Kingster
Hall of Famer
So what does "down the road" mean? Next year? Year 2? 3?
Caution Optimism thread. Kings are a matchup nightmare for most teams.
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So what does "down the road" mean? Next year? Year 2? 3?
Entity
Hall of Famer
would sefolosha still guard Reke if Garcia was SG? Alot of scenerios have the opposing teams SG guarding Tyreke but that can't happen if Cisco is playing SG or Donte or Omri for that matter. Beno will see plenty of time with Tyreke but mostly he will get all the min when Tyreke is on the bench. For precisley the reason you stated above. We have to keep the Tyreke mismatch in play that is our identity.
FaStRmAn
Starter
I like the road the Kings are going down and how they are building a young nucleus of talented young players that will be the core of the franchise for many years. As these young players grow together and become better both individually and as a team, and in the future adding key players in areas of need will make this a team to be reckoned with for years to come. At the very least, they will be exciting and they wont be so darn soft in the middle like they have been for so many years. Defense starts in the middle in any sport, and the Kings are trying to improve their interior defense and build something that will be great. I am excited as a Kings fan, and I hope that Petrie continues to build and improve this roster. We already have a lot of promise, and hopefully that will translate into more wins and more exciting basketball.
On paper they are matchup nightmares. In real life Tyreke is the only real matchup nightmare.
Donte isn't even a matchup nightmare in the summer league, let alone the NBA. Cousins is good but he doesn't have anything freakish about himself compared to the rest of the guys at his position.
Donte isn't even a matchup nightmare in the summer league, let alone the NBA. Cousins is good but he doesn't have anything freakish about himself compared to the rest of the guys at his position.
K
Kingsguy881
Guest
That means absolutely nothing. There were many players who played in the league that had nothing freakish about themselves and they ended up in the HOF. Larry Bird is a great example.
gunks
Hall of Famer
Hawes didnt play like a three year guy though. Maybe one game out of ten. Otherwise he was trash. I honestly think rookie Cousins is going to surpass anything Hawes did. I mean, I dont expect Cousins to play like a three year guy either. He's going to have to adjust to playing against guys his size, and I have a feeling that he's also going to hit the wall pretty hard. Hawes was just...Bad. I'm so happy we got Dalembert for him AND got rid of Noc. Awesome trade.
As to mismatches. Reke is going to beast on anyone not named Shane Battier. I mean, he has other teams putting their quick 3s on him to try to slow him down. If we have a 2 with some PG skills in him (IE Cisco), then they're probably going to end up with a mismatch too, just by playing with Reke in the backcourt.
Cuz is going to be a skills mismatch. Much like the departed Hawes was supposed to be. The best part is that Boogie can be a bruiser, unlike most finesse bigs.
The only other player we have with the potential to mess up opposing team's defensive schemes is Donte. If he can improve his game. He's an athletic, 7' SF. 'Nuff said.
Oh. Darkhorse: JT. He's inconsistant and has questionable BB-IQ, but he is also a hard worker on the court, possesses a few guard skills, and is quicker than a lot of the league's PFs. He is a bit older than a lot of 3rd year players, but with that late growth spurt he had it kind of changes his learning curve a bit. I dont think its out of the realm of possibility that JT gets better. Early last season when we were playing .500ish ball, a big part of that was JT. He and Reke had some chemistry and I think he was putting up 15/10 at a good fg%. I still like Thompson more than Landry, who I feel is a black hole and a mediocre rebounder.
We really have an amazing core of youth. I think we have a better future than Portland (mostly because of Oden's health), OKC is really the only team with a better young core than us...And that is by a pretty slim margin.
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Kingster
Hall of Famer
Apples to oranges. I'm talking about assists/turnovers. You seem to be talking about everything: Hawes is "trash" and by implication, Cousins is "gold". Despite the trash label, Hawes was and is a very good passer. I don't expect Cousins to exceed him in assists/turnovers in his rookie year for many of the reasons you note above.
Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Hawes is a good passer, but there is a difference between what we saw out of Hawes and the way Cousins was playing in summer league. Hawes is a good passer, but Cousins was a FORCEFUL passer. He wasn't just able to execute a nice pass if you called a play for him and drew up the pass, he was able to go in there and create shots almost like the world's most titanic PG. To intentionally go to spots on the floor, draw the double, and then kick no look passes and stuff. He's a rook, and there will be slop and errors and stuff along the way, but that was easily the most eye opening skill he flashed there. If that translates out of summer league he could join a very small group of centers for whom the pass has been one of their primary weapons. Takes tremendous feel for the game to be able to do that at that size.
Chupacabra
Starter
I believe the Kings will make the playoffs if theyre in the top 10 in field goal percentage defense. Adding Cousins, Dalembert and Whiteside was HUGE for our defense.
LPKingsFan
All-Star
I still think our "realistic best case" would be a Memphis like turnaround to high 30s, maybe even 40 wins, and the 10th seed.
gunks
Hall of Famer
Exactly!
