Feb 23 Sam Amick article a must read

[CruzDude]

Sporadic playing time wearing on some Kings. by Sam Amick, SacBee

Article is in Kings Corner in Sac Bee this morning, 2/23. Highlights the apparent problems of so many different lineups and substitution patterns. I think it is the core of current playing situation. How many agree?

 

[piksi]

they are all whining for no reason at all.

If you play well, you will get PT. If you suck - you won't. As is should be.

Now, changing his starters is a whole different story.

 

[Kingsguy881]

Link?

 

[TTown Kings]

I fully agree, too many lineups, nobody knows their role. It may not be as easy as "If you play well, you will get PT. If you suck - you won't. As is should be." Sometimes inconsistency leads to not playing well and "sucking"...

We're 50+ games in, I see no reason why Westphal shouldn't have figured out a most probable starting 5 and a regular rotation. Enough experimenting with different lineups. Pick one and let them play out the rest of the season.

 

[sactownfan]

well i dont know if theres anyway to truly know what is really going on... and if its the mins or if its just our teams sucking... its most likely a little of both

although it does seem like sometimes guys aren't playing a team game and forcing things... maybe thats due to trying to impress and not knowing when they'll get mins.

also it seems like all the players are pretty annoyed by the mins.

I will say that it seems like this inconsistent crap is going to lead to players quitting on the coach down the line...

 

[Rockmeister]

Sporadic playing time wearing on some Kings

Francisco García became the latest face of the Kings franchise over the weekend, his likeness painted over that of the departed Kevin Martin's on a mural outside Arco Arena.

The timing was uncanny, as he became the poster boy of another kind, too.

The fifth-year player whose four-month absence from injury ended a week ago was the latest to experience the uncertainty of coach Paul Westphal's rotations, which has become a legitimate issue in the team's locker room.

 

[MassachusettsKingsFan]

Evans, Udrih, Casspi, Landry, Thompson, Garcia, Hawes, Greene. That's 8 good players. 8. Plenty of playing time for those guys whether they start or come off the bench. Make up your mind Westphal, they should be playing anyways, so pick were you want them to play and stick with it, please.

 

[Rookie]

Evans, Udrih, Casspi, Landry, Thompson, Garcia, Hawes, Greene. That's 8 good players. 8. Plenty of playing time for those guys whether they start or come off the bench. Make up your mind Westphal, they should be playing anyways, so pick were you want them to play and stick with it, please.

While it is frustrating not to see a stable rotation, I'm patience enough to wait for next year. If he does what he's doing now, I would join the riot.

 

[gmcfly]

Sam doesn't understand basketball and apparently never will. It's impossible to keep 12 guys happy. Go to any team and you'll find at least 2 or 3 players who are upset with playing time. This is a typical non-story that people are going to blow out of proportion.

 

[cstorm]

I never thought I would look back to the rigid rotations of Adelman with yearning.

 

[DesertFox]

Evans, Udrih, Casspi, Landry, Thompson, Garcia, Hawes, Greene. That's 8 good players. 8. Plenty of playing time for those guys whether they start or come off the bench. Make up your mind Westphal, they should be playing anyways, so pick were you want them to play and stick with it, please.

Although I don't have a problem with changing lineups, there should be set playing time for those 8.

You need 5 starters and then a backup point, swingman, and big man.

Then, depending on the situation, you use another player or 2 (May/Brockam Udoka/Noc) who will get sporadic playing time.
If someone outside those 8 you mentioned is unhappy, I could care less. That way Noc is really the only player who can complain, but he's behind 2 younger and better players. Until Garcia's healthy, maybe you can swap him and Noc.

 

[kennadog]

Amick did leave out something about the Garcia situation. To most observers, Franciso seemed to be holding his wrist (the one he injured last fall) during the game and he appeared to be in pain. The answer to why he didn't play the last game, may be simply related to problems with that wrist.

I don't like the constant starting line-up changes much either, but people have been in or out due to trades, waivers, etc, not just injuries. We just changed the team roster again and I feel safe in saying that the roster will change again this summer and not just because of the draft.

On the other hand, all the shifting of starters didn't seem to hurt the team for the first half of the season, so there has to be more of an explanation.
To me, Omri and Evans both look dog-tired lately. JT just tries too hard and gets down on himself. Hawes inconsistency, though, is more of a mystery to me.

 

[NoBonus]

Sharks keep moving...

Also, I sure hope the Coach keeps changing the lineup until he finds a winner... or should he just settle?

Sharks keep moving.

 

[SacTownKid]

I honestly don't like the way Westphal runs his lineups. He yanks certain guys way too early, and gives others way too much rope to hang themselves with. In the end though, some of the problems rest on Petries shoulders. We are clearly too stacked at the wing spot, which causes too many wing players to be forced into the frontcourt which is another position we are now too stacked at. For instance, Nocioni should be playing! If not for us (and I'd much rather see Donte, Omri, Brockman, etc. myself) then for somebody. His contract will weigh us down financially and it's not fair to Nocioni either.

