The Sacramento Temps

Before I say anything, this is totally off topic: How long until Bikini Girl from American Idol is on the cover of Playboy? I'm going with the May issue. You heard it here first.

One bright spot about following the worst team (yeah, I said it) in the league is that we constantly get to read articles about potential trade rumors for the Kings.

When it comes to trades, I'm assuming that everyone except for Kevin Martin is available. Obviously, some players are more likely to go than others. We aren't giving up JT for Joe Smith's expiring contract.

But lets explore two types of trades that the Kings could explore. The first is the more likely, the salary dump. Trading Brad Miller for Shawn Marion would essentially be done to free up more cap space at the end of this season. The same goes for any trade wtih John Salmons and Beno Udrih.

That's all fine and dandy. We all get the logic behind freeing up cap space, especially if your current team is a dud. The major problem with this theory is that it comes with a huge question mark. Just because the Kings have cap space, does than necessarily mean that top players will sign in Sacramento? Do you really think the Kings can compete with the Knicks for Chris Bosh?

Now there is a second, less likely trade option.

What if the Kings traded for a star? Ziller just wrote about the pros of trading for Amare Stoudemire. I don't need to go over all the points again. But there is one really important point that he didn't talk about.

If the Kings were to get Amare now, the question mark would be gone. He is on the team. End of story.

There are risks of course. We would probably have to include Hawes or Thompson in the deal. Also, he could walk in 2010.

But that's a risk I'm willing to take. Because if he is a King, in the summer of 2010, we would have the inside edge at resigning him, something that would never happen if he were coming from another team.

Remember, even if we also give up the Rockets 1st rounder, we would still have a Top 5 pick in this year's draft, plus a slew of other young players.

Once again, probably not gonna happen. But if it did, Petrie has my support.