First Preseason Game v. Lakers 10/4

[gunks]

I think Vlade knew Papa was a risky pick (I'd hope he knew!) and that's why he got us all those other assets on draft day.

If we came out of that draft with JUST Papa, I'd be fuming! But even if he busts, we also came away with Bogdan, Skal, and Malachi.

As bad as Papa's been so far, this ain't a Jimmer/Nik/Ben/T-Rob draft. We actually scored a lot of other assets, for the low low price of Marco and trading down a few spots.

If Papa becomes a great player, Vlade will look like a genius. If he busts, it'll be a missed opportunity for sure. .. But not the disaster of past drafts. Skal in particular is looking like he's 20lbs of muscle away from being a stud. Malachi could be a good 3 & D roleplayer. Bogdan should be anywhere from a solid to awesome SG for us.

That being said, I imagine there will be more panic around these parts after The Warriors best us by 50 tonight!

 

[lawlman91]

Afflalo is way better than Temple/Ben @SG, the fact he can post up/space the floor and wear down other opposition PG's/SGs can make him super valuable I would start him @SG to wear down the other teams best guards to start games and bring Rudy off the bench to play with the 2nd unit cause with no Lawson in the 2nd unit for the first 8 games they need someone to create for them.

The 2nd unit needs a guy who can create AT/WCS/Casspi/Barnes are all good at moving without the ball and Lawson unless he improves back to 2012 is not enough to carry that 2nd unit they need one of Cuz/Rudy/AA with them.

I don't really care who starts, as long as one of Cousins/Gay/Afflalo is in at once to be the pivotal point of our offense. Ideally, we would have two of them in at once at all times. And Darren Collison in when only one of them is in.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

Chriss is a raw rookie, young, and wouldn't contribute immediately either IMO

I don't personally consider Skal much less talented (or any) than Chriss who he was ranked higher than most of last year

Skal is certainly more talented than Chriss.

Skal's question marks come in his thin frame and how he mentally deals with moving up to the next level. He didn't look fully comfortable at Kentucky until the last month of the season, and some but probably not all of that was due to Cal wanting him to play back-to-the-basket rather than face-up, which is his strength.

Chriss' question marks are all about his skill level. He's a fantastic athlete, but not much of a basketball player yet. We've seen our fair share of tremendous athletes wash out of the NBA because they never figured out the game. I'm pretty confident Skal won't meet that particular fate.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

Maybe somebody on the board knows the answer to this: When was the last time a summer league rookie played terribly in the summer league and became a good NBA player?

It's probably not the most recent example, but Tim Duncan had a notoriously poor summer league. He turned out OK.

 

[funkykingston]

Skal is certainly more talented than Chriss.

Skal's question marks come in his thin frame and how he mentally deals with moving up to the next level. He didn't look fully comfortable at Kentucky until the last month of the season, and some but probably not all of that was due to Cal wanting him to play back-to-the-basket rather than face-up, which is his strength.

Chriss' question marks are all about his skill level. He's a fantastic athlete, but not much of a basketball player yet. We've seen our fair share of tremendous athletes wash out of the NBA because they never figured out the game. I'm pretty confident Skal won't meet that particular fate.

Does Skal have more talent and Chriss more potential? That's probably a decent way to frame it but in the end it's three or four years down the line that really matters.

For me, if Cousins is staying in Sacramento then Labissiere is a better pick even if Chriss becomes a somewhat better player if only because what Skal does compliments Boogie far more.

If Chriss becomes a star and Skal busts that's obviously a different story but as of right now, I'm happier with Labissiere than Chriss. Throw in Bogdanovic potentially being a contributor and I'm already happy with the trade. I still wish we'd taken Baldwin and I'll be upset if Papagiannis is a bust but that doesn't make it a bad deal at all. In fact I'd still say the Kings won the deal if both Skal and Chriss develop as expected and Bogdan becomes a serviceable NBA SG. But it would really be nice if Papa didn't bust.

 

[Bricklayer]

Here are the scouting reports on a young Gasol. Sound familiar?

Marc Gasol, Pau's brother, is trying to make a name for himself in Barcelona. He's a very skilled big man with a nice stroke and some good post moves. When we say big, we fully mean it. This kid has really suffered from being overweight in the past, and although he has been working on improving his conditioning since he came back from Memphis one year ago (he spent there two useless seasons at an American high school, apparently more concerned about eating fast food than improving his game), he still has a long way to go. F.C.Barcelona's front office apparently trusts him a lot to give him the role of first center off the bench, especially considering how injury prone Roberto Dueñas is. So it's a wonderful chance for him to show his abilities in one of the main European powerhouses. Sadly, he will start the competition sidelined because of an injury in his right foot. The truth is that it remains to be seen if his underdeveloped body can deal with such a demanding level.


Unlike Pau, Marc is a below average athlete ... Heavy legged player who will need to improve his foot speed to play in the NBA Lacks fluidity in his movements as he is a bit mechanical Must continue to work on conditioning his body as he appears to be carrying a little extra weight A focus on strength training could improve his overall mobility greatly Lacks the explosiveness to be even a decent shot blocker at the NBA level Not a very good rebounder out of position, as he possesses below average lateral quickness Post defense has improved greatly this year but still struggles when having to guard top athletes Offensively his execution in the post is slow which allows opposing defenders to recover quickly, must learn to make moves more decisively Can be a little foul prone Not a great help defender by any means as he is often late on the play Even though Gasol is a late bloomer who has yet to reach his potential hes made big strides in the past year

Less than you might think as the "very skilled big man" line gets us off to a bad start, and of course the thing all Gasols always had from the beginning was a great feel for the game.

defensively...who knows. I mean, you could just throw that out on every big kid ever to enter the NBA -- sucks now, but so did Marc Gasol! Hence Player X will be Marc Gasol. Papa is actually a better athlete than Marc ever was. But as with most of his game there are no edges to it. Nothing he does well, his size is largely useless right now. He plays 6'8" on defense and the boards. With Marc, and most talented young players, you can see the talent. There are exciting little hints you can build on. With Papa, if I had one wish for his upcoming year in Reno, which may have him pining for Greece, it wo9uld be that he comes out of it with one bankable exceptional skill/trait. Something to center around.

