Photo: Keith Allison

The Sacramento Kings and Cleveland Cavaliers’ swap of Omri  Casspi and J.J. Hickson was the last transaction made before the NBA lockout.  Now that the five-month work stoppage has officially come to an end, the Kings newest addition is eager to suit up in black and purple.  We caught up with Hickson last night for this week’s Cowbell Kingdom Podcast.

Highlights

• Hickson spent a chunk of his time during the lockout working out at IMPACT Basketball’s training facility in Las Vegas.  He says he worked on an array of offensive moves and refined his pick-and-roll game.  But his mid-range game is what he’s most proud of. “I think it’s going to be a big surprise in my game to see me knock down that jumper.”
• Hickson also discussed his brief overseas stint in Israel.  Why did it last only one game? “I think it had to do a little with being homesick.  And I found my father was sick too, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.” He added: “That was kind of the cue for me to get back to the states and see him…”
• Losing became part of the culture in Cleveland last year after LeBron James departed for Miami.  But Hickson spoke positively of his final year as a Cavalier. “A lot of people may say I’m crazy for saying this, but I think last season, that was a great experience not just for me, but for everyone on that team.  Because it just shows you what it takes to be a championship-caliber type team and it shows you the hard work that you have to put in, on and off the court, into being a great basketball player and to being a good team.” He added: “I don’t wish it on anybody, but like I said it was a good learning experience for me.”

Listen after the jump…

Read more…

Photo by Steven Chea

Former Kings player Omri Casspi spoke out about the lockout situation tonight via twitter, and his message is clear:

Although this might be a surprising turn of events for some, I had the pleasure of covering Omri Casspi all of last season and this is not out of character for the young Israeli-born swing man.  He is intense and he speaks his mind, but he usually knows when the recording device is turned on and when it is not.

Frustration levels have to be at an all-time high for NBA players at this point.  David Stern has again given them a date to either accept a deal or face the possibility of a much worse offer that will likely end the 2011-12 NBA season before it even had a chance to begin.  I’m not surprised to read comments like this from players, and I’m pretty sure Casspi will not be standing alone on this twitter cliff for long.

The clock is ticking for both the players and the owners with the Tuesday deadline looming.  Rumors are already swirling that the players will again decline the owners’ offer, which includes a 72-game season beginning December 15th.  If Casspi and his fellow 400+ players do indeed call the owners’ play, we will quickly know who was bluffing.

Will the owners really go back to a 47-53 split and a hard cap?  Will the players decertify the Players Union and turn this into a prolonged legal battle?

I’m not sure what is about to happen, but I do know that if Tuesday comes and goes without a new CBA, everyone loses.

After catching up with Tyreke Evans last week, we’re happy to continue that theme by touching base with another member of the Sacramento Kings. Today, we welcomed Kings big man Jason Thompson to the program.

Highlights

• During a workout session at the Kings practice facility in June, Thompson broke a toe in his right foot.  With no access to Kings training staff during the lockout, JT has rehabbed on his own with a little help from the NFL.  “Since I’m living in Philly in the offseason, I went through with the Eagles and used their doctors and facilities and had my agency get that done.”
• Thompson on his third NBA season: “Every year I look at it as trying to have high expectations.  I just think last year that I didn’t have the opportunity that I thought I would have coming into the season.  Not saying that as an excuse or anything like that.  But I just know I learned different things, knowing that you could control only what you could control.  I was happy that even though that there were bumpy times in the season, I know that I felt like I took it in the right matter – didn’t put my head down or anything like that.  And then I finished on a good note.”
• On the emotional last home game at ARCO: “The fans still stayed after.  They were cheering and I was just like ‘man I can’t go out like this.’  So after I showered and stuff, just came out and gave my respect.  And who knew if that was the last time I could see Kings fans in this arena.  You know, i f you can’t take 10, 15, 20 minutes out of your time, especially since that was the last game of the season to give your respects, then you really don’t have a respect for the game or the fans.”

One more additional note.  Thompson has started a foundation with the goal of serving underprivileged youth.  The L.I.V.E. Like JT (Learn, Imagine, Voice, Educate) campaign is just getting under way and a website is in the works.  But if you’d like to learn more or find out how you can help, visit Thompson’s official website.

