distribute the ball more than anything. The team can play defense when the coach makes them play defense, but they can't just all the sudden shoot or have court vision regardless of how well they're coached.
 
trade our team, ownership & FO with san antonio's. we'll be the sacramento spurs and they'll be the san antonio kings.

we get the player we should have drafted instead of 'teach me how to jimmer'.
 
It's difficult to say right now without knowing whether we have a draft pick or not. Priorities for me are third guard (could be a starter or a backup) and starting PF. I also have some favorite potential bench players for us based on the work I did here and here. Guys I would like to get are Nerlens Noel and Emmanuel Mudiay for the key spots and Kyle O'Quinn, Maurice Harkless, and Thomas Robinson for the bench. Robinson will be an unrestricted free agent, and probably won't be very expensive. O'Quinn will be a restricted free agent and Harkless has one year left on his rookie deal in Orlando.

Noel or Mudiay obviously require a draft pick. More realistic alternatives for third guards would be KJ McDaniels (unrestricted free agent), Iman Shumpert (restricted free agent), or Tony Wroten (one year left on his rookie deal with Philadelphia). There aren't a lot of alternatives at PF that I would be interested in. I see at least four guys in the draft that could help us at PF (Towns, Turner, Cauley-Stein, Porzingis) though I like Noel better than all of them. I also like D'Angelo Russell, Jerian Grant, and Tyrone Wallace as options at guard. I'll have wait until the season is over before I start looking at specific deals. There's just too many undetermined factors right now to know whether my top targets are realistic or not.
 
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Current 2014-15 roster:

PG - Collison/Sessions/McCallum
SG - McLemore/Stauskas
SF - Gay/Casspi/Williams
PF - Thompson/Landry/Evans/Moreland
C - Cousins/Hollins

Now we can approach this two different ways. We can go for it all or stay patient. Both are outlined below.

Go For It All
2014-15 Trade Deadline: Ramon Sessions for Gary Neal
2014-15 Trade Deadline: Nik Stauskas, Carl Landry, & 2015 1st (protection dropped to top 5) for Taj Gibson
2014-15 Trade Deadline: Darren Collison & Ben McLemore for Jrue Holiday
2015 Offseason: Sign Arron Afflalo with our cap space (8 mil/year)
2015 Offseason: Sign Randy Foye with our cap space (2 mil/year)
2015 Offseason: Sign Luke Babbit to Veteran Minimum
2015 Offseason: Sign Quincy Miller to Veteran Minimum
2015 Offseason: Sign Cole Aldrich to Veteran Minimum

PG - Holiday/McCallum
SG - Afflalo/Foye
SF - Gay/Babbit/Miller
PF - Gibson/Thompson/Moreland
C - Cousins/Aldrich

Be Patient
2014-15 Trade Deadline: Ramon Sessions for Gary Neal
2015 Draft: Select Miles Turner (7th pick)
2015 Offseason: Sign Kyle O'Quinn (7 mil/year)
2015 Offseason: Sign Khris Middleton (5 mil/year)
2015 Offseason: Sign Luke Ridnour to Veteran Minimum
2015 Offseason: Sign Quincy Miller to Veteran Minimum
2015 Offseason: Sign Cole Aldrich to Veteran Minimum

PG - Collison/McCallum/Ridnour
SG - McLemore/Stauskas
SF - Gay/Middleton/Miller
PF - O'Quinn/Landry/Turner/Moreland
C - Cousins/Thompson/Aldrich


I'm more in favor of the 'be patient' approach not only because it is more realistic, but I think this team compliments each other better. Not to mention the team has a lot of youth that should be hitting their stride when Cousins is in the peak of his prime (McCallum, McLemore, Stauskas, Middleton, Miller, Cousins, O'Quinn, Turner, & Moreland), but it also has enough talent to start pushing towards relevancy and the playoffs. Collison, McLemore, Gay, Thompson, & Cousins was a very effective starting lineup. I think replacing Thompson with O'Quinn only improves that lineup with his high BBIQ, passing, rebounding, defending, shotblocking, & shooting range.

Then you look at the bench which has been a huge weakness to us this year and it's much easier to swallow. Middleton, Landry, & Thompson should be able to provide consistent production off the bench while McCallum and Stauskas have hopefully progressed and are playing steadier basketball in the 2015-16 season.

