Kings Hope To Retain Songalia

[captain bill]

http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/36808/20050727/kings_hope_to_retain_songalia/
27th July, 2005 - 12:10 pm

Sacramento Bee - The Sacramento Kings hope to be able to re-sign restricted free agent forward Darius Songalia and should find out soon if they will be able to do so.

Kings GM Geoff Petrie and Songalia's agent, Mark Bartelstein hope to work out a deal.

"I think things have been heating up with Darius," Bartelstein said. "I've been talking to Geoff and we've agreed to keep talking and find out where we are. Darius has to make a decision in a day or two because it's important to some of the teams we're talking to.

"It's not a situation where you have a restricted free agent who is looking to get out of a bad situation. Darius loves it in Sacramento, and Geoff has made it clear the Kings would like to have him back. It's going to come down to budget issues for the Kings."


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It'll be interesting to see how the Kings play this one. He's only been in the league 2 years, but doesn't seem to have much more upside. Will he factor into the starting PF equation? Are the Kings still looking at other options at the 4? A few months ago I'd be happy for Darius to return, but now I'm skeptical and don't know if it will limit our other options.

 

[tyrant]

why

 

[sauce-26]

Could be a trade piece? Could come off the bench? But wont start.

 

[Old #11]

I disagree with no upside. Darius became much more aggressive from year one to year two and he has real heart. I think he is an important player to retain. He is a major hustler and a great role player. It seems like everyone thinks we are going to get a "super star" at the PF and I it's not going to happen.

 

[captain bill]

I say no upside because he will be 27 this season. At this point he's no longer a spring chicken, and while he may improve some skills, we won't see anything big out of him. There is a lot to like about him, he can play great defense at times and also has that beatiful 18 foot jumper that I have seen him miss maybe twice. This makes me think the Kings will pursue a starting PF through a trade and not FA, although I pretty much assumed that before.

Old#11-I don't think people want a superstar PF. We just want a starting one. After being spoiled with CWebb for so many years, Thomas seems like a marginal starter. My guess is he'll be gone by the end of the season and we will have a legit starter instead, and Songaila can back him up. I also say that because Thomas has made it clear that he has no desire to come off the bench.

 

[G_M]

I think Darius is a quality backup. He has a good shot and he plays as hard as anyone on the team. I wish he was a bit longer and could block shots but then he would probably be out of reach financially!

 

[Old #11]

For some reason I just haven't been able to wrap head or heart round KT. I'm hoping he does not stay our starter. I don't care of Darius comes off the bench; I just want him to stay. And I do think that many people here do want a super star PF for exactly what you said - C. Webb is gone and he was that super star.

 

[Rowdyone]

Darius does a nice job in our offense at the high post on the pick and pop with Mike or the penetrate and kick, also with Mike plus his passing last year was vastly improved. However his lack of athleticism and quickness means the pick and roll is not his forte. I think his true value to us now is deep bench or trade fodder.

 

[tyrant]

trade him

 

[PFFFT!!]

Trade or retain him to be a backup. No way on a starting job. I love this guys scoring ability at the midrange and lowrange areas, but besides that is not athletic and is a bit slow.

 

[DocHolliday]

Darius has a SOLID mid jumper from the Elbow. He put in some great minutes for us last year as a starter even. He's not the most athletic guy, but he's a VERY solid back up.

 

[Alacron]

I think we obviously have to keep Darius, since he won't cost us our MLE and we need all the pieces we can get, be they playing pieces or trading pieces.

The only way we would lose Darius outright is if another team offers him more than the MLE, which I suppose is conceivable but unlikely.

The problem with Darius as a player for us is that he and Miller have the same strengths and weaknesses. A Miller-Darius-Peja frontcourt has a nice jumpshot but gets pummeled by the Collisons and Przybillas of the league.

Right now Skinner and Thomas are our only frontcourt rebounders. That is a scary thought.
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[BobbyJ_for3!]

trade house and corliss for a PF, play darius as the primary backup to peja and kenny as a backup for the PF

who knows if it would work but i think that is the best idea

 

[Bricklayer]

trade house and corliss for a PF, play darius as the primary backup to peja and kenny as a backup for the PF

who knows if it would work but i think that is the best idea

House is not ours to trade, and House and Corliss combined have very little trade value. You'd be lucky to get back a solid bencher, let alone a good starter.

 

[captain bill]

^^^I agree. I like Darius at SF and I like keeping Thomas as a backup. Problem is whether we can get taht starting PF without giving up Thomas and also if Thomas would agree to come off the bench.

 

[BigWaxer]

^^^I agree. I like Darius at SF and I like keeping Thomas as a backup. Problem is whether we can get taht starting PF without giving up Thomas and also if Thomas would agree to come off the bench.

Yup I agree that a big problem is Thomas wanting to take on a backup roll. He cried about it this past season. Good thing he is willing to do whatever it takes to help the team win.

However IMO Thomas is a very solid backup as PF. Just not a starter for a contender. Just up to him to want to take on that roll.

 

[tyrant]

i'm not a big kenny thomas fan, but he is more aggressive than darius. if it came down to it i would get rid of darius before kenny. kenny's the guy to come off the bench. i hated him as a starter

 

[PFFFT!!]

Kenny is expensive and has a long term contract not worth his skills actually, Darious, if we pick him up, won't be. Thats the difference.

 

[Jkbiker]

I think GP made it clear that bringing back Darius based upon budget issues.


Seems very clear to me there is three senarios in the order I would like to see it go down:

A. We get a starting PF using a trade that includes KT and maybe Corliss. Since we exchange salaries then part of the MLE could be used for Darius.

