MVN - Most Valuable Network

Mike Bibby Watch: A Solid Last Couple Of Days

We’re trying to accomplish a few things here at The Mike Bibby Watch.

First, we want to chart Mike Bibby’s progress. We want to see that he still has it and has the game to complement LeBron James, and even though it will take about another 25 years to get this trade done as we wait out the staring contest between Geoff Petrie and Danny Ferry, our end goal is to put Bibby in that Cavs jersey.

Second, we want to chart Sacramento’s progress. This, unlike the first objective, is quite challenging. We don’t want the Kings to be too good. If they are, then Petrie may believe that the team got hot once Bibby returned from his injury and believe that keeping him around may help this team make a playoff push in March and April.

We also don’t want the Kings to flat-out suck too much, either. If they do, then they’re going to be looking for expiring contracts and draft picks. Cleveland’s expiring deals are all for 2009, and even though the Cavs have never picked anyone in the first round worth noting over the past 15 years other than LeBron James (which was more of winning a lottery instead of actually making a thorough, well-researched draft pick), you don’t want to be too quick at dealing draft picks for a guy who turns 30 in a few months.

Third, we want Petrie to believe that Bibby is absolutely useless to him at this point. We want Bibby to suck during big wins. We want him to shine during a loss.

Fourth, we want the Kings’ power forwards to suck so that Petrie is duped into thinking that Drew Gooden is the answer.

Call the last few days “The Perfect Storm” for The Mike Bibby Watch.

On Friday night, the Kings were the ones who stopped Utah’s 10-game winning streak with a resounding 117-104 win at Sacramento. The Kings were led by their nucleus of Kevin Martin, Brad Miller, and Ron Artest with a little touch of John Salmons and Quincy Douby.

Bibby, on the other hand, only scored seven points. In a huge victory for his teammates, a win that brought them to within two games of .500 and showed the rest of the West that the Kings can play with top teams, Bibby was rendered useless. He only got 23 minutes of playing time and finished with seven points and six assists on three-for-six shooting.

On Saturday night, it was Mike Bibby circa 2002.

The former Arizona Wildcat put on a show, scoring 24 points on 10-for-21 shooting, two-for-six from three-point range, and two-for-three from the line to go with seven assists in 33 minutes. The Kings, however, lost to the Warriors in a close one, 105-102, to drop to three games below .500.

This puts the Kings and Petrie exactly where Ferry would want them. First, the Kings still have an outside shot of making the playoffs if they go on an absolute tear coming straight out of the All-Star break. It also makes Bibby seem expendable, as they didn’t need him to beat the Jazz yet lost to the Warriors despite getting a big game from him.

The Kings are also non-existent at the power forward position. Shareef Abdur-Rahim is already lost for the season after undergoing right knee surgery back in December, and Kenny Thomas is more likely to come up on the side of a milk carton than he is in Kings coach Reggie Theus’ rotation.

Mikki Moore was Petrie’s “big” free agent signing this past offseason, and the Kings President was hoping to shore up what was one of the league’s worst rebounding teams. But Moore put up just seven points and seven rebounds in the Utah win and just four points and four boards against an undersized Warriors team in the Golden State loss.

There is no question than Drew Gooden, 26, is better than any of the clowns the Kings have at power forward.

If Petrie believes that Gooden would help the Kings in making a stretch run more than Bibby would, then this deal might get done by the trading deadline. So far, the Cavs have been the “beggars” in this deal, but if Petrie can lead more towards the “begging” side in these negotiations, then the Cavs may not have to eat Thomas’ contract in a trade with the Kings, after all.

With Ira Newble playing well lately, Theus can look at a guy like that to be a key player off the bench to provide some energy. That’s a bonus to the $3.4 million expiring contract. Shannon Brown also gives the Kings an option between using Brown as a prospect to groom in their system or just $1.1 mil to kick off the payroll this summer.

And Gooden. A frontcourt of Miller, Gooden, and Artest would definitely add beef to a team looking to sneak up on some people in the West. Sacramento has plenty of guards to rotate, with Martin being the team’s cornerstone and Beno Udrih being the playmaker by leading the team in assists.

They also have young prospects in Francisco Garcia and Quincy Douby along with good role players like John Salmons. Newble would be another role player to sub in for Martin at times while Brown gives them another young player to work with.

The Kings also gain a great deal of cap flexibility, as well. They would be taking in about $10.9 million in contracts to export Bibby’s $13.5 million for just this season and $14.5 for next season. That’s a savings of $2.6 million there alone. Of the $10.9 million, $4.5 million is off the books this summer, with only Gooden being owed $7.1 million for next year. Do that math, and the Kings would be saving about $7.4 million through next season assuming they do no other moves.

We cool with that, Geoff?

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 10th, 2008 at 1:47 am and is filed under Brad Miller, Kenny Thomas, Geoff Petrie, Reggie Theus, Quincy Douby, John Salmons, Mike Bibby Watch, Francisco Garcia, Cleveland Cavaliers Rumors, Shannon Brown, Danny Ferry, Ira Newble, LeBron James, Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, Utah Jazz, Ron Artest, Mikki Moore, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Drew Gooden, Kevin Martin, Mike Bibby, Cleveland Cavaliers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.