Kings extend qualifying offer to Marcus Thornton

and at same time waived Jermaine Taylor.

You just beat me to it. No surprise with Thornton. Makes his return almost a slam dunk. Slightly surprised about Taylor. He didn't cost much, and did contribute, and showed some promise. However, I don't know what irons they have in the fire, and they did get rid of close to a mil in salary.
 
The Taylor move is more interesting then the Thornton one, IMO .. anyone with a brain knew we would make the qualifying offer to Marcus.

I thought Taylor did a great job for what we asked him to do. He was super cheap aswell .. I would have liked to keep him around, but with 3 drafts picks this year I can see why the move was made. I wouldnt be surprised at all if he becomes a solid rotation player though. Great athlete who can attack the rim, with a jumper that was starting to improve. I personally would have kept him over Pooh and possible Djax, but thats just me.
 
Would love to know what that offer is.

The qualifying offer is based on his current contract. If he accepts the 1 year deal he becomes an unresticted free agent next year assuming the new CBA doesnt change the rule. Or he can sign an offer sheet and the Kings can match it if they want.
 
The qualifying offer is based on his current contract. If he accepts the 1 year deal he becomes an unresticted free agent next year assuming the new CBA doesnt change the rule. Or he can sign an offer sheet and the Kings can match it if they want.

Ah, thanks.
 
Surprised about Taylor, but yeah maybe there is some indication there of draft night strategy. Thing is, I would think that even if we were to draft a guard, that still leaves a 5th guard spot open, and Taylor seemed like a pretty nice young prospect.
 
The qualifying offer is based on his current contract. If he accepts the 1 year deal he becomes an unresticted free agent next year assuming the new CBA doesnt change the rule. Or he can sign an offer sheet and the Kings can match it if they want.

The Kings and Thornton can also negotiate a contract (meaning a contract other than the qualifying offer - for instance a 3-year deal rather than just one year) independent of any offer sheets another team might make to him, so long as he hasn't signed an offer sheet.
 
UOTE=Bricklayer;834187]Surprised about Taylor, but yeah maybe there is some indication there of draft night strategy. Thing is, I would think that even if we were to draft a guard, that still leaves a 5th guard spot open, and Taylor seemed like a pretty nice young prospect.[/QUOTE]

With picks #7, #35, #60, several mock draft boards have Kings taking two guards. DraftExpress says Jimmer Fredette and then Nolan Smith the Duke senior PG.
 
The Taylor move is more interesting then the Thornton one, IMO .. anyone with a brain knew we would make the qualifying offer to Marcus.

I thought Taylor did a great job for what we asked him to do. He was super cheap aswell .. I would have liked to keep him around, but with 3 drafts picks this year I can see why the move was made. I wouldnt be surprised at all if he becomes a solid rotation player though. Great athlete who can attack the rim, with a jumper that was starting to improve. I personally would have kept him over Pooh and possible Djax, but thats just me.


Totally agree! Thorton was brought in and he did all they asked for and more. Taylor's efforts had the opposite effect of that. No surprise on either move. Thorton has promise as a starting 2 with Reke at the one, and then sub in whichever point guard they get with the Number 7 pick in a rotation with Beno at the 2 spot. I dont know where that leaves Cisco, but I don't know if Cisco fits into the future plans..
 
As to be expected. What does this mean now, does he have seven days to sign it or there is no timelimit? Plus, why don't they offer him a multi-year contract to begin with? I mean it doesn't have to be big but just something so we don't have to go through this process again when he's a FA next season.
 
As to be expected. What does this mean now, does he have seven days to sign it or there is no timelimit? Plus, why don't they offer him a multi-year contract to begin with? I mean it doesn't have to be big but just something so we don't have to go through this process again when he's a FA next season.

There is no time limit and in all likelihood he won't sign that offer. Once the CBA is settled, then I suspect we will make him a more legitimate offer or match what other team offers him.

The qualifying offer is just like a place holder to ensure that we have the right to match any offer he receives from another team. Very rarely do players sign on for qualifying offer.
 
Surprised about Taylor, but yeah maybe there is some indication there of draft night strategy. Thing is, I would think that even if we were to draft a guard, that still leaves a 5th guard spot open, and Taylor seemed like a pretty nice young prospect.


Taylor was non-guaranteed so I think the Kings free up some more money by waiving him.
 
There is no time limit and in all likelihood he won't sign that offer. Once the CBA is settled, then I suspect we will make him a more legitimate offer or match what other team offers him.

