The Sacramento Bee reports forward Shavlik Randolph had a workout with the Sacramento Kings Wednesday morning.

Randolph played in China this season for the Dongguan New Century Leopards. In 37 games he averaged 24.7 points and 11.9 rebounds.

The Kings currently have one open roster spot and they might sign Randolph or another player to a rest-of-season contract.

Marcus Thornton, SG, Sacramento Kings, PER:18.06

Thornton's breakout was foretold when his scoring average rocketed 13.5 points over the final 27 games of last season, after he was traded from New Orleans to Sacramento, but in his first season as a full-time starter Thornton has established himself as one of the league's most consistent scorers with a career-best 18.6 points per game. He won't win many accolades for playmaking and will probably never be a lockdown defender, but he was never advertised as such. Thornton's prime objective is to score the basketball. And he does that very well.

By far the least recognizable name in the top 30 in scoring, Thornton ranks fifth among shooting guards in scoring and has more 27-point games (six) than bucket-fillers Danny Granger (two) and Rudy Gay (one). One of his most dangerous weapons is the catch-and-shoot from the elbow or short corner -- usually after ball reversal -- which he can get off with an alarmingly quick release.

But his bread and butter is creating pull-ups or getting to the basket off the dribble, which is why he doesn't need to rely on quality point guard play to get him good looks. Most of his attempts come from behind the arc (fifth in the league at 6.2 attempts per game) or at the rim, but he's actually shooting better on long 2s than feared marksmen Carmelo Anthony and Ray Allen.

Other 4: Ty Lawson, Paul George, Greg Monroe, Nikola Pekovioc

No. 10 pick: The Kings select Kenneth Faried
No. 10 pick in actual 2011 NBA draft: Jimmer Fredette

This is one of the easiest picks to make simply because of Faried's talent and the Kings' need for someone like him. Toughness, energy, explosive athleticism and a good feel for the game -- all things every team needs but none more than Sacramento.

A Faried-Cousins front line would be terrific from day one. I'm not sure anyone could have saved Paul Westphal's job, but Faried would have at least helped the Kings to a much better start.

No. 17 pick: The Knicks select Isaiah Thomas
No. 17 pick in actual 2011 NBA draft: Iman Shumpert

Thomas has beaten out Jimmer Fredette in Sacramento, so he beats him out here too. Both guys seem to have a lot of Jeremy Lin in their game, but Thomas is the more electric guy with the better decision-making skills thus far. Even as a backup, he'd help the Knicks a great deal.

No Jimmer in the 1st round

Sam Amico ‏ @SamAmicoFSO

"Cavs will stay in touch w/Hornets however. Hornets said to still be entertaining offers for either of 2 first rounders to dump Okafor deal"

Okafor with Cousins on the block would be nice IMO. His contract is pretty big, but if the Hornets are also willing to part with one of their 2 lottery picks, I'm game

Sacramento Kings

The problem: At least it appears that the Kings will be staying put, so we know they will continue to have the support of a loyal fan base. What we don't know is how the Kings are going to evolve. On paper, they have a pair of super-talented building blocks in Tyreke Evans and DeMarcus Cousins. The results, however, remain awful. The offense ranks 25th in efficiency despite a third-place standing in offensive rebound percentage and the defense ranks 28th. The Kings just can't score inside the arc, ranking 29th in 2-point percentage.

Sacramento once held hope that Evans could be the primary decision-maker on offense, but he's been used more at the wing positions this year. They've been using rookie Isaiah Thomas as their starting point guard of late, but he really should be used as a streak shooter in limited minutes of the bench.

The fix: The Kings have to continue to develop the Evans-Cousins core and make it work. There is just too much talent there to give up. For that pairing to succeed, the third member of Sacramento's big three needs to be a playmaking point guard, who can make decisions for players who don't make good ones for themselves. If you find that, then you can get a defense-first wing to play alongside Evans on the wing and a rim protector/rebounder to go with Cousins inside. Voila! You've got a playoff contender -- if Evans and Cousins mature. (Not a given.)

