Dwight Howard battled foul trouble throughout the game, but the Sacramento Kings were unable to gain an true advantage, eventually falling 104-97 to the Orlando Magic on Sunday.
“Anytime you can do that is good,” said Kings head coach Keith Smart of Howard’s foul situation. ”I thought our guys stayed pretty much into the game plan, we didn’t overreact to the penetration and give Howard absolute freedom at the rim with dunks. I thought they did a great job with their weak side, coming in.”
DeMarcus Cousins was able to take advantage of Howard’s absence, scoring 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting. However, the Kings big man played with foul trouble himself, recording only 22 minutes in the matinee match-up.
With all of the golf coverage from this last weekend, we got away from the morning cup o’ Kings. Today, we are back and since it’s his birthday, we will look into some old footage of Kings power forward/center Jason Thompson as a senior at Rider University.
Kings President of Basketball Operations, Geoff Petrie, became known for his ability to mine talent in Europe through the late 90′s and early 2000′s. Peja Stojakovic and Hedo Turkoglu became crucial pieces during the glory years of Kings basketball, both drafted as young European prospects by Petrie and his staff. Following the European invasion, Petrie turned to players from small U.S. colleges such as Western Carolina, Rutgers and Rider. Like his European picks, Petrie found success, first with Kevin Martin and most recently with Jason Thompson.
Thompson started out hot as a rookie, joining Spencer Hawes in a promising front line. But the hope that a Spencer Hawes/Jason Thompson front court could return the Kings to the playoffs dissipated quickly. Before last season, Hawes was traded to Philadelphia with Andres Nocioni for center Samuel Dalembert, clearing minutes for rookie DeMarcus Cousins. Lost in a four man rotation of Dalembert, Cousins and Carl Landry, Thompson struggled in his transition to a role player. After starting 114 games his first two seasons, JT started only 39 games last season and saw his minutes drop from 31.4 in year two to just 23.3 in his third year as a pro.
For anyone still hoping for a big splash at the small forward position, this is going to be disappointing. The small forwards of free agency have been raided and are now being signed by any and every contender for next year.
While the Kings have Andres Nocioni, Donte Greene and now Omri Casspi at the small forward position, quite a few fans wanted the Kings to either bring back Hedo Turkoglu or go after a young player with a lot of potential like Trevor Ariza. Well, I have bad news — all of the small forwards have been signed this off-season.
Okay, not ALL the small forwards have been signed. But all of the small forwards that are interesting or intriguing to the Kings rebuilding effort have been scooped up.
