Who would you protect?

T. Evans
O. Casspi
C. Landry
Thompson
D. Cousins

That’s be comparably easier.

My five:
1. Tyreke
2. Cousins
3. Donte
4. JT
5. Omri

Landry misses the cut because he will be an unrestricted free agent. If he signed an extension, he’d be on the list for sure.

Top 5:
Evans, Cousins, Casspi, Greene, Thompson

Next 3:
Landry, Whiteside, Udrih

The point of this FanPost is not exactly to see who you would protect in the event of an expansion draft.

The point is to see, if confronted with a decision of only keeping one of, say Donte and Omri.

If you had to make your decision right now, who would it be and why?

That’s the purpose of this.

1. Reke
2. DMC
3. Omri
4. Whiteside
5. JT

Dalembert and Landry are expiring contracts, so I had to let them go since they may leave via FA anways. Beno & Cisco are just not good enough for me to protect, especially considering their contracts.

The tough decision for me was Donte vs. Omri, because I wanted to keep Whiteside for the amazing upside, and I wanted to keep JT because I love him as my glue-guy PF/C to play beside or behind either Whiteside or DMC. I chose Omri because he’s more “proven” but more importantly, he’s a financial stud because he always sells tickets and will keep a nation of Kings fans at worst. His trade value to a NJ or NYK could be amazing.

Our core really is 5 + 1:

1. Reke
2. DMC
3. Omri
4. Donte’
5. JT

1. if six places: Whiteside is just too much of a project to beat out anybody else though him and JT are close… and we probably lose one of those two…

Dalembert and Landry are gone next year. Cisco and Beno are the worse contracts.

Tyreke Evans
Boogie Cuz
Omri Casspi
Carl Landry
Hassan Whiteside

I think I would have most fun with this team. I could easily have changed Whiteside for Landry or Thompson but I think the team I picked has the most upside and will win the most in a year or two.

1. Reke – Duh.
2. Boogie – Duh.
3. Omri – Ambition, desire, drive, good shooter, clutch ability, willing defender. Although Donte, according to others, has crazy potential and upside, I’m not comfortable protecting a player just because he could possibly eventually be way better if he worked himself into the ground. I don’t deal in potential, I deal with what’s been shown.
4. JT – Hassan at this point is just too much of a project to me. He blocks shots like a madman, but he hasn’t shown much at all in the other aspects of the game. Blocking isn’t everything. Certainly, Hassan will probably work on that, but right now I think JT would be the most useful. We don’t need Carl quite as much anymore because Boogie is great in the post.
5. Beno – We need a shooting guard who can play well with Reke, and Beno proved last season that he and Reke had great chemistry and could complement each other very well.

Reke, Cousins, Omri, Whiteside, JT,

If you look at the men at our Forward position is Omri, Greene, Whiteside,Landry and JT
Each have one have their goods and( bads)

Omri: Decent Defender, Decent scorer, young, good rebounder (Needs stamina and training to get better)
Donte: Decent Defender, Decent scorer, fast, young and has lots of room to grow (consistency issues)
Whiteside: Good defender, can be really good at offense, rebound machine, young (Immature?, inexperienced)
Landry: Free agent, great offense, decent defense, (No rebounds, to focused on offense)
JT: Good Defender, Good scorer, Good rebounder, (Foul prone, needs to man up)

Of the 5 I would have to choose
Omri, Whiteside, JT

Omri: I can see grow more in the future as he adjusts more to the league, gets more stamina, and learns more this year..I really see Omri doing well this year with consistent minutes, and working with Garcia more..I would love to see someone like Doug Christie come in and work with Omri, because i think he would learn exceptionally well from someone like Doug.

Whiteside: As far as Hassan goes, this will say it all for me here:

But Whiteside seems to be taking the right steps toward maturing and growing. He spent a week with Hall of Fame center Hakeem Olajuwon, getting tutored on everything from offensive moves, to the intensity needed on a nightly basis to compete at the NBA level. He said he will spend another week with the league’s all-time leading shot-blocker before the summer is over.“When I see a player like him, his reach is his strength,” Olajuwon said in a phone interview from Toronto. “He knows he can put the ball on the floor and shoot. I was more or less thinking about his height advantage, what he can be doing in the post with his jump hook. He should be able to play small forward, power forward or center comfortably. I try not to limit him to a position. He has the skills and the height where he can play three positions as he matures in the league.”

