Fall from Royalty, Part Two: The Decline of the Sacramento Kings

By the 2000-2001 season, Geoff Petrie had assembled a championship quality team from the ground up and turned water into wine in the Sacramento Valley. 

For the next four seasons, the Kings played in the Western Conference semi-finals or finals and won at least 55 games a year. 

What has King Geoff done lately?  How has the 2002-2003 team, which returned 11 players, evolved into the current roster following the Bibby deal?  In this three-part article, I will go through the major deals, ignoring the Rodney Bufords and Ronny Prices of the world.

Part one described five key moves throughout the 2005 deadline deal of Chris Webber.  Now on to part two...

 

Step 6: Draft Francisco Garcia (Summer 2005)

Following the Webber deal, the Kings went 16-12 the rest of the '04-'05 season but got blown away 4-1 in the first round of the playoffs by Ray Allen and the third-seeded Sonics.  The loss marked the end of a four-year streak of reaching the semi finals and was a signal that things needed to change.

The Kings' 50-win season left them with the 23rd pick in the draft. 

In a draft with a surprising number of solid late-first and second-round players—Monta Ellis, David Lee, Rony Turiaf, Andray Blatche, Jason Maxiell, Lou Williams, Linas Kleiza, Ryan Gomes, Luther Head—Garcia has taken his time in impacting his team's success.

Garcia wasn't a terrible 23rd overall pick because he can flat out shoot and has a pretty decent all-around game.  But man, wouldn't a guy like Ellis have been a nice change of pace for Bibby (especially considering Step 7 below)?

Petrie could have done better in the draft, but aside from Ellis and Lee it's not that obvious, so you have to give him some credit for finding decent value.

 

Step 7: Trade Bobby Jackson for Bonzi Wells (August 2005)

Given the years of beating, Petrie believed that it was time to sell high on BoJax, plus with Mobley leaving town, there was no one to start at the two. 

However, the fact that the Kings only had Bonzi for one season because his agent blew the opportunity for him to sign with the Kings was a huge fiasco.

I am on record as calling Bonzi a poor-man's Charles Barkley.  He brought attitude, rebounding (8 RPG, tied for team lead with Brad Miller), scoring (14 PPG), and a high FG percentage because of his ability to post up every SG in the league (46% FG).

The positives of Bonzi's year in Sacramento:

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