The Kings could offer their first-round pick and a couple of young pieces like Thomas or Hassan Whiteside to the Celtics for Rajon Rondo. The Celtics would be creating even more flexibility for the future, adding a high lottery pick and getting rid of a player they seem to want to move. The Kings would gain one of the league's top point guards, one who plays the exact style they need, though a couple of high-percentage perimeter shooters would have to be added.

Rondo WARP: 7.8/13.8 (over two seasons)

24. Sacramento Kings | Future Power Rating: 475

PLAYERS 260 (17th) MANAGEMENT 22 (29th) MONEY 93 (17th) MARKET 24 (27th) DRAFT 76 (7th)

The Kings don't know whether they're coming or going … literally. Sacramento is trying to fund an arena to keep the team there, but they could easily be in Seattle, Anaheim, Kansas City or someplace else next season. The uncertainty that hangs over the team's future in the city is also likely holding it up from pursuing other moves, such as the long-overdue housecleaning in the front office.

We ranked Sacramento's management 29th; while they finally saw fit to remove Paul Westphal as coach, head-scratching moves remain the norm. Sacramento traded down in the draft to acquire John Salmons' deadweight contract, and made Marcus Thornton the latest in a litany of unusually generous contracts for their own players. Moves like these have left the Kings near the bottom of the standings despite a profusion of high lottery picks.

There is some talent here, though. Tyreke Evans is a devastating slasher and would likely be even better if they'd give up on making him a point guard, while bruising DeMarcus Cousins needs to mature but certainly has star talent.

The cap situation is decent, too. While the Kings have a few bad contracts, one of them can be removed via amnesty to put them well under the cap in any offseason they choose. We're just not sure how much ownership can spend given their financial distress, and that will be the case until the arena issue is resolved and/or the team is sold to somebody with deeper pockets.

(Previous rank: 18)

The people at Hoopism just launched a little study they'll be updating throughout the year. They're not just looking at the age of the players on a team's roster, but they're going an intelligent step further and adding an element that looks at how many minutes each player plays. The final measure is the average age not of those in uniform, but of those on the court.

"This organization was great before and it can be great again. But you can't just keep making moves like you're running a fantasy basketball team. Players need to complement each other within an offense. "

Andrei Kirilenko is currently playing back home in Russia with CSKA Moscow and he's going to remain there for the duration of the season, reports TalkBasket.net.

The New Jersey Nets had been linked to Kirilenko due to the team being owned by Mikhail Prokhorov, but the two sides couldn't come to an agreement.

The Utah Jazz already have enough frontcourt options and aren't interested in bringing him back.

Kirilenko has missed the last five game with a shoulder injury, but he should return to CSKA Moscow on Jan. 3.

The great John Hollinger previews the Sacramento Kings!

All-time great Kings moments!

Great preview from 13RekeHavoc

Jamison was stunned the Cavs would deal the 22-year-old Hickson.

"He’s a great talent," Jamison said at an appearance in North Carolina. "Hopefully this move will be what he needs to take things to the next level, but it was definitely surprising. It was a logjam (at power forward). With who we took with the fourth pick, that created it. (Hickson) has such of an upside. I guess I was really a big fan of him. I thought he was going to be one of those guys who actually got it. They wanted to go in a different route."

Great words from a veteran PF who has seen it all in the NBA.

