I'm not sure why these Blazers losses have me so verklempt. I mean, Portland is the third or fourth best team in the conference; obviously, I'm not down about the one-point road loss, especially given that John Salmons was an inch away from ending it with a win. As we've been over myriad times, we don't hate the Blazers 'round here ... there's something to be said for the mutual hatred of the Lakers and small town kinship.

There's certainly some mirroring going on between the franchise. Brandon Roy and Kevin Martin are of equal quality, and it's not hard to imagine one of Spencer Hawes or Jason Thompson becoming as good as LaMarcus Aldridge within a couple years. We need the third monster someday to catch up; it could be the other young big, it could be the '09 draft pick, it could the '10 free agent. The future looks as bright for the Kings now as it did for the Blazers in Winter '06. There's no reason to really worry right now.

I think there's a general understanding -- correct me if I'm wrong -- that this is the way it goes with a young rebuilding team. You will lose games to better teams nine times out of 10. It's a fact of life. We accept this, yes? I accept it. I got jittery in the final four minutes of this game not because I'd just die if the Kings blew it. I got jittery because of how excited I'd have been if the Kings actually won. It's almost the opposite of a, say, 2004 game. When you're a good/great team, there is relief with a win and devastation with a loss. With a rebuilding team that harbors hope, there is ecstasy with a win and indifference with a loss. We aren't going to remember the ball bouncing off back iron. We'll remember Spencer Hawes stripping Greg Oden, running the floor and finishing ferociously, drawing primal screams from us and the bench mob alike. Just give us a glimmer, and we'll be patient.

And I think that's the difference between us and Joe Maloof. We can brush off the end of the game because we can smell the bread baking. Maloof's running a business the only way he knows how: success now, success now, success now. In hotels and beer distribution, you don't need to have patience. There are no rules forcing a semblance of parity. If the Maloofs owned a baseball team, it'd be the Yankees or Red Sox or Angels -- the fam would buy a championship. (This is what they tried to do in 2001, 2002, 2003. Those attempts left us looking at the free agent class of '10 rather than '07 or '08.) We know tomorrow will be brighter -- we see it in Shock, we see it in Hawes, we see it in the Jason Levien hiring, we see it in Martin.

Hell, we see it in the Blazers. The difference between bad and good is patience. Most of the Kings -- the players, the coaches, the front office, the fans -- are ready to wait. Maloof's got to learn to do the same. Reggie Theus needs to remain the coach of this team. He got the message, and he's doing his job.

...and here we go!

I hate to repeat myself, but ... there will be none of the following:

* If you come here to pick a fight, you will be banned. No one in the world has time for you, so go away.

* From this point forward, if you use a derogatory word concerning a person's sexual orientation, you will be banned. We've had two instances of non-troll StR members drop the three- or six-letter f-word in recent days. Unacceptable. Consider it the same as the n-word, which is ultrainstaban worthy.

* If you post a moronic FanPost telling us, Kings fans, that Monta Ellis is better than Kevin Martin all while bolding letters in your diatribe to spell out "Suck a dick Kings fans" ... well then OH MY GOD YOU ARE SO FREAKING CLEVER NO ONE HAS EVER DONE THAT BEFORE YOU MUST BE SOME KIND OF INTERNET GENIUS YOU BIG MAN YOU DIDN'T THAT FEEL GREAT WHEN YOU GOT ONE OVER ON SOME COMPLETE STRANGERS WHO YOU DON'T KNOW FROM ADAM FOR NO REASON WHO CARES IF THEY NEVER DID ANYTHING TO DESERVE YOUR GENIUS YOU WILL SHOW IT TO THEM ANYWAYS BECAUSE YOU ARE A GREAT CLEVER INTERNET HERO OF SORTS YOU KNOW THEY JUST MIGHT MAKE YOU A WIKIPEDIA PAGE SOMEDAY BECAUSE YOU ARE SO FREAKING CLEVER ENOUGH TO STRATEGICALLY HIGHLIGHT SPECIFIC LETTERS TO SPELL OUT AN INSULT THAT POST MIGHT REVOLUTIONIZE INTERNET DISCOURSE FOR THE REST OF HISTORY THEY COULD BUILD A STATUE OF YOU SOMEDAY YOU CLEVER CLEVER MAN IT DOESN'T EVEN MATTER THAT THE 10 MINUTES YOU SPENT ON BEING AWESOME AND CLEVER WAS ERASED BY ONE CLICK OF THE MOUSE BY THE NAZI SITE EDITOR WHO IS TOO INSECURE TO LET YOU BE YOU AND DO WHAT YOU DO NEVER MIND HE CAN TAKE YOUR STAGE BUT HE CAN NEVER TAKE YOUR FREEDOM CLEVER GENIUS STRATEGIC BOLDER MAN. Also, if you do something like that, you're banned.

