The general perception amongst many Kings fans that the weak spot on the floor for the Kings is the SF spot. And while they are right, the typical reasons (player sucks; player doesn't do this that or the other) cited are not. So consider this A) my thoughts on why the Kings ending up with Andre Drummond is not such a terrible idea as it seems (and I know why it seems so) and B) why the SF solution is already on the roster.

Why is A part of this discussion? Well, what are the Kings greatest need? A shot block athletic defensive big man that can score some points next to DeMarcus Cousins. A SF that can complement the Kings bevy of backcourt players (Evans, Thomas, Thornton, Salmons, Fredette) additionally. Some shooting.

Let's address the shooting here for a moment: Thomas, Thornton, and Salmons are all above average when they are wide open. All 3 individual's mentioned can create their own shots with the dribble or without the dribble. Jimmer Fredette is already known as a shooter, but very well might not even be on the roster come October. (I'll expand on that in detail on a Jimmer related post.)

Which means, by now, that the Kings have to look at a variety of ways to improve the roster around 2 All-Star if not Hall of Fame talents in Evans and Cousins.

Let me save you the trouble of understanding my position of a possible Tyreke Evans extension: Hell no. Hell to the effin A without a doubt no. That's how bad Evans has been this season. I bring this up because the excellent Phillip Rossman-Reich of Orlando Magic Daily and Crossover Chronicles (Bloguin's NBA blog) brought this up at CC yesterday.

Anyone remotely familiar with my opinion of say, oh I don't know, the last 4 months knows how I've felt about Tyreke's season so far. Tyreke Evans has been nothing short or ornery and atrocious, and, honestly, I'm not sure which is more disturbing or offensive. What I do know is both are exceptionally problematic for a franchise that no less than 5 months ago legitimately (with good reason) saw Evans as the franchise player. A lot changes in 5 months apparently. That's how bad Evans has really been.

There are some issues I have with Rossman-Reich's piece, and that's the way it goes sometimes.

For a lot of Kings fans, support of the team at the moment is not only the issue, but the absolutely imperative first last and only question.

Should you buy season tickets? That's up to each individual to determine for themselves. But don't kid yourselves: You're not starving the Maloofs revenue. It won't make that much difference for the Maloof family because they simply don't have any liquidity in their businesses (especially if it's true that they own 43% of the Kings--big up's to James Ham if that's indeed true--and for what it's worth I'm betting it is) .

The better question is the treatment of the Maloofs. The Maloofs had Sac County Sheriffs (they usually don't), and the typical security around them when they were in their suite. One fan pointed this out last night on his Twitter account. That goes without saying: The Maloofs were afraid of fan reprisal. So someone took action even if it was probably unnecessary. A good show of force ensures that little, if nothing, will happen.

The title...yeah that's pretty much the short version.

The Maloofs don't want to be in Sacramento. They are backtracking away from a deal they said they were comfortable with. Now they are faced with the reality that the Kings will no longer be theirs. Except, the Family has refused to accept it and will fight to the bitter end.

What will this all mean? It will likely cost the Maloofs the money, the franchise itself, and they will likely lose it all fairly quickly. What can the NBA do? Little in most likelihood. Even with the Maloofs maxed out on their credit line with the NBA, it's doubtful the NBA can call it all in right now. As long as the Maloofs are not in default, it's going to be difficult to force them out.

On the other hand, the Maloofs need the NBA's permission to move and I sincerely doubt that.

Earlier today, Wendell Maxey of Crossover Chronicles (Bloguins NBA blog) wrote a piece stating that David Stern and the NBA need to clean up the situation. Unfortunately, the Maloofs don't wish to exit gracefully which is a shame on a number of fronts.

My sincere hope is that the Maloofs don't show up in Sacramento because they couldn't be any lower. My sincere hope is that fans don't throw things at them, or do more than boo. i hope anyone reading this remembers that the NBA isn't just watching the Maloofs (as they have to) but the fans reaction to all this. Boo all you want, that's your right as a paying customer, but don't throw things at the Maloofs or anyone else. Keep composed. This fight is far from over. The Maloofs just played their desperate cards, and in all likelihood this mess will be cleaned up soon.

The only question that remains will the NBA fight the Maloofs and keep the arena financing mechanism on track. I hope the NBA does, for all parties sake, but I'm not hopeful at this point.

There is no question that after today's ill-fated comical presser in New York, George Maloof is a bond villian, and that any future relationship with the Maloofs and Sacramento is 100% dead. It's over now for good. The question remains: Where do the Kings land?

I'm going to cross my fingers and hope for the best. That's all there is at this point.

Ron Burkle is an interesting name that has been tossed around. Recently, Ailene Voisin mentioned that another possible buyer is out there. Today, it was put out to the media that another possible buyer that is "based" in California.

As I'm writing this, it's not yet known how long it make take the Maloofs to even sell. Kevin Johnson has been summoned to New York to discuss with David Stern and the Maloofs in New York (George, Gavin and Joe) about the current arena deal that has hit tough times in the last month. What is for certain is that no buyer can buy the team from the Maloofs and control it as long as the Maloofs own 53% of the Kings.

Here is what I've found, and it's an interesting portrayal, of Ron Burkle and a number of his attitudes and opinions.

