Keon Clark's a lot closer to Kelvin Cato right now than he is to Scot Pollard. It's all about opportunity - of which Pollard has had little but been excellent in the chances he has gotten, but which Keon has already had and shown he's not much more than a 12/7 role player. Age and potential isn't a factor; both are 27 years old. Keon Clark cannot take a player off the dribble and create his own shot; I've watched enough Raptor games to know that while he can hit the occasional jumper (though, if his jumper has improved, why has his shooting percentage gone steadily downward as he's had the opportunity to play more?), he's best on put-backs and dunks. Scot Pollard can't either, but he's a much better rebounder than Keon is and still shoots better (55% vs. 49%) from the field than Keon Clark. Pollard is the Kings' center of the future and the best backup in the league until that point. Keon Clark, for all the hype, will be overpaid for not that much performance. It's an improvement for the Kings, yes, but why are you going to pay $7-$9 million a year (contract + luxury tax) for Keon Clark? There's players out there who will command less for equal or better performance. In the long run, I think the Kings would be better off standing pat with Pollard backing up Divac at the center position and Hedo playing out of position to backup Webber at the 4 spot.
Everytime a team signs a big man they're not signing him to match-up with Shaq. There's strength in numbers, the Kings with Clark is better then the Kings without Clark jump because it makes them bigger and deeper. Who cares if Pollard is better then Clark, I'd rather have Clark AND Pollard then just Pollard. The Kings "finesse" style just destroyed the Lakers, and they would beaten the Lakers if not for inexperience. Adding a shot-blocker NEVER hurts a team and can only help your defense. There aren't interior defenders available so the next best thing is to add shot-blockers. Mission accomplished.
so the maloofs now are willing to break open the bank? cuz i'm thinking if they give bibby the max and then sign clark....that would put them in luxury tax range. i hope that they sign clark so the lakers/kings rivalry would be better but i don't know...it seems that if they were to sign clark, pollard or fundeburke would be the oddman out.
Keon Clark is an okay signing, but what the Kings need to try to do is lure Dick Bavetta away from LA. Think he'd sign for the exception?
Not likely. Bavetta makes $57.893 million a year (from Lakers bribes). If the Kings can get him for $30 million or less though, I'd go for it. Good idea.
But the Kings already spent that money on Game 2 & 5 of the 2002 WCF and it did them no good. Instead of crying like 13 year old girls they should concentrate on their FTs and Webber should see a sports psychologist. Maybe then C-Webb can make a clutch shot.
You know, it's funny. I absolutely agree that Sacramento got robbed in game 6. But what everyone forgets is that LA got robbed in game 5. Despite the fact taht Sacramento was fouling... it wasn't getting called, and the Lakers shot very, very, very few free throws in that game. In fact, I believe they shot substantially fewer than Sac... which is odd, since La depends on an interior game... and Bryant's penetration. You'd expect them to get far more free throws. IMO, the refs must have been told: you screwed up game 5, make it up in game 6. That's wrong, of course. I just think people are remembering the officiating very selectively that series. It was terrible - but on balance, it wasn't biased.
It isn't Pollard that would be displaced by a Keon Clark signing, it is Funderburke. Is anyone going to argue that they'd rather have Funderburke than Clark? Clark and Pollard can both swing between the center and power forward positions. This will give them some great depth and flexibility. They have 2 straight position guys in Webber and Divac and 2 that can play both positions in Clark and Pollard, so they can play any combination of the four guys. Funderburke falls to third string to fill in for injuries. I can't think of a better fit, frankly, than Clark signing with Sacramento.
It's not like Funderburk got any playing time anyways. I'd look for the guy who was picked last in the draft to take his spot. With Keon they finally have a backup for Webber.
The problem is that Funderburke has already been displaced. Webber plays like 40 minutes a game. Getting Clark is nice and all, but then you only got 56 minutes to divide between Pollard, Divac, and now Clark (since none of them can play small forward). THAT'S 19 MINUTES PER GUY! I don't really see how that will work. It'll be great for when Divac retires though. I believe that's what they're thinking.
You want Webber to continue playing 40 minutes a game? He's reasonably healthy, but if they want him to stay that way, they'll have to shave a few minutes off his average. You've got 96 minutes for 4 guys and you can slice it any way you want. Webber: 34 minutes Divac: 30 minutes Clark: 16 minutes Pollard: 16 minutes Plus all those guys can give you good extended minutes if someone is injured or in foul trouble.
No, Keon has not signed with the Kings. Recents whispers around Toronto have him agreeing to come back and they are waiting for certain things to happen before it's finalized. 1) It could be the arbitration hearing between the NBPA and NBA regarding the escrow money. If teams are guaranteed to get back 70% of escrow monies should the tax be triggered, then that returned escrow monry could almost offset any tax payment made by the Raptors if they re-sign Clark. 2) There are other rumors that Hakeem has decided not to return to Toronto. This was discussed here before, but since dipsh!t TRG pawned the info off as his own scoop the thread was discredited and deleted from the BBS. I can confirm that there WAS something to those rumors. I won't stake my life on Keon re-signing in Toronto, but when it happens remember this post.
Unless Keon just loves Toronto and cant live without them why would he resign with Raptors? THat makes 0 sense being that Carter is starting to look injury prone and that means they basically have no leading scorer. I dont mean why would he resign with Raptors what I meant to say was why would he rather be a bench player for raptors who probaly will make playoffs and pass up on playing bench for Kings and possibly being NBA CHamps? OH yea I almost forgot he was resigning with Raptors so that means he is eligible for how ever much he wants? If im correct Kings can only offer him the exception so yea Raptors do look more of a bidder but if they are only gonna offer him a 60 mill deal like Lewis is getting he will be better of signign with Kings for the exception then getting his bird rights.
The Kings talk was BS. They were helping him up his value to teams in that were looking at signing him (New York, Orlando, Philly). The market has all but dried up and unless Rashard splits Seattle for the mid-level elsewhere, no other team will offer him the full $4.5 mil exception. Toronto won't have to offer him a deal like Rashard's - he's not in the same negotiating position. What I'm saying is that he has already decided to re-sign in Toronto on a one year contract so he can then cash in next year when as many as a dozen teams will have significant capspace. Both he and the team are waiting for other things events to play themselves out in order for the team to be able to afford him - see the post above. He was VERY clear that he liked Toronto and it was his 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice, otherwise he wanted to be somewhere warm where he could play lots of golf. His agent is a rookie and they have allowed Grunwald to dictate how things play out. Grunwald is doing just that and it is my assertion - upon hearing different things over the past week or so - that Keon will indeed return to Toronto. I obviously cannot confirm this 100%, but it is my belief that the whole Keon situation has been something of a ploy by the team and will be exposed some time this summer. Or maybe I'm just trying to be like Doc and Pops
