As Tom Ziller reported earlier Tuesday, Tyreke Evans will be named the 2010 Rookie of the Year. I didn’t want to post anything involving Tom’s breaking news until I could verify it myself (not a knock on Tom… just my own paranoia about this stuff) but sources have confirmed the story from Sactown Royalty is true. A press conference for Thursday is believed to be when the news will be officially announced by the team.

(Update: Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee is also confirming the news)

While having some very serious competition throughout the season from guys like Stephen Curry and Brandon Jennings, Tyreke was the only rookie that exhibited brilliance over the course of the entire season. He showed flashes as early as the second game of the season when he went toe-to-toe with Chris Paul and left with the All-Star’s complete respect. Then he took control of the franchise as the third youngest player in the NBA from the sixth game of the season until the final game.

Over the course of this season, he took on the opposing team’s best perimeter defender every night for the entire campaign and still ended up being the fourth player in NBA history to average 20 points, five rebounds, and five assists in a rookie season. To top that off, he showed the ability to develop into an elite defender one day with his size, quickness and go-go gadget wingspan.

Congratulations to Tyreke Evans and the Sacramento Kings for having the best rookie of the 2009-2010 NBA season.

Saw this tweet from John Hollinger late Monday night/early Tuesday morning about Jamal Crawford being announced as the Sixth Man of the Year:

So perhaps this means that the Rookie of the Year award will be given out Wednesday. There aren’t too many awards left and I doubt they’d give out ROY after MVP is announced.

Of course, nobody can give you an answer or a schedule for these awards because it’s much more fun to torture people.

By the way, that reminds me: how do you keep a blogger in suspense?

Our good friend, Alex Kramers from Blogcritics got a chance to interview Scot Pollard:

In my mind, I knew going into a game that I was there to make the stars look good. I didn’t want to see Vlade (Divac) or Chris (Webber) in foul trouble, or worse, (get) injured from taking a charge or diving on the floor. My role was not to be the All-Star — my role was to do all the ugly stuff that gets your team an extra possession, extra rebound, tip in points, whatever it took.  I hit people on the other team to get Peja (Stojakovic) an open jumper, I knocked people down to give Jason Williams, Mike Bibby, Tony Delk, Bobby Jackson, Hedo Turkoglu an angle to the basket.  And I loved it.

I knew my strength in the NBA was my strength.  Why would I try to take shots that may be questionable, when I can hand the ball off to Peja, knock his guy down, or at least out of the way, and give one of the best shooters in the league a shot?  I probably could have been more offensive-minded in my career in the pros, but I was always on such good teams, I felt that I needed to be the warrior behind the scenes that makes the little things happen.

Really good stuff from Alex and Scot. Read the entire interview here.

Nice article in the Sacramento Bee about the latest development in the Kings trying to get this complicated land-swap deal done to hopefully get a brand new downtown arena like nearly EVERY OTHER BASKETBALL CITY IN THE NBA.

“At the end of the day, are we getting a state-of-the-art 21st-century exposition hall, or are we trying to put a square peg in a round hole?” Cal Expo’s Brian May asked.

While they ponder, the city takes a key step this week toward building a new sports and entertainment center in the downtown railyard.

On Tuesday, the Sacramento City Council is expected to OK an exclusive negotiating arrangement with the land-swap proposer, local developer Gerry Kamilos. Kamilos’ efforts are backed by the Kings and the National Basketball Association.

Basically, what this is coming down to is whether or not Arco Arena is state-of-the-art enough to hold the State Fair. Personally, I’ve been to the State Fair at Cal Expo, as have many of you, and I can definitely tell you that I’ve never felt like I was in some amazing place-setting for the wonder that is trying to decide between the Krispy Kreme BBQ Chicken Sandwich or my fourth deep-fried Snickers bar.

