There are many things about the internet and especially the basketball community that has grown from said internet that make being a basketball fan in this era a favorable experience. The interaction between Tom Ziller and Bethlehem Shoals and the product that comes from this interaction should be at the top of everyone’s enjoyment of the current NBA.

Since both have become firmly entrenched together at FanHouse over the last eight months or so, they have come up with some truly great work. Now, they have a daily collaborative piece called “The Works” and it’s something you should check out first thing to start your day.

In today’s version, Ziller explores the usage of international basketball as a hoops laboratory during the summer with respect to Omri as his initial muse:

Casspi has been a simply explosive scorer at the unfamiliar power forward position. In Saturday’s win over the very good Montenegro, Casspi scored 30 points in 33 minutes on an array of deep shots and drives. The Kings thought they were drafting a potential poor man’s Hedo Turkoglu. During Casspi’s rookie season, he looked like he’d instead be a bigger Bobby Jackson. Playing for Israel? He looks like the second coming of Peja Stojakovic. If the Kings are paying attention, they will say new and exciting ways to feature the Israeli in the Evans-led offense next season.

No matter how good Omri Casspi ends up being in the NBA, we can be sure that experiences like this for young, developing players are nothing but good. Yes, there is a chance for injury and I’m pretty sure I even said on this space not too long ago that it was probably for the best Tyreke Evans wasn’t on Team USA this summer because of injury reasons. But with guys like Omri who are trying to establish themselves in so many different facets of the basketball world, leading his country is nothing but a good, healthy, growing experience.

Omri is THE GUY in the country of Israel when it comes to basketball. And while Israeli basketball is on the rise and has been for quite some time now, they’re still not close to being one of the teams at the FIBA adult’s table for dinner. With Omri cutting his teeth in the leadership role as Noam pointed out yesterday, it can take him and the Kings down one of two paths.

1) The cultivation of Omri Casspi’s leadership skills on the court could most certainly help the Kings out over his career in Sacramento. I think we can all see that Tyreke Evans isn’t the most vocal person on the court. And while I think he’s shown enough leadership flashes to be that vocal leader and a leader by example in the future, the Kings need someone to be there in crunch time and get everybody on the same page. I think Omri – especially with what he’s shown so far in Israel’s run – can be that player.

He’s one of the best shooters and probably one of the best all-around players on the Kings roster with plenty of room for growth and progress. Casspi will be on the floor at the end of games if he earns it like the majority of us think he can and will. Having him as the vocal leader during crunch time and showing more of a pedigree for this type of role with his time this summer could be the extra boost the Kings need in an area they struggled with so mightily last season – fourth quarter execution. It doesn’t force Tyreke into a role he’s not ready for and the Kings get more production and leadership throughout the team at different points in the game no matter who is in.

Or.

2) Omri gets too big for his proverbial leadership britches from this experience and ends up demanding the ball and big shots late in the game. His teammates grow tired of a young player without having proven enough on the NBA stage and he begins to alienate other Kings on the roster. I’m not sure it would be quite the Andres Nocioni style of wanting more of an important role throughout the team but it could definitely grow to be an issue if this type of situation isn’t handled with care by the front office, coaching staff and veterans on the team.

I think it’s much more likely to be option 1 rather than option 2 because this seems like a good group of young players with more than enough leadership throughout the organization to get its guys in proper order of rank and file. Omri doesn’t seem like much of a hot head even though there were times in which he showed some pouting and confrontational actions with the team last season. But instead of just assuming he’s a malcontent, I think it’s clear he’s just a very competitive athlete with a lot of confidence and ability to back it up.

Ziller is correct when he says “International basketball is the window to the essence of a player’s potential.” When you have a guy like Omri who is so young and yet filled with so much potential, utilizing this stage for growth is so much more important than watching him fumble or vault through some random summer league schedule.

Good to see Omri gets this chance to see where he could be headed for the Kings.

I generally try to keep my Omri Casspi ramblings to a minimum over here, because I truly believe my own censorship is the only thing standing between a Sacramento Kings blog and an Omri Casspi fanclub. However, you will have to grant me this one tonight, because Omri has just turned in a performance of the highest caliber for the Israeli international team — absolutely obliterating a very good basketball team in the form of Montenegro.

Allow me to paint the setting for you: Israel is currently competing for a spot in the 2011 Eurobasket tournament, set to be held next summer in Lithuania. 10 teams have been granted automatic entry: Lithuania, Spain, Serbia, Greece, Slovenia, France, Croatia, Russia, Turkey and Germany. The other 6 spots are granted via qualifiers: 15 teams are split into 3 groups; the first placed team in each group automatically qualifies; the two 2^nd placed squads holding the best records join them; and the worst 2^nd placed squad is left to battle for the final spot with the other squads who failed to qualify from group play.

Israel’s group consists of Montenegro, Italy, Latvia and Finland. With the two latter squads considered substantially weaker than the first three, Israel’s main competition for qualification was supposed to be Italy and Montenegro. However, despite high hopes coming in to the tournament and the presence of Andrea Bargnani and Marco Belinelli, Italy started off 1-3, including a home loss to Israel in the first game, while showing an utter lack of a cohesive team game. Montenegro played it’s part by going undefeated through their first three games, featuring a well-rounded squad led by the dominant post play of new Timberwolf Nikola Pekovic. Latvia filled in for Italy as squad number three, going 2-2 through its first four games. Israel started off great, with a road win in Italy and a home win against Latvia, before falling to weak Finland in an embarrassing road collapse.

As such, tonight’s match couldn’t be more important to Israel. With Montenegro poised to distance itself from the group, and a road game between the two squads still set to come, Israel knew it couldn’t let this one slip away, leaving them to battle Latvia for the second spot while keeping an eye out for the other two groups.

All eyes, naturally, were on Omri Casspi. After scoring 68 points through 3 exhibition matches while displaying a more diverse offensive game to go with previously unseen leadership skills and extra muscle, Casspi performance in the games that actually matter was considered a step back. He struggled on offense againt Italy, and wasn’t much better on defense, unable to stop Belinelli from getting his points. He was better against Finland, finishing as the team’s second leading scorer with 17, but lacked aggressiveness on offense, and was unable to prevent the stinging one point loss. His best game came against Latvia, leading 6 Israeli double figure scorers with 21, but if he can’t score in a 22-point blowout, when can he?

