Key to being #1: Keep our Kings together...

[Merdiesel]

The Kings of the past were not a great team simply because of the individual players by themselves. They were a great team and I'm my opinion one of the greatest teams of all time because they played team ball like no other franchise has done before. Predicting each others cuts and passes is not something you get by bringing in new big name players, all it does is slow down the process.

Why do you think a lot of Bibby goes to Brad so much? Not because he likes him more, but because he trusts him with the ball. And there is that trust because of the time they have played together.

And after watching the game tonight vs. the Spurs i could see it in these guys, Ron talking to Bibby about playing harder D, Shareef pulling back Bonzi and calming him down from getting a Technical, Ron showing so much heart for our team every game, Kenny just being the savage that he is on the boards, Brad ALSO fighting for boards and you cannot deny how much he has stepped his defence up in the last couple weeks. These guys want to win, and they want to win in Sacramento.

If we want to see that team ball like we love here in Sacramento we HAVE to keep Bibby, Bonzi, Ron, Shareef, KT, Miller, Martin, and Garcia together. You can see how much this new team has progressed over this year, watch how great they will be next year. We sure as hell wont be fighting for an 8th spot.


Keep these players, bring in a decent back up PG, as well as a decent defensive pf/center and i think that this team will be one of the Elite teams next year.

 

[Bricklayer]

The Kings of the past were also great precisely because they kept on MAKING changes, year in and year out, until they got it right. We do not have it right. Or even very close yet. Atlanta beat Detroit. Are they a year or two from being elite? We are better than Atlanta of course, but then again we are also much older.

Just as an illustration, these are the rotations of each Kings team through 04, with new players highlighted in red:

'99
Vlade
Webber
Corliss
Tariq
JWill
Maxwell
Funderburke
Barry
Peja
Pollard

'00
Vlade
Webber
Corliss
Anderson
Williams
Peja
Barry
Pollard
Delk
Funderburke
Martin
Corbin

'01
Vlade
Webber
Peja
Christie
Williams
BJax
Pollard
Hedo
Barry

'02
Vlade
Webber
Peja
Christie
Bibby
Pollard
Hedo
BJax

'03
Vlade
Webber
Peja
Christie
Bibby
BJax
JJax
Keon
Jones
Hedo
Pollard

'04
Vlade
Miller
Peja
Christie
Bibby
BJax
Webber
Songaila
Peeler


Heck the only year where we stood pat and did not have a new STARTER was '03 -- the one year where we came in as favorites to win it all. You are absolutley right in recognizing the importance of continuity to an elite team. But continuity is worth little if you do not have all the pices. Then continuity = cowardice. It equals you intentionally curling into a little ball in the ocrner too scared to make the moves that you need to make to be elite. We will never be there until at the very least, we plug our gaping sucking frontcourt hole with a rebounder/shotblocker. Even that may not be enough, as we will still lack that overwhelming unstoppable #1 offensive option, and will correspondingly always be vulnerable to off nights and offensive confusion. But the frontcourt needs to be fixed, sooner rather than later (in a couple of years all of our guys will be 30+ and gettign a little long in the tooth). If its not, all the continuity in the world is going to net you nothing more than good but not great pretender.

 

[DocHolliday]

My only problem with Brad right now is he plays games like last night, seemingly only when he feels like it. If he can do it last night, then he can do it every other night. And, I'm sorry, majority of the time he doesn't.

 

[Merdiesel]

good point Bricklayer.

But you do see how the Core players stayed together threw that era, and how Petrie brought in Key players with out making huge trades. All im saying is we dont need to make huge trades to get key players that will fit our team.

 

[SacKings4Life21]

The Kings of the past were not a great team simply because of the individual players by themselves. They were a great team and I'm my opinion one of the greatest teams of all time because they played team ball like no other franchise has done before. Predicting each others cuts and passes is not something you get by bringing in new big name players, all it does is slow down the process.

Why do you think a lot of Bibby goes to Brad so much? Not because he likes him more, but because he trusts him with the ball. And there is that trust because of the time they have played together.

And after watching the game tonight vs. the Spurs i could see it in these guys, Ron talking to Bibby about playing harder D, Shareef pulling back Bonzi and calming him down from getting a Technical, Ron showing so much heart for our team every game, Kenny just being the savage that he is on the boards, Brad ALSO fighting for boards and you cannot deny how much he has stepped his defence up in the last couple weeks. These guys want to win, and they want to win in Sacramento.

If we want to see that team ball like we love here in Sacramento we HAVE to keep Bibby, Bonzi, Ron, Shareef, KT, Miller, Martin, and Garcia together. You can see how much this new team has progressed over this year, watch how great they will be next year. We sure as hell wont be fighting for an 8th spot.


Keep these players, bring in a decent back up PG, as well as a decent defensive pf/center and i think that this team will be one of the Elite teams next year.

I highly disagree. This team we have will not contend. We are a 1st or second round exit. We must continue ot bring in deeper personel. Brick said it wonderfully