The State Fair is often way too hot for me to consider wanting to go so the idea that it would be in a climate controlled building (i.e. – air conditioning) sounds fantastic. I can actually see myself going to Arco Arena for the State Fair while I really don’t see myself ever wanting to drive to Cal Expo again just to see the latest concert from Boyz II Men or The Village People.

But that’s where this whole land-swap gets kind of complicated. How do you convince the Cal Expo people who want to make the State Fair as good and inviting as possible that they should want to move to Arco Arena when all they’ve heard is how cramped, dingy and out of date the facility is for NBA games. I’ve been to plenty of arenas in the NBA to know that the Kings are lucky to be getting by on Arco Arena now. They NEED a new arena and preferably one downtown so that this can turn into an even greater NBA city.

The fan base has always been strong and with the way the team is rebuilding it would be a shame to get Clay Bennett’d and have a rising team with a budding star get shipped away to Kansas City or Anaheim just because people in Sacramento couldn’t cooperate in building a structure suitable for a King (see what I did there?). At the same time, the economy is horrible right now and the state isn’t exactly in the financial state to start taking on billion-dollar construction projects.

It will be interesting to see how the politics and business side of these proceedings develop over the next couple of months.

With Awards Season coming this week (Dwight Howard won DPOY today) and throughout, the TrueHoop Network thought it would be a fun idea to vote on the same awards and see how the network gauged the 2009-2010 regular season.

You can see the winners here on TrueHoop. Big ups to Dan Feldman of Pistons Powered for getting this together.

Here is how I voted:

MVP
1. LeBron James
2. Kevin Durant
3. Kobe Bryant
4. Dwight Howard
5. Dwyane Wade

Explanation: Pretty self-explanatory for why LeBron is number one here. I picked Durant over the rest for second because Dwight Howard wasn’t good enough offensively the first two months, Kobe was bad the last month or two and Dwyane Wade just wasn’t as spectacular in my opinion.

ROY
1. Tyreke Evans (Who was damn near unanimous)
2. Stephen Curry
3. Brandon Jennings

Explanation: Unlike some pundits and team fans, I’ve been watching the ENTIRE season. It’s still a season long award, right?

COY
1. Nate McMillan
2. Scott Brooks
3. Scott Skiles

Explanation: Nate McMillan had more than 300 games missed to injury, had to play Juwan Howard way too much and still won 50 games in the West. Hard to go against him even with how great the turnarounds were in OKC and Milwaukee.

DPOY
1. Josh Smith
2. Dwight Howard
3. Andrew Bogut

Explanation: The reason I didn’t pick Dwight is because Josh Smith is not only a game-changer around the basket but he’s also a pretty good perimeter defender. I understand the argument for Howard and don’t disagree with it per se but for me, I’ll take the more versatile defender.

MIP
1. Kevin Durant
2. Joakim Noah
3. Russell Westbrook

Explanation: Durant went from a really good player to being an offensive apocalypse. I don’t really see how this one could even be close.

Sixth Man
1. Jamal Crawford
2. Anderson Varejao
3. Jason Terry

Explanation: I love what Anderson Varejao does for his team but I think Jamal Crawford has done a better job of getting his team to the next level. Is Jamal the better player? Probably not when you factor in defense. But Jamal has made a bigger impact off the bench.

Executive of the Year
1. John Hammond, Milwaukee
2. Sam Presti, OKC
3. Daryl Morey, Houston

Explanation: Every player on this team has been brought in to fill a specific role. It’s pretty incredible that all of these moves have worked out as well as they have. John Hammond has turned a bad team into a dangerous playoff team (well, before Andrew Bogut turned his arm into a wet noodle).