1.Durant
2.Rose
3.Westbrook
4.Horford
5.Noah
6.Love
7.Griffin
8.Curry
9.Lopez
10.Gasol
11.Ibaka
12.Gordon
13.Conley
14.Gallinari
15.Thadeus Young
16.Mcgee
17.Lawson
18.Holliday
19.Blair
20.Wall

Honerable Mentions:
Nicolas Batum, Trail Blazers
Michael Beasley, Timberwolves
Darren Collison, Pacers
DeMarcus Cousins, Kings
DeMar DeRozan, Raptors
Tyreke Evans, Kings
Derrick Favors, Jazz
Landry Fields, Knicks
Brandon Jennings, Bucks
Wesley Matthews, Trail Blazers
Greg Monroe, Pistons
Patrick Patterson, Rockets

Jason Thompson had a prominent role on the Kings during his first two seasons in the NBA, but his time and production have fallen off this year.

He averaged 12.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 1 block and played 31.4 minutes, while starting 58 of 75 games during the 2009-10 season. In 2010-11 his averages are 8.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 0.6 blocks. He is also averaging 22.4 minutes and has started 39 of his 59 games.

Does Thompson think he'll be a member of the organization next season?

"You never know (what the future holds)," Thompson told the Burlington County Times. "You always want to have that storybook ending where you spent 10-plus years with the team that drafted you and it ends with more success. It's not like that all the time. For me, it's going to be an interesting off-season. I'm looking forward to the exit meetings (after the finale) to see what direction they're going to go."

Thompson will be entering his fourth year in the NBA next season and he is scheduled to make about $3 million.

The Kings have been searching for a point guard and they could try to acquire one around the draft by shipping out Thompson, who still has value around the league.

-- Nick Borges

18. Sacramento Kings | Future Power Rating: 471

PLAYERS MANAGEMENT MONEY MARKET DRAFT
141 (23rd) 35 (28th) 165 (3rd) 48 (14th) 82 (4th)

We're not crazy about their players and we think the Kings are one of the worst-run teams in sports, but they moved up two spots to 18th in our latest rankings because of one big issue: relocation.

Anaheim may not be L.A., but it's a heck of a lot closer than Sacramento, and it should be a significant draw for future players. In the last edition, we ranked Sacramento 28th in the Market category; in this edition, we assumed the Kings would be moving to Anaheim and bumped the team up to 14th.

This is not an idle consideration given the trove of salary cap space on which the Kings sit. They were barely at the league's minimum salary this season and will get another $15 million in space when the deals of Samuel Dalembert and Marquis Daniels expire, which should give them room to sign two max free agents this summer if they so desire. (Of course, all such considerations are subject to the new collective bargaining agreement, when we have one.)

Of course, they're likely to take it slower than that -- there are few good free agents this summer and the Kings' owners are thought to be in pretty tight financial straits. Nonetheless, the appeal of Anaheim for free agents in 2012 -- say, a Deron Williams-Dwight Howard package deal, for those living in fantasy land -- can't be ignored.

Whether they have the organization to pull off something like that is very much an open question. The Kings rated 28th for management given the team's shaky direction under Geoff Petrie, who assembled a great team at the start of the decade but has presided over one lousy season after another in recent years. And despite two great talents in Tyreke Evans and DeMarcus Cousins, we rated the Kings' players 23rd, as we're not sure either has the maturity to achieve the stardom at which their talents hint.

(Previous rank: 20)

Haters going to hate!

"First, with Williams gone and Davis clearly not the point guard of the future in Cleveland, sources say that Duke freshman Kyrie Irving is now the No. 1 target for the Cavs. For the past month we've had Perry Jones (who now slides to No. 2) on their draft board." Chad Ford

Sacramento Kings: B

This is probably about as well as the Sacramento Kings of Anaheim could have hoped to do for Landry, who has an expiring contract and had no intention of staying in Sacramento. Or Anaheim. Although his defense is suspect and he can be too single-minded at times, Thornton is a good prospect who can really score. He'll be most useful when Tyreke Evans is off the floor, where he can indulge his scorer's mindset as a sixth man. Sacramento also gets cash, which it will use to tip the movers.

While Thornton is a free agent after this season, he's restricted and has a minimal cap hold, which means the Kings can easily keep him without cutting into much of their cap space.

