[Izulde]

There's a player I'm absolutely fascinated with who I'm sure won't fall to me. Basically, he's a lot like Oswaldo Apolonario was, an extremely raw player with franchise-level talent. He also plays SG, an area of need for us. Be interesting to see where he goes.

2027 NBA Draft 1st Round
1. C Tony Bryson - Denver Nuggets

?! I don't believe I just saw that! They have Dontay Williamson; what do they need with another C, even one as undersized as Bryson? I don't get this pick at all.

2. PF Dennis Edwards - Philadelphia 76ers

Celebration in the city of Brotherly Love as the 76ers just got the gift of the class's best player.

3. SG Stephen Wilson - Orlando Magic
4. PG Bryan Hankar - Golden State Warriors
5. SG Russell Thompson - Los Angeles Lakers

And there goes the Apolonario type project. Not too surprising he went this high, as a lot of the initially promising draftees had horrible workouts for us.

6. PF Tommy Kent - Denver Nuggets

Yeah, see, they pass on Edwards for this guy. Dumb move.

7. C Kevin Horan - Memphis Grizzlies
8. SG Joe Ward - San Antonio Spurs
9. C Benjamin Williams - Houston Rockets

Now at this point, there's two players I really like, one much more than the other, but I don't know that he's worth trading up for just yet. We'll wait and see what happens.

10. SF Joseph Zinn - New York Knicks
11. PG Kaluj Kazlauskas - Portland Trailblazers
12. C Tony Cooper - Milwaukee Bucks

Cooper was a guy I thought about if he was still around for our pick, which I thought he'd be. Not a great player, but you can't teach 7'4, 301 lbs.

I'm starting to get nervous now about the guy I prefer being taken, so I give Detroit a call. They want more than I'm willing to ante up and are primed to take a PG anyway, so I let it slide.

13. PG Justin Myers - Detroit Pistons

The Knicks and I try to hammer out a trade, but there's just nothing working here, so I watch with nervousness as they make their selection.

14. SG Alan Lentz - New York Knicks

At this point, we're guaranteed at least one of the players I'm interested in, but my preference for the one is so much stronger that I contact the Clippers anyway. But they're not willing to flip picks and I'm swearing as I wait for the name to come up.

15. C Chris Long - Los Angeles Clippers

YES!!!! With Sweet 16, my favorite number, I'll be able to draft the player I'm most coveting.

16. PF Ferdinand Kallenberger - Sacramento Kings

6'9, 228 lb German who showed some good shooting and defensive potential. Although listed as a PF, his game focuses on the jumper and with his build, he's actually more like a SF. Showed off great versatility on defense in the combine and our workouts, able to guard everybody from the smallest PGs to some of the average sized PFs. I'm absolutely thrilled to be able to get him. Oh yeah, he's also got exquisite intangibles. A real team guy who busts his ass off like nobody else in the draft class.

The talking heads like the pick too.

17. PG Daniel Warley - Charlotte Bobcats
18. PF Khalid Sarchet - Minnesota Timberwolves

This guy took the biggest tumble of anybody I've seen in a long, long time. Originally projected as a Top 5-10 pick, he dropped all the way to 18 by showing indifference to defense and one of the worst work ethics ever seen out of a college kid. If Kallenberger had gone off the board, I would've taken Sarchet, because at this stage in the draft, a pure scorer like this kid is worth some serious coin, no matter how lazy he is. If he pans out, the T-Wolves have a steal on their hands. If he doesn't, no harm, no foul.

19. SG Ryan Jones - New Orleans Hornets
20. PF Jason Perry - Washington Wizards
21. C Wesley Worley - Chicago Bulls

Unbelievably bad drafting by the Bulls here. He's a mid-late 2nd rounder at best.

22. SG Isaac Campbell - Indiana Pacers

This one's almost as bad, especially with David Johnson on the roster.

23. PG Rodney Chappel - Miami Heat
24. SF Andrey McSwain - Seattle Supersonics

No way in hell McSwain should still be here at #24. I was considering between him and Sarchet if we wouldn't have been able to get our man at #16. A filthy steal for the Supersonics, maybe even on the level of William Tackett.

