2011-2012 Finish: 46-20

Season Highlight

The entire regular season was a great highlight for the Sacramento Kings and their talented and deep roster. The Kings tore shreds of its Western Conference opponents and most of the East on the way to a 46-20 record, good for first in the West. On the back of a high powered offense that put up 109.35 points per game, the Kings ruled the regular season and then the first three rounds of the playoffs, in which they only dropped a combined two games. All that stood in the way of an NLL Championship was Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Season Lowlight

Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers were too much to overcome, taking a 4-2 win in the series and lifting the NLL Championship trophy much to GM Forest’s chagrin. The players, the fans and the entire organization took the loss pretty hard, but nobody took it harder than GM Forrest, who decided despite the fact the baulk of his team would be able to remain intact, and he could easily make another run the next season, he just couldn’t handle the stress and rigors of the job anymore, and stepped down as the GM of the Sacramento Kings.

Best Trade
The Sacramento Kings send Jason Richardson and Kendrick Perkins to the Toronto Raptors. The Toronto Raptors send Andrew Bynum to the Sacramento Kings.

The Sacramento Kings send a 2nd-Rounder (Sac) to the Toronto Raptors.

GM Forrest only pulled the trigger on one trade this season, and boy was it a good one.

Having fleeced the rebuilding Bulls out of Jason Richardson and Kendrick Perkins the season prior, Forrest flipped them both plus a second rounder for young superstar centre Andrew Bynum. And while Bynum came in with a shaky injury history, he would suit up in all 66 games, putting up 10.4 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. He will only get bigger and better.


Worst Trade

The Sacramento Kings made no other trades.

Other Notable Trades

The Sacramento Kings made no other trades.

Best FA Signing

JR Smith - SG. The high energy, bench scoring extraordinaire decided to take a year of the MLE in Sacramento, with the hope of winning a championship. And although he didn’t quite get the championship he was after, he still put up 17 points per night off the bench to help get the Sacramento Kings as close as you can get.

Worst FA Signing

Brian Scalabrine- F. Perhaps being a little harsh on big Scal here, but i had to pick someone and decided to call out Scal, after 10 years in the league, in what was probably his last NLL season. Scal could only muster 1.3 points in 6.5 minutes per game. And his +/- of -2.2 was the worst for the Kings. Best of luck in your future endeavours Scal!

Star

Chris Paul- PG– For a few seasons now, many have questioned Chris Paul’s status as a star in the NLL, after struggling to fill the stats sheet and missing many games through injury these past few seasons. But Paul answered back at his critics in a big way this season, playing in every game and averaging 18 points, 6.6 assists and 3.2 rebounds each night, validating GM Forrest’s decision to trade for him.

Surprise

Paul George- SF – Entering only his second NLL season, the 15th pick out of the 2010 draft was given the starting small forward spot, and told to be the glue guy that was not afraid to play tough defence and make the hustle plays so that the big names could shine around him. And he did just that, while chipping in 12.4 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. This guy will soon be a big name in his own right.

Goat

GM Forrest – Any GM who walks away from a roster such as this has got to have a damn good reason, and without knowing the circumstances and real reason behind his leaving, GM Forrest gets the goat here.

Draft Report Card

With such an impressive record, the Kings were always going to be picking late in the first round, and really just needed another body to compliment an already deep team. So with pick 28, the Kings nabbed Fab Melo. An extremely big body out of Syracuse, Melo will provide interior defence and toughness coming off the bench as insurance if an injury fells Andrew Bynum. This was it for the Kings draft, as they traded away their second round pick in the Bynum deal.

Looking to the Future

After coming so close to immortality, the Kings find themselves with a fresh season and a fresh GM in which to guide them, probably again towards another inevitable postseason.

All but two of the core Sacramento players are signed up, and while Kevin Love and JR Smith are looking to get paid, they have shown every intention of sticking around to see if they can go one better next season.

Then when you read that the Kings are the 9th youngest team in the league on paper, you suddenly realize the next few years are going to be bright in Sacramento. Departing GM Forrest really did a great job setting up this team; I hope the new guy realizes what a great opportunity for a dynasty he has here. Best of luck CarlSpackler!

Upcoming Free Agents

As mentioned Kevin Love and JR Smith are looking to get paid, and keeping them around will put Sacramento into the luxury tax. This is somewhere the new GM probably doesn’t want to be, so it might be an idea to try and shed some salary somewhere. Maybe they can move on someone like Anthony Morrow or Tiago Splitter for a pick or gm points. As for the other free agents, Brian Scalabrine, Dennis Horner and Josh Davis, they will be lucky if any team picks them up next season.