Post by CHANGEME on Jan 30, 2008 0:53:40 GMT -5
The Kings worked out a deal with the Suns before Day 2 of free agency. We approached the Suns about a Shawn Marion deal involving Rudy Gay signed out of FA and a future Kings 1st rounder.
The Suns weren't high on my pick, thinking that Marion would make my pick a poor one. Probably wise upon further reflection. Disappointed, we shifted gears, sucked it up, and offered a young SG with good defense and good room for growth...Rodney Stuckey. If we had signed Brand out of the gate, we wouldn't have had to give up Stuckey, but I guess that's the cost of losing out on that risk.
So Day 2 of Free Agency came around. The Kings saw Livingston get picked up by the Clippers. We figured that was a mid-major signing, so there was a chance that Rudy Gay would also accept an offer on Day 2.
Sure enough, Gay accepted the 5-year deal starting at 10.25M. The official word from the Suns regarding Stuckey came after our bid
for Gay but before the signing. As soon as the signing became official, we submitted the trade as agreed upon by Phoenix. An hour later, their GM agreed officially to the deal.
Marion fills a bad void at power forward defensively and offensively, and as a bonus, he brings a good deal of offense to the table. We will actually have a hard time choosing our top 3 options, but we're
confident that having 2-3 very good scorers on the floor even through substitutions will benefit the Kings in the long run.
Rudy Gay is a B+ B+ scorer with A- defense. Unfortunately, he didn't fit into our plans as a SF since we have Carmelo. At PF, his defense would drop off quite a bit probably. Rather than signing a PF in free agnecy, we looked at what we felt was the highest value player remaining to use in trade talks. It seems that more than a couple teams agreed with us that Rudy had good value.
Shawn Marion fits into our plans extremely well. We had no real power forward before. We only had PF Duke Crews, a 2nd rounder this year, with years of work ahead of him before he's decent. Marion is a B+ inside scorer, A- outside scorer. The part we love is A defense and A rebounding. Last year we had Magloire there with A- defense and B rebounding. With this jump and Hawes' improvements, we should be much improved.
We gave up Stuckey, who right now is only a C+ inside scorer and B outside scorer. However, he has A- defense and with his A potential, who knows how much he could progress. He was a mid-1st rounder in the past. The ultra-best case for him is probably B- A- scoring with A defense. With some ATC attention, he could be better. I kinda hope Stuckey doesn't come back to haunt me, but with Marion, I hope to make it deeper into the playoffs and make it all worth it.
The Suns weren't high on my pick, thinking that Marion would make my pick a poor one. Probably wise upon further reflection. Disappointed, we shifted gears, sucked it up, and offered a young SG with good defense and good room for growth...Rodney Stuckey. If we had signed Brand out of the gate, we wouldn't have had to give up Stuckey, but I guess that's the cost of losing out on that risk.
So Day 2 of Free Agency came around. The Kings saw Livingston get picked up by the Clippers. We figured that was a mid-major signing, so there was a chance that Rudy Gay would also accept an offer on Day 2.
Sure enough, Gay accepted the 5-year deal starting at 10.25M. The official word from the Suns regarding Stuckey came after our bid
for Gay but before the signing. As soon as the signing became official, we submitted the trade as agreed upon by Phoenix. An hour later, their GM agreed officially to the deal.
Marion fills a bad void at power forward defensively and offensively, and as a bonus, he brings a good deal of offense to the table. We will actually have a hard time choosing our top 3 options, but we're
confident that having 2-3 very good scorers on the floor even through substitutions will benefit the Kings in the long run.
Rudy Gay is a B+ B+ scorer with A- defense. Unfortunately, he didn't fit into our plans as a SF since we have Carmelo. At PF, his defense would drop off quite a bit probably. Rather than signing a PF in free agnecy, we looked at what we felt was the highest value player remaining to use in trade talks. It seems that more than a couple teams agreed with us that Rudy had good value.
Shawn Marion fits into our plans extremely well. We had no real power forward before. We only had PF Duke Crews, a 2nd rounder this year, with years of work ahead of him before he's decent. Marion is a B+ inside scorer, A- outside scorer. The part we love is A defense and A rebounding. Last year we had Magloire there with A- defense and B rebounding. With this jump and Hawes' improvements, we should be much improved.
We gave up Stuckey, who right now is only a C+ inside scorer and B outside scorer. However, he has A- defense and with his A potential, who knows how much he could progress. He was a mid-1st rounder in the past. The ultra-best case for him is probably B- A- scoring with A defense. With some ATC attention, he could be better. I kinda hope Stuckey doesn't come back to haunt me, but with Marion, I hope to make it deeper into the playoffs and make it all worth it.
