This was pretty fantastic.

Hope you’re checking out the work that Alex Kramers is doing with When Kingdom Come and everywhere that is smart enough to put him on the internet. He wrote this really good Omri Casspi piece that I forgot to link to this weekend.

He’s also taken advantage of the Kings’ east coast road trip by getting some access to the team. He did an interview with Jon Brockman recently:

“I’m probably going to sign some more, so you can walk back with me,” said the Kings rookie.

For anyone who’s met Jon Brockman, that likely doesn’t come as a surprise.  As we walked to the team locker room before Sacramento took the court against the New Jersey Nets — a game I had the pleasure of covering for Kings.com — the man who’s been affectionately called, “The Brockness Monster,” stopped for each person with an outstretched pen and paper.  Sporting a cumbersome brace on the sprained right knee that has kept him out of action since February 19, he graciously chatted with the crowd and obliged with every photo request.

Definitely click through and read the article. You can see that Jon Brockman just gets being a professional basketball player. He understands what it means to be one and why it’s important to appreciate the fans. Good stuff, Alex.

Are you reading Pro Basketball Talk regularly? If no, facepalm yourself and then add it to your Google Reader. If yes, then facepalm the person next to you and give yourself a congratulatory pat on the back.

After Josh Smith got one of the best offensive rebounds we’ve ever seen (in terms of importance) last night, John “Big Time” Krolik decided to look at the Top 5 offensive rebounders in the game today. Jon Brockman made the list. In fact, he’s first on the list (even though it’s ALLEGEDLY in no particular order):

Brockman isn’t anywhere near the player that fellow Kings rookie Tyreke Evans is. In fact, Brockman probably isn’t one of the two best rookies on his own team. But Brockman is an unapologetically physical player, and an absolute monster on the offensive boards.

There’s more about Jon over there. Be sure to click through like a good reader should and check out the entire post.

According to BussinessInsider.com, Jon Brockman is making $411 per tweet when he updates his Twitter. (H/T – Both Teams Played Hard)

The Brockness Monster currently has 319,209 followers on Twitter. That’s sort of an insane amount. In fact, it’s roughly 276,000 more followers than Donté Greene, Sean May, Jason Thompson and the Sacramento Kings have combined.

With such a huge following, it’s no wonder that he wants you to check out the new Volvo C30 or a Frosted Cake Shop.

Smart side business for Mr. Brockman. If anybody needs me to reach out to my 400+ followers, go ahead and give me a shout. I’ll be much cheaper than $411.

This was tweeted by Jon Brockman during All-Star weekend and I couldn’t be more in favor of this idea.

You want to bring some energy into the All-Star festivities? How about we throw a bunch of big men out there in a Battle Royale type of environment and let Mike Wilks or Trevor Ariza shoot jumpers out there to guarantee misses? Then we’ll have these big men fight for the ball. It can be just like Three Flies Up only with Gladiator-sized competitors.

We’ll get Mr. Jon Brockman, DeJuan Blair, Reggie Evans and Joey Dorsey out there and let them slam each other around like a group of over-sized mosh pit participants.

Why can’t this happen? Who doesn’t want to see these four guys fighting for loose balls and trying to out-rebound each other?

Even if it ends up like this…

Okay, I don’t really believe in moral victories. It’s fun to through the cliché around from time to time but in professional sports, you shouldn’t be content with losing no matter how bad your team is.

So I’ll still say there is no such thing as a moral victory. But I do believe in games of progress and this 97-92 loss in New Orleans was definitely a game of progress.

After the Kings looked like they were a lock to repeat as the worst record in the NBA in the loss to the Thunder, they turned up the intensity across the board on offense, defense, and rebounding. They didn’t just look respectable. They looked flat out good. Granted, the Hornets made a ton of mistakes and the Kings missed a ton of close shots. But overall, the Kings played a brand of basketball that should make themselves and their fans proud.

Let’s start out with the last couple minutes of the game. The Kings were not only in position to win but they also were in control of the game. With two minutes left in this game, Kevin Martin banked in a little runner to put the Kings up 91-88 and after a James Posey missed three, the Kings had a chance to really put the Hornets on their heels.

