[Izulde]

I've only ever visited Sacramento once in my life and it was to visit a girl who lives in Redding. I hated the city, thought it was dirty and filled with people I didn't exactly want to get to know, but maybe that's because I was at the bus station, which tends to attract the sketchy sort. In the interest of semi-full disclosure, I'll confess that I almost ended up getting kicked out after I flipped out because the connecting bus to Redding was a) late and b) only had a few seats available due to having to pick up passenger from another bus breaking down.

Nice bit of ironic parallelism there when you think about it, bus breakdown leading to near me-breakdown.

Anyway, the girl was pretty, but we didn't click and to this day she remains the type of good friend I fight with about everything and occasionally... well... you know...

Not that any of that has anything to do with me or the Kings, of course.

In any event, the problem with having just three contracts and only one of them trade-eligible and that one being $612k and change is that it's impossible to make a deal. My cap money's still being held hostage by the NBA Rules and I can't kick the gun out until after the draft's over.

I also have to decide about the coaching staff. Reggie Theus has been the Kings' head coach for well, I don't know how long. I just know he's been in the business 18 years, has an 804-672 record and has 16 playoff appearances. But the more I look at him, the more he just seems the wrong fit. When I realize the records don't match up to make him a Kings lifer, it's much easier to do what I want to do and fire the whole coaching staff.

It may be a mistake, but I make a splash by signing 49 year old former NBAer Andre Miller to a 4 year, $5 million a year contract as our newly minted rookie head coach. I love his skill set as a coach and he runs the moderate-leaning-slow pace offense that seems to work best with the types of teams I put together, so I don't see this as another Kurt Thomas hire (who wound up in Golden State as a 2nd assistant). The same day, we announce the signing of Emeka Okafor as the 3rd assistant. Yeah, Emeka's a pretty bad coach, but he comes cheap and at 43, he can learn on the job. Besides, he's a great team leader. We strike out on all our other assistant offers and are forced to settle for Chuck Person and Kenny Natt as 1st and 2nd assistants respectively.

Mock Draft

With 3 first round selections, we generate quite a bit of buzz and are tabbed to take the following players.

#9. SF Tariel Abashize (18 - Estonia)
#20. PF Jim Johnson (20 - Maryland)
#21. C Deon Blair (21 - Texas)

Abashize is a very intriguing prospect at first glance and this is one hell of a draft class, making up for the draft of previous years by a huge margin. How fantastic is it?

9 players are rated 5* future by Scouts, Inc., the most in a long time, maybe the most since I've been in the league

And we have pick #9. Damned good time to have it, if you ask me.

On the face of it, I'd say 19 year old Notre Dame one and done SF Damian Thomas and 20 year old Latvian SG Nochimas Eliashov are the two best players in this ungodly class. Little surprise, then, that they're tabbed to go 1 and 2 to the Spurs and Nuggets.

Now, if the new Denver GM was smart, he'd draft PG Dondrell Wilder, a 19 year old one and done from Wake Forest. At first blush, he reminds me of fellow Demon Deacon alum Andre Moore in some ways and that's a good thing.

Frankly, after skimming the preliminary reports on the Nine Knights, as the class is being called in the papers, I'd be happy with just about any one of them. Granted, there's some I'd prefer more than others, but it's got to be a hellish year for the Timberwolves, who are stuck at #10 and have to hope somebody falls.

Speaking of classes, and as a random aside, Brandon Brooks finally retired this past offseason. I'd stopped tracking the Utah Sixers and lost interest in keeping up with anyone else, but the Nine Knights intrigue the hell out of me and make me want to follow their careers.

Bad year for centers, it looks like. Quite a few good PGs, though, but it'll be difficult to nab one I want. Not a big problem, since it's pretty easy to find a decent pass-first PG, easier than it is to find anything else actually.

Oddly enough, the Nine Knights aren't projected as the Top 9 picks. Instead, they go like this:
1. SF Damian Thomas - San Antonio Spurs
2. SG Nochimas Eliashov - Denver Nuggets
3. PG Dondrell Wilder - Philadelphia 76ers
4. SF Russell Sims - Golden State Warriors
5. SF Kevin Phillips - Seattle Supersonics
6. SF Sigiswald Eckert - Orlando Magic
9. SF Tariel Abashize - Sacramento Kings
11. PF Eddie Pruitt - Cleveland Cavaliers
17. PF Michael Havens - New Jersey Nets

Now one of these guys dropping I could see, because C Chris Moss looks like a great player and in a class thin on bigs, he's bound to get snapped up early (Projected #8 - Washington), but for one to still be there at 17 would be ludicrous.

Thrilling, thrilling draft. I can't wait to bring these guys in for workouts and see what shakes out.