What are my thoughts on Spencer not starting? Other than Kevin Martin, I feel like every single starting position should be up for grabs. If Spencer hasn’t proven himself due to poor performance in the preseason, injury issues or whatever was going on with the summer league, I have no issue with Westphal throwing a little tough love Hawes’ way.
Spencer Hawes is a very talented player and he could very well be the center of the future but if he can’t be a tough presence inside on both offense and defense then why should he be a starter for this team? Sean May has done everything the team has asked so far. He dropped about 40 lbs to appease the higher-ups and earn $100k. He has played solid defense and worked hard inside during the preseason. He deserves to start the home opener. Hopefully, this is an eye-opener for Spencer. Your spot has to be earned.
Crystal Ball
The consensus prediction of the TrueHoop Network bloggers … and the best hopes of Cowbell Kingdom.
Crowd Says: 22-60 Cowbell Kingdom Says: 28-54
Yes We Can! The sun is out. The seas have parted. The basketball gods are shining upon us!
While last season’s Sacramento Kings often looked like a basketball team that had very little talent or direction, the 2009-10 version will be the beginning of
a distant memory of the 17-win disaster. There are three things this year’s Kings have that last year’s team didn’t: a competitive culture of basketball, a threat at the point guard position and a healthy Kevin Martin.
We all know about the dangerous scoring ability of Kevin Martin. He’s the epitome of efficiency with the basketball in a day and age when quality control
has never been examined more closely by NBA analysts. He rarely makes a move towards the basket that doesn’t result in a high likelihood of scoring. He
racks up above-60 percent seasons in the True Shooting Percentage category like Mitch Richmond recorded 20-point per game seasons. Martin missed 31
games last year and 52 games over the past two seasons. However, now that his ankle is completely healthy, his quickness and athleticism should bolster a team that needs quick, easy points to keep up with the competition.
For anyone that witnessed Reggie Theus’ season and a half tenure as the head coach of the Kings, it’s easy to see why the team always seemed to regress. After the Kings cut bait with Theus, they decided to get much more serious with their sideline direction and hired Paul
Westphal this offseason. All Westphal has ever done in the NBA is win the overwhelming majority of his games (267-159, 62.7 percent). Now, he’ll try to show this group of young assets how to be successful.
And finally, the point guard position has been an issue with this team since Mike Bibby was jettisoned for cap-friendly pieces. The rise and fall of Beno Udrih has encompassed two seasons of subpar performances at the point. Enter Tyreke Evans – a bulldozer-sized menace who will test the strength of every team’s defense at its entry point. He immediately creates matchup problems against teams with traditional point guards and will look to have a similar impact as fellow Memphis alum, Derrick Rose.
This Kings team will not set the basketball world on fire by any means. But the culture has changed in a positive way and they’ll no longer be a team over-
looked by their opponents.
No You Can’t A rousing dissent from a rival blogger.
“What’s the thinking behind the NBA’s worst defensive team’s offseason transactions of note consist of adding rookies Tyreke Evans and Omri Casspi, worthy rehabilitation effort but defensively limited Sean May, and Sergio Rodriguez? Things can’t get any worse? Successful team defense depends on taxpayer subsidies? Hopes of turning the team’s attempt to break the NBA single-season record for most free throws attempted by opponents (3076, 1970-71 Philadelphia 76ers) into a morbid gate attraction?”
– Bret LaGree, Hoopinion
All-A-Twitter A 140-character insight into the soul of the team.
“Just finished up my son name. Bout 2 go get my arms waxed for da photo shoot. Lol monarchs game 2nite.”
The top tweeter on the team is easily Donte Greene (@DonteGreene). You never know what he’s going to say to his fans or anyone following his updates. From putting his infant son on Twitter (@liltae20) to screaming at Francisco Garcia to tweet in English to answering questions that his fans ask him on a daily basis, Donte Greene seems to completely understand how to connect with his fans.
On the Record Single best quote concerning the team during the last 12 months.
“This is just frustrating going through things like this. We can’t keep making excuses. That’s just it. I’m embarrassed. I hope everybody else is embarrassed,
too. That was just ridiculous, the way we came out and competed tonight. I wouldn’t even say competed. We didn’t even show up.”
- Bobby Jackson after the Kings lost to the Celtics 108-63 in December. The recently retired Bobby Jackson was one of the veteran voices last year that the Kings needed. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the coach to turn those words into something meaningful. This year, they’ll need one of the younger players to step into that role and work with coach Westphal on keeping this team motivated.
The 2008-09 Almanac Some key stats from last season.
Offense: 25th
Defense: 30th
Pace: 7th
Team Factor Strength(s): Free Throws (5th)
Team Factor Weakness(es): Shooting Allowed (29th), Defensive Rebounding (29th), Free Throws Allowed (27th)
The Play Down a single point with 9.2 seconds to play in a must-win game. What’s the play?