All NBA 1st Team
G: Dwyane Wade
G: Kobe Bryant
F: LeBron James
F: Kevin Durant
C: Dwight Howard

All NBA 2nd Team
G: Steve Nash
G: Deron Williams
F: Carmelo Anthony
F: Dirk Nowitzki
C: Andrew Bogut

All NBA 3rd Team
G: Rajon Rondo
G: Brandon Roy
F: Josh Smith
F: Chris Bosh
C: Tim Duncan

All Defensive 1st Team
G: Rajon Rondo
G: Thabo Sefolosha
F: Gerald Wallace
F: Josh Smith
C: Dwight Howard

All Defensive 2nd Team
G:Dwyane Wade
G: Nicolas Batum
F: Luc Richard Mbah a Moute
F: Anderson Varejao
C: Andrew Bogut

All Rookie 1st Team
Tyreke Evans
Stephen Curry
Brandon Jennings
Jonas Jerebko
DeJuan Blair

All Rookie 2nd Team
Darren Collison
Marcus Thornton
Ty Lawson
Wesley Matthews
James Harden

This gives the Kings roughly $20 million to spend on free agency or in contractually lop-sided trades this summer as opposed to the original $17 million that was expected.

So the Kings can either go out and get more players with this or throw us all a really huge block party. I’m available after June.

UPDATE: We have a winner! Buck Nasty’s name was selected at random and will now have a brand new copy of Stumbling On Wins by Dave Berri and Michael Schmidt. Here are the answers:

Question 1: C. Ron Artest
Question 2: D. Jamal Sampson
Question 3: A. Peja Stojakovic
Question 4: D. Brian Grant

We will have another contest next week to give you another shot at winning a copy of the book.

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As a blog gets more notoriety, you start to get asked about pushing products for random companies that have just started up and are looking for exposure. The ironic thing is that you’re probably not anymore well known than they are but you try to luck into some cross-promotion in the hopes that both sides will see a significant boost in traffic.

But occasionally, you get the opportunity to go out and review something that you feel lucky to promote. Some of you may know David Berri and Martin Schmidt from the Wages of Win Journal. It’s a part of my Google Reader and something that I feel makes me a smarter basketball fan every time I read it. With the way advanced statistics have helped us understand sports so much more, it almost seems detrimental to your sports knowledge if you’re not attempting to get more in-depth with the statistical world.

Well, David Berri and Martin B. Schmidt have written a second book (First one can be found here – The Wages Of Wins) and I have the pleasure of reviewing it. Stumbling On Wins is a fantastic read and I’ll have a review of it later on this week. You can go buy it here right now and I recommend that you do. However, we are running a contest along with the promotion of this book and you will get a chance to win yourself a copy.

Contest Rules

It’s pretty simple. There are questions below that you’ll have to answer and for those of you who answer the questions correctly, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a free copy of the book. If you get half of the questions correctly, you’ll get an additional entry for the contest. If you get all of the questions correct, you’ll get another two entries into the drawing. All in all, you can have up to four entries off of answering the questions correctly.

You can submit the answers in the comments below or by email (send it to zharper@cowbellkingdom[dot]com). The contest will run until Thursday morning at 10am PST. Then I will compile all of the entries and announce a winner. It won’t be the only opportunity you get to win a book either. We’ll be holding more contests for the book.

Also, FT Press (who published the book) would also like to let you know that people who do not win these contests can still get a reward.  When you purchase Stumbling on Wins from 4/12 – 4/18, you’re entitled to access to a free bonus article – more than 2,000 words in length — on the NBA Draft.  Simply forward a copy of your dated receipt to StumblingonWins@Gmail.com.  A PDF version of the article will be forwarded to your inbox.  You can purchase the book at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Borders, and FT PRess.

Without further ado, here are the four multiple choice questions to answer:

Question 1: The Kings haven’t won 50 games in a season since the 2004-05 campaign. Since that time, wins have been pretty difficult to come by. According to the Win Shares stat, Kevin Martin and Brad Miller have been the most productive players for the Kings since their last 50-win season. Who is third?

A: Beno Udrih

B: John Salmons

C: Ron Artest

D: Mike Bibby

Question 2: In the same time frame (2005-06 season to present day), who has had the highest cumulative Win Shares Per 48 Minutes?

