We kick off our Monday Mail Sac (which is much better than getting kicked in the Mail Sac) with Napa Jack from Wisconsin: "Do you think P-Patt is on the opening day roster?"
Unless the Kings can obtain a shot altering big via trade, I think that Patterson is on the opening day roster and perhaps starting alongside DeMarcus Cousins.
Last week I projected a starting lineup of Cousins, Patterson, Mbah a Moute, Thornton and Vasquez. I think that Patterson makes the most sense of any of the Kings bigs in this lineup. Patterson spreads the floor better than Landry or Thompson or Hayes. Thompson will be needed to log minutes behind Cousins. Thompson works better off the bench with Landry than Patterson would.
There are no free agent bigs right now that would crack the current top four, and perhaps not even the top five. Cole Aldrich is the best free agent big out there right now. In some specific instances he might be better than Chuck Hayes, but overall he is not in the same league with Patterson, Thompson and Landry. This explains in part why he is still currently a free agent. So the Kings are not going to sign a big that is suddenly going to find himself starting next to Cousins.
Now, if the Kings go with Cousins and Thompson in the starting lineup, I could see Patterson as being very challenged to find minutes behind them and Landry. And a starting lineup of Cousins and Patterson could potentially cause some defensive challenges for the Kings up front. But in my little pea head it just seems that Patterson is the best fit for what I see as the Kings opening night starting lineup.
From cuse12: "From what you guys at STR know, will the Kings sellout every home game next year or average around 15-16k a night?"
Well, we know that the team leads the NBA in new season ticket sales. We also know that thanks to the old owners, season ticket sales really had nowhere to go but up.
I would be very surprised if the team logged 17,314 fans for each and every home game this year, but I wouldn't bet against the voraciousness of new ownership's ticket sales team. I'm going to bet that we are going to see a lot of different partial season ticket packages being offered, as well as a lot of 4-6 pack game packages and single game drives. We will probably see a concerted effort towards group packages as well. I'm going to guess (and it is a guess) that the team will average around 16.5k fans per game, with as many as half the games being at or near sellout capacity.
And a very interesting observation and question from polotown: "So, earlier this summer, Vivek and Malone visited DMC at his home. They brought along Ulysses "Junior" Bridgeman, former Cardinal and Buck, who is a Louisville businessman and local icon. I thought that was cool that Junior was identified as a friend of Vivek's (FOV?), but didn't think much more of it. But a few days ago, Aileen Voison writes about Vegas:
‘Several of the Kings owners/officials met with DeMarcus Cousins for a late dinner. The timing was pushed back because the fourth-year center had an early-evening commitment with the national team. The contingent included majority partners Mark Mastrov and Junior Bridgeman, Pete D'Alessandro and Chris Mullin, among others.'
Is Junior an owner? I would love for there to be another Louisville connection.
I have not seen Bridgeman's name mentioned prior to this, but it would be great to have him in the fold. Bridgeman owns 160 Wendy's restaurants and 120 Chili's restaurants and has a reported net worth of over $240m. All of this after being drafted out of Louisville by the Lakers and was immediately traded along with several other players for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Bridgeman scored over 11,500 points during his 12 year NBA career.
I have not been able to find anything linking Bridgeman to the Kings. Aside from his nearly 24 dozen restaurants, Bridgeman is a member of the following Boards of Directors: Churchill Downs, Fifth Third Bank, the West End School, the PGA Foundation and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. He is past chairman of the board of trustees for the University of Louisville.
What-a-stud!
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Pick & Droll: Pets. Are you a dog person, a cat person, something else, nothing at all?
With apologies to daughter214, who is my early pick for crazy cat lady of the next generation, I'm a dog guy. My first dog was a Wire Hair Terrier (she was actually a family member two years before I showed up), and she was my favorite until the Beagle sisters that joined our family almost nine years ago. I'm a sucker for unconditional love and a big wet kiss. I'm a big fan of Labs, too. I have an agreement with most cats - I don't make trouble for them and they don't make trouble for me.
Pick & Droll #2: A "bandwagon" piece that I did almost four years ago. I hope that you enjoy it.
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Send your questions and topic ideas to asksactownroyalty@gmail.com. The thread is now open for your jacking.