The Sacramento Kings are getting set to begin their 2016-17 season in the brand new ‘Golden 1 Center’. While their new arena might be state of the art, their team is not quite on the same level. Despite having one of the best players in the NBA in DeMarcus Cousins, the team around him is less than stellar.
There’s just a myriad of issues, with an often disgruntled DeMarcus Cousins being at the root of it all. They have too many centers on the roster. Their draft was very questionable. Projected starting point guard Darren Collison has been suspended after a domestic violence incident. Starting forward Rudy Gay is seemingly done with the organization and Ben McLemore has been the topic of recent trade rumors. So what’s the next move for the Kings? Nothing. They want to stand strong and roll into the season with their roster just how it is constructed at the moment.
Kings General manager was recently a guest on Sirius XM NBA and he says both Gay and McLemore aren’t going anywhere.
Divac said the following about Gay:
Just joking around the other day, I apologized for him to – I said, “We like you so much, that’s why we decided to keep you here.” Rudy is a tremendous talent. He’s somebody that is beautiful to watch, the way he plays. We think Rudy is a big, big part of this team to be successful. So, we decide to go with him. And if he decides to stay next year, that’s great. If he decides to leave, that’s fine. But we want to make sure we compete this year.
And also shed light on McLemore:
It’s part of business. You’re going to receive a lot of calls. You’re going to make a lot of calls. We are very happy with Ben, the way he’s progressing this summer. He’s a very young player that we – like I said – we like a lot. So, we’re going to keep him.
Both players are likely to hit free agency this summer so the Kings might be smart to get some value for them. The thing is, what can they get? Ben McLemore is young, bouncy and is a pretty good shooter from three but besides that, there are holes in his game. He’s pretty bad defensively and can’t play much outside of a rim-running three-point shooter. He has room to grow though and has shown signs of improvement. Just not fast enough.
Rudy Gay’s value is very diminished at this point in his career. He’s a scorer but he’s also a ball stopper who doesn’t particularly shoot the ball well from three-point range, can’t play bigger or smaller really well and he has a weird thing that follows him. Every team he leaves gets better and every team he goes to, gets worse. It’s just a thing with him and it would be hard for teams to welcome him with open arms unless someone is in a tough spot.
It’s important to note, DeMarcus Cousins is a free agent in two years. It might actually be time to make some progress.
