The Kings and the Arenas situation

At least you made a good attempt to format your thoughts. So I do appreciate that.

Very well done.

Bottom line for me, the contract is just too big for a guy that has battled injuries for the past few years. Never mind the personal issues – the combination of massive dollars and balky knees is more than I care to take on.

You make a pretty good argument, but I think his huge contract becomes an actual untouchable contract when you consider the upcoming expiration of the current CBA. Basketball-wise I think it could be very good. Locker room-wise, I probably don’t have as many concerns as a lot of people. Arenas is certainly a unique character, that’s for sure.

Rolling the dice, BIG TIME. You acquire what is considered the League’s worst contract (supplanting Elton Brand) and hope, pray that a proven bad locker room presence will play defense (he hasn’t ever really done much of that), run an offense that does not center around him (hasn’t done that either) and prove he is a team leader (in a positive way).

The Kings have finally shed the bulk of their bad contracts, finally been able to see light at the end of the Chris Webber tunnel (not blaming, just talking timing), and they load up on a gamble with a very young team that is seasons away from becoming something. I don’t see it.

He fits, but in a way that it the sort of way sweat pants do after getting fat. What an ugly contract.
The team has hit bottom and we can laugh at this sort of move in a few weeks, hopefully.

If its the trade deadline, the offense is going nowhere, and the team is on the brink of moving to Vegas, a desperation Arenas for Beno and filler would at least make things interesting.

Some good arguments made. I love Gilbert. Hopefully a change of scenery would bring back some of the old, fun-loving Gilbert, but with a touch more maturity. I’m not entirely sure I’d want him on the Kings, but I’m not entirely sure I wouldn’t want him. His contract, especially with a new CBA, will definitely limit who the Kings sign for the next few years, but shouldn’t cause too many concerns with extending our current batch of guys. He is basically a very rich man’s Beno, in terms of both talent and salary. So he will play really well alongside Tyreke. I’d probably okay with an Arenas trade if they took Cisco, and maybe Beno (although I’d enjoy him off the bench if he got consistent), and sent us some combo of picks/McGee/Seraphin/etc.

But my second thought is wait, wait….that is a overreaction. While I do like Arenas, and it could work out, it could also blow up in our face. We don’t want to handicap ourselves financially again. Petrie has been patient to put the kings in the exact situation we are in right now. So, I don’t see him making this move. I see him waiting for the right deal to made, when someone else overreacts and we can pull off a great trade.

only If we could get rid of Beno and Cisco in exchange for Agent Zero. Then in effect we are trading 45 million in combined obligation to Beno and Cisco for 80 million due to Arenas over 4 years. We are effectively paying, and by ‘we’ in mean the Maloofs, lol, an extra 35 million dollars over 4 years to Arenas.

Is Arenas worth 9 million dollars a year more than Beno and Cisco? I don’t know, probably not, and the last year of Arenas contact is an albatross (when both Beno and Cisco have expired), but I know Gilbert would help the team. In theory Reke and Arenas would be fantastic tandem, assuming they are willing to share the ball.

Arenas for Cisco and Beno

and apart from his elite basketball skills, he is a leader, he has a high IQ (not just basketball wise), he is in his prime, he looks healthy and I assume he is quite cheap to acquire.

Yeah the dark side is obviously his maturity, but in my eyes… Stern made an example out of him because he was the perfect guinea pig. His ego was above the skies, he was arrogant, too vocal, ironic and humorous with the media (blog, interviews etc) in a way that Stern hated him but at the same time couldn’t touch him. He was dressed like a clown when everyone else had Stern’s formal dress code and could still get away with it because of his stardom. When the incident with the guns came up, it was the perfect timing for Stern to make an example out of him, and given that he was already out of the limelight because of the injuries, he was merciless.

Stephen Jackson received a 7 game suspension for firing a gun outside a strip club. Delonte West was arrested for carrying two handguns and a shotgun on his bike! He had enough guns “to hold up the mall in case of a zombie attack” as I read back then in a blog. Result? A 10 game suspension.

Arenas was just childish enough to show off some of the guns from his collection in the locker room. All I’m saying is that this thing was blown out of proportion and Arenas was way too humbled. He was the unlucky player who suffered from Stern’s whip for exemplification.

My point is: Bring Arenas over and let him shine! He’s both highly skilled and mature enough. As far as I can think right now at 4.00 AM (Greece time), only a trade including Dalembert could match his salary and we’ll probably still have room left to sign one more good player.

Great post Craunic.

PS. I’ll order an Arenas jersey the day he signs.

my only worry is health

Say the NBA goes to a hard cap in the new CBA. How long until its implemented? It won’t go into effect right away, will it? It wouldn’t make sense for the owners to demand a hard cap and then have to get themselves under it right away, would it?

What’s with everyone praising this guy’s first post? If we keep this up, we’ll never maintain our good ol’ boys club! Oh, what’s that, the community appreciates a well-presented argument, even if they disagree with it? I’m stunned.

As for the post itself, well done. Like others have said, I don’t really want Arenas. I think he’ll thrive as a piece on a team that is close to playoff contention, but I think he’d be a bad fit for this squad, personally. But unlike some others, I don’t really worry about the locker room aspect, I get the impression that Gil is still well-liked as a person around the league.

Wait, what?

And I am all for this idea for a few reasons.
a) we have nothing to lose, this season is worse than anybody could have imagined
b) We cant attract a big time FA, so whats the point of cap space that we cant spend? Other than saving the Maloofs money. We are a small market team that is in a free fall, our only use for the cap space is going to have to be through a trade.
c) If we trade them Beno and Cisco and dont resign Dalembert we are actually spending less than we are currently… I want to say they combine for 23 mill this year?

I would do this deal and would really really try to get McGee or Blatche in the deal. I dont think they will trade McGee… so how about Beno-Cisco-JT (or Dalembert) for Arenas and Blatche.

Landry, Cousins, and Blatche is a decent 3 big man rotation moving forward.