Listen after the jump…

Read more…

The ESPN 5-on-5 roundtable has been rolling out individual team previews lately and today it was Kings turn to hit the circuit.  Here is a snippet.

4. Fact or Fiction: Sacramento’s pre-lockout trades were smart moves.

Joe Gerrity, Hornets 24/7: Fiction. Acquiring Hickson for Casspi was a positive move, but the rest of it seems like a loss. Salmons has an expensive long-term deal and doesn’t fit in or improve the team, they gave up the seventh overall pick, and I already gave my prediction about Jimmer.

James Ham, Cowbell Kingdom: Fact. I am in the minority here, but I like the moves. Salmons is a huge improvement at the wing and Jimmer is a very good fit with Evans and Cousins. Adding Hickson minutes before the lockout began cleared up the logjam at the wing and gave the Kings some needed athleticism. All of this and still $28 million under the cap.

Zach Harper, Daily Dime Live: Half fact, half fiction. Overall, I’m happy with the direction the team took. I think Jimmer can be a weapon in this league, and they got some needed frontcourt depth by dealing away Casspi, whom they couldn’t really figure out how to use anyway. I just don’t understand why it was necessary to bring on Salmons’ bad contract in order to draft Jimmer three spots later.

Jonathan Santiago, Cowbell Kingdom: Fact. The reacquisition of John Salmons probably makes the most impact because the Kings lacked consistency at small forward last year. Picking up Salmons improves them defensively and also adds a veteran with playoff experience to a relatively young team. Not a popular move among fans because of Salmons’ penchant for overdribbling during his last tenure, but a fair trade nonetheless.

Noam Schiller, Hardwood Paroxysm: Fiction. Trading the superfluous Omri Casspi for the potential-laden J.J. Hickson was a low-risk, high-reward move. But Beno Udrih is cheaper than John Salmons, and better by every metric available. Switching the two for the right to move down in the draft was a downright idiotic move.

You can read the rest, which includes takes on the futures of DeMarcus Cousins, Tyreke Evans and Jimmer Fredette, here. And check out the Kings video preview under the ESPN video playlist located on the right column, too.

The Kings haven’t had many personalities like Donté Greene.  Sure, there have been characters like Vlade Divac and Ron Artest, but Donté Greene is something different.  Basically, Greene is a multimedia machine – the star of the Donté Greene show, Twitter and Youstream aficionado- all of which make him a fan favorite.

Where Greene has cultivated a following off the court, he has struggled with consistency on the floor.  Greene is nothing short of an enigma.  So much talent, flashes of brilliance, great size, million dollar smile, but …

Coming into training camp last season, Donté Greene and Omri Casspi were supposed to fight it out for the starting gig.  Greene never even got off the ground, coming into camp at 260-pounds, a good 25-30 pounds heavier than his previous playing weight.  After starting 50 games in his second season, Greene saw that number slashed to just 21 starts and an incredible 13 DNP-CDs.   From possible starter to bench player and now, who knows what.  After the Kings brought in small forwards John Salmons and rookie Tyler Honeycutt, they shipped out Casspi to clear up a little room, but Greene will still have to battle to earn minutes at a crowded position that also includes Francisco Garcia and even Tyreke Evans at times.

More after the jump…

Read more…

So many youtube videos, so much time to watch them.  After adding John Salmons via trade and Jimmer Fredette, Tyler Honeycutt and Isaiah Thomas through the draft, the Sacramento Kings consummated one last transaction before the lockout began on July 1st.  In what might be the NBA’s last transaction for a long time, the Kings dealt popular small forward Omri Casspi, along with a future first round pick, for Cleveland Cavalier power forward J.J. Hickson.  The move balanced the roster and added athleticism to the front court.

There is no shortage of exciting youtube videos of J.J. Hickson.  Highlight reel plays are J.J’s specialty, but if Hickson wants to earn a big extension next summer, he’s going to have to prove that he can be more than just a youtube sensation.  Mental lapses on defense limited Hickson to just 28.2 minutes per game on one of the NBA’s worst teams last season.  While he did average 13.8 points and 8.7 rebounds in those 28 minutes, you can’t help but wonder if those numbers are inflated by a lack of talent around him – the old “best player on a bad team” theory.  With the Kings, he will be asked to do much less than what the Cavs needed from him last season, so hopefully less means more.

