Paying big money for veterans is Kings' smartest move in years
Give the Sacramento Kings some credit. After years of misery and front-office ineptitude, fans can finally see signs of a cohesive plan.
Vlade Divac, the team's vice president and general manager, has reportedly agreed to relatively pricey contracts with point guard George Hill and power forward Zach Randolph, veterans in their 30s who are unlikely to still be with the Kings should they return to championship-contender status.
And that's perfectly fine.
The Western Conference is a crucible. That won't change during the period which Hill (three years, $57 million, with a partial guarantee on Year 3) or Randolph (two years, $24 million) have signed on for.
And toss aside the assumption there are others more worthy of that $81 million over the next two-plus seasons. A win-now All-Star like Paul Millsap was not interested in Sacramento's rebuild, and younger restricted free-agent stars-in-the-making, like Washington's Otto Porter, were always going to be retained via a matched offer sheet.
The Kings arguably could've pried RFA wing Kentavious Caldwell-Pope from the Pistons, but outbidding Detroit on an unproven commodity would have only hamstrung Sacramento's books well ahead of any window of contention. It's a shortsighted tactic the Kings of yesteryear would have considered.
One way or another, the Kings had to have $89 million in salary commitments to reach the salary floor for the upcoming season. Rather than absorb dead money - sorry, Luol Deng - in exchange for future draft picks, the Kings doubled down on their commitment to developing the youth they already have in hand, namely Willie Cauley-Stein, Buddy Hield, Skal Labissiere, Georgios Papagiannis, De'Aaron Fox, Justin Jackson, and Harry Giles.
Of that group, Cauley-Stein will be the first player up for an extension, eligible in July 2018. If the Kings like his trajectory in his first full DeMarcus Cousins-free campaign and offer an extension for four more years after his rookie contract concludes, Cauley-Stein's big raise would coincide with Randolph coming off the books. The same logic goes for Hill, as a Hield extension would come on the books for the 2020-21 season, and Fox could see a raise one year later. A natural line of succession is clear.
Money aside, this team was sorely lacking in veteran leadership. Hill and Randolph supply it in spades.
Hill's acumen as a primary ball-handler will help Cauley-Stein, Papagiannis, and Labissiere develop their pick-and-roll games. And Hill can help Hield refine his timing as a shooter, and be an occasional off-ball accomplice to Fox in some smaller lineups.
On the other end of the floor, Hill's on-ball pressure and Randolph's positioning will stymie the bleeding for what should be a shaky defensive product. This team is going to lose games - a lot of games - but avoiding a season-long stream of blowouts will keep the youngsters, especially the holdouts from the Cousins era, focused and excited about what the future brings.
Following the trade of the mercurial Cousins, it's obvious the Kings are trying to clean up their image to coincide with a new $535-million arena, cutting ties with players like Darren Collison, Ty Lawson, and Matt Barnes.
Also not coming back is Rudy Gay, who once referred to Sacramento as "basketball hell."
The Kings, for once, get to have it all ways. They signed a pair of veterans from winning cultures on large, but short-term, salaries that won't impede their ability to shift toward homegrown talent two-to-three years down the road. Dave Joerger will likely join Paul Westphal and Rick Adelman as the third Kings coach this millennium to make it through consecutive seasons without being fired.
The franchise will have to settle for these small victories (a positive culture, stability among leadership, the promise of youth) - hallmarks of a team building toward something lasting. We won't know for years what the end result will be, but for the first time in ages, the process is clear.
(Photos courtesy: Action Images)