This remains a bizarre blindspot affecting much of the Kings fanbase, and I just absolutely refuse to let it stand. This team has been in everything all year long. If this team isn't close to being successful (moderately) then there is almost no way a team could show it was close to being successful. Its funny listening to other team's announcers, because they see it, and the team's own fans are so deep in their sorrows that they cannot.
here's one for you: this team absolutely has the potential to be the single best Sacramento Kings team there has ever been outside the Adelman era.
Of course that means almost nothing, because the very best non-Adelman team in franchise history won 39 games. But nonetheless, that would be the point. Such woeing when we are hardly used to better and this time have the best center in the world and a damn good coach to build around. Its bizarre, and unfortunately like many things, a feedback loop where everybody runs around telling each other how woeful it is and sinking ever further. I feel like we're trapped in another election cycle.
You're taking the short view. And that's fine but that's not where I'm looking. Could this Kings team possibly have a .500 record? Maybe. They blew a huge lead to the Lakers and are 0-3 in overtime games. Plus a few other games where a poor start forced them into furious comebacks that just fell short. All it would take is 3 of those games to break the other way and the team is 10-10 or 11-9 instead of 7-13.
Could this team as presently constructed make the playoffs? Maybe. It's a real uphill climb now that they are in a bit of a hole and reaching .500 would be tough and no guarantee that it would mean a playoff berth. Last year 41-41 was the Rocket's record as the 8th seed but so far this season the 8th place team (currently Portland is a bit over .500). Still, if things start breaking the Kings way and they improve under Joerger as the season rolls along and the schedule eases up a bit, they could make a run at that last postseason slot.
In the short term that would be great. Even being swept by the Warriors would be better than another losing season.
But then what?
Chicago gets the Kings 1st rounder. 2 of the 5 starters are free agents. Another will turn 37. Lawson is also a free agent meaning there won't be a single PG signed for next season. Casspi and McLemore will also be free agents, UFA and RFA respectively though that's a bit less of an issue since seemingly Joerger only gives minutes to one of them during any given stretch of games.
The Kings will be faced with the prospect of re-signing those guys (if they have any interest in returning and Gay has clearly hinted that he currently doesn't) or replacing them in free agency, something the Sacramento Kings have never been very successful at. And while they still have WCS, Papagiannis, Richardson and Labissiere and possibly Bogdanovic, hoping for them to be difference makers is pretty optimistic. Right now we're all hoping they can at least become rotation players in the NBA. Tolliver hasn't really played since the preseason and Afflalo has been a disappointment. Hard to see the Kings keeping them around next season, but the alternative is even more holes to patch in free agency. I have no complaints with Temple - I think he should be starting, and Koufos is a very solid backup C and spot starter. But I don't see what the Kings can do to build a winner around Cousins when they have no assets and Sacramento has never been a franchise to attract difference making free agents, our current GM being maybe the lone exception.
Even if the Kings start winning more games than they lose and somehow squeak into the playoffs Vlade is left either overpaying to keep together the same mediocre team that barely played .500 ball or having to go out and patch together another mediocre roster in free agency that will then take time to gel once again, all in the hopes that they can squeak into the playoffs the next year, though likely with a bit less talent.
The treadmill of mediocrity is one of the worst places for a team to be and we're supposed to HOPE the Kings can get to that point? This franchise has always had the best chance of success by hitting on draft picks and building a winner through their development and they've blown too many picks since drafting Cousins for that to have happened. If they are slightly improved this season they lose this year's first rounder. They'll lose their 2019 pick which will either likely be another mid to late lottery pick (or possibly a mid 1st rounder) if they can convince Cousins to re-sign yet again or it could be a top 3 pick, maybe first overall if he bolts after next season.
Despite the narrative that gets pushed regarding Boogie and the criticism he receives (some warranted, some not) the reality is that the Kings failed him and not the other way around. They drafted the best center in the NBA - a loyal kid who WANTS to be in Sacramento and turn things around and they didn't give him the support to do so.
And that's incredibly frustrating to me. But this is the draft to have multiple lottery picks. This is the season Cousins' value is highest. This is the front office and coaching relationship that can and should survive a rebuild. Now is the time to see the forest for the trees and recognize that while the Kings have some hope to be better this season, the long term prospects are dim and it's time to tear things down and start again.
This is the larger issue, but again the team was built the way it was on purpose specifically to allow for maximum flexibility going forward. When Kings fans' depression sits in, its a dark one, and even strategic flexibility gets turned on its head as more woe. But the intention obviously is to build the team we want to build, not be tied to the one we have.
If someone can show me a reasonable path forward where the Kings take their existing assets and build a team around Cousins that can actually contend I'm all ears. But hoping for a .500 team with no real hope beyond that? That's not for me.