25. PG Kenyatta Bennett - Dallas Mavericks

Sensational value pick by Dallas. Not only do they finally have a true PG, they have one who can become a pretty good one in Bennett. Not happy to see the top teams in our conference draft so well, but what can you do?

26. PG Josh Tyler - Atlanta Hawks
27. PF Jermar Johnson - Cleveland Cavaliers

Jim "Twizzler" Johnson he's not, but still a great value selection.

28. PF Kelland Few - Phoenix Suns
29. SG William Jefferson - Utah Jazz
30. C Antonio Clark - Boston Celtics

Our initial look at Kallenberger after the draft suggests he doesn't have much upside, though some and he's still considerably raw. Disappointing, but with his work ethic, maybe he can be another Jim Johnson, the kind that quietly gets better. Still, he should be good enough to see significant minutes in his rookie season.

We renounce all our contracts and end up with $5.85 million in cap room, just enough to make a move for a player at slightly above mid-level exemption and then bring in a couple min-sal deals to flesh out the roster.

Summer League
PF Jim Johnson
PF Ferdinand Kallenberger
C Ryan Crews

Defense rules in our 90-75 summer opening win against the Bucks. Most noteworthy performance is reserve Will Wooley's 10 points, but at least Jim Johnson is looking much more accurate this year.

Close 83-78 loss to the Wizards, with no standout performances, though from what I've seen of Ferdinand Kallenberger so far, he's an extremely accurate shooter who needs to learn how to be more aggressive with his shot-taking.

Back to the positive side with an 86-79 victory over the Spurs and Edmond Ford breaks out for 23 points. Ford intrigues me as a bench player. Hustles on defense and has enough offensive game to be a worthy sparkplug with the second team. But we'll have to see what's out there first.

Edmond Ford duplicates his 23 points and benchman Mike Poole adds 10 points, but we get spanked 99-83 by the Jazz. Not too worried since most of the damage came from Utah's reserves, so it's not like our roster players were the ones slacking.

Last game of the summer's an 81-70 win in Toronto, Edmond Ford leading the way with 21 points, Aubrey Prato scoring 10 off the bench. Ford's definitely earned himself a long look from us in free agency.

Free Agency

Hold me tight. This is an absolutely phenomenal free agent crop. I'll just start listing names.

SG Justin Richler
C Oswaldo Apolonario
SG Rudolf Zyndram
SG Georgi Dimov
SG Nigel Abel
PF Michael Woods
SG Kyle Hoiberg
PF Bill Towns
SF Georghios Kairis
PG Caleb James
PG Filip Svorda
PF Kelvin Moody
SF Kevin Durant
C Jonte Jones
C Narcyz Malinomowski
SF Tariel Abashize

And that's just the biggest names. There's other familiar ones here, like Ronald King, Mike Vines, Kenny Graham, Mateen Yeaton, etc, but they're either second-tier or faded. To be honest, a lot of those sexy names you see up there, like Towns, Jones, Durant, Moody, Malinomowski, etc. are in the twilight of their careers, too, but in my opinion, they're good enough to draw attention.

As you might expect, the big names all re-join their teams in the early going. 6th Man of the Year Phillip Smith cashes in on that award and his ring to get a 5 year, $44.6 mil. deal from the Bucks. Good for him.

The Raptors make a huge splash, not only re-signing Justin Richler, but stealing away Caleb James on a 5 year, $53 million contract. Remnisicent of the days when they used to make great free agent raids to set up their original dynasty.

I'm sorely tempted to give Tariel Abashize a fat contract, but the more I look at him and the more I hear reports of his laziness in Washington, the more I'm dis-inclined to pursue him.

Instead, I spend our cap space on Filip Svorda snapping him up on a very reasonable 2 year, $12.1 mil. deal. He'll push William Tackett for the starting PG spot and give us a fantastic 6th man in any case. I've always liked Svorda; he's a great all-around PG who never really got much of a chance.

