Check out this little video of Reke and McGee working out with trainer Rob McClanaghan (via Dime Mag):
I don’t know if it’s just the extra medium workout shirt Tyreke has on but he looks HUGE. He’s definitely added some muscle to his frame this off-season. I’ll have more on that this week but I feel bad for the point guards in the NBA for now.
I must preface this discussion with my distaste for the style and quality typically associated with this particular author’s work but the highlighted portion holds two important points worth reiterating that bring us back to yesterday’s post:
Camelo and the Kings?
“If and when the Denver Nuggets commit to a sign-and-trade for Carmelo Anthony, the Kings will thrust themselves into the conversation. Count on it. The Nuggets have offered their all-Star small forward a three-year, $65 million extension, but his intentions are unclear. Is he serious about wanting out? Or just posturing for a sweeter deal? Regardless, the Nuggets front office upheaval doesn’t help matters. New GM Masai Ujiri is walking into a mess, and the last thing a new executive wants to do is trade his franchise player, and probably for lesser parts. That said, Joe and Gavin Maloof have been consistent about two things: (1) They are not interested in adding role players to eat up the salary cap space they’ve finally created; and (2) They are absolutely interested in a game-changer type of player, someone who puts fannies in the seats and affects the won-loss percentage, e.g., a Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony. You can be assured inquiries have been made and discussions will be ongoing.”
According to NBA writer and analyst Sam Amico’s Twitter page:
Early word around NBA is Nuggets will try to trade Carmelo to 1 of 3 teams: Wolves, Kings, Nets. In other words, careful what you wish for.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports via twitter:
Sacramento’s Tyreke Evans has been suspended one game for pleading no contest to reckless driving in California.
This really shouldn’t surprise anybody. If it was a normal speeding violation there would be no problem. But getting into trouble like this in a reckless way is going to draw the attention of the league office.
Luckily for the Kings, they shouldn’t need him to beat the Wolves on opening night.
It’s no secret that the Sacramento Kings have fallen on hard times. There was a moment- May 8, 2003. That is the moment where the Kings went from title contenders to something different. As Chris Webber lay writhing on the floor, grasping at his knee, a door closed but nobody heard it. For the last half decade, the Kings have tried everything to remain relevant but Humpty no longer sat on the wall.
This came from Reke’s Twitter account:
The form looks so much better than it did last season. He’s not bringing the ball behind his head and his shooting arm looks to be a lot more straight up and down.
I’d like to see his form when he’s shooting off the dribble to see if it stays true to what we see here. But in terms of sheer structure of his jumper, this is a big step forward in making him a complete offensive force. Keep working, Reke.
The Boost Mobile Elite 24 is a nice little get together for all of the best high school talent in the country. This year, some pros showed up to take on the youngsters and Tyreke Evans was one of those pro players. His team was comprised of himself, Brandon Jennings, DeMar DeRozan, Bobby Brown and John Wall.
Check out this video of some of the highlights. Tyreke has a few moves (including a much better looking jumper) at the 23-second, 1:06, 1:39 marks:
(H/T: Southern Distinguished Gentleman Kyle Weidie)
NBA FanHouse is reporting the Denver Nuggets are looking to trade JR Smith and since the Kings need shooting guard depth and a shooter to put around Tyreke Evans, does it make sense for the Kings to go after him?
Let’s take a look after the jump.
Read more…
Basketball cyborg Kelly Dwyer is ranking all of the positions in the NBA from 30 down to the best (a.k.a. – #1). He opted not to put Tyreke with the point guards and instead threw him in with the shooting guards:
7. Tyreke Evans, Sacramento Kings (last year: unranked)
Tyreke handles the ball a ton for the Kings, but he also lines up in the starting five alongside Beno Udrih. And unless you want to start calling the 5-11 Udrih a shooting guard, Evans gets the call as a ball-dominating off guard.
There’s a little bit more than just the analysis there so click the link. And in reading deeper into the rankings, there really isn’t a 6th best shooting guard do to an issue KD had of ordering the lists and moving Andre Iguodala to the small forward list. So really, Evans is the 6th best shooting guard in the NBA according to Dwyer.
Now when I looked at his 1-30 point guard rankings and didn’t see Tyreke there (also didn’t see Beno there and Ziller handled that perfectly), I had the same reaction that most Kings fans probably had: Why won’t anybody give this guy credit as a point guard? I get Dwyer’s reasoning too. He didn’t want to call Beno Udrih a 5’11″ shooting guard even though that’s what he was for the majority of the second half of the season. 82games.com’s distribution of Beno’s minutes by position support KD but I tend to think that they just look at the lineup on the floor as opposed to what happened in those lineups.
I still believe Tyreke is a point guard. I saw too much play-making from him and too much running of the offense. You can throw the Dwyane Wade and LeBron James comparison’s out there (just in the way they dominate the ball without being points, not in terms of ability) but I don’t really buy them. Whether it was good or stagnant, Tyreke ran this team. A lot of the time Beno was on the court with him, Beno played off the ball. He was more of a spot-up shooter unless things broke down and he had to run a quick pick-and-roll at the end of the shot clock. To me, Beno was a shooting guard last year.
Does that mean I think Tyreke will be a point guard his entire career? No. I think it will depend on whether or not the Kings can get a good shooting guard or a good point guard to put next to him for the next decade-plus. And that’s sort of the beauty of Tyreke (assuming he can continue to develop and take his talents and skills more into the flow of the offense as opposed to just dominating a one-on-one situation) and what he can bring to the Kings’ future. He gives you so much versatility.
I don’t want people to flame KD here and say he doesn’t know what he’s talking about with Tyreke. The point of this should be more about looking at where Tyreke stands in the league in terms of individual talent with just one season under his belt. One of the best basketball analysts you’ll ever read (Dwyer) puts Tyreke ahead of everybody on this list other than Manu Ginobili, Joe Johnson, Brandon Roy, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade. That’s damn impressive company to be in.
