Sorry Kings Fans

Over the last couple of seasons the Sacramento Kings general manager, Geoff Petrie, has done a solid job of rebuilding the organization. The win total is still not impressive or even close to impressive, but Petrie has put the organization in a position to make drastic improvements. He has brought in cornerstones like Tyreke Evans and Jason Thompson in the last two drafts. He also traded Kevin Martin, which I thought was essential. I was one of the people that didn't think Kevin Martin and Tyreke Evans could coexist. I've come across many Kings fans who swear they could, but their record with Martin and without says otherwise. They were 4-18 with Martin and 14-18 without. I may be wrong, but evidence suggests that it couldn't work. Apparently Petrie felt the same way. In that trade they also got Carl Landry, who might be the best big on the roster.

With that trade, and other cost cutting moves over the last couple of seasons, the Kings have given themselves financial flexibility to sign free agents in the upcoming offseason. They will also have another high lottery pick. Things are looking bright for the Kings.

But wait.

Read some of these quotes from Chris Bosh and Jarrett Jack regarding signing with the Kings.

A fan yelled at Bosh, after a first-quarter timeout, to ask if he might sign with Sacramento.

"Hell no!" said Bosh in a disgusted reply.

The same fan continued his inquires into the third quarter, which eventually elicited a reply from Jack.

"Ain’t nobody coming here," Jack said. "Nobody even knows it’s in California."

Ouch.

Edit: I know I said, "Sorry Kings fans," but the truth is nobody would want to sign with the Warriors either even if they had cap space. At least the Kings have options other than signing a marquee free agent.

Plan B: Use that cap space and do what the Thunder did this season. They acquired Eric Maynor, who was the 20th pick in the draft from the Jazz by also taking the expiring contract of Matt Harpring so that the Jazz could avoid the luxury tax threshold. The Thunder only had to trade the rights to Peter Fehse, who was a 2nd round draft pick of the Sonics in 2002 and has never played in the NBA. The Thunder essentially traded nothing for an extra first round pick because they were under the cap and able to take on Harpring's salary. Highway robbery. By doing this trade, the Jazz saved around 13 million dollars (6.5 million salary + 6.5 million penalty for going over the luxury tax).

This is all possible because when a team is under the salary cap, salaries do not have to match in a trade. The Bobcats did this when they traded for Jason Richardson. The Clippers did this when they traded for Marcus Camby.

*Paging Mr. Petrie* Corey Maggette is available!

This brings me to my question: do the Warriors or Kings have a brighter future? I think that the Warriors have a more talented roster with the potential to be better, but the Kings actually have a competent front office led by one of the best general managers in the NBA with financial flexibility to boot.