Here's the deal, I work graveyards on weekends and as a result dont get much sleep. As a result of not getting much sleep it would seem that midway through responding to your post, I forgot what your post was about! As a result of that result of that result, it appears I forced you into explaining that you were talking assist/turnovers for the second time on one page of this thread.
Apologies!
Now here's the really silly part: I totally agree with you! While I think that overall, as a player Cuz is going to be better (as a rook) than Hawes was for us last year, in the catagory of assist/TOs, he is probably going to be worse. But at least I got that awesome dig in on Hawes.
Sigh. I should really step my internet forum game up.
Edit: That thing that looks like a cartoon's infected nipple is supposed to be an embarrassed smiley.
Chupacabra
Starter
I think there are only 5 teams in the west that will be obviously better than us. Dallas, Oklahoma, Portland, Denver, ______. After that it gets a little dicey. Utah, Phoenix, and San Antonio all went backwards. To what extent is yet to be seen. I really dont think people, even Kings fans, are making a fair assesment of next years Kings team. Our size is unprecidented. The depth on this roster is excellent. Its a team that is FULL of young potential. The defensive ability is wayyy up there. How the defensive IQ affects the outcome is key. Its going to be a very good rebounding team. We have last years ROY who put together a legendary 1st season. 2010-2011 really could be the year. Less than 40 wins would be a total failure for this roster.
Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Less than 40 wins is never a total failure for a team who's key players would all still be in college.
Sac.1989
Starter
exactly and its not like the jazz have got any worse by adding jefferson, ok so phx has but with there system you still expect them to make the playoffs with the ageless nash. The spurs have got better imo bringing in splinter who they drafted seasons ago who has been tearing up the euroleague and there draft pick this year from the UK who i can assure you can absolutely ball and was a steal.
That's the key. We're still really young, and inexperienced. A number of our key players struggled down the stretch last season, and we brought in a guy who we expect to be our future franchise big man, but he's woefully unprepared for an entire NBA season's worth of minutes. I'm just as excited about our team as the next guy is, and I definitely expect us to be noticeably better and to trend upward from here on out. Wouldn't be surprised to see us start out really hot and get everyone's attention. But claiming that less than 40 wins is a failure is over the top.
Boogie-havoc
Bench
I think the OKC turnaround made people expect a bit higher.
We can compare the Kings to last seasons OKC the season after this comming one, but really a 40 win year will be amazing, and it's defenetly not the expectation of minimum of the team.
We can compare the Kings to last seasons OKC the season after this comming one, but really a 40 win year will be amazing, and it's defenetly not the expectation of minimum of the team.
Kingster
Hall of Famer
The thing is, OKC had Green, Durant and Westbrook two years ago and ended up losing a hecuvalot of games. It took a year of melding before they took off.
Boogie-havoc
Bench
Thats what I said.. that we can try expect a OKC turnaround in the 2011-2012 season, not now like people do.
Kingster
Hall of Famer
Yes, we're agreeing. Believe it or not it does happen on the board every once in a long while...
Boogie-havoc
Bench
So THATS how it feels.. 
FaStRmAn
Starter
I know I am kinda hiding this question at the end of another thread, but I was just curious if anyone else noticed something I have been noticing for some time now. It seems like the Sacramento Bee and the Kings (and Maloof Sports and Entertainment) seem to be having some sort of feud going on. It seems like all the stories about the Kings are negative in some way, and there is hardly any advertising in the Bee for the Kings. The Bee only has 2 VERY POOR (IMHO) Reporters who regularly cover the Kings. Lately they are really bashing the Kings and specifically Tyreke Evans over the speeding ticket he got. They have written 5 articles dragging on and on about how horrible Evans is for having gotten a speeding ticket. Sure it was dumb, but he wasn't drunk and he didnt kill anyone. When Cousins was drafted, all they could talk about in their articles was what a malcontent Cousins was and how he was sure to be a cancer in the locker room. Now I dont know if there is an active feud going on between the Bee and the Kings, but it sure does look that way. That would explain the lack of articles about the Kings in the Bee Sports Section even though they are the only professional team in town (well besides the rivercats....and the team tennis thing...and the new arena football thing... ). Just wondering if anyone else has noticed the Bee's negativity. I have pretty much stopped going to that website all together.
Telemachus
Starter
This has pretty much been the case since the Maloofs and the Kings started talking about needing a new arena. From that point on the Bee has taken a fairly negative tone toward the Kings and slowly gotten rid of all their good writers.
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kennadog
Dog On It!
^^Exactly. They have been very negative about the team for a long time now. While I understand its not their job to be cheerleaders for the team, its like they are almost always going to the other extreme. Sometimes it looks like they are going out of their way to find something negative to write, no matter how small or irrelevant an item is. Or how boring or beaten to death it is. 
haithamkhe
Prospect
My thing with casspi is that i prefer that he comes off the bench because he plays with so much passion and heart, that, him coming off the bench and bringing that energy would best suit the team. I honestly think that both players have so much upside and if they continue to work hard, would be very good (not stars) players.
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