The Sacramento Kings have had an extremely entertaining and questionable offseason. The summer kicked off filled with drama over the availability of franchise big DeMarcus Cousins which resulted in strained relations between the front office and head coach George Karl after only a couple of months. Then Sacramento drafted Willie Cauley-Stein and fulfilled Cousins’ wishes of being able to play power forward. They proceeded to sign troublesome floor general Rajon Rondo to a one year deal worth up to $10 million. New GM Vlade Divac stayed aggressive and reportedly offered Orlando Magic forward a max contract which he went on to decline. Following from Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders:
“Hearing Tobias Harris received MAX offer from the Kings, strongly considered it. Appeal of staying in Orlando and a solid offer sealed deal”
Harris opted to stay in Orlando even though many thought that was a highly questionable move and wasn’t expected to be adjourning a Magic jersey at the start of next season. Harris chose long term success over more money something other stars, such as Carmelo Anthony, fail to see. He leads a very strong and a very young core in Orlando now, consisting of himself and guards Elfrid Payton and Victor Oladipo. They also nabbed young shooting stud Mario Hezonja in the draft a couple of weeks ago. The future looks bright in Orlando, especially considering that they’re in the substantially weaker Eastern Conference.
As for Sacramento, their offseason gets more and more interesting. If you’ve been keeping track, Harris is now the THIRD player to turn down more money from the Kings and sign elsewhere, following the lead of Wesley Matthews and Monta Ellis who joined the Mavericks and Pacers, respectively. The public drama surrounding the organization due to the Boogie Cousins saga clearly had an effect and they became known as one of the most dysfunctional organizations in the association.
