Tag Archives: Sacramento kings

King Me- The Sonics Are Back!!!

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The one day I don’t check any of my usual sports sites first thing in the morning is the day the Sonics are sold.

Granted nothing is official. We are still awaiting an official announcement from the NBA Board of Governors on the approval of the sale. And then there is Kevin Johnson’s last-ditch effort that is the equivalent of a pitcher hitting with two outs, no on and down by one in the bottom of the ninth. There is an ice cube’s chance in hell it happens. That being Johnson convincing the Board to keep the team in Sacramento.

They should move to Seattle, by the way, and that’s not just me being from Seattle, but also because the Hansen/Balmer/Nordstrom group is forking over nearly a billion dollars of their hard-earned money to bring a team here. Why would you deny that?

Think of the possibilities. Think of all the talent that the Sonics will have. DeMarcus Cousins is going to flourish into the NBA’s best big man. Isaiah Thomas is going to be the next big time short point guard, at the very least a somewhat reincarnation of Nate Robinson. Thomas Robinson is going to blossom as a power forward in time. Tyreke Evans could be a really dangerous player if he plays like he played when he was a rookie (something you don’t always hear.)

I’m no NBA agent, but Seattle would be a really “cool” (a la Pete Carroll) landing spot for free agents. Not to mention all that Seattle-area talent might want to play at home. They could be Washington natives looking for a one-year deal and decide to play at home. Nate Robinson could fit that bill. Should Brandon Roy not have his contract guaranteed by the T-Wolves, he would fit. Jon Brockman is out there; maybe he regenerates some of that UW magic in a Sonics uniform.

There is almost too much to get excited about.

The team can finally retire Gary Payton’s jersey. Retire Shawn Kemp’s jersey. Definitely not retire Wally Walker’s. Kevin Calabro could come back.

There are already talks of Phil Jackson joining the team in a “mentor” role. RC Buford (who has engineered the most underrated sports dynasty of all time in San Antonio) and Larry Bird are also being tossed around as potential front office names.

We could bring back Nate McMillian, or if all else fails trade everyone not named Cousins, Robinson, Thomas and Brooks to Denver for George Karl.

There are just so many opportunities. Seattle Center will have its most exciting tenant back (albeit for two or three years at most.) Plus, you know whenever those darn (wanted to use a different word there) Raiders come to town for the first time, the Sonics are going to beat them. It’s a given.

Key Arena: The Sonics soon to be temporary home.

Key Arena: The Sonics soon to be temporary home.

This just couldn’t have come at a better time.

Put aside the fact that those darn (wanted to use another word, again) 49ers made it to the Super Bowl. Put aside the fact that UW, WSU, Gonzaga and Seattle University all lost by 10 points or less over the weekend. Put aside the fact that it could have been the Seahawks in the Super Bowl (you know we would have beaten Squidward and friends.) Put aside it all for a moment.

The Sonics are back.

What are you most excited about?

Optimizing Optimism: Thoughts on the Seahawks Season and Next Year

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Optimizing Optimism

Everyone got their hearts ripped out Sunday.

The Seahawks lost a really tough game.

I’ll admit, I thought the game was at one o’clock in my time zone. I didn’t realize it was on until I saw a tweet about “a nice throw” by Russell Wilson. A couple minutes and choice-y swear words later I turned on the TV to see Wilson score on a rushing touchdown to cut it to a 13-point game. Obviously you know the rest. We lost to Atlanta, but there are a ton of things to take from this. Maybe it isn’t the end of the world.

  • Atlanta was the number-one seed in the playoffs folks. They lost three games by an average of six points, and two of those losses were by only four. Only one loss was at home. Atlanta is really good (offensively.) This is a huge step up from the team’s last playoff appearance. Chicago was a two seed, and we had as much of a chance of winning as the Kings do of staying in Sacramento. A long shot. We did make it close with the Bears, but that was never our game to win. This was different. Yeah, we didn’t play up to par in the first half, but we killed the Falcons in the second half. If the Seahawks had played with half that much gusto and what not in the first half we would be trash talking the 49ers this week. (Inevitably we still are. How ridiculous is Kapernicking? So ridiculous that it’s a rip off.)
  • Yes, it probably hurt more knowing that we had a legitimate shot at the Super Bowl to lose this game than if we lost it as a Cinderella-Wild Card, but the point is that we were a legitimate Super Bowl contender who took the number-one seed in our conference (who, by the way, easily could have been 16-0) to the last second and went on a three-week scoring rampage with a rookie quarterback. I know Russell Wilson is more than most and/or all rookies, but the fact that this is his basement, imagine what his ceiling is. More so, this team’s ceiling could be very, very high. Chris Clemons, 31, and Marcus Trufant, 32, are the only non-specialists, major contributors over 30. In fact, Heath Farewell, who in his own right is a fantastic special teams player, defensive end Patrick Chukwurah, punter Jon Ryan and stand-in kicker Ryan Longwell are the only guys over 30 on the entire roster. This team has a very high ceiling, and to put it in Pete Carroll’s words, “Can be really cool for us in the future.”
  • Did I mention how good Russell Wilson is? Not only did he set a franchise and NFL record for passing yards in a playoff game with 385 (WHATTTT!?!?!), but he also threw for 3,118 as a rookie as well as running for 489 yards. I can’t stress enough, he is a rookie. Imagine him in three years. (I believe, if this were twitter,  #scary would be appropriate.)
  • Pete Carroll had 15 wins (counting the playoffs) in his first two years. He had 13 this year (again counting playoffs) alone. He had 19 losses over that span (first two years) and less than a third of that number (six, again, counting playoffs) this year. This is a tremendous step up for Carroll and the team. It finally seems like he has the personnel he wants to run the kind of team he needs to win. And he is winning.

