Welcome back Supersonics: Sacramento Kings moving to Seattle

It looks like the Sacramento Kings are on the way to Seattle. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! sports reported yesterday that the Maloof family is finalizing an agreement to sell the Sacramento Kings to a group that hopes to move the franchise to Seattle for the 2013-14 season. The buying group is made up of hedge fund manager Chris Hansen and Microsoft chairmen Steve Ballmer, who have been trying to get a team back to Seattle for the past two years. Seattle already has a stadium deal in place to start building a new arena to replace the Key Arena. The group will try to have the team in Seattle by next season and hope to change the name and logo back to the old Supersonics logo. All the details can be found on Wojnarowski’s original story here.

The NBA returning to Seattle makes me and most NBA fans smile. The city that gave us Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Detlef Schrempf, and a Sasquatch for a mascot is back and I think everyone is ready to see the team again. But, there’s always the other side. The jilted lover,  Sacramento in this case, seems to be the means to an end. Someone had to be robbed to get basketball back in the Emerald City and Sac town got robbed. It is sad to see a fanbase disintegrate and probably will never get back together again. At least when Clay Bennet fleeced Seattle for the Sonics in 2008, there was still a feeling that Seattle would have a team again. Right now, NBA looks like it will never return to Sacramento and that’s a shame to lose a fanbase that is so passionate.

The memories of the late 90s-early 00s Kings will always be close to every NBA fan’s heart. Chris Webber, Vlade Divac, Doug Christie, Mike Bibby, and the rest of those teams were a big part in my personal growth as an NBA fan. The Kings were cool, fast, flashy, and everything that made basketball cool. Past that, the success of those Kings created the precedent for what NBA teams are doing now with small ball. Hedo Turkoglu, Peja Stojakovic, and Vlade were outside shooters that happened to be 6-9 or taller. Players like Chris Bosh who embrace play center but work outside the paint come from that fold. The pioneering Kings should’ve gone to the finals in 2000, when they got absolutely robbed by the referees in the Western Conference Finals, and who knows if they stay in Sactown if they win that championship.

The new Seattle Supersonics will have a lot of work to do as they try to remodel the roster. Decisions on Demarcus Cousins’s and Tyreke Evans’s future will be the first hurdle for this new ownership group. I’d think Cousins and  Evans will be on the trading block now as the franchise will look for a fresh start in Seattle. The Kings might be super sellers this trade deadline with a whole bunch of expiring contracts and pieces that don’t really make sense together. But right now, I want to remember the great Kings teams and give a nod to the fanbase that once was.

*Also, remember this deal is tentative and nothing has been signed or promised just yet.

Can the Clippers’ Bench Mafia work in the playoffs

The Los Angeles Clippers are on top of the Western Conference and just came off a 18 game win streak. The streak may have been the best stretch of basketball for the franchise since moving to Southern California in 1978. Chris Paul ‘s leadership at point guard and Blake Griffin’s development have put the team on a new level this season, but what made the team unbeatable during streak is their bench play.

Jamal Crawford, Matt Barnes, Eric Bledsoe, Lamar Odom, Ronny Turiaf, and even Ryan Hollins have given the Clippers solid minutes throughout the streak.. Crawford averages 16.4 points and could take home his second 6^th man of the year award this summer. Bledsoe gives the team extra speed and athleticism. Barnes and Odom bring veteran knowledge and great defense. The quality play of the Clippers’ bench players allows Vinny Del Negro to rest his starters for long stretches in games. No one on LA plays more than 32 minutes a game. Just for a comparison, the Miami Heat, another very deep team, have 3 players averaging over 32 minutes with Lebron James leading the way with 37 minutes a game. 11 players play more than 10 minutes a game, not including injured veteran point guard Chauncey Billups and swingman Grant Hill. The Clippers, when healthy, have 13 players that can all contribute solid minutes. The depth of the Clippers has created championship hype usually reserved for the Lakers.

But what makes this team exceptional, their depth, might also make them vulnerable in the playoffs. The Clippers might have too many good players. Of the past 13 NBA champions, only two teams had 10 players that averaged 10 minutes a game in the playoffs and two others had 9 players in their playoff rotation. The rest used eight players, except for the 2001 Lakers who used seven. So the Clippers will have to cut down their rotation by at least three players, more likely four or five, by the start of the playoffs. Del Negro faces the decision of cutting out players and figuring out where those minutes will go. There is where the trouble comes. For example, Matt Barnes plays his best basketball in 19-22 minutes a game so adding or subtracting minutes from his total will affect his play.

There is another option for the Clippers: Roll with the current rotation. Del Negro and his staff could decide to try being the first team to win a championship with a 12 player rotation. I believe the Clippers will cut down their roster as players like Ronny Turiaf regress to their averages, but they will go into the playoffs with the deepest rotation in the league.  Regardless of what happens with the rotation throughout the season, the Clippers will be a championship contender in the Western Conference.