By Mardeio Cannon | OBSERVER Columnist

Last week Milwaukee Bucks All-NBA superstar power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo was at the podium for the post-game press conference after his team, which had the best record in the Eastern conference, lost to the eighth-seed Miami Heat. Antetokounmpo made, in my opinion, one of the most profound answers ever in responding to a reporter who asked if the season was a failure because his team didn’t advance in the playoffs. Antetokounmpo said that each team in their drive to a championship must go through a process to achieve ultimate success. If you haven’t seen his response, make sure to find it online. We all could learn from him.

Great Kings Season Needs A Great Off-Season

Your 2022-2023 Sacramento Kings just finished one of their most accomplished seasons in the Sacramento era. The “light the beam” Kings won the Pacific Division and took the reigning NBA champion Golden State Warriors to a seventh game before losing to a Steph Curry, 50-point, masterful performance.

By now the Kings players have completed all their exit interviews with the coaching staff and have departed for their hometowns or vacations. Sacramento Kings fans are excited about the prospects for the 2023-2024 version of the team. The pressure to continue this success now falls on the Kings General Manager Monte McNair (who was named NBA Executive of the Year) to make moves that improve the roster during this off-season without losing any of the Kings “key” players.

So, I took the call from McNair this week and he asked me to give him some suggestions on what moves I would suggest he make this off season to improve the Kings (not really).

#1-Even though the Kings don’t have a first-round draft choice in this year’s draft because of the Kevin Huerter trade, I would draft the best rebounder available to us in this year’s draft.

#2-Make it a priority to find a back-up center for Domantas Sabonis via trades if Neemias Queta from the Stockton Kings is not ready for major minutes.

#3-In order to get a quality starter to replace Harrison Barnes, you must decide to trade either Davion Mitchell or Keegan Murray.

#4- If the back-up center is not working out, explore the possibility of bringing in DeMarcus Cousins on a 10-day contract.

Now that Kings fans have a taste of the playoffs, with this young talented team, the Kings’ fan base want to see an improvement over this year’s team. The Sacramento Kings were very fortunate that they didn’t lose significant playing time to key players because of injuries. The injury bug can have a tremendous effect on a team’s success. Let’s hope that next year, with an improvement to the roster and no significant loss of time to key players to injuries, the Kings can improve enough to climb the ladder of success in the 2024 playoffs!