Well he can against Montenegro, apparently. Omri was on the top of his game from the start when he blocked Montenegro’s first shot attempt. He then scored the first points of the game on a breakaway dunk. Down went his first three point attempt. Then he got to the line. Then he made a layup. Another block. Another three. Two more free throws. Another dunk.

When the dust settled on the first quarter, the scoreboard showed Israel 26, Montenegro 22, with 15 of those 26 points coming from the same pair of hands.

The second quarter wasn’t as dreamy as the first. Omri seemed to take his hot streak one step too far, forcing two bad shots within 30 seconds of each other. Omri went down to the bench for his first rest of the game, returning with only 2:45 remaining in the quarter. Casspi only attempted one more shot in the half – a desperation floater to with the clock winding down – finishing the second quarter with the same amount of points he had in the first. The score tied at 40.

The drought continued through most of the third quarter as well. Casspi did manage to register 2 steals during that span, but much like his teammates, he seemed tired and couldn’t cope with the size Montenegro had down low. After his getting trigger happy seemingly led to his benching in the second quarter, Casspi didn’t force things on offense, instead deferring to teammate Lior Eliyahu, widely considered as Israel’s second best offensive weapon. Lior scored eight straight points after a horrendous first half. Eliyahu wasn’t enough to match Montenegro, though, who started the quarter on a 7-0 run and were suddenly leading 56-48.

At this point Casspi came to life. Omri continued to go strong to the rim, scoring a layup while drawing foul number three on Pekovic. On the next possession, he added three more – this time from way, way behind the arc. After teammate Yaniv Green added two of his own, Montenegro scored four straight, only to meet yet another long range bomb from Omri to end the quarter. Israel had come back from the slippery slope of no interior defense, now down just two, 61-59, to start the final quarter.

The fourth started where the third ended: Montenegro once again went to Pekovic, who drew yet another foul on Israel’s only true center, Yaniv Green. But again, Casspi was there to return the favor, continuing to take the ball hard to the rim, and drawing Pekovic’s fourth while making the layup for dessert. Pekovic went over to the bench, but Casspi continued to draw fouls, with big man Vladimir Dasic joining Pekovic on the bench after committing a charge on, who else, Omri.

At this point the game became sloppy. Neither team scored for two minutes, with Casspi and Eliyahu committing turnovers for Israel and both teams missing long jump shots. Eliyahu broke the ice by making one of two free throws. The miss, however, proved to be more important than the make: after his free throw met iron, Eliyahu flew in for the offensive rebound, drawing the ire of Montenegro coach Dusko Vujosevic. Furious that the officials didn’t call Eliyahu for a lane violation, Vujosevic walked several feet into the court, immediately getting hit with a technical. Former Seattle draft pick (53^rd overall in 2006) Yotam Halperin tied the game at the line, with the momentum shifting towards the home team.

It is at this point that we criticize Casspi for getting a little trigger happy. Omri missed two bad threes from here on out, probably a little too eager to win the game himself. Luckily, Israel secured the long offensive rebound both times out, with Eliyahu contributing two points each time. However, at 70-70, Casspi basically seals the game y taking Nikola Pekovic off the dribble once again to draw the foul. Meeting the international foul limit of five, Pekovic is out of the game. Casspi makes two from the line then two more the next time down the court after yet another drawn foul, Halperin adds two of his own, and the game is over. 77-73 Israel, 30 points for Casspi.

Was the performance perfect? Hardly. Through a quarter and a half Casspi was absent offensively. He was often too eager to do too much, taking some bad shots and to my eyes committing more turnovers than the one he was credited for. And his defense was inconsistent as always, combining athletic blocks and nifty steals with constantly getting beat down low (to be fair, he was guarding bigger players then he does when playing the perimeter for Sacramento). Not only that, his tendency to bite on pump fakes almost cost Israel the game: up 72-70, Casspi tried to block a shot attempt by Goran Jeretin, only Jeretin was just faking. The guard proceeded to draw Omri’s fourth foul, sending Jeretin to the line for a couple. After Casspi responded with two free throws of his own, he was subbed out by Israeli coach Arik Shibek so he won’t commit his fifth foul on defense. However, the lack of live-ball timeouts in the international game kept Omri on the bench for the huge offensive possession that followed, which luckily ended in Halperin drawing and making two free throws of his own.

Nonetheless, Casspi’s performance was masterful. Beyond scoring 30 points in a 40-minute, 150-point game (I lack the advanced statistics skills to translate this into a pace-based offensive rating, but I bet it’s pretty high), Casspi took an entire squad on his back, both to start the game and to end it, and willed them to victory — all while showing the basketball IQ to constantly take it to the opponents most important player and foul him out of the game. The decision to constantly let Casspi play iso-ball late in the game – a role which he never played in Sacramento or in Israel, and which is quite rare in the international game – says it all.

We shouldn’t expect Omri to come back to Sacramento and drop 20 points on a nightly basis. This was a rare performance against inferior competition to what Omri sees during the regular season, and at times it showcased Omri’s flaws as much as it did his strengths. But along with the never ending swagger and the long range Omri has shown Kings fans last year (seriously, nothing was more fun to watch tonight than Omri taking a three from NBA range while his defender hopelessly stood on the international three point line), beyond the efficient shooting (30 points on 19 shots) or the encouraging progress at the free throw line (8 of 10), Omri is now showing the ability to lead. The ability to rise to the occasion. It may be a while before Sacramento plays meaningful playoff games, but one player seems more than capable of doing it at that level.

Which means it’s Team Donte’s turn to make a move.

During the Las Vegas Summer League, I wrote about the Kings rebuilding plan on the Daily Dime. In it I mentioned how the Kings have taken advantage of opportunities in which players inexplicably fell to them in the draft. The Kings have been fortuitous and intelligent enough to take these players despite the preexisting concerns about what these players (DeMarcus Cousins and Tyreke Evans) could or couldn’t mean to a franchise.

In taking these players, the Kings have shown the confidence and desperation to throw caution to the wind and make these guys a part of their organization and plan for rebuilding. They feel they can mold these players into the foundation of a franchise.

With the news that Delonte West has been jettisoned from Cleveland and now waived for financial and cap purposes in Minnesota, the Kings now have the chance to capitalize on this type of situation once again. I’m not proposing the Kings give Delonte West a huge contract offer to eat up a ton of cap space over the next two years. But they can offer him a great platform to get his still promising career back on track.

