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Who Exactly Is Running The Sacramento Kings?

By D. Goodman

Mar 16, 2015; Sacramento, CA, USA; Sacramento Kings Vice President of basketball and franchise operations Vlade Divac looks on during the game against the Atlanta Hawks at Sleep Train Arena. The Atlanta Hawks defeated the Sacramento Kings 110-103. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 16, 2015; Sacramento, CA, USA; Sacramento Kings Vice President of basketball and franchise operations Vlade Divac looks on during the game against the Atlanta Hawks at Sleep Train Arena. The Atlanta Hawks defeated the Sacramento Kings 110-103. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports /
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Does anyone know who is calling the shots for the Sacramento Kings?

Seriously. Because if you know and could tell me, I’d really appreciate it so I can make sure to start a petition or something to have them fired.

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That should be the only reaction any rational Kings fan should have after watching their team get taken advantage of by Philadelphia 76ers general manager Sam Hinkie this week.

Late Wednesday night, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports revealed that the Sixers and Kings had worked out a trade that would enable the Kings to dump some salary in order to try and pursue some of the bigger name free agents on the market.

The Kings would send guard Nik Stauskas and forwards Carl Landry and Jason Thompson to Philadelphia as well as a protected first-round pick in 2018 and the ability to swap first-round picks in both 2016 and 2017.

In exchange, the Kings would receive the rights to Sixers’ 2015 second-round picks Arturas Gudaitis and Luka Mitrovic in addition to roughly $16 million in salary-cap space.

Anyone else think that deal sounds a bit off?

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Normally when a team clears that amount of space on the payroll, it means they have a free agent that they are going to sign or are in serious negotiations with one. The Kings have neither. Sacramento did this deal in the hopes they would be able to land one of the free agents that are currently on the market.

Which would be great if 1) almost every free agent of note has either already agreed to a deal or is about to and 2) the ones that are left have no intention of playing for the Kings.

That means the Sixers gained a 2014 first-round pick, two forwards and a truckload of draft considerations for two players who might never play in the NBA.

Which brings us to my original question: who the hell is running the Kings and approved this deal?

Was it owner Vivek Ranadive? Ranadive has making headlines as of late due to his difference of opinion with the head coach he just hired last February, George Karl, and what they should do with All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins. Karl wants Cousins traded, Ranadive not so much.

The difference has led to rumors that Karl may be fired before the end of the offseason, which would mean the Kings would have to pay him $11 million for roughly six months worth of work.

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    • Even considering all of that and how desperate Ranadive is to put a winner on the court, I don’t think we can blame him for this questionable deal. And you can be relatively sure it wouldn’t have been interim GM Mike Bratz, since he is just keeping the seat warm until a permanent replacement can be found.

    No, I think the blame for this falls squarely into the lap of the Kings’ recently hired vice president of basketball and franchise operations, Vlade Divac.

    Divac has quietly been taking over running the Kings and making most of the decisions since his hiring last March. It is part of the reason both former GM Pete D’Alessandro and adviser Chris Mullin left the organization. Ranadive has handed Divac the keys to the kingdom and if this trade is any indication, that isn’t going to be very good for the Kings.

    What Sam Hinkie did to Divac and the Kings is worse that stealing someone’s lunch money. Hinkie not only talked Divac into simply handing over the money, but then convinced him to throw in a couple of notebooks and a pencil sharpener. Divac never knew what hit him.

    If in fact Vlade Divac is the new voice of the Kings and he is running the show, he has a lot to learn before Sacramento can even think about improving and making it to the postseason.

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