These days in the NBA, many teams care only about cap space. If you can't win now, win later. And while everyone was talking last season about the fact that Tim Duncan, Grant Hill and others were heading into free agency, and some teams like Chicago and Orlando made sure they were ready, one name keeps popping up as available during the summer of 2001.

	CWebb had far and away his best NBA season, and put a big playoff scare into L.A.

And guess what, Sacramento Kings fans: You're not going to like it.

With that, we present our 23rd offseason team spotlight, the Sacramento Kings. As always, we have our opinions, which are below, but we also appreciate your comments. Click on the file to the right to see what ESPN.com users had to say about the team.

Why the Kings were 44-38: Chris Webber, the next big free agent catch we referred to, went from underachieving malcontent to NBA superstar in 1999-2000, and he took his team with him. The last time the Kings won as many as 44 games was in 1982-83, when Cotton Fitzsimmons led a group with Larry Drew, Eddie Johnson and Mike Woodson to 45 wins. That team played in Kansas City.

Webber was pretty solid when the Kings made the playoffs during the lockout season of 1998-99, but was outstanding last year. The scoring, rebounding and passing improved, the leadership showed up and Webber seemed to realize that his career was at a crossroads. Acquired from the Wizards in the third major trade of his then five-year career, the Kings figured they were merely renting Webber until his free agent year. Then all of a sudden the team got good, and he cared, even spoke of liking the city. A career 20.0 scorer, he averaged 24.5 points a game. But the most startling change came at the free throw line. People talk about Shaq improving. Check out Webber. Going from .454 from the stripe to .751 is impossible.

This isn't to say that it was just Webber who brought the Kings franchise to their first back-to-back postseasons since 1981. Punky point guard Jason Williams led a group of five others who scored in double figures and all served significant needs. Without pointing out any negatives, Williams played a capable point guard, Vlade Divac was the dependable center, Predrag Stojakovic emerged as the gunner, Nick Anderson acted as the experienced two-guard and Corliss Williamson was the good soldier at small forward.

The Kings also used standout depth with a group named the Bench Mob to run opponents down and outscore them. No, this surely wasn't an Eastern Conference team that thrived on defending, but the Kings ran up and down the court and had fun, earning them lots of TV time. And they found time to win a few and get a first-round playoff date with the Lakers, which nearly became the upset of the new century. Wonder if the next upset of the century will be Webber sticking around?

	Current projected top 6
	PG	Jason Williams
	SG	Nick Anderson
	SF	Predrag Stojakovic
	PF	Chris Webber
	C	Vlade Divac
	6th	Jon Barry

Team MVP: CWebb even got league MVP votes. Team LVP: Yes, we called Williamson a good soldier earlier, because he took a nothing contract for a season, didn't do a lot of complaining and managed to score and defend in his limited minutes. But he also went from 17.7 points three seasons ago to 13.2 to 10.3. Is it all the team concept or has his game slipped? Toronto, who will deal Doug Christie to Sactown on Sept. 29, will have to worry about it now. Surprise! We knew Webber was motivated, but the season he put together was beyond any expectations. But on the other side, we also figured his point guard playmate would wise up and play a more mature game. Check out the turnovers and field goal percentage and you decide. Up and comer: The Kings like Stojakovic a lot and envision him scoring in the high-teens pretty soon. There's little question the Yugoslav has range but ... can he defend at all? This is a poor defensive group to start with.

What they need: The Kings were the highest-scoring group in the NBA, getting 105 points a night and outdistancing the next league outfit by a point and a half. That's significant. However, only two teams gave up more (Golden State, Clippers). Scoring and ignoring defense is a great way to get yourself new fans and impress the execs at NBC and SportsCenter (24 national TV appearances, huge road attendance), but it doesn't win a ton of games. Just ask Alex English and Kiki Vandeweghe.