With this roster construction, we have Thompson and Landry all coming off the books at the same time giving plenty of time for Turner and Moreland to develop in the background. Hopefully, by the time Landry's and Thompson's contracts are done, Turner and Moreland will be ready to produce behind Cousins and O'Quinn.

Pair this roster with an established, solid coach (Thibs, Karl), and I like where this group of youngsters is headed.
 
Whatever the coach wants to do. Give a free hand and a talented trade manager (PDA) and let him do what he will. I'll be sitting here enjoying watching his every move.
 
pshn80 said:
Whatever the coach wants to do. Give a free hand and a talented trade manager (PDA) and let him do what he will. I'll be sitting here enjoying watching his every move.
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I think if PDA and Karl get along, Vivek should get monthly updates and stay the hell away. I'll bet it kills him because he wants to be more than a fan (like the Maloofs)
 
I'm not convinced we'll know what this Kings team will look like after the trade deadline, let alone next season. I'd assume D'Alessandro will stand pat (if Karl is indeed coming aboard) to see how things shake out before making significant moves but who knows?

But fundamentally there are two courses of action (1) you build around Cousins or (2) you trade Cousins.

I am hugely in favor of the first option. Not only do I think DeMarcus is a special talent but also because to trade him would essentially mean stripping the entire team down for a full rebuild. If that were ever in the cards it should have happened when the team was acquired, not now.

In any event, if the plan is to build around DMC then it's more about the TYPES of players that best fit alongside him.

(1) A second star or near star to be his wingman. This could be essentially a player at any position but preferably a wing or PG as it's not easy for your two best players to both be bigs or guards etc, though obviously there have been exceptions (1999 Spurs, current Warriors, MJ's Bulls, etc)
(2) An athletic PF who can block shots, rebound, run the floor and ideally step out and hit jumpers.
(3) 3 & D wing players
(4) A PG that can defend, run the pick & roll/pick & pop with DMC and knows how to get the ball into Cousins in the post.
(5) A bench scorer who can get hot and put up big offensive numbers. Ideally a guard AND a forward
(6) A stretch 4 to space the floor when teams crowd Cousins
(7) A full sized backup center who can defend and rebound and who can ideally play alongside Cousins for stretches for versatility
(8) Another bench shooter
(9) A backup PG that gives you a different dimension than your starter (defender, shooter, penetrator, more size, more speed, whatever)
(10) Solid vet(s) who are good locker room influences and can help DeMarcus continue to evolve as a player

Some players will fill more than one role but the question is how many of these roles are currently filled?

  • Is Rudy Gay the second star? Possibly. In a perfect world Rudy Gay is your third best player even if he's your second highest scorer.
  • Eric Moreland (who is not near contributing at this point) is the only guy that could possibly fill the athletic PF role of the players currently on the team. So this box essentially goes unchecked
  • McLemore is a 3&D wing. Quincy Miller? Nik Stauskas? Don't know
  • Collison has shown himself to be a solid defender and leader and a decent shooter/scorer. Is he the starting PG on a contending team? Maybe, depending on the rest of the roster
  • This team essentially had no dependable bench scorers. Landry is the closest, followed by Casspi. I hoped for more from Sessions and Stauskas but right now this is a major hole
  • This team also lacks a stretch four. Even the guys who, depending on matchups, could occasionally slide to PF (Gay, Casspi, Williams) aren't consistent outside shooters
  • Jason Thompson to me is an ideal backup C and PF. Full sized, runs the court well, good defender, solid rebounder. A bit overpaid for this role but que sera sera
  • This team has zero bench shooting. Maybe Stauskas grows into that role and maybe he doesn't
  • McCallum and Sessions have been subpar backup PGs this season and I think that's being kind
  • Rudy Gay, Reggie Evans and Omri Casspi have been good in this role. Even Collison has contributed in this way.

So in my mind there's obvious work to be done. A new starting PF, and ideally a new starting PG that pushes Collison to the bench and then adding some bench pieces (shooter/3&D wing, stretch 4) hopefully while keeping Casspi.

Maybe with some real lottery luck we're talking Mudiay and a trade for Taj Gibson or signing Kyle O'Quinn
Or maybe draft Willie Cauley-Stein and trade for a Jrue Holiday or Eric Bledsoe level PG
Hard to say.

But I don't think this roster is light years away from being a playoff team. A true contender? I don't know about that, but with a few holes patched they could see the postseason next year.
 
