Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Twas boomerang night, when all of the incredible talents we have let slip down to L.A. rose up at once to kick our butts.
Given the way things seem inevitably trending now, theme tonight will be Great Moments in Kings Draft History:
Artest ( B+ ) -- in the first half gave us very little, and it was really his absence before half that got us in trourble. Mike early, and then Kevin later, got their points, but we were having to rely on Corliss as the #3 guy. But showed up bigtime in the second half -- unfortunately about the only one in the early third as neither Mike nor Kevin did much out of the break and Corliss was obviously on the bench. Harrassed Maggette on numerous occassions, in the second half was doing the overpower the other team to the rim thing, and hit several bit threes down the stretch, although they were in semi-desperation time when we were just flailing. Finished with another very nifty looking statline: 29pts on 10-19 shooting, 7 rebs 3ast, and with the defensive moments I was feeling almost obligated to bump it up to the A- here. But decided to hold the line at the B+: never felt that good, had an invisible first half, and was at 23 until about the :45 second mark after we'd already pretty much lost it. Best overall night for us probably, but lacking the spark an A type effort should have (as was this game).
JOE KLEINE -- ah, the famous one that started it all back in 1985. Sacramento's very first NBA draft pick. We got the #6 overall pick in the draft, and with it we took a very large hick out of Arkansas. Great way to kick things off, unless you count that we drafted Joe over Chris Mullin (#7), Detlef Schrempf (#8), Charles Oakley (#9), Karl Malone (#13), Joe Dumars (#18), not to mention AC Green, Terry Porter, John "Hot Rod" Williams, Michael Adams...
Reef ( D- ) -- Reef played in this one. No, really, you could tell from the booing. Wonderful. Had one very nice early take...and that was pretty much completely it. Got himself booed in the third for throwing up brick after brick at the FT line. Booing a man for FT shooting pretty much should get you smacked alongside the head in my book, but in this case you have to hope/assume it was the overall non-show.
HAROLD PRESSLEY -- and ironically just renewed his association with the Kings franchise. We went to the playoffs that first year, in much the same way we have been trying to go this year -- nicely bookended losing no hope entries. And so we got stuck with the #17 pick in the 1986 draft where we took Harold. I assume I'm not the only one who thinks we might have done a tad better with Arvydas Sabonis (#24), Mark Price (#25), Dennis Rodman (#27), Nate McMillan (#30), or for that matter Kevin Duckworth, Jeff Hornacek or Drazen Petrovic.
Miller ( C+ ) -- worked over by Kaman early as usual, but at least somehow won both of his first quarter tips against him. Yay. Began to get some little inside layups off of hustle plays as the half wore on. Played bigger in the third, but did not help things with a dumb error to close the third quarter where he fouled Tim Thomas shooting a jumper out near the 3pt line. Gave up an extra two points for a play you should just never see out of your center. Appears to have completely lost confidence in his formerly trademark jumper, and everything he made were little fugly layups off of loose ball situations, one drive, etc. Brad's overall 9 and 9 does not look terrible for him this year (was a time when we expected much more, but that is past), and seems to compare decently to Kaman's 10 and 12...until you look at the minutes. Kaman dominated the matchup, but just could not stay on the floor with the officials calling breathing fouls all night.
KENNY SMITH -- long before The Jet's days of sparring with Sir Bowl Full of Jelly, Kenny was our own trifecta -- our answer to coming out of our first two drafts with Kleine and Pressley rather than Malone and Rodman. So in 1987 we draft Kenny at #6...ahead of Kevin Johnson (#7) Reggie Miller (#11) and even Mark Jackson (#18). We also shunned Horace Grant, Reggie Lewis and even Sarunas Marciulonis for a two year Kenny rental.
Martin ( B ) -- started off stinking up the place once again and was 0-4 from the field and really looking out of it in the early going. Missing the open ones, the easy ones, as well as the tougher ones. Got 1 pt in the first quarter, on the ultimate gimme -- a technical FT which he barely rattled in. But he came alive in the second quarter, and what actually started getting him going had nothing to do with offense, but was rather him getting his negligible butt back to help out our midget frontline on the glass. Grabbed 3 or 4 defensive rebounds, and then finally started to show up on the offensive end. In fact one of those games where for a while Kevin tried to disguise our awful rebounding by leading us before half. Took a while to gt going after half, but eventually settled into a solid rhtyhm and spotted us point and shots here and there, including a back to back three with Cisco that brought us back from the brink of blowout and let us stage another of our famous almost wins. There was a "+" to add to this B, but like Ron, it was right on the border, and in such a drab little game the flat B sounded closer to it. Played the better rounded game than Cat Mobley, but never did get control of him on the defensive side of the ball and lost the scoring battle. But a pretty good showing to close up what otherwise has been an ugly month for him: Kevin's March numbers: 18.4ppg on .411 FG%, .286 3pt%.
PERVIS ELLISON -- this pick, the Kings last and only #1 overall, is sometimes defended as being ok because it was generally a weak draft. Not THAT weak. IN 1989 instead of Pervis we could have had Glen Rice (#4), Tim Hardaway (#14) Shawn Kemp (#18), or even just skipped his whole objectionable Lakers phase and nabbed a young Euro named Vlade Divac (#26).
