It feels like ages ago when the Sacramento Kings got off to a scorching – for them – 9-6 record to start the 2014-15 season. Things, of course, spiraled out of control and the team has devolved into a soap opera this summer.
Lost amidst all the drama in Sacto is one of their more risk averse offseason moves in years, the signing of point guard Darren Collison. The 27 year old was pivotal to their early season surge, and looked like the rare Kings signing that worked better than anyone imagined (remember, he was backing up Chris Paul in Los Angeles before they signed him).
Despite this, the Kings have openly shopped for point guards in July, including Brooklyn’s Deron Williams and Rajon Rondo — both of whom make little sense for a team that should looking to get younger and more cost effective. It probably wasn’t intended as such, since the Kings wanna start two point guards, but Collison is cheaper and performed similarly to both big names last season. This fact was not lost on him when a fan brought up his solid season on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/Darren_Collison/status/617015848952135680
The Kings finally got their Rajon Rondo meeting today, after bigger Kings deals were rebuffed by Monta Ellis and Wesley Matthews earlier this week. By most accounts, they are the favorites to sign the former Celtics all-star, and most assume he’ll be handed the starting job to open the season if he does agree to a deal. This will be especially damning to Collison if they offer Rondo a bigger one-year deal than the $10 million or so he’s slotted to earn over the next two seasons.
Collison had a surgery on his core muscles in March, and it ended his season prematurely. Before that he averaged 16.1 points and 5.6 assists per game with 47/37/78 shooting splits, just above league average in all three categories. Rondo threw up 8.9 points and 7.9 assists per game with 43/31/39 shooting splits and seems like a lateral move at best.
Knowing the Kings though, a Rondo signing, for what could easily be double the $5 million Collison is set to make next year, likely means an even more fractured team. And we didn’t think that was even possible.