Does this team really have to wait for Stauskas to develop? I'd ship him off if it means we could get Aaron Afflalo who we are looking into right now. If Afflalo commits going forward, has a player option next year, I'm all over him. Right now, Stauskas will not reach the level of Afflalo, so why not trade him for a proven vet in Afflalo?

Plus, we held on to Jimmer for quite a while. And it was fairly obvious that he was not going to be a guy. Sometimes some of these moves have been slow to make. I'd hold onto Moreland simply because he is a low cost flyer who may or may not pan out. Stauskas...this may be the highest his value ever is.
 
dude12 said:
Does this team really have to wait for Stauskas to develop? I'd ship him off if it means we could get Aaron Afflalo who we are looking into right now. If Afflalo commits going forward, has a player option next year, I'm all over him. Right now, Stauskas will not reach the level of Afflalo, so why not trade him for a proven vet in Afflalo?

Plus, we held on to Jimmer for quite a while. And it was fairly obvious that he was not going to be a guy. Sometimes some of these moves have been slow to make. I'd hold onto Moreland simply because he is a low cost flyer who may or may not pan out. Stauskas...this may be the highest his value ever is.
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It's hard to say with Stauskas. I absolutely think he'll play better. I think it's very possible he'll have a J.J. Redick-like career arc though it is very concerning that Redick shot much higher percentages his rookie year. He was also a year older than Stauskas and Nik has much more legitimate SG size etc but we'll see. The question is what his ceiling is. It's unfortunate that there's that draft video where Vivek is calling him Klay Curry because I have a hard time seeing Stauskas ever becoming more than a solid role player at this point.

I wouldn't object to trading Nik if the right deal came along but (1) how much value can he have at this point and how much could he honestly bring back in trade? and (2) I'm so tired of the Kings buying high (lottery pick) and selling low.
 
My dream scenarios:

1) Trade Collison+Stauskas for Jrue Holiday- huge upgrade at PG, but it does mean we're letting Nik go..
2) S&T Rudy Gay+Sessions+6th overall pick for Draymond Green+28th overall pick.
3) Trade a future 2nd rounder for Kyle Singler and extend him for 2-3 years
4) Sign Wesley Matthews
5) Sign Amir Johnson
6) Draft George Lucas

New team!

PG- Jrue Holiday/Ray McCallum/George Lucas
SG- Wesley Matthews/Ben McLemore
SF- Draymond Green/Kyle Singler
PF- Amir Johnson/Carl Landry
C- Demarcus Cousins/Jason Thompson/Reggie Evans

Maybe in certain lineups, you can take Amir Johnson out and shift over Matthews and Green, so that you can insert Ben as the starting SG.

I didn't factor in cap space..so it might be a little unrealistic from that point. However, I think we could easily sign those 2 players if we trade Landry for cap space.

This was just a dream scenario.. I didn't wake up yet.
 
dude12 said:
Does this team really have to wait for Stauskas to develop? I'd ship him off if it means we could get Aaron Afflalo who we are looking into right now. If Afflalo commits going forward, has a player option next year, I'm all over him. Right now, Stauskas will not reach the level of Afflalo, so why not trade him for a proven vet in Afflalo?

Plus, we held on to Jimmer for quite a while. And it was fairly obvious that he was not going to be a guy. Sometimes some of these moves have been slow to make. I'd hold onto Moreland simply because he is a low cost flyer who may or may not pan out. Stauskas...this may be the highest his value ever is.
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I think Afflalo wants to play here with George Karl. They've both made very positive comments about one another and Afflalo also talked about the Kings having "elite talent". He's a California guy as well.

I have a good feeling that we'll have him by this summer
 
206Fan said:
My dream scenarios:

1) Trade Collison+Stauskas for Jrue Holiday- huge upgrade at PG, but it does mean we're letting Nik go..
2) S&T Rudy Gay+Sessions+6th overall pick for Draymond Green+28th overall pick.
3) Trade a future 2nd rounder for Kyle Singler and extend him for 2-3 years
4) Sign Wesley Matthews
5) Sign Amir Johnson
6) Draft George Lucas

New team!