Given the way things seem inevitably trending now, theme tonight will be Great Moments in Kings Draft History:
Artest ( B+ ) -- in the first half gave us very little, and it was really his absence before half that got us in trourble. Mike early, and then Kevin later, got their points, but we were having to rely on Corliss as the #3 guy. But showed up bigtime in the second half -- unfortunately about the only one in the early third as neither Mike nor Kevin did much out of the break and Corliss was obviously on the bench. Harrassed Maggette on numerous occassions, in the second half was doing the overpower the other team to the rim thing, and hit several bit threes down the stretch, although they were in semi-desperation time when we were just flailing. Finished with another very nifty looking statline: 29pts on 10-19 shooting, 7 rebs 3ast, and with the defensive moments I was feeling almost obligated to bump it up to the A- here. But decided to hold the line at the B+: never felt that good, had an invisible first half, and was at 23 until about the :45 second mark after we'd already pretty much lost it. Best overall night for us probably, but lacking the spark an A type effort should have (as was this game).
JOE KLEINE -- ah, the famous one that started it all back in 1985. Sacramento's very first NBA draft pick. We got the #6 overall pick in the draft, and with it we took a very large hick out of Arkansas. Great way to kick things off, unless you count that we drafted Joe over Chris Mullin (#7), Detlef Schrempf (#8), Charles Oakley (#9), Karl Malone (#13), Joe Dumars (#18), not to mention AC Green, Terry Porter, John "Hot Rod" Williams, Michael Adams...
Reef ( D- ) -- Reef played in this one. No, really, you could tell from the booing. Wonderful. Had one very nice early take...and that was pretty much completely it. Got himself booed in the third for throwing up brick after brick at the FT line. Booing a man for FT shooting pretty much should get you smacked alongside the head in my book, but in this case you have to hope/assume it was the overall non-show.
HAROLD PRESSLEY -- and ironically just renewed his association with the Kings franchise. We went to the playoffs that first year, in much the same way we have been trying to go this year -- nicely bookended losing no hope entries. And so we got stuck with the #17 pick in the 1986 draft where we took Harold. I assume I'm not the only one who thinks we might have done a tad better with Arvydas Sabonis (#24), Mark Price (#25), Dennis Rodman (#27), Nate McMillan (#30), or for that matter Kevin Duckworth, Jeff Hornacek or Drazen Petrovic.
Miller ( C+ ) -- worked over by Kaman early as usual, but at least somehow won both of his first quarter tips against him. Yay. Began to get some little inside layups off of hustle plays as the half wore on. Played bigger in the third, but did not help things with a dumb error to close the third quarter where he fouled Tim Thomas shooting a jumper out near the 3pt line. Gave up an extra two points for a play you should just never see out of your center. Appears to have completely lost confidence in his formerly trademark jumper, and everything he made were little fugly layups off of loose ball situations, one drive, etc. Brad's overall 9 and 9 does not look terrible for him this year (was a time when we expected much more, but that is past), and seems to compare decently to Kaman's 10 and 12...until you look at the minutes. Kaman dominated the matchup, but just could not stay on the floor with the officials calling breathing fouls all night.
KENNY SMITH -- long before The Jet's days of sparring with Sir Bowl Full of Jelly, Kenny was our own trifecta -- our answer to coming out of our first two drafts with Kleine and Pressley rather than Malone and Rodman. So in 1987 we draft Kenny at #6...ahead of Kevin Johnson (#7) Reggie Miller (#11) and even Mark Jackson (#18). We also shunned Horace Grant, Reggie Lewis and even Sarunas Marciulonis for a two year Kenny rental.
Martin ( B ) -- started off stinking up the place once again and was 0-4 from the field and really looking out of it in the early going. Missing the open ones, the easy ones, as well as the tougher ones. Got 1 pt in the first quarter, on the ultimate gimme -- a technical FT which he barely rattled in. But he came alive in the second quarter, and what actually started getting him going had nothing to do with offense, but was rather him getting his negligible butt back to help out our midget frontline on the glass. Grabbed 3 or 4 defensive rebounds, and then finally started to show up on the offensive end. In fact one of those games where for a while Kevin tried to disguise our awful rebounding by leading us before half. Took a while to gt going after half, but eventually settled into a solid rhtyhm and spotted us point and shots here and there, including a back to back three with Cisco that brought us back from the brink of blowout and let us stage another of our famous almost wins. There was a "+" to add to this B, but like Ron, it was right on the border, and in such a drab little game the flat B sounded closer to it. Played the better rounded game than Cat Mobley, but never did get control of him on the defensive side of the ball and lost the scoring battle. But a pretty good showing to close up what otherwise has been an ugly month for him: Kevin's March numbers: 18.4ppg on .411 FG%, .286 3pt%.
PERVIS ELLISON -- this pick, the Kings last and only #1 overall, is sometimes defended as being ok because it was generally a weak draft. Not THAT weak. IN 1989 instead of Pervis we could have had Glen Rice (#4), Tim Hardaway (#14) Shawn Kemp (#18), or even just skipped his whole objectionable Lakers phase and nabbed a young Euro named Vlade Divac (#26).
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