 

[piksi]

Evans, Udrih, Casspi, Landry, Thompson, Garcia, Hawes, Greene. That's 8 good players. 8. Plenty of playing time for those guys whether they start or come off the bench. Make up your mind Westphal, they should be playing anyways, so pick were you want them to play and stick with it, please.

I don't see 8 good players. I see one good player, couple decent players, couple mediocre players and garbage by the NBA standards. We are the 4th worst team in the NBA for a reason.

 

[DesertFox]

I don't see 8 good players. I see one good player, couple decent players, couple mediocre players and garbage by the NBA standards. We are the 4th worst team in the NBA for a reason.

Yeah, this is one of the youngest teams in the league too.
Of those 8 guys, I wouldn't call any of them garbage. Besides Beno/Garcia, they're all young and rotation worthy. If you think JT and Hawes are mediocre, take a look at the state of NBA big men and their age.

 

[ESP47]

After the last few years of watching our coaches playing the same old guys while knowing they're not even part of a winning future, Westphal has completely done a 180 from that and is giving every guy on the team a chance to succeed. You can't name one player who has been on this team for more than a month who hasn't been given a shot. From May to Mason to McGuire, every guy on this team has had a chance to get on the court for more than just a few minutes in garbage time to show what he's got. If you aren't playing very many minutes right now, then you aren't playing well. It's just that simple.

Hawes needs to realize he's no longer a project and he needs to either put his sissy rebounding mentality to rest, or find another career. Garcia has nothing to complain about, the guy is nothing more than a bench spot up shooter, shouldn't get more than 20 minutes on any team and is always dramatically getting hurt every time he's out there. JT, May and Noc are way too streaky and Udoka has no future here. As far as I'm concerned the only guys who have earned their playing time this year have been Tyreke, Beno, Casspi and Brockman. Funny how 3 of them are rookies. Tyreke is obvious, Casspi is inconsistant but you can see he's more talented than most the guys on our team. Brockman doesn't set the world on fire, but he does what he's brought in to do and it doesn't always show up on the stat sheet but he gives us a ton of extra possessions. And Beno has just been having a very productive and solid year. Everyone else deserves to be shuffled around exactly the way the coach is doing.

 

[bajaden]

Sam doesn't understand basketball and apparently never will. It's impossible to keep 12 guys happy. Go to any team and you'll find at least 2 or 3 players who are upset with playing time. This is a typical non-story that people are going to blow out of proportion.

I think your missing the point. This isn't about just a couple of players being unhappy. Its about a lot of the players being unhappy. There was a quote by Tyreke in the article. Its one thing to earn your way onto the floor by playing well. Its another to have to do it every game or your back on the bench. Every player is going to have a bad game from time to time. You start penalizing him every time he has one and he starts pressing, or worse yet, tries to impress. Players are like anyone else. They like a little stability in their lives.

 

[xrzn]

I said this sometime ago and even started a thread about it; I don't care how young a team or whatever the excuse, you must stick to a starting lineup. That is the only way to build chemistry between players and get players to understand their roles on the team.

If you need to bench someone, a la Hawes, to get a point across, that's fine. But when you keep moving him around and give him heavy minutes one game and not enough the next, it throws him out of rhythm.

Udoka is a defensive player and a spot up shooter. That should be his role. However, PW plays him inconsistent minutes and so he loses track of his role. One night he gets a few minutes and does just what he needs to do, other nights he does more than he should. I don't know if that necessarily is the rotation or if the coach sets up the plays for them, but either way it falls on PW's shoulders.

As the Rock would say, "Know your role and shut your mouth!"

 

[bajaden]

I don't see 8 good players. I see one good player, couple decent players, couple mediocre players and garbage by the NBA standards. We are the 4th worst team in the NBA for a reason.

Its sort of the chicken and egg thing. There's a lack of cohesion and consistancy. Is that because the players just aren't good enough right now. Or, is it because in order to get cohesion and consistancy you need to put the same starting five on the floor and let them get used to playing together.

For a point guard to be good, he needs to know the nuances of the players he starts with more than any of the other players. Where its just a matter of eye contact. Familarity may breed comtempt, but it also helps make a team.

I'm assuming that there's a method to Westphal's way of juggling the lineups. I'm hoping its not just flying by the seat of his pants. As I've stated before. I'm willing to give his this year to figure things out. Hopefully the team will too. But next year I would like to see the same starting five on the floor for a while, and a 8 or 9 man rotation. Its not an accident that almost every team in the NBA has a set lineup. Its because it works

 

[pshn80]

I don't see 8 good players. I see one good player, couple decent players, couple mediocre players and garbage by the NBA standards. We are the 4th worst team in the NBA for a reason.