*Basically, idiots, just stop being idiots. It might be hard. It might hurt a little. Going cold turkey on the idiocy, man, it can give you the shakes. But just chew on some hard candy, take a deep breath, and let go of the idiocy. Us non-idiots will appreciate it,  and the world will be a better place for it.

At no point during the wild fourth quarter comeback led by Bobby Brown did it really seem like the Kings could pull off the upset victory. Even as the margin shrunk to four and Bobby Jackson got loose, it seemed as if one or two missed shots and a fortuitous play on the Lakers end would signal the game's finish. And as it happened, the Kings missed a few shots and the Lakers turned up a couple of fortuitous plays, and it ended with a 10-point loss, which given the circumstances felt like a 1-point win.

Clearly, the Lakers are no ordinary team. As such, you really have to be careful about making any sort of derivative analysis. But considering Derek Fisher and Jordan Farmar are so similar in quality, the ability of Brown to perform where Beno Udrih could not seemed important. Sam Amick (in one of the best game stories you'll read anywhere) touches on the situation:

The Kings would not maintain the momentum, as the Lakers finally responded with a late 9-0 run, but Brown had certainly made matters more interesting at the point guard position. It has been a platoonstyle effort of late, with Udrih playing a combined 46 minutes to Brown's 50 in losses to Portland and the Lakers. In those two games, Udrih had 15 points, 13 assists and two turnovers to Brown's 34, 14, and seven.

I don't think we're at the point where Brown will challenge Udrih for the starting slot. The team has tied up a lot of hope and responsibility in Beno, and Theus isn't in the business of cutting off his own hand to make a point. But ...

A Brown/Kevin Martin/John Salmons/Jason Thompson/Spencer Hawes line-up has buckets and buckets of offensive firepower. That unit could be one of the most efficient fives in the game. (The team has the No. 10 offense right now, despite the injuries.) But can it play enough defense? We know Salmons can defend. We know Thompson has a physical nature, we know Hawes has turned into a great weakside shotblocker and we know that entire unit is smart. If Brown and Martin could combine to limit open threes and easy penetration off the pick-and-roll ...

... well, then that'd be a damn strong line-up, wouldn't it?

The team's defense is so bad right now that it's hard to tell if Brown is doing well on that end. To be honest, Beno has found himself in the right place repeatedly the past week. He nor the forwards/centers can close out worth a damn, but a lot of the turnovers opponents have made have wound up in Beno's hands. (He has 12 steals over the last five games ... and he only played more than 30 minutes in two of those games.) If he wouldn't get lost on pick-and-rolls and closed out some, we wouldn't likely be having this conversation. All told, the team might be best served with a mistake-free Beno in the front five and a microwave-ready Brown off the bench. But Udrih's defense has to get better to make it all make sense.

And here is why:

* Portland's offense succeeded on the basis of two central pillars: LaMarcus Aldridge is almost unstoppable without a lockdown post defender, and Steve Blake, Travis Outlaw and Rudy Fernandez shot lights out from deep. You can take LMA beating you if you're the Kings right now. The interior defense has improved with the addition of Jason Thompson and the maturation of Spencer Hawes. But Aldridge is a future All-Star. He scored 18 points on 17 shots. There's nothing you can do to make that worse. The Kings played him well. They also got out on shooters most of the time -- maybe 75% of the time. But Blake and Rudy and Trout Law hit shots. Can't do much against that, right? (The most egregiously bad closers on rotations, and it's not close: Brad Miller and Beno Udrih. You can almost see Brad say to himself, "I can't get out there, I'm just going to get in position for a rebound," and then think, "Crap I'd better at least try or Reggie is going to be mad," and then finally take a step toward the shooter, lean in and wave a hand. Blech.)

