For any stretch of games do you feel he had been used correctly over the past 4 years? Just curious because the whole "bad coaching" is kind of a blanket statement.
i know you were responding to a different poster, but if i may, "stretch of games" is a tough characterization given how erratic both paul westphal and keith smart were with their lineups and their use of tyreke. however, if you look at the game logs from '12-'13, and note when tyreke played significant minutes (36+), there are two trends that stand out to me...
1) tyreke generally played very well when treated as a high-usage guard, despite
rarely being treated as a high-usage guard. there were only 18 games in which he played at least 36 mins last season. here's some of the highlights, organized by minutes played:
game #42 (MIA): 43 mins, 26 pts (11-19), 4 rebs, 4 asts, 5 stls against 2 to's
game #58 (LAL): 43 mins, 21 pts (9-15), 9 rebs, 6 asts, 0 stls against 4 to's
game #32 (PHI): 42 mins, 29 pts (11-18), 4 rebs, 4 asts, 2 stls against 3 to's
game #60 (DAL): 41 mins, 26 pts (10-15), 9 rebs, 6 asts, 0 stls against 1 to
game #23 (WAS): 40 mins, 21 pts (8-15), 8 rebs, 8 asts, 3 stls against 2 to's
game #01 (CHI): 39 mins, 21 pts (8-13), 8 rebs, 3 asts, 0 stls against 2 to's
game #53 (MIN): 38 mins, 21 pts (8-11), 5 rebs, 5 asts, 0 stls against 3 to's
game #13 (UTA): 36 mins, 27 pts (9-17), 5 rebs, 5 asts, 2 stls against 2 to's
game #50 (CHI): 36 mins, 26 pts (11-13), 5 rebs, 7 asts, 3 stls against 2 to's
that looks to me like a player that deserves a significant increase in minutes per game. it's not as if 'reke is a volume scorer. in none of the above games did he take 20 shots or more. in each of the above games he scored 20 points or more on
very efficient shooting, all while racking up rebounds and assists, while also keeping his turnovers down, against both bad opponents and good opponents (he seems to eat up the bulls). there's no other king except demarcus cousins that can lay claim to as many stellar games last season, yet tyreke was often misused and shoved off-ball indiscriminately despite being the second best king on the court on any given night (while occasionally showing the ability to carry the team altogether). he was consistently at the mercy of keith smart's bizarre management of player minutes. that brings me to the second trend...
2) tyreke received significant minutes (36+) seemingly at random.
there was no lengthy stretch of games in which 'reke's minutes leveled out. after the all-star break, the kings managed to string together a couple of games here and there in which keith smart seemed to show faith in tyreke. but, in general, some nights he'd play 25. other nights he'd play 40. he'd post a ridiculous stat line in one game, and then see his minutes and touches decrease the next. keith smart simply had no excuse for jerking 'reke around in this manner. he's a talented young guard with all-star potential, and should be treated as such, both on the court and in his contract...