If the Kings weren’t considered to be a playoff contender at full strength, they certainly aren’t without Rudy Gay. After averaging 18.7 points on 45.5% shooting in 30 games, Gay tore his left Achilles’ tendon against the Pacers on Wednesday; a season-ending injury.
Gay has vowed on Twitter to come back “stronger than ever,” but the Kings will still face a myriad of issues in 2016/17. Now 11th place in the Western Conference, the Kings sit at 16-26 following a lopsided loss to the Grizzlies. What’s more, the Kings’ roster is full of veterans preventing rookies Malachi Richardson, Georgios Papagiannis, and Skal Labissiere from receiving court time. Willie Cauley-Stein recently voiced grievances on the lack of opportunity in his sophomore season.
“I feel I was showing stuff at the end of last season that would make people say, ‘Oh, damn, they got a steal in the draft,'” Cauley-Stein told Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee. “Now it’s like I took 25 steps forward and 30 steps back. It’s like my whole rookie season didn’t matter and I’m back at square one. Nothing I did last year is having an effect on my career. It’s been very frustrating.”
The team appears unlikely to trade DeMarcus Cousins, but they have several assets who could help another team’s playoff run. With a lack of direction for the 2016/17 season, several on-and-off the court controversies, and no clear path to minutes for younger players, we want to know…
Should the Kings trade off assets and start a complete rebuild? Is there any hope in salvaging the season to grab a No. 7 or 8 seed? Will Gay – who has a player option for the 2017/18 season – opt to remain in Sacramento, or is he a lock to test the market even after his injury?
Should’ve rebuilt like a long time ago
Trade Boogie to the Celtics. Guarantee yourself a 1st round pick at the top of the draft. Take back Brown and Rozier/Jackson and draft the BPA. Right now if they landed the top pick it’s Philly’s so…
I totally agree with trading Cousins to Boston. Kings could begin rebuild with 2 or 3 #1 draft picks and maybe 3 or 4 young players.
He’s said very loudly for all to here that he wants to leave. He’s going to leave. It’s time to rebuild, because all they’ll have left is some bad role players, some young guys who might have some potential, an ok starter in Collison and Cousins. You can get a good amount of picks if you throw the whole team up for grabs. Maybe if your hopeful on free agency and try to do ok in the draft they can keep Cousins. But otherwise get what you can.
Rebuild.
Collison should be able to land a late first round pick from a contender. (The cavs could be an option here as they need a backup).
If they trade off one or two other role players for late picks in the first round, this stacks them with young talent around Cousins if they keep him, and with Rudy Gay certain to leave even with the injury (he made it clear he wants out of Sacramento, he hates the team, fans and area)…that could make it easier to trade for a new point guard if we stack enough picks together. (Wall, in DC…..he and Cousins are good friends Cousins has made it clear, he wants Wall in Sacramento when he becomes a FA, getting Wall early…. Makes it easier to sign him to an extension).
Ownership has made it clear, they see Cousins as a future Hall of Famer and want to see his Jersey hanging in the rafters of the G1, one team….and a championship caliber one.
So they want to surround Boogie with talent long term. So any ideas of Cousins in Boston or New York or Chicago or LA or Miami or Orlando…. Is a pipe dream unless Boogie pisses off ownership and I don’t think he has done that yet.
But, a small retool of the team so it flows better (getting rid of guys like Ben McLemore, Aaron Afflalo, Rudy Gay and Darren Collison)….is a smart idea, because right now too much dead weight is hanging over the team. A culture of losing because of bad coaching, shit ownership (malloof brothers)…still haunts the team. Have to get rid of the bulk of the guys who were there for that stuff. Because they haven’t learned how to win or lose as a team, even with the best coaching they have had in a decade at least.
Boogie has responded at least, I understand why the young guys are frustrated. It shows me that they have passion and want to play.
But the other guys… They could all be had for a reasonable price tag and Sacramento should listen. Though, I would keep Ty Lawson because he would keep some stability if trades start happening. He has actually been a good influence on the team this year. (At least on the court, don’t know about off the court).
the smart move is to sell off pieces but hold onto cousins.so,what we’ll likely see is them start trading FOR people,likely including trading their draft pick
Sacramento got Hinkied.
The Kings should hire Hinkie.
Its pretty pointless to sell now. As the Sixers keep winning and the Kings keep losing. Philly has the rights to swap for this draft and they have a unprotected one in 2019 from sacramento. So the Kings won’t be rebuilding through the draft.
They could sell off for next year though and try to field a competitive team in ’19. The young guys they currently have are still good, they just need to develop.
Rebuild. Total rebuild. Keep Cousins but get rid of everything else and start over.
I’m a Sixers fan, so everything the Kings can do to make themselves worse is good for me and mine.
The Sixers took loads of crap for rebuilding for 3 years. The Kings have been awful for a decade plus, and show no signs of getting any better.
Sacramento needs a lot of help from the Standpoint they have the second largest losing playoff drought in nba history. Hopeful they Will find a way win. When they realize their team isn’t going anywhere with Demarcus cousins and the peices around him.
I was half expecting to open this article and just see the words “NOT GOOD” haha. I really do think they should just rebuild. Trading Cousins would be the right step; ideally you’d want to build around him, but I don’t think they have a front office that can pull off deals to get high picks and young talent so they could compete around the end of a would-be Cousins extension. They have freaking Vlade and Peja running the organization. You don’t hear anything about Sacramento being somewhere players want to play anyway with the location.
They let players like Seth Curry go for nothing and never give their young players playing time because they go and sign Belinelli’s and Afflalos and their coaches are always on the hot seat. Unless they sign John Wall as a free agent I don’t think this team can ever compete as they are now.
Just Tank the season! Keep Cousins, Temple, Lawson, Richardson, get rid of all others period!