New Orleans Hornets: A-

The Hornets give up a valuable young player in Thornton, but he wasn't playing and New Orleans badly needed help for its frontcourt. On that front, this was a huge success, as the Hornets' flagging bench gets a go-to scorer. Landry is absolutely perfect in this role and can destroy second-line power forwards with his combination of mid-range shooting, aggressive drives and offensive boards -- much as he did with Houston for two seasons before his trade to the Kings.

This is also a signal that the Hornets are going the opposite way of Utah in handling their 2012 free-agent point guard. New Orleans has aggressively moved to add veterans like Landry, Jarrett Jack and Trevor Ariza in the hope of surrounding Paul (and West) with a championship-contending core. One presumes the Hornets will try hard to keep Landry when he's a free agent this summer; owning his Bird Rights and having a solid role for him, they should have an advantage.

Sacramento Kings of Anahiem?!?! As if I needed another reason to hate Hollinger.

Kind of sounds like Reke

Fourteen-time #allstar Kevin Garnett on @boogiecousins: "When I think of DeMarcus Cousins, I think of the future." #KingsAS11

Carl Landry, who was traded last season from Houston to Sacramento, knows a deal could be coming by next Thursday since a lot of teams have interest in his talent and reasonable cap hit of $3 million. Landry would prefer to stay in Sacramento, however, he is prepared for anything.

"It's a date on everybody's calendar where it's pretty much circled," Landry told The Sacramento Bee. "Everybody wants to be a part of this team right now; everybody wants to win. And you just never know."

Landry has not talked to the Kings about a potential trade, but his agent Aaron Smith, has on a few occasions.

"It is what it is," Landry said. "If I'm here, I'm here. If I'm not, I'm not. My dream was always to play in the NBA and never for the Kings or the Bulls or the New York Knicks. Hopefully I'm here. If not, I've got to keep working."

Landry, who is set to become a free agent on July 1, is a solid backup and any team looking to strengthen their bench at power forward will probably call the Kings and make an offer for him.

-- Nick Borges

David Thorpe
As we head into the All-Star break, it seems an appropriate time to take a step back and evaluate the new talent that has entered the league in the past two seasons. No one can deny that each class, taken on its own merits, has been short on top-tier talent. But what about when we look at them combined?

When we consider that no fewer than nine different players are considered the likely faces of their team's future and another five play either pivotal or starting roles for playoff teams, we begin to see that the NBA has added plenty of strong players the last two summers.

Let's stack them up and rank them, not based on future performances or what they did last year, but strictly on how they have done so far this season.

1. Blake Griffin
2. Steph Curry
3. Dejuan Blair
4. Serge Ibaka
5. Jrue Holliday
6. Darren Collison
7. Ty Lawson
8. Wesley Matthews
9. John Wall
10. DeMarcus Cousins, Kings
He still has a lot of growing up to do, but he's the biggest beast of these two classes after Griffin. Try these numbers on for size:

He averaged 21.7 ppg and 11.5 rpg in a recent string of games against the Lakers, Celtics, Jazz, Mavs, Hornets and Thunder. That's a lot of lottery picks and All-Stars he battled against. And he made 50 of his 101 shots in that stretch, too.

11. Tyreke Evans, Kings
Evans has been on a tear lately, but there is no way to ignore his horrible start and his inability to help the Kings win. The Kings are 24-78 since Jan. 1, 2010, and only Cleveland's Mo Williams has a usage rate of 25 or more and has lost more games than Evans this season.

Evans still scores in bunches and he's a much improved defender, but among starting point guards he ranks in the bottom five in true shooting percentage and is dead last in assist rate. His talent is undeniable, but he hasn't figured out how to use it within a team concept yet.

12. Demar Derozan
13. Landry Fields
14. Greg Monroe
15. James Harden
16. Taj Gibson
17. Gary Neal
18. Brandon Jennings
19. Reggie Wiliams
20. Paul George

According to Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee, Hassan Whiteside's left knee -- which has been an issue for him this season -- has a tear of the left patellar tendon.