With the team down one and less than ten seconds to go, the Kings should run a pick and roll play with Kevin Martin as the point man and Spencer Hawes as the screener. Martin is the best player on the team at getting to the free throw line and scoring the ball. If he gets a solid screen and any hesitation from the defense, he’ll easily get a high-percentage scoring attempt. And with Hawes as the screener, you have the option to roll him to the basket or pop out to the perimeter.
The People’s Choice The fan favorite the crowd will be chanting for to see some action.
Omri Casspi will be the player all of the fans want to see on the court. The log- jam at small forward means the Kings will struggle to find time for the first Israeli NBA player but fans will be anxious to see his development.
If You’re Watching the Bottom Line, You’re Watching This The single biggest spreadsheet issue hanging over the team.
Beno Udrih’s contract is the biggest issue for the Kings over the next four years. He’s owed just under $27 million during that time. Udrih is of diminishing use in this rebuilding process, which makes his contract an albatross to the financially strapped Kings. The best hope for a resolution to this situation is for the presence of Sergio Rodriguez to push Beno to prove that he still belongs in an NBA rotation.
Video of Tyreke Evans putting a move on the Warriors in transition that would cause Billy Hoyle to scream, “Don’t let him pull the move, don’t let him pull the move. That’s the move! Oh, that’s the move!”
Once again, I wasn’t there and had attended the Blogs With Balls 2.0 conference in Las Vegas. But here are some highlights, game notes, and the lineup data.
- For the views of someone that was at the game, I really recommend checking out Aykis’ recap over at StR. Great read.
- Jason Thompson’s 20-20 game against Anthony Randolph was a nice thing to see for him. After Randolph exploded in the summer league against Thompson, there were plenty of murmurs around Las Vegas that the Kings picked the wrong guy. I have always contended that they didn’t. Randolph is a lot of hype and some of it will end up being warranted. But Thompson is a sure thing. Is he a sure thing like he’s going to be Karl Malone? No. But is he a sure thing like he’s going to eventually be a double-double machine and have the ability to get you a bucket in the post when you need it? Yes, that’s going to be what he gives the Kings. I’ll always take the sure thing over the hype. Hype dazzles in summer league games that take place in cities where prostitution is legal. Sure things get it done in actual game settings.
- Hey, check out this block of the night against our old friend, Mikki Moore:
- Jason Thompson was a +21 for his efforts Saturday night. Desmond Mason had 4 points on 1/8 shooting and six rebounds. By the way, he was a +20. Oh, plus/minus – how you confuse us!
- I love the effort of out rebounding any team by 18 but to do it against a team like the Warriors doesn’t excuse the 24 turnovers that the Kings had.
- But I DO like the 11 blocked shots with five of them coming from the Hawes-Thompson combo.
- Kevin Martin had 32 points. I like to think a lot of it had to do with the fact that the Warriors haven’t played defense in 63 years. I also like to think the other component of it was Tyreke Evans. The fact that Stephen Jackson had to guard him gave Stephen Curry the unfortunate task of having to check Martin. Kevin will always torch the matchup against the opposing team’s point guard. I still contend this is a far better option than any ménage à guard.
- Jon Brockman grabbed four rebounds in eight minutes. If you can find a way to make him usable on offense and decent on man-to-man defense, he’ll give you Kevin Love-type rebounding.
And finally, here’s the lineup data:
Lineup #1: Tyreke Evans – Kevin Martin – Desmond Mason – Jason Thompson – Spencer Hawes Start of the game to 43.7s (1st Q)
7:08 (2nd Q) to 5:32 (2nd Q)
Start of 3rd Q to 8:02 (3rd Q)
I was at the Blogs With Balls 2.0 Conference in Las Vegas from Thursday to Saturday so I’ve been unable to post here. But I thought I’d run back, keeping tracking the lineups data and post it here. I won’t post my thoughts on the game because I didn’t listen to it or watch it. Yes, I know the game was in Las Vegas and I was in Las Vegas so you’d think I would have gone to it. However, I was knee-deep in the conference and decided not to pull myself away.
Here are just a couple things of note before I post the lineup data:
- Lineup data will have a nice face lift, which should be up by Wednesday night.
- Donté Greene didn’t play in this game due to Westphal’s decision to keep him out. While I think this kind of action is necessary to get through to a player, I also wonder if you should just bite the bullet and throw him out on the court when the games don’t matter, just so you can get an idea of how he fits in game situations. This is more of a rhetorical point of curiosity, not a criticism.
- In a game in which an average center is shredding your front line, I think Sean May should play more than four minutes. At least, throw Melvin Ely out there.
- Here are the game highlights:
And now, here is the lineup data:
Lineup #1: Tyreke Evans – Kevin Martin – Desmond Mason – Jason Thompson – Spencer Hawes Start of Game to 5:44
Start of 3rd to 8:51 (3rd Q)
Chad Ford’s internet was about as reliable as a Duane Causwell throwdown today so Henry Abbott jumped in and we chatted about the Kings on ESPN.com. Here’s the replay of it:
Chad Ford and I will be chatting about the Sacramento Kings on ESPN.com, Wednesday, October 14th at 1pm PST. Come by, ask a question, and have Chad Ford correctly answer it while I try to think of something clever.
