"Marc Stein, ESPN Senior Writer Veteran swingman Omri Casspi has agreed to terms on a new deal that will keep him with the Sacramento Kings, according to league sources." Stein also writes: "The 27-year-old drew big minutes at small forward down the stretch, and averaged 19.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists in the season's final month. The 6-foot-9 Casspi is a strong shooter from long range (40.2 percent in 2014-15)." Seems like a good place for Omri and I wish him luck in the continuation. Sacramento is starting to look good under Divac. Now it's up to Karl to make it work.
]I actually think the Kings have done quite well. Added shooting in Belinelli, added a point guard in Rondo who could have a nice rebound season, added Koufos who thrived under George Karl before, added Willie Cauley-Stein who will be an immediate defensive presence and now resigned Casspi on a great contract, who played really well once George Karl came around. Sure they struck out on a few players but their only stupid move was trading away picks and Nik Stauskas to dump salary this offseason, but including all their other moves they've done significantly better than a number of West playoff teams to get a lot better.
That's not exactly great. Bellineli has been a career backup Casspi has one really good month in his career, and it's just resigning their own guy. Rondo is a malcontent. Maybe the one year deal keeps him in check and he thrives under Karl. Maybe not. WCS will probably be out with injury at some point. Koufas is solid in today's nba... But is a pedestrian player overall. There's no chance this team makes the playoffs. How does that help keep Cousins around? They'd be better off tradin him... Not because of Karl, but because they won't be competitive in time to keep him there. Don't forget the crazy amount of assets they had to give to Philly just to get the cap space to make these meh trades. Now their future has been limited too as Philly got draft picks/swap rights. All in all it's a pretty horrible offseason imo when you consider they could have just tried to create a bidding war for Cousins.
Because Gay was out with injury and Cousins as well part of the time. I.e. the go to guys of Sac were not playing. Casspi got real starter minutes probably for the first time in his NBA tenure. You can't do it in 15 MPG. It probably gave him a lot of confidence as well. He utilized it. That's the way the NBA works. The max deal players by default get the ball and are prioritized to score. The Spurs are probably the only team in which this rule is not applied.
Except that move was monumentally stupid. Look at the Nets. They're awful and there is no hope for improvement because they can't rebuild due to the fact that no free agents want to join them and they traded away all of their picks. When your only real avenue to add talent is through the draft, trading away a first round pick and offering up the right to pick swaps in more drafts is HUGE! And make no mistakes - no key free agents are joining Sacramento until they prove themselves. Right now they are looked at as a joke of a franchise. They'll have to turn that around before the kind of guys they were targeting will want to join them. The only notable free agent they were able to pick up was Rondo and that's because they were willing to overpay and make it a one year contract. I promise Rondo plans to play his way into a big contract with a more desirable organization next year. Any decent moves they made this year were basically voided by that stupid trade. The countdown is on for DeMarcus to demand a trade. I give it a year and a half tops.
IF you know you won't win the championship AND have very little chance of making the playoffs, your next goal is to maximize sales right? Can't do that if you don't even have one superstar. I have no idea how Philly is making it though. Wonder what their turnout is for their games.
Maximize excitement. When your fans know you aren't going anywhere, they aren't excited. When Cousins is continually discontent, which he will be, your fans get tired of that "diva" attitude (even though it's just him expressing what's obvious). Maybe the Lakers weren't willing to give up their pick plus... But as a fan, I'd be just as excited with Russell and WCS (though honestly, I hate that pick, but whatever, Russell + another high lotto pick), plus still have Stauskus, still have future lotto picks, etc.... I honestly can't fathom what they've done... they are entirely reliant on signing another big name to play next to Cousins... which seems unlikely. They couldn't get Wes Matthews to come for $16 million a year...
