Sacramento_King wrote:SacKingZZZ wrote:If it's Sabonis then yes, Kosta HAS to go. Sorry, but this is another Nik Stauskas/TRob situation in the making if they draft him and then make no moves to fit him in. That would also have to mean no Anderson either because there aren't enough minutes for two lotto picks, Cuz, and another big minute front court player.
Not to belabor this but Nik and TRob arent very good. If TRob cant beat out Jason Thompson, Chuck Hayes and Travis Outlaw for minutes then he isnt good. He is on his fifth team and finally put up some stats at the end of last year with Brooklyn. Is it a Ray Mac thing where a guy who is limited puts up numbers against inferior talen or guys who arent playing as hard as they prep for playoffs?
Same with Nik, he just isnt that good. Guy shot 38/32 last year on a team where there is nothing in front of him and he still didnt do well. Maybe he can carve a niche role in NBA but I cant see more then that.
When IT was here nothing was carved out for him, he excelled over a guy drafted considerably higher in Jimmer and earned his playing time. Nothing was given to him which is how it should be.
How would you have set Nik and TRob up to be succesful other then more patience and better coaching that would clearly define his role?
Give Sabonis 6 shots a game in 20 minutes and if he's picked at 8, guess what he looks like then? No minutes, no shots, and you get another very underwhelming lotto pick for the Kings.
Usually when you draft in the lotto, your only concern is to set players up like that with minutes and shots. That didn't happen here. That's the problem when you take a production player (winning aside, very few rookies are the catalyst for winning) and not give them the opportunity to produce. Will a team win giving players like that a big piece of the pie minutes wise or shots wise? Probably not, heck, the TWolves aren't winning with KAT and Wiggens either. Not saying that they (Nik and TRob) would have produced in the same fashion of course.
Now, Sabonis is a solid defender, and does some of the little things like screening well, etc. so he can impact the team positively in whatever minutes he got. But at 8? No way, not for the Kings realistic needs or opportunity available. Of course, if the Kings could trade down to get him while picking something else up, that wouldn't be too bad.