A: Brad Miller

B: Carl Landry

C: Ike Diogu

D: Jamal Sampson

Question 3: In the past 10 seasons, the Kings have had six players play at least 10,000 total minutes with a PER (Player Efficiency Rating) over 10.0. Chris Webber has the highest cumulative PER of the six. Who is second?

A: Peja Stojakovic

B: Kevin Martin

C: Doug Christie

D: Brad Miller

E: Mike Bibby

Question 4: Since the Kings franchise has come to Sacramento, there have been 19 Kings rookies to play at least 1,000 minutes in their first season and accumulate a PER over 10.0. Tyreke Evans has the best of the bunch with an 18.3 PER. Who has the second highest?

A: Walt Williams

B: Jason Williams

C: Lionel Simmons

D: Brian Grant

E: Peja Stojakovic

April 14^th has been dubbed “Unsung Player Day” across the internet thanks to our friend Don from the With Malice blog.

It’s pretty self-explanatory too. There’s a lot of coverage given to LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Kevin Durant, Dwyane Wade and others around the league. And it’s deserving too. Those are the stars of the NBA. But there are plenty of players who do quite a bit and hardly ever get recognized.

I decided to nominate Donté Greene for this site’s Unsung Player post. Normally, we’re supposed to nominate guys that don’t play more than 10 minutes per game but still find a way to contribute to the greatness of this league. I could have easily just gone and picked Jon Brockman to be the Unsung Player because he fits into this criteria more than Greene. But I want to bend the rules quite a bit and recognize a guy that matured from his rookie season to his sophomore season in a way that few expected. Donté Greene has made such a huge change in just one season that I feel he needs to be recognized. I know it’s outside of the guidelines but for the Kings, I felt Donté was the only choice.

Donté Greene was an intriguing prospect out of Syracuse. He’s built in that Tim Thomas frame of a tall, lanky shooter who is extremely athletic and capable of doing anything he wants on the court. But luckily for Donté he has a much better attitude and self-awareness about the game of basketball and where he fits in than Tim Thomas ever did.

After nearly setting the Las Vegas Summer League on fire with a 40-point game for the Houston Rockets, he was eventually traded here to the Kings for Ron Artest. There were other pieces to the deal involved but none as important as Donté. When he got here, he had to deal with a coach on his way out who had no business being in charge and then an assistant coach who was completely overmatched and had no business being in charge. Lost in all of that chaos was a wasted rookie season for Greene.

He looked completely lost on both ends of the floor and looked to be either a bust of a first round pick or a reclamation project that would be far more work than production yielded.

However, this season was a huge sign that neither of those seemingly worst-case scenarios were going to be true. The Show (as Sactown Royalty has properly dubbed him) came to this team and its new regime ready to play and ready to earn whatever came his way. In his rookie season, we saw an unsure shooter that didn’t know when to let it fly or when to move the ball. That wasn’t a problem in year two of his career. He was confident in his jumper and proved to be able to swing a game with timely shots.

But most importantly for Donté was the way he earned his way onto the court and into the starting lineup – with his defense. He didn’t seem like he was capable of being a competent defender during his rookie season. So he dedicated himself to the defensive side of the ball in the off-season and learned how to use his athletic ability and quickness to slow the game down. Now? He’s often guarding the best wing scorer on the opposing team.

That doesn’t just happen in one year for most guys and for some guys, it never happens. It showed maturity in a young player. It showed that some guys are willing to work for their success in this league even after they’ve made it with a guaranteed contract. He improved nearly every aspect of his game but made sure to improve the one that gets the least publicity or reward – defense.

Now Donté looks like he can be an elite defender in this league along with a timely shooter and a regular starter. He still has a lot of improvements to make across his skill set but he proved in a short time that he’s willing to work at it.

That’s why he’s Cowbell Kingdom’s Unsung Player today.

What a strange way to end the season.

