How to make Tyreke Evans fit in

[Cwebb#4]

As we all know, Tyreke has been, perhaps not a disappointment, but under performing. Though I really, really want him to stay, we haven't seen anything like his rookie season for a while now, and it's starting to worry me a little. Whether this is because of the crowded roster, poor coaching, or simply incorrect usage, we can't be sure. However, there is one question we can answer, and that is this: How do you think he fits in best with the team?

 

[Glenn]

I have been not so subtly recommending that we either trade away all our shoor first PGs or trade Tyreke. I don't think that PG style can fit with Tyreke at the SG spot. The last thing I want to do is trade Tyreke because he can do some things that no one else can do and has shown development in his outside shooting.

I think IT is excellent trade material as he is turning out to be a great PG except for the simple fact that he is short and tends not to share the ball. The major problem is that the two styles don't match and I want to salvage Tyreke. Tyreke is not becoming a worse athlete as that is a ridculous interpretation as to what is going on. The team has simply gone in another direction and in my opinion, it has gone in the wrong direction.

Using IT or Brooks in some package deal for a trade for a SF or shotblocker would be a good move.

 

[pshn80]

Tyreke, one of the best performers on our team. Fits in quite well. Can't win games all by himself. Don't tinker with him.

 

[Cwebb#4]

The only problem I see with Tyreke as an SG is that he has a poor shot: While he's great at shots in the key and getting himself open, his 3pt percentage is barely at the 32% mark, and his mid-range isn't much better. I agree that he is hilariously athletic and the last player (besides Cousins)who we want to see leave the team, but until his shot improves, we should use him as more of a combo guard, and pair him with a real PG(I like Isaiah, but he's just not what we need).

 

[whozit]

As we all know, Tyreke has been a disappointment. Though I really, really don't want him traded, we haven't seen anything like his rookie season for a while now, and it's starting to worry me a little,. Whether this is because of the emergence of Cousins, poor coaching, role change, or simply attitude, we can't be sure. However, there is one question we can answer, and that is this: How do you think he fits in best with the team?

No, we don't ALL know that Tyreke has been a disappointment. I have been disappointed by the way he's been used and the pieces put around him.

 

[Cwebb#4]

No, we don't ALL know that Tyreke has been a disappointment. I have been disappointed by the way he's been used and the pieces put around him.

I edited the post.

 

[Bricklayer]

Clean up the roster. Give me one summer as our GM and Tyreke Evans would "fit in" just fine. Its called being featured. They would find minichuckers scattered from here to the Tanzanian Leagues after I got down redistributing the stupidity.

 

[pshn80]

Clean up the roster. Give me one summer with as our GM and Tyrke Evans would "fit in" just fine. Its called being featured. They would find minichuckers scattered from here to the Tanzanian Leagues after I got down redistributing the stupidity.

I like Petrie but would gladly see you get your shot.

 

[upinsmoke]

Paired with Marcus Smart

 

[Cwebb#4]

paired with marcus smart

Exactly.

 

[Cwebb#4]

Thank God he's low enough in the draft. Wonder why the prospects are so scinty this year...

 

[bajaden]

Thank God he's low enough in the draft. Wonder why the prospects are so scinty this year...

Smart will be a top 5 pick or above. Trust me on that one. Probably top 3. I like Smart, but he's a slightly more athletic clone of Tyreke. He has a better outside shot, but make's his bread and butter by getting to the basket and into the lane. I honestly don't know if they'd fit well together. We'd be great defensively though, and we could post up just about every PG in the league. And Smart is very good at posting up.

 

[Cwebb#4]

Michael Carter-Williams is also a good option. While Smart is better scoring, Williams has great defensive skills and is also better at assisting, which is something we sorely need right now.

 

[The Hammer]

Clean up the roster. Give me one summer as our GM and Tyreke Evans would "fit in" just fine. Its called being featured. They would find minichuckers scattered from here to the Tanzanian Leagues after I got down redistributing the stupidity.

