Maloof to Theus: PLAY YOUNGSTERS!!!!!!ONEone!1!

[deNIEd]

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Or because that's kind of the natural inclination of people that compete for a living.

Riley? Pop a while back?
Look at the heat, pretty much their entire 9 man rotation are DL alumni.

Moving up 2 spots in the draft is huge. Look at pretty much all the previous drafts, and you always hit a level where talent drops off significantly. At 12th, chances of a good/great player to slip to you are extremely low, but at 10, possibly 8 it gets a lot better. At 8, chances of even landing a top 3 pick actually becomes a possibility, not a mere dream.

However, people are much more naturaly inclined to try new things if the possibilty of failure is eliminated. If all you are doing is fearing that you will lose a job, you will go with the safe bet, but if that uncertainty isn't there, you can and will be up for trying different things a lot more. A poker player who is 5th or 6th in chips at a 8 man table, is much less likely to gamble than a player who is in 1st or 2nd in chip count.

Maloofs need to let Thesus know, that this year, 07-08 is not the year they will judge him on, and instead, they will give him another 1-2 years to judge him. And it isn't how well he does, but how well he improves the team, and the direction they are heading.

[KingInExile]

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And Mikki Moore is a mediocre non-rebounding PF, we had 2 of those already... (not to knock Mikki, I think he is a better fit than Reef and Kenny for the lineup we have, just trying to prove a point )

What you said may be spot on, he may not fill a need on the Kings but playing your young player is also about building up their value. They aren't a Kenny Thomas where they have a big contract weighing down their value to other teams. They are easily movable contractually, until you have to re-sign them to an extension that is. And it just so happens that resigning time isn't too far away.

I don't recall seeing Reef or Thomas on the floor for most of this season...why are they even in this conversation?

Uh, you do know Williams is like already had a summer, and um, more than a few years of college to develop, right?

Let's not forget that he has had 1 season with the Hawks before coming here. How successful have the Hawks been in developing all of the young talent they have gleaned from their century in the lottery? Shelden needs time to develop under a staff that actually has a clue about what they are doing.

How do you earn minutes in 3 minute stretches? Justin Williams was the kind of player to put up big numbers in small spurts, he is a hustle big through and through and even he apparently didn't "earn" minutes. Shelden is more of a flow of the game type of player, 3 minutes here and there that add up to 7 at the end of the night is pointless. Might as well just waive the guy.

Justin is a perfect example of a player fans woefully overrate because of his athleticism while ignoring his lack of overall skill. Sure he could block and dunk...but that's about it. Even going back to last summer Theus made comments about how he thought Justin would be a benefit to the team's interior, but that benefit needed to include improvement to his overall game. It was Justin's responsibility to do what he needed to do to improve and that really didn't happen. I guess all we have to do to see what we are missing due to cutting Justin is to look at his success with the Rockets...oh, wait...they cut him as well (or didn't re-up a 10-day for him).

In that case we traded Mike Bibby for nothing. Literally... nothing.

Go ahead and think the Kings got nothing for Bibby. It just shows your ignorance.

[Hawks]

How successful have the Hawks been at developing their players? Well Marvin,Chill, and Smith have improved each year in the league. They just needed someone to lead them. Bibby and JJ are doing just that. Horford came in ready for the NBA. Law has shown signs of playing well. Everytime he start playing well he would get injured. That would set him back.

Overall our track record of developing players is actually quite good here of late. We have had little luck of developing 2nd round picks. Diaw was a lost cause here. Shelden just never seem to fit in. No matter how much I try to believe that he would turn it around. It just never happen. I am just glad we got a player like Bibby for him to lead this young roster.

[SadKingsFan]

10 games left and were talking about how valuable it would be for 2 players to get playing time? Come one now, Read the damn article people. The maloofs said they were not critiscizing him, but just asking for him to cut some of the veterans minutes.

Why is everyone making such a big deal, douby just inst very good and shelden williams doesnt seem like someone i would want starting for us although i do think he should get increased minutes. I am so tired of people saying "youngsters" like we have this incredible young team.

[SacKingZZZ]

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Go ahead and think the Kings got nothing for Bibby. It just shows your ignorance.

What did we get?

All I see is a salary dump if we don't develop Shelden. How does that help this team become better NOW if we are focusing on the group we have. You never dump your 3rd best player if you are looking to compete. At least get something you can use.

[SacKingZZZ]

10 games left and were talking about how valuable it would be for 2 players to get playing time? Come one now, Read the damn article people. The maloofs said they were not critiscizing him, but just asking for him to cut some of the veterans minutes.

Why is everyone making such a big deal, douby just inst very good and shelden williams doesnt seem like someone i would want starting for us although i do think he should get increased minutes. I am so tired of people saying "youngsters" like we have this incredible young team.