Not a whole lot to say with the last game of the 2009-2010 campaign for the Sacramento Kings. The Lakers were without their star player and the Kings might as well not have suited up their star player either. It was pretty competitive for most of the game. At a certain point in the third quarter, it looked like the Lakers would decide this didn’t need to be a game anymore. People stepped up for them that simply aren’t good or consistent NBA players. There were encouraging signs from certain Kings players and other guys just finished out on a frustrating note.

The Kings kept fighting though as they have all season long. A lot of teams, especially young teams, would not have fought through this game and tried to win it at the end. They would have rolled over, been blown out by 20+, and happily started their vacation a couple hours early. But this Kings team tried to get one more victory and that’s what you can take from a game and a season like this. The Kings are no longer pushovers.

They’re fighters and competitors. You saw it with the Blazers a couple years ago when they were rebuilding. You saw it with the Thunder last year before they made their leap this year. There is a difference between being a 25-win team who was a laughing stock all season long (Warriors) and being a 25-win team who people were worried about losing to all season.

And with that, on to some final game bullets for the season. Several things happened in this game that just aren’t the norm. There were also several good things to note with this final Kings performance.

- Jason Freaking Thompson. Have yourself a game, sir. I got to talk to Jason Thompson briefly after the Kings final home game on Monday night and I walked away amazed at how focused he was at the end of a frustrating season. He’s been through a lot personally and physically. But here he was matching Pau Gasol for most of this game. He finished with 19 points, 16 rebounds, five assists and two steals in 44 minutes of play. He was simply everywhere.

I think JT can be an All-Star in this league. The things I saw from him in the first couple months of the season and the way I’ve seen him overcome adversity and a big slump through the middle of this season shows me that he’s just scratching the surface of how good he can be. With the way he can compete on the boards, I wouldn’t be entirely shocked for him to approach Top 5 in rebounding next year.

- I love that Beno Udrih finished with the game he did. He poured in 21 points, 11 assists and didn’t commit a single turnover. He was killer from the mid-range as he always is. He made a huge three to make this game a lot closer than the Lakers wanted it to be late in the game. He also carved up the defense with his passing all game long. He won’t end up getting it but I think it’s safe to say that Beno Udrih has to be among the most improved players in the NBA this year.

- I didn’t know it was Simon Phoenix Night at Staples Center.

It’s an interesting look for the two guys. Thankfully the Kings don’t employ anybody named John Spartan:

(Careful. There is a little language in the video)

- Let’s get to Tyreke’s ejection from this game. We finally saw a frustrated Tyreke Evans and how it can backfire being an expressive rookie in this league. He was in early foul trouble that probably started the frustration. He was on his way to having a nice game as he carved up whatever Shannon Brown was trying to do out there defensively. Then when he came back into the game to start the third quarter, he clearly didn’t agree with the officiating.

Referee Derek Richardson was too kind of the treatment he got from Tyreke after the third play in the early part of the third in which Tyreke thought he was fouled. It looked like he had a pretty decent case (especially the play in which Ron Artest fouled him) but at the same time, you can’t mouth off as a rookie. He clearly said some magic words to get him kicked from the game. It’s not the way anybody expected him to finish such a historic rookie season. I did enjoy this quote from Paul Westphal after the game:

“I thought he could have got by with one technical and the world would keep spinning just fine,” Kings coach Paul Westphal said.

- It was also good to see Francisco Garcia end an injury-filled season with a very nice offensive game off the bench. He did a little bit of everything. Most of his 15 points came in the first half but he did have a couple of big buckets in the fourth quarter to help the Kings almost pull off another nice comeback.

- Overall, it was another road loss for the Kings. They had a rough year away from Arco Arena. In this instance, they lost a game because Shannon Brown and Sasha Vujacic were inexplicably good. Those two are usually some of the worst players on the court. It just happened to be their night.

The ESPN analysts have voted for their choice on Rookie of the Year and Tyreke Evans got a whopping 14 out of 20 votes for the award.