If I owned the Kings....

Brick is the GM.

Carmichael Dave is the play by play and does Kings talk.

Katie Christensen is hired back.

And Tyreke Evans gets a good coach.

Not hard people. Not that hard.

 

[mac]

Smart will be a top 5 pick or above. Trust me on that one. Probably top 3. I like Smart, but he's a slightly more athletic clone of Tyreke. He has a better outside shot, but make's his bread and butter by getting to the basket and into the lane. I honestly don't know if they'd fit well together. We'd be great defensively though, and we could post up just about every PG in the league. And Smart is very good at posting up.

Do you think it'd work if we got a stretch PF and a very good 3 point shooting SF?

 

[Section 101]

Clean up the roster. Give me one summer as our GM and Tyreke Evans would "fit in" just fine. Its called being featured. They would find minichuckers scattered from here to the Tanzanian Leagues after I got down redistributing the stupidity.

Any team featuring Evans is a 25 win team. He doesn't have the BB IQ or mental make up to be a feature player. He's a 4th or 5th option on a playoff team.

 

[Kingster]

Like the title implies, he doesn't fit. But I don't buy that he doesn't fit because he isn't featured as a point guard. He's given opportunities at the lead guard position; I don't see his performance any better in that position than at the 2-guard. And I don't buy the reductionist argument of just have other players take less shots and give him more. That simplistic concept completely ignores whether the shots he gets are good or bad shots and whether the shots that others sacrifice are good or bad shots. The last thing I want is for someone not to take a good shot and for Tyreke to take a bad shot. The goal is for everybody to take good shots.

It's pretty obvious that teams have figured Tyreke's limited drive to the basket game out. We've seen the Tyreke charge-a-thon enough to know. Ultimately, for Tyreke to fit he needs to develop an intermediate pull-up jumper. He's not going to truly fit anywhere without that shot. He can't run a fast break without that shot. He can't drive from the 3 point line consistently without that shot. He can't stop his continual charging without that shot. Also, Tyreke does need to be "featured" - with off the ball movement and post-ups. I just see him standing around most of the time, which isn't going to get him good shots. In that respect, yes, the coach does need to "feature" him in moving off screans without the ball and posting him up wherever he can. Those are good shots; giving the ball to Tyreke at the 3 point line to do whatever, is typically not a good shot for Tyreke, and most importantly, for the team.

 

[Padrino]

Like the title implies, he doesn't fit. But I don't buy that he doesn't fit because he isn't featured as a point guard. He's given opportunities at the lead guard position; I don't see his performance any better in that position than at the 2-guard. And I don't buy the reductionist argument of just have other players take less shots and give him more. That simplistic concept completely ignores whether the shots he gets are good or bad shots and whether the shots that others sacrifice are good or bad shots. The last thing I want is for someone not to take a good shot and for Tyreke to take a bad shot. The goal is for everybody to take good shots.

It's pretty obvious that teams have figured Tyreke's limited drive to the basket game out. We've seen the Tyreke charge-a-thon enough to know. Ultimately, for Tyreke to fit he needs to develop an intermediate pull-up jumper. He's not going to truly fit anywhere without that shot. He can't run a fast break without that shot. He can't drive from the 3 point line consistently without that shot. He can't stop his continual charging without that shot. Also, Tyreke does need to be "featured" - with off the ball movement and post-ups. I just see him standing around most of the time, which isn't going to get him good shots. In that respect, yes, the coach does need to "feature" him in moving off screans without the ball and posting him up wherever he can. Those are good shots; giving the ball to Tyreke at the 3 point line to do whatever, is typically not a good shot for Tyreke, and most importantly, for the team.

