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JaVale McGee Is Not Going To End Up On The Kings

By Ti Windisch

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This one hasn’t seemed to take flight as a full-fledged rumor yet, but the JaVale McGee talk is starting to pick up and I have seen at least one tweet about the big man joining the Sacramento Kings. Let’s put all that to rest before it even really begins–it’s not happening.

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A lot of the JaVale talk revolves around the fact that he spent a few seasons in Denver under Karl there, and that since Karl reportedly had interest in former Nuggets Ty Lawson and Kenneth Faried that he would also want to bring JaVale to Sacramento, especially considering his presumably low-cost.

The only problem is, as Jason Jones so wryly noted, Karl and McGee didn’t even really get along (their rocky relationship is detailed in this Sacramento Bee article):

Even if he was Karl’s favorite player, I don’t even really think it would matter at this point. Vlade Divac is the one running the show, as evidenced by Sacramento not pushing to acquire former Nugget Ty Lawson even after Lawson himself proclaimed he was heading to the Kings.

And Vlade knows that his team has enough big personalities on it for the moment. Although the veteran presence of Caron Butler will undoubtedly help with that, adding one more combustible personality might just be sparking the powder keg that is the 2016 Sacramento Kings.

This is truly a crossroads season for Sacramento. This team does have the talent necessary to finally drag the Kings out of the lottery and into the realm of fighting for a low playoff seed, which is far from a championship but no small feat considering the Kings’ recent seasons.

But if Sacramento ends up in the lottery again, it’s impossible to tell how bad things could get in the long-term. Luckily the Kings have their home for a very long time, but it’s unclear how long DeMarcus Cousins will want to play on losing teams for. If this latest Kings squad explodes into flames and Boogie ends up losing a ton of games again, it’s going to just be one more straw on the camel’s back.

That’s why Vlade is trying so hard to build a competitive team that can really go out and win basketball games this season, and he’s done a great job of that so far. There’s no need to bring in a massive question mark like JaVale McGee at this point–this roster is solid enough already, from top to bottom.

And luckily it seems that teams more needing of a backup big are already seeking to sign JaVale–the Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers both have interest in him, according to Alex Kennedy. Both of those teams are worse talent-wise than the Kings, so it makes more sense for them to gamble on McGee to add some bulk to their roster.

Seeing as JaVale wouldn’t even find minutes behind Cousins, Kosta Koufos and Willie Cauley-Stein anyway, there’s a solid zero percent chance he ends up a King at this point, despite having played for George Karl in the past. The move doesn’t really make sense for either side–without a chance to prove himself on the court, McGee wouldn’t be helping his stock any chilling on the bench in Sacramento.

Look for Vlade to wait and see what kind of quality prospect or veteran he can add to his roster with that 15th roster spot of his–not for him to use it to add JaVale McGee into the Kings’ redemption run.

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