The qualifying offer is just like a place holder to ensure that we have the right to match any offer he receives from another team. Very rarely do players sign on for qualifying offer.

In fact when they do its often a bad sign that they are unhappy with the real offer you made them and just want to play out the year so they can become unrestricted FAs the next season. Of course all of this was how the old system worked. Who knows what the new rules will be. Think its fair to assume whatever they are they will be phased in however, to give teams a chance to preapare for them strategically.
 
Last edited:
In fact when they do its often a bad sign that they are unhappy with the real offer you made them and just want to play out the year so they can become unrestricted FAs the next season. Of course all of this was how the old system worked. Who knows what the new rules will be. Think its fair to assume whatever they are they will be phased in however, to give teams a chance to preapare for them strategically.

Yes. Although it is nice to have other teams set the value and do all the negotiating, it is best not insult your own player. For instance, if the best offer he got was $3 mil and we simply offered to match it, he'd probably not take it and go with the qualifying offer and leave the next year. We've found him a niche, granted, but, just the same .... Not sure how often that happens.
 
Last edited:
In fact when they do its often a bad sign that they are unhappy with the real offer you made them and just want to play out the year so they can become unrestricted FAs the next season. Of course all of this was how the old system worked. Who knows what the new rules will be. Think its fair to assume whatever they are they will be phased in however, to give teams a chance to preapare for them strategically.

You would think any changes would be phased in but I suspect the idea of restricted agency would remain in the new CBA.
 
You would think any changes would be phased in but I suspect the idea of restricted agency would remain in the new CBA.

If you look at the devastation of the TEAM FAN concept in Baseball, you can see an erosion of fans created when a Star player moves to a different team. It causes animosity and hatred with all parties involved. NBA players will be very careful not to be portrayed as the Next " LEBRON, King NOTHING ". Lebron was the model of HYPE over common sense. If he just had released a short statement thanking the fans of Cleveland and moving on to Miami, I dont think the Cleveland fans had a leg to stand on in tryng to convince Lebron to come back. Horrible coaching and management made the Cavs perennial losers. Lebron didn't see an owner in Cleveland like Mark Cuban in Dallas. In fact, Lebron had his chances to go to Dallas and turned them down. I bet he is rethinking that decision right about now. Imagine Lebron and Dirk working the inside outside game? Unstoppable on either end! But the facts remain that Lebron has made a spectacle of himself. The CBA NEEDS the ability for teams to retain players whom they have developed and those teams should recoup SOME sort of repayment for developing a super star who wants to be traded. Now a #1 and #4 pick in the draft (screwing the Kings all the way down to #7 because we cant even get our Arena act together...) Is little short term help for a Cav's team who one single digit games down the stretch last season. NO, I think that the ONLY way that the NBA system, as CROOKED as it is today with their soft salary cap and the power of the NBAPA to just dictate who goes where for what money is a JOKE! The Big market teams get 1) All the talent. 2) All the calls by officials playoffs or otherwise. 3) Preferential treatment at the "Supposedly fair Lottery system that since it's inception has caused NBA fans to just shake their heads with the Fantastical Mathematical Improbabilities of the worst overall record RARELY getting the best overall pick.

The argument that teams will tank games for better playoff positioning is a much better result than having a bunch of Stern's CRONYISM go into an locked room with a lottery matching that spits balls "randomly" in a weighted numeric system that almost NO ONE understands without a PHD in Mathematics. The LOTTERY has been rigged to seem that Mathematical anomalies can exist, but that does NOT explain how Big Market teams, Or teams favored by the NBA who need help after a devastating blow the the NBA franchise. In fact, Our Kings, despite the Odds being astronomically in the Kings Favor for them to have gotten a TOP 3 pick in the Last 10 years have been completely SHUT OUT of the top 3, while teams like New York, Chicago, LA Clips, and others have in fact leaped over the Kings and other deserving teams with the astronomical statistical probabilities of these events being almost close to ZERO. Also the entire "Ping Pong" ball effect, the mechanism that is supposed to introduce the "laws of chance" into the Draft Selection Process, it TOTALLY DONE BEHIND CLOSED DOORS!. How is it that the America People are not able to watch the ping pong balls shown on TV or having a live audience to observe the fairness of any lottery ball pick. WHY do they HIDE this vital portion of the process. And who is in the room do you ask? OWNERS, the Commissioner, NBA LAWYERS, and a VERY SELECT group of Newspaper Journalists who probably are more loyal to the NBA and Stern than any others. I wouldn't go so far to say that the Lottery is RIGGED, but it sure smells to high hell. I'd like to see a poll of Serious NBA fans who actually believe that the Cards that the Commissioner opens have no correlation between the ping pong balls and the actual order of the draft. I think that is decided behind closed doors with owners bidding for higher draft slots. And through the cloak of hidden Lottery Ball game, locked doors with very restricted access, and then the Cards that have nothing to do with the Ping Pong balls and may have been created and stacked days in advance. There's ONLY WAY the NBA can change the image of deception of corruption. OPEN UP THE PROCESS!

