If you’re reading this post, I’m assuming you’re a Kings fan. Otherwise, why else would you be reading a Sacramento Kings blog unless you’re just trying to be supportive of my writing career?

Assuming you are a Kings fan — do you remember back in March and April when you were constantly arguing with Milwaukee Bucks fans, Golden State Warriors fans and to a truly ludicrous extent New Orleans Hornets fans? The argument was about who should be the 2010 Rookie of the Year.

Brandon Jennings was riding the playoff appearance wave and no other qualifying Rookie of the Year award hopeful could play that card. Yes, Jennings shot an abysmal percentage from almost everywhere on the floor inside the three-point line but he managed the game better than any young point guard in the league. Stephen Curry was the other prime candidate and he was a fantastic one at that. The statistics he put up from January through the end of the season made people throw Steve Nash’s name around as a potential match for Steph’s prime. And Darren Collison… well, Hornets fans are really passionate whether the premise of their argument is completely insane or not.

At some point, you probably caught yourself arguing about how much better Tyreke was than any and all of these guys. You may have said Jennings sucked and was a horrible shooter. You could have said Curry was too small, a product of a chaotic basketball existence and not nearly the defender Evans showed.

Now that we’re months away from an argument that has been solved by selected media members covering the NBA, we should be able to all celebrate how good these three are. And in doing so we should think about just how incredible of a shooter Stephen Curry is. After a slow start in the first two months of his career, Dell Curry’s oldest little guy exploded into a statistical orgasm. From January through April, Steph shot 46.9% from the field, 45% from three-point range, and 90% from the free throw line. For a small combo guard that was allegedly too slow to get his shot off at the NBA level, those are pretty impressive shooting percentages. He also averaged 21 points, 6.8 assists and 4.9 rebounds per game during this time.

To bash Stephen Curry’s rookie season is to not appreciate just how impressive of a player he is. But the most incredible part of his game is certainly his shooting ability. Imagining what Tyreke Evans would be like with shooting ability similar to Steph Curry is sort of bordering on the absurdity of Create-A-Player possibilities in any NBA video game. But what if Tyreke could find a happy medium between the way he shot his jumper and the way Steph shot his jumper last season? What if Evans took away that glaring weakness he was often maligned for and turned it into a strength?

Would any of us truly be ready for such a weapon in the NBA?

Check out HoopData.com and you’ll find one of the most useful tools you can find in basketball research – their shot location statistics. On shots from 16-23 feet last season, Tyreke Evans put up a below league average performance of 32% while Stephen Curry shot a very nice 44%. And on three-point attempts, Reke managed an unsightly 25.5% with Curry residing among league leaders with 43.7%.

Tyreke Evans often drew the opponent’s best perimeter defender last season. And that perimeter defender usually had his teammates form a mosh pit behind him to attempt to deter Reke from driving to the lane. Because Evans seemingly knew his limitations of what he was able to accomplish as a rookie, he drove the lane and did so in a stubborn way. He led the league in attempts at the rim and bullied his way into wherever he wanted to go on the court. Sometimes this lead to horrible decisions in attacking a defense and Evans was left with nowhere to go. But more times than not, he was able to get to the basket and score on just about anybody.

The one luxury he didn’t have was a deadly or even adequate jump shot to balance out his superior ability to penetrate into the defense before him. Defenders like Shane Battier, Nicolas Batum and even stars like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James in crunch time were able to lean on his inferior jumper as a source of frustration and weakness to stop Evans whenever they needed to.

As we learned from Sam Amick on FanHouse this week, Reke didn’t always have this problem. He used to have quite the jump shot in high school and while we only have this favorable YouTube highlight reel to really show us, we can notice the difference in what he shows here and what he showed us in his rookie season.

First, check out the mixtape:

Now check out a couple of examples I put together to show the difference in his inconsistent shooting form:

When you look at his high school highlights, you see that Reke’s shooting form keeps the ball in front of his face and the follow-through with his shooting hand is smooth and balanced. Compare that to the video of his misses and you’ll see plenty of problems that probably led to the misfires:

- On the first jumper the ball is brought towards the side of his head, which is not consistent with the shooting form from his high school days.
- On the second and third jumpers he brings the ball over his head and then awkwardly over his forehead.
- On the fourth jumper his follow-through breaks unevenly to the right.
- On the fifth jumper Tyreke’s follow-through is cut short and seems very unfinished.

So what changed from high school to his season in Sacramento? According to Sam Amick’s fantastic piece, many think it’s probably a lack of confidence fostered in his one year under then Memphis coach John Calipari.

“I don’t blame anybody, but I think coach Cal looked at is like, ‘Hey, you know what? This kid can get to the basket any time he wants, so let’s play him to his strength,” said Tony Bergeron, Evans’ coach at the Aston, Pa. high school. “(But) I used to have a fit watching his Memphis games. I’d be screaming at the TV, saying ‘Shoot!’”