Basketball-wise, Delonte West is exactly what the Kings need on this roster. I don’t see a legitimate starting shooting guard on this team (this is where someone who watched the Kings for less than 10 minutes last year suggests Tyreke Evans can’t play point and should be a shooting guard). The Kings went huge with Donté Greene as the shooting guard quite a few games last year and while the results weren’t terrible, Greene is out of place on the court as a shooting guard. You can start Beno at the 2 like the Kings did plenty of times last season but if they’re serious about getting better and winning this year, that strategy isn’t going to work.

So that leaves this idea of trying to add Delonte West to the roster. The two parties mutually need each other. Delonte’s reputation has taken a bit of a hit over the past few months with wild rumors flying around and his play declining after a great role-playing season in 2008-09. He’s also had a recent run-in with the law last year when he was pulled over on his motorcycle carrying enough guns and artillery to hold up in the mall when the zombies take over the Earth.

On the Kings side of it, they desperately need a guy with his game and pedigree to make a run at the playoffs this season. Granted, even with Delonte playing at his best the Kings probably won’t make the playoffs. But with West they could definitely get invaluable experience by making a playoff push and playing in some games that provided pressure past the month of December.

Delonte does everything the Kings need. First off, he’s a tenacious defender. He’s probably one of the best perimeter defenders in the entire NBA when he has his head in the game. He provides incredible ball pressure against both point and shooting guards and it’s hard to shake free of him. He funnels opponents well into help defense and challenges shots extremely well. He’s not afraid to guard guys like Kobe Bryant and he does a pretty good job on him too. According to 82games.com, the Cavs had a defensive rating of 93.7 when he was playing point guard and 91.7 when he was playing shooting guard last season. While you can chalk a lot of that up to LeBron James and the defensive-minded system of Mike Brown, guys like Delonte West also play a huge part in it. He doesn’t confuse his ability with his role on the team.

Delonte is very talented and skilled. He theoretically could be one of those awkward Ricky Davis-type star-role player tweeners who uses his considerable ability to justify hijacking shots, possessions and sometimes games. Instead, he tries to fit seamlessly into the flow of everything and plays well off of his teammates. West would be another reliable ball-handler on the court and allow the Kings to be much deeper with Beno coming off the bench. He’s also pretty adept at creating for his teammates. He has a career assist percentage of 21, which isn’t spectacular but it shows he does a great job of creating for his teammates.

West also gives the Kings something they were sorely lacking last year – crunch time shooting. Other than Omri and Donté (who both did a nice job percentage-wise shooting in the clutch), the Kings really struggled with their clutch shooting last season. Beno and Tyreke were surprisingly bad at it and nobody else really stepped up consistently. Delonte isn’t a go-to scorer in the clutch by any means but he was someone that consistently knocks down jumpers when it counts. Aside from a horrendous season of clutchness (made up the word) in 2008-09, Delonte has been pretty deadly at the end of close games.

In the 2007-08 season, Delonte West had a clutch time field goal percentage of 57.1 and an efficient field goal percentage of 71.4. He played 17% of the clutch minutes for the Cavs. In the 2008-09 season, he regressed a lot with low percentages of 25% (field goal) and 29.2% (eFG) while playing 50% of the crunch time minutes. But he bounced back dramatically last season by shooting an absurd 66.7% from the field and had an even absurder eFG of 83.3% while playing 50% of the minutes.

Not only was he deadly but also he just didn’t miss with his jumper. 78% of his shots in the clutch were jumpers and he had an eFG of 92.9% on those jumpers. Think about that for a second. Is there anything you can do with 92.9% accuracy? There’s nothing I can do with 92.9% accuracy. So when you see that he was on one of the best teams in the league with so much pressure and intensity slapping him in the face with each shot, it makes the 92% all that more impressive. 92%, yo! (Audio NSFW)

With what the Kings will run this season in the fourth quarter, you need that kind of threat in the corner to knock down big shots. While I would never make the comparison of LeBron to Tyreke, they do get similar sets run for them at the end of games. Having a guy that the defense can’t leave in the corner and a post player (Cousins) they can’t afford to let get loose around the basket when Tyreke is driving by will be a tough combination to start. Throw in an improved jumper from Evans and you’ve got a deadly situation for opposing teams at the end of games.

The problem might be trying to convince Delonte that this is the place for him. Apparently the Mavs are in contention to sign him and the Kings simply can’t compete with that situation. As good as the Maloofs are at owning the team and the amenities they can offer with connections, you could argue Mark Cuban is just as good if not better. The team is much better, the arena is better and the market is bigger.

But the Kings can offer more money — a lot more money. The Mavericks can still offer the mid-level exception but the Kings have roughly $14 million. They could offer a three-year, $21 million contract with the third year as a player option for West. That’s not a bad contract for a legit, defensive-minded starter who just turned 27 years old. I’d even up it to $24 million if it means getting him on the Kings.

Maybe you can say that’s too risky considering his history off the court but at the same time, the Kings are financially set for the next few years. They have only $28 million committed to the books next off-season and are set up better than any other team in terms of cap room heading into the next Collective Bargaining Agreement. So adding $7 million for a couple of seasons doesn’t really impact them at all. They’d still have a ton of cap room and flexibility with the roster before they have to worry about contract extensions for their young stars.

Now it’s up to the Kings again to take advantage of an opportunity falling into their laps. Delonte West isn’t the final piece to the puzzle but if you can get him to come to Sacramento and prove that his next contract should be with a championship contender then it’s a win-win for both sides.

And who knows? Maybe that next contract he signs with championship contender in a couple years is a deal to re-up with the Kings.

Well, the Kings certainly have figured out how to beat the Clippers. Over the last 10 games they’ve won and scored 100 points or more twice. Both of those games were against the Clippers.

To say the Clippers still have their head in this season would be the equivalent of saying Tyreke Evans still has some work to do before he can stake a claim to the Rookie of the Year award. The Clippers clearly don’t care about this season. They aren’t even in full tank mode. Tanking would be a compliment of the way they’re playing. They simply don’t seem to care. Other than Chris Kaman, I didn’t see a lot of effort out there aside from the occasional DeAndre Jordan explosion or Eric Gordon drive.

