Team Name:Sacramento Kings
Last Year’s Record:24-58
Key Free Agents: Marcus Thornton, Samuel Dalembert
Team Needs: A Veteran
1. What are Sacramento’s biggest needs this offseason?
Sacramento has arguably the best young team in the league. Tyreke Evans, DeMarcus Cousins, Marcus Thornton, and rookies Jimmer Fredette, Tyler Honeycutt, and Isiah Thomas all have lots of talent and are on rookie-level salaries. What they need is a veteran – someone who may not be an All-Star anymore, but brings the experience and leadership that come from winning. Unfortunately, this year’s free agent pool is a little lacking and doesn’t have many options. If at all possible, the Kings should try to get Tayshaun Prince. He’s got a championship ring and an Olympic gold medal, can shoot the ball, and is one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA, which the Kings could really use. And, maybe most importantly, he doesn’t mind not being the star of the team. His leadership could help the young Kings team grow, without taking away the youthful identity of the team’s new core of Evans, Cousins, and Fredette. (Backup options: Shane Battier or Grant Hill, for many of the same reasons).
2. What are the King’s biggest strengths & weaknesses?
Strengths – offensive rebounding (best in the league), overall rebounding (4th), plenty of cap room.
Weaknesses – defense (just isn’t their style), not efficient enough on offense to overcome lack of defense.
Whether or not it can win a championship, the strategy of “all offense, no defense” can at least make a team a contender if done right. The Suns and Knicks have made the playoffs recently using that model. But if you’re going to ignore defense, shouldn’t your offense be outstanding? The three other teams that focused on scoring last year were the Suns (29th in points allowed, 4th in points scored), Warriors (27th and 7th), and Knicks(28th and 2nd). Yes, their defenses were awful, but their offenses were in the top 7 in the league. The Kings, and the other hand, came in 24th in points allowed, but only 14th in points scored. To have a shot at a playoff spot, they’ll likely need a top 7 offense.
The problem is efficiency. They finished at 26th in offensive efficiency and effective shooting percentage, 27th in points per shot (1.17), and 28th in assist/turnover ratio. These problems should become less drastic over time as the young guys learn to play together at an NBA level, but Coach Westphal needs to do whatever he can to alleviate these growing pains.
3. If there is no season in 2011-12, how is your team set up for 2012?It depends on how the new CBA looks, obviously, but the Kings are looking good for the future. Their excessive cap space will allow them to take advantage of the good-looking 2012 free agent class, and hopefully they can keep making good draft picks in a loaded 2012 draft. They would be hurt by the fact that their young talent is missing out on a year of playing together, but other teams will be suffering from the same thing. If the Kings’ key players can be responsible and play together during the lockout, then a missed season could likely speed up their return to NBA contention.
4. If you could make one change to the NBA’s new CBA, what would it be?
Make the luxury tax higher and redistribute it to teams that don’t exceed the cap. Teams like the Lakers and Knicks can spend more if they want, but they’ll have to be much wiser with their money if it’s going to benefit them more than their opponents.
5. How long until the Kings will contend for a playoff spot?
If one or more of their young players can make the leap to stardom, and they use their cap space wisely, and the top free agents in the Western Conference continue to move to the East, and the Spurs, Lakers, and Mavericks fade with age, they could possibly get a 7 or 8 seed in the 2012-13 season. I know, that’s a lot of factors, but after that they should become a big player in the West for years.
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