* Jason Thompson had his way on the offensive glass. Now, you'd like to see the team not allow Portland 13 offensive rebounds in 32 opportunities. That's pitiful. And many of those Portland offensive rebounds came with Thompson on the floor. But whatever. Miller had two defensive rebounds in 29 minutes. Spencer Hawes had  one in 34 minutes. Thompson had five in 35 minutes. But that dude can pound the offensive boards like few others in the league. In fact, he is 7th in total offensive rebounds and 4th in offensive rebounding percentage. He is really good at that skill, even against a mammoth line-up with Joel Pryzbilla and Greg Oden in there.

* The Kings offense was not so bad, despite poor shooting from Donté Greene, Beno Udrih, John Salmons and Bobby Jackson. I mean, with the team's two best shooters out, you need to not have all your guards other than Bobby Brown and Garbage Time Globetrotter Quincy Douby shoot terribly. Turnovers were not a problem, scoring the ball in the paint was not a problem. The Kings offense from Friday night would win plenty of games ... if the defense were any good.

* Bobby Jackson is still getting the biggest ovation at ARCO. Hawes and Thompson aren't far behind.

* The decision to play a snippet of "My Prerogative" after hot B. Brown plays is inspired and worthy of Nobel consideration.

* Jason Thompson is an absolute beast. Just wanted to be sure I got that point across.

* There appears to be a lack of photographic or video evidence, but Hawes blocked Oden's shot once. I can prove this! The Kings got three blocks -- two by Hawes, one by Douby. The Blazers who had one "block against": Oden, Fernandez, Rodriguez. I assure you that Douby did not block an Oden attempt. It was Hawes! And it was Hawesome. (The other Hawes block was on Rodriguez. Visceral and vicious.)

[Two can play at this game, Ben.]

Aside from allowing that girl that wasn't wearing pants to grind on him, is there a more indelible image (here's video) of Greg Oden than when he is walking with the aid of a pair of crutches?  

Great players, Jordan caliber, form their own paths in the NBA.  Other players, even good players (Bowie, Petrie, Darius Miles, etc.), get their destinies imposed upon them. That can either really suck or be fun to watch, depending upon which side you're on.

I have an inkling that that might be happening here with Oden.  Greg just fits (embraces) so many of the stereotypes of an ideal walking injury report.

Let's talk out the fate of Greg Oden in the comments.

-- Tom (tom@sactownroyalty.com)

section214 passed on the news as soon as it hit the web, but the hire of Jason Levien as assistant GM is definitely something we'll be talking about a lot. This isn't a courtesy hire. Levien has made a pretty penny in the NBA as an agent. In the last two summers, he has signed Kevin Martin a $55 million deal and Luol Deng a $71 million deal. NBA agents make 4%. This is not small money. Once you work your ass off to get and keep some high-priced clients like Martin and Deng, being an NBA agent is a very lucrative endeavor.

Levien can't keep his clients. He has youngsters like Courtney Lee and Kyrylo Fesenko. I'm sure he'd be in a position to get a first-rounder or two this spring. He's giving up all that -- potentially millions of dollars -- for a job that pays a few hundred thousand dollars tops. This is a huge deal for Levien and his family. This is a huge deal for the Kings, who are making a statement with this move. (And yeah, as Kfan noted, this is a big deal for Martin, too, even if on appearances.)

Levien is not trifling around by taking this job (if it does come to pass -- everything seems a bit based on innuendo in Sam Amick's piece with neither side confirming). I can only assume Levien would feel he's in line for succession. Remember, Geoff Petrie turned down an invitation to discuss the open Atlanta job this past summer. That could have been because Petrie doesn't want to leave the West Coast, or because Atlanta's ownership is still a mess. Or it could be because he wants to finish his career here in Sacramento. Wayne Cooper, I assume, could have had a bigger better job at some point during the Kings' glory era -- how many of Bryan Colangelo's top deputies were whisked away or at least flirted with in Phoenix? Cooper is still here, and there's no indication he'd be seriously considered for the top job if Petrie were to retire. There's no indication that he wouldn't be, except that the Kings are hiring a second assistant GM who is 37, smart and seen to be out-of-the-box/cutting edge.

