What should Sactown do?

[SactownHrtBrks8]

I say try to trade Artest and Thomas for expiring

If not just stand pat.

[AnDrOiDKing4]

Not sure about Bibby, if we can get Beno an extension then im all for it. Artest should be gone, he is a hell of a player, but we cant keep him here, he will bounce when his contract is up, Salmons/Garcia are good players and can fill in the role for Artest, but what that being said i like this team, good players, good depth, and nice leadership, if we can make a push we might give a team a scare in the playoffs.

[Flash3]

Trade Bibby. Keep Artest, and see if they can move Mikki Moore.

Still not sure why they even signed him to begin with....

[G35]

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All you need to say is "Calderon" and it's a done deal

That would be an awesome deal. Probably not going to happen but nice to dream.

The Kings have some nice players in Martin, Salmons, Garcia. Need to see if Hawes is going to develop.

Artest would be an awesome bargaining chip but he has so many issues imo. His personality and that he will be a FA at the end of the year cuts his value. I would probably stand pat unless a contender gives up a nice young player if they think Artest can put them over the top........

[sackings916]

Resign Artest and have Artest and Martin as your 2 main guys. Use other pieces like Bibby,Salmons,Garcia to upgrade PF.

[Rooster]

You forgot the poll option entitled "take an oil tanker's worth of gasoline to the roster, douse it in lighter fluid and then chuck a Molotov cocktail at the thing".

[dockingsched]

kings have a lot of talent on that roster. they're fortunate in that they can go any direction they want, they're unfortunate in that they simply can't keep things as is. i expect the kings to be relevant a lot sooner than people expect.

[KF10]

Yeah. Imagine if had this lineup healthy in the start of the season. This team should be the either the 6/7/8 seeds IMO...

Kings are 22-24... Considering the injuries, a new coach, and playing in the West...

[rpa]

If they can trade Bibby, for expirings and picks, thats $14.5 mil off their salary figure next year leaving them at ~54 milllion(not sure how much Martin is set to make next year). Additionally I believe Artest has a player option for 8.5 million that I likely see him not taking(opt out). They could potentially be under the cap by $10-11 making them a player in free agency this summer.

Not true actually. Given Moore's salary for next year and Martin's extension (kicks in next season) the Kings will be on the hook for around $51mil in salaries minus Bibby & Artest. Add in a cap hold for their 1st rounder and you're probably looking at $53mil. That means they'd have closer to $5mil in space (which means they'd have the MLE instead). And keep in mind this is all before you count the Kings' other free agents they'd probably like to keep: Udrih & Justin Williams.

For the Kings to have any real cap space next summer they'd have to unload more than just Artest and Bibby--namely Kenny Thomas. The problem then becomes finding enough teams with expiring contracts that are willing to trade them to the Kings. It's easy to say the Kings should trade Bibby for expiring contracts but most of the interested teams (Cleveland being the top option) don't have the expiring contracts to get it done. After doing some quick number crunching (nothing heavy), I can say that the following teams have the expiring contracts needed to get Bibby: GSW, Memphis, Miami, Minnesota, NY, Orlando, San Antonio, Washington. The same teams minus NY & Memphis have the expiring contracts to get Artest & Thomas. The problem, as you can see, is that the majority of these teams are in rebuild mode (Memphis, Miami, Minnesota) or they'd need to trade a talented player to make salaries meet (Washington--who's big expiring is Jamison).

My personal opinion is that the Kings should not go after expiring contracts. As stated there are too few teams with them (in amounts large enough to make a dent in the Kings' 08-09 team salary). Not only that but teams may be less willing to take on 2 extra years of Kenny Thomas as opposed to just 1 if the Kings got contracts that expire in the summer of 2009.

I think the Kings should do the following:

1) Try to dump Artest & Kenny Thomas before the trade deadline in exchange for 1 of the 2 following packages:
a) A combination of expiring & 1 year contracts (expiring summer 2009) and a decent 1st round draft pick.
b) The same as (a) but change the draft pick to a decent young guy the Kings can actually use longterm (read: not another SG/SF)

2) Keep Bibby around for the remainder of the season unless the Kings get a spectacularly stupid offer from another team. This serves 2 purposes:
a) It allows Bibby to show teams he can still play (he's only been back for 2 weeks so showing he can do it for another 2 months will give teams piece of mind--thereby upping his value)
b) It allows the Kings to wait until draft day to make a deal. Say the Cavs end up with a pick in the low 20s and a player that Petrie REALLY likes drops to that pick. At that point Petrie would have much more incentive to make the trade because he's getting a player he WANTS instead of merely a SHOT at a player he wants (getting the draft pick now). There's no way to predict things like this.

3) Trade Brad Miller this summer. He'll have a manageable 2 years left on his contract and he'll be coming off a VERY good year. I'd venture he ends this season averaging 15/10/4 along with great percentages, over 1 block a game, and slightly under a steal. Miller also becomes another piece that the Kings can use around draft time to obtain another pick or possibly move up in the draft to snag a player they have their eye on.

[realball]

Trade Artest. He's going to leave anyways, so why not. Bibby also has a bigger contract and is a less talented, more injury-prone player, so it's harder to lose him. Remember, the Kings have a decent replacement for Artest in Garcia and Salmons, but not for Bibby.

I say just send Artest where he wants, to the only team that would really take him... the Knicks. Trade him for Fred Jones' expiring and any combination of young players they'd like to send (I'd say either Collins/Chandler or Collins/Balkman), and dump an extra year off Kenny Thomas's contract for Malik Rose.

They can get a guard in the draft and use Bibby and Rose's expirings for some good pieces in the off-season.

[CITYOFANGELSX3]

You forgot the poll option entitled "take an oil tanker's worth of gasoline to the roster, douse it in lighter fluid and then chuck a Molotov cocktail at the thing".

Realistically, they should stay put. Let Bibby and Artest expire and get the cap room. Maybe trade kenny thomas, and they should by all means try to trade brad miller. They need to restart from stratch and build around Kevin Martin.

[YiYaoYue]

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Realistically, they should stay put. Let Bibby and Artest expire and get the cap room. Maybe trade kenny thomas, and they should by all means try to trade brad miller. They need to restart from stratch and build around Kevin Martin.

why let them expire when you can get ATLEAST draft picks for them???

[sacking123]

Artest doesnt need to be moved, but he is the perfect one on the squad to attatch KT with.
Expirings and a 1st round pick would be enough.
Trade Bibby for as many expirings as possible.
Lets say it was a bibby for 3 players, two of the contracts expire and 1 that is one year left.
Trade up in the draft to grab the best PG available (OJ mayo if possible) and sign Elton Brand with the cap space.
The nucleus of Brand, Miller, Moore, Hawes, SAR would be pretty good next year.
The Kings could effectively go into next season with a line-up of:
Mayo/Udrih/Douby
Martin/D. Jones?
Salmons/Garcia
Brand/Moore/SAR
Miller/Hawes
A very good mix of youth and experience
I have said this for a long time and I still think that Petrie will not trade Miller unless it is a GREAT trade for SAC.
Miller means too much to the development of Hawes.
In 2 more years when Brad is a $12 million expiring Hawes should be ready to take on the starters role and that expiring will be very handy.