When you look at it, it really isn't all that bad. Kevin and Cisco have already established themselves to a degree, Spencer is looking like he can develop into something pretty nice, plus the lotto pick we get this year. See that's another thing. I don't want to see this trend of mediocrity continue because it will be yet another lotto pick, that makes 3!, stuck on the bench so we can win somewhere around 30-35 games and gain the respect that every 10th seed team covets.

[pillwenney]

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What did we get?

All I see is a salary dump if we don't develop Shelden. How does that help this team become better NOW if we are focusing on the group we have. You never dump your 3rd best player if you are looking to compete. At least get something you can use.

It was about a salary dump mostly--about getting under the luxury tax because regardless of whether or not we're "looking" to compete, the fact of the matter is that this team was not worth going into the lux. tax for.

[Ballings7]

Kevin: "Yeah, we are trying to win"

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When you look at it, it really isn't all that bad. Kevin and Cisco have already established themselves to a degree, Spencer is looking like he can develop into something pretty nice, plus the lotto pick we get this year. See that's another thing. I don't want to see this trend of mediocrity continue because it will be yet another lotto pick, that makes 3!, stuck on the bench so we can win somewhere around 30-35 games and gain the respect that every 10th seed team covets.

This is my biggest fear for the kings, and it seems like a very possible reality.

Our team, never really improving...maybe this year we win 5 more games, next year we lose 4 more, the years continue on...

[pillwenney]

It's just a different way of doing things. If we tanked, we'd lose more games, and would continue to lose more games for several years until our young guys developed.

[SacKingZZZ]

It's just a different way of doing things. If we tanked, we'd lose more games, and would continue to lose more games for several years until our young guys developed.

Yeah, now we just get to watch our young guys never truly develop (don't forget, there's plenty more lotto picks in our future regardless) while our "stars" get old or so tired of losing they demand a trade. There's a reason "rebuilding" teams do it a certain way. Like I said before, if we aren't rebuilding get Ron, Brad, and Kevin some help!!!

[SacKingZZZ]

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It was about a salary dump mostly--about getting under the luxury tax because regardless of whether or not we're "looking" to compete, the fact of the matter is that this team was not worth going into the lux. tax for.

I don't think it was. It sounds more and more like they really like Shelden and if they were looking for a salary dump/flexibility they wouldn't have included him in the deal. They could have saved themselves about 7 million this year and next by just not putting him in the deal.

[pillwenney]

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Yeah, now we just get to watch our young guys never truly develop (don't forget, there's plenty more lotto picks in our future regardless) while our "stars" get old or so tired of losing they demand a trade. There's a reason "rebuilding" teams do it a certain way. Like I said before, if we aren't rebuilding get Ron, Brad, and Kevin some help!!!

Well we define "truly develop" differently. I look at "truly developing" as earning playing time by working on your game--not just getting entitlement minutes. Not every thing can be learned with game experience. Sometimes developing takes practice, not just making the same mistakes over and over again in a game.

And there's a reason that Petrie does things a certain way as well. He knows what he's doing. It may not be the same way everyone rebuilds, but we just have to have patience--and yes that means for a number of years. We are rebuilding now, we're just doing it differently.

I don't think it was. It sounds more and more like they really like Shelden and if they were looking for a salary dump/flexibility they wouldn't have included him in the deal. They could have saved themselves about 7 million this year and next by just not putting him in the deal.

We would not have done that deal if we weren't in danger of going into the luxury tax next year. That was the important part of the deal. As long as we could get sufficiently under the tax, the rest of it really wouldn't matter. I have no doubt that Geoff and co. like Shelden, but I can guarantee that no deal would have been made if it were Shelden and a bunch of non-expiring contracts.

[longfellow44]

Honestly I would prefer that Shelden and Hawes did get their entitlement minutes. That would mean that we move mikki because all he is is a stop gap guy thats taking up a roster slot, he shouldn't be starting.

I also think that Petrie outside of drafting Hawes hasn't had a really clear plan for a while. He's trying to have us half ass compete and rebuild at the same time.

What we need to do is to have a clear plan and stop wasting talent on the bench.

Salmons- Use him as a 6th man kind of role or move him.
Garcia- 6th man role or move him or Start him.
Artest- Commit to him and move one of Salmons or Garcia, or trade him and start one of the other two guys.
Plain and simple we are wasting talent on our bench.

[SacKingZZZ]

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We would not have done that deal if we weren't in danger of going into the luxury tax next year. That was the important part of the deal. As long as we could get sufficiently under the tax, the rest of it really wouldn't matter. I have no doubt that Geoff and co. like Shelden, but I can guarantee that no deal would have been made if it were Shelden and a bunch of non-expiring contracts.

Of course not, the fact that the Kings wanted expirings was well in the public "know" for a long time, but the Kings wouldn't have had Shelden included if they didn't have interest in him.

Oh yeah and it's hard if not impossible to "earn minutes" when you don't really practice anymore. I guess then they earn it through their game time, I'd say they more than have at this point.