I didn't want Evans to be traded if they had another ball handler to help Reke out. I actually thought they would match the 11mil. Anyhow, It's not about one side getting what they want and the other side getting screwed over. At least I don't see it that way. I see the new FO and owner wanting to take the team in a different direction. I put faith in the notion that we'll be a better team this year. While we have lost a very good ball player we might actually be better since the team wasn't fitting with him.
what
team, exactly? do you mean that seemingly random assortment of mediocre misfits and chuckers assembled by geoff petrie, each of whom was given a green light by a moronic head coach? seriously?
i hear all of this nonsense from various posters about "new directions" and "fitting with the team," but it's completely devoid of context or perspective. so let me provide a little of both: if demarcus cousins is at the top of this team's food chain, then who among the remaining kings is even truly worthy of note? whose style of play was most likely to clash with tyreke evans going forward? marcus thornton? isaiah thomas? jimmer fredette? if this new regime valued those three lesser talents over tyreke evans, then it's doomed from the start. now, we certainly have no idea what an evans/mclemore backcourt would have accomplished together, and we'll never know, but on paper it's deadly, particularly on the defensive side of the ball... y'know, that part of the game where the kings need to make the greatest strides if they want to win more than 25-30 games ever again...
i guess i'm not willing to drop the "in PDA we trust" line just yet, particularly given his inability to keep a sizable offer to andre iguodala on the table long enough for him to say either "yes" or "no" (unlike many, i find it to be a weak play, like a guy who won't propose to his girlfriend because he fears the rejection), or pull the trigger on the obvious follow-up move by re-signing tyreke evans. PDA looks scared to spend money on useful talent, and i'm just praying he doesn't get desperate with all of that vaunted cap space so many of you are [pre-maturely] celebrating...
i remain wholly unconvinced that we're a better team as of this moment, and given the significant obstacles that this front office will have to overcome for the remainder of this offseason, i am certainly not convinced that "we'll be a better team this year." fortunately, the "addition by subtraction" model applies in one sense: the removal of the maloofs, petrie, and smart will account for improvement simply because the highest levels of the organization will no longer be engaged in a game of self-sabotage. if malone is even half as worthy as advertised, i expect him to squeeze more wins from a team with demarcus cousins at its center, regardless of who DMC is surrounded with...
that said, it's gonna take a whole helluvalot more than DMC alone to push this team toward the playoffs, and given his defensive weaknesses, i am
not pleased to be staring down the barrel of yet another season in which both the 1 and the 5 are below average on that side of the ball. the now-pipedream of evans/mclemore/iguodala would have more than adequately compensated for demarcus' defensive deficiencies, but vasquez/mclemore/? is considerably less potent on defense, particularly since the remaining free agents that might satisfy that question mark (matt barnes, andre kirilenko) are no longer as appealing in the absence of tyreke evans. in order to build a winner with a starting backcourt of vasquez and mclemore, you have to swing for the fences on a SF who can ably get to the rim, because demarcus cousins, as infinitely talented as he is, can't carry the team entirely by himself yet...
what happens when DMC gets into foul trouble? are you gonna rely on the rookie? do you really think that grievis vasquez (he of 43% shooting from the field) is gonna make up the difference? do you count on marcus thornton's streakiness? if the answers are "no," then who out there is PDA going to
realistically acquire that brings an elite scoring skillset to the table, while also playing defense consistently above par? you need at least
two star talents, or at least two talents with star potential. demarcus is one. who is the other?
oh, and for those of you who believe that mclemore is the other, do you honestly believe that demarcus cousins is interested in waiting around for him to develop into a star while the losses pile up? and then there's the problem of determining whether or not ben mclemore is even ready to start yet, which is a concern worth noting. i think he'll be an effective, if unspectacular starter in his rookie season, but if it turns out he's not ready to start on a team that needs to get closer to 40 wins this season, then it's just another hole to fill on a roster full of them (and one that could have been sufficiently occupied by tyreke evans, by the way)...