ZZE916
Bench
I just got back from the Kings Season Ticket Fan Forum where there was a surprisingly frank Q&A session with the Maloofs, and Petrie. I'll post a full report later, but they answered questions ranging from a new arena, to the future of Artest. Quick highlights (all paraphrased):
- What's the status of a new arena? - We'll know more in about two weeks. We can't say anything until then.
- What's in the future as far as player aquisition is concerned? - We are rebuilding, and it's going to be a slow process. We'll have a lot more flexibility in 2010. Quite frankly, we overpaid a lot of players during the glory years because we thought we were on the brink of a championship.
- Will Artest be on the team next year? - He has the option to opt out. If he doesn't opt out, he'll be a King. If he does, we will talk to hima and his agent to see if we can work something out. (Petrie then asked for the audience to vote if they wanted Artest back. The response seemed to be about 50/50. He said something to the affect that Ron was a problem wrapped up in a question).
- Why is the halftime entertainment so bad? - We haven't noticed. I guess we haven't been there to witness it. (Joe and Gavin's response).
- How are you (Petrie) going to make this team faster and more athletic? - If you want to get faster, you draft faster players. During the glory years, the only starter that could be considred fast and athletic was Christie...but it worked because of the sum of the pieces. You can't surround a single athlete with players that have low B-Ball smarts and expect it to work. (He then said something to the affect that they have recently found that out).