Kevin Martin is a good basketball player. He can score really well. The Kings have him inked until 2013. Much like Minnesota, the Kings are in the throws of rebuilding in a big way. They have unloaded two cornerstone players (Mike Bibby and Ron Artest) in the last six months and they are now easing into life as a rebuilding squad looking to compliment their single promising asset, Kevin Martin.
 
The team had no shortage of issues last season that should only be compounded this year. First and foremost, this team cannot play defense. Not a lick. This will be the team that every offensively-minded player will have circled on their calendar because they know it will be their night to shine. This team could easily set an NBA record this year as the team that gives up the most 40+ scoring nights for individual players against them in a single season. If this team was allowing 105 points per game last year and they had Ron Artest for 57 of those games it's mind-boggling to imagine what they'll be giving up a year from now - especially when one considers that they also coughed-up 16 turnovers a game (they led the league in that department, as well as points off of turnovers).

In essence, this is a team that must play out this season but has very little gain by doing so. The biggest motivator will be getting minutes for inexperienced but promising youngsters like Spencer Hawes, Donte Green and Jason Thompson and getting some much needed seasoning for head coach Reggie Theus. While some see his brash, unapologetic style as reminiscent of former 2007 Coach of the Year Sam Mitchell, others see it at petulant and out-of-touch with the specific needs of fostering and nurturing young talent. While he got more out of some marginal players than most thought possible a year ago, he also fanned a lot of flames that remain his job to put out. He fought with vets like Mikki Moore and John Salmons, he had a war of words with Kevin Martin through the media at the conclusion of last season and he did a poor job of demonstrating an overall ability to handle the requirements of the job that exist off of the court. The fear is that Theus is out for his own good and may sacrifice the needs of the team - especially as it relates to developing the youth - in the name of acquiring wins to earn an extension or a positive résumé for his future.

It's the team's future that is at stake here. No one knows yet if this team actually possesses the kind of pieces that will make up a quality nucleus for a team or if all they have is a lot of young players with raw talent. It is up to Theus and his staff to figure that out and put the pieces in place to try and make this team as competitive as possible without stubbornly playing veterans who hold little to no long-term value to the club. If there's a way to spoil what is already destined to be a long and difficult season in Sacramento, taking such a myopic view would be it.

All this team really has of value today that is Kevin Martin. He is an elite NBA scorer who still needs to add some seasoning to other parts of his game before he reaches the upper-echelon of the league's elite. Flanking him is a low of suspect talent that this team hopes to get a better sense of this year, but very little in the way of actual 'help'. For all of the difficulty that this team is poised to face as a rebuilding club - especially out West - the emotional toll taken on Martin may be the harshest. Just as he begins to find his feet in the NBA the rug is pulled out from under him. It could be a long time before he and the Kings see winning again, so it's a good thing that they've got him locked-in for the next five years.

PROBABLE STARTING LINEUP

PG - Beno Udrih

Udrih is a perfect backup point guard in the NBA; absolutely perfect. He's an okay passer, an okay shooter and he'll never challenge a quality starter for minutes. Of course, in Sacramento, he IS the 'quality' starter. Well, he's the starter, at least - the 'quality' part is still a ways away. Today as a starting guard Udrih is mediocre at best. He turns the ball over an alarming amount (2.28 per game) considering how few assists he collects (4.3 per game). He can't blame botched shots on the team for his low assist output, either, because this squad is a top-ten team in terms of team shooting (46%). Udrih was thrust into this spot last season while Bibby recovered from injury and as a castoff of San Antonio and Minnesota he opened a lot of eyes. However, as a point guard locked in to a five-year, $32.3 million contract he's no longer the underdog that surprised Sacramento, he's now just an overpaid backup point guard starting for a rebuilding NBA franchise.

SG - Francisco Garcia

Garcia is the recipient of another rich contract this summer by the Kings (5 years, $23 million), but his seems more in line with the direction this team is heading. Garcia demonstrated tremendous improvement last season as a reserve for the Kings, posting career-highs in scoring (12.3 ppg), field-goal percentage (46%) and three-point percentage (39%). He's a young player with some rounding out to do, but he's a player that has one useful and definable skill today - his three-point shooting - that he can bank on as he develops the rest of his attack. Unlike Udrih, Garcia was signed to a reasonable deal that won't kill the team down the road financially and he represents the kind promising young player that the Kings are trying to acquire and develop. Expect him to start this year so that the team can kick the tires a bit on their investment.

SF - Kevin Martin

Martin would be a killer addition to a Playoff team in need of wing scoring. Stick him on the Raptors or Jazz and they become instant contenders (though the Jazz are pretty close already). However, on a rebuilding club it's going to take some effort on the part of Martin to keep his skill-set sharp and his momentum going forward. He's gotten better every year that he's been in the league but he is still an unfinished product (his defense and turnovers are still concerns) and he cannot forget that just because he's now the team's best player. If he simply rests on his laurels as a high-powered offensive weapon then the team's faith in him as a leader and a cornerstone will have been misplaced. However, if he can continue to develop his game in the mold of a Paul Pierce or a Vince Carter, rounding out his offensive repertoire with a killer passing game and above-average rebounds for his position, then maybe he could just become the kind of player that single-handedly lifts his team's fortunes out of the gutter. 

PF - Mikki Moore

Consider this spot wide-open, with the early lead going to Moore because he's a veteran and it's hard to see Theus going untested at this (or any other) spot. Jason Thompson, Sacramento's draft grab at 12 last spring, would make more sense here; throwing him to the wolves out of the gate to find his legs in the NBA and providing patience with his growing pains. However, Moore has the experience and so Theus will probably give him the spot. He had not-bad season averages of 8.5 points and 6.0 boards per game considering he only played about 29 minutes per contest, but Moore is best suited as an energy guy off of the bench, and on a winning team at that. His particular skill set is not of much use to a team looking to rebuild since he's hardly the kind of skilled veteran who should be tutoring the kids (that role has fallen to the recently retired Shareef Abdur-Rahim). Fortunately for the Kings he'll be an expiring contact next summer - that's over $6 million to some team looking to get under the cap for 'Free Agent Frenzy 2010'. If the Kings can spin that money into a draft pick or a young asset from a team desperate for cap space then Moore will have more than lived up to his value to his briefly-adopted club.

C - Brad Miller

What a whirlwind this year must have been for Miller. He finally starts to get his body healthy and his game back up to par and all of a sudden his veteran teammates are being shipped off for youth and cap space. He'll get the start here because the Kings will be very interested in seeing what they can drum up with regards to trade value for Miller. It probably won't be much since he's an injury waiting to happen, but he also represents about $12 million off of the books in the same summer of 2010 as Moore. While it may seem a bit early to be talking about the trade value of a player a year or two from now, that's about the soonest the Kings can hope to be worth looking at again, a reason why Miller would probably welcome just about any trade the Kings could throw at his feet.