How good is our starting lineup??

Why is Westphal already speaking off a done deal starting lineup of...

PG - Evans
SG - Thornton
C - Cousins
PF - Hayes
SF - Salmons

Isn't training camp to have open competition for starting positions? I don't like to see them annointed beforehand even if several spots are sure bets. Maybe he feels it's such a short sprint to start of the season it's worth carving in stone - but he can and likely will make some changes later.

Please, do NOT encourage him to tinker with lineups...

That being said I hope that Hickson earns the starting spot over Hayes. He's saying all the right things in his interviews, I hope it translates to the court.
 
WHY on earth would you start Hayes at C with Cousins at PF??

You got to go with Cousins at C and Hickson at PF..

Over the last 31 games Hickson averages 17.4ppg 11.3rpg .8bpg 1.5apg.. You don't bench those kind of numbers.

C- Cousins
PF- Hickson
SF- AK47 or Salmons
SG- Thorton
PG- Evans

Every single one of those guys are capable of averaging 17+ ppg is they wanted to.

that is exactly why I think Chuck Hayes will start. to many scorers on the at the same time. Hickson off the bench with JT to replace inside scoring when demarcus is off. I am actually interested to see where JT fits in if in fact cousins, Hickson, and hayes are the 3 man rotation. But with so many games in so little time I see a 4 man rotation being best to fight off fatigue.
 
Hayes

Hayes will guard the best Big on the floor, so what does it matter you call the pf or C? What frightens me is I've heard Westphal say they are "experimenting" w/ 1-3 say they wouldn't even be "recognizeable positions."

Scary

I see Salmons and Hayes in the starting lineup (as team is now). Salmons takes a lot of defensive pressure off Evans because Reke would normally guard the best guard

AND

Hayes takes a lot of defensive pressure off Cousins (as stated by ramyajagarlamudi).

This helps in two ways keeps Cousins out of foul trouble and keeps Reke's energy up to attack offensively.
 
Salmons and Hayes compliment Cousins and Evans because Cuz and REKE are our future stars and who we should be building around. Hayes can pass, which would potentially give up a good passing interior.

AND

it is not making me happy to think all it would take is AK to make me happy.
 
i really like hayes in the starting line up! as someone else pointed out (as if its not obvious enough with us signing him) he will guard the star big on what ever team we play. the idea is we try to defensively to frustrate that player with hayes and if he struggles we can throw JJ or JT in there right away. just because he starts doesn't mean JJ is gonna sit the whole game...

sure the starting line up is more flashy with JJ in there. but i see JJ fitting in more as a frontline rotation based on situations. Cousins and JJ can score but how their defending the other teams 4 and 5 will dictate how many mins they can play together at the same time. i look for JJ to play about the same mins as Cousins but it all comes down to hustling and defending the other team.. theres plenty of scoring on this team. how we defend will dictate the starting line up as the season goes on...

if the starting line up is Cousins, Hayes, Salmons, Thornton, Evans.... we have a solid star 3 with Cousins, Evans, and Thornton... as the scorers and a defensive guy and another defensive player Salmons. remember our bench is actually deep. JJ, Jimmer, Garcia, JT ... we have a solid replacement for each of our PF/C , SF/SG, SG/PG's .. our bench is going to be huge vs these stacked Miami, Laker, Knicks teams that have 3 ultra super stars but no bench... we just have to survive the initial onslaught of the offense these teams are going to produce. when their stars sit we will have a great advantage.
 
Here's my Westphalian lineup:

PG - Jimmer
SG - Thornton
SF - Salmons
PF - Evans
C - Hayes

So let it be written, so let it be done.
 
Our best starting line up IMO is Evans, Marcus, Salmons, Hayes and Cousins. We have three capable defenders in our starting line up with Evans, Salmons & Hayes. With this coach though...I'll probably be scratching my head 10 games in anyways.
 
My 2 cents..

C -Cousins/Thompson/Whiteside
PF-Hickson/Hayes
SF-Salmons/Greene/Honeycutt
2G-Thornton/Garcia
PG-Reke/Jimmer/I. Thomas

For some reason, I just can't put a 6'6" guy at center.
 
I don't think the roster is done. We're still under the minimum, IMO, even with the Hayes and Thornton signed, including the rooks.

I believe Petrie is waiting till the big man carnival ends. Ridiculous numbers were being thrown out there to the several borderline all-star(Marc Gasol) and so-so big men(DeAndre Jordan). To top all these, most teams in this frenzy already have legit bigs (NO-Okafor, Clippers-Kaman, GS-Biedrins).

IMO, we are still looking for a big man. not Chuck Hayes big. LOL
Aside from Dally and Nene, the Jordan/Gasol would splinter some big out of their teams and I hope one of those fall to our laps.
 
im curious if we ll see this lineup alot this year.

cuz
hayes/hickson
evans
thornton
jimmer

that could be deadly offensively
 
im curious if we ll see this lineup alot this year.

cuz
hayes/hickson
evans
thornton
jimmer

that could be deadly offensively

Westphal started with this lineup and they ran off 12-15 points in a row. Also picked up full court. Said you will see this more this year.
 