its not about "featuring." its about incorporating. and the incorporation of tyreke evans into whatever keith smart calls an offense has been sacrificed to highlight lesser players. tyreke should, indeed, be receiving the ball in both post-up situations and in off-ball motion much more often. he has had considerable success when doing so in the past. he has also proven to be among the deadliest lane carvers in the game, complete with two-step flair. if you craft a series of offensive schemes in which tyreke is allowed a variety of looks at the basket, then that lane will open up for him a whole helluvalot more, and he can return to being the layup king. but here's an example of what not to do: the kings closed out the third quarter in last night's game with one of the most uninspired 1-4 flats i've ever seen. it was clearly a drawn-up play, and it was utter weak sauce. jimmer, of all people, set a charmin ultra-soft screen that did nothing to give tyreke a better look in the lane, and tyreke predictably lumbered into the paint with nowhere to go. if keith smart actually designed a 1-4 flat initiated by a jimmer fredette screen, then that tells you all you need to know about how flimsy the kings offensive coaching really is, and how unimaginative it is. a rick adelman or a gregg popovich or even a jerry sloan would have a field day with a player like tyreke evans, because those coaches understand how best to maximize physically-gifted players, regardless of how well they "fit." after all, you don't design a gameplan around 60th picks like isaiah thomas, as keith smart has done. you design a gameplan around top 5 picks like demarcus cousins and tyreke evans, who have both the talent and the physical gifts to be upper-echelon players in the nba...

 

[Kingster]

its not about "featuring." its about incorporating. and the incorporation of tyreke evans into whatever keith smart calls an offense has been sacrificed to highlight lesser players. tyreke should, indeed, be receiving the ball in both post-up situations and in off-ball motion much more often. he has had considerable success when doing so in the past. he has also proven to be among the deadliest lane carvers in the game, complete with two-step flair. if you craft a series of offensive schemes in which tyreke is allowed a variety of looks at the basket, then that lane will open up for him a whole helluvalot more, and he can return to being the layup king. but here's an example of what not to do: the kings closed out the third quarter in last night's game with one of the most uninspired 1-4 flats i've ever seen. it was clearly a drawn-up play, and it was utter weak sauce. jimmer, of all people, set a charmin ultra-soft screen that did nothing to give tyreke a better look in the lane, and tyreke predictably lumbered into the paint with nowhere to go. if keith smart actually designed a 1-4 flat initiated by a jimmer fredette screen, then that tells you all you need to know about how flimsy the kings offensive coaching really is, and how unimaginative it is. a rick adelman or a gregg popovich or even a jerry sloan would have a field day with a player like tyreke evans, because those coaches understand how best to maximize physically-gifted players, regardless of how well they "fit." after all, you don't design a gameplan around 60th picks like isaiah thomas, as keith smart has done. you design a gameplan around top 5 picks like demarcus cousins and tyreke evans, who have both the talent and the physical gifts to be upper-echelon players in the nba...

I don't think Smart has designed the game plan around Thomas. That's an overeach. Could a good coach incorporate (or feature) Tyreke into a better offense? No doubt. But Tyreke needs to get an intermediate game, regardless. That's not on Smart, or IT, or Tyreke's brothers or the Maloofs. That's on Tyreke. We wouldn't even be having this conversation about Tyreke not fitting or how they need to incorporate/feature him into an offense if he had an intermediate game. The point would be moot.

 

[pshn80]

I wonder if in these games since the deadline whether Tyreke is in a funk in disappointment from not being traded. Understandable if true. I hope he perks up.

 

[Spike]

Not that there's any proof, but I wouldn't blame him. It's going to be a pretty miserable end to the season, or until the ownership situation clears up.

 

[Darth Divac]

How about Tyreke as a part-time facilitator, along with Marcus Smart (once drafted)?

 

[upinsmoke]

How about Tyreke as a part-time facilitator, along with Marcus Smart (once drafted)?

First time i watched that kid I said to myself pair him with Reke!

 

[Bricklayer]

Any team featuring Evans is a 25 win team. He doesn't have the BB IQ or mental make up to be a feature player. He's a 4th or 5th option on a playoff team.

Stop being sad. It makes us look sad in the process.

