The roster is an unbalanced mess as well. It looks like you have a core of Evans/Martin/Thompson. You don’t know what you have yet with Donte/Hawes/Casspi. Nocioni has his positive attributes, but his contract is awful. Same goes for Cisco. Beno has no positive attributes AND he has an awful contract. Sergio and Brockman will be lucky, if they work very hard and catch a break or two, to have NBA careers.

Nate is the best value on the market. If you have a bad team, the goal is upgrading the talent pool. Your original post should not have been “why we don’t need Nate,” but rather “why the Nocioni, Udrih, and Garcia contracts made it impossible to upgrade the talent level of this team.”

And for the record, I don’t think you write like SG. Good blog, I’ll definitely keep reading.

One last point on Brockman, then I agree let’s put that argument to rest. The key to Brockman getting minutes means that Donte Greene doesn’t play the 4 at all. And that’s where the rotation comes in. I think Garcia has to play the 2 more than the 3 this year because if you move him up to the three than Greene has to move inside and that could be disastrous. Garcia is what he is at this point and I don’t see him getting much better. So with the Kings rebuilding and trying to figure out what young talent they actually have, they’re going to have to see what Donte Greene has. You basically need someone at the 4 off the bench (Brock) so Greene can play the 3 more, which means that Garcia to get minutes has to be the 2 off the bench. Am I happy with that for the Kings? Not really. But they have to work on defining roles for the younger players and build them up to maximize their potential. That’s why I think bringing in Nate potentially takes the rebounding minutes away from Brockman. Maybe I’m off on that but that’s how I see it with the rotation.

I watched roughly 70 of the Knicks games last year and was very impressed with the progress (mostly with how efficient he played) that Nate made. I think his rebounding is much like Bobby Jackson’s rebounding was in the early part of the decade when he was with the Kings. It looks impressive to see him sky but at the same time, it feels like empty rebounds (this may not make sense). Above all, rebounds are rebounds I suppose. But I have the feeling that if you’re relying on your guard to rebound, you’re a bad rebounding team. This season, Evans will probably end up with 4 to 5 rebounds per game but I don’t know that it means the Kings have improved their interior presence. Does that make sense?

Now, let me attempt to address you’re last couple of points:

a) I think Beno is third on the depth chart by the first week of the season and I actually don’t mind him as a backup in a very limited role. However, I’d be shocked if he was on the court much this season, barring some injury to Evans, Martin, or Sergio. But I agree, keeping him off the floor is probably the best way to go.
b)I think I addressed this earlier but due to them figuring out if Donte Greene is worth the time and money, Garcia has to play the 2 more this season and while he’s not a great player, he can be a pretty good role player even as Martin’s backup.
c)I still hold that you have to overpay to pry him for the Knicks and the Kings’ franchise can’t afford to do so right now with season tickets taking a hit.
d) No argument there. If it didn’t work, you can probably move him and get close to fair value.
e) This team is pretty bad. But I think their core is chalked full of guys that will bring it every night. But everything starts with what Evans brings to the table in games that matter.

Finally, I think it is okay to say Nate is overhyped. Again, he’s a nice player and a good player. However, he’s a bit of a novelty act because of his height. If he was 6’0″ tall and doing the exact same things, he’s probably Bobby Jackson or Robert Pack. Not someone that would get nearly as much attention for doing similar things. Again, I think he’s good. But he’s a novelty at the same time.

Great discussion, by the way. You’re bringing some great points.

If you watch Nate on a nightly basis, you will see how much he could improve your overall team rebounding. Rondo does it. So does Rose. And the stats back it up. He is a better rebounder, both last year and over his career, than Martin, Sergio or Beno. That is just a fact. Not “common sense.” Fact. He is a better rebounder than any of those three. If he takes minutes from Beno and Sergio, which he would, then you will upgrade your overall rebounding. Fact.

