Sactown Royalty, a Sacramento Kings community

Casspi is so happy he 'cried like a baby'. It means a lot to him, his family and his country. It's 6:30am in Israel now. He hasn't slept. He'll leave for Sacramento tomorrow. 'Sacramento will be a great place to play and develop.' Casspi plans to play in NBA in 2009-10.

There isn't on country on the planet that loves its hoop more than Israel. And now we are finally guaranteed an NBA player. Mazal Tov, Omri!

"We think he’s a great, great prospect and has a chance to develop into a real star. He was the best freshman in the country this year. He led his team to 27 straight wins as a point guard. He has great potential at the defensive end because of his length and his physical presence out there. I think another great thing about this is from the time we interviewed him onto the workouts, he always was very consistent in his desire to come to Sacramento and that was really his number one choice as well. I think the fans are just going to love watching this kid play and develop and he’ll be a multi-position player, I think, as things go along, so we’re really excited about it."

Minn., NY, and Houston all trying to move in top five, meaning Kings have options to consider right now.

A source, however, says that there's one huge missing piece in the picture: GM Geoff Petrie has stayed quiet as the debate has raged over what to do and he continues to have the biggest voice on the basketball staff. ... [S]everal GMs and scouts believe the talk of not taking Rubio is merely a smoke screen to keep Minnesota or the Knicks or any other team interested in him from making deals to jump ahead of the Kings in order to get Rubio.

Indications we’re receiving are that Sacramento appears to be leaning towards drafting Jonny Flynn, even in the scenario that Oklahoma City decides to pass on Ricky Rubio. The wildcard here are the team owners, the Maloofs, who are extremely high on the Spanish point guard and could decide to assert their own will and make the front office pick Rubio.

[Jonny] Flynn was at the top of their board coming into the workout, but [Tyreke] Evans emerged at the top. His physicality was just too much for Flynn, Curry or Calathes to handle. As one Kings scout remarked, "It was a man beating up boys."

A source with knowledge of the situation said Rubio was visited in Los Angeles today by the Oklahoma City Thunder, who have the No. 3 pick in the June 25 draft. This matters mostly because Rubio's visit in Sacramento this week came with unspoken terms, an understanding of sorts that a Rubio promise on the Kings' part could have stopped his American tour with just one concert. But that clearly never happened, and certainly not only because Rubio was unable to get on the floor Thursday when he fell ill.

Davidson guard Stephen Curry is already gaining ground in the Kings' conversation and could greatly improve his chances with a good showing.

The Sacramento Kings are doing their best to convince people that they have Tyreke Evans at the top of their board, even going as far as to tell Evans as much in their workout last week. Most NBA people we speak to believe that this is nothing more than them "blowing smoke" in order to give themselves a backup plan in case Rubio is gone at #2 or #3, and also to "stir the pot" amongst Rubio’s camp.