With CWebb a top-10 talent in the league, the Kings need to build around him. But Williams could care less about defense, and was taken to school on a night-to-night basis by everyone he faced. He became the point guard equivalent to Toni Kukoc. At shooting guard, Anderson provided decent defense, but was so horrible shooting the ball from the field (.391) and the line (.487) that it was overshadowed. (Christie is a very strong defender at shooting guard). Williamson and Stojakovic are not strong defenders. The Kings did bring some defense off the bench in Scot Pollard, Jon Barry and Tyrone Corbin, but most games were shootouts anyway.

But you also have to ask this question about Sacramento: Does it matter? Sure, every team wants to win, but the Kings were so happy to get back to the postseason and show up on TV that you wonder whether they wanted to make defense a priority. Williams, a magician who can be annoyingly inconsistent at times on offense, is very consistent on defense. He's consistently bad. He needs to slow down the track meets a bit. Darrick Martin and Tony Delk backed him up last year, but Martin is 5-11 and easy to exploit. Delk is now a Phoenix Sun, replaced at the general guard spot by former Timberwolf Bobby Jackson, who had little luck backing up Terrell Brandon at the point last year.

Stojakovic figures to have little problem picking up his offensive game, but he doesn't defend. The Kings' choice of starting him at small forward should help them score, but it might not help them win more. And the pressure on Webber and Divac up front is too big a task, really. They do a nice job in games they have to, when a Shaq comes to town (see the playoffs), but they are also fodder for guys like Michael Olowokandi to light them up.

What the plan is: There's no way to know what Webber is thinking. You figure he's turned the corner on the court, that he will continue to produce huge numbers and lead this team to a fringe playoff berth. What you don't know is whether this is it for him in the city of Sacramento. Detroit, Miami and the Knicks have all made it clear they'd like to get the guy, with other teams clearing cap space in anticipation as well. The Kings don't figure to be much better this season, if at all, and you wonder if Webber wants to deal with that long-term. All we'll say about the Kings in 2001-02 without Webber is that it won't be pretty.

On the court this season, the Kings figure to remain exciting. Williams has to start figuring out how to become a more mature player. The skills are there, as he proves with each fancy, behind-the-back pass he makes. He still takes too many chances with his passes and shoots way too much and when there's nobody inside to rebound. This isn't street ball. As an aside, Williams will miss the first five games of the season for failing to comply with his drug treatment plan.

Kings VP Geoff Petrie did make this team more versatile, getting Christie (who should start at the two-guard) for Williamson and signing Jackson. It's anyone's guess how well top draft pick Hidayet Turkoglu will adjust to being the NBA's first Turkish player.

With Pollard backing up Divac, Funderburke and second-round pick Jabari Smith behind Webber and Stojakovic and Turkoglu at the three, the Kings still lack what they desperately lacked last season: rebounding. And in the backcourt, with Christie or Anderson at shooting guard, Barry backing them up, and Williams, Martin and Jackson at the point, the Kings are going to miss a lot of shots. Anderson, Williams and Martin didn't even sniff a .400 field goal percentage last year. Christie shot .407.

If the Kings expect to earn a better playoff seed than No. 7 or 8, thus avoiding a difficult first-round matchup, they need to concentrate more on defense and less on looking good. The Kings are still a mystery in big road games. In one nationally televised road game Allen Iverson lit them up for 50 points. In what may have been the worst loss of the year, the Kings blew the No. 7 seed and rematch with beatable Utah by losing at home in overtime to sputtering Seattle. Then they beat the Lakers in Games 3 and 4 of the playoffs at home, but got blown out in all three games at Staples Center. The Kings won 14 road games all year -- the franchise's most since 1983 -- but still must play better outside the energy of Arco Arena.

Direction heading: We don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but the Kings may not be heading in the right direction. Defense remains a big concern. And thinking past that, all Webber has to do is keep talking about Detroit or New York and it's a distraction. And then he might leave. Let's say a few less wins and probably -- only probably -- a playoff berth.