Not a lot of people remember what happened the "Latin Assassin" from Louisville went after he got drafted 23rd overall in 2005, but swingman Francisco Garcia, better known as "Cisco" now, doing good enough to talk about an extension with the Sacramento Kings, according to the Sacramento Bee. Although he averaged 12.3 PPG, 3.3 RPG and 1.6 APG, don't let the numbers fool you. In 20 starts the kid out of the Bronx averaged 16.4 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 2.6 APG, 1.7 SPG and 0.7 BPG. He doubled his scoring average from the 06-07 season and shot 46.3% from the field.
Garcia, along with the Atlanta Hawks' Al Horford, are the only Dominican players in the league. Both also play with the national team which won bronze in the Centrobasket Championship 2008 to qualify for the Tournament of the Americas.
Although he's a bench player, Cisco is known for being vocal and is seen as a leader and was the clear 6th man of the team last year. Even though he still makes some bad decisions, he's becoming a better decisonmaker in passing and shooting the ball. He can play 3 positions running the point and play swingman as well.
He's become a very good scorer with a career high 31 points at Phoenix, 30 points against the Suns at home, and tying his career high at Golden State, all starts. He also scored 29 points off the bench in Denver in a highly competive game for a Nuggets team desperately trying to make the last seed in the playoffs. Carmelo Anthony scored 47 points that night. Some of his best scoring came against 45+ win teams like the Nuggets, Mavericks, Warriors, Suns and Jazz.
Although he shoots 39.1% from beyond the arc, Cisco has come through in the clutch not once, not twice, but three times hitting the game winning trey over recognized players. The first came against the Seattle SuperSonics in their first win coming back from a 20 point deficit over Nick Collison, the second over Richard Jefferson at New Jersey in front of his family and the third over Mike Miller in the corner.
Not only has he been a solid clutch shooter, he's gained a reputation as a solid defender. In a 114-113 win over the Lakers in L.A., he defended Kobe Bryant for much of the 4th quarter. Bryant only scored 1 point that quarter while Garcia had 6 points on 3/3 shooting.
Now Garcia is looking to get paid, but as said in the Bee, the Kings are likely to let him become a restricted free agent next year because both are far from agreeing on an extension. Garcia has nearly $2.9 million if he takes the qualifying offer in 2009, but Garcia should see some Kyle Korver money, being that he outplayed Korver in every category except free throws in terms of stats.
Garcia: 12.3 PPG, 3.3 RPG, 1.6 APG, 1.2 SPG, 0.6 BPG, 46.3% FG, 39.1% 3PT
Korver: 9.9 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 1.3 APG, 0.6 SPG, 0.4 BPG, 44.3% FG, 37.5% 3PT
Korver is getting paid near $4.8 million this season and over $5 million for the next 2 years after, so Garcia should see around $5 million a year if an extension is offered. Otherwise, if he signs an offer sheet from another team like Josh Smith did with the Memphis Grizzlies, they have every right to retain his rights by matching it.
The Kings are one of the many teams hoping to land a major free agent in 2010, so they might want to try to make Garcia's contract low enough so it won't interfere with their plans. The huge contracts of Brad Miller, Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Kenny Thomas will be completely off the books.
Out of all the potential free agent shooting guards and small forwards in 2009, the only better choices other than Garcia would be Kobe Bryant (early-termination option), Allen Iverson, Ron Artest, Rip Hamilton (ETO), Shawn Marion, Jamal Crawford, Hedo Turkoglu (ETO) and Danny Granger (RFA). If an extension isn't reached by the end of October, Garcia will be one of the top restricted free agents in the NBA.
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