Which is precisely what Bergeron shouted during Evans’ prep years, too.

“His brother Doc was the one who would go in, work on that arc and get shots up with him,” Bergeron said. “Doc gets a ton of credit. … And then there was me, who loves the three-ball. I used to destroy ‘Reke for not shooting. I’m yelling, ‘Shoot the three, shoot the three!’ Then he’d start hitting it. And then all of a sudden it clicked during his junior year. Everyone would start bellying up, and he would go right by people. The game became very easy.”

According to Bergeron, Evans shot 40.6 percent from three-point range as a senior while playing under preparatory school rules that mandated 10-minute quarters. In addition to the accuracy, though, it’s the contrast in volume from then to now that is remarkable.

Evans, his brothers and his friends have been working on repairing the damaged confidence in his jumper over this off-season. We have a little video evidence from the tireless hours they all have put in to help fix his biggest weakness. We see a smoother stroke, improved form and a lot more confidence in the jump shot. And while we can’t truly know if it’s on the way to respectability and eventually something for the defense to fear until he gets out into the regular season, it does give everybody something to ponder.

Is anybody ready for a version of Tyreke Evans in which any spot on the floor is potentially lethal?

There is no limit to what Tyreke Evans can do on the basketball court if he has the jump shot in his arsenal. Tyreke would more often than not have his opponent completely off-balance with his superior dribbling, the unrelenting motivation to drive easily into the heart of the defense and the “Break Glass In Case Of Emergency” jump shot at his disposal.

With players like LeBron James, Jason Kidd and Russell Westbrook it’s easy to get caught up in the game of What If when trying to figure out how good they would be with an effective jumper from outside. But it’s always a faulty daydream because these guys never seemingly had this ability at any point in their competitive careers. However, with Tyreke we have tales of two different existences. We have “good jumper Reke” and we have “bad jumper Reke.”

And if we get a chance to see “good jumper Reke” from here on out, Kings fans should get ready to start arguing about future awards.

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.

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.

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.

Your boy and mine, Alex Kramers of When Kingdom Come (also, follow him on Twitter – @doktakra), was at the NBA rookie photo shoot when the 2010 rookie class donned their new work uniforms and took pictures doing basketball things. He covered it for Full Court Press on Kings.com and wrote up a nice story about what DeMarcus Cousins and Hassan Whiteside are thinking about this team and their respective first year’s of the rest of their lives. Peep the link.

Here’s a snippet about Cousins:

After previously declaring he was the best player in the 2010 rookie class, the fifth-overall pick in the NBA Draft continued to stand by his bold proclamation.

“My goal is to win Rookie of the Year, and I think I established myself and earned some respect in summer league,” he said. “But Tyreke (Evans) and I spoke about some of the things we want to accomplish (as a team) this year, starting with making the Playoffs.”

Cousins has worked diligently to refine his game since he was drafted by the Kings to prevent himself from making “rookie mistakes,” and training to stand the rigors of an 82-game schedule.

Many people are questioning DMC’s conditioning this summer but it’s good to see his attitude seems very focused on the task at hand.

As far as Stretch goes, Alex wrote this about Hassan:

Whiteside, in the meantime, has been working on “getting bigger” by lifting weights and toning his lower body. He attended Tim Grgurich’s annual skills camp at UNLV with his new Kings teammate, Jason Thompson, and has also sought advice from Evans.

“We’re a young team and everyone is no more than three-or-four years older than me, so we can relate on a lot of things,” Whiteside said. “My goal is to stay hungry and humble.”

Whiteside acclimated himself to Sacramento by recently purchasing a home that he instantly furnished with a brand-new television to study and keep tabs on his upcoming NBA opponents.

This is probably evident of most rookies but it’s good to see two young guys talking about their hard work for this off-season to help this team get better during this crucial stage of the Kings’ rebuilding process.

And in case you couldn’t get enough of Cousins and his exploits at the photo shoot, here is another video:

DeMarcus Cousins at NBA Rookie Photo Shoot from Michelle Stark on Vimeo.

Dime TV captured a video of Hassan Whiteside juggling three basketballs at the same time (big ups to Aron Phillips for all of the coverage he gave us with the rookie photo shoot; follow him on Twitter):

Seems like this lady is going to be out of a job…

Southern gentlemen and one of the best bloggers around, Kyle Weidie of TruthAboutIt.net, posted these videos from the NBA and Dime TV.

First off, we have DeMarcus Cousins and John Wall playing one on one during the rookie photo shoot.

DMC destroyed Wall 1-0 (by my count from the video) and even swatted a shot. The Wizards have to be questioning their selection after such a one-sided affair.

Then they broke off into a Dougie session with Tiny Gallon as an innocent bystander:

We can probably safely call this one a draw so the final tally is DeMarcus Cousins winning 1-0-1.