 

[Bricklayer]

It's probably not the most recent example, but Tim Duncan had a notoriously poor summer league. He turned out OK.

yeah, I think the Summer League thing is a bit overplayed.

If Papa had dominated his level like Duncan dominated in college, then the Summer League suck is just a minor concern. But as far as the vids can tell, Papa as a kid elsewhere was still largely the same guy with a limited repetitive skillset, screen...roll. Screen...roll. And similar defensive/rebounding issues to what we are seeing. In short Pap's entire career so far has been pretty consistent skillsetwise. So focusing on SL just because it was what we saw stateside is missing the larger concern.

 

[KingMilz]

Chriss is a raw rookie, young, and wouldn't contribute immediately either IMO

I don't personally consider Skal much less talented (or any) than Chriss who he was ranked higher than most of last year

That's debatable he certainly looks capable of contributing from the two games I've watched in particular in the Suns up and down offense. The guy who I only read about actually showed pretty decent skills for a guy who supposedly was not meant to have any and his defensive effort closing out on 3 point shooters has been very good. The other benefit Chriss will have is even if he's not ready he's competing against Dudley/Bender for minutes so he will get some and develop and on pure athletic ability alone can impact a game.

 

[jcwkings]

I agree that one of Cuz, Rudy or Afflalo must be in for the second unit to have a focal point. Of course the hope is the defense will be improved from last year to the point of even though the second unit might not outscore others, they will play good enough defense to hold other benches even or even end up outscoring them in those stretches. Also the second unit will probably have to play faster and push for easier baskets. A unit with Lawson, Ben, Willie, Omri should be running though, that is its strngth.

 

[Jimbob]

Back to draft day. I was a little surprised that one of Hield or Kentucky's Murray did not fall to us. I really thought that Chriss would go before one of them. I wished but never thought Dunn would fall to 8.

When we did pick Chriss at 8 I was hoping his teammate Dejounte Murray would be there with Vlades brillant dump of Marco for the 22nd pick.

Im OK with Skal, Mali, and Bogdan but for me its passing on Dejounte Murray not Baldwin that bothers.
He got picked up by SA after the Skall pick. My guess is Pop did it again with a late pick and another blown Sacramento opportunity. Time will tell.

 

[Kingster]

It's probably not the most recent example, but Tim Duncan had a notoriously poor summer league. He turned out OK.

I find it hard to believe that Duncan showed no promise in summer league.

 

[206Fan]

Skal is certainly more talented than Chriss.

Skal's question marks come in his thin frame and how he mentally deals with moving up to the next level. He didn't look fully comfortable at Kentucky until the last month of the season, and some but probably not all of that was due to Cal wanting him to play back-to-the-basket rather than face-up, which is his strength.

Chriss' question marks are all about his skill level. He's a fantastic athlete, but not much of a basketball player yet. We've seen our fair share of tremendous athletes wash out of the NBA because they never figured out the game. I'm pretty confident Skal won't meet that particular fate.

I disagree. I believe Chriss is more talented than Skal.

When have we ever seen Skal do this....EVER in his career? Skal has all the tools, but we've never seen him put it all together at a higher level. There's a big reason why he went from a potential #1 overall pick, to nearly slipping in the 2nd round.

Extremely underselling Chriss. I also think he's a better fit next to Cousins than Skal.

 

[KingMilz]

I disagree. I believe Chriss is more talented than Skal.

When have we ever seen Skal do this....EVER in his career? Skal has all the tools, but we've never seen him put it all together at a higher level. There's a big reason why he went from a potential #1 overall pick, to nearly slipping in the 2nd round.

Extremely underselling Chriss. I also think he's a better fit next to Cousins than Skal.

I agree despite being somewhat raw from what I have seen Chriss is very confident and offensively does everything with a touch of authority something every single rookie the Kings have drafted since IT/Cousins has never possessed. When you watch Ben/Nik/Jimmer/TRob /Papa they are so unsure of themselves out on the court while from day 1 at least offensively Chriss knows and believes in what he's doing. Just based on preseason/SL Chriss does look like a better fit/potential than all our guys including WCS.

Defensively he does look pretty awful (Noah Vonleh ABUSED him in the post) but he has to work on that no doubt and his jumper could use some refinement but the athletic ability and confidence is off the charts and the skills ain't bad at all his spin move is a thing of beauty.

 

[Jimbob]

Not going with the local kid Chriss, might hurt. I remember in the 87 draft Sacramento took Kenny Smith with the 6th pick, Kevin Johnson went one pick later. I never liked Smith as a King though he did get rings with Houston I always thought Johnson was the better player.
I think we need to see Bogdan over here, that will be the best indicator as to if Vlade did the right thing trading down. Like I said in a previous post Chriss at 8 and Dejounte Murray at 22 and I would have been happy.