If your argument against Nate is that he won’t fit with Martin or Evans, that’s fine. My counter is that:
a) it keeps Beno off the floor,
b) it keeps Cisco at the 3 and not the 2,
c) he would come at a great price relative to his talent,
d) if it didn’t work out from an on-court perspective (i.e., he doesn’t fit with Evans or Martin, which is entirely possible as you’ve argued), he’d have a very friendly and movable contract, and,
e) the team stinks… why not get a guy who brings it every night? He may not put butts in the seats, but he’ll get them up out of them!

I live in New York and I’d hate to see him go, but to say that he’s overhyped (and in the same post praise Sergio!) is just wrong. He’d be an upgrade any way that you look at it.

Do you honestly think that Nate Robinson on this team improves their rebounding? That’s great that he’s the fifth best rebounding point guard in the NBA. But that doesn’t solve their issues inside. You’re not planting him in the paint and asking him to get rebounds. This is where the issue of basketball play vs. advanced stats comes into play. At a certain point, it’s about common sense. You’re not signing a 5’7″ point guard and improving your rebounding, even if he has the 5th best rate. But giving Brockman minutes if he’s your best option off the bench does improve your rebounding. Again, it’s common sense.

What they’re trying to build is a team in which Kevin Martin and Tyreke Evans can work together to form a dynamic backcourt. Unfortunately, both of those guys dominate the ball when they play. So they have to learn how to play more together. By keeping guys like Cisco (trust me, not sold on him but they owe him money of the next four years so they’re stuck) and Sergio in the mix with the rotation, it gives you a guy that can create plays for either Martin or Evans. If you add a ball-dominating player like Nate into the mix, then you’re trying to make three ball-dominating guys work together. That doesn’t work. Ever. Again, common sense.

Finally, with the money sunk into guys like Beno and Garcia it greatly inhibits what the Kings can do financially. To take Nate away from the Knicks, it would have taken overpaying him the market value for at least two years with an option for the third. Otherwise, the Knicks might match a reasonable offer sheet. The Kings are in relatively bad shape financially with this economy. They can’t afford to bring in someone like Nate who isn’t a homerun difference maker for more than market value. Not after tying up so much money in Beno and Garcia. It just doesn’t work for their books.

Nate’s a nice player. But the fact that he did all of this in D’Antoni’s system last year in New York’s market completely over inflates the perception about him. He’s a good role player to add if you play a conducive style and need a little something to push you to the next level. People aren’t buying season tickets because of him. The Kings can’t afford to take that risk. Simple as that.

Nate Robinson’s Reb/48 last year was 6.3, placing him 5th among PG’s (or, if you prefer, he was 12th among SG’s, ahead of Wade and Roy). KevMart’s career Reb/48 is 5.7, same as Nate’s. So yes, you have upgraded your rebounding. Maybe that says something about how poorly the King’s rebounded last year, but there’s no doubting that Nate’s one of the best backcourt rebounders in the league, so let’s just let that strawman die.

More to the point, you said in your original post: “If you put him on the Kings roster and give him the reigns of instant offense off the bench, it severely cuts into your rotation and what you’re trying to build.” Your backcourt rotation would be Evans/Martin/Nate. The minutes Nate would get would come from Beno and Sergio. What exactly are you expecting to build around those two? And don’t tell me cutting into Cisco’s time at the 2 is a bad thing!

I get that the Kings have sunk all this money into Beno, but that’s just what it is: sunk. Nate would have upgraded the overall talent of the team at a very reasonable cost without cutting any backcourt minutes that don’t deserve cutting.

Especially with as poorly as the Kings did economically last season, adding payroll for a player of little consequence to their overall team success when it won’t get them into the playoffs would be as bad of a move as signing Beno Udrih for the full MLE.

For those of you old enough to get that quote, that should be the title of this post. I mean, Jon Brockman’s minutes would get cut? That’s a reason not to pursue Nate? The fact is that you have a bad team and an economic climate that has real talent coming cheap. This was a missed opportunity to upgrade the overall talent on the team. And to do it on the cheap.

All in all, he’s a weird player – a freakish athlete who will do some great things but is also a 5’7 shooting guard who can’t play D. Still, for $5 million you could do a lot worse. It was bittersweet to see him sign the one-year offer, because it probably means he’s a goner next summer.