Grades v. Nets 11/27/09
- Thread starter Bricklayer
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In my mind, Beno is earning his contract and there is no longer a need to trade him for the sake of trading him. Unless of course the right deal comes along, but I don't believe in dumping him purely for cap relief. He is pretty much our Bobby Jackson now. I like Sergio as a third backup for when Beno or Tyreke don't have it going. Our weekness is obviously at center. We need either a defensive backup or a big time starter and, if possible, we need to get him without giving up any important pieces. I include Noc, Beno, Donte, Spencer, Jason, Kevin, Evans, Bockman, and Casspi as our important pieces.
We need a center. A starter or a very good backup. I have no one in mind at the moment. Ideally, you would want to trade him to an eastern club so he doesn't come back and bite us in the butt more than twice a year.
The problem is that their aren't that many good centers. Someone like Lopez is probably untouchable. Someone like Dalembert you would like to get cheaper. That leaves you with the Brendon Haywood's of the world. And their only a short term answer, with too big a price tag.
Perhaps the best thing to do is go after someone like Darko Milicic. He's hardly playing, and apparently the Knicks have little use for him. He's an expiring contract and makes almost the same salary as Kenny Thomas. He's a 7 footer and he does attempt to play defense. He's also never really had a chance to play. Now why? I don't know. It would be a short rental to see if a new system and new coaching would finally get him on track. At worse, it would at least give us a backup center in the short term that has some height.
The problem is that their aren't that many good centers. Someone like Lopez is probably untouchable. Someone like Dalembert you would like to get cheaper. That leaves you with the Brendon Haywood's of the world. And their only a short term answer, with too big a price tag.
Perhaps the best thing to do is go after someone like Darko Milicic. He's hardly playing, and apparently the Knicks have little use for him. He's an expiring contract and makes almost the same salary as Kenny Thomas. He's a 7 footer and he does attempt to play defense. He's also never really had a chance to play. Now why? I don't know. It would be a short rental to see if a new system and new coaching would finally get him on track. At worse, it would at least give us a backup center in the short term that has some height.
What's funny is that last year I didnt think that would could have survived any game last year without his offensive output. Now that we are out rebounding teams and showing more passion out there this year (not to mention have more experience and better talent), I dont think I would totally be against a trade either.
An embarrassingly short time into the season, I decided that I should eat some crow WRT my post-draft prediction that we'd have a lousy A/TO ratio. Now it's looking like I should start coughing that crow back up.
Last year the Kings managed a 1.28 A/TO ratio, which was 28th in the NBA, above only Memphis and OKC. This year, we're at 1.23 and dropping. That doesn't put us in good company, of the 8 teams with the worst A/TO ratios, the two lowest are also the NBA's two worst teams (NJN, Minny), all eight are lottery teams, and the Kings are the winningest team of the bunch. Conversely, the top 8 A/TO ratios in the league all belong to winning teams (Dallas, Boston, SAS, Atlanta, Utah, Denver, LAL, Phoenix). It's not a stat that can be safely ignored.
Last year the Kings managed a 1.28 A/TO ratio, which was 28th in the NBA, above only Memphis and OKC. This year, we're at 1.23 and dropping. That doesn't put us in good company, of the 8 teams with the worst A/TO ratios, the two lowest are also the NBA's two worst teams (NJN, Minny), all eight are lottery teams, and the Kings are the winningest team of the bunch. Conversely, the top 8 A/TO ratios in the league all belong to winning teams (Dallas, Boston, SAS, Atlanta, Utah, Denver, LAL, Phoenix). It's not a stat that can be safely ignored.
Just because our offense has run somewhat efficiently for 10 games without Kevin, doesn't mean we don't need the guy and all the sudden you trade him. And I say somewhat efficiently because we really could have used Kevins offense on our last road trip. You have no idea how effective a Tyreke/Kevin backcourt could be down the road.
