Kings need more than good draft to become relevant again

Today, the Sacramento Bee had an article by Ailene Voisin discussing the NBA draft and why the Kings need to select Ricky Rubio with the fourth pick of the draft

In the article Rubio is treated like someone who is going to single-handedly reverse the moribund fortunes of the Kings and make them as relevant as they were when they were contenders earlier in the decade.........while I admire Voisin's optimism I am skeptical about the Kings chances to be relevant with or without Rubio.

One part of the article asserts that:

"His presence in Sacramento would be transformative whether he becomes the next Jason Williams or the modern-day Pete Maravich. There are several reasons for this, not the least of which is he plays the lead position – point guard – with all the majesty of a mop-haired maestro."  

Alright even if Rubio is the next Jason Williams

thats still a long way from franchise-changing talent.....11 points/game does not scream future franchise messiah/all-star hall off fame material. But the point being is this team is only 3 players away from even contending for the 8 spot in the western conference. Unfortunately for the Kings, those three players are Wilt Chamberlin, Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson.

While Rubio has lots of potential...he is still not even close to (in all fairness no one else in this year's draft is) what will be needed to turn around the Kings. Since I lived in Davis during the prior NBA season, I ended up watching a lot of Kings games on TV (and made time to attend a couple games at a half-empty Arco Arena and see the last game of the Reggie Theus era)

and see them give up 129 points to the non-playoff team I root for)

Point being, last years Kings team was hands down THE worst NBA team I have ever seen. Most games, I would stick to watching them for reasons similar to why people watch a train wreck. They played offense when they felt like it (sometimes) they played defense when they felt like it (never)....they had an innate ability to turn a close game into a 15 point defense in a blink of an eye. On top of that, their non-winning ways spread to off the court where they lost the Blake Griffin sweepstakes to the Clippers.   

For the Kings and their fans the harsh reality is that barring an improbable move, this team is not going to be very good for awhile. Unfortunately for them, Chris Webber is not walking through that door.....Vlade Divac is not walking through that door......not even Brad Miller is walking through that door..........point being is as talented as this Rubio kid may be, the Kings are going to be irrelevent in the long term regardless of who they draft.......

Pick of the day (Friday): Giants 4

                                            Rangers 3

Just another lazy saturday afternoon

Thus far a fairly uneventful weekend......my brewers are losing by a touchdown to the white sox.....in terms of my streak for the cash update..i actually managed to pick correctly as the angels beat the padres....however i am back to zero as i picked cs-fullerton to beat arkansas....they instead went on to lose 10-6


For my pick of the day tomorrow....I am going against past experience and picking the orlando magic to beat the lakers in game 5 tomorrow....i'm going against the overall trend in this pick but this series (except for game 1) has been a lot better and exciting than La's 3-1 lead would indicate.... if Dwight Howard hits even one of those free throws this series is tied up and heading towards one of the better nba finals in recent memory...game 4 definitely sped up the demise of the magic...........but I see them at least making it to game 6 before this happens

Pick: Magic 94 Lakers 89