It’s not that I don’t think Beno Udrih can be a decent point guard for the Kings. And it’s not that Tyreke Evans won’t be good enough as a small forward when called upon. And I know that this isn’t a permanent solution for a team that will be lucky to sniff 30+ wins this seasons. I just don’t see how it works out for the long-term building of this team.
Coach Westphal is big on versatility in his lineups. It seems as though position doesn’t really matter and there is something to be said for just throwing your best five guys out on the floor and making the other team adjust to you. It worked for a while with the Mavericks, Suns, and Warriors when they were all more concerned with scoring a ton of points instead of worrying about having prototypical 4s and 5s on the floor. But those teams had immense firepower that wouldn’t relent for 48 minutes per game. They had a good deal of talent bursting at their deep positions – enough so that it seemed detrimental to their chance at success to play a more traditional style.
But the Kings don’t fit those models at all. I guess they’re most like those Warriors teams if anything, thanks to the gluttony of wing players they possess. Sacramento seems they’d be best off putting their best five out there, which would make them go bigger rather than smaller. The idea of Tyreke Evans as your primary point guard is as bold as it is lofty for a basketball theory. But at least it’s a move that creates mismatches in your favor if you’re the Kings.
However, going with the three-guard lineup with this group of guards seems to be counterproductive. When I was in Las Vegas for the summer league, I was able to grab a few moments talking to ESPN’s David Thorpe who was fairly impressed at the time with the Kings three rookies. He talked about Brockman’s rebounding, Casspi’s potential playmaking ability, and Evans’ ability to wreak some havoc. But he also had an interesting question of whether or not ‘Reke’s future was at the point guard or small forward position.
At 6’5”, I find myself shuttering at the idea of him playing the small forward position. I guess it doesn’t make much difference on offense. When he gets the ball, his job will be to create chaos amongst the defense and get to the basket. If he develops a jumper, that will be mixed in as well. But what happens to him on defense, especially as a rookie? If the Kings run a three-guard lineup for 15 to 20 minutes every night, that will be 15 to 20 minutes of Evans being overmatched on the defensive end of the floor. I don’t care how good of a defender he can be, if he has to guard the likes of Carmelo Anthony, Caron Butler, Danny Granger, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, or Stephen Jackson. Hell, I don’t even like the idea of him having to guard guys like Rudy Gay and I don’t think he’s all that good.
If this team is going to win, learn how to win, and develop into a successful team then they have to become a decent defensive team at worst. Even when the Suns were losing out to the Spurs every postseason as an offensive-minded team, they were still an average defensive team. That’s what helped them take advantage of their strengths and survive their weaknesses. But when the Kings throw out a lineup of Beno and Martin at the guards (both bad defenders with the Kings), Evans out of position at the three (as a rookie), and two post defenders that don’t exactly remind people of David Robinson and Tim Duncan, you’re consistently giving yourself a disadvantage on the defensive end of the court.
Going back to my idea of the Kings putting their best five out there and that best five making them big rather than small, it seems like the simplest cure to this problem is inserting one of their many small forwards into the lineup and trying to go with that more often than not. I understand the idea of taking Andres Nocioni and putting him as the sixth man of the team but before, you were allowed that luxury because of Francisco Garcia’s presence. Without Cisco, the best possible lineup to throw out on the court is the Evans-Martin-Nocioni-Thompson-Hawes fivesome.
And if keeping Nocioni on the bench is a must for Westphal then why not throw out someone like Casspi or Donté Greene into the starting lineup and seeing if you can catch lightning in a bottle? Omri has really impressed through two preseason games and been ready to perform and play whenever he’s thrown out there. Can you just award Casspi the starting job because of one popped exercise ball and a couple of solid quarters of exhibition play? Probably not. Actually… DEFINITELY not. But if it keeps your matchups and advantages in your favor then isn’t it a better idea than just throwing out three guards? This isn’t college.
Maybe Omri isn’t the best option (unless he can become the Kings version of Nicolas Batum). And Donté definitely hasn’t earned anything as well. Perhaps, Desmond Mason is THE best option because he can defend and provide some veteran presence.
I guess over these next five months (I think four is extremely optimistic for a repaired radius, some ligament damage, and some au jus), there will be a lot of options thrown out there. Some of them will stick and the majority of them will not. I’m just afraid that some of these (three-guard lineup for extended minutes) will waste the fans time and frustrate more than it inspires.
Seems easy enough, right? And if it’s so easy then what could you possibly win?
Warriors pens?
Sacramento Surge pennant?
Kobe Bryant #8 jersey?
NO!
We’re talking some actual prizes from The Sacramento Press and Sacramento Kings. There are tickets to games. How does sitting on Press Row for a game sound as a prize? You’d get to hang out with Sam Amick the entire night! Hell, you can probably even talk him into letting you write his column for the Bee the next day (that last part might not be true). Other prizes include personalized jersey and much more.
Click here for the contest rules. You have until midnight tonight (October 12th) to post a comment on their Kings coverage to win something tomorrow morning.