I think it's too early to tell whether the decisions made involving getting rid of Beno/Casspi/Dalembert and adding Jimmer/Salmons/Hayes will pay off. I don't necessarily agree with them after the first few weeks, but if someone told me that Jimmer would look this lost, Salmons would go 9 straight games shooting 0-27 from 3 pt range, and Chuck would be out for this long, I'd have said they were crazy.
The thought process was clear:
1. If Tyreke stays healthy, improves his jumpshot, and gains experience, then between him, Thornton, and adding Jimmer, there is no need for Beno anymore. If Jimmer stops sucking, and Tyreke and Thornton continue to improve, I can't say that was the wrong decision.
2. Salmons is a vast improvement to anyone that we have had at the SF position since Artest. Obviously, he has played worse this season than any stretch of his entire career. So, we'll have to wait and see if this is a total bust
3. Hayes at $4 million is worth more than Dalembert at $7 million. I can't disagree with this one. If Hayes is healthy, and that money is used to add another piece to the team, then this might be true.
Now, if things continue this year for Jimmer and Salmons, and Hayes can't stay on the floor and add his defense and rebounding, then obviously, this will be the most disasterous off-season Petrie has ever had. But if Jimmer begins to add ANYTHING to the team, Salmons plays the way he did for Chicago and Milwaukee, and Hayes stays healthy, the moves might end up being ok. The rest of what went wrong this off-season sounds like it really isn't even the Front Office's fault. There isn't much you can do when players don't want to come here. If the Kings signed Jamal Crawford and Kirilenko, I bet there would be a whole different vibe surrounding Petrie.
If you keep sitting on that fence so hard, you will end up with splinters!
Here is the thing, at the end of last season it was clear what we needed
1. More veteran presence and leadership.
2. Get ourselves a SF that would fit in well.
3. More 3 point shooting.
Ideally, that would be recruited in 1 player. If a team needed more veterans, then why trade one veteran that WAS our leader and DID settle the side down numerous times when we looked lost out there. Beno-Reke-Thornton was as good a 3 guard rotation as anyone could hope for and not only on the Kings but league wide. It was made up of pieces that absolutely fit well. They complemented each other, any 2 out of the 3 could play together and there were times when all 3 were out there together at the same time and played well as a unit. That is a BIG key here.
I can see the logic behind looking to recruit Salmons BUT there were some obvious red flags as well. He is not really a SF, he is a SG. He struggles and always had struggled guarding bigger SFs in the league. Take a look around the league at the premier SF and compare them size-wise to Salmons. Its like throwing a rag doll to the lions. On top of that, he is known as a notorious black hole on the offense, a one on one iso type player and thats exactly the type of player we did NOT need with Cousins, Reke and Thornton on the team. The positives from Salmons was that he was a good defender (against SGs and smaller SFs) a good spot up 3PT shooter from the corner and a good ball hander. I could see the thought behind this move but if couldn't read from our history with this guy, then we never will. He needs the ball to be effective otherwise he just lays an egg. I could think of dozen SFs out there who are a better fit for us. Plus you are trading your one true veteran team leader in Beno who could actually control a game as a PG when we needed some veteran leadership for a known space cadet that we plain as a paper bag and with no leadership qualities. In fact he has a history of just plain quitting if he doesn't get it his way. Hardly the veteran leader this team needed.
On Dalembert, with all due respects to Hayes whom I do like, he is not a patch on Dalembert. He has NO offense, he is nowhere near as good a rebounder as Dalembert has been over his entire career and even when he is up and running, he is not the type of defender that this team needed as he is no shape or form can protect Cousins back there. I would have recruited Hayes in addition to keeping Dalembert but never in a million years as Dalembert's replacement. Hayes, even at his best, is a bad contract now and that cannot be said for Dalembert who is a bit of a bargain when you look at league wide how much that type of player costs. Its interesting that with Dalembert as a starter (after a bit of a settling period since he joined them once the season started or on the eve) Houston is one of the hottest team in the league at the moment and its a great deal to do with the impact that Dalembert is having.
We traded defence and height for stubby, short frontcourt and the results are clear, we are getting beaten in rebounding on a nightly basis. Take Cousins out and we are flat out terrible.
The 3 point shooting now, we needed it but it was not be all and end all. Memphis made the playoffs last year as the worst 3pt shooting team in the league but they had size that was difficult to match with. Size MATTERS in the NBA. Its a big reason why Lakers were dominant with their Bynum-Gasol-Odom 3 bigs rotation. It the reason why Memphis made the play-offs last year and its the reason why Thunder went out and got themselves Perkins AND dropped an extension on him when every team was hesitant to commit to anyone once the CBA was sorted.
You will win NOTHING in this league by going small but you will win A LOT by going big. Especially quality big that fit well together.
All our oh so great moves and we are worse off both in terms of roster and salary cap. Its a monumental **** up of the off-season. It is one proven way of remaining a lottery team for decades. Its great to preserve cap space in a rebuild but at some point you have to spend the money and spend it on the right type of players. Spend it on wrong players and you are practically back to square one.
Welcome to the current Sacramento Kings!
Give me the team that finished the season last year and you can keep the current version and I am confident that my team would be over .500 right now while yours would still be one of the worst in the NBA. And thats with my team having Cisco as my starting SF.