10 games is no where near long enough to decide this offense doesn't need Kevin and just ship him out. I find it rediculous how when we have a good stretch, some fans immediatley start talking trades. You can't jump to conclusions that quickly. And it doesn't take any thought at all to say "we know what Kev offers, just trade him". Really? Give me a name. Give me a possibility or two. Do you want Beno as our fulltime starting pg? You would rather trade Kevin than Noc or Cisco? Why not package KT and Noc for a big and hold off on trading Kevin until you know what we have with him and Tyreke playing together?
Any yes, I would rather have a logjam of talent like Portland does, opposed to having very little talent like the Kings of 08-09.It clearly gives us more options going forward.
10 games is no where near long enough to decide this offense doesn't need Kevin and just ship him out. I find it rediculous how when we have a good stretch, some fans immediatley start talking trades. You can't jump to conclusions that quickly. And it doesn't take any thought at all to say "we know what Kev offers, just trade him". Really? Give me a name. Give me a possibility or two. Do you want Beno as our fulltime starting pg? You would rather trade Kevin than Noc or Cisco? Why not package KT and Noc for a big and hold off on trading Kevin until you know what we have with him and Tyreke playing together?
Any yes, I would rather have a logjam of talent like Portland does, opposed to having very little talent like the Kings of 08-09.It clearly gives us more options going forward.
We have more issues at the 3 I think.
I want to see how the Evans/Martin backcourt does. Dont think Reke's PG skills are quite there yet for it to be effective...But we shall see.
Martin has become expendable though, and he is probably our best trade chip. If a good deal comes along then I think we should bite.
One of Noc or Cisco HAS to be shipped out though. Omri and Greene need minutes, both those guys have a future in the league, I want that future to be on the Kings. I'm leaning towards Noc. His toughness is no longer needed. He takes dumb shots, and lacks the leadership of Cisco.
I want to see how the Evans/Martin backcourt does. Dont think Reke's PG skills are quite there yet for it to be effective...But we shall see.
Martin has become expendable though, and he is probably our best trade chip. If a good deal comes along then I think we should bite.
One of Noc or Cisco HAS to be shipped out though. Omri and Greene need minutes, both those guys have a future in the league, I want that future to be on the Kings. I'm leaning towards Noc. His toughness is no longer needed. He takes dumb shots, and lacks the leadership of Cisco.
It's a good number for identifying where you stand compared to good teams who know how to score and can play defense. But, there are alot of better stats for determining if your going to win or not.
This came from the King Game News for the NJ game.
The KIngs are 3-4 when committing under 15 turnovers
I doubt that anyone would conclude that the Kings need to commit more than 15 turnovers to have a better chance to win.
Atlanta averages the fewest turnovers 12.7 and Memphis is the worst at 16.8. A total of 4 possessions even with the best playing the worst. Pts of Turnovers is more telling. We had 17 turnovers against NJ but they only scored 11 pts of those turnovers. While the Kings scored 17 pts off of NJ's 11 turnovers.
Assists are another of those hard to figure out stats. NJ scored 96 pts but only had 10 assists. So, I'm going to conclude that you don't need a lot of assists to score alot of points.
The first stat I look at after the score is FGA's. If your a good shooting team and get more FGA's than your oppontent, your most likely going to win. FGA's are determined by offensive rebounding, steals, fouls,& turnovers.
This came from the King Game News for the NJ game.
The Kings are 4-4 when they commit 15 or more turnovers
The KIngs are 3-4 when committing under 15 turnovers
I doubt that anyone would conclude that the Kings need to commit more than 15 turnovers to have a better chance to win.
Atlanta averages the fewest turnovers 12.7 and Memphis is the worst at 16.8. A total of 4 possessions even with the best playing the worst. Pts of Turnovers is more telling. We had 17 turnovers against NJ but they only scored 11 pts of those turnovers. While the Kings scored 17 pts off of NJ's 11 turnovers.
Assists are another of those hard to figure out stats. NJ scored 96 pts but only had 10 assists. So, I'm going to conclude that you don't need a lot of assists to score alot of points.