The Seahawks have nothing to be ashamed about this year. Yes, they lost and that was heart breaking, but I think most people thought this would be another 7-9 transition year with Matt Flynn as Tavaris Jackson 2.0 in terms of place-holding for the TBD “franchise QB.” But we found Wilson; we found an elite defense (Seriously, best in the league. Period.) We found a lot of things to be proud of this year that might not have shown themselves in a few more years instead. The Seahawks are completely ahead of the curve, and they should be a Super Bowl contender for at least a decade. Count on it.

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The Kings’ To-Do List

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Seattle is likely getting the Sacramento Kings.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

(Excuse my brief Super Mario impression.)

We are finally getting the NBA back, and I’ll be darned (wanted to use another word there) if the board of governors, or whatever they call themselves, votes against it.

Key Arena: The Sonics soon to be temporary home.

Key Arena: The Sonics soon to be temporary home.

(It doesn’t matter if the Kings weren’t coming to Seattle, they need to make some changes purely from a team standpoint to be successful.)

With the assumption that the Kings are coming to town, let’s take a gander at the Sacra-soon-to-be-Seattle-mento’s roster and see who’s worth keeping and who should be plying his basketball trade somewhere other than the Pacific Northwest next year.

(Side note, I have no idea what will happen with front office and coaching roles. Those are a little trickier to sort out.)

We’ll start in the back court where the Kings need to do a little tidying. The team currently employs Isaiah Thomas, Aaron Brooks (both Seattle-area natives I should point out,) overrated, but underrated Marcus Thornton, brick layer Jimmer Fredette, contractual albatross mini me Francisco Garcia and Tyreke Evans, who by the way happens to be the definition of an enigma.

Thomas is a keeper on a small, exceedingly cap-friendly contract while Brooks may be hung on to due to the fact that he might play like his old self in his hometown.

Thornton has the potential to score in bunches, but probably works best as a sixth or seventh man on a title contender. Garcia has the talent to be a really useful stat-sheet-stuffer off the bench, but his contract makes him a tad bit scary. There could be actual value in keeping Garcia. While a two-year 12 million dollar deal is bad, a one-year six million dollar one is much more friendly. We often see teams acquire an established player for a draft pick, young talent and an expiring contract that generally matches up with the established player. That way the acquiring team gets a future draft pick, a cheap, controllable asset and the chance to clean their hands of the long-term money owed to the established player.

That’s long hand for “large-ish expiring contracts are valuable.”

The Kings’ frontcourt is curious, yet appealing. DeMarcus Cousins has the potential to be the best big man in the entire league. Dwight Howard or no. But, you’ll notice the emphasis on potential. Cousins has to start putting it together to reach the point where he can be.

Knowing that Cousins is a keeper, the rest of the frontcourt, however, might actually follow suit. Thomas Robinson and Jason Thompson are the two players inhabiting the power forward section of el depth chart. Robinson is obviously the long-term choice, but Thompson has a ton of value and potential as a third big man. A role he could like fill and exceed at with nearly any club at this point in time.  Chuck Hayes is the last big on the roster. Hayes is a 6’6 center. Hayes is a 6’6 center. (That was so you don’t have to re-read it. I wrote the second part of the double take for you, aren’t I generous?) Anyways, Hayes has some value in the short term, but in the long term probably isn’t in the teams’ plans.

We’ve discussed the bigs, and we’ve discussed the smalls. Now let’s delve into the one position on the court that should be called “tweener,” the small forward position. There are a good number of cases where teams will play an athletic four-man or a big shooting guard on the wing. Sacramento Seattle, though, has some interesting contracts. James Johnson could be valuable down the road as a back-up tweener who can play both forward spots. A la a fifth big. Nonetheless he is on an expiring contract and might sign for more cash elsewhere. Now we get to the ugly part. John Salmons and Travis Outlaw, while talented, might have the worst collective contracts in the NBA in terms of worth. Both guys are being paid a grand total of 33 million buckaroos over the next three years. Did I mention that they exchange Christmas cards with the Yankees every year?

I’m no GM, but if I were the Sonics’ GM (come on Chris Hansen, the Grizzlies hired Hollinger!!!)(To be fair, Hollinger created a fantastic stat, I have, well you know…) I’d try to unload Salmon’s and Outlaw’s collective contracts. Let Johnson walk and only resign him if his market value doesn’t get absurd in free agency. I’d trade Tyreke Evans (whom I forgot to mention due to the fact that he could bring in a hefty return in a trade. Other teams are apparently mystified with the enigma) for a great return. Sell Fredette’s rights to a Chinese team where he will not only break Quincy Douby’s newly-minted record for points in a game, but also shatter the record for most shots in a game, probably 65. Cut Tyler Honeycutt to open up roster space. Keep around Francisco Garcia until next year’s trade deadline and flip him for a solid return to a team looking to unload money. Keep the All-Seattle Area point guard pairing of Thomas and Brooks. And finally, move Thompson and Thornton to the bench as the team’s respective sixth and seventh men, start Robinson and find a legitimate shooting guard who isn’t on a crap contract.

The Kings are moving to Seattle. The Sonics are coming back. I cannot convey my excitement with another Super Mario Brothers impression, but I can convey my excitement without one. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!! Anyways, the Sonics are coming back. I’ll see you there opening night.