 

[Agent23]

That's the big problem, we are trying to fit him in. The team is supposed to fit around Demarcus Cousins and Tyreke Evans. They drafted those two and never made an effort to build this team around them properly. Its insane!

 

[rhythmless]

I have been not so subtly recommending that we either trade away all our shoor first PGs or trade Tyreke. I don't think that PG style can fit with Tyreke at the SG spot. The last thing I want to do is trade Tyreke because he can do some things that no one else can do and has shown development in his outside shooting.

I think IT is excellent trade material as he is turning out to be a great PG except for the simple fact that he is short and tends not to share the ball. The major problem is that the two styles don't match and I want to salvage Tyreke. Tyreke is not becoming a worse athlete as that is a ridculous interpretation as to what is going on. The team has simply gone in another direction and in my opinion, it has gone in the wrong direction.

Using IT or Brooks in some package deal for a trade for a SF or shotblocker would be a good move.

He's gotten better at the 3, but his long distance 2s have been the worst of his career.

 

[upinsmoke]

I think the real question is will the new front office who would have nothing invested in Evans see him as being worthy of big money? IMO no but we'll see.

 

[bajaden]

I think the real question is will the new front office who would have nothing invested in Evans see him as being worthy of big money? IMO no but we'll see.

Tyreke is a very talented player, and Agent 23 had a good point when he said you build around your core players. You don't throw some players together and then try and fit your core players in. A good management group would have started surrounding Tyreke with players that compliment his particular skill level, and then work with Tyreke to expand his skill level. Tyreke has made improvements. He's moving without the ball much better. Take note of how many baskets he's scored on backdoor cuts this season. His 3 pt shot is much better, especially if he has his feet set. He still makes mistakes at times, and I think a lot of them are born out of frustration. Both Cousins and Tyreke had never been on losing teams until they came to the Kings. Both desparately want to win, and sometimes that gets the better of them and make stupid plays.

I can live with that, because I don't think its about self gratification. I don't think either Cousins or Tyreke cares if they only score 10 points in a game as long as they win the game. Unfortunately, for the most part, they're surrounded by a group of hero's. Or hero wannabe's. If you watched the Spurs lastnight, you could tell that they didn't care who scored, as long as they scored. If your Cousins or Tyreke, at some point in a game, you can't take it anymore and you jump in and join the group of hero's. If your playing a bad team, you might have success. But if your playing a team like the Spurs, your playing right into their hands. They will disect you, dice you, and have you for lunch.

As a side note, I read an interview with Patrick Patterson and he was asked about the Houston orginization. He said they were all about player development. He said from the moment he arrived there, they started working on his skill level, and had an extensive monitoring system for the offseason. Apparently they even sent coaches along with the players designated to their D-League team to make sure they got the proper instruction there. Good orginizations produce winners. Hopefully thats what the future holds for the Kings.

 

[Glenn]

That's an interesting point. I think you are absolutely corect that Cousins and Tyreke don't need to pad their stats. They are all about winning. Now we need to shed the guys who feel the need to go into hero mode and unfortunately a few of these are good athletes. It's the achilles heel of IT. I can tolerate MT because shooting is his role although he could expand his game easily. Unfortunately I don't think he fits with the team because he plays the same position as Tyreke has settled into. There aren't enough minutes for the two of them unless you go small. It is difficult to judge other players as a new coach could change their behavior.

Neat note on the Houston organization. I have watched McHale since he was a freshman in college, my college BTW, and this guy has developed his game from day one in college until about age 30 in the NBA when there wasn't much more that he could learn. As one team mate of his said, "Kevin graduated from college with a BA and then took it upon himself to get a Masters in Basketball and finally a PhD. It's true becaue the guy who graduated from the U of M was nothing like the guy 10 years later. Perhaps this attitude has something to do with their organization. And then again maybe not but at least I got to brag about the one time hockey goalie from northern Minnesota.

 

[ParniValjak]

A very good coach is the answer to all this. Adelman would do wonders with Cousins and Evans. So would any other good coach really!