RealGM

Since we all pretty much agreed that the boards have been pretty slow...

ive been a reader for like a year or 2...

i decided to try my hand at posting...

what i wanna know is what it might take...looking at our current roster and assuming everyone is healthy...to make this team a championship caliber team?

ive seen a couple posts where people say this team is on the rise from our peak slump of last year and that we are pretty close to having our "franchise" team set and ready for the next 10-15 years.

i also wanna know how long it would take to get those few "tweaks" that would give us a championship level team

so basically...

when do you guys see us returning to the conference finals and possibly playing for championships?

honestly...

i think we need a defensive energy guy off the bench... like dante jones or a bowen type or maybe even a big guy wit energy like birdman

then when we get rid of useless players and get our energy bench guy and garcia turns into a specific role instead of trying to play 3 positions...we could possibly be competing for a championship in the 2011/12 season

Welcome to the posting world! It's great to see new blood start off with a solid, thought-provoking post.

In my mind the Kings are a minimum of 3 years, more likely closer to 5 years, away from being serious contenders again. And that is not a statement about the talent the team has, it has more to do with the fact that the young guys on the team need that much time to mature into competitive NBA talent. What I believe the team lacks the most is veteran leadership. One of the young guys needs to step up and fill that role.

I do agree that the team could use a birdman-like big off the bench...a banger how is not afraid of contact, will get rebounds and will bother shots in the paint. I think Garcia actually is that "defensive energy guy off the bench" you talked about. But as you said, he needs to be used in a role (that role) rather than try to be a jack of all trades. I often envision Garcia in the Doug Christie type role and think that he CAN be that Bowen-type guy off the bench.

All in all I think the talent is basically there, outside of some obvious tweaks to improve depth. The biggest holes are really maturity and leadership. Those holes will take time to fill.

Another year or two fighting for that number 1 pick, a trade for a legit superstar, or Tyreke becoming the next Magic Johnson. Oh, and most importantly a team that you look at on paper and say, "yep, that makes sense".

I still think our GM is what he is, and he's going to bring in the types of players that suit him, which according to many around these parts, aren't the types of players you typically build a contender with. He did get pretty dang close back in the day though. As I've said for awhile, getting the right coach for him is of utmost importance, hopefully Westphal is somewhere in that area.

What do we need to become a championship contender? A true star. We have a great #2/#3 option in Martin, and a couple younger guys with a lot of potential. Championship teams are built around stars though, and we don't have one yet.

The greatest chance you have to find stars are by having top 10 picks in the draft. Even then it is always hit-or-miss, but the number of stars that change hands via free agency and trades is minuscule. It happens at times, as it did with us getting Webber, but you can't exactly count on it or plan for it. Evans is the closest thing we have had in a long time to a guy with star potential, and it is no coincidence we got him via a top-5 pick in the draft.

It will be refreshing this year to watch the young talent play and develop. We will certainly win some more games, and at least it feels like the team has a direction this year. Unlike this year, the lottery balls hopefully will fall more in our favor. That way if Evans doesn't develop into a superstar, we get another chance at striking it rich and drafting one.

Petrie doesn't know playoffs? The 15 years before Petrie got here we were .500 zero times and made the playoffs only 2 times. Since he arrived he rebuilt the Kings into above .500 and playoffs in 7 out of the last 12 years. If not for the money tied to back to back with our franchise players Webber and Shareef career ending injuries making the Maloofs force out Bibby, Petrie's would still be in the playoffs. The Maloofs running off Adelman hurt the run.

But Petrie had to rebuild the past 5 seasons with us strapped financially and he has put together a team with explosive firepower everywhere on the court. Evans is the clutchness and a high scoring low assists PG like Bibby, Martin is the Peja like outside scorer, Thompson is unstoppable scoring PF who can rebound like Webber, and Hawes is the great shooting and passing C like Vlade. This team is modeled after the great Kings team and this year will be more fireworks.

The young team stuff is a myth since Portland had 3 starters last year with less than 2 years and was the #4 team in the playoffs, what matters more in your success is your coaching. Petrie was finally allowed to get a quality coach in Westphal who has a better win % than even Adelman. The Kings are much better than everyone thinks this year because they finally have a great young core along with a couple vets. May was brought in to bang, Nocioni to defend, and Garcia, Beno, Greene to score off the bench. Casspi is supposed to be a bigger and younger Nocioni so he will come around most likely as a defender. There is vet leadership now because the have Noc, Martin, Garcia, and May have more than 5 years.

This team was only so bad last year because of the terrible Natt coaching last year and Theus was a bad fit with Petrie. The year before they almost made the playoffs with Theus who is not as good a coach as Adelman or Westphal got nearly to .500 with a Beno/Martin/Miller/Moore roster. Adelman will most likely get near .500 out of a Artest/McGrady/Yao less team this year. There is no way a Westphal lead Kings team does not get close to .500.

I'm with KIE on this.

If you look at the point in time when we bacame contenders in the early part of this decade, nobody in the top 7 players had less than 5 years time in the NBA. This is traditionally how things go. Portland last year is a poor example. #1 they not only somewhat overachieved (like NO the year before), they also caught a break with the sudden steep dropoff of Phoenix/NO, and the injury plagued seasons that LAC/Utah had. Also, GS had been a playoff level team. They were not in any way shape or form anything CLOSE to a contender despite their seeding.

The only time that teams whose top players are not vets are contenders is when there are at leasst 4-6 key vet starters/top reserves around those young guys (like Orlando last year or back when they had Shaq and Penny - or LAL with Shaq/Koobe). It's just how it is in the pros. You have to have a number of guys who have been to the wars, no the pain of losing, and have learned how to win to get it done. Look at the Lakers two years ago against the Celts. They got their rear ends handed to them despite having the best single player WITH championship experience in Kobe. They just had too many yong guys who had not been there before. The changed last year because they had learned wht it took to get it done.

I agree with those here also who say that we are still needing another top 10 NBA talent. Whether through draft, signing or trade, that has to happen along with the maturing and developing of our current core.

My guess is that we will see at least one if not two major impact trades happen over the next 6 months to 2 years that will change the face of this franchise once again. This will only happen though if the Maloofs are OK with oopening up the wallet once again to pay the guys who will get us there.