B. We get a starting PF using the MLE or I suppose a trade that does not include KT. Since Kenny thomas was not traded and we have his big contract we are not going to waive him, he will be our backup whether he likes it or not. In this senario, there is no money for Darius.

C. We dont get anybody worth starting, then we go ahead and get Darius.
Then at a later point we would have to include KT or Darius in a trade to get a new starter.


What bothers me is that the Agent says Darius has a decision in next few days (Regarding other teams I guess as to whether to pursue another deal)
If Darius gets another offer then GP would have to make a decision before he knows which senario will play out since there is a time limit on matching another offer.

Hope GP can work one more piece of Magic and trade KT soon!

 

[SacTownKid]

If he gets less than MLE offers, I don't see much of a reason in letting him go. Unless we enter the luxury tax zone.

 

[HndsmCelt]

Darius has shown improvemnt, hustle and work. Combine that with his jumper and picks and it's hard to jsut let him walk, but price matters and the sad truth is that Darius may still improve but it is unlikely he will ever be a domant force. Kenny has him beat on tallent and heart but lets face it if either of these guys are the Kings starting PF next season things are bad. This is really where size matters most. Having runts at gaurd is bad but not the end of the world IF the big men are truely big. But what makes Hobbit ball so horrible to watch is that when our tiny PF gets out mached paly gets forced back to our tinny gaurds who have to shoot from the out side and the missed shots become rebounds for the other team. Ugly... just ugly. Having a runt like K9 paly the PF is ONLY workable if your Center and SF rebound well and cut to the hoop well so he can work outside. Darius may not be a pint sized PF but lets face it the top PF's in the league hardly fear him, and he does give up a few inches and pounts to probably half the 4's in the league.

Sign him and trade him or keep him to back up a true PF that other pices bring to the team for Pete's sake don't keep him to back up Kenny!

 

[KP]

Darius has shown improvemnt, hustle and work. Combine that with his jumper and picks and it's hard to jsut let him walk, but price matters and the sad truth is that Darius may still improve but it is unlikely he will ever be a domant force. Kenny has him beat on tallent and heart but lets face it if either of these guys are the Kings starting PF next season things are bad. This is really where size matters most. Having runts at gaurd is bad but not the end of the world IF the big men are truely big. But what makes Hobbit ball so horrible to watch is that when our tiny PF gets out mached paly gets forced back to our tinny gaurds who have to shoot from the out side and the missed shots become rebounds for the other team. Ugly... just ugly. Having a runt like K9 paly the PF is ONLY workable if your Center and SF rebound well and cut to the hoop well so he can work outside. Darius may not be a pint sized PF but lets face it the top PF's in the league hardly fear him, and he does give up a few inches and pounts to probably half the 4's in the league.

Sign him and trade him or keep him to back up a true PF that other pices bring to the team for Pete's sake don't keep him to back up Kenny!

Hallelujah!

 

[Kings113]

Everyone would like to keep Thomas as a back-up, but he's established he doesn't wanna come off the bench, and I don't think the Kings would do it either with his contract. Plus, he's one of our best trade pieces, which he will be used in.

 

[Venom]

I honestly don't understand this, unless a deal is in the works, and that deal involves either/both Thomas and Corliss. That said, Songaila was one free agent that it seemed plausible would be back. I never expected Mo or Cat to be wearing Kings uniforms again. Songaila only makes sense if other pieces are moving on, but we have been anticipating a slight blockbuster of a trade since the summer started.

 

[Bricklayer]

I honestly don't understand this, unless a deal is in the works, and that deal involves either/both Thomas and Corliss. That said, Songaila was one free agent that it seemed plausible would be back. I never expected Mo or Cat to be wearing Kings uniforms again. Songaila only makes sense if other pieces are moving on, but we have been anticipating a slight blockbuster of a trade since the summer started.

Hope everybody realizes that Geoff is off onto at least Plan B, and maybe evn Plan C when it comes to getting a big man. We clearly have made a run at Nene and a run at Shareef, so whatever Geoff comes up with now is the result of him scrambling to come up with a new plan.

 

[6th]

Hope everybody realizes that Geoff is off onto at least Plan B, and maybe evn Plan C when it comes to getting a big man. We clearly have made a run at Nene and a run at Shareef, so whatever Geoff comes up with now is the result of him scrambling to come up with a new plan.

Yes, that is exactly what concerns me.

 

[Bricklayer]

Yes, that is exactly what concerns me.

Given my prediction that we would go after Shareef, and the fact we did try, and the fact I thought that was jsut flat out stupid unless we had a floowup move planned, I actually am oddly comforted that we missed our target.


...that is unless Antoine Walker becomes our desperation fallback.

 

[sauce-26]

I wonder who gp is going to get, besides darius.

 

[gilly420]

kenny >> darius

the guy just doesnt come up with enough boards down low. he is down there fighting but just doesnt have the hops, quickness, or long arms to get the ball. we need boards and blocked or altered shots from our four. if kenny is not traded than i see no reason to spend most or all of the MLE on darius.

 

[Alacron]

i see no reason to spend most or all of the MLE on darius.

One more time, signing Darius does not count as any part of our MLE.

If another team offers him up to the amount of the MLE, we can match and still have our full MLE.

If another team offers him more than the MLE, we cannot match, he leaves, and we still have the MLE.

So Darius has nothing to do with our MLE this year. It's basically a matter of whether the Maloofs want to pay for him or not. I don't think they have much of a choice; we have three big men without him and we could use him in a trade if nothing else.
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