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The Summer Of Vlade Divac Is Wrapped Up, Apparently

By Ti Windisch

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According to the man himself, Vlade Divac is done making moves with the Sacramento Kings this offseason. If you haven’t been following along, owner Vivek Ranadive and Vlade have had a little joke running for the past few weeks on Twitter.

It started when Vivek told Vlade he wouldn’t shave his beard until Vlade was finished signing players on July 6th, over two weeks ago now.

After he signed Seth Curry last night Vlade responded to Vivek in classic Vlade Divac fashion:

So that means Vlade is done making moves–or at least signing players–now that the younger Curry is on the Kings’ roster. I’ll be doing a more in-depth, player by player evaluation of all of the signings soon, but in a general sense I believe Vlade did very well this summer.

Considering my expectations for him when he got personnel control were incredibly low, he’s done great work. He had been away from the NBA for over a decade and had literally no front office experience, but most of his work this offseason has been expert level stuff.

His only true overpay was for Rajon Rondo, and considering its only a one-year deal it won’t stop the Kings from going after available talent next season at all. He only missed signing one player he wanted, according again to Vlade himself:

Honestly, signing Wesley Matthews to a max deal like Dallas did would’ve been by far the worst move Vlade made this summer. Matthews was a skilled player, but he’s nearly 30 and coming off of a ruptured Achilles, which is probably the worst injury for a shooting guard like Matthews. Besides, Ben McLemore is a young, gifted guard that the Kings already have for cheap.

Making the big move doesn’t always mean making the right one. Bringing in Rondo, Marco Belinelli and Kosta Koufos were good signings, but none of them were considered top of their class free agents by anyone. That made them available, and more importantly affordable.

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Even the very unproven guys Vlade got this summer were good moves, I thought. Duje Dukan, Seth Curry and to a lesser degree James Anderson are fairly skilled guys who definitely possess upside and cost Vlade and the Kings virtually nothing.

This Kings team is pretty stacked with legitimately good basketball players from the top to the bottom. They’re not yet good enough to truly contend, but this team has the talent to win a lot of games. The bench is going to be especially strong.

This foundation Divac built should at least win 40 to 42 games this year, which would show the entire NBA that Sacramento is a team that must be taken seriously. The massive salary cap leap that will take place next season means the Kings will have money to play with in 2016.

The infrastructure Vlade Divac has built here is honestly one more star player away from contention. DeMarcus Cousins just needs a co-star. If the Kings can win a lot of games this year, open up cap and roster room without losing their deep bench and pitch the right guy, they might just be able to add that missing piece that turns them into a team that has playoff aspirations every single season.

So I’d say the first summer of Vlade has been a terrific success. Maybe Vivek should let that beard grow out a bit..

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Next: The Kings Add A Scorer In Seth Curry

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