And sometimes, that’s exactly what you need for a Kings team like this one. They’re young and they’re hungry. They’re trying to figure out how to win and win consistently but they’ve been mired in an offensive funk. Thank higher being for the Clippers because they will right any ship that’s having trouble finding their course. This game got a lot of the Kings players back into a nice rhythm. With Dallas, Houston and the Lakers waiting for them to end the season, that was a must if the Kings want to finish the campaign with some momentum for next year.

- This is the Jason Thompson we saw in November when it wasn’t crazy to think if he could challenge for a spot on the All-Star team in just his second season. Back then, JT was confident, succinct with his movements and outworking nearly every opponent put in front of him. He lost that way for a few months. He wouldn’t utilize his natural gifts and abilities on the court and it hurt his game. When it hurt his game, he didn’t look confident in anything he was trying to accomplish. But now that all seems to be changing.

Over his last eight games, JT seems to have figured out whatever was ailing him. During this stretch, he’s averaging 14.5 points, 9.4 rebounds, 3.5 offensive rebounds and just over three fouls per game. He’s also shooting 53.4% from the field with a lot of those coming on the mid-range jumper. Against the Clippers, he once again proved to me why I think his future in this league is at the center position. He did a great job of pulling Chris Kaman and DeAndre Jordan away from the basket. This allowed him plenty of room to operate. He can pick you apart that way with the mid-range jumper or drive past his opponent in an isolation set. He did a great job of getting to the baseline early in his drives, which put the defender on his heels. Once he did that, he could either turn the corner on the baseline or make a move back to the middle. When he learns to do this without taking that extra dribble to gather himself and/or getting too low with his body, he’ll be a handful to stop on a nightly basis.

The 22 points on 20 shots isn’t great but he did hit half of his attempts. You’d like to see him get to the free throw line more (just three attempts) but overall it’s hard to nitpick at this performance, especially when you look at the rebounding totals of eight offensive and 15 total. At halftime, Jason had nine rebounds and the entire Clippers team had just 13. He struggled against Kaman in the post a little and that’s where you wonder if he needs to seriously hit the weights. If he’s going to be a versatile switch between the power forward and center positions, he probably needs to add about 10 to 15 pounds of muscle in the off-season to be able to hold his own better in the paint. Overall, just a fantastic game from JT and one that seems to be more of the trend lately, rather than just an outlier.

- I loved the production from the Kings bench in this game. Even though Sean May didn’t get his usual pick-and-pop jumper to fall, the Kings still received fantastic efforts from Omri Casspi, Francisco Garcia and Donté Greene. Nobody came out and set the world on fire but these three guys did a great job of not letting the Clippers get a lot of momentum going other than one stretch in the third quarter. All three players did a good job of keeping the flow of the offense moving, attacking the basket when they needed to and knocking down shots. But more importantly, they continued some good defensive effort on the wings. The Clippers have a few wing players that can get very hot and make life a nightmare for their opponents. The Kings, especially these three guys, kept that from being a problem.

And Omri threw a great lob late in the game to Donté that led to the highlight package:

- During the third quarter, the Clippers made a healthy comeback by implementing a zone defense that left the Kings a little befuddled but not much. While the zone appears to have been the reason for the Kings faltering for quite a stretch of basketball, I really don’t think it was THAT big of a deal. The Kings didn’t get denied good looks during this zone and I think that’s why the Clippers didn’t use it exclusively once they got the game close. Sacramento still got good looks at the basket; they just didn’t always fall.

The comeback mainly happened because Chris Kaman decided to either increase his team’s chances of keeping this thing close or beef up his own numbers. There was no answer for him in the third period. He knocked down jumpers and utilized a bevy of post moves to get good looks against the Kings. If anything, Chris Kaman’s aggressiveness on both ends is the cause for the Clippers comeback. The zone was just a different look that made the Kings adjust.

- I almost forgot; there was this Tyreke Evans guy that was pretty good during the game. Baron Davis is no slouch of a player when he wants to be. Apparently, he went on about wanting to lead the Clippers next season. It’s probably just an empty promise like when people say, “I’m really going to enjoy this BBQ this weekend because on Monday I’m starting a diet and my training at the gym.” I never understood that mentality. If you want to change the way your health is why do you wait until after the weekend? Why not just make the change then and now? That’s what I got from Baron Davis after reading the quotes and then watching him in this game. If you want to change the culture of Clippers basketball, why not change it against the Kings? That’s a very beatable team with a motivated Baron Davis. Instead, it seemed like the rest of the season was the weekend BBQ and next season was the gym and diet health plan.

But I don’t blame him for not putting forth the effort against the Kings Thursday night. With the way Tyreke was going, only Nicolas Batum or Shane Battier could have prevented him from doing the things he was doing. Half of his made baskets came on jumpers. He stated earlier that he was going to add a mid-range jumper to his game. If this was a preview of coming attractions, sign me up. There is simply no stopping Reke when his jumper is falling. You can’t give him the jumper because he’s making it. And you can’t play up to prevent the jumper because that’s like leaving Randy Moss single covered on his own side of the field. All you can do with Tyreke is hope the jumper clangs off the iron or you have quick help defense with a longer reach around the basket than him.

Based on StR’s Reke-O-Meter, he now needs just 51 points in the final three games to finish with the fourth rookie season of 20 points, five rebounds and five assists in NBA history. He already wrapped up the assists days ago and grabbed the one rebound he needed against the Clippers to put the rebounding side of it to rest. Now he has to average 17 points per game in the final three games to get the points.

One final thing of note is to recognize the defense he played on Baron Davis. Baron had a decent first half against Tyreke and the Kings guards – 11 points and five assists. In 15 second half minutes, Baron was scoreless with five more assists. Evans did a good job of keeping Baron in front of him and challenging jumpers. Tyreke struggles by helping too much on defense and then being slow to get back to his shooter. But when he’s matched up one-on-one with a guy, I like his chances of keeping his man from getting into an offensive rhythm.

Oh yeah, don’t forget that he can make a highlight reel too:

(You may remember Noam Schiller from his fantastic Omri Casspi article earlier in the season. Well from time to time he’ll be joining us all the way from Israel to chime in on the Sacramento Kings. He is a lover of the professional basketball team in Hapoel, the Daily Dime Live chats on ESPN.com and Omri Casspi.)