Unfortunately, piksi, I agree with you in this post, about 94%. Our guys just aren't that good yet. Some of anger undercurrent, if there is one, is bound to be caused by the bad play of the team and each of their teammates. It'll get better. In the meantime stick with Westphal.

 

[Kingstime]

After the last few years of watching our coaches playing the same old guys while knowing they're not even part of a winning future, Westphal has completely done a 180 from that and is giving every guy on the team a chance to succeed. You can't name one player who has been on this team for more than a month who hasn't been given a shot. From May to Mason to McGuire, every guy on this team has had a chance to get on the court for more than just a few minutes in garbage time to show what he's got. If you aren't playing very many minutes right now, then you aren't playing well. It's just that simple.

Hawes needs to realize he's no longer a project and he needs to either put his sissy rebounding mentality to rest, or find another career. Garcia has nothing to complain about, the guy is nothing more than a bench spot up shooter, shouldn't get more than 20 minutes on any team and is always dramatically getting hurt every time he's out there. JT, May and Noc are way too streaky and Udoka has no future here. As far as I'm concerned the only guys who have earned their playing time this year have been Tyreke, Beno, Casspi and Brockman. Funny how 3 of them are rookies. Tyreke is obvious, Casspi is inconsistant but you can see he's more talented than most the guys on our team. Brockman doesn't set the world on fire, but he does what he's brought in to do and it doesn't always show up on the stat sheet but he gives us a ton of extra possessions. And Beno has just been having a very productive and solid year. Everyone else deserves to be shuffled around exactly the way the coach is doing.

I agree with all of that except Cisco, he is the best at coming off the bench to provide energy, defense and 3's. Had he not gotten injured in such a freaky way he would of had a great 09-10 season.

The only time I had a big problem with Westphal and his lineups was that first game in Portland. We had control all game, beno was sizziling by the half. 3rd Q starts and Beno isn't seen until the 4th when the lost all momentum.

 

[MassachusettsKingsFan]

Whether they are good right now doesn't really matter. That's the core 8. That's our present and future. Like I said before, there's plenty of playing time for those guys, all Westphal needs to do is play them with the same guys everygame. There going to be inconsistent. The oldest one of them is 26 coming back from a major major injury to his shooting hand. They're all young enough to still play the inconsistent card. I don't know why Westphal has such a hard time with this.


Last game for example, we were getting blown out, Westphal brings Udoka in and guess what? Were still getting blown out, but never plays Garcia... What does that accomplish? Play the guys that matter, decide who should start and come off the bench and stick with it. We've won something like 4 games in our last 20...

 

[kennadog]

Last game for example, we were getting blown out, Westphal brings Udoka in and guess what? Were still getting blown out, but never plays Garcia... What does that accomplish? Play the guys that matter, decide who should start and come off the bench and stick with it. We've won something like 4 games in our last 20...

Guess you missed by post above. It was commented on in the Clippers game and on KHTK radio that Garcia was holding his wrist and appeared to be in some pain. It may be that he didn't play in the Phoenix game, because of his wrist acted up.

I don't think the team has confirmed that he had a problem with it, but I certainly saw the same thing on the court during that game. It was a very, very bad injury he suffered. It just may be an issue for awhile.

 

[matthew76]

We suck, and if we're having a losing season where we won't make the play-offs, I would also tinker with the lineups just to see how the players work together in a game. However, come next year, or when we have a legitimate chance at making a post-season run, then I will be the first to criticize Westphal. Many people here are wearing rose-colored glasses (or might i say purple-colored glasses) and think that just because we have super-rook in tyreke, and some players with potential aka Donte and Casspi, that all of a sudden we have to have a cemented starting line-up. Just wait, and things will begin to fall into place.

 

[NewArena]

Coach is simply trying to see what these guys can do at different positions for next season. This is basically an exhibition audition for the upcoming season.

 

[Asaf]

It's strange - at the beginning of the season I thought that was Westphal's biggest strength. He was patient and allowed room for mistakes, and got a lot back from the players. It seems like everyone knew their role a couple of months ago, and now they are more confused. I thought it should be the other way around...

 

[Bricklayer]

This is not the way its done. Its really not. No winning team screws with guys like this, and if anythign I would think we mght be MORE vulnerable to the constant disrutptions because of our youth and inexperience together. How do you ever get them if the lineups and minutes are in constant flux? That's before you get to the obvious chemistry problems/unhappiness that are obviously going to result.

 

[LPKingsFan]

Yeah, 11-man rotations are a bad sign. Stick with 8 or 9 if you must. Maybe even 10. But not 11 unless it's garbace time.

 

[kingsnation]

Hawes, Thompson, Casspi, Garcia, Evans should be THEE starting 5. If anything, Greene in at the 2 or the 3 but that's about it.