PG- Jrue Holiday/Ray McCallum/George Lucas
SG- Wesley Matthews/Ben McLemore
SF- Draymond Green/Kyle Singler
PF- Amir Johnson/Carl Landry
C- Demarcus Cousins/Jason Thompson/Reggie Evans

Maybe in certain lineups, you can take Amir Johnson out and shift over Matthews and Green, so that you can insert Ben as the starting SG.

I didn't factor in cap space..so it might be a little unrealistic from that point. However, I think we could easily sign those 2 players if we trade Landry for cap space.

This was just a dream scenario.. I didn't wake up yet.
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No way in hell do I trade gay for green and we wouldn't have money for matthews.
 
randymoss1881 said:
No way in hell do I trade gay for green and we wouldn't have money for matthews.
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I would, especially if we can get a roster like the one I suggested. Rudy is too iso, and in that new dream team I made up, all of those players are unselfish and not ball dominant(aside from Cuz). I think having 2 ball handlers with a star PG doesn't work. Rudy is too much of a ball dominate player for my liking, so I exchanged him for someone who plays very well off the ball AND is one of the best defenders in the NBA.

If I could, I'd trade Gay for Green straight up. The only thing Rudy has on Green is scoring. Green does almost everything else better..including playmaking.
 
206Fan said:
I would, especially if we can get a roster like the one I suggested. Rudy is too iso, and in that new dream team I made up, all of those players are unselfish and not ball dominant(aside from Cuz). I think having 2 ball handlers with a star PG doesn't work. Rudy is too much of a ball dominate player for my liking, so I exchanged him for someone who plays very well off the ball AND is one of the best defenders in the NBA.

If I could, I'd trade Gay for Green straight up. The only thing Rudy has on Green is scoring. Green does almost everything else better..including playmaking.
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Signing Wes away for Portland is not realistic though. green would be good as a 4th option but you don't bleed talent like that. Yes Gay is ISO heavy but there's not a lot of better 2nd options we could realistically get.
 
I think that Funkykingston said it very well: barring a last minute trade, and after finding out if we keep our lottery pick this year, we need to think about what "type" of players we want to end up around Cousins.
We think we know where our weak spots are and come July 1, we'll be able to start filling those holes through trades or free agency. By then, we'll also know what the salary cap and tax cap will be for 2015-16 and for 2016-17. Too many "ifs" right now to envision what the Kings will look like in September. I'm also pretty sure that Karl will have some input into what type of players we would need around Cousins. It's fun to think about what exact players would fit on the Kings, but there's just too much unknown at this time.

Go Kings !!!
 
Here is a deadline trade that I think is sensible

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=mr4qrft

Kings Outgoing:
Ramon Sessions
Jason Thompson

Kings Inc:
Andre Miller
Kyle Singler

Wizards out:
Andre Miller

Wizards in:
Ramon Sessions
Joel Anthony

Detroit out:
Kyle Singler
Joel Anthony

Detroit in:
Jason Thompson

Why Kings do it? Move Sessions and Thompson. Bring in vet guard who knows Karl and the system to help smooth the transition. Get extra shooter as well. Eventual salary dump.

Why Detroit does it? Their PFs are free agents and they may lose both. JT is insurance and a far more lively body than Joel Anthony.

Why Wiz do it? They want Sessions.
 
In the coming weeks Coach Karl is going to create a major inventory list of who stays and who goes based on who plays 100% and who plays best with others. For example, Omri seems no that list already. Maybe too RayMac. But Hollins (gone), Evans (gone), Williams (bubble)? Nik seems on Coach good side. JT is big ? But need PF replacement first. In next 15-20 games a rotation should develop that will be indication of who likely sticks.
 
I think there will be reasonable clean outs but we really need to improve the bench somehow. JT has proven to be a solid starter this season but there is no doubt that he is better suited as a 3rd big and is solid back up C option for a "running team".

I would like to have Omri back. He brings energy and fits in well with the major pieces on this team. I wouldn't mind bring back Evans and Miller on the vet minimum as veteran locker room guys and strictly deep benchers.

D-Will should not even be a consideration, nor should Hollins. Landry is the interesting one. I don't think he fits into the style that coach is preaching but moving him will be a major challenge. He is probably Kenny Thomas Mk.2

He is more productive than Kenny Thomas in a different system but he just doesn't fit the style of play that we are looking to play. He is strictly a post up, undersized PF who can shoot a mid range jumper. He does not pass and does not run the floor particularly well. I think he is the one we would like to move the most but i doubt we find any takers.
 
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