http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/14221433p-15047155c.html
One year later, we can safely dispense with the notion that the Chris Webber trade signaled the beginning of the end for the Kings.
Vlade Divac's leaving took care of that months before.
Oh, nobody says it that way; it's not elegant enough. What they say is that Divac's departure to the Lakers before the 2004-05 season marked the beginning of the "transition," as in, "The Kings went into a transition from a contender to a dog."
Well, they don't even really say that, exactly, but you get the gist. Divac left, and that was the official point of decline, which Doug Christie's subsequent trade to Orlando accentuated.
And then, one year ago today, Geoff Petrie sent Webber to Philadelphia, brought Kenny Thomas, Corliss Williamson and Brian Skinner to Sacramento, sat back, and listened to one national commentator after another explain that the Kings had simply given up.
Not at all. It only felt that way for a while.
A year later, the Kings are watchable again, but they crawled over broken glass to get there. The roster - Ron Artest, Bonzi Wells, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Francisco García, Kevin Martin in a major role - is virtually unrecognizable from the one Webber played with in Sacramento, and after seeing Sacramento go 7-3 over the last 10 games it's tempting to conclude that that's not entirely a bad thing.
But it's a secondary point. The primary point is this: The Kings of old were dead not long after Webber's desperation three-pointer missed at Minnesota, eliminating Rick Adelman's team from the second round of the 2004 playoffs and ushering in the trauma that followed. It was one long funeral after that, Divac to Christie to Webber and beyond.
"There was no growth left with where we were," Petrie said Wednesday, and consider the truth there. Divac and Christie are out of the game. Webber is piling up numbers and playing no defense in Philadelphia in service of a sub-.500 team, and whatever else you say about the 76ers-Kings deal, the one thing beyond dispute is that Philly sure didn't trade for Webber to achieve mediocrity.
But that's where the Sixers are, mediocre and now saddled with precisely the contract Petrie wanted out of. Webber will cost the 76ers more than $19 million this season, $20 million next season and $22 million the season after that. The Webber of old might have mitigated some of that expense with his athletic play and game-changing ability, but that's not the guy Philadelphia acquired.
But it was no steal on the other end. You know that. For many Kings fans, the lights went out when Webber left. He was the charismatic face of the franchise, and he had been a star. It's hard to put that down, no matter what the reality looks like on the floor.
For that matter, the deal was supposed to provide Petrie with more trade flexibility by breaking down Webber's contract into three smaller pieces (Thomas, Williamson, Skinner). Yet all three remain on the roster, with only Thomas really involved in Adelman's revamped playing rotation.
Petrie maintains that the contracts will provide the Kings with salary-cap maneuverability over the coming few offseasons, and his two major deals since then, Wells for Bobby Jackson and Artest for Peja Stojakovic, were made straight up. Since the Kings clearly are not a finished product, Williamson and Skinner may yet prove valuable as parts of larger deals.
Until Artest arrived, though, the most obvious byproduct of the Webber trade was Sacramento's utter lack of spark. The Kings weren't any good and they weren't any fun, and Petrie was forced to admit that his own plan for Mike Bibby, Brad Miller and Stojakovic to form the core of a future winner had failed.
Webber's contract was just a killer. He played his way into it - not his fault at all - but, post-injury, it was an anvil tied around the neck of the organization. Petrie couldn't breathe every time he looked at the payroll. He had his money tied up in a player who was going to need the ball more and more often just to maintain his offensive averages. It was a downhill roll.
So Petrie took the header himself. He dealt Webber at a time when the world outside his office still considered Sacramento a legitimate contender. It wasn't, but that didn't stop the wailing.
A year out, Petrie isn't crowing about anything. He watched his newly collected team stumble out of the start of the season and appear completely finished by December. It wasn't until Artest arrived that anyone could see the gradual growth of Martin, or the promise of García - because now that progress was being marked in wins and close losses rather than lifeless, robotic defeats.
"I don't like being under water with our record," Petrie said. "But I can look at the team now and see how it could all work at a higher level."
Petrie says that conditionally, of course. His team needs to reclaim some of the outside shooting it lost in the Stojakovic deal. There has to be help for Bibby at the point. Not finished yet, in other words.
Not finished, but suddenly capable of looking forward again. There are fans who would tell you that they haven't felt that way since Chris Webber was traded, but Webber wasn't the beginning of the transition. He was just the loudest part.
