Sunday Musings: The uphill climb facing Monte McNair

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February of 2015 was bitter cold in New York City. You couldn’t walk a city block without ducking into some kind of establishment to get warm and avoid frost burn on your face. Temperatures sat below zero, but the trip was well worth it.

Walking up to Madison Square Garden and seeing a giant poster of Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins on the wall at what is known as Basketball Mecca, paid for the 3000 mile journey on its own.

This was the first of three All-Star appearances for Cousins in a Kings uniform. He was the first Kings player selected to participate in the game since the 2003-04 season when both Peja Stojakovic and Brad Miller got the call. 

Cousins would go on to make the All-Star team as a King in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons. He was a monster on the court and arguably the best big man in the game for that three year window.

As Cousins sat in a stool waiting for his postgame media session to begin on February 19, 2017, Chris Clark, the Kings’ media director at the time, quietly leaned in and whispered something in his ear. Cousins smirked. His time in Sacramento had come to an end and it played out in real time.

Five years later and the Kings aren’t even close to putting another player in the NBA All-Star game. When balloting was announced on Thursday afternoon, the highest vote getter from on the Kings’ roster was two-way big man and the pride of Portugal, Neemias Queta, who garnered 88,534 votes. 

Queta earned more votes than De’Aaron Fox and Harrison Barnes combined. His total was also more than 11 times greater than players like Buddy Hield or Tyrese Haliburton. 

This isn’t about Queta. It’s really about how far away the Kings are from having an All-Star. In a league driven by stars, the Kings don’t have one. They thought they might have one in Fox, but his regression this year has that proposition on shaky ground. Haliburton has shown flashes of what he might become, like his 38 point outburst against the 76ers on Saturday night, but there are no guarantees that he takes the big leap.

That is why general manager Monte McNair is looking for a home run swing at the upcoming NBA trade deadline, not a solid base hit. Sources confirm that he ended his chase of Ben Simmons earlier this week, but he still has his sights on a big name player that is either already an All-Star or who has potential to get there soon.

The problem facing McNair is the harsh reality that it takes talent to get talent. Draft picks can help augment this battle, but they are only one piece to a giant puzzle. If you have your eyes set on poaching a player from a really good team, then you need more than draft capital.

Given a blank check of sorts to improve the roster, McNair is caught in between a rock and a hard place. His team has spiraled out of control and are losers of six straight. With an 18-33 record, the Kings are now four games behind Portland for the tenth seed and just three games above the Houston Rockets for the worst record in the Western Conference.

Sacramento is currently tied for the fifth worst record in the league and it may get considerably worse before it gets better when the team’s upcoming schedule is factored in. 

The real question is how does McNair and his group go from here? Should they mortgage the future and offer up whatever it takes to land a player like Domantas Sabonis, Jerami Grant or John Collins? 

Only Sabonis has made an All-Star team out of this group and he might not be a lock to make another one in the Western Conference. 

Grant has emerged as a bonafide top of the rotation player, but at nearly 28 years old, reports have him looking for a $112 million extension this summer that will kick in after his $21 million salary for next year. Should a team like the Kings risk $130-plus million on a player who has only put up numbers on a bad Detroit Pistons team?

Collins might have the highest ceiling out of this group. At 24, he’s locked into a five-year, $125 million contract. He’s posted one 20-point, 10-rebound season, but his numbers have slid in each of the last two seasons as the Hawks have added more talent to the roster. He could reach All-Star status, but he could also become a really good player that sits below that level for the remainder of his career. 

There is not a sure thing in the 2022 NBA Draft, like a LeBron James or an Anthony Davis. Players like Chet Holmgren, Jabari Smith and Paolo Banchero have a shot to be really good, but they will take time to develop and the Kings are looking for something more immediate after missing the playoffs for the last 15 seasons. 

This is the dilemma facing McNair. Wanting to build a roster around a star and finding a star to build a roster around are two different issues. This is why he stayed in the Simmons chase well beyond when he should have. It’s also why you hear the Kings’ name mentioned time and time again when it comes to trades.

Sacramento isn’t the only one facing this issue, but they are one of a handful of teams that don’t have all three of the standard options open for improvement. They have to draft well and they can try to make trades, but they are not a true player in the free agent market. 

So how do the Kings fix what is wrong? Not every great team is built around a superstar player, but the Kings haven’t even been able to land a star level player since Cousins’ departure. They have botched opportunities to land one of those types of players in the draft, but that is on the previous two or three regimes, not the current one.

In the end, this is a long and frustrating conversation that comes back to the same issue. McNair has an uphill battle. He may not have the assets to land a game changing player and even the group of players that may be obtainable could plateau below the level the Kings need. 

A star may not fall to the Kings in the draft and even if one does, there is no guarantee that the team will make the right decision. 

This is the reality staring McNair and his front office in the face. That is why they are aggressively chasing every deal that can somehow make this team better. They are canvasing the league and at the end of the day, they may not find a deal that makes sense. 

None of this is new in Sacramento. The margin for error is razor thin. Many have tried to deliver the Kings to the top of the mountain, but the climb is steep and not for the faint of heart.