Let me take you all the way back to the exotic past, to a time where hope still existed and the world was a better place: February of 2010. Oh, how we long for those days to return! The Boston Celtics were considered title contenders; Lebron James was still playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers before retiring from basketball and returning to his home planet; and the New York Knicks were still trying to recover from the Isiah Thomas era (well, lets face it, that will go on forever).

But lets focus on a small portion of those wonderful times – the February of 2010 Sacramento Kings. As the history whizzes amongst you may recall, back then, the Sacramento Kings were not a very good basketball team, mainly due to two major issues:

1. They were getting nothing defensively out of their frontcourt.
2. They were getting nothing offensively out of their frontcourt.

Good times.

Meanwhile, in a totally different part of the universe, former second round pick Carl Landry was lighting up opposing defenses from the Houston Rocket bench, garnering serious consideration for both the 6^th Man of the Year and Most Improved Player awards.

And then, on February 18^th, as so often happens when Team A has problems Y and Z, and Team B has Player X which is good at solving problem Y, the Kings traded for Carl Landry. The logic couldn’t be any clearer: take a budding young post scorer, put him on a young team without any post scorer, sit back and watch. Not to mention the extra cap space. And if you have to lose your disgruntled former face of the franchise in the process, so be it.

Fast forward to the present, where, as of April 3^rd, Carl Landry has already played 22 games for the Kings. How has it worked out?

Well, at first glance – not great. In those 22 games, the Kings went 6-16, and have played pretty terrible basketball. Then again, it’s hard to pin this on Landry. There are many  non-Landry reasons for the Kings’ struggles: they are way too young; they have way too many bench players getting starter-type minutes; they get nothing defensively out of their frontcourt (remember that?); and, to paraphrase the thoughts of certain unnamed members of the NBA viewership community, they are suffering the dire karmic consequences of moving Omri Casspi to the bench.

The point is, for all their young talent, the Kings are a few years away from even trying to contend. Landry is a very nice player, with youth and a great contract to boot, but he isn’t the last piece of the puzzle. As such, it would be unfair – heck, it would be downright stupid – to judge his short-lived performance so far by team standards. The Kings didn’t trade for Landry so he can lead them to the playoffs – they traded for him because he can finally give them some offense in their frontcourt.

Has it been working?

The first thing we have to remember when judging Landry’s integration in Sacramento is that Sacramento Landry has a very different role than Houston Landry. In Houston, GM Daryl Morey assembled a star-less, ensemble cast of role players and overachievers. Landry fit perfectly into that mold – slipped in the draft due to injury and size concerns, extremely hard worker, and tougher than a German’s forearm. While this allowed Landry to get plenty of touches, it also limited his output on a game to game basis. Landry could be the team’s best player one night, and their 7^th best the next; often Houston’s go-to-guy late in games, but never more than just a cog in the machine, albiet an important one.

In Sacramento, the situation couldn’t be more different. The entire team revolves around rookie phenom Tyreke Evans, with Landry a clear second in the pecking order. Again, the impact on Landry is twofold. He gets as many touches and minutes as he wants, no longer has to play off the bench, and is the main offensive option when Evans is on the bench. Then again, Evans is on the court so much himself, that the game will almost almost always go through him, and rarely through Landry.

As one would expect, Landry’s increased role has spawned a dramatic increase in minutes (37.4 per game, up from 27.2), and therefore in his per game numbers. Amongst those categories, predictably, is shot attempts per game (13.5 vs. 10.6). However, Landry is making his shots at a lesser rate, down from 54.7% in Houston to 52.5% in Sacramento. This makes sense as well: now that he’s the second most dangerous option on his team, opposing defenses focus on him much, much more.

Or so one would think.

A closer look shows that, since moving to Sacramento, Landry is shooting a better percentage around the rim, from 10 to 15 feet, and from 16 to 23 feet. The only area where his shooting has decreased is from 10 feet in, which also happens to be the area from which he takes the smallest amount of shots (1.7 a game).

The truth is, Landry’s shooting hasn’t suffered from tougher defenses or reduced ability, but from poorer shot selection.

Since joining the Kings, Landry’s long jumpers have skyrocketed from 1.9 to 4.6 attempts per game. In addition, he’s taking less shots from around the rim – 4.8 a game vs. 5.5 in Houston – despite taking more shots overall, and despite being his team’s premier post option.

All of this raises a pretty good question: why is a player who has experienced a breakout season behind his great post offense taking his offense out of the post?

It could be attributed to laziness. Landry moved from a team fighting (back then) for the playoffs, and went instead to a broken squad with visions of next year. Hard worker as he is, any player in his situation would be tempted to take it easy, and shoot those long jumpers instead of banging inside all game.

But seeing how we’re talking about a player who got shot in the leg and ran to safety, I don’t think banging in the post bothers him that much.

Another possible explanation is cold feet. Sure, Landry never shies away from a challenge, but he seemed so comfortable at Houston. He was perfect for the system, and he was nurtured by Morey throughout his career. It’s perfectly understandable that he would want to make an extra effort to fit in with his new team – play within the flow, take the open shots he gets, and not look for his shot in an overly-aggressive manor. Sometimes, when you get the ball in the post for your new team, passing back out is a better way to fit in than holding it for eight seconds so you can get your best shot at the basket. I get it.

Unlike the laziness thing, I think this could be a factor. I don’t think Landry would ever intentionally hold back parts of his game after rising to such stature through hard work and determination. However, I do think this could have a subconcious, if minimal effect.

Clearly, though, this huge difference in style isn’t solely the product of a new mentality. There’s another factor. And if we assume that Landry is the same player in Sacramento as he was in Houston – and there’s not reason not to – then we can pretty safely declare that this factor is the difference between Tyreke Evans and Aaron Brooks.

See, being a power forward, Landry can’t take the ball from the Kings’ end of the court and create for himself – he needs to get passes. It’s a phenomenon that’s happening throughout the league, and to much better players than Landry. From Brook Lopez to Andrew Bogut, big men all over the league have their FGA numbers toggled on a nightly basis, depending on how much their point guards feel like passing to them. Even superstars such as Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol have complained about touches this year. No matter how good Landry will be, the point guard he plays with has to give him the ball, and his touches will vary accordingly.

Aaron Brooks and Tyreke Evans take more or less the same amount of shots per game (16.3 and 16.0, respectively). The difference between the two is how they take them. Brooks takes an astonishing 6.5 threes a game (making 39% of them), good for second in the league. Throw in 2.7 shots a game from the 16 to 23 foot range, and you got yourself a heck of a perimeter point guard.

