All I want for Christmas...an open letter to Santa from a King's fan.

It has been 5 months since I last contributed to Sactown Royalty and must apologize in advance for my unavoidable absence and weak post to follow as I was too encumbered with a job change, an unsuccessful attempt (so far) to open a sports grill, resolution of a lawsuit that sucked the life out of me, Angel's playoffs, Charger's tailgating responsibilities and some international travel. As a result, my interaction with the StR was limited to reading delayed posts via my Kindle.

So like a nervous little league batter stepping into the batter's box I close my eyes and swing in hopes of not embarrassing myself given the recent terrific work posted by the usual suspects such as LTTG, MLS, Aykis and Pookey to name a few.

Dear Santa,

I know you are very busy this holiday season with requests from more important people in the world from the likes of President Obama who wants 235,000 troops for Afghanistan to Tiger who just wants his two front teeth (again), it may be difficult for you to deliver on my wish list this year. Regardless, I send my list to you in hopes the magic of Christmas may find its way to my humble home--Arco Arena.

1. No Trades - Please keep all of our players together until closer to the trade deadline. We are really grateful for the gifts bestowed on us this season and are still figuring out how they all fit together and need more time to develop and evaluate.

2. No More Injuries - We know every team gets stronger when a key contributor goes down and forces the rest of the group to step up. The development of our young players is accelerating as a result of our own injuries and when Kevin and Cisco come back we will be so much better for it. With that said, we really would appreciate a break from the injury bug for the rest of the season so we can really see how good this team can be.

3.An All-Star and/or Rookie of the Year Award - Kevin really deserves a chance to play in February with the rest of the elite players and Tyreke should be rewarded for his excellent play on both ends of the floor so early in the year especially since he is playing multiple positions.

4. A Bonus for Paul Westphal - He and his crew are coaching their socks off! They are motivating the seldom used reserves, maintaining a positive attitude even when the team makes mistakes and looks like he is delivering on his promises he set out as goals for this team to achieve. Our team is winning, and he deserves a ton of credit for that.

5. A new contract for Geoff Petrie - Everyone needs to jump back on the bandwagon once their broken ankles heal. Geoff clearly knows what he is doing even though he doesn't have the pocket book to make all the moves that other GMs in the league have. Now that we have a Commandment to support GP hopefully the days of hearing people question his basketball acumen are over.

6. A viable plan for a new Arena - Heck we would even be happy with a refurbished Arco, just help us get something going so our city and fans have something to look forward to.

7. Fewer turnovers - We are playing .500 ball dispite being quite careless with the rock but that won't fly against the top teams in the league we will be playing over the next few weeks. While some of this problem can be attributed to our being the second youngest team in the league and being new to playing together, I expect we could still use some help in this department given the guards we have seem to be a little too prone to turnovers.

8. Shock's Shocked - JT is fourth in the league in fouls committed and always seems shocked that a foul is called on him. He complains too frequently about calls made instead of showing some discretion about when to complain. He does have so much promise but will be picked a part when teams try to exploit this by attacking him early and getting him into foul trouble and off the floor. Spencer seems to play a lot better when JT is on the floor so if there is anyway you can fix this part of his game we would really appreciate it.

9. Assists/FTs/Steals - While we are excelling at rebounding and shooting percentage, we are very average on these three categories. We need to continue improving our passing, attacking the rim to get more FT opportunities and converting them at a higher percentage. I would like us to be a little more aggressive on defesne and create more easy scoring opportunities off of turnovers. Santa any improvement here would bode well for us in terms of Wins and Losses.

10. A Playoff Spot - I know a lot of people on this site expected to be 3 years away from the playoffs given our roster, but you have no idea how helpful it would be to sneak into the playoffs a season or two sooner to help bolster the fans excitement and it we are threatening later this season with a chance at the playoffs, it will improve attendance and hopefully make it easier for the community to get back behind this team. We got a lump of coal in our stocking in 02 and 03 and would be so grateful if you could help us out with enough wins to get into the second season.

PS - Your cookies and milk will be waiting for you as usual.

Signed,

A hopeful King's fan.