JT: Is more of a complete player then Landry IMO (Can play 4 or 5), better rebounder, less offense then Landry, but is a better defender(Even with the PF’s which he is getting better). Would rather lose Donte at this point. This is also the vet we need (even though he is goofy) that can keep everyone together. I think he is really starting to mature and learn that this team needs a leader on the court and I think he will grow into that role well

Evans
Landry
Thompson
Dalembert
Cousins

They’re the combination of the five best players and some agreeable contract situations. It also makes you pretty strong at three positions, and then you’ve got to address the 2 and 3, which is kind of where we are at anyway.

Naturally the plan would be to resign both Landry and Dalembert.

1. Darnell Jackson
2. Donald Sloan
3. Samuel Dalembert
4. Beno Udrih
5. Slamson

for me, i like

1) REKE
2) DMC
3) Omri
4) JT
5) Donte

1 and 2 are no questions, imo. Casspi has the drive and will to be something in this league, JT is slowly getting to the stage where he is going to be a double-double machine in a year or two, and Donte just has all of the intagibles we (i, at least) love. propensity to make big plays on D, athletic, strokes the 3, just needs the consistency and i will completely fall in love with him.

Tyreke
Cousins
Landry
Donte
Whiteside

This was really hard. I made two last second changes. It would be a lot easier if we could keep eight players, but that was not the point of the exercise.

If there were three more, they would be: Beno, Casspi and Thompson

I was initially torn between keeping Omri or Beno. In the end, I didn’t select either one. Beno played very well last year with Reke, but I know it is possible to get a better PG/SG, in the future. I was a little nervous about picking Omri, finally giving into my nerves and selecting Whiteside over him. I love Whiteside’s blocking ability. He just seems to have a good sense working in the low post. I know I would kick myself if I passed up on him, only to watch him develop into a very skilled big man down the line. I picked Landry over Thompson, because Landry proved himself last season and Thompson is still a question mark to me. I didn’t take any contract issues into consideration, because this exercise is to protect the players who will make the best core to build around. I picked Donte, even though a lot of people didn’t. He is very versatile and I believe will continue to develop as a player. He adds a lot to the team. Dalembert didn’t even figure into the equation. I see him here one season, to be a veteran influence for our young defensive players. Same with Garcia. I like Garcia, but I don’t see him being a part of our core.

reke
dmc
landry
omri
jt

Tyreke Evans
DeMarcus Cousins
Omri Casspi
Donte Greene
Beno Udrih

My reasoning behind leaving JT, Landry, and Whiteside out is that an expansion team would only be able to pick one player from my team. Instead of protecting Landry and JT, I would let that expansion team pick one of those 3 big men, and I would keep the other 2.

Tyreke (obviously)
DMC (obviously)
Donte
Omri
Landry

A poll would be nice here, so I’ll add one.

I’m adding Beno.

My list is

1) Reke
2) Cousins
3) Landy
4) Omri
5) Beno

Mostly because that is who I see myself starting by the end of the year, but also because in today’s market, I think Beno would be tough to fill for his price.

even if he never reaches Carl’s level on the offensive end. JT’s all-around game is still developing, and he doesn’t need to make any kind of unreasonable leaps to end up a very very good player in this league. I think JT has a very good chance of averaging a double-double for most of his career, and those guys are in pretty short supply. Plus he can play two positions. Carl is one of the more skilled players on our team, but I don’t see him growing too much more as a player, and he’ll likely never be able to play very effectively in any other position besides PF. Landry’s skill and BB IQ make him the good player that he is, JT has developing skills and BB IQ to go along with the natural tools that make him an overall more valuable player in my book.

Because it’s hateful, hateful, painful and cruel - you fargin bastage.

