Thursday, June 23, 2011

John Salmons? Worst. Move. Ever.

It's 2 p.m. on draft day and I'm hallucinating.

Somebody just tweeted that the Kings acquired John Salmons from the Bucks in a swap of draft choices. And that Beno was gone.

Jokesters, those twitter folks.

See, nobody in his right mind thinks that adding another selfish shoot-first player with a bloated contract to the Kings is a good idea.

Right?  Right?

RIGHT?

Now things might change.  Maybe Geoff Petrie has some great move from 1998 up his sleeve, but this is it.

It's 10:30 at night and my nightmare has not subsided. We really did trade for the most sullen player in the NBA.

But there's a bright side:

The Kings drafted Jimmer Fredette.

Only maybe it ain't so bright, because the Kings have seemingly decided to give him the keys to the franchise without a learner's permit.  He will be running the team this season, whether he's ready or not.

You can't blame the Maloofs.  They want to sell tickets.  But they are making Jimmer the new face of the franchise.  In fact, he's the third different face of the franchise in three years, an NBA record.

Will he be good?  Who the hell knows?  We thought Bobby Hurley was gonna be good.

Meanwhile, if the Kings had only stood pat, they would have been in position to snare Brandon Knight, who dropped to 7 and was there for the taking.

Even scarier is that right now the team has no point guards to back him up.  As in zero.  Beno would have been nice to keep.  He had his best year ever and brought a certain level of maturity to floor.

Instead, we get the brooding and immensely enigmatic John Salmons, who has to be dancing a jig about returning to Sacramento.  Just a horrible move.  It makes no sense on any level.

Who is running this asylum?  The Maloofs?  Petrie?  Deranged elves?

Can anyone say the Kings are better with Jimmer and Salmons than Jimmer and Beno?  Or Brandon Knight and Beno?  Or Tony Parker and Richard Jefferson?  Just baffling.

Petrie needs a break from this trade stuff.  He needs a break from basketball.  And the Maloofs, who have him bent over and awaiting their commands.

The Sacramento fans deserve better than a trade for an unlikable retread from five years ago.

They should have just drafted Jimmer with the 7 and spared us this ridiculousness.  But the Kings were afraid of looking foolish by drafting him so high.  So they traded down to look more basketball brainy and instead made them look even more foolish.

Petrie better have some answers... some deals... some great ideas... because draft day was a mess.

To be continued...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

John Salmons???? If he were an expiring contract I'd be more excited than the fact we actually have to suit him up. He is trash. Had Fredette gone 1 pick earlier I would have stopped rooting for the Kings. Beno got traded for a worse player with a bigger longer contract. WTF is that?

Anonymous said...

Salmons makes $8M yr, Beno makes $7M...if they were planning on taking a PG (be it Knight, Walker or Fredette) then you are talking about paying $7M to the 4th guard in a 3-guard rotation. Is Salmons the greatest player ever? No. Best fit? Ehh, given how much Evans, Thornton & Cousins shoot...maybe not. But he's not the worst player in the history of the world. He was a pretty important part of playoff teams in Chicago & Milwaukee since he left the Kings so...

Ron Wenig said...

Salmons has an extra year on his contract, but here's how you break down the trade: Beno was a better player on any level last year. Beno has a shorter contract. The Kings traded DOWN to do this deal. Case closed. This was awful.

Anonymous said...

beno was notoriously bad on defense though. I think the plan with Salmons is to bring in some defense.