The Kings were one of the less talked teams last season, but managed to do better than the regular supporter was expecting, whose expectations were pretty low. The team managed to finish the regular season with a 38-44 record, despite several problems. Mike Bibby just started the season in January and after playing 15 games left to Atlanta. Artest missed the first 7 games of the season, due to suspension and later missed a series of 9 games. Also Kevin Martin missed 17 games in December, so looking at the record of the Kings, we can say Reggie Theus did a good job.

Now without Ron Artest, Kevin Martin will be the unquestionable franchise player of the team and the truth is that Martin has been improving season after season and if he keeps improving at the same rhythm, he will sooner or later be present on an All Star game. He averaged last season 23.7 ppg and his numbers say that he is an all around player, capable of shooting from every zone of the field: 45.6% FG, 40.2% 3pts and 86.9% FT. His ability to drive into the basket and to gain fouls, made him be the 5th player on the league last season with more FT attempts (9.5 per game). His effectiveness on that factor made him the player on the league with most FT conversions last season (8.2 per game). Without Artest, it won't be surprising if Martin manages to improve his scoring numbers to something above 25 ppg. Martin is a low profile player and maybe that's why he is so underrated, bue he shows a lot of attitude on the field. His main problem this season will be the fact that the Kings only have him as an offensive threat and his opponents will surely know that and double team him.

One of the main problems of the Kings last season was the lack of ability of passing the ball and consequently, to create good shooting opportunities. The Kings were second last on the league in terms of assists, with just 19.1 apg and first in the category nobody likes to be first: turnovers, with 15.3 TO/game! The consequence of that was obvious: they were last on the always important A/TO ratio, with 1.25!

Beno Udrih signed a new contract and he is the clear choice for the PG position. Last season, the Kings signed him from the Spurs, in order to replace Mike Bibby and he had a reasonable season, with 12.8 ppg and 4.3 apg, however having in account he had 2.28 TO/game, 4.3 apg isn't enough for a player who averaged 32 minutes per game last season. This season will be very important for Udrih, in order to show that he can be a starter in Sacramento. Let's not forget he had never been a starter before and he hasn't joined the Kings right at the start of last season.

In exchange for Ron Artest, the Kings received Bobby Jackson, who comes back to a team, where he had the best moments of his career (2001-2005), where he was clearly a fan favorite. Jackson will be Udrih's backup and he comes from a season, where he averaged 7.7 ppg and 40.3% FG, in 20 minutes per game, so I believe that he will have the same role in his new adventure in Sacramento.

The frontcourt of the Kings seems to be the weakest part of the team, not because they lack potential, but especially because they have a very strong competition in the West and it will be hard for them to get their frontcourt players to be capable to give a great immediate response. John Salmons was benefited from Artest's departure and he will be a starter this season. He had already shown on Artest's absence last season that he can be an interesting player, by averaging 21.0 points on the games Artest didn't play! On the 41 games he was a starter last season, he had very interesting numbers: 17.5 ppg, 5.4 rpg and 3.5 apg and this season he will be the second offensive option of the team, right behind Kevin Martin.

Brad Miller and Mikki Moore will be the veterans of the frontcourt and they don't seem to have the stamina they used to have, especially Miller, who was involved in another problem outside the field and he will be suspended from the first five games of the team. He averaged 13.4 ppg and 9.5 rpg last season and he may be replaced by the young talented Spencer Hawes, who was a surprise on his rookie season. When Miller got injured, Hawes averaged 12.3 ppg and 7.6 rpg and certainly he will have more opportunities this season than last season, where he just averaged 13.1 minutes per game.

Jason Thompson and Donte Green (who also came from Houston on the Artest trade) will be the rookies of the team this season and both have potential to become good players. Green impressed on the Summer League by scoring 40 points on the 1st game and being the 2nd best scorer on the whole competition. On the other side, Thompson had very interesting numbers on the four seasons he had in Rider, with 16.7 ppg, 9.6 rpg and 1.9 bpg and he will be the future of the team on the PF position.

Reggie Theus will have some young players at his disposal, in order to prepare the team for the future, as the competition in the Western conference is just too tough for the Kings to have a shot in the present. Sacramento surprised everyone last season by becoming a spoiler team in the West and once again, they can't expect more than that from this season.