The Weekend Wrap: Forever changed

This was a big week in the history of the Sacramento Kings. It was a week that will forever change the landscape of the team physically and financially for years to come. We said goodbye to Kevin Martin and for many Kings fans it was difficult as Martin had a special place in the hearts of many fans for being a good person and good player that came from seemingly nowhere to be our hidden gem here in Sacramento. We also said goodbye to Sergio Rodriguez who will get a chance to show what he has in New York. Hilton Armstrong was dealt to Houston. Goodbye Hilton, we hardly knew you. The Kings also cut Kenny Thomas this week to clear some room on the roster. For Thomas, it was probably a welcome relief as his time in Sacramento must have felt like some bizarre purgatory where he wasn’t really featured in any way and became more known for his expiring contract than any of his on the court contributions. Through it all he remained professional and will now seek employment with another club that isn’t in a perpetual rebuild and could use his rebounding skills at the end of the bench.

When the dust settled the Kings also gained several new faces and even welcomed a familiar face back into the fold this week. Carl Landry, Joey Dorsey, Larry Hughes, and Dominic McGuire were all added to the Kings roster and Francisco Garcia returned from a broken wrist to make his 2010 debut. Landry is the centerpiece of the Kevin Martin deal and will be prominently featured in the offense while McGuire and Dorsey are both big men that will help fill out the roster and may get more burn than expected after fan favorite Jon Brockman was diagnosed with a knee injury that will keep him on the shelf for the next month. The Kings are all of the sudden very thin at guard, but there seems to be a growing sentiment that Larry Hughes should never put on a Kings uniform and he may be bought out in a similar fashion as Kenny Thomas was earlier this week.  Between the two of them, they represent over $22 million that will come off the books heading into next season, putting the Kings in a much better financial situation.

Oh yeah, and there was some action on the court as well this week as the Kings played three games amidst all the changes. They played one of their best games of the season on Tuesday coming out of the break as they took the Boston Celtics down to the wire before falling 95-92 in the final moments. Like so many Kings games this season, it represented a moral victory but they just couldn’t quite get it done despite perhaps their best defensive effort of the season.

They followed up one of their best efforts of the season with one of their worst as they were absolutely pasted by the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night to the tune of 130-98. They played zero perimeter defense and allowed the Warriors to play their own version of the three-point shooting contest and even allowed C.J. Watson to score 40 points. Yes, the same C.J. Watson that can barely make it on the court when the Warriors are fully healthy. That was the night that the trade went down as Kevin Martin was pulled midway through the contest with the news that he was traded to Houston. While some players, including Tyreke Evans, blamed the trade rumors for their poor showing, there was no excuse for the beating put on them that night.

Saturday night was a lost evening. The Kings looked like a team that was very much out of sync as they tried to acclimate the new faces into the rotation. Carl Landry started and was noticeably pressing in an effort to impress his new teammates. Man, he is an explosive jumper though and his moves in the post look very much as advertised. Francisco Garcia filled the void at shooting guard but looked very rusty and probably isn’t ready to start just yet. It will be interesting to see if Paul Westphal employs the same starting lineup tonight. The Kings looked lethargic on the offensive end and were defeated 99-89 by the Clippers. This is a work in progress and it is going to take some time to see how this team comes together after turning over a third of the roster. I’m much more interested in seeing how we look 10 games from now instead of rushing into any judgments based on last evenings’ contest.

Each week Blake Ellington of bleedblackandpurple tells Kings fans what to watch for in our weekly collaboration between sites. Let’s see how those things turned out this week:

1. Petrie’s tryouts: Blake speculated on the possibility that Geoff Petrie might make a deal this week and correctly pointed out that Petrie tells nobody before he pulls the trigger. That might be why so many fans feel stunned as many were lulled into believing that the Martin/Evans backcourt would be given every opportunity to succeed and that just wasn’t the case. Petrie played his hand in a big way this week, but we will have to see how he uses the financial leverage created by freeing up all of that cap space heading into the future. Financial flexibility was just as much a part of these deals as getting another big man was and the Kings will be one of the few franchises that can be players in the free agent market heading into the summer.

2. Have a successful week: This was not a great week on the basketball court and time will only tell how all of these changes reflect on the big picture. This team is going to need about 10 games to really feel their way through all of these changes. Then we will see what we have heading into the summer.

3. Divisional opponents: The Kings still have the Suns to face this evening but did not play well against either the Golden State Warriors or the Los Angeles Clippers. They have remade their roster as four new players will call Sacramento home and that had just as much to do with their poor play as anything else. They need to put forward a better effort heading into next week.