Should The Kings Sign A Player – To Trade Them?

A question that has been echoing in my brain lately is the Kings and their money situation. Right now, they’ve got around 6-ish million dollars to spend until they hit the cap after the May contract, which could bring in a pretty decent player. There are still young, promising talents available such as David Lee, Nate Robinson, Marvin Williams, Linas Kleiza, Ramon Sessions, Glen Davis etc. that have got very little, if any contract offers. A few of those players are restricted and most likely would be matched if the Kings offered a small or short contract however (especially Lee), but there are still some talented youthful players who aren’t restricted and could be had, especially in this economy.

Which brings me to my overall point – signing them, to trade them. Come December 15th (or three months after the contract is signed), free agents who signed in the offseason can be traded with no restrictions. Even with Kenny Thomas’ contract coming off the cap after the end of this coming season, along with the cap space we currently have…we’ll be hard pressed to bring any All-Star caliber player to Sacramento, as much as we’d like to believe we could. Sacramento has a poor reputation among players anyway and when you mix that with what was the worst team in the league last year, money wont even talk. Or, at least to the level of talent we want. Also to consider with that thought is that any competent GM has also set up their team to have significant cap space, so the Kings aren’t walking into a buyer’s market by any stretch – we simply don’t have the means to compete to grab the All-Star’s of the world in next years Free Agent class. And the last thing we want to do is make a silly deal because we have the money…

If Geoff Petrie has shown anything (besides his knack to strike out on mid-level deals), it’s his willingness to make a significant move via a trade. Currently our cap space is a nice treat to have in a trade for a disgruntled All-Star, but there really isn’t a great number of those available. And for those that are – they simply aren’t worth any of our youth which teams will demand in return *glares at the Suns front office*. So that brings me to the point of bringing in a youthful, talented player with our cap space and come deadline time, see just what they could bring us in a trade. From what I’ve heard from various sources, many unsigned players are willing to take a one year deal currently in hopes of cashing in next season, so it’s not incredibly far fetched to believe they would take a one year offer which benefits both the Kings and the player.

In short, it gives the Kings another youthful piece to work with that very well could prevent the Kings from losing multiple youth pieces in a trade. Yes, we’ll most likely have to part with one of our prospects in a deal but hopefully bringing in a talented piece now with our money will give us another piece to move, saving one of core pieces in a trade.

Is the idea a little odd? Sure. But if the ability is there…I can’t really see any negative to the idea, other than to the Maloofs pocket books. If you can’t find a trade partner, you walk away at season end in the same cap situation you’d be in anyway. And if you can, you quite possibly save yourself a core member of your youth movement.