National Basketball Association

The Sacramento Kings have no plan

Published Apr. 13, 2015 10:30 a.m. ET

foxsports

There are bad franchises, and then there are the Sacramento Kings.

No team has displayed such a shocking level of ineptitude while actively trying to be successful. In the last seven years, the Kings have won more than 30 games just once. They've had seven head coaches during that timeframe. There is no consistency, either on the court or upstairs in the front office.

Under new owner Vivek Ranadive, moves seem to be made on a whim, if not out of order. The Kings hired George Karl, one of the most revered coaches in basketball, but did so after the All-Star break before having their front office solidified.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how someone who spends five weeks in the organization in an official capacity suddenly becomes the franchise's top decision-maker.

Via Marc Stein at ESPN.com:

The deck chairs continue shuffling. It's hard to imagine there's a unified vision in place for the Kings, mainly because the pieces and the roles are constantly changing.

And if things don't work out right away for the new guys? We've seen that this is a franchise that operates as if they can't afford to be patient.

And honestly, maybe they can't. It's probably too late to adopt the Philadelphia 76ers' strategy to purposely clean house, clear cap and break bad in order to acquire cheap stars through the draft.

The Kings already have a major star in place. This should be an advantage, not a burden. There isn't a better low-post scorer in the league than DeMarcus Cousins. Even with below-average point guard play, terrible court spacing, constant double-teams, a different coach every year and a completely non-competitive team, Cousins has bloomed into an absolute force.

Perhaps some of the panic acquisitions that have come at the cost of future flexibility (Carl Landry? Rudy Gay?) stem from the belief that Cousins will eventually grow tired of losing and demand a trade. But the failure to surround Cousins with anything other than slightly above-average talents is why Cousins should want out. Rudy Gay doesn't make someone stay.

Cousins has worked hard to limit his outbursts on the court and to play through even the most frustrating situations. His "request" would be every bit as justified as Chris Paul's in New Orleans, or Carmelo Anthony's in Denver. Maybe even more so, as those teams at least had their share of playoff success.

It wouldn't be fair to dismiss Sacramento's natural disadvantage in building a winner. Sacramento is a simply not a free agent destination, which makes cap space less important than it is for teams residing in bigger markets. The Kings have to account for that by being more creative, by nailing draft picks, by filling in the margins with high-reward bench players and for squeezing the most out of their talent with a distinct style of play.

But the Kings have failed on that front in every regard. Is it because the wrong people were being relied upon, or is it because there was no continuity in place? Could it be both?

Diagnosing an ailing franchise is never easy. Recommending treatment is even tougher. One thing is for certain: at some point, telling DeMarcus Cousins that everything will turn around is going to carry less and less weight every time he hears it. He's seen how that movie ends.

The Kings have their star, their coach, and their new front office voice. Now they need a new plan.