Westphal started with this lineup and they ran off 12-15 points in a row. Also picked up full court. Said you will see this more this year.

I think this really is the right year to have a young, deep team that can play a lot of pressure defense. If you're a team that has a veteran, eight-man rotation, you're playing your fifth game in six nights, and you come upon a full-court press from the outset of the game, you're going to get gassed. I'd love to see this team 15 deep, rotating in and out the inactives (so people can get rest) and go maximum effort on a 12-man rotation. It's not going to happen, but I'd love to see it.
 
I think this really is the right year to have a young, deep team that can play a lot of pressure defense. If you're a team that has a veteran, eight-man rotation, you're playing your fifth game in six nights, and you come upon a full-court press from the outset of the game, you're going to get gassed. I'd love to see this team 15 deep, rotating in and out the inactives (so people can get rest) and go maximum effort on a 12-man rotation. It's not going to happen, but I'd love to see it.

This is definitely the year where having an extra guard and/or big man will good for a team (and not just conversation for who should be getting the minutes). I think we will see a lot more teams trying to use a 10 or 11 man rotation as opposed to the more normal 8-9 man rotation.
 
This is my projection:

PG - Tyreke Evans
SG - Marcus Thornton
SF - John Salmons
PF - Demarcus Cousins
C - Chuck Hayes

It looks a lot brighter than last years starting lineup. Here's hoping for the 8th seed this year.
After waiting for so many years. And after all the savings...all the cap space and money....and all the good free agents in the market......and this is the best Petrie can put-up. Good enough to win the championship at NBDL. I hope I'm wrong.

Can we at least try to recruit one of Gasol, Nene, T. Chandler, or at least try to lure back our own Dalembert, or at least hear the news that we're at least trying to do just that?
 
Last edited:
After waiting for so many years. And after all the savings...all the cap space and money....and all the good free agents in the market......and this is the best Petrie can put-up. Good enough to win the championship at NBDL. I hope I'm wrong.

Can we at least try to recruit one of Gasol, Nene, T. Chandler, or at least try to lure back our own Dalembert, or at least hear the news that we're at least trying to do just that?

We'll it maybe less on the radio but u it's been in several sites that we joined the Chandler, AK47, and Dally.
 
Last season his defense fell off. Probably because he tried to make up for the loss of Lebron offensively. The year before he was OK defensively. Not great, but lets remember he's still young. He's a very good athlete, so he has the ability to become a good defender. That doesn't mean he will. He needs a coach that will demand he put in the effort on the defensive side of the ball. So far, all I've heard out of the Kings coaching staff is lip service.

There are plenty of ways to improve your defense, but all of them require a greater effort, and for the most part I've haven't seen it. Defense is all about team defense, and that requires all five players to bust their butts. To try and rely on one superman shotblocker to save the day never works. But it does work if everyone else does their job.

Word is that when Hickson didn't get his touches, he didn't play D.
 
Right now I just see an assemblage of parts. Some are good parts, but still just parts. Very little glue; no bolts, screws or solder to make the widgets come together. This team needs some key veteran leaders. Hayes and Garcia are not nearly enough.
 
Right now I just see an assemblage of parts. Some are good parts, but still just parts. Very little glue; no bolts, screws or solder to make the widgets come together. This team needs some key veteran leaders. Hayes and Garcia are not nearly enough.

Well, thats your observation, but its not necessarily true. We won't know until they've played together for a few games, actually, more than a few games. Our team has talent. Most of it is young talent without the experience it needs. But it should be better than last year, and yes, thats despite the lack of Dalembert. Hayes is a better player than he's being given credit for on this fourm. There are things he does better than Dalembert, and those things count as well. He's terrific at setting picks and screens. He's a very good passer. He defends the pick and roll very well, and is a very good man post defender, which Dalembert was just OK at. Dally gave up position way too easy in the post thinking he could always block the shot. That didn't always happen.

I agree with those that believe having a young team will be a help this season. Not a cure all, but it might allow us to steal some wins that we might not win otherwise. I think our overall team defense should be better. Cousins should be better since he's lighter, quicker, and stronger than last season. I think he'll surprise a few people defensively. The trio of Evans, Salmons and Hayes should help in the defensive dept. Would I like to have a Chandler, Dalembert, or Nene on the team? Of course! But to think that the loss of Dalmebert takes us from a good team with a chance for the playoffs to a D-League team, is just pure nonsense. And I'm not saying that you said that!

There are some glue guys on this team. How it will all fit together is pure speculation at this point. So I'm not going to tell anyone that everything is going to be hunky dorey. But I'am saying that there is enough talent there to be competitive with most teams in the league. So I'm going to take a wait and see attitude.
 
I would like to see
PG Evans
SG Thornton
SF Salmons
PF Hickson
C Cousins

Im assuming we will have a 3 guard lineup out there quite often with Jimmer Tyreke and Thornton
 
Back
Top