Kings vs. Warriors

Let's put on our thinking caps for a moment and assume the following:

2009-10 Golden State Warriors Roster
Kelenna Azubuike
Marco Belinelli
Andris Biedrins
Jermareo Davidson
Stephen Jackson
Rob Kurz
Corey Maggette
Anthony Randolph
Ronny Turiaf
C.J. Watson

#6-8 draft pick

Jason Kidd?


2009-10 Sacramento Kings Roster
Francisco Garcia
Donte Greene
Spencer "Bush" Hawes
Kevin Martin
Andres Nocioni
Jason Thomson
Kenny Thomas's expiring contract
Beno Udrih

#1 draft pick

$12-20 million in cap space, potentially unused if team remains in Sacramento.

The list of (arguably) worthwhile potential free agents, restricted included, looks like this:
Josh Childress, Marvin Williams, Leon Powe, Raymond Felton, Ben Gordon, Anderson Varejao, Brandon Bass, Jason Kidd, Linas Kleiza, Chris Andersen (he gonna get paid), Walter Hermann, Allen Iverson, Antonio McDyess, Rasheed Wallace, Jamal Crawford, Ron Artest, Jarrett Jack, Rasho Nesterovic, Trevor Ariza, Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, Hakim Warrick, Jamario Moon, Ramon Sessions, Charlie Villanueva, Bobby Brown, David Lee, Nate Robinson, Chris Wilcox, Hedo Turkoglu, Andre Miller, Louis Amundson, Matt Barnes, Grant Hill, Ime Udoka, Carlos Delfino, Shawn Marion, Paul Millsap, Carlos Boozer, Kyle Korver, Mehmet Okur.

Warriors can't make any signings until they void Monta and get Crawford to opt out.

The Kings have a mess in their offices and the owners are losing serious money across the board, according to reports. But they're the team in PRIME position to fit the Stern credo for the 21st century of accountable young nuclei. They just need the fan base and refreshed infrastructure. I think they'll try to work the new arena deal out one more time and it may even work and it seems likely the team asked for a loan from the league. So while it's ugly now, they're making aggressive moves to purge expensive veterans who are on their last legs. Sacramento is pushing a full and legitimate Portland/OKC-style reset to be a competitive team in the future and an EXTREMELY desirable purchase target should some investors somewhere have any ability to make such a move in this economy. They're the obvious first call from any city with an arena and a development group (aka, SAN JOSE AND NOWHERE ELSE ON EVEN REMOTELY THE SAME LEVEL AT THIS TIME!) looking to bring a team in from the storm of a decayed market elsewhere, owners and all.

Besides any potential relocation, and I still see the Kings remaining in Sacramento at least another year, perhaps even getting the (ill-advised) stadium deal put together, this could be a great chance to acquire longterm difference makers by being proactive and aggressive on this RFA market while the big draws typically used as leverage by agents stand pat in impossible-to-keep secret preparation for 2010 or work on acquiring the upper shelf max players like Boozer and Marion. The Warriors could have been in on this but instead picked up longterm commitments to career losers like Jackson, Maggette, and Crawford, and are now beginning to try to get out from some of that in the most unprofessional ways possible. We're not building a reputation for being a desirable players' destination. Quite the opposite.

A lot of RFAs could accept the qualifying offers this year. Next summer will be a brutal repositioning of league talent. The Kings will have another double digit millions clearance under the cap for 2010, so adding talent now doesn't hurt them at all. If Nelson somehow survives his current contract and gets the players he wants for the VERY short term, the Kings will streak past the Warriors no later than 2011.

Fickle fans live in the moment, but 2007 is a distant memory.

Wake up.

Eff You.

GO KINGS!!!!!