The leader of the NBA officials is a total Stern Croney. Stu Jackson does just what Papa Stern says all day every day. Officiating is still done by PART TIME REFS? Really? The NBA makes Billions. Why not hire permanent officials. Hire PROFESSIONAL OFFICIALS for PROFESSIONAL GAMES! And lastly, someone needs to do a comprehensive study on the statistical IMPROBABILITY over the Last 10+ years as to who was able to get a top 5 pick despite having wining records. I'd like to see what pick they should have gotten, who was screwed by the BMT moving up and pushing the Small Market Team or SMT down. I'd like an overall percentage of how very likely it is that at least one big market team sneaks into the top 5-7 nearly every lottery but no one seems to notice the unfair appearances of this. I think we need to find someone in math to crunch these numbers, and when they show that the Lottery only benefits Big City Big market teams, to recommend scraping it and going to a draft based on records like the NFL has! The NFL draft is F A I R!!! Or Better yet, if the NBA Draft Process is so very FAIR, why not turn the whole thing over to a 3RD independent party to oversee? Lets clear out the Blue Smoke and break the mirrors once and for all!
 
Last edited:
Um, I'm just goign to drop acouple of comments on the highlights:

1) NBA refs aren't "part time". They are full time, unionized, and vey well compensated. They are as "professional" as you can find in that line of work.

2) you do realize that the lottery system was put in place PRECISELY to try to keep teams from tanking for the worst record to get the #1 pick right? More than in any other sport the next superstar can be predicted in basketball, and can have an overwhelming effect on a franchise's future. Only a franchise QB has the same impact, and those are rarely identified as such before hand. Nobody misses on Shaq or LeBron.
 
a lottery matching that spits balls "randomly" in a weighted numeric system that almost NO ONE understands without a PHD in Mathematics.

It's actually not that difficult. If you spent half as much time trying to understand the lottery system as you did writing this post, you'd be up to speed on it.

WHY do they HIDE this vital portion of the process.

Because it's not dramatic. It takes a relatively long time, they have to look the results up off of a big board with a spaghetti of numbers on it, they have to pick again and again and again if the same team wins more than once (which does happen), and they don't get to count down the results backwards. Every year the Kings have a representative in the room. Every year the non-paranoid among us have to remind the rest that the Kings have a representative in the room. And every year the nuts come out and say it's rigged anyway.

I wouldn't go so far to say that the Lottery is RIGGED, but it sure smells to high hell.

"I wouldn't go so far as to say he cheated on his wife, your honor. I'm just saying he and his long-term mistress went to a hotel room and engaged in acts of sexual intercourse. CHEATING?!? NO!! I'D NEVER say THAT!"
 
Last edited:
As to be expected. What does this mean now, does he have seven days to sign it or there is no timelimit? Plus, why don't they offer him a multi-year contract to begin with? I mean it doesn't have to be big but just something so we don't have to go through this process again when he's a FA next season.

The qualifying offer is just a formality to make him an restricted freeagent. Because Thornton has been in the league two years or less, he can't be offered an extension, like you could with Dalembert. Therefore, you can't negotiate a new contract until the next freeagency period, whenever that happens. He can however accept the qualifying, which is for just one year, and then become an unrestricted freeagent after next season. Thats if the rules don't change under the new CBA.
 
Every year the Kings have a representative in the room. Every year the non-paranoid among us have to remind the rest that the Kings have a representative in the room. And every year the nuts come out and say it's rigged anyway.

No kidding. Never convinces them, does it? :(
 
Fastrman: They have had (math) people crunch numbers and although you are correct that many teams, including, the Kings have not gotten the probable outcomes, this doesn't mean that it is rigged. The reason for this is soley due to the small sample size. It takes more than 25 years to find out if the system is rigged. We can look at all this data 4 or 5 decades from now, then we can say it is rigged. barring some really incredible odds (which haven't happened), the draft outcomes are believable.
 
I do think the big market teams have too big of an advantage with the salary structure. If there is profit sharing I hope it is based on the salary cap before the luxury tax kicks in.
 
Back
Top