Since Brooks is so good at spreading the floor, naturally, he uses that newly created space to find open teammates closer to the rim. In fact, almost half of his assists are to shots under the basket (2.3 of 5.2). Being his team’s best offensive option down low, many of those passes went to Landry.

Evans is the exact opposite. With a jumpshot that’s shaky at best, Reke does most of his damage inside, taking more than half of his shots at the rim (8.3 per game). This means his passes are mainly of the drive and kick variety: Reke goes in, ball goes out. The recipient of said pass – AKA Landry – would therefore spread the floor, drawing out the interior defender enough to get his point guard a layup. Or, if the defender sags to help out on Reke, you have an open mid-range jumper.

Evans’ presence on the team also deprives Landry of his crunch time go-to-guy status. Unlike in Houston, where the 4^th quarter offense went to him in the post, Sacramento’s 4^th quarter offense is more commonly known as the Tyreke layup line. Tyreke is just so good at getting to the rim in late game situations, that other players are sometimes reduced to spot up shooters – and rightfully so.

This isn’t to suggest that Tyreke has been hurting Landry’s production. Au contraire. Since Landry joined Sacramento, the “Tyreke Evans is not a point guard” argument has become as irrelevant as Tracy McGrady, with Reke averaging a handy 7.2 assists per game. Landry’s improved mid-range touch shows that he benefits from the pairing as well.

It should be noted that Landry’s per-minute production in Sactown has decreased across the board. His drop from 16.1 points in 27 minutes to 18 in 37 is a steep one, and hints that he might be a work in progress as far as a 37 minutes guy. His rebounding numbers, are even more troubling: 6.7 boards a night is way, way too low for a power forward playing 37 minutes. But one should note that Landry still has to go to war with the likes of Spencer Hawes and Jason Thompson every night. Not even good, spry early-season Thompson, but bad, low IQ, late-season Thompson. That rebounding number hurts way less if you play him with somebody who can actually give the Kings something defensively from their frontcourt (last time I say this, I promise).

But this does nothing to change the fact that Landry is an elite post scorer on a team who needs him to be just that. The start might not have been as glorious as the Kings wanted, but it’s been very solid at the least – 18 points per game on 52% shooting is nothing to sneeze at. And after a full training camp, when he and Tyreke learn how to depend on each other’s games, when Tyreke grows more and more comfortable running an NBA offense, and Landry grows more and more comfortable taking the ball down low as he did in Houston, the two should form a dangerous 1-2 combo for quite a while.

Now, about those minutes for Casspi…

From today’s Sac Bee, Coach Westphal may continue to rest Omri Casspi in order to get him past the rookie wall:

One day after Westphal decided to make the rookie small forward inactive as a way to “recharge his batteries,” he was still undecided as to whether the mandated rest would continue for tonight’s game at Portland.

So when Casspi darted through defenders in the lane en route to a roaring right-handed dunk, it appeared the 21-year-old was plenty ready to return.

Until Westphal was later asked about the play and what it might mean.

“You didn’t get to see the whole practice,” he retorted.

Translation: not so fast.

I think this is probably a good idea. 1) I’d like to see more of Donté Greene out there even if he’s making a couple of mistakes. He needs extended time on the court. 2) Omri could be at risk of injury if he’s not capable of being energetic and keeping up with the game.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Noam Schiller, he’s an avid basketball fan and somewhat of a commenting star at ESPN.com’s Daily Dime Live chats that happen pretty much everyday. He’s by far the most knowledgeable commenter of anyone on there and that’s not meant to be a knock to the rest of the readers there. There are some extremely intelligent chatters. He’s just that good. I decided to reach out to him to see if he would write something about Omri Casspi and what it means for basketball fans in Israel. Seemed like a good idea since Noam is a resident and citizen of the country. What ended up happening is the definitive Omri Casspi article of this season. Enjoy:

When Zach offered me to write something about the Kings, I immediately had a pretty good idea what I would be writing about. After all, while I enjoy watching the Kings as a basketball fanatic, I can’t compete with a full-time Sacramento blogger as far as analysis. But if there is one thing that Zach can’t provide (Editor’s note: I’m pretty sure it’s well established there are MANY thing I can’t provide) and I can as far as Kings basketball coverage, it is my very different perspective. See, I share a unique trait with one of the newest members of Sacramento basketball – I was born, raised, and currently live in Israel, which makes Omri Casspi and me compatriots. Therefore, I can offer a different look at Omri, not just in his current role as a rookie in the NBA, but as a figure with a past, present and future in a very different sports world.

The people of Israel are and always have been sports fanatics. As with most of the non-American world, soccer gets the lion’s share of attention over here, but basketball is a very close second. In fact, if you take a stroll through a random Israeli neighborhood, you’re just as likely to come across kids playing basketball as you are soccer. While this is undoubtedly helped by Israel’s miserable track record in soccer (participated in only one World Cup in history, no European Championships) and it’s relative success in basketball (the Israeli national team are perennial participants in the biennial Eurobasket tournament, last missing the games in 1991, and even winning the silver medal in 1979 losing to the then-invincible Soviet Union), we just love the sport.

However, the success of Israeli basketball largely hinges on one team: Maccabi Tel-Aviv. (Side note: I am not a Maccabi fan. I hate Maccabi. I eat, drink, and bleed Hapoel Jerusalem. No Bill Simmons “levels of losing” column can describe the excruciating pain that this following paragraph brings to me.) This isn’t your “How do the Lakers always win lopsided trades?”, or, “Look at that, the Yankees won another championship!” sort of dominance, this is other-worldly. The numbers speak for themselves: 48 national titles in 55 years of league activity, including 23 consecutive titles between 1970-1992 and 38 of the past 40, and 36 Israeli cups (of 49 possible ones). In addition, Maccabi has an automatic Euroleague berth, and have won the European title 4 or 5 times, depending on how you count (don’t even get me started on why there are different ways to count. Since, again, I’m a Hapoel fan, let’s say 4). In a small country that faces enemies from every direction, Maccabi was “The Country’s team”, proof that we can match up with the big boys, and sometimes even win. For years, the streets of Israel were empty every Thursday night, which just happened to be European basketball nights, as Maccabi played whatever team from wherever in Europe, the team who played the part of “big bad wolf” for a week before fading back to obscurity.

