ESPN.com Kings Preview

R

rhythmless

Starter
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime-SacramentoPreview0607

eh, not too high on the kings, but espn never is. placed them about right. chris sheridan said some blatantly wrong things, but take it for what its worth. i particularly liked this:

"It's not completely out of the question [winning the championship]-- name one other team critics are freely sticking towards the bottom of the playoff picture that has the talent to take home the O'Brien. You can't."
 
the thing i hated the most about all the rankings was the sentence they said about martin at the bottom when they break down the kings roster, and i quote...

"play chicken with bonzi wells and this is what you get"

they say that like martin is a scrub or something! like he's table scraps...whatever, we're just gonna have to prove them wrong.
 
Its obvious that none of these sportswriters watch a single REGULAR season game of the Kings. That is why they are all so high on Bonzi. He was an AVERAGE player all year long. It just so happened that he matched up well with the spurs lineup. And they act like we didnt want him back, it was his fault not ours.

Well the Kings never really got respect, even in their hayday, so why should i expect some now?
 
creAtivetfh said:
Its obvious that none of these sportswriters watch a single REGULAR season game of the Kings. That is why they are all so high on Bonzi. He was an AVERAGE player all year long. It just so happened that he matched up well with the spurs lineup. And they act like we didnt want him back, it was his fault not ours.

Well the Kings never really got respect, even in their hayday, so why should i expect some now?
Click to expand...


I'm actually wondering who it is that didn't watch the Kings last year, as Bonzi was merely our BEST player early in the season, and then our BEST player to close it our int he playoffs too.

Average only to those who watch the game like you would ice skating looking for something pretty and graceful.
 
Jkbiker said:
WOW only 2 of 10 anaylists have us in playoffs at 7th seed

Ouch!!!
Click to expand...

everybody should remember that the kings very very VERY narrowly made the playoffs last season, and that was with a relatively easy, home-game-heavy schedule down the stretch, as well as an excellent bonzi wells after he returned from injury, whose solid play carried over exponentially into the playoffs. throw on top of that a trade for one of the most dynamic SF's in the league, as well as a coach with over 750 career wins who has been to the playoffs 13 of the 16 years he's coached in the nba, and its easy to see why the kings escaped the lottery.

however, all of those factors are gone this season, as bonzi wells was not re-signed and rick adelman was fired. the honeymoon with ron artest is over. now its time for him to prove that he can lead this team. and i should also like to mention the 2007 april schedule, which includes games against the lakers, the mavericks, the nuggets, the jazz, the rockets, the grizzlies, the spurs, the warriors, the clippers, and the hornets. 5 of the kings 11 games in april are on the road, and every one of those 11 games in april are against western conference teams. vs. the mavericks and at the spurs are the clear difficult games on that schedule, but the kings won't be competing with either of those teams for playoff positioning. they will, however, in all likelihood, be competing against every other team they play in april for a playoff spot.

one would be hard pressed to call the kings a lock for a playoff spot this season. it's gonna be much tougher than we might have originally thought. and everything is going to be dependent on how well eric musselman can reign in this team, with a volatile leader in ron artest. everything's a big ? right now...
 
This is the stupidest part of a very shallow, stupid preview:

(on Kevin Martin): Play chicken with Bonzi Wells and this is what you end up with.

Um, what do you end up with? A possible 20 ppg scorer? Is this supposed to be an insult to Kevin Martin?

PS: whoops, sorry startingtohurt, missed your comment. I agree with you completely.
 
I guess that Chris Seridan doesn't know that we made Bonzi two offers.

Also, I totally agree about what everybody else thinks about the "this is what you get when you play chicken with Bonzi Wells" statement.

I think that we will prove alot of these guys wrong. Last year after we got Artest, I think we finished with the 3rd or 4th best record in the West. Of course, losing Bonzi Wells we might not do that well. But IMO we are a low seeded playoff team.
 
If the media can't even get something relatively simple like this right (how hard would it have been for the writer to spend a little time here at KF to get a hit off of the clue bong on Kmart?), imagine what they're doing on more complicated issues that we can't check up on.
 
Bricklayer said:
I'm actually wondering who it is that didn't watch the Kings last year, as Bonzi was merely our BEST player early in the season, and then our BEST player to close it our int he playoffs too.

Average only to those who watch the game like you would ice skating looking for something pretty and graceful.
Click to expand...
You're right except all we really know from that is that he was the best player on a crappy team while in a contract year and that he created a match up problem for one team in the playoffs. He wasn't a huge part of the Kings resurgence in the second half of the season, but Martin was. And now his groin is acting up. I say we were pretty much damned if we do, damned if we don't with Bonzi. My only gripe is that he got away for nothing but nobody else wanted him at his price either.
 
Wow I just read a lot of stuff on there and a lot of it sounds like they actually hate the Kings. Maybe Geoff said something to pee them off but they actually seem angry. Oh well hope the Kings just prove em wrong and make em even angrier.
 
Bricklayer said:
I'm actually wondering who it is that didn't watch the Kings last year, as Bonzi was merely our BEST player early in the season, and then our BEST player to close it our int he playoffs too.

