What is it about the Los Angeles that the Sacramento Kings can’t shake?

Everything was going splendidly for the Kings up until this past weekend when their all-stars left Tinseltown defeated or injured and their perennial all-star awaited his suspension.

With this year’s NBA All-Star festivities taking place in Los Angeles, Kings small forward Peja Stojakovic was dethroned as 3-point champion, forward/center Brad Miller sprained his right foot late in the first half and forward Chris Webber, after being activated Monday off the injured list, is “expected to be suspended for eight games without pay for a combination of lying to a federal grand jury and violating the NBA’s substance-abuse policy,” according to the Sacramento Bee.

After such a promising start to the season, the Kings now find themselves in a precarious position.

Granted, the organization will eventually recover from Stojakovic’s surprising defeat in the 3-point contest (they really wanted another 3-point contest trophy to go along with their two Pacific Division championship banners hanging … somewhere). But the injury to Miller and the suspension of Webber makes Thursday’s NBA trading deadline no longer an afterthought for the “we’re-not-going-to-make-any-moves-that-are-going-to-disrupt-team-chemistry-Kings.”

First off, the Webber suspension was not a surprise. The team knew that once Webber was ready to come back from his knee injury that he would have to sit a minimum of five or six games for lying to a grand jury about taking money and gifts before and during his time at the University of Michigan.

I’ve heard people ask, “Why didn’t the Kings activate him earlier so the suspension could already be served?” The answer is: That would be cheating, and last time I checked the NBA looks down upon that (refer to game six of the 2002 Western Conference finals).

The new twist is the violation of the league’s substance-abuse policy. According to The Bee, “a player is not suspended for violating the drug policy until he tests positive for a banned substance for a third time or fails to comply with his aftercare treatment requirements.”

Which part of the policy Webber violated is not made public by the league, but what is made public is that when a player is suspended by the league, that player can not accompany the team during any officially sanctioned NBA or team events.

That means Webber can not practice with the Kings because of the suspension and he’ll have to get acclimated with his teammates all over again and by then there will only be about 20 games left in the regular season.

This is where the severity of Miller’s injury is such a focal point in the Kings’ decision whether or not to make a move before Thursday’s trade deadline. Tests revealed Monday that Miller suffered no tears or fractures in the foot, but there is no timetable for his return.

If he misses a few games, there is no need to make a significant deal and they might roll the dice with the trio of Tony Massenburg, Darius Songaila and Jabari Smith.

Not exactly the Rat Pack, are they?

However, if it is a substantial period of time and the team doesn’t have a predominant presence at power forward, then the Kings might have to seriously look at making a big splash in the trading game.

We’ll see Thursday.

As for the NBA’s first half, here are my mid-season awards:

MVP: Kevin Garnett. KG has been just an absolute stud and this could be the season that he leads the Timberwolves not only past the first round of the playoffs, but perhaps right into the NBA finals.

Coach of the Year: Rick Carlisle. Taking over for Isaiah Thomas has looked like child’s play for Carlisle. He’s taken the same team minus all-star Brad Miller and made them a serious threat to bring the NBA title back to the East.

Rookie of the Year: Carmelo Anthony and Lebron James. You tell me why these guys can’t share this award. ‘Melo and ‘Bron have been nothing but outstanding. David Stern is thanking them for coming out early.

6th Man of the Year: Bobby Jackson. He is hands-down the best player not in a NBA starting lineup night in and night out.

Contact Danny Pinto at [email protected]