The Sacramento Kings will visit the Utah Jazz on Saturday, and there's one player I'll be keeping a close eye on in the home jerseys: Devin Harris. The eighth-year guard is one of the biggest disappointment on a stunningly solid Jazz team that is somehow 10-7 and in the thick of the Western playoff race. They are doing it despite Harris performing worse than ever before in his NBA career; even his rookie season featured better shooting.

Harris has started every game this season under Ty Corbin, but is playing just 26 minutes per game, a level he hasn't seen since his third season with the ultra-deep Dallas Mavericks. The veteran Earl Watson is playing 21 minutes a night for the Jazz, and it's no secret that Utah has been much better with him on the court. According to StatsCube, the team's usual starting lineup (which features Harris) has a -6.3 rating, which is bad. The Jazz are +2.8 with Watson on the court, and -0.8 with Harris on the court.

Harris' shot has been off. He's never been a good three-point shooter, but he's just getting nothing at the rim this season: he's averaging 1.7 attempts within three feet. His career low going back to 2007 was 3.8. He's still converting the opportunities he gets in there well, but with three fewer close attempts compared to last season as a 55 percent conversion rate -- that's 1.65 points per game left on the table. That's manifested in free throws, too: he's earning two fewer free throws per game, and as a career 80 percent shooter, that's another 1.6 points per game. So there are 3.2 points per game being left on the table due to less attacking the rim.

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Our friend James Ham has a lovely, detailed exposition on Jason Thompson's status with the Kings over at Cowbell Kingdom. As a 2008 first-round pick, Thompson is currently eligible for an early Bird extension that would kick in for the 2012-13 season. The deadline is January 25 (Wednesday). If an agreement isn't reached, Thompson becomes a restricted free agent on July 1. The Kings can offer up to five years, but teams have just one five-year early Bird extension to offer per collective bargaining agreement. Using that on Thompson would prevent the Kings from using it on Tyreke Evans, DeMarcus Cousins, Jimmer Fredette or the No. 1 pick in the 2012 draft. So Thompson isn't getting five years. The extension could be for three or four seasons, and it can include a team or player option.

James broke down Thompson's place in the Kings' future and his performance as a No. 12 pick. My angle is more looking at what will work best for the Kings. How should they approach this decision? These are the questions that inform the answer to that.

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The circumstances regarding the failed signing of Samuel Dalembert in December remains a mystery, though The Bee's Jason Jones peered into the situation in a talk with the Haitian Sensation last week. Remember: a deal between Dalembert and the Kings was said to be nearly compete the day after Sacramento was forced to void Chuck Hayes' contract. The next day, the Kings sent out a one-sentence statement announcing that negotiations with Dalembert had been called; within minutes, Dalembert had reportedly reached a deal with the Houston Rockets. The following reports indicated that the Kings had offered more guaranteed salary than Dalembert took in Houston.

Dalembert is still clearly upset about that public statement, though.

"You know that's the business is and sometimes there's bad blood," Dalembert said. "I was expecting a more professional approach but obviously some people handle things differently. To me obviously they were upset and I wasn't wrong. I feel bad, they have a great fan base over there, I loved playing over there but I had the feeling they really didn't want me back. For them to come out and say something like that it shows they really didn't have it in mind to get me back. It's the way it is and it's the way the business is and I've had to deal with it."

In fairness to the Kings, though the statement was really odd and surprising, they were likely reacting in anger to Dalembert apparently stringing them along while negotiating with Houston. It cuts both ways, and it is a business.

There's already some discussion in this FanShot.

Yahoo!'s Adrian Wojnarowski broke the news that the Sacramento Kings had the, uh, winning bid for Travis Outlaw, who had been placed on amnesty waivers by the New Jersey Nets. Sam Amick of SI.com later reported the price: $12 million over four seasons, or $3 million a year. Outlaw is now the team's eighth highest-paid player behind John Salmons, Marcus Thornton, Francisco Garcia, Chuck Hayes, Tyreke Evans, DeMarcus Cousins and Jason Thompson. When all is said and done, he could very well be the No. 8 player in the rotation, supplanting Donte Greene and Garcia as the back-up small forward.

Outlaw had signed a five-year, $35 million deal with the Nets in July 2010; the deal was universally criticized. He ended up having the worst season of his career with the Nets, which is saying something considering he was a preps-to-pros player. He's shooting fell off the table last season (37 percent from the field, 30 percent on threes), and he really doesn't do a whole lot else effectively. He's a microwave scorer who last season totally struggled to score, a shooter who has had trouble shooting. He had four straight seasons shooting three-pointers at better than 37.7 percent before last year's disaster, and that shooting touch at the three or stretch four could be nice to have.

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The Sacramento Kings are unlikely to sign Jamal Crawford, I would imagine; according to Sam Amick, the Portland Trail Blazers and New York Knicks are also in the hunt, and the Kings never really do anything with a full-court press.

While the Kings have cap space, those two teams need Crawford more, at least on paper. The Knicks are making their runs and have no backcourt playmaking; the Blazers are rather light on the perimeter. Both teams expect to be in the playoffs.

Do the Kings?

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In case you've missed the discussion in the comment threads or on Twitter, Grant Napear has said on today's show on 1140 The Fan that the Kings are talking about big-name player fans will be excited about, with news of a deal possibly coming on Saturday. It's not an All-Star level player, but Napear has been adamant that it's a "big name" and that it's not a guard.

The mystery of this player's identity continues ...

(Napear usually does not speculate or drop hints without reason.)

Oh, nevermind. David Stern just spiked this open thread.

UPDATE: OK, the joke is over. Comments have been opened.

Reminder: SBNation.com's NBA Rumors StoryStream will be updated all day long.