This is all to say it's reasonable to suspect that Levien expects at least a shot at the top job within a reasonable span of time. Is that three years? Is it 10? I don't know, and I suspect Levien nor Petrie do either. But considering the stakes involved, it simply has to be part of the equation.

This is just a quick hitter, but the thought crossed my mind (or at least the space that it should occupy) -

During the offseason we wrote at length how the Kings needed to round up some draft picks, get younger, get to rebuilding.

We went into the draft with a 1st round pick and two 2nd round picks. We came out with the same. Some of us were not pleased with the trio of Thompson, Singletary and Ewing, Jr.

We later acquired the equivalent of a second 1st round pick as we landed Donté Greene (that's right, after last night's game I am now Alt 0233ing it) in the Ron Artest trade.

We also signed Bobby Brown as a free agent after his fine summer league performance for New Orleans (ask our friends At The Hive how they feel about that).

To recap, we now have three rookies acquired via draft, trade and free agency. All are in David Thorpe's rookie top 25 right now (and that was before Donté's game at New Orleans).

So, without even getting into the continuing development of Spencer Hawes, a hat tip to Geoff Petrie, for making me itch with anticipation over what tomorrow may bring.

Thanks, big fella.

Is that the end of Quincy Douby's Sacramento Kings career?

It's a quick fall from the summit of a tiny hill. Douby missed critical potential game-winning shots at home against Phoenix and San Antonio. No matter: Reggie Theus did the right thing and played QD heavily against Memphis woeful Memphis. And QD shot 0-9. When you're a shooter and you're fighting for your NBA career, I guess you're not allowed to shoot 0-9. As we all know, Douby received a DNP-CD against New Orleans, despite the fact that the starting two-guard remains out, the primary back-up at the two-guard and small forward positions is out, and the starting power forward is out, requiring a potential back-up/starting small forward to start at the PF. A 20-year-old rookie starts at the three, a 22-year-old rookie starts the four, a 20-year-old soph is the only bench big man to get burn, and a 23-year-old rookie and a 57-year-old ghost share all the bench minutes in the backcourt.

In this situation, if you are earning a DNP-CD from a coach who is trés sympatique to your style and situation ... you're done.

For Douby's sake, I hope he's freed by a trade. (Hey, New Orleans might be able to use him. The Hornets bench offense is atrocious.) Playing out the season from the bench isn't good for anyone -- QD is still an asset to someone, so the Kings ought to try to exchange the asset for one which can be given a clean slate and a fresh chance. No one's going to take one of Sacramento's ornery contracts just because you toss in QD, but Petrie would have an audience if he drew up a marquee trumpeting Douby's availability.

Is it sad? I mean, this team isn't exactly a monument to troubled draft picks. I think Gerald Wallace's post-Sacramento blossom will always sting some for us devoted Crash fanatics, and watching Hedo Turkoglu win awards in Orlando isn't as fun as you might think. But Peja Stojakovic did his best work here. Jason Williams was never more thrilling than in a purple jersey. Kevin Martin ... are you kidding me? Francisco Garcia, Spencer Hawes, Jason Thompson and Donté Greene look to continue the legacy.

QD's the one recent failure. His physics might have made him the longest shot, despite holding the key Petrie elements (long, versatile, shoots like the KGB). We'll always wonder about Rajon Rondo, but whatever. I'll take this history in the draft rather than revision. But I think because of QD's loneliness in Petrie's hall of mistakes, it will always be a sad case for us. He isn't Olowakandi or Fuller, you know? There's no narrative, no laughing later. If it makes it some day, the Kings will not have been proven wrong ... Douby will just be considered a miracle.

And while I'd prefer Greene and Bobby Brown to get whatever exercise Douby was otherwise in line for, I hope I'm wrong here. I do hope something changes and QD is able to reach his truth this year in Sacramento. But you'd be blind to expect it these days.

Donté Greene: 34 minutes, 15 points on 9 FGAs. His matchup, Peja Stojakovic: 7 points on 8 FGAs.

There are a lot of heroes when you beat a legit title contender on the road missing two starters and your sixth man. But let's give the rookie his daps.

DONTÉ GREENE IS READY FROM DAY ONE!