While the larger-than-life legacy of Maccabi has taken a step back, as other teams in Israel grow in stature and Maccabi themselves become more of a Euroleague team and less of an Israeli one, it still casts a shadow over every pro basketball player in Israel.  Miki Berkovich. Tal Brody. Moti Aroesti. These names probably mean nothing to you. Try mentioning them to Casspi. These figures are much more than former sports heroes to the average Israeli fan. They symbolized a time when this small, troubled country, was even smaller and more troubled. Even more recent players, such as Nadav Henefeld, Doron Sheffer and Oded Katash are idolized just for donning the yellow-blue jerseys. And yet, all of them failed at one thing:

Nobody made it to the NBA.

Some were very, very close. Berkovich had offers from the Nets and the Hawks after being named tournament MVP in the 1979 European Championships, but was not released from his Maccabi contract. Doron Sheffer was picked by the Clippers with the 36^th pick in the 1996 draft, but after playing for 4 seasons at UConn, he preferred to go back home. Lior Eliyahu and Yotam Halperin were both drafted in the 2006 draft (44^th by Orlando and 53^rd by Seattle, respectively), but as of today, are not and were never good enough to actually make the move. Oded Katash was the closest to make it, having verbally agreed to a contract with the Knicks in 1998. Unfortunately, the NBA was heading towards a lockout, and Katash, fearing the worst-case scenario of missing an entire season, stayed in Israel. He carried on to become one of the best basketball players in Europe in the following two seasons (one with Maccabi, one with Greek powerhouse Panathinaikos) before suffering a knee injury that ended his career despite multiple comeback attempts. You can’t make this stuff up.

Don’t be fooled by the bustling sports world in Israel and the lack (until now) of Israeli representation in the NBA – it’s absolutely huge in Israel. The time difference (7 hours later than Eastern time) just makes it more magical. Get into an NBA discussion with any Israeli sports fan, and you will very quickly hear of that special NBA player for whom that fan would wake up on a nightly basis, be it MJ, Bird, Magic or Kareem. But as enthusiastic as we are about the game of basketball, the lack of one of our own playing in the big boys’ league hurt us. The players considered the greatest Israeli soccer players of all time are Motale Shpigler, and Eyal Berkovic. Why? Because one of them is the only Israeli to score a goal in the World Cup, and the other one became a household name in the English Premier League. The others just don’t cut it. The local swamp is all good, but it’s not the best of the best, and that’s just not good enough.

And then came Casspi.

Well, in all fairness, that’s a pretty dumb sentence. It makes for a perfect transition in the story, and it accurately describes the huge void that Casspi has filled, but the truth is that Casspi didn’t come out of nowhere. He was a strong contributor in Israel for the past 3 seasons, the first while on loan at Hapoel Galil Elion (the concept of loaning doesn’t exist in the NBA, but in European sports it is extremely common for a team to loan a player to a lesser club to give him playing time), and the next two at Maccabi.

Now, I can’t stress this last point enough: at the age of 19 and 20, Casspi played an ever increasing role – he won the Israeli Sixth Man of the Year award for the 2007-2008 season, and started most of 2008-2009 – for one of the top clubs in Europe. THIS NEVER HAPPENS. Young players just don’t get that kind of burn in Europe – they are either loaned to bad clubs for a few years, or are treated as projects and are only given spot duty (which is why Brandon Jennings couldn’t get off the bench in Italy). And yet Casspi – again, at age 19 – played 12 minutes and scored nine points in a Euroleague Finals match. He may be a rookie in the NBA, but this is the third year he’s playing high-level basketball, and his fifth at any professional level. Add that to games with the Israeli national team, and you get with the confidence and experience to contribute right now, and at the same time, has ample room for improvement.

And there’s no reason to believe he won’t cash in on that room. After being chosen by Sacramento in the June draft (a media extravaganza of it’s own here in Israel, with camera crews in the Casspi household for the entire draft despite the fact that it started at 2 AM local time), Casspi had two main weaknesses: outside shooting – his 42% from 3 in his final season in Israel seems impressive before you remember that the 3 point line is much closer and that defenses play much more zone; in reality, his shooting was very streaky – and strength. So what did Casspi do? He withdrew from Israel’s squad for the 2009 Eurobasket tournament, choosing instead to hone his game. Again, this point should be emphasized: this isn’t US basketball, where any 12-man combination of the best 50 or so players make for an elite squad. The talent pool of Israeli basketball is a top-heavy group, and the absence of any player is crucial.

This decision went unnoticed in the US, with Casspi being virtually unknown at the time, but in Israel he was heavily criticized. He was called a traitor, a punk who has already forgotten where he came from. Nothing could be further from the truth: Casspi didn’t take the time off; he put it to good use. He developed a deadly outside shot, shooting 47% from behind the arc in his first 32 NBA games, put on some much needed muscle, and has since commented on numerous occasions that he will proudly represent Israel whenever he will be asked to from here on out. The true greats of the game have always separated themselves from the pack with relentless work ethics, and a never ending thirst to improve their game year after year. As far as work ethic is concerned, Casspi is good to go.

Of course, Casspi is still far from being a true great, both on the international stage and in Israel. After a blistering start to his NBA career, he has struggled since Kevin Martin’s return to the rotation, tending to disappear on offense, and blow assignments on defense. His shooting has gone down drastically, and at times he has been nothing short of a defensive liability. This can be attributed to fatigue – in Israel, the busiest season possible is one that includes between 40 and 50 games over an 8 month period, with no back to backs or 4 games in 5 nights. In fact, no team plays more than 2 games a week. Of course, his recent slump can also be attributed to the proverbial “rookie wall”, along with all its side effects: being unable to surprise teams who are now ready for you, consistency, keeping up efforts despite playing for a bad team, etc.

Casspi’s minutes have also seemingly suffered his tussles with Paul Westphal over playing time. These should come as no surprise to long-time Casspi observers: as a youngster in Israel, Casspi’s attitude was considered a potential downfall. He clashed with his coaches in Israel on more than one occasion before eventually cementing his place in Maccabi’s rotation. In fact, this is probably new to most non-Israeli readers, but in December of 2007, Casspi’s father, Shimon Casspi openly criticized the aforementioned Oded Katash, Omri’s former coach at Hapoel Galil-Elion who was then coaching Maccabi Tel-Aviv. In an extensive interview, Shimon bashed the entire Maccabi organization, saying that “they haven’t developed a basketball player in 20 years, and won’t in the future”, adding that Katash was purposefully denying Omri of playing time, and that he “has intentions of ruining Omri” (Coincidently, Katash was fired as coach in the following weeks).

