Essentials
- Teams: Sacramento Kings (14-19) at Detroit Pistons (9-23)
- Date: January 4
- Time: 6:00 p.m.
- Television: FSD
Get in the Game
As the Detroit Pistons prepare to host the Sacramento Kings tonight, fans will get a chance to glance at teams going perhaps in opposite directions because of moves that appear nonsensical at first glance.
First, the Pistons waived Josh Smith and watched with awe as Detroit responded with its longest winning streak (four games) of the season. What’s more, all wins have come by double digits. All hail Stan Van Gundy, head coach and president of Pistons basketball operations!
Granted, few were in favor of Van Gundy giving Smith the axe, which makes sense on the surface. His salary (over $35 million guaranteed) coupled with whatever talent he has left could have made him a decent trade chip, but the front office instead chose to simply allow him to leave town and choose a destination of his liking.
The sample size is a mere four games, but the Pistons are surprisingly winning the transaction. Jettisoning talent rarely yields good results, but the Pistons have seemingly managed that feat.
In contrast, the Kings have apparently managed the exact opposite. First, they brought in Rudy Gay last season, in a trade that was curious at best. Gay is certainly talented, but his teams just always seem to struggle.
While playing with the Memphis Grizzlies during the 2010-11 season, he missed roughly half of the regular season and the entire playoffs. Gay watched the Grizzlies upset the San Antonio Spurs in the first round before losing the Western Conference semifinals to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Gay returned the following year, and Memphis lost in the first round against the Los Angeles Clippers. The Grizzlies traded Gay away during the 2012-13 season to the Toronto Raptors, and Toronto finished with a mere 34 wins. The following year, the Raptors figured perhaps they should switch things up after only winning six of their first 18 games.
T-Dot traded Gay to Sacramento and the Raptors rebounded by winning 42 of its remaining 64 games. The Kings won 28 contests.
Fast-forward to this season, the Kings reached an agreement this past November with Gay on a three-year extension, in a move that should keep him paired with DeMarcus Cousins.
Here’s where things get confusing.
Sacramento was playing well at the start of the season as evidenced by its early 9-6 record. The Kings had victories over the Portland Trail Blazers, Los Angeles Clippers, San Antonio Spurs, Phoenix Suns and Chicago Bulls. Gay was fitting in nicely and Cousins was playing like an All-Star.
Then, Cousins sat out 10 games due to viral meningitis – Sacramento won three contests in that stretch – and returned to a different team than the one he was on to start the season. The one coach (Mike Malone) who had finally figured out how to reach Cousins was fired in a move that no one quite understands.
How has Cousins adjusted to the firing? Not well.
Sometimes the wrong move on paper is just that—the wrong decision. That seemed to be the case for the Pistons, but Detroit is thriving at least in the short term.
On the other hand, the Kings are not. They have won three of their 12 games with new headman Tyrone Corbin.
This hardly means Detroit will outmatch Sacramento tonight. Rather, I’m just pointing out where these teams were and where they are now. It’s tough to determine what future path awaits both teams, but current results seem to indicate these units are headed in different directions.
Read about the Kings