The Kings ran some disjointed play that ended up with Kevin Martin starting way too late into the shot clock (with about eight seconds left). He split a double team, took the ball to the baseline and instead of putting up a little jump shot, panicked and passed the ball with one second left on the shot clock cross court to Tyreke Evans at the right elbow three-point line. Evans caught the pass in the air and let it fly all in one motion (and actually banked it in for three). Unfortunately, for the Kings the shot clocked expired about two seconds before the ball even got to Evans and resulted in a turnover.

Chris Paul answered on the next possession by absorbing a lot of contact from a Brockman knee to the groin, made the basket and got the free throw to tie the game. Jason Thompson missed on the ensuing possession and the Hornets responded with an Emeka Okafor tip dunk off of a Chris Paul miss. Evans missed an optimistic three-point attempt to put them up one; Martin got the rebound and missed another shot. Jon Brockman was fouled on the rebound, made one of two free throws and Jason Thompson grabbed another offensive rebound.

The execution on the final sequence of the game was just unfortunate for the Kings. Tyreke Evans drove the lane, was out of control and had his desperate attempt knocked away by Emeka Okafor. There seemed to be some possible contact on the play but Evans was out of control and is not going to get the foul called in that situation.

After a couple of free throws, Kevin Martin received an entry pass in the corner and threw up a desperation three-point shot that was blocked by Okafor (this guy was everywhere). The problem I had with this play is the Kings had five seconds left on the clock and did not need to rush. If that was the play called, I think it was a bad decision by Westphal. Sure, the Kings don’t really have a better three-point shooter than Martin but he was having a terrible game and you trap him in the corner there with that pass.

Now here are some observations from the game about certain players with more analysis and number crunching to come tomorrow:

- Tyreke Evans. I mean, Tyreke. Freaking. Evans. What an incredible game by the youngster. He went toe to toe with the best point guard in the NBA and stood his ground. He took away Paul’s playmaking ability and made him work a lot on defense. Evans knocked down jumpers, pulled up for a three and nailed it, and got to the free throw line eight times. He finished with 22 points on 13 shots. He only finished with two assists but he had a lot of assists blown for him by his teammates misses.

It’s clear that Evans is not going to be kept from making it to the basket. He just went up against two of the better, young defenders at the point guard position in the league and got to the hoop whenever he wanted. And his decision-making in running the offense was really good until a sloppy stretch in the fourth quarter in which he recorded two of his three turnovers. One of them was a complete rookie mistake with throwing a poor pass cross-court to Kevin Martin. You could see the respect that Chris Paul had for Evans when he greeted him right after the game. That was a moment for the young Kings stud to remember.

(One quick note: I rarely get chills while watching a game at the beginning of the regular season. But when the Kings had Evans bringing the ball up the court and the camera was tight on him, I get a rush over me that was hard to quantify. You could just tell Evans was one of the special ones, the way he was already taking over an NBA game against the best individual competition he could face. Just a cool moment to witness.)

-  Jon Brockman, a.k.a. the Brockness Monster (see above), played the entire closing stretch of the game and it was well deserved. In 19 minutes of play, he grabbed 10 rebounds with five them coming on the offensive glass. He played really solid defense against David West and helped the Kings win the rebounding battle 52-43 (21-10 on the offensive glass). Sean May played much better in this game and I loved the effort of Jason Thompson. But Jon Brockman was one of the big reasons this team was able to take a playoff team in the West down to the wire.

- How killer was Andres Nocioni off the bench? He came in, ready to shoot, much like Omri Casspi did against the Thunder. This was the Noc that fans probably recall from last year. His 16 points off the bench were huge but he only grabbed one rebound in 24 minutes.

- Speaking of Omri Casspi, welcome back down to Earth. He got a dose of reality in the NBA early when he blew a defensive assignment that lead to a Peja three and then came down the court and took a rushed, mid-range jumper. Westphal pulled him from the court. It’s what a rookie should expect to experience more than the amazing success he had against OKC.

- And finally (again, there will be more breakdown tomorrow), let me briefly address Kevin Martin’s performance tonight. There seemed to be a fair amount of vitriol headed his way right after tonight’s performance. Some of it is justified. He played a mentally weak game tonight and forced some bad shots. But he also didn’t get the bounce on a lot of shots either. As the Kings best scorer (and not much of a playmaker outside of that), what do you want him to do on a poor shooting night? Personally, I’m fine with him trying to shoot his way out of it as long as they are good shots.

