I am using the term 'black hole' seen in this post's title not to say that the Kings franchise is a black hole, rather the players on the team might be. A black hole in basketball refers to a player whom you pass the ball to and never see it again because said player will shoot it, or turn it over. With a roster consisting of John Salmons, Tyreke Evans, Demarcus Cousins, Marcus Thorton and Jimmer (yes even him, check his College highlights) and only one basketball to share between all of them on offense, I can see where the 'black hole' analogy comes from. This has been such an obvious problem that even head coach Paul Westphal realized that the offense needed to be changed. He claims that the new look offense encourages sharing of the ball, now if Westphal can get the players to buy-in we may have something.
Look, the Sacramento Kings have been my favorite NBA team since I started following the sport way back in early 2000. Unlike most 'fans' I did not hop off the bandwagon as soon as things started going wrong, or certain players (Peja, Divac, Webber) left or got traded. Needless to say that it has been a brutal couple of seasons. The last two seasons however, have brought a sense of optimism I forgot I had. Geoff Petrie (the Kings GM) showed once again that he is able to find talent in one way or another and has built a good, athletic, young (but also immature) roster. Over the last two seasons the team showed flashes, but could never sustain them and was too inconsistent to put together a full season of good basketball. Now that everyone is one year older, with some veterans added (Chuck Hayes was a good signing in this regard, and also he is the anti-black hole) the hope is that the squad can get closer to a winning season. Lottery? 8-Seed? 5-Seed? At this point I have no idea. The team could come together and play an exciting brand of basketball using the athletes at their disposal along with their depth to run older teams into the ground. They could also come out with worse chemistry then the early 2000's Blazers and have death-matches before the game in order to decide who gets to shoot the most. Or they can find some sort of middle ground and channel the athleticism and attitude into a quality team that will have an up-and-down season. My hope is for that last one, because I basically described the 05-06 Kings (my favorite squad next to the 03 one) who were a Brent Barry 3 (that hit every part of the rim twice before dropping), and an OT loss in another game from eliminating the Spurs that year. That squad was tough and athletic and wore teams out with defense, sadly, this probably wont be the case with these guys.
As I type this there are rumors swirling over Sacramento adding either Kirilenko or Jamal Crawford. Given what this team looks like at the moment I am praying that we (Yes, I said "we" I bought Kings merchandise thus contributing to their franchise) sign Kirilenko. Andrei would add another defender to compliment Hayes, as well as an unselfish character guy (I never heard anyone bring him up when talking about chemistry problems), and lastly a proven NBA vet who could get the younger guys in line. In a 66 game season the youth and depth of the Kings should enable them to over-achieve, and as a long time fan I hope they do.
P.s. Please bring back the Black road jerseys from 02'
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