The Kings always will be relevant to the committee (of one) as long as they employ that Casspi kid. But it's got to be torture for the Maloofs for their team, given its early 2000s glory, to matter so little in the grand scheme.
The Kings' pain is bound to continue with Tuesday's visit to Houston, where they'll find Kev Martin fresh off his first 40-point game as a Rocket and scoring with All-Star-ish efficiency ... while Landry sits on the trade block.
Remember how fun and scrappy they were with last season's 13-14 start? Now chew on this: The Kings are 15-55 since Geoff Petrie's contract extension was announced in December 2009 when they were at 14-16.Last December, I commented how much I enjoyed watching the young Kings. I don't know what happened to the team that started last season so well...
Cousins, like the Knicks' Fields, is also on the four-man short list of rookies scoring in double figures along with Griffin and Wall. The defenseless Kings, though, can't enjoy it amid all the losing and Tyreke's soph slump.
Tension/frustration has mounted so quickly in the wake of that 3-1 start -- with the help of a hugely favorable schedule, it must be said -- that Tyreke's bid for another 20/5/5 season has barely been mentioned lately.
The Kings overturned a 16-point deficit Saturday night in Cleveland to move to 2-1. Casspi scored 20 and drained six triples in the win, four in the second half. Surely you weren't expecting an Omri-free comment.
My new non-Casspi-related obsession: If Cousins' big preseason launches him to the ROY trophy, this'll be the first team to field back-to-back ROYs since my Buffalo Braves did it in 1973 (Bob McAdoo) and 1974 (Ernie D).
These very young Kings will definitely be bigger with Cousins and Dalembert, but don't bank on anything more than marginally better yet. Tyreke and Cousins, as a franchise duo, have some questions to answer.
Even if you think he's already done enough to clinch the ROY trophy you're obviously hoping Evans is back soon to finish his rookie season strong. Casspi can't make the Kings watchable on his own ... except maybe for us.
Tyreke is still averaging 20, 5 and 5, something only Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan and LeBron James did as rooks. Which is why Tyreke is still the ROY favorite ahead of his fast-charging Golden State neighbor.
Our beloved Casspi was back in Dallas on Friday night for the last time as a rookie, while the committee [of one] was on a plane bound for Dorkapalooza. Which is the only bad thing we can say about the weekend.
We certainly didn't expect Westphal's Kings to need this long to reach 20 wins after a 13-14 start ... but we can also still remember plenty of folks back in October who thought this team's ceiling was less than 20 wins.
The immediate impact of the Carl Landry trade? Sacramento just shook up the Sixth Man Award race by dealing for Landry to anchor its frontcourt, eliminating Jamal Crawford's foremost threat in the sixth-man race.
Everyone loves the Kings' draft, but GM Geoff Petrie's best move might have been securing his contract extension when he did. The Kings had just beaten Denver at home to improve to 14-16. They're 2-18 since.
The way things have unraveled -- 3-16 since a 13-14 start -- it looks like it'll be a l-o-n-g string for the Kings to play out after the highlight of the season: Tyreke and our man Casspi teaming up in the Rookie Game.
The 13-14 start was hard to fathom, but the subsequent 2-14 nosedive is almost as hard to process. And don't even get me started on what the losing and struggles to reintegrate Kevin Martin have done to our beloved Casspi.
Remember when we said Kevin Martin would be back soon to make things really interesting for the early pace setters in the Cinderella Rankings? Perhaps we should have gone with the word complicated.
Should probably focus on the recent five-game skid as opposed to Casspi's run of four straight 20-point games. Or we could just tell you Kevin Martin should be back soon to make the Kings really interesting.
You can dwell on how poorly they handled the final play when Kobe wound up with the most wide-open buzzer 3 he'll ever get. Or you can focus on how the Kings, without Tyreke, beat Denver and lost to L.A. by a point.
Way too soon to think about trading Kevin Martin. Not until the Kings get a longer look at how he plays next to Tyreke ... and not after Ls in OT to the Cavs and Lakers that cried out for an experienced scorer in crunch time.
