Five Downright Undeniable Truths About the Kings right now

Five things I know for sure right now about the Sacramento Kings:

1.  The Kings will never get to the playoffs with Tyreke Evans as their point guard.  Sorry, folks, just don't see it happening.  He's a fullback masquerading as a basketball player imitating a point guard.  And he has spurts of being spectacular, especially when his feet aren't aching.  But I just don't see him as the guy who's taking the team to the next level - not if he's the man running the offense.  I still think he's a great trade chip in a mega-trade for a great point guard, but I doubt the franchise has the guts to pull the trigger on a deal.

2. Funding the new arena by privatizing city parking lots is a stupendously bad idea.  Paul Clegg's blog http://gameto100.com/?p=977#storylink=scwidget tells the ugly truth.  Not sure why a simple $5 dollar surcharge on every ticket was ignored as a solution, but this parking fiasco will come back to bite KJ in the butt.

3. Geoff Petrie is an awful general manager and has been living off a few good deals and signings made a decade ago.  Sad but true.  Some awful decisions of late (trading for Salmons and signing Outlaw to name a couple) put him in the bottom rung of NBA brains.  He's become a non-entity around the league.  

4. DeMarcus Cousins is going to be a star and I've been impressed with his tenacity and hustle, but he's going to have spend a solid summer working on footwork and jump hooks in order to overcome his lack of jumping ability.  Cousins is consistently stuffed when trying to work inside because he has no clue about how to maneuver against more athletic big men.

5. It's more fun to root for likable players.  Rookie Isaiah Thomas may never be an elite player or even a starter, but his smile, verve, aggressiveness and poise make him a fan favorite.  And he passes the ball, too.  Selfish players are not easy to like, unless they are stone-cold superstars.  The Kings have too many stone-cold selfish stiffs.

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...