Up Next, Free Agency...And We Need A PG.

Post #1 » by **KingInExile** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 4:38 am

Beno wants a butt load of money, more than he may really be worth long term for the Kings. And as of now, our PG prospects consist of Douby (question marks galore), Salmons (if we have to), Garcia (see Salmons) and our 2nd round pick, Sean Singletary. While Singletary may be an interesting prospect long term, he won't (shouldn't) be an option as a starter next year. The Kings need options and Free Agency may be the place to find that option. The options are:

Unrestricted Free Agents (our most likely pool)
Anthony Johnson
Beno Udrih
Chris Duhon
Jason Hart
Anthony Carter
Carlos Arroyo
Tyronn Lue
Kevin Ollie
Sam Cassell
Smush Parker
Darrell Armstrong
Earl Boykins
Dan Dickau
Damon Stoudamire
Jason Williams
Royal Ivey
Lindsey Hunter

The ones we probably won't have a shot at

Restricted Free Agents
Shaun Livingston
Sebastian Telfair

Players who can still be restricted with Qualifying Offer
Jose Calderon
Louis Williams
Daniel Gibson
Andre Owens
Chris Quinn
Blake Ahearn
Juan Jose Barea

Players Who Can Opt-Out (generally long shots)
Gilbert Arenas
Baron Davis
Stephon Marbury
Jacque Vaughn
Steve Francis
Jannero Pargo

So the question is, who can help the team short term or long term? Do we look for long term help or a stop-gap until someone else comes along?

Also, how much should the Kings spend on this? Do we break the bank with a full MLE (or more), or do we spend as little as necessary to just make it by this year?

Post #2 » by **pillwenney** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 4:47 am

I think Livingston and Telfair would both possibly be very easy to acquire--it's just a matter of whether or not they are really the guys we should be looking at.

I think I remember hearing that Pargo will opt out. If we can't keep Beno, I think he may be the best option to look at if he wants a starting job somewhere.

UKF · Post #3 » by **UKF** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:04 am

I say we give Telfair or Livingston a shot, and see what they can do.

I would rather us trade Ron for a PG, but that may be hard to do...

Post #4 » by **pillwenney** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:09 am

UKF wrote:I say we give Telfair or Livingston a shot, and see what they can do.

I would rather us trade Ron for a PG, but that may be hard to do...

There just aren't many available right now. The only thing I could see would be to Houston for a Landry S&T and Brooks.

VeeJay24 · Post #5 » by **VeeJay24** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:17 am

You left Monta Ellis off the list. Who we probably have no chance of getting; nevertheless, he is a restricted FA.

I think the Kings will have to take a flyer on one of these young guys and see what happens

Maybe a LIvingston or Louis Williams

SacKingZZZ · Post #6 » by **SacKingZZZ** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:18 am

mitchweber wrote:
UKF wrote:I say we give Telfair or Livingston a shot, and see what they can do.

I would rather us trade Ron for a PG, but that may be hard to do...

There just aren't many available right now. The only thing I could see would be to Houston for a Landry S&T and Brooks.

I don't think we have room for Landry. In fact, WE DON'T HAVE ROOM FOR LANDRY!

Telfair is pointless, Anthony Johnson > Telfair. Livingston has doubts surrounding him that he will ever play again. I remember reading that he still needs 90 minutes of treatment to even get on the practice floor.

Juan Jose Barea may be an interesting dark horse. I like his game and he fits into the, "he whooped the Kings ass when they played him so he must play for them" club.

I still think when looking at the options Beno is the best fit. I can't see another team matching a full MLE offer which I think is OK for a stop gap solution at this point. If you are looking for top notch PG prospects, floating around in mediocrity trying to scrounge up an 8th seed beatdown isn't going to get it done. Learned that one the hard way this year. Then again, I think next year is the year. There are a ton of good young gaurds in next years lottery pool.

VeeJay24 · Post #7 » by **VeeJay24** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:21 am

Also, the Grizz will almost definitely be looking to move Lowry or Conley

Smills91 · Post #8 » by **Smills91** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:24 am

Honestly, our best bet is via trade. I think Hinrich is definitely someone we should target.

VeeJay24 · Post #9 » by **VeeJay24** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:25 am

SacKingZZZ wrote:
mitchweber wrote:
UKF wrote:I say we give Telfair or Livingston a shot, and see what they can do.

I would rather us trade Ron for a PG, but that may be hard to do...

There just aren't many available right now. The only thing I could see would be to Houston for a Landry S&T and Brooks.

I don't think we have room for Landry. In fact, WE DON'T HAVE ROOM FOR LANDRY!

Telfair is pointless, Anthony Johnson > Telfair. Livingston has doubts surrounding him that he will ever play again. I remember reading that he still needs 90 minutes of treatment to even get on the practice floor.
Juan Jose Barea may be an interesting dark horse. I like his game and he fits into the, "he whooped the Kings ass when they played him so he must play for them" club.

I still think when looking at the options Beno is the best fit. I can't see another team matching a full MLE offer which I think is OK for a stop gap solution at this point. If you are looking for top notch PG prospects, floating around in mediocrity trying to scrounge up an 8th seed beatdown isn't going to get it done. Learned that one the hard way this year. Then again, I think next year is the year. There are a ton of good young gaurds in next years lottery pool.

There is an injury risk but he has been cleared to start playing again.

VeeJay24 · Post #10 » by **VeeJay24** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:26 am

Smills91 wrote:Honestly, our best bet is via trade. I think Hinrich is definitely someone we should target.

