The future for the Sacramento Kings looked so promising just seven months ago. They had finally found a head coach who could coexist with DeMarcus Cousins in Mike Malone and they started out the season hot, going 5-1. The Kings were 9-6 with Cousins and looked like they could be a contender for a playoff spot. Then Cousins went down, and it all fell apart.

The Kings lost seven of nine, with their record slipping to 11-13, and Malone was fired for reasons that had nothing to do with basketball. The abrupt decision proved management and ownership didn’t want Malone there anymore. It proved they didn’t have a clue what they were doing. How can an organization succeed when it is run this way? Vivek Ranadivé became the owner of the Kings in 2013 and has had his tyrannical hand on their slowly dying pulse ever since. Free agency was no different.

When reports came out that the Kings were interested in Rajon Rondo nobody was surprised. The most dysfunctional player in the NBA going to the most dysfunctional team, and playing for a coach who has a reputation for butting heads with his players? There could be a fist fight on the sidelines. The only positive thing you can say about the signing is that at least they only had to give him one year. Apparently no other team was even interested in Rondo, not even the Lakers wanted anything to do with him after his nightmarish performance in Dallas. You have to wonder what the Kings could possibly be thinking about this from a basketball standpoint. This is a guy who is lazy and takes plays off. He publicly admits that he takes plays off. His horrific free throw shooting is record setting. He’s not even a name anymore. No one is buying tickets to see him play, yet they thought he was worth $10 million. They overpaid on a one-year contract to a player who garnered no interest from any other team. That became a trend.

Marco Belinelli was an average player until he blossomed into one of the best spot-up shooters in the league with the San Antonio Spurs. He’s a good pickup for a lot of teams, but not for the Kings and not for three years and $19 million. He will be 30 years old next season, and committing three seasons on the payroll is foolish because the Kings need to get younger as they are in no position to win in the loaded Western Conference. Not to mention it is a classic case of a team having to overpay to get a player to move to a bad situation.

Kosta Koufos has long been mentioned as a player who will one day have a breakout season when he left the Memphis Grizzlies. In another case of the overpay, Sacramento gave the perpetual backup to the two star big men in Memphis, Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol, his chance. Of course, Koufos jumped on the four-year, $33 million offer. That means the Kings spent the most money this offseason on Cousins’ backup. Koufos did a great job spelling Randolph and Gasol in Memphis, becoming one of the best defensive big men in the league. Like Belinelli, however, he just wasn’t the right signing for the Kings. They just drafted a center in the first round, Willie Cauley-Stein. There are innumerable questions surrounding this choice. You can’t commit that kind of money to a backup at your strongest roster spot; that’s why Memphis let him leave. In fact, it makes no sense unless they plan on trading Cousins and blowing the team up. That could happen. Who knows with this team? They brought in well-respected locker room guy Caron Butler on a two-year deal, which was obviously a move to try and help morale because his play has regressed significantly at the age of 35. That may have been the best move they made.

It’s impossible to tell what the Kings’ plan is after free agency. Are they trying to win this year? Are they rebuilding? If they are rebuilding, will they do it with or without Cousins? If I was Cousins, I’d hope for the latter.

Grade: F

Chipper Murphy is a Beat Writer for the New York Knicks on www.Rantsports.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChipperMurphy, “Like” him on Facebook.