As such, he's set to miss two weeks, and will then be re-evaluated.

Whiteside has only appeared in one game so far this season -- the team's opener -- so his injury should have little to no effect on the Kings' frontcourt rotation.

-- Ryan Corazza

It's been long buzzed about that if Las Vegas gets a new stadium capable of housing an NBA squad, it's possible a team could eventually set up shop in Sin City.

Las Vegas currently has a proposed 40,000-seat stadium on UNLV's campus in the works that could be used for an NBA squad as well.

"It's way too early to get into any of that," said Silverton president Craig Cavileer, one company that is involved in bringing the stadium to UNLV, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "This project is not contingent on having professional sports. However, when it gets built, it will be ready for that and to add another layer to go with UNLV sports and other events."

Steve Kyler of HOOPSWORLD added this to fray Wednesday.

"With a venue of that size there is little doubt that developers have eyes on bigger fish such as the NHL or the NBA," he wrote. "League sources have long maintained there are a lot of hurdles to overcome before Vegas would be considered a viable relocation options ... The NBA has said Vegas is not an option until they have a state-of-the-art venue, and at least [Wednesday] it sounds like one is coming, so it seems almost inevitable we'll have to have the Vegas discussion again in the coming year."

So it seems until the stadium is actually a reality and possible discussions with professional teams are held, such chatter about a team landing in Vegas will remain largely speculation for now.

-- Ryan Corazza

We've previously rounded up chatter for possible Samuel Dalembert destinations, as it's been rumored he could be on the move by the trade deadline.

And as ESPN's Marc Stein reported in the Weekend Dime, the Kings are still open to moving the center, but it comes with some caveats.

Stein explains:"The Kings, sources say, are open to moving big man Dalembert during the next 27 days before the deadline, but they remain unwilling to take back anything other than expiring contracts to preserve maximum flexibility on the other side of a new collective bargaining agreement ... unless someone wants to donate a star. With Dalembert possessing an expiring contract valued at $13.4 million, it's not easy to find a match that keeps the Kings in the same cap position as they are now."

I for one would love to re-sign Dally next year for the right price, unless a trade comes through that will improve us significantly. I like his game a lot, and he seems to mesh well with all our bigs not named JT.

Yao Ming is an all-star starter again! No surprise why he is an all-star, but still is pretty funny. He is now an 8 time all-star, despite only playing more then 70 games four times. The steroid era made HR numbers forever skewed and in some cases asterisks placed by numbers. I wonder if Yao's all-star appearances will set a similar precedent when it comes to looking at how great players careers were, with all-star appearances being one of the bigger things on their resumes.

Summary:

"Either the team is moving or DeMarcus Cousins is having maturity issues or jobs on the coaching staff and the front office are reported to be in jeopardy or Evans is regressing for any number of possible reasons. What a mess of a first half.

Just when it appeared the Kings were finally gaining some traction, with Evans coming off his Rookie of the Year and a tangible commitment to defense, they are back to challenging for the worst record in the league. That's bad enough. The timing makes it worse. They need to be rallying people in the city, in hopes of finally beating long (impossible?) odds to get a new arena, not igniting more frustration."

--Scott Howard-Cooper

Cousins has been nearly unstoppable lately, and the Kings are finding success when they cener their offense around him. Against the Suns on Sunday, Cousins scored 13 of his career-high 28 points in the fourth quarter to help Sacramento rally from a 14-point deficit for the 94-89 win. On Tuesday, he nearly led the Kings back from another deficit, scoring 24 points with seven rebounds, and forced Larry Drew to bring his starters back to close out the game. In his last four games, Cousins is aveaging 22.3 points and 9.8 rebounds. "He wants to win," teammate Omri Casspi said. "That's it. He just wants to win. He is competitive; he's a great guy and a great teammate. He wants to win so bad."