Tyreke
Omri
Landry
Thompson
Cousins

The strength of our team going forward is all about toughness and our frontline. I know Landry is going to be a FA, but I see him as being a big part of our team. At some point Landry may become expendable, depending on the growth of DMC and JT, but right now he is a established very good player. I honestly see him as our 2nd best player. Going into every game, you know Reke will give us 20/5 and Landry will give us 18/8. We keep players like that IMO.

Now, we are missing a SG in my lineup, but aren’t we searching for a future SG right now anyways? So I’d rather keep our 3 frontline players. And Whiteside would be tough to let go, but we don’t know if he will become a good player or become the Camby-esqe guy we’d like to see. I love Donte, but the same reasoning with him.

1. Evans
2. Cousins
3. Casspi
4. Thompson
5. Greene

Evans, Cousins, and Casspi were all locks for me. Evans and Casspi have shown they can ball consistently (when not gassed out in the case of Casspi) and I think they have long-term NBA-starter potential.

Cousins is the beast from the east, and he has a lot of potential to be a great player. I chose Thompson because we know what we’re getting out of him, he’s young, and he’s got a clear passion for the game.

Fifth place was a toss-up between Greene and Landry. I chose Greene because he’s more versatile, although also more unskilled, when compared to Landry. Greene is also relatively cheap and the fact that Landry is a UFA also prevented me from protecting him.

Udrih, Garcia, Dalembert, and (regrettably) Whiteside aren’t that important to me in terms of having a core of building blocks for the team. Udrih can be replaced in one form or another via free agency. Garcia is like a shorter, more consistent Donte. Although we know what to expect from Dalembert, he is aging, plus his contract is up next year anyway. It was hard to NOT protect Whiteside because of his shot blocking skill…but he’s probably about 3000 or so NBA minutes* away from being a decent reserve/borderline starter (assuming he improves his game).

*3000 minutes is about equal to a good starters’ minutes in one season. Tyreke played 2677 minute last year for us, averaging 37.2 minutes per game for 72 games (basketball-reference.com). LeBron, Kobe, Jordan, and other stars in their prime get close to 3000 minutes of play in a season. Even if an expansion team were to pick Whiteside, I don’t think he’d get more than 15 minutes a game, barring injury, so it may take him some time to develop.

Evans – Obviously
Cousins – ditto
Omri – Too much potential and appeal. He’d be pretty likely to be taken in an expansion draft
Whiteside – The thought of him living up to his potential on another team like Crash did scares me

Missing the cut:
Donte – I love the guy and his potential. I’d be devastated if he was picked. But, I don’t see that happening. He’s still fairly unknown and I could see an expansion team’s GM passing on him pretty easily
JT – He’s a solid roleplaying big that we need to keep around
Landry – I’m not sure he’s part of the future here anyway. I expect him to be trade bait at the next deadline anyway because of his productivity and how cheap he is. I do worry that this means we would have traded Kevin Martin for almost nothing.

Thats 4 doh!

1. Sloan

Evans – MVP
Cousins -Big upside
Thompson – Versatile
Beno – Demonstrated value

Tie
Casspi – Needs to show consistency
Greene- Improved last season

 in an expansion draft that allowed each NBA team to protect five players:

1. Evans
2. Cousins
3. Landry
4. Dalembert
5. Casspi

None of the other Kings players would likely be picked in the draft, if there were just one expansion team and it drafted 15 players. Thompson might get looked at, but there are a lot of young bigs out there—Brandon Bass and Marcin Gortat would prob be available in this hypothetical draft, with Glen Davis, possibly Bynum, et al. Thompson definitely rates with this group, but he wouldn’t be a lock to get picked.

Two expansion teams would take 30 players, and that might get us closer to losing Thompson, but barring some sort of unpredicted draft strategy (KAAAHN!), none of the remaining Kings are good enough to be picked.

Look at who the Lakers leave unprotected (Bynum/Odom, Blake, Barnes, Shannon Brown, the rookies). Look at the Orlando roster (Carter/Reddick, Bass, Gortat, Pietrus available). Portland is gunna lose guys, too. Those three teams would probably lose three guys each or more.