2010 Year of the Kings Turnaround By Jason The Sacramento Kings have been one of the NBA cellar dwellers ever since Chris Webber and Vlade Divac left town. They hit rock bottom in 2008-09 with the NBA's worst record at 17-65. They fired head coach Reggie Theus and then canned interim coach Kenny Natt and his entire staff. So what happened in the 2009 NBA Draft when the Kings had 25% chance of obtaining the #1 pick or 64.3% chance of obtaining one of the top three picks? Instead of Blake Griffin, the #1 consensus stud power forward, here we come, they got the fourth pick! How bad and snakebit must have Kings GM Geoff Petrie and the Maloofs must've felt. The Kings losing streak and streak of misfortune seemed destined to continue. Now, it's one year later and we know the Kings drafted Tyreke Evans, who won the 2009-10 NBA Rookie of the Year, put up mind blowing amazing numbers and became only the fourth NBA player in history to ever average at least 20 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in his rookie year. The others were Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan and LeBron James. Can Evans be that good? Yes, he can. He's already one of the best finishers in the NBA and the development of an outside shot will make him even more deadly and an ustoppable force. Not only that, in 2009, GM Petrie rolled the dice and made some super deals that helped the Kings head in the right direction for their near future. He dealt their star guard and scorer Kevin Martin and Hilton Armstrong for power forwards Carl Landry and Joey Dorsey. Then he gained cap space with the trade of forward Andres Nocioni and center Spencer Hawes to the Philadelphia 76ers for center Samuel Dalembert. Dalembert is a fill-in solution and huge $12.2M expiring contract. Of course, he could become a piece of the championship puzzle as he had a very good year starting and playing for the Philadelphia 76ers. Next, came the 2010 NBA Draft and the Kings fortunes quickly changed. Not in terms of ping pong balls -- they got the #5 pick -- but more importantly, the quality of players they got. The Kings needed muscle and beef inside and they were lucky to get PF/C DeMarcus Cousins considered the most physically talented player available and BIG MAN! He was the best available player (BAP) and the guy who also filled their need at #5. Cousins is 6-11, 290 and he put up a 15 ppg and 10 reb in 24 minutes. He shot 56% from the field and got to the free throw line, averaging 7 free throws a game, as teams tried to stop a runaway freight train and failed. On defense, Cousins blocked 1.8 shots and was a presence in the middle. And the Kings good fortunes continued. With the third pick of the second round, the Kings selected Marshall center Hassan Whiteside, who was projected as a sure-fire first rounder! Petrie must have been counting his lucky stars when he saw Whiteside was still there at #33. The 7-foot freshman absolutely dominated defensively at Marshall, averaging and incredible 5.4 blocks per game. He didn't even start the first nine games, but had a triple doube off the bench in the ninth game -- 17 points, 14 rebounds, and 11 blocks. It earned Whiteside a spot in the starting lineup and he averaged 13 points and 9 boards in 26 minutes per game. Things are looking up for the Sacramento Kings for 2010. They have one year of head coach Paul Westphal's offense and defense under their belt, have addressed their needs and cleared some cap space. Now, hopefully the young Kings vets and rooks and sophs can come together. That's a good formula for getting fans excited and putting butts in seats again at the ARCO Arena with 2009 ROY as their centerpiece. The Kings probably won't be a playoff team right away, but they'll compete against the lowly Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers. They need to rise to become another Portland Trailblazers or Oklahoma City Thunder and beat other rising teams like Memphis Grizzlies and Houston Rockets. They also need to beat teams that may be falling like the San Antonio Spurs, Utah Jazz and Phoenix Suns. Will 2010 be the year of the turnaround for the Sacramento Kings? You better believe it.
