Jennings is a fine young player. He has a nice stroke and he can score when he is open. But he is a one dimensional player at this point in his career. He can't play defense. He isn't able to drive into the lane and finish with authority like 'Reke does. This Soph/Frosh game pretty much sewed up the ROY Trophy for Evans barring injury (Knock on Wood!!!). I think the bitterness you see posted in that ESPN thread is the Jennings backers who were trying to downplay how well Evans played and make it sound like Jennings had a better game than he did. The bottom line is at this point in their careers, Evans is just a better all around player. That might change in a few years, though I dont think it will.
Those people in the ESPN thread that are trashing the announcers of the game for being "up Evans's rear" are just bitter that their guy got outplayed for the second time this year. When the Kings went into Milwaukee and beat the Bucks, Evans outplayed Jennings there too. Since the ROY race is just barely a 2 man race at this point, this latest game by Evans really sealed the deal for the East Coast Reporters who either had not seen Evans or needed to see him play in a high profile game like the Soph/Frosh game to make their final decision. I think Evans had the kind of game that stood out and really changed the minds of those who had not decided up to that point. IMHO Evans outplayed everyone on the court in that game and the MVP really reflects that. It would be difficult now for any other rookies to catch Evans now because of the body of work Evans has put together.
Yet there is still a small contingent of voters (mostly in the Milwaukee metropolitan area) who are still going to vote for Jennings despite the overwhelming evidence that Evans deserves the ROY. They are going to try to influence everyone who reads their article that Evans isn't a Point Guard, that his outside shot is suspect, that he doesn't play under control, and whatever else they can come up with to make Jennings look better. I can't believe how many times they mentioned the 55 point game Jennings had. They have tried in vain to get as much mileage out of that game as they possibly can. But since the rest of the league has now adjusted to Jennings, his scoring output has drastically declined and I dont thing there will be any more 50+ point outbursts from Jennings the rest of the year. On the other hand, Evans has weathered the adjustments that the league has made to his game and he has consistently kept his stats at about the same level as they have been all year. Consistency is a HUGE part of the ROY vote. Anyone can have one good game. But stretch that over an 82 game season and things tend to even out.
On another subject, I cant wait to see how Garcia and Evans play together! Cisco is an unselfish player who will only make Tyreke's life easier because Cisco can bring the ball up and is a great distributor of the ball. Cisco, Martin, and Evans on the floor at the same time might be the magic combination that Westphal is looking for. Cisco is a GLUE player that can hold teams together. Cisco can run the show at the top of the Key and let Kevin and 'Reke do their thing. Then we will see some ball movement and the assists go up! Man I do love the way Cisco plays and I hope he comes back full strength!
A Healthy Cisco could do wonders for the Kings! Lets hope that Cisco comes back strong and leads the turnaround after the Allstar break! Imagine the lineup of Evans, Martin, Cisco, Greene, and JT as your starting lineup? That is a lot of firepower, and a very decent defensive group (Martin being the weakest defender of the group). That would make our bench very potent with Hawes, Casspi, Beno, Sergio, and Noch ! A 9 man rotation that could be very competitive if each player accepts their role! Westphal might have to swap Casspi for Martin if Martin cant keep up offensively, but other than that the coach would have a lot of options to work with! Barring any trades (and I must admit trades are more likely to happen than not...) this is the group PW has. The Addition of a competent post player that is defensively oriented and can get rebounds and play defense against opposing centers would really kick the Kings into high gear!! The puzzle piece missing is that power forward/center that can mix it up under the rim and strengthen the defense. We don't have a player like that on the roster (Brockman is just too darn small... Too Bad...), and it really shows when the Kings go up against teams that have a good front line that can score and rebound. But even with that missing piece for the Kings, I think they can win games with this rotation against most teams. BUT teams with length will give us trouble because the Kings have such a small starting lineup. Unfortunately, that has been the Kings problem for several years now. They are trying to use Zone coverage and double teams to make up for the lack of a good defender in the paint. Unfortunately, most NBA teams have at least one good front court player and that really messes up the Kings defensive sets because of all the switching and double teaming which invariably creates open shots for the other team.
