One year ago I wrote a 3-piece article on the Sacramento Kings; their struggle under the Maloof ownership and a new future with the new owner Vivek Ranadive. Then I was fairly optimistic about the direction the organisation was heading towards. We signed a new and promising coach, whom I really liked, in Mike Malone and picked up a new GM, Pete D'Allesandro. Shortly after some changes in the roster were made. On draft day we were fortunate enough to land Ben McLemore, who I think will be an All-Star one day, later on, in November I think, we made a trade for Derrick Williams- former 2nd draft pick who has struggled much in Minnesota and was given a second chance in Sacramento. Then we traded for yet another forward in Rudy Gay. At the time I was devastated when I heard the news, as Rudy was becoming a joke around the league, earning a reputation of being a volume shooter, instead of a good shooter. He's jack up 30 shots a game in Toronto and would refuse to look at the stat sheet after the games. Plus his contract of 19 mln$/yr was a downside too. But now looking at it in retrospect, Rudy was a steal for us. With DeMarcus Cousins being the team's first option, Rudy stepped in the role of Robin, which meant he'd have less shots then he had in a Raptors jersey. Gay had to redefine his game in Sacramento, which helped rebuild his reputation. Right now he is no longer settling for difficult, contested shots, instead his getting to the freethrow line more often. He worked on his post game and also developed as a play maker, he averages a career high 4.7 APG! I think that Rudy is having himself a career season. And he also signed an extension for three years and 40 mln$ and with the new TV deal the league will sign, this contract will be considered low for a player of Gay's caliber.
The Sacramento Kings took everyone by surprise this season with an unbelievably good start. The team did make some surprising off season moves (picking Nik Stauskas, replacing Isaiah Thomas with Darren Collison and Ramon Sessions) which made me shake my head, but the team looked much better as a TEAM. There was more ball movement, everybody got their touches, players finally bought in on Mike Malone's defense and as a result we started winning ball games. People started questioning whether or not the Kings could fight for the 8th seed in the West!!! But then DeMarcus Cousins (kinda a big reason for the Kings success...) was sidelined for a couple of weeks with viral meningitis. So naturally Sacramento got into a bit of a slump without their star big man, which is perfectly normal for a team to struggle without their best player. BUT Vivek thought otherwise and decided to fire Malone.
When I first heard about the firing of Mike Malone I literally got so angry that fumes started to get out of my ears and nostrils. It was unbelievable. For the first time since forever the Kings are playing good, efficient, WINNING basketball and the owner was still not pleased, claiming it was about the differences in philosophies. Well yeah, if you want to play 4 on 5 defense with one player cherry picking on the other side, and the other guy wants to play some actual defensive sets, yes I would say these two had their differences on how basketball should be played. This move was unexpected to say the least, nobody in the league thought that Malone would be fired, as he did a hell of a job with this team, he actually made them play defense. Unfortunately this relationship was doomed from the start. There have been reports of Mike and Vivek clashing, Vivek wanted to make a move for Josh Smith, Mike didn't, Vivek wanted to try out 4 on 5 defense, Mike didn't... The worst part of this whole firing is the fact that it wasn't the GM who made the decision, despite of what he says. I strongly believe that it was the owner who overused his power. Just like with the 14' draft. Most of the frontoffice people wanted to draft Elfrid Payton, which was a smart idea, since they already decided they would let Thomas go, but Vivek strongly pushed towards drafting Nik Stauskas, a shooting guard, someone who plays the same position Ben McLemore does, a guy who you drafted a year ago. Naturally, you do not want to say 'NO' to your boss and at the end they decided to go with Nik, a pick I think they'll regret in the future.
As of right now Ty Corbin is the interim head coach of the Kings and I hope this will soon change. I don't Corbin is a terrible coach, he's much more suited to be an assistant coach. George Karl and Mark Jackson are two possible coaches that would replace Mike Malone. Karl would be a good fit for the Kings, since he already had worked with D'Allesandro in Denver when he was coaching the Nuggets, and he also is looking for an opening to get back into head coaching. Mark Jackson on the other hand has a relationship with Vivek's advisor Chris Mullin, both played for Golden State Warriors in the 80s'-90s'. He'd bring a strong presense in the locker room and could lead us to the playoffs in a year or two. But as of now, Corbin will be our headcoach, since he decided to go with Vivek's ideas of playing a more uptempo game and playing 4 on 5 defense............
The problem with Vivek is that he doesn't now too much about basketball. Saying you want to play a faster, more uptempo game is dumb and plain stupid, since you have the best center in the league on your team. Boogie isn't freakin' Anthony Davis who runs from one end to the court to the other, blocking shots and finishing alley oops, no. He plays with a different style, you throw him the ball in the low post and let him do his thing. AND OF COURSE PLAYING 4 ON 5 DEFENSE WILL NOT WORK. Seriosly, I'm glad it worked with yours kids and a bunch of other 4th graders, but this is professional basketball, don't turn us into a joke please... Vivek desperately wants to change the way basketball is played by throwing these new crazy ideas into the world, instead of playing with the pieces you have. Let the people you hired make these type of decisions, it's their job right? Ranadive is not the worst owner in the league, he's certainly not worse then the Maloofs', he just wants to make a stand, he wants the league to know him. Let's not forget that Mark Cuban wasn't a good owner from the start, he too made some bad decisions and after a couple of years he decided to let the people he hired handle the basketball related decisions.
Another thing that made me shake my head is the latest trade rumour concerning Deron Williams being traded to Sacramento. I feel like teams now know that Vivek is experiencing the 'new-owner syndrome' where he necessarily has to make a splash with some deals and owner know that so his the first person they call when they want to dump some player on a bad contract. So the trade would look like this: the Kings get Deron Williams and the Nets get Darren Collison, Jason Thompson and possibly Derrick Williams. Now the talks had hit a roadblock because the Kings want to include Mason Plumlee in the deal also, but the Nets say no. My opinion about this trade is please don't do it Vivek. Deron is the second highest paid point guard in the league, behind CP3, but he might not even be a top15 point guard. And it's not like his contract ends next year, we'd have him till 2017! And he's not getting any younger too (currently 30 y/o), plus his ankles are extremely fragile. You could make a case that he'd find a new life here in Sacramento and that you cannot win in the West with Darren Collison as your starting point guard, but still it is not worth it. It's much better to invest your money elsewhere, like for example in Paul Millsap. He is going to be a free agent in the offseason. Or David West. We could make an offer to Indiana throwing in Jason Thompson, Derrick Williams, some picks maybe or Nik Stauskas (he won't have any room to develop with the stelar play from McLemore). So you see there are options and I think we should explore them, instead of settling for Williams.
After a surprising great start from the Kings it seems that we're again back to the start. It's hard being a Sacramento Kings fan, it really is. But it is also exciting, as nobody knows what's going to happen, seriously nobody, we're that unpredictable. Which makes it at least a little bit fun I suppose. Well it's fun, until Boogie decides he's fed up with this and requests a trade... then the fun will be over. Oh and happy holidays everybody!
