Kings Off-Season Poll

[bleeds_purple]

Thought I'd poll the board to see what the consensus is.

[kalenclayton]

Voted ‘Neutral’, but I wish I put ‘Dissatisfied’.

I can’t help but feel underwhelmed and a bit disappointed with this offseason. We still have cap space and haven’t really made any splashy moves. This is a good and a bad thing. Vlade has decided that the core we have is the core moving forward. For better or for worse, this is our team. None of us know if any of the moves the Kings made were the right ones because we haven’t seen the product on the floor. That being said, we can grade the moves on the surface:

It all started with the draft. Many of us had Doncic as the pick for the Kings. I was one of those people. Just because we drafted Fox last year didn’t mean we couldn’t draft Luka. My opinion hasn’t changed. I believe that they could’ve coexisted and been successful, moreso than the guy we chose to go with. Now I don’t know how the conversations went between the agents, players, and Kings FO so I can’t say that the Kings made a terrible mistake here. For all we know, the perception of playing for the Kings hasn’t improved one bit and the Kings are still an awful team to play for in players’ eyes. I had Bamba, Doncic, and Jackson above or on the same tier as Bagley. Maybe those players (minus Luka) were absolutely not interested in playing for the Kings. I still would’ve wanted to take a chance on those guys, but I get going for the guy who embraces the city of Sacramento. His fit is ok, but he comes with large question marks. He has a ton of things to work on, but I have no doubt that he will be working on his game from day 1. He wants to be great and that’s what the team needs. It hurts that he pick wasn’t Luka, but Bagley wasn’t a bad pick.
Bagley at #2: C+

We then had a high 2nd rounder. I studied a lot of the guys in the draft and ultimately had my eyes on a few of them for the Kings. I wanted De’Anthony Melton so badly. I didn’t care that we had plenty of guards. He has a unique package that can allows him to guard 1-3 even at a small size. Most of the other guys I had my eyes on were taken, but there were still a few available at our pick. There was Khyri Thomas (I know, another guard), Bruce Brown (yawn... guard), Keita Bates-Diop (yay SF), Isaac Bonga, and Rodions Kurucs. I wanted any of these guys because they could’ve become something nice. I get the idea of having too many mouths to feed though, so I understand not going for the USA guys. The left Bonga and Kurucs. Stashing a player sounded really appealing, but Kurucs was set on coming over. That left Bonga. I thought this would been tremendous because we could stash this kid while he develops. He has such a unique raw skillset. Ultimately, we passed on this option and traded our pick for future 2nds. I can’t really be mad because we gained more assets. I can’t really be happy either...
Traded #37 for 2 future 2nds: C

We traded Garrett Temple...
I really like what Temple brings on and especially off the court. He’s such a positive voice and a great person in the community. That being said, I didn’t see the Kings retaining him after this season. They had to weigh the option of keeping him for one more year of mentoring or moving him. They went for the latter and actually extracted a future asset out of him. This surprised me and actually appears to be really savvy. I got the suspicion that Temple wanted to move to a new team after being told the team would be moving toward the young guys more this season. That’s why he took so long to accept his PO. He needs playing time to show his worth for his next contract. He wasn’t going to get that with the Kings. I can’t fault him for accepting his PO. When he did that, the Kings decided to move him to a team that could play him while picking up Ben McLemore ( ), Deyonta Davis (cool?), and a future 2nd ( ). That’s a pretty decent haul for someone who was likely being looked at as a neutral asset. I hate to see Temple go, but this was absolutely the right move to make.
Garrett trade: B+

Signing Nemanja Bjelica doesn’t look like a bad move on the surface. I actually think he will be a good addition. I’m still learning his game, as I was only familiar with him from the games he played against the Kings. He looked talented and I thought he could probably help any team in the league. That being said, I saw him as a 4 and this team already has plenty of those. I’ve asked a few Wolves fans about his work as a 3 and they liked what they saw. Hopefully this is something we will see moving forward, but I won’t hold my breath. He looks like a 4 to me. He’s on a decent-good contract, so I can’t really be mad though. Team fit is where this gets dinged.
Bjelica: C+

Signing Yogi Ferrell was a good move. I think he will fit in nicely as the backup PG and push Frank Mason to improve or falter. His contract is terrific and I can’t help but think this is the best move of the offseason. We picked up a player who upgrades a position of need and we did so on the cheap. Fantastic signing!
Ferrell: A

So... it looks like I rated our moves neutral to positive. My issue comes up to roster construction. This team needs perimeter defense in the worst way. It was one of our weakest areas last year and frankly it’s been bad for over a decade. We had many options to remedy that and we just didn’t execute. Maybe our remaining $10million will end up solving this problem. Maybe not. Maybe Iman Shumpert balls out in a contract year and ends up being our SF. I don’t know. I just know that the weak perimeter defense hurts every single player in the present and the future. Players will lose their guy and force the big guys to help over and over. While this helps with help defense, it doesn’t allow for confidence boosts or continuity. It keeps the big men on edge. It wouldn’t be that big of a deal if we had a defensive anchor in the paint, but we don’t have that. Opposing teams will keep on intimidating our defense until we put someone out there who stops that. I don’t think we have that guy though.

[BoogieTime]

Draft and free agency as of now are a straight D (for determining Vlade chances of remaining)

I thought the team was poised for the first time in awhile to acquire a legitimate, positive young starter piece. Either through FA or trade. Team had a lot of cap, and not a lot of competition in terms of cap dollars. Not to take away from Yogi/Bjelica, who are solid role players, but I for the first time in awhile thought we could acquire a very good piece. A lot less movement happened than I expected, with not a lot of luxury tax teams evidently feeling the need to deal quality for cap, and a lot of the RFAs staying put, but if you told me before the summer we’d just acquire a few role players I wouldn’t have been happy.

Bagley, and admittedly I didn’t have a problem with him predraft as a prospect, was the most disappointing prospect in SL by many senior writers

So at this point, we drafted the most disappointing player in SL and came up with a few role players when I wanted homeruns in draft/FA

[City of Trees]

Realizing you cant fix everything in one offseason: satisfied, but acknowledging more work is to be done.

[City of Trees]

Alright guys I'm checking out. Football season is here. I'll be back for NBA preseason. Have a good summer.

Sent from my LG-H872 using RealGM mobile app

[KF10]

Overall -- dissatisfied.

- Bagley over Doncic -- I like Bagley but not over Doncic.
- During the anticipation of the 2018 Draft, the Kings were awful in keeping a secret in selecting Bagley at 2. A lot of people here thought Vlade was doing this "Jedi-mind trick, mastermind smokescreen" but in reality, Bagley was the pick weeks before the draft. We saw it coming and tried to rationalize it as something else.
- The Kings infatuation with MPJ leading up to the draft was gross.
- Offering LaVine major $$$
- Was unable to accumulate assets via cap space
- The Kings prioritizing next year summer over this summer when the Kings are the top team in cap space this year. Next year, at least twice as many or more will have as much cap space than the Kings in the incoming off-season. Felt like a wasted opportunity.
- SF position is a relatively bleak hole.
- Outside of the two signings, this is the same team as last year. So, no noticeable improvement/change going into this season.
- Still no 2019 FRP.