One year later, we can safely dispense with the notion that the Chris Webber trade signaled the beginning of the end for the Kings.
Vlade Divac's leaving took care of that months before.
Oh, nobody says it that way; it's not elegant enough. What they say is that Divac's departure to the Lakers before the 2004-05 season marked the beginning of the "transition," as in, "The Kings went into a transition from a contender to a dog."
Well, they don't even really say that, exactly, but you get the gist. Divac left, and that was the official point of decline, which Doug Christie's subsequent trade to Orlando accentuated.
And then, one year ago today, Geoff Petrie sent Webber to Philadelphia, brought Kenny Thomas, Corliss Williamson and Brian Skinner to Sacramento, sat back, and listened to one national commentator after another explain that the Kings had simply given up.
Not at all. It only felt that way for a while.
A year later, the Kings are watchable again, but they crawled over broken glass to get there. The roster - Ron Artest, Bonzi Wells, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Francisco García, Kevin Martin in a major role - is virtually unrecognizable from the one Webber played with in Sacramento, and after seeing Sacramento go 7-3 over the last 10 games it's tempting to conclude that that's not entirely a bad thing.
But it's a secondary point. The primary point is this: The Kings of old were dead not long after Webber's desperation three-pointer missed at Minnesota, eliminating Rick Adelman's team from the second round of the 2004 playoffs and ushering in the trauma that followed. It was one long funeral after that, Divac to Christie to Webber and beyond.
"There was no growth left with where we were," Petrie said Wednesday, and consider the truth there. Divac and Christie are out of the game. Webber is piling up numbers and playing no defense in Philadelphia in service of a sub-.500 team, and whatever else you say about the 76ers-Kings deal, the one thing beyond dispute is that Philly sure didn't trade for Webber to achieve mediocrity.
But that's where the Sixers are, mediocre and now saddled with precisely the contract Petrie wanted out of. Webber will cost the 76ers more than $19 million this season, $20 million next season and $22 million the season after that. The Webber of old might have mitigated some of that expense with his athletic play and game-changing ability, but that's not the guy Philadelphia acquired.
But it was no steal on the other end. You know that. For many Kings fans, the lights went out when Webber left. He was the charismatic face of the franchise, and he had been a star. It's hard to put that down, no matter what the reality looks like on the floor.
For that matter, the deal was supposed to provide Petrie with more trade flexibility by breaking down Webber's contract into three smaller pieces (Thomas, Williamson, Skinner). Yet all three remain on the roster, with only Thomas really involved in Adelman's revamped playing rotation.
Petrie maintains that the contracts will provide the Kings with salary-cap maneuverability over the coming few offseasons, and his two major deals since then, Wells for Bobby Jackson and Artest for Peja Stojakovic, were made straight up. Since the Kings clearly are not a finished product, Williamson and Skinner may yet prove valuable as parts of larger deals.
Until Artest arrived, though, the most obvious byproduct of the Webber trade was Sacramento's utter lack of spark. The Kings weren't any good and they weren't any fun, and Petrie was forced to admit that his own plan for Mike Bibby, Brad Miller and Stojakovic to form the core of a future winner had failed.
Webber's contract was just a killer. He played his way into it - not his fault at all - but, post-injury, it was an anvil tied around the neck of the organization. Petrie couldn't breathe every time he looked at the payroll. He had his money tied up in a player who was going to need the ball more and more often just to maintain his offensive averages. It was a downhill roll.
So Petrie took the header himself. He dealt Webber at a time when the world outside his office still considered Sacramento a legitimate contender. It wasn't, but that didn't stop the wailing.
A year out, Petrie isn't crowing about anything. He watched his newly collected team stumble out of the start of the season and appear completely finished by December. It wasn't until Artest arrived that anyone could see the gradual growth of Martin, or the promise of García - because now that progress was being marked in wins and close losses rather than lifeless, robotic defeats.
"I don't like being under water with our record," Petrie said. "But I can look at the team now and see how it could all work at a higher level."
Petrie says that conditionally, of course. His team needs to reclaim some of the outside shooting it lost in the Stojakovic deal. There has to be help for Bibby at the point. Not finished yet, in other words.
Not finished, but suddenly capable of looking forward again. There are fans who would tell you that they haven't felt that way since Chris Webber was traded, but Webber wasn't the beginning of the transition. He was just the loudest part.
