Recent Trade Means Sacramento Kings Are Looking to Win Now
By Rafe Wong
When it comes to the national media, the Sacramento Kings have fell victim to being the team they harass this offseason. No matter what direction the Kings take, the media (outside of Sacramento) seems to find a way to make it seem that the Kings are beyond repair because of their “bat-crazy” owner in Vivek Ranadive and their “pushover” of a VP of personnel in Vlade Divac.
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Recently the Kings have made a trade that moved Carl Landry, Jason Thompson, and Nik Stauskas to the Philadelphia 76ers for basically more cap room to pursue better free agents available on the market. But yet again national writers like Bill Simmons for example, are seeing this deal as deranged for the Kings.
In my perspective, why is this a bad deal for Sacramento? If Sacramento did not make this move, they would have been stuck with three players that were either inadequate or unfitting with the team’s current system, plus only having 10 million in cap room to spend, which in this offseason would be very difficult to land any serious assets.
The thought of signing players like Tobias Harris, Rajon Rondo, or even both never occurred to Kings fans before this recent trade, but now it seems realistic. Both players have shown that they have the capability to skyrocket a team back relevancy, so for the Kings to land even one could be huge.
Yes I know that there are draft picks involved in the trade, but if the Kings do end up thriving going forward then it will not be a major concern. If we are worried about draft picks in the next three years, then we’re expecting the Kings to continue to be inferior to the rest of the league till then.
I think it’s safe to say that after nine years of “rebuilding”, Kings fans are now completely restless to know when their team will become once again pertinent in the NBA. Their recent trade was bold, but it had to be done. There are still a lot of assets available in the free agent market, so if the Kings can land 1,2, or maybe 3 players, it will greatly benefit this team in both the small and big picture.
One last note. Franchise player DeMarcus Cousins, who I’m guessing is also restless of the Kings lack of success, only has three more years left in his contract with Sacramento. The Kings need to surround him with assets now if they want to utilize their star player at his best, or else he might be looking to leave the state’s capital for a team that is more competitive.