With what's left, I return Mateen Yeaton and bring back an old favorite in Winston Smith on min-sal deals, putting us at $2.28 mil. over the cap. Will Langhi will grumble, but if we can get to the Finals, he'll be okay with it.

On that same day, Jonte Jones goes to the Lakers of all teams on a 5 year, $32.3 mil. contract, Bill Towns jumps conferences, swerving to the Nets for 5 years, $32.3 mil. and Edmond Ford re-signs with the Pistons for 4 years, $12.9 mil. Tariel Abashize re-signs with the Heat (5 years, $21.7 mil.), the Hawks grab Waldemar Althusser at 5 years, $32.3 mil and the Raptors make another headline grabbing free agent signing, handing Georghiois Kairis a 5 year, $32.3 mil. deal aka a maxed out mid-level exemption.

We had a mid-level exemption sitting around too, but Mr. Langhi told me he'd drive me to San Francisco and throw me off the Golden Gate Bridge if I dared use it.

So what do I do when he tells me that? Cheerfully tell him to go to hell and re-sign Nigel Abel to a one year mid-level exemption, putting us $7.78 mil. over the cap. Nigel told me after he faxed in the contract immediately after I offered it to him that he'd been waiting all summer to come back to Sacramento, because we have the look of destiny about this year. The Chicago Bulls were absolutely furious, as were about 5 or 6 other teams who had mid-level offers out to him.

Narcyz Malinomowski continues the trend of aging centers shifting locations, hopping on board Minnesota for a one year deal and I forget what kind of money.

Other signings of note: Greg Oden to the Pistons on a min-sal, former Nuggets starter Antawn Carson to the Celtics for an absurdly cheap two year min-sal and Ronald King going to Milwaukee, also for a min-sal, albeit just one year.

Training Camp

David Anyan and Mateen Yeaton looked significantly slower in camp and I probably won't be bringing Anyan back after this season, unless he comes in at a real cut-rate price. Jim "Twizzler" Johnson showed even more improvement and we could see a breakout season from him. Ferdinand Kallenberger showed some nice strides as well, which has me positively giddy. But also on the downside, Terrence Howard really looked old and out of shape and Winston Smith didn't look so hot, either.

Although we're projected 7th in the West in most preview mags, 2nd in the Pacific behind the West favorite Clippers, I have to say excitement is high here in Sacramento. This, in my opinion, is one of the deepest, most talented teams I've ever assembled and that includes some of my Nuggets editions. True, we don't have that elite scorer, but I feel like we have enough offense to go around. I'm not buying the Clippers as the top choice in the West. Quin Crispin isn't that good a coach and Travann Patterson at C is a deathkiss. I'm not sold on the Hornets #2, either. Or the Rockets #3 for that matter. The Jazz at #4 is a laugh. It's not until the Spurs at #5 that I can start taking the rankings seriously and the Sonics picked up Martin Beerbohm in free agency to be their new C.

Honestly, if I were to rate it, it'd go like this:

1. Seattle Supersonics
2. Sacramento Kings
3. Denver Nuggets (depending on how their two high-profile rookies develop)
4. Dallas Mavericks

The Suns have both Chris Adams and Milan Nouge starting, which eliminates them as a contender in my opinion.

The East have a lot of possible contenders and while I don't completely disagree with the Bulls #1, Pacers #2, Nets #3, 76ers #4, Celtics #5, I take strong issue with the ordering and the Hawks at #7. Toronto will be a playoff team as well, not 11th and 4th in the Atlantic.

2027 Sacramento Kings Opening Night Roster
PG William Tackett
SG Shane Holliway
SF David Anyan
PF Jim Johnson
C Terrence Howard
6th Filip Svorda (PG/SG)
7th Nigel Abel (SG)
8th Ferdinand Kallenberger (SF/PF)
9th Ryan Crews (PF/C)
10th Brandon Edmond (SF/PF/C)
11th Mateen Yeaton (PG/SG/SF)
12th Justin Cherry (PG/SG/SF)

Inactive
Tzvetan Kishishev (SF/PF/C)
Winston Smith (PF/C)

This is going to be one damned exciting team to watch.