Casspi’s intense competitiveness and passion for the game, combined with his confidence and swagger, can sometimes be a detriment – Casspi was already ejected from a game this season, and was recently benched for the remainder of a game after seemingly fighting with teammate Donté Greene. Last but not least, to summarize any potential character issues, my father has always said that Casspi “looks like an idiot and plays like a punk”. Given his infuriating yet uncanny habit of watching 5 minutes of basketball, only to reach smarter conclusions than I do after watching for months, that should be the reddest red flag of them all.

But regardless of how Casspi’s career unravels from this point forward, he will always be the first one who made it. And all words and all the articles and all the TV pieces that have aired in the American media since that night late in June – and some of them are really really good – can’t even begin to describe the impact this has had in Israel. Kings games have become a matter of national importance – except nobody cares if they win or lose. David Thorpe’s rookie rankings are monitored on a weekly basis by every major sports website in the country. Tyreke Evans is on Casspi’s team, and is having one of the most impressive rookie seasons in recent memory, and yet if you watch a Kings game on an Israeli feed, the only thing you’ll hear the commentators saying is “WHY WON’T HE PASS?!”. Kevin Martin is public enemy number one, and this is for a country surrounded by people who want to kill us. New Casspi interviews and analysis pieces are published by the hour, and nobody is sick of it, because all they want is more and more information of how their promised son is doing in the scary outside world.

So the next time you watch a Kings game, and the camera glosses over an Israeli flag in the crowd, don’t think to yourself “boy, these people are really over doing it”. Because the truth of the matter is, you ain’t seen nothin’. That camera isn’t showing you the people back in Israel who wake up in the middle of the night to watch the Kings play the likes of the Pistons and the Knicks and the Bucks, despite having school or work the next day. It doesn’t show the “Omri Casspi scored 15 points!… and the Kings lost” headlines. It doesn’t show how all of a sudden, the Rookie-Sophomore game and the All-Star HORSE contest have, at least for one year, at least for one nation, stepped out of obscurity and into the spotlight. It doesn’t show how all these corny new headlines – such as the suddenly over used “Omri, King Of Israel” – are indeed corny, and sappy, and stupid, and true.

I don’t know about you but I watched this thing about 10 times in a row and got chills from it each time. That’s a great ad.

(H/T – Basketball Fiend)

YouTube link followed by YouTube video from JRSportBrief:

This is a guest post by Sacramento Kings fan, David Ford.

By the time the Sacramento Kings were making the 23^rd pick in the 2009 draft, they already looked like one of the winners of the night getting a player like Tyreke Evans. He was NBA-ready and one of the best pure talents available.

Then came the selection of Omri Casspi, the small forward from Israel. If you were to ask any casual NBA fan who this player was, chances are you wouldn’t find anyone who knew of him.

Casspi is the 21-year-old who played just 13 minutes per game for Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Euroleague. He was looked at as a work-in-progress who had the potential to be a nice role-player for the team that drafted him. Chad Ford of ESPN.com said, “He’s a very tough, scrappy, slashing player. He’s not a shooter yet and he’ll need to put on some pounds.” For a young team like the Kings, Casspi was going to get minutes to prove himself but it was unknown what kind of impact he would have so early in his career.

Fast-forward to the regular season. The Kings are 34 games in, have posted a 14-20 record after 17-65 the previous season and are one of the surprises of the league. Casspi has also proven to be one of the surprises of the rookie class. He has season averages of 13.2 points and 4.7 rebounds while playing 27 minutes per game. As the season has progressed, so has Casspi.

In December he stepped up his averages to 14.1 points and 5.0 rebounds in 29 minutes a game. He also had four games where he put up at least 20 points.

Since the new year, Casspi has continued to step up his play averaging 23.0 points and 8.0 rebounds. This is the kind of production coming from a work-in-progress rookie.

What has been the most surprising is how well he is shooting the ball from the field. He’s averaging almost 50% on his field goals and an even more impressive 47% from three-point range. I thought Casspi was, “not a shooter yet”? Even more surprising are the negatives on Casspi’s draft profile back in June. He supposedly had “poor shot mechanics” and “lacked deep range.” Looks like he’s doing alright thus far.

You could argue that the new attitude Casspi has brought to the Kings has been just as valuable as the numbers he’s putting up. He brings intensity that has been missing from this roster for far too long. He’s aggressive on the offensive end and fearless on defense. Just in the last few weeks Casspi has been given the task of guarding Lebron James, Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony. He’s been scrappy, pesky and effective on each one of them. A rookie from the Euroleague is not supposed to be able to stay in front of the greatest players in the world.

Casspi continues to be the spark behind the Kings and their most reliable shooter when they need a basket. Without injured Kevin Martin on the floor, the Kings don’t have that shooter to drain the long shot when they need it. Evans is their most potent scorer but does most of his work around the rim. Casspi has given the Kings a legitimate deep threat while Martin continues to recover from his broken wrist.

Game after game this season, Casspi has given the Kings that much needed three-point shot, fast-break dunk, fearless defense and aggressive style of play that is needed. Seeing Casspi pound his chest and yell to the rafters after making a big play has been a common occurrence for the Kings.

With his play over the last month, Casspi has worked himself into the Rookie of the Year discussion. Currently, ESPN.com has him ranked third behind his teammate Evans and the Milwaukee Bucks Brandon Jennings. Despite being ranked third, you could argue he has played better than any rookie the last couple weeks. If he continues to play like he has, it wouldn’t be crazy to see him take the award away from Evans or Jennings, who are currently looked at as the front-runners.

Back in June when the Kings made Casspi the 23^rd pick in the draft and the first NBA player from Israel, not many people knew his name. Not only is he now creating buzz around Sacramento, he’s beginning to make his presence felt throughout the rest of the league.

The Kings should feel extremely lucky Casspi fell all the way to their pick late in the first round. If the draft was done over today, you can guarantee he wouldn’t have fallen out of the top ten picks. Since that isn’t going to happen, the Kings can continue to reap the benefits of one of the most talented rookies in the league and the steal of the draft so far.