Kings: Building around Tyreke, K-Mart and the young bigs
Kevin Martin (photo. Kelly Turso)
Although the ‘09 NBA free agent class isn’t as stacked as in years past — not to mention the League is being more thrifty than ever due to the slumping economy — teams still have holes they want to plug, and players have moves they want to make. Here, we break down all 30 NBA teams’ free agent strategy…
ROSTER
G - Kevin Martin, Tyreke Evans, Beno Udrih, Rashad McCants, Bobby Jackson, Sergio Rodriguez
F - Jason Thompson, Andres Nocioni, Francisco Garcia, Donte Greene, Jon Brockman, Omri Casspi, Ike Diogu, Cedric Simmons, Kenny Thomas
C - Spencer Hawes, Calvin Booth
FREE AGENTS
McCants, Jackson, Diogu, Booth, Simmons
ANALYSIS
Three things the Kings are looking for: Toughness for a team that has been jarringly soft, guys with enough offensive skills to thrive in new coach Paul Westphal’s buckets-friendly system, and somebody who will bring fans back to ARCO Arena and draw some interest. That’s a lot to ask for, especially for an organization looking to save money at the same time.
The backcourt was strengthened through the draft, namely with #4 pick Tyreke Evans, who should step right in and start next to Kevin Martin. Sacramento still needs depth, though, especially at two-guard, where free agent McCants doesn’t seem to be in their plans.
The frontcourt is a bit more solid, with Hawes and Thompson as the building blocks, Nocioni and Garcia both signed to long-term deals, and Greene and Casspi as future projects. Kenny Thomas is a non-factor and his $8.5M expiring contract is almost a lock to be traded mid-season, so some non-disruptive veteran bigs to mentor the kids would help.
IDEAL TARGETS
SG - Nate Robinson (R), Linas Kleiza (R), Marquis Daniels, Flip Murray, Von Wafer, Keith Bogans, Luther Head, Kareem Rush, Joey Graham, Gerald Green, Juan Dixon, Royal Ivey, Morris Almond
PF - Maceo Baston, Melvin Ely, Sean Marks
C - Ryan Hollins, Mikki Moore, Jason Collins, Jarron Collins, Adonal Foyle
NBA FREE AGENCY ANALYSIS
Orlando Magic
Oklahoma City Thunder
Los Angeles Lakers
Memphis Grizzlies
Cleveland Cavaliers
Los Angeles Clippers
July 2nd, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Heckler...formerly 'yallallreadyknow' says:
excitement for the fans?…..move this damn franchise to sin city already
July 2nd, 2009 at 3:57 pm
KWAME says:
sin city? actually man…that’s a good idea…do u think they should keep the name or get a new name
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:17 pm
MissChick says:
Las Vegas Drag-Queens
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:20 pm
hahns says:
great idea to bring nate to the kings-
relatively close to home- brings a lota fans with him- explosive player.
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:51 pm
isotope says:
that frontcourt is weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaak!
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Sacto_J says:
Heckler gets the throatpunch of the day. Enjoy, ass. Austin, your analysis is fairly accurate sir. What I fail to understand, though, is that after buying him out last year, why the hell would Mikki Moore be an ideal target for the Kings? Especially considering his history as a King? McCants is done, though I don’t understand why, and the team is reportedly interested in re-signing Diogu, the garbage time great. Until this team makes a trade for an all-star, there’s more lottery appearances to come, but at least there’s a Blazer-like rebuild in progress, some direction to a franchise that has been dealing with an identity crisis since Webber was traded…
July 2nd, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Sacto_J says:
iso - I’ll bet you’re east coast and didn’t see much of the Kings last year. No big namers, but not as weak as you think. The front court is actually one of their strengths besides Martin….
July 2nd, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Michorizo says:
Tyreke Evans is talent…top talent. I’m not much of a King’s fan, but from what I have seen of Tyreke, I think he is gonna a be a star of stars. The guy can ball.
July 2nd, 2009 at 5:11 pm
Scott says:
Some Vets off the bench once Evans grows into his grown man game would be nice and solidify this squad. A full preseason with Nocioni would probably help too, he has a ton of grit. Should be an interesting year for the Kings.
