10 years ago...

by dmj on Jun 12, 2008 9:27 PM PDT Comment 3 comments

Geoff Petrie pulled off the trade that would define the Sacramento Kings franchise for the better part of six years. The trade, one of the biggest steals in NBA history, sent an aging, though still very productive, Mitch Richmond to the Washington Bullets for a young Chris Webber.

At that time, Chris Webber had been much maligned after recent run-ins with the law. Worse yet Webber's team, the Washington Bullets, had only been to the playoffs once during his four year tenure, when they were swept by the championship bound Bulls.

Still, Webber's talent was undeniable. He was a former rookie of the year whose career averages at that point were 20 points, 9 rebounds, and 4.3 assists. His arrival immediately sparked the Kings revival, leading the Kings to an above .500 finish and only their second playoff appearance in the last decade.

Now, 10 years later, the Kings are in need of a new Webber--an All-NBA caliber player who they can develop their team around. Even with the addition of Ron Artest and Kevin Martin's development the team is still far from returning to its former success. Going forward then, it seems that something has to change or else the team will continue to tread water.

Looking over the league there aren't any it's hard to find any players of Webber's ability that would be available. The one exception I can find is Carmelo Anthony, whose recent troubles with the law and inability to lead his team deep into the playoffs seem to have opened the Nuggets up to trade talks involving him. He's easily the best SF in the league outside of Lebron James, and is capable of putting up 28, 7 and 4 on a nightly basis. To top it all off, he is only 24 and arguably has yet to reach his full potential.

So what do you guys think? Is there anyway we could pull off a trade Anthony? I'd imagine doing so would require at least Kevin Martin and a first round pick or two, assuming that the Nuggest would even be interested. If you're not interested in Anthony, however, do you think that there is any other young franchise caliber player that we would have a shot at?

(This is a FanPost from a member of the Sactown Royalty community. The views expressed come from the member, and not Sactown Royalty staff.)

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The Kings don't have the assets

to acquire a guy like Anthony, and the Nuggets are not nearly as anxious to deal ‘Melo as Washington was to deal Webber.

The keys to the Webber/Richmond deal was that Richmond was a perennial all star and that Webber had to go. The Kings do not have a current all star on their roster today, and I don’t know of a top 15 talent in the league today that a team has to deal.

SACTOWN ROYALTY - Try our thick creamy shakes!

by section214 on Jun 12, 2008 9:55 PM PDT reply actions

Well...

I think that there is probably some truth to the Nuggets not really being set on moving Carmelo, at least in the sense that they aren’t actively shopping him to teams. However, I don’t know if the Nuggets would be able to do much better than a Martin/Draft Picks type of deal, especially considering what some star players have been given up for recently. While Martin is not an all-star his numbers are pretty close to what Richmond was putting up in the year of his trade. And if you account for the age difference (Richmond was 33, Martin is 25) it does make the trade seem a lot better.

Still, I’d say the likelihood of this sort of deal is pretty low, mostly because the Nuggets will likely ask for far more than Melo is worth right now. That said, if they fail to advance in the playoffs next year and Melo’s legal troubles continue, then I could definitely this sort of deal happening.

by dmj on Jun 12, 2008 11:03 PM PDT up reply actions

In fairness...

I have also thought about Anthony, situation be damned, as the kind of trade asset Petrie would kill to take advantage of. But Petrie is doing something we’ve never seen El Capitan do before, build from the ground up. So this may be an era in which we sit down, strap in, shut up and let the winds of trade value and lottery selection blow where they may.

by rbiegler on Jun 12, 2008 10:13 PM PDT reply actions