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Defending the Sacramento Kings Offseason Moves

By Ti Windisch

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For some reason the mainstream NBA world has been pretty obsessed with heaping harsh criticism on the Sacramento Kings so far this offseason. Just a few days ago Zach Lowe, the best writer in basketball, dropped this article which claimed that the Kings “are a disaster” and that the “entire league is laughing at them.”

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Yeesh, Zach. That seems like a bit much, doesn’t it? I don’t mean to single out Lowe here, he’s far from the only writer making these kind of statements and jokes about Sacramento right now.

But seriously, a disaster? Just because of a somewhat-expensive salary dump trade that gave the Kings enough room to add Marco Belinelli, Rajon Rondo and Kosta Koufos to their roster, and the admittedly ugly George Karl-Boogie fiasco that resulted from the also admittedly ugly multiple coaching swaps Vivek Ranadive has made in the past year.

By the way, we still might not know the whole story about that Karl thing. Most other Kings rumors this offseason have seemed pretty untrue, from Boogie being perilously close to being shipped to the Lakers to Vivek trying to recruit John Calipari from Kentucky.

Even more recently, a report that the Kings offered Tobias Harris a contract was revealed as being completely phony:

So that leaves the Kings’ salary dump to Philadelphia as what makes the team a “disaster”. As we’ve already talked about here at A Royal Pain, it really wasn’t that bad of a deal. As Rafe touched on in his piece, this means the Kings are ready to start winning. This is really their only option.

Teams with true, young superstars cannot tank. They can’t afford to. That’s how you lose your star, like Kevin Love over in Minnesota. The Timberwolves ended up with Andrew Wiggins out of that deal and then tanked for another season, but that was Wiggins’ first season and he didn’t have much to say about it.

It helps that Wiggins’ tough season resulted in the team adding uber-talented big man Karl-Anthony Towns to the roster. Two years ago the Kings struggled, and all Boogie saw added to the roster was Nik Stauskas. Stauskas isn’t exactly the kind of guy that helps move the needle from “lottery” to “contender”.

Willie Trill Cauley-Stein might be, but still. DeMarcus Cousins has been in Sacramento for five years, and the Kings have been in the lottery each of those years. If that doesn’t change, soon, he will not be a King in three years when his contract expires. Loyalty is nice, but winning is ultimately more important.

And if you think the Kings are a disaster right now, try to imagine the team without Cousins. He needs to be placated, because losing him would be akin to losing the team’s chance to win much of anything meaningful for the next decade.

So why not assemble a motley crew of players who are willing to sign in Sacramento and see if you can go cause trouble for the Western Conference juggernauts? Will a lineup of Rondo, Belinelli/Ben McLemore, Rudy Gay, Willie Trill Cauley-Stein and Boogie be able to beat the Warriors, Rockets or Spurs in a seven-game series?

No, almost certainly not. But it could potentially put up one hell of an interesting fight, especially if George Karl can focus on coaching and get his team to buy into his system. This is a guy who’s won Coach of the Year before.

He now has one of the best pure point guards in the NBA in Rondo, a three-point contest champion in Belinelli, three great big men in Boogie, Willie Trill and Koufos, a few interesting wings in McLemore and Rudy Gay and a passionate GM who might make more moves in Vlade Divac.

This team might not win a playoff series, but even making it that far would be massive progress. Look at the Milwaukee Bucks. Milwaukee was recently seen as a disaster too, and although the young team was sent home in the first round by the Bulls in the 2015 NBA Playoffs they just signed Greg Monroe despite heavy competition from the Knicks and Lakers.

Rebuilds rely on winning as much as losing. The Kings have some talent in place, including some young talent in Boogie, WTCS and McLemore and some older talent in Gay, Rondo and Belinelli.

Let’s see if we can make something greater than the sum of its parts here, Sacramento. And remember, it’s not about winning a championship this year. It’s about contending for one–with Boogie–in three years, after a few seasons of improvement that shows the entire NBA that the Kings are here to play and more importantly, to win.

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