Average only to those who watch the game like you would ice skating looking for something pretty and graceful.
Click to expand...


My two cents. You are exactly right Bonzi was our best player in the early part of the season. And with that we had a loosing record in the early part of the season. Also Bonzi was our best player in the playoffs and we lost in the playoffs. Now win Bonzi was hurt or coming off the bench we had a winning record. Now sure what to think about all that but sometimes just sometimes having a real good player on a team don't mean ****. Ask Shareef.
 
I think the best the Kings can do right now is prove people wrong i'm one of the people who expect the Kings to do nothing more then to fight for the last couple of spots and get sweept in 4 games come playoff time. but health is a major factor.
 
Last edited:
The loss of Bonzi hurts, especially in rebounding, but the guy hasn't even been healthy for a single practice yet. KMart on the other hand could avg more points than Bonzi did last year. What would be nice is if Martin leaked out a little less and helped on long rebounds more.

They underrate Bibby and Martin, who have been scorching in the preseason and overrate Miller a bit.


I'm not sure about the bench as a weakness. Before the injuries, the Price, Shareef and Salmons bench was pretty productive. Corliss has also been productive as well. He fits better in this system than in Adleman's offense. With the injuries, the bench got shortened and Amundson and Williams just aren't ready enough. The mystery right now is Hart and if he will be the player Petrie hoped he was two years ago and use Bibby's injury for playing time, or if he'll just continue to provide a dead lull when he enters the game.
 
BMiller52 said:
Wow I just read a lot of stuff on there and a lot of it sounds like they actually hate the Kings. Maybe Geoff said something to pee them off but they actually seem angry. Oh well hope the Kings just prove em wrong and make em even angrier.
Click to expand...
Or maybe we're just not that good a team this year?
 
LOL!!! Last year most of the so called experts said that the Kings were going to either win the division or come in second place and they also said that we were going to be either the 2nd or 3rd seed in the playoffs, and well none of that happened so I don't listen or even look at that crap about what they have to say about the Kings b/c most of the stuff they were saying isn't true like when Hollinger said that we had a bunch of home games toward the end of the season and thats how we made the playoffs, see thats false b/c most of the games toward the end the season last year were away games
 
I expect the Kings to do better than most of the people on there, but the lack of love doesn't mean they're all hating. 7-10 in the conference is certainly a reasonable expectation. And ESPN has been high on the Kings before, just a few years ago, in fact. It's not about the Kings being perennially disrespected because they are the Kings.

However, I also didn't like the lineup breakdown section. Apparently it's supposed to be witty more than informative, I don't think it really achieved either.
 
Well Mark Kreidler of the Bee does watch the Kings. This morning on the Rise Guys he said his prediction will be out tomorrow on a Bee podcast.

He spilled it anyway. He's predicting a 41-win season and not making the playoffs for the Kings.
 
TheJoker said:
Why does Mark Kreidler have us out of the playoffs? is the health a major factor in his prediction?
Click to expand...
As I said, the Bee site will have a podcast tomorrow. He just spilled the beans in advance, but did not say more. All the sportswriters will give their predictions then and probably in the paper this weekend. However, I doubt health was a real factor. Usually predictions are based on IF a team stays relatively healthy.
 
I am looking like a comparative optimist anymore in thinking that we will/can actually make it into the playoffs, but as I've mentioned all summer, the West is going to be brutal almost every night. Only Portland enters the season with no realistic playoff hopes. Every other team can make a good argument why it could win 41+. We're one of them, but we've got huge frontcourt, rebounding, interior defense issues, and a lot of youth and inexperience in the backcourt to boot.
 
Why do they all think Bonzi was so important? He was a key player for a horrible team for 40 games, then had a nice playoff run heading into free agency for a team that was frisky but ultimately blown out of the series. And why does Scoop F. Jackson think he's the guy to put the Rockets over the top? Is Bonzi a chiropractor on the side, and intends to keep McGrady healthy all year? Cause that is the only way he positively impacts the Rockets, who need shooting and interior defense. At least Scoop used proper English for that blurb. I guess Whitlock scared him straight. Anyway, Martin is an upgrade.

There has to be a reason that mediots always slide towards hyperbole. Are they taught this in school? They're like ugly drama students who can write a coherent essay (well, except Scoop).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

S
G-League game preview: Stars take on the Kings
Replies
0
Views
373
SLC Dunk
S
venom_7
Venom_7 Doxxes | A Ghost of Christmas Past
Replies
2
Views
646
venom_7
venom_7
Tetsujin
[Game] Kings vs. Clippers, 1/15/21 7pm PST, 10pm EST
9 10 11
Replies
300
Views
13K
burekijogurt
B
Tetsujin
[Game] Kings @ Hawks 11/18/15 - 5 PM PST, 8 PM EST
14 15 16
Replies
455
Views
37K
Bricklayer
Bricklayer
Y
Kings-Heat Preview (Automated Insights)
Replies
0
Views
307
Yahoo! Sports - NBA -
Y
Back
Top