Phoenix and Sacramento have a lot of things in common right now. Both are the capital cities of their states. Both are home to NBA lottery teams -- the Suns and the Kings. And both are facing the very real prospect of losing a professional franchise. The Coyotes are being run out of town by the Goldwater Institute and the Kings are being ripped from Sacramento by their greedy owners who think they can get a better TV deal in Anaheim.
For more on the Kings relocation saga, be sure to check in with Tom Ziller at Sactown Royalty who's been covering the entire affair like a polyester Snuggie. One of the ironies in the two cases is the involvement of public financing. The City of Anaheim is going to sell $75 million in bonds to bribe the Kings to move there while the City of Glendale is trying to sell $100 million in bonds to keep the Coyotes from leaving. Anyway, on to the game.
At this point in the season with 10 games left on the schedule and two teams that aren't going to be in the playoffs, minds and attention should be turning towards the future. That is one reason why Alvin Gentry made a change to his starting lineup. He wanted to "take a look at" the team with Jared Dudley and Marcin Gortat in place of Robin Lopez and Vince Carter. Carter will almost certainly never wear a Suns uniform again after this season and many feel Lopez will be traded. The future is now.
The other big question the Suns will need to explore in these remaining games is Aaron Brooks. Brooks is a restricted free agent this summer so the team will want to get a good idea of his value moving forward before making a decision on matching any contract offers he might receive.
So far as a Sun, Brooks has been inconsistent. He's shown flashes of the scoring brilliance he's known for but has struggled to run the team. The Suns could (and probably should) play him more minutes to get a better idea of what he's capable of but there's a risk that if he does play well that his value on the open market could increase.
The Suns lost to the Kings twice this season. Both of those losses made the list of games the team should regret.
The game tips at 7:00 p.m. local time on My45 and will be broadcast on Sports 620 radio. Fans can follow along during the game with other Suns fans at the live game thread at Bright Side of the Sun.