Fall from Royalty, Part Two: The decline of the Sacramento Kings, 2005-2006

By the 2000-1 season, Geoff Petrie had assembled a championship quality team from the ground up and turned water into wine in the Sacramento Valley.  For the next four seasons, the Kings played in the Western Conference semi-finals or finals and won at least 55 games a year.  So. What has King Geoff done lately?  How has the 2002-3 team, which returned 11 players, evolved into the current roster following the Bibby deal?  In this two part article, I will go through the major deals, ignoring the Rodney Bufords and Ronny Prices of the world. Part one described five key moves throught the 2005 deadline deal of Chris Webber.  Now on to part two... Step 6: Draft Francisco Garcia (summer 2005) Following the Webber deal, the Kings went 16-12 the rest of the 04-05 season but got blown away 4-1 in the first round of the playoffs by Ray Allen and the third-seeded Sonics.  The loss marked the end of a four-year streak of reaching the semi finals and was a signal ... [link]