More after the jump…

Read more…

Editors Note: This interview took place on Wednesday, June 29, 2011 before the NBA locked out their players.

Welcome to part II of the Cowbell Kingdom summer interview series with Coach Paul Westphal.  The Sacramento Kings dropped a bombshell on their fan base just hours before the 2011 NBA draft when they reacquired journeyman small forward John Salmons.  Confusion, anger, utter disbelief reigned as fans lined up single file on the Tower Bridge and jumped to their deaths in the icy water below.  Not really, but between the Salmons trade and rumors that Sam Dalembert has very little interest in returning to the Sacramento Kings, a lot of fans lost sleep.  Thankfully, fans don’t get to make the hard decisions, men with years of NBA experience do.

James Ham: You just brought in Salmons and that gives you five small forwards (pre-Omri Casspi trade), how is that situation going to settle out?  Is there going to be some movement there?

Coach Westphal: Like I said, we’re not through with our roster yet.  You can never know what move you can make, particularly now because we don’t know what the collective bargaining rules are going to be.  But there will be moves made with our roster, I don’t think we’ll go in with five small forwards with a twelve man roster, but several of those players are flexible and can play multiple positions.  A lot of this will be addressed when it’s possible to address it.

Read more after the jump.

Read more…

Steven Chea/CK

The Sacramento Kings called a press conference early today to announce the acquisition of J.J Hickson from the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for Omri Casspi and a future first round pick.  Here are the highlights of that news conference:

Geoff Petrie, Sacramento Kings President of Basketball Operations:

• On Hickson: “It was a chance to acquire a young player that’s already proven himself to a pretty decent level in the league and strengthening our roster.  There’s still a lot of upside there.  Some of the players that were just taken in the draft a week ago aren’t a whole lot younger than J.J. and he’s had three years in the league and been more productive each year.  It really falls, I think, mostly under the category of just improving the quality of your roster overall.”
• On the nexus of this trade: “We were having conversations with Cleveland prior to the draft and even somewhat during the draft and it just didn’t seem to work. But they continued on here.  In order to accomplish this trade today, both teams had to waive physicals and reporting in order to get it complete today.”
• On the financial implications: “The other thing about this trade – it does not, again, significantly impact our salary cap room going forward at all.  So when we get to free agency, we’ll still be basically in the same position.  We have to go and make other additions to the roster.”
• On Casspi: “Omri has had some pretty good stretches himself as a player and we wanted to make sure we could get fair value for him if we ever did move him.”

Read more…

In a last minute move before the lockout-imposed deadline, the Kings have decided to solve their self-created logjam at small forward, by trading Omri Casspi and a conditional future first round pick to the Cleveland Cavaliers for J.J. Hickson. Marc Stein, via twitter, has the details regarding the pick:

“Protection specifics on pick going from Kings to Cavs: Protected 1-to-14 in 2012, 1-to-13 in 2013, 1-to-12 in 2014, 1-to-10 from 2015-2017; If first-round pick is not conveyed from SAC to CLE by 2017, then Kings convey their 2017 second-rounder to Cavaliers (protected 56-60)”

As an Israeli Kings’ fan, this hurts, but it makes a lot of sense. Between the re-acquired John Salmons, the previously present Francisco Garcia and Donté Greene, and the newly drafted Tyler Honeycutt, the 3 was by far the Kings’ most crowded position. Meanwhile, Casspi is coming off a second straight season of falling out of the rotation post-January, and has been mired with inconsistency throughout his Kings tenure. If any small forward was to go, it was Omri. With his main competition on the Cavs being… umm… well… yeah, he should be starter from day one, with a young, passing point guard to grow old next to, and a fanbase that could use a high-energy guy such as him. This is a great opportunity for him, even if seeing him leave Sactown is sad.
Read more…

It is official.   Omri Casspi and a conditional future first-round pick for J.J. Hickson.

Kings VP of Basketball Ops Geoff Petrie:

“We’re very excited about the opportunity to acquire J.J. Hickson from the Cavaliers,” said Petrie. “We believe he’ll continue to fortify our frontline going forward. He’s an improving young player who is just 22 years old. We believe J.J. will be an important complement to our frontcourt and overall roster as well. We also wish Omri the best and hope he continues on to have a successful career with the Cavaliers.”

Noam Schiller will have analysis of the trade coming up.