2014 Year In Review: Sacramento Kings
By Matt Furtado/KHTK Sports 1140
The Year of Questions
This past year for the Sacramento Kings has been filled with a lot of questions.
What is the new ownership going to do with the team?
Is Rudy Gay worth the amount of money the Kings are giving him?
Why would the Kings not resign Isaiah Thomas?
Why would the Kings fire Michael Malone mid-season with no plan to upgrade at coach?
Questions have filled the brain of Kings fans, and media.
The Kings finished last season with yet another losing season, but things felt different in Sacramento
The new ownership of the Sacramento Kings brought hope to a Sacramento community that is so in love with its basketball team.
Fan favorite Thomas had the best year of his short career. Gay turned his season around after being traded to the Kings from the Toronto Raptors. And DeMarcus Cousins put together another all-star worthy year.
The Kings had a lot of decisions to make in the 2014 offseason.
It seemed as if the Kings had to choose between resigning Thomas and bringing back Gay.
Needless to say, Kings fans were hoping the team would bring back both players.
The Sacramento community came together, like they always do, to bring back Gay. They even showed up at the airport to show support for Gay on the day he came back to meet with ownership.
Eventually, Gay resigned.
But the one big disappointment was watching Thomas leave for the Phoenix Suns, signing a contract that nearly matched the one given to Darren Collison by the Kings.
It was a tough offseason for Kings fans, but the talent of the team still left hope for a good 2014-15 season.
On paper, the Kings had a very talented team at the start of this season. Collison brought on court leadership at the point guard position. The team added depth by drafted Nik Stauskas, and bringing back players like Omri Casspi and Carl Landry.
The team started the season hot with a record of 9-5 after 14 games.
Cousins' MVP level of play and Malone's coaching was turning the team around into a winning ball club.
But then things completely fell off for the Kings.
Cousins got very sick and was unable to play for 10 games. During that time, the Kings went 2-8.
Along with the losing record, management also fired Malone.
It was an unexpected move that left Kings fans questioning the decision.
The hope among the Sacramento community was that the team was going to bring in George Karl, who hasn't had a head-coaching job in a few years.
The team named Tyron Corbin as the interim head coach and on Tuesday, it was announced that the Kings signed him on to be the head coach for the rest of the season.
The move begs the question, why fire Malone if the team wasn't going to replace him with a better coach?
Whatever that answer may be, it's put the Kings in a bad position with the fans, and the players.
What to expect in 2015:
The team is really struggling right now. They currently sit at 13-18 and have only won two of the last 10 games.
There's no reason to believe that the season will get any better for the Kings.
There have been rumors of the team making a trade for Deron Williams, but at this point, it doesn't seem too likely.
The hope and promise the team showed at the beginning of the season has seemingly gone out the window.
In a very tough Western Conference, the playoffs are for sure out of the question.
The rest of this season will be devoted to developing players like McLemore and Stauskas.
One of the few positives about this season is that Cousins has a real shot of making the all-star team. If he can stay healthy, and play at the level Kings fans have become accustomed to seeing, DMC could be heading to NYC for the 2015 All-Star Game.
In a season with so many questions and concerns about the Kings, hoping for an all-star is at least something that fans can be excited about.