Exactly!!!!!

rpa · Post #11 » by **rpa** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:31 am

None of the PGs we could acquire at this point can be considered top quality PGs. TJ Ford was on the end of that list IMO and that train has come and gone. Throwing money at anyone who's available is either:
a) A waste of time
b) A waste of future cap room

Also, one thing I saw that was interesting. During ESPN's draft coverage they marked Beno as a restricted free agent. Probably wrong, but it just stuck out to me.

As for our options, I think we have 3 fairly specific options:
1) We hold the fort down with a stop gap (be it Salmons, Garcia, Singletary, whoever) and hope that we can pick up a good PG prospect in next years draft. Possible PGs in next years draft: Jennings, Rubio, & Lawson (the first 2 being much better than Lawson at this point) along with some decent late picks like Eric Maynor (remember his good tourney performance(s)) and Collison.
2) We put off our PG search for 1-2 years and look to catch 1 in free agency. Obviously there's next to no chance that we'd get a Paul or a Williams in free agency but there's always a chance for some decent players.
3) Get one via trade. If Artest decides to stay the Kings COULD pick up a decent PG with a low value by using Artest as the bait (as opposed to trying to use him to get rid of Kenny Thomas). Targets would include: Hinrich or Felton (who may be on the block with Augustin getting drafted), among others.

To be perfectly honest, I'd love for the Kings to go after Hinrich. He's a great example of buying low.

SacTown Kings · Post #12 » by **SacTown Kings** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:34 am

The only pg on that list that are somewhat appealing are Beno and Duhon and I would rather have Beno. I would be ok giving him the full MLE, I think he will still have trade value down the road if we want to trade him later on after we find our pg for the future (like in this next year's draft).

Post #13 » by **KF10** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:35 am

Yeah, at this point we have to use Artest or Miller for trade bait IMO. Hinrich could be the guy for Sac. A Hinrich/Martin combo is not bad at all.

SacTown Kings · Post #14 » by **SacTown Kings** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:37 am

Or we could let Beno walk and start Salmons at the pg and keep Artest around at the sf position. That way we keep Artest and Salmons is happy because he is starting. If we are going to be using the princeton offense then we really don't need a pass first type point guard anyways.

SacKingZZZ · Post #15 » by **SacKingZZZ** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:49 am

SacTown Kings wrote:Or we could let Beno walk and start Salmons at the pg and keep Artest around at the sf position. That way we keep Artest and Salmons is happy because he is starting. If we are going to be using the princeton offense then we really don't need a pass first type point guard anyways.

Then we are guaranteed to continue our fluttering in mediocrity and Salmons won't ever get the ball back so I don't know how happy he'd be. We've all seen Ron, Martin, and Salmons on the floor together and John is as invisible as ever with that lineup. The only plus for the outlook is that we may be about 5 games worse and might jump up to as far as the 9th-10th pick next year. yay....That lineup just doesn't fit together. Sure it's quite talented but it just doesn't fit.

Salmons is not even a short term answer at PG. Whether we are trying to win or develop he just isn't. If we go young I wouldn't mind to give Singletary a shot. He did show some stuff in college and could be ready to play right away. He's small but so what, at least he can shoot.

Post #16 » by **KingInExile** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:57 am

VeeJay24 wrote:You left Monta Ellis off the list. Who we probably have no chance of getting; nevertheless, he is a restricted FA.

I think the Kings will have to take a flyer on one of these young guys and see what happens

Maybe a LIvingston or Louis Williams

Monta mostly plays at the 2, which is why he's not on the list (just limited to guys who are primarily points). I guess he could be an option as a combo, but it's probably a long shot that the Ws will let him go for cheep.

SacKingZZZ · Post #17 » by **SacKingZZZ** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 6:00 am

Yeah, I think Ellis should be left off the list. He's also not a very good fit for the rest of our team.

Post #18 » by **KingInExile** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 6:01 am

Smills91 wrote:Honestly, our best bet is via trade. I think Hinrich is definitely someone we should target.

We're certainly going to get a better player via trade. I just was looking for options if we can't work a trade and needed to go the FA route.

SactownHrtBrks8 · Post #19 » by **SactownHrtBrks8** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 7:00 am

Are best bet is to either resign Beno, or try to get Jason Williams for a 2 year deal until we can re-address our PG situation or try to get someone like Duhon for Free Agency. Otherwise we will have to trade Artest/Salmons/ or Garcia for a legit PG. Most likely it would be Artest

Ballings7 · Post #20 » by **Ballings7** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 7:59 am

I'd love to get Lowry, Conley, Duhon, Crittenton, or Hinrich... 2nd-tier... Watson, Ridnour

think Duhon may prefer to go to a playoff team. I just love Duhon's game though, and he's proven he can start in this league several times with the Bulls.

I'd take Duhon over Beno. Duhon's not as good a scorer, but can shoot out to three and can drive, is a very good defender (one of the best defensive PGs in the league, and can guard bigger wings for bits, possessions because of his strength), better than usual rebounder for a PG, and is a pretty steady play-maker. Just a solid, tough guard. My kind of player.

He'd be the best defensive PG we've had since B-Jax, maybe even better because he's bigger, mass-wise.

And hey, he'd also know Shelden from their Duke days. I'd be surprised if Shelden doesn't come into camp in better shape/lighter, too.

Crittenton or Conley would be the overall best options because they're the most skilled, and the youngest. Crittenton especially, who I don't see succeeding in Memphis until they get clarity with their PG situation. I'd love to be able to get Crittenton... he was my #2 guy after Hawes in the draft last year. Just love his ability, athleticism, and up-side on both ends. Above-average size, too.