July 2nd, 2009 at 5:24 pm
D.H. says:
Evans and Martin is going to be fun to watch.
Maybe let Brockman go crazy on the offensive boards with the run&gun system they’ll be sporting.
July 2nd, 2009 at 5:42 pm
Steve Gomez 10a-2p On Hot 104.7 Modesto, Ca says:
“What I fail to understand, though, is that after buying him out last year, why the hell would Mikki Moore be an ideal target for the Kings?”
Because AB is talking out of his ass. He has no idea of what Sactown is doing or what their needs are. This is just an article he has to write and get out of the way. None of his so called “ideal targets” make sense. Maybe Nate as B-Jax type sparkplug off the bench. Other than that I don’t see the Kings looking at any of those other guys.
Ideally the Kings would like to get a veteran big but any one of them worth signing is gonna head to a contender. Not Sacramento. I see them signing a minimum salary type player to take the final roster spot and saving some their cap space for next summer.
They’re not a contender and there’s no free agent out there that would make them one so save the space for a possible trade (Boozer)or for next summer.
July 2nd, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Kobeef says:
Stern is the only thing keeping the Malofs from moving to Vegas cause he is scared of the mayhem that will result from regular cycles of NBA players in Vegas..which you have to admit is probably justified.
The Kings need to be patient and resist the urge to drop millions on the trendy free agent of the day.
Inside tip - Lebron is also good friends with the Maloofs..how could he resist moving to the Kings if they moved to Vegas?
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Sacto_J says:
I would love to see The King a King, especially in Sacto…Talk about a pipe dream, I’ll go ahead and put that thing down now….
July 2nd, 2009 at 7:57 pm
David_Brandon says:
@ sacto j,
man, crazier things have happened. lol but there’s absolutely NO way bron comes to sac. we need to get a true 4 and 5 and that’ll help immediately. we’re too light in the ass on the block. i dont like it. the backcourt’s ok, but everywhere else should pretty much be addressed. i like rashad and andres. i like spence and jason. but those guys can all come off the bench, if really needed. if we can get one star player (like we did w/ webb), it’ll trickle down.
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:37 pm
Bron42 aka Had Springs Before Slamball says:
@sacto, in isos defense, thompson is a east coast guy comin from rider in jersey…so even if he was just east coast, he knows of the front court.
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:50 pm
Chaos says:
man, they got some nice pieces and will be good….just not anytime soon. tyreke, k-mart, thompson and hawes make a good core for the future…brockman, nocioni and garcia are good off the bench. get nate, keep donte green, possibly mccants and drop some dead weight and go after a big man
July 3rd, 2009 at 4:14 am
Willis says:
First off, fuck all yall who say the Royalty of California should up and move to Vegas. We have one of the best fan attendance percentages over the last 25 years. Not to mention Sac is the 16th largest media market, and for a city with one pro team, that’s not bad.
Second, there is NO way Mikki Moore would be in a Kings uni next season, although he still has a contract with us.
McCants, peace out. Same probably for Noce. Hopefully we find a taker for Beno.
Big men are set, we have one of the better young tandems in the league. Speedracer aka Kmart is finally healed up and good to go, and Tyreke Havok is about to show everyone what exactly the word NASTY means. Hopefully Donte shows up this season and tries to make something out of himself, but if not, Cisco should be a good stop gap.
Chart as it stands:
PG: Evans, Rodriguez, Udrih
SG: Martin, Cisco, McNeal (we picked up Jerel McNeal outta Marquette for summer league, he is good enough to stick)
SF: Nocioni, Greene, Casspi (don’t sleep on this guy.)
PF: Thompson, Brockman
C: Hawes, Diogu ( i know he isn’t a center but that is why we need another haha)
Solid young lineup, get you about 30-40 wins next season. Dark horse, extremely fringe, playoff team.
Outside of Mikki, good work AB. I only want Nate if we can somehow dump Beno and maybe Noce onto NY.
July 8th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Sacto_J says:
I know nobody will read this, but Willis - Spot on with the moving statement, backed up by a little known fact about Sacto, thanks for that. I think your assessment is fairly accurate as well…