The first stat I look at after the score is FGA's. If your a good shooting team and get more FGA's than your oppontent, your most likely going to win. FGA's are determined by offensive rebounding, steals, fouls,& turnovers.
I was curious enough to play the tape. Part of it had to do with CDR, but probably a small part. I think the main part was that Greene wasn't making as much impact in the rebounding or defense under the basket, and he wasn't being utilized offensively. Greene was not putting his nose in there when help was needed on the defensive board, and he didn't do much either on the offensive board. He was leaking out too early after the shot was put up. Because he was playing the 2, it was really difficult to tell whether he was leaking out because he was frustrated by his lack of offensive touches, or maybe he was confused about his role as a 2. Did anyone notice that Greene got nary a touch on the offensive end? Was this an error of omission or commission? I don't know, but sure seems too coincidental that he lights it up against NY and then rarely gets the ball in this game. I'm left wondering why Greene wasn't used more as a 3 or a 4 in this game, as opposed to the 2.
As an aside, this is what I saw from Hawes once and Greene once: A NJ guard, about 5 feet beyond the 3 point line starts his drive to the basket. In each case, Hawes and Greene has to move about 5 feet to take a charge from the player coming at them from 25'+ away. Both didn't take the charge. This is the kind of thing that Westphal won't be happy about in the film session. The learning process contintues...
As an aside, this is what I saw from Hawes once and Greene once: A NJ guard, about 5 feet beyond the 3 point line starts his drive to the basket. In each case, Hawes and Greene has to move about 5 feet to take a charge from the player coming at them from 25'+ away. Both didn't take the charge. This is the kind of thing that Westphal won't be happy about in the film session. The learning process contintues...
It helps to be able to finish. Give me Kareem or Shaq in his prime and voila! - our A/TO goes up dramatically. And amazingly, our team gets in the playoffs. And it would have nothing to do with our ability to pass the ball. I just don't think passing is the problem. I saw some outstanding passing last night. Side to side, back and forth, bounce pass on the run, etc. Hawes, Thompson, Greene are all above average passers. Tyreke is above average when he puts his mind to it. Casspi can pass. This team has good passers (Noc is horrible, Kevin is marginal). The A/TO will get better over time.
I was wondering the same thing about Greene not getting into the game when Hawes couldn't come back. It could have been that the team on the floor was playing so well that Westphal didn't want to fix something that wasn't broke at the time. But one would think that Greene would have matched up better with Lopez than Kenny Thomas did.
Greene did do a couple of nice things at the beginning of the game. Great bounce pass under the basket. I just noticed that it was shortly after CDR came into the game and took him off the dribble a couple of time and I think he was late getting there on a jumper also, that he was taken out of the game.
Greene did do a couple of nice things at the beginning of the game. Great bounce pass under the basket. I just noticed that it was shortly after CDR came into the game and took him off the dribble a couple of time and I think he was late getting there on a jumper also, that he was taken out of the game.
When the numbers don't seem to make sense, a little more depth to the analysis can be enlightening.
Of the 7 games where the Kings had an A/TO ratio which was better than their opponent, or within 1 assist of being equal, they won 5 of the 7.
Of the 8 games where the Kings had a worse A/TO ratio than their opponent, they lost 6.
Of the 7 games where the Kings had an A/TO ratio which was better than their opponent, or within 1 assist of being equal, they won 5 of the 7.
Of the 8 games where the Kings had a worse A/TO ratio than their opponent, they lost 6.
I dunno. Hawes and JT have 62% and 59% assisted shots, respectively. That's not bad, very similar to Casspi (62%) or Nocioni (63%), for example. And all of our guards are passing to the same guys, yet Sergio has a 2.55 A/TO ratio, Beno has just under 2.0, and Evans has 1.5. (That might account for why Sergio's Roland Rating easily tops the team right now, since his shooting and D are unlikely to account for it.) So I'm hoping mostly for some improvement in ball handling & running of the offense. If unnecessary dribbling stops too, so much the better.
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