How to make Tyreke Evans fit in

[DesertFox]

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.

Good point. You can disagree with Houston's moves or strategy, but they have a vision and go for it. 3 pt shooters and one defensive big, and abandoning long 2's.

I thought maybe the Kings had the same thing going when they had Reke, JT/Cuz/Daly at the bigs, and Casspi/Greene at the wings. Not perfect, but you had an idea of what they were trying to do. Now, you look at the team's 2 best players, and the rest of the roster, and there is no compliment. JT is the only role player who fits, and honestly that is because he would fit on any team. From the bottom of the roster to the top of the org, there is no vision.

 

[Agent23]

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.

Bingo! The thing that frustrates me the most is that fans like us, with no experience or insight on the inner workings of a professional basketball team, can see the problems from the outside looking in. Lack of quality player development. Lack of team "style". They threw stuff on the court and hoped it would work.

 

[mac]

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.

To add to your point about backcuts - Tyreke would have a whole lot more success cutting backdoor if it were a designated play. Too often he cuts and then finds himself simply running into JT's defender, while simultaneously drawing his own defender into the paint while Cousins makes a move towards the basket. Again - "read and react" offense, with each player reading and reacting on different levels. Also, players of Tyreke's build usually don't make good cutters, certainly not on the level of smaller, quicker guys like MT and Kevin Martin. There's a reason why we say Tyreke tends to just overpower his defender to the rim, as opposed to beating him with quickness.

 

[Bricklayer]

I thought maybe the Kings had the same thing going when they had Reke, JT/Cuz/Daly at the bigs, and Casspi/Greene at the wings. Not perfect, but you had an idea of what they were trying to do. Now, you look at the team's 2 best players, and the rest of the roster, and there is no compliment. JT is the only role player who fits, and honestly that is because he would fit on any team. From the bottom of the roster to the top of the org, there is no vision.

Yep. That's pretty much exactly where I come down on all this too. For a long time I was a rare Petrie basher, and then for a couple of years he briefly seemed to change his M.O., to have a plan. We drafted back to back star level guys, I could see the big strong frontline and backcourt forming up, and I swung aroudn and was supporting what Petrie was doing...and then boom. His brain remelted and was right back to all the nonsense that had me calling for his head ever since '03-04. Random undersized players, scoring chuckers, no plan, no hope. To me there is really kind of a night and day thing there.

One thing I have considered, albeit lightly is this: I have no use for Jason Levien. Swarmy ex-agent now presiding over the accounting...er...I meant "analytics" attempt to play fantasy basketball with real life people in Memphis. He was Kevin's agent and presumably wanted us to keep him, he slipped into our front office with apparent designs on Petrie's job, he wanted us to take Monroe instead of Cousins. Generally not my favorite guy. But, BUT an interesting little factoid is this: Levein showed up in our fornt office just in tiem for us to draft Reke, Casspi, Brockman, to suddenly want to get bigger and tougher. He would have blown the Cousins pick, but he left I think at the end of Cousins rookie year. Meaning that much as I have seen him as part of the problem, his 2 years mucking around in our front office seem to largely coincide with the only two years in the last 8-9 where we actually have acted like a smart front office with a plan. I certainly am still not willing to just annoint Levien as the reason for that, but the timing is interesting.

 

[DesertFox]

Yep. That's pretty much exactly where I come down on all this too. For a long time I was a rare Petrie basher, and then for a couple of years he briefly seemed to change his M.O., to have a plan. We drafted back to back star level guys, I could see the big strong frontline and backcourt forming up, and I swung aroudn and was supporting what Petrie was doing...and then boom. His brain remelted and was right back to all the nonsense that had me calling for his head ever since '03-04. Random undersized players, scoring chuckers, no plan, no hope. To me there is really kind of a night and day thing there.

One thing I have considered, albeit lightly is this: I have no use for Jason Levien. Swarmy ex-agent now presiding over the accounting...er...I meant "analytics" attempt to play fantasy basketball with real life people in Memphis. He was Kevin's agent and presumably wanted us to keep him, he slipped into our front office with apparent designs on Petrie's job, he wanted us to take Monroe instead of Cousins. Generally not my favorite guy. But, BUT an interesting little factoid is this: Levein showed up in our fornt office just in tiem for us to draft Reke, Casspi, Brockman, to suddenly want to get bigger and tougher. He would have blown the Cousins pick, but he left I think at the end of Cousins rookie year. Meaning that much as I have seen him as part of the problem, his 2 years mucking around in our front office seem to largely coincide with the only two years in the last 8-9 where we actually have acted like a smart front office with a plan. I certainly am still not willing to just annoint Levien as the reason for that, but the timing is interesting.

While Cousins is clearly more talented and the higher upside guy, their production to date has been equal, and if the thought is Reke as a #1 guy (vs the #2 guy he now appears to be), Monroe would have been an okay pick. It would be adding a Divac instead of your Webber, but if Reke is your #1, you can understand the safer pick.

While Reke may not now be that #1 star to lead a team, if the team continued to develop with him, I can see how that could have worked. Eventually sign a stud to pair with Reke, with Monroe as that 3rd borderline all-star. I'm sure Levien wouldn't have drafted Jimmer too. Moot point now.

 

[Darth Divac]

I suppose we should just wait and see. If the new front office is competent, we'll be winners, and if they aren't, we'll be right back at maloofed square one.

 

[Darth Divac]

I'm reviving the thread! Post, people!

 

[pshn80]

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.

You posted this two weeks ago but I have just now read it. This really hits some good points right on the head.
A good explanation on why Cuz and Evans sometimes, too many times, do something stupid. And it's hard to develop players properly when you have too many mismatches.