While the Sacramento Kings didn’t use Cole Aldrich extensively last season, they are still saving one last roster spot for him in order to fill the need of a backup center, while the New York Knicks are waiting for developments, wanting to use him in the same way.
Aldrich has been working out for the Sacramento Kings according to Jonathan Santiago and James Ham of Cowbell Kingdom, even though they pretty much know what they’re going to get from him after seeing him in action last season.
Aldrich was traded to the Kings from the Houston Rockets, averaging 11.7 minutes a night on 15 games for his new team, averaging 3.3 points and 4.2 rebounds per game. Besides giving some backup time to DeMarcus Cousins, who is going to spend 36-37 minutes a night on the court anyway, there isn’t a lot Aldrich can do, especially on offense where he’s a very limited player.
The Knicks seem to be interested in some way or another in almost every player still available, even after already adding Beno Udrih to be their fifth guard on the team. Last season was filled with injuries to their big men (probably because they loaded the frontcourt with players on the verge of retirement), and the Knicks want to have as much as insurance as possible on the bench.
Aldrich, 24, has been in the league for three seasons and has already played on three different teams. He was barely used as a rookie and “sophomore” by the Oklahoma City Thunder, before being inlcuded in the trade that involved Kevin Martin and James Harden between the Thunder and the Rockets.
He played only 30 games for the Rockets before getting shipped off once again, this time to the Sacramento Kings, where he hopes he’ll find a team that actually wants to keep him for a second straight season, as he hopes not to become another player in the long list of NBA Draft busts, having been a first round, 11th overall pick in 2010.