With the Raptors about to play the Kings I had the pleasure of chatting with Tom from Sactown Royalty to review the Raptors’ next opponent. His blog is one of the top basketball blogs on the ‘net and he proved why with some thorough answers to my questions on the Kings season.

1. Mike Moreau recently posted a great article on Hoopsworld where he wrote: “Kevin Martin is the fifth-leading scorer among two guards in the NBA – behind Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson, Dwayne Wade and Michael Redd. Of these five players, Kevin Martin has the highest three-point field goal percentage and the highest free throw percentage. Only Iverson makes more free throws per game, and only Iverson and Wade get to the foul line more than Kevin Martin. Kevin Martin also has the sixth-highest player efficiency rating of all NBA two guards. But, what separates Martin from all of these stars is this: Kevin Martin leads ALL starting two guards in the NBA in points per shot – which means he gets the most production out of every shot he takes. Which means, as a coach, we are running our offense through this guy. He should be getting the most minutes and the most shots, by far, of anyone on my team. If he doesn’t get a play run for him at least every third time down, then I should be fired. What also separates Kevin Martin from those stars is that he plays fewer minutes and gets fewer shots than any of these other four players. In fact, Martin plays fewer minutes and gets fewer shots per game than Vince Carter, Joe Johnson, Jamal Crawford or Jason Richardson.” What are your thoughts on this? Why doesn’t coach Theus call more plays for Martin?

I printed the Moreau column and stuck it on the fridge. It was flawless. Actually, a bit of the commentary on Theus’ ‘jealousy’ of Martin’s game was over the top. But the bare facts — Martin is an elite scorer, an amazing shooter and one of the league’s most efficient stars — are spot on and seem ignored by the coaching staff at times. Unfortunately, after the Bibby trade, Theus decided to begin running the offense through Ron Artest in the post, which is silly when you have as good a point guard as Beno Udrih and as sound a high-post passer as Brad Miller. Needless to say, Artest sat when Martin scored 48 points last week. Martin deserves called plays, but he’d be just as good as long as the ball stayed in the hands of the team’s distributors. No one works harder than Martin to get open.

2. At the trade deadline there was a lot of talk that Ron Artest may be moved but the team elected to hold into him despite being firmly in rebuilding mode. There’s been a lot of talk that Artest wants to stay in Sacramento, do you see him opting out of his contract this summer? Is he part of Sacramento’s future?

No one knows whether Artest will pick up his player option this summer — not even Artest. I think his agent is banking on the Kings wanting to sign him long-term this summer; I cannot imagine Geoff Petrie putting the franchise in that sort of danger. If Artest’s agent realizes this, he should skip the option and hit the market. Then it’s a matter of either using him in a sign-and-trade or watching him walk. Regardless, so long as Petrie has the GM job, I don’t think the team is committing long-term to Artest.

3. If you were GM of the Kings, which players currently on the roster would you build around? With a lot of cap room this summer, who are some players you’d like to see your team target during free agency?

The Kings don’t have cap space, actually; there’s the midlevel exception to sign Beno and not much else. If Artest doesn’t pick up his option, they’ll have roughly $8 million under the luxury tax beyond Beno for any trade work… but I suspect they’ll rebuild through the draft barring any major trades. Martin is obviously part of your core and they wouldn’t give up Spencer Hawes at this point. Beno, if he continues to play well in the last 18 games, seems like part of the core. Everyone else might be varying levels of fair game.

4. Beno Udrih is having a breakout season which allowed the team to deal Mike Bibby to Atlanta. Earlier this season, I believe it was Bibby’s first game back, he scored 19 points (7-12 from the field) but he had six turnovers and no dimes. Despite Bibby being a household name, is the team playing better with Udrih on the floor? What does Udrih do that Bibby wasn’t doing that results in teammates getting open looks?

This team is better under Beno than Bibby. Beno actually drives to the hoop; Bibby, as Atlanta is learning, is strictly a deep shooter and outside pick-and-roll player at this point. Beno hasn’t been the true point guard everyone claims he is — he’d rather take it himself than dish it at the rim — but he’s much more traditional than Bibby has been since 2003. That’s good for this team, especially Martin.

A big thanks goes out to Tom for taking the time to get Raptors fans ready for the game on Sunday. Make sure you head over to Sactown Royalty for a game preview and recap.