I'm not particularly adept at coherent, or new, creative trains of thought. As such, this fanpost may not be particularly enlightening to you. It certainly is going to be depressing, and I apologize for that.  I'm not here to make you feel any worse, or better. More so, I'd like to make myself feel better. Breath in. Breath out. Start anew.

The Kings are bad. Very Bad.

I am a hopelessly optimistic person.

The combination of these two things has led me a point of inevitable conflict. An unstoppable force meets and an immovable object. What gives?

The former.

I don't know what tipped the scales. Maybe it's state of the Kings, a combination of terrible basketball, bad contracts, and a limited positive outlook on the future. Maybe it's the economy, hitting new lows today. Maybe it was the lack of results at the trade deadline. Most probably, a combination of all things.

In a sense, I feel lied to. Knowing my propensity to be naive, and overly optimistic, I have a feeling I did most of the lying. But being as how I come to StR first and foremost for all my Kings news, I can't help but second-guess my source.

While it may seem like I am about to throw some blame down at the feet of Ziller and Co., the blame (if it can be called that), shouldn't be taken that way. Believe it or not, there are times while reading this site that I forget that we have the worst record in the league. There are times when I think that our record does not reflect the sum of the parts on our team. Past a certain point however, optimism and outright denial can only explain part of such lunacy. This, I attribute to the light that is Sactown Royalty.

While I have in fact witnessed a sustained barrage of reminders from many of the regulars, Ziller included, that this team is bad, I hadn't  wavered from checking this site daily. And while I myself have told myself this team is bad, and reminded myself that this team is so bad that I had to stop watching, it doesn't explain my desire to continue to divulge in, or feel so good about consistently bad news.

I look at the current front page of StR, and see our darling hopefuls that are our future. Had it not been for this recent conflict of feelings, I would recite to you a number of positives about each, but Ziller and Co rightfully have already. Honesty and directness are valued aspects of any writer. This is however, a blog dedicated to the Kings. There wouldn't be any reason to continue reading a blog that would give me night terrors. Such is the state of the Kings.

Props to the StR community, you're the reason it's taken me this long to feel bad about the Kings. Only here, can one of our most promising young players, be compared to Antonio McDyess, and in turn leave me feeling good about our future. Understandably, Forthree's analysis was to "create bounds around our expectations" but all discussions about Antonio McDyess being worthy, and amicable goals aside, this is not what most people want to hear. Yet I came away positive.

So while most people have taken the good with the bad, and fairly assessed this team. I have not. I have come to the breaking point. I need to flush every bit of bad thing Kings-related, out of my system. Start anew. Start afresh. I do not intend to place any positives below, until the conclusion of this purge. This isn't basketball purgatory, this is fandom hell.

The King's best player, Kevin Martin, is a second fiddle for any future championship run.

The Kings are likely to get the top pick in a bad draft.

Jason Thompson statistics line up with Antonio McDyess.

Brad Miller and John Salmons, for some reason, was our hope to post a profitable trade at the deadline. One is 32, unathletic, has an expensive yet soon-to-be (2010) expiring contract in what is still a terrible economy. The other is a semi-ball hog that played well on the worst team in the league, and has proven to be unproductive off the bench.

There is the very real possibility, that our team is moving. A team that our city has rallied around for many years. Our team, our one and only team. Possibly Soon.

Nocioni, a player we just traded for, who has a lengthy contract, wasn't a favored player on a mediocre team.

Arco is dead, now, and in the future.

Spencer Hawes, part of our future, is 19 and has had multiple knee surgeries.

Beno Udrih doesn't look to have improved at all, and has a big, expensive contract.

Kenny F'ing Thomas.

Francisco Garcia found his way into a big contract, but can't find his way out of inconsistency.

Rick Adelman--> Eric Musselman ---> Reggie Theus --> Kenny Natt.

The Maloofs.

After me...

Breath In______________-----Breath out_____________

There is probably more, but I am feeling sufficiently better. Ladies and gentlemen. This is as low as it goes. Feel free to vent your self. In stocks, you buy low sell high. Buy the Kings now. The lows in times like these will make that next glory team that much sweeter.  You have to pity fair weather fans, people who never  get ride the full roller coaster that is true fandom. We are paying our dues now, and will be rewarded that much more in the future.

Go Kings.

CAB with the find -

Marc Stein has the scoop. Lots of interesting tidbits. Artest is aparently getting the cold shoulder from the Maloofs and no longer feels as if Sacramento is loyal to him. Stein also mentions that the Lakers are hesitant to part with Lamar Odom. He's also become his own agent.

 I'd like to think that this is a big developement because he's more or less demanding a trade (I think?, right?, oh wait, he is, I just re-read the title of the ESPN article), but this isn't the first, second or 100th time he's pulled this b.s. on us. I will certainly be uping my daily ESPN and StR visits from 5 times a day to 50 over the next week, but sadly I think I'll end up being dissapointed by Artest, again.

(From the FanPosts. - TZ)

ESPN notes that Ron Artest had surgery on his thumb. His recovery time line is 10 weeks. This is good news for various reasons. Most notably that Ron Artest was in fact injured rather telling Reggie when he would play or not.

I would have normally waited for this to show up in the bee and on StR tomorrow, but recent deprivation from this site has me looking for excuses to make up for lost time. Seeing E-Muss at Luna Loca in Danville for the Lakers game was the equivalent of loading up on StR crack. The downtime since has been nothing but a hangover and withdrawals.

This poll is based on Steve Weinman's Analysis. Originally he calls him a chucker. After a beatdown by TZ, he's trying to save some credibility, by saying that Kevin Martin looks to get the ball up as quickly as he can. I'm sure you all have an opinion out there, whether or not you actually watch the Kings.

What does this tell you? SACRAMENTO, California (Ticker) -- Kevin Martin scored 29 points and Beno Udrih played well in his first game of the season as the Sacramento Kings held off the Minnesota Timberwolves, 100-93, on Saturday.

John Salmons scored 19 points and Brad Miller added 12 and 16 rebounds for the Kings, who won for the first time in three tries at home this season.