So what was that all about? Right. Like we don't know.

Wednesday's salary dump – and that's a nice way of saying the Kings will be all over the NBA lottery this summer like a cheap purple suit – was all about losing games, losing money, trying to survive, starting over.

That makes some sense. Stocks and savings accounts are looking pretty grim right now. And since the Kings tumbled into the league's cellar with highly compensated veterans Brad Miller and John Salmons, it seems reasonable to assume they'll do fine without them.

So I'm cool with the concept of change. I'm also down with the notion of creating salary cap flexibility, avoiding the luxury tax, adjusting the attitude and, after years of functioning in the throes of a post-Webber-Divac-Christie-Bibby-Peja depression, plunging into recovery.

"We're still not down far enough to do major stuff," Kings basketball president Geoff Petrie said Wednesday, "but we're going to have three draft picks this summer. The potential to eliminate salary for next year is there as well."

Nonetheless, for Petrie's subtraction-by-subtraction maneuvering to be perceived as something more than tossing hefty contracts into the paper shredder – for Kings fans to buy into the deal, in other words – two things have to happen: (1) Ticket prices have to reflect the quality of the product, which means additional discounts should be offered for the duration of the season and season-ticket scales re-evaluated for next year; and (2) Petrie and Kings co-owners Joe and Gavin Maloof have to initiate a campaign and reassure the public that today's savings will be reinvested in tomorrow's team – in Sacramento.

Promise to turn those savings into gold. Swear that this is the same approach undertaken during the Kings' previous downturn, when Petrie stripped the roster to its skivvies, created cap space and opportunity, and with a series of uncanny moves and acquisitions, transformed the Kings into contenders. He traded for Webber. He signed first-round draft picks Jason Williams and Peja Stojakovic.

He convinced free agent Vlade Divac to take a chance on a mostly doormat of a franchise. He introduced former owner Jim Thomas to Rick Adelman.

It happens. It begins, it ends.

What matters is what happens next.

Ongoing speculation about the Maloofs' financial situation, coupled with the unresolved arena issue and Joe Maloof's health problems, has frayed nerves inside the organization and heightened uncertainty about the team's future within the community.

Highly placed Kings sources project the franchise to lose between $25 million and $28 million before Wednesday's moves. And, as always, the Maloofs have plenty of friends. Their fellow owners in Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Memphis, Minneapolis, Charlotte, New Orleans and even large-market Phoenix reportedly are being pummeled by the economy as well.

Reacting to the league's fiscal concerns during All-Star Weekend, NBA Commissioner David Stern and Players Association executive director Billy Hunter broached the possibility of reopening and revising the collective bargaining agreement before it expires in 2011.

"It's not necessarily a crisis," said Petrie, "but it's a fact of life."

The NHL. Major League Baseball. Not even the NFL – long the Mercedes of professional sports – is immune. Cuts, cuts, cuts, everywhere. Survival, this is about survival.

But who knows? If Andres Nocioni and Drew Gooden provide a physical presence, and the Kings play faster (without a poorly conditioned Miller) and more unselfishly (without Salmons and his tendency to dominate the ball), the product might be more entertaining in the short term. Might be encouraging enough to pack the building and get past the gloom-and-doom days.

But there has to be a promise of tomorrow, of another run with the Lakers and the Suns and the Mavericks. There has to be reason to believe one of the NBA's most cherished small-market franchises can find its way back. Wednesday's moves have to represent a new beginning.

Call The Bee's Ailene Voisin, (916) 321-1208.