Fall from Royalty, Part Three: The Final Touches on the Decline of the Sacramento Kings

Petrie plucked Udrih out of the sky and stuck him in the starting lineup, where he has been quite solid, though not spectacular. However, when you consider the ridiculous amount of money being paid to terrible PFs, a starting PG for less than $1 million is quite a bargain. Especially one who is putting up 12 PPG, 4 APG vs 2 TO, shooting 44 percent FG and 40 percent 3FG, and gave Petrie the freedom to get rid of Bibby as he inevitably begins to fall apart.

Signing Udrih for next season has to be a priority, though they may want to wait until the draft to find out if a Derrick Rose, OJ Mayo, or Eric Gordon falls into their laps before spending too much money on a guy who's better off as a solid backup. Regardless, if they can get him at a reasonable price, signing Beno is good business.

Step 17: Traded Mike Bibby to Atlanta for Shelden Williams and expiring contracts (February 2008)

Finally, ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived out our destination. The final piece to this dysfunctional puzzle was ridding the Kings of the long-term commitment to the (less controversial) face of the franchise. Bibby was the torch-bearer from the Kings' glory years of 01-03 (though Brad Miller put in some semi-finals work in 04).

I've argued over and over that Bibby didn't deserve the money he was resigned for in August 2002, when the Maloofs opened their wallets to the tune of $80 million over seven seasons. The fact that Bibby didn't opt out of his deal last year was proof that the Maloofs had seriously overpaid for their middle-of-the-pack PG.

When they signed that check in 2002, they were signing a player who had averaged 14 PPG and 5 APG and played defense like Steve Nash, Jason Williams, or (insert name of famous Spanish bull-fighter here). Essentially what they were paying for was the clutch performance Bibby put on in the playoffs in 2002, when he scored more than 20 PPG. 

Another very important factor was the Maloofs' feeling that they owed it to the supportive fans of Sacramento to keep the 2002 team in tact for one more run at the Lakers. 

Bibby did raise his game when he became the go-to guy, peaking at 21 PPG in '05-'06, but this came at the expense of efficiency as his shooting began to suffer from the increased attention he received without Peja and Webber attracting so much attention.

The point is, Mike Bibby is a very nice third or fourth option as a shooting PG in a half-court set, which means that he should do well in Atlanta with Joe Johnson and Josh Smith attracting most of the attention and drawing Bibby's defender with penetration. A true PG does just the opposite. Look at the Mavericks or Suns. It is the PG that draws to defense to set up the shooters. Bibby is not that type of PG.

As for the Kings' booty from the trade, it is measured not in PPG, but in $$$. Ironically, a team that was without a decent backup PG for so long now has three: Udrih, Anthony Johnson, and Tyronn Lue. To demonstrate, in Wednesday's Kings-Hawks head to head, the four former Hawks amounted to 13 minutes, two points and zero rebounds, while Bibby had 24 points and 12 assists in 37 minutes.

Is Williams the future of the PF position? His early returns say maybe. In (six games and) 40 minutes in a Kings uniform he's scored 25 points and pulled down 11 rebounds on 53 percent shooting. Promising if you ignore the fact that his revenge game in Atlanta ended in three minutes of nothing what-so-ever—a three "trillion" in the business.

Conclusion

How does Petrie grade with his current roster? Well, there seems to be a lot of mid-level exception type talent, but compared to the roster in the glory days, the hodge podge of players on this version is completely mismatched.

Petrie has built the core of this roster with good drafting (Martin, Garcia, Hawes), understandable deals (Miller), and successful risk taking (Artest), and plugged the other gaps with injury-induced pick ups (Udrih), salary dump trades (Williams, Thomas), poor drafting (Douby), and poor free-agent signings (Abdur-Rahim, Salmons, Moore).

When you build a roster in that fashion, there is a good chance your experiment will fail.

To Petrie's credit, this team has played well considering. They began the season without Bibby or Artest and have had injuries to Martin, Hawes, Bibby, and Artest. Despite all of that they are 17-10 at home and would be a playoff team in the Easern conference (against whom they are 15-12).

The problem is that they are in the Western conference where 10 teams above .500, so no matter how you look at it, the Kings are the 11th best team in a ridiculously good conference.

Isn't it better for their future that they don't take this dysfunctional team to a first-round playoff loss and hope a PF like Michael Beasley or PG like Derrick Rose falls to them in the draft and fills their most glaring holes with hope?

The final score for Petrie:

Positive steps: 1, 3, 6, 9, 13, 14, 16

Sideways steps: 4, 12, 17

Mis-steps: 2, 5,7 (for not resigning Bonzi), 8, 10, 11, 15

What do you know! He graded out at .500...Just like his team since the Bibby trade.

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