A 9/29 shooting night with just 2/10 from downtown is a BAD night. In fact, it’s a horrible night. I think the most alarming part of it is the fact that he didn’t attempt a single free throw, one night after attempting 14 in one half. He’s only had one game in his career in which he played more than 20 minutes in a game and didn’t attempt a single free throw. Just a weird, tough game for him against the Hornets.

That’s all for now. More analysis tomorrow. Perhaps, even a love letter to Tyreke.

The Sacramento Kings will be introducing their three newest players (Tyreke Evans, Omri Casspi, and Jon Brockman) in midtown are of Sacramento on Saturday from 4-9pm. Here’s the info from Kings.com:

• Meet the Newest Kings at Their First Public Appearance in Sacramento!
• The newest members of your Sacramento Kings will be introduced and joined by other celebrity guests at a fun-filled party in Midtown.
• This must-see event takes place Saturday, June 27, from 4 – 9 p.m. at Marshall Park in Sacramento (28th and J Street)
• The event will feature live performances by bands Funkengruven and So What, the Sacramento Kings Dance Team and the Sacramento Breakers
• The event will also feature a Kings Zone complete with bounce houses and interactive contests and a beer and wine garden
• Kings draft picks Tyreke Evans (4th overall), Omri Casspi (23rd overall) and Jon Brockman (38th overall) will be in attendance
• Skateboarding superstar Ryan Sheckler will also be in attendance

Thanks to Kings Connect, we have the complete video of Geoff Petrie and Paul Westphal speaking about the Kings big draft night.
Now whether or not you agree with the pick of Tyreke Evans over Ricky Rubio, you’ve got to love the confidence that Petrie speaks with in regards to the moves made on Draft Night. The Kings are headed in a different direction than what everyone assumed. They aren’t just building a team, they’re building a tough team and the team definitely got tougher Thursday.

Here’s the video:

Some thoughts from what Petrie said:

- He mentions a few times that Tyreke Evans was the best player left in the draft and I think that’s important. Personally, I thought Ricky Rubio should be the pick at the time but the more I think about it, the more that I’m on board with this thinking. If you feel Evans is the best player after all of the scouting and workouts, then you should definitely take him.

- He mentions possibly posting Tyreke Evans against the smaller guards and this could be a dynamic part of the offense that set him apart from the rest of the field in this draft. If you can create mismatches with him all over the floor, you’ve suddenly added something to your offensive attack that can not only create open shots for guys like Spencer Hawes, Francisco Garcia and Kevin Martin but it can get the other team into foul trouble.

- Evans was upfront with the Kings about the whole drive-by shooting incident. That kind of character, honesty and accountability probably began to sway the momentum in his favor.

- Kings feel like they got the second best player in the draft. They probably did as of right now. But will it be in five years? Something that will be looked at time and time again by all of the nay-sayers.

- I wonder if he feels like the restricted free agents are ACTUALLY part of the roster for next season or if he’s just toeing the CBA company line?

Notes from what Paul Westphal said:

- I know a lot of this could just be smoke blown up our orifices but you have to feel good about hearing the confidence in the way they speak. For some reason, it doesn’t seem fake here and seems to be worthwhile.

- Was EVERYBODY on the same page with this decision or did the Maloofs want Rubio and Geoff talked them into Evans?

- He called Evans the most well-rounded guard in the draft. For a guy that can’t shoot and isn’t a great ball-handler, what does that say about the strength of this draft?

- Sounds like he’s going to be the full-time point guard and it sounds like they’re happy with that. He has to be the guy right away and this is smart to throw him in the fire like this. It’s the best way for him to mature.

- They keep mentioning his size. If he’s legitimately fast and quick enough against point guards, he’s going to be a complete problem on the court.

- His quickness guarding the smaller point guards is going to be the key to this experiment working with him as the point. If not, do you move him to the shooting guard and play small with three guards?

- The toughness seems to be ringing throughout these talks. I think that’s something the Kings and their fans have been craving. This could be the start of a new attitude in the organization. That’s a good thing.

- Brockman is one of the top three rebounders in the draft? I don’t know how I feel about that. I don’t necessarily disagree with it; it’s just kind of an odd truth about this class.

- Paul Westphal just seems like a fun guy to be around.