Background on Burkle

Ron Burkle is not like the Maloofs where much of his fortune is based on previous investment made by someone else (in the Maloofs case their father). Burkle is a self made man as his father was managing a Staters grocery store during much of his childhood. Burkle is from Pomona and spent the majority of his childhood there. Burkle washed out of Cal Tech, and went back to manage Staters grocery stores in his early 20's. In 1982 he attempted to buy one, was rebuffed, and ultimately was fired as a result of making a low bid. ¹ What's important to know about this is that by this time Burkle was 30 years old and was a Vice-President who made a failed bid that was too low. In 1986 is when the real fun started.

The failed attempt of Staters was only a temporary setback as Burkle ultimately ended up starting his investment vehicle, Yucaipa Inc, and that is exactly what Onexim is to Mikhail Prokhorov (Nets) or what Vulcan is to Paul Allen (TrailBlazers) in case you're familiar with either of those particular financial vehicles. According to Bloomberg Weekly, there have been 40 deals totalling roughly 30 million dollars since 1986 involving Yucaipa.¹

That's the question isn't it? I mean, really, how hard is this to understand? What is the Maloofs goal in all of this? To make more money. We know that much. We know that the first goal of the family is to be in Anaheim. So, where is all this at now? Where it's at pretty much.

I've been sitting this out for awhile now but I'll offer a short glimpse of what I see is the general issue now. It's about...wait for it....money. Shocking isn't it?

Why now? Why have the Maloofs flip flopped so much? My feeling is they've been denied for a loan they were so sure in late February (and few others suspected they couldn't come up with) and now we are getting the antics by the Family to screw the city of Sacramento along with the NBA. Give the Maloof family this: What they lack in brains they make up in balls. The problem, this game isn't about having the biggest swinging dick in town. The Maloofs, George especially, do not seem to understand that.

This is going to be short because I have ADD and well, what?

Here's what grabbed my attention about the game:

* Bad adjustment to how the refs were calling the game.

* Bad rebounding (especially with Hayes as the C) for far too many stretches throughout the game

* Isaiah Thomas looks more and more like a starter much of the time. The play of the game, the real tide turner, was where the Kings were down 2, play quality defense on the Jazz to force a missed shot by Al Jefferson with about 37 or so seconds left, then Terrence Williams grabs the board and throws the ball ahead to Isaiah who hits the game tying FT's. 6-8 floor, 7-9 floor? Gets it done every time. Between Devin Harris and Earl Watson, they got 20 points and 11 assists. Isaiah got 19 points and 6 assists by himself (with a number of high end looks that were just missed). That's starter material right there even if Isaiah's future role is as a 6th man. Right now? I'm convinced Isaiah can start long term in this league. Am I surprised Isaiah can play. No, of course not. I've said time & time & time again Isaiah going 60th was the Kings lucky break; not anything more than that. On the other hand, Isaiah starting and looking like a terrific long term player in the NBA is not something I necessarily expected this early in his career either.

What is the greatest need? Is this need the SF spot? A starting PG? Is it a defensive stud like Anthony Davis from the draft? These are the tough questions as this quandry is the typical problem NBA teams face this time of year.

Well. Where do I start? There was a lot of good things, some real negatives mixed in, and in general a positive win for the right reasons. Here is the box score.

Let's start with turnovers forced for Memphis: On Avg, the Grizzlies force 17.8 TO's a game. Including several late TO's when the game was already out of reach for Memphis, Sacramento committed 14 total TO's on the game. And it very well could have been 12 or 11 TO's had a few soft passes made by numerous Kings not been made.

The Kings attempted 32 FT's, making 21, and that could have derailed the Kings on many nights this season. Why? 28 assists mainly. The Kings were getting a lot of quality shots at the rim en route to a season high 74 points in the paint. The Kings out-rebounded the Grizzlies 47-37 total, and that's impressive given how often it seemed like the Kings just simply went after the ball. It felt like Memphis actually did better on the boards than they actually did.

Here is another stat for you: On the season the Grizzlies typically allow 44.3 FG% from the floor for opponents; tonight the Kings shot 53.4%. That was a huge biproduct of the ball movement we saw for much of the night before the 4th quarter turned into a slam-bam contest of who could hit each other without the ref looking.

The Kings outscored Memphis in fastbreak points (27-21; Memphis' total aided by several soft passes to Tony Allen that went for uncontested layups), and in general managed to make a lot of hustle plays. The Kings had 11 steals to the Grizzlies' 6 steals, and 6 blocks to the Grizzlies 2. That told me a lot when a number of steals didn't always result in a positive net result for the Kings. What these things did was frustrate the Grizzlies. I'm sure a number of those guys said: Who is this team? Trust me Grizzlies: We as Kings fans are enjoying it, but have not seen this team before either.

I am not a fan of Terrence Williams as you might have guessed. Williams has bounced around from New Jersey, to their D-League affiliate in Springfield Ill, to Houston, to their D-League affiliate in Rio Grande TX, and now the Kings pick up T-Will on a 10 day contract. Why? To see how big of a joker this cat is?

Here is Williams career numbers. It's not the stuff of legend.

Is this a low risk high reward deal? Yeah, it is. Can it work? Sure it could. I'm just not going to hold my breathe on this one. This dude has bounced out of 2 organizations for a variety of behavorial problems and it's only his 3rd year.

On the other hand, Williams is a SF who can handle the ball and run the Point-Forward of sorts. Williams can defend, board, but is not a quality shooter from 3. I think the Kings want to see if they can make it work with him for whatever reason. I mean why not, it's just a roster spot and 10 days? What really can go wrong?

(Of all the players the Kings could have gotten, Terrence Williams? Sigh....)