I got positive vibes about this season.

[Mozart]

No, I'm not smok'n my Goo cigars (damn, it's good, home-grown Cuban stuff, I'll tellya) when I make my declaration that I've got good vibes about the prospects of this season, but, unlike most of you, I've got a good feel'n about this season.


Dunno why, but here's a few clues:


1)New King: Theus. As I posted a while ago, I know the guy and, I'm tell'n ya, despite the odds of an unsuccessful season, despite the tough start with Bibs 'n Ron-Ron being out at the start of this season, Theus IS going to instill a winning, never-say-die attitude in most of the players on this team. There's gonna be very little quit on this team and it will be an entertaining team to watch and this will be primarily because of Theus' charismatic, persuasive personality and his deep experience with the game. I'm tell'n ya, Theus is a WINNER and getting him was a masterstroke. He'll get coach of the year before year two is over. I'm so glad that Theus is our coach.


2)Young players: Bibs is on his way out; I predict that he will become expendable due to the better-than-expected developments of more than one point guard from the PG-by committee that will eventually be dominated by Orien Green, who will likely become good enough to make Bibs expendable and tradeable to some team that would be willing to gulp down Bib's sizeable contract in order to fill in a PG void on their PG-starved, cap-friendly team. Bibs will be gone, sad to say, before the end of this season. Artest will likely stay and he'll behave well the entire season with nary an off-court distraction with excellent game production of strong defense and none of the stupid, muss-inspired one-on-one gaming of last year. Ron-Ron's matured, finally.


3)Hawes: Hawes will be a surprise player for the Kings with his soon-to-be established rotation spelling Miller to help keep a reinvigorated Miller fresh throughout the games. This will be huge and Hawe's knees will hold up.


4)Slow start: This season's gonna start out slow, but it will build up momentum as the players start to really buy into Theus' game philosophy and will not only wind up in the playoffs, but will be surprise contenders in the second round in the playoffs. Yea, second round.


5)PF position: The PF position will mainly be done by committee, like the PG position with good results and the right kinds of rotations that happen in accord to the matchups with the opponents and the play (read: defense) of the PF dudes on the team. Even SAR will do well this year, as well as KT, not to mention Williams, who'll come back after being exonerated with his situation, as I expect. Moore's gonna prove to be an excellent FA pickup with his spirited, energy-packed play with defense, rebounding, and, yes, scoring, not to mention having a nice head of hair, 'cept for that fugly white 'n girly hairband--dude, use something else to hold 'cher hair.


6)6th man: Douby will help ease the pain of losing B Jackson for many, as he'll provide awesome scoring punches coming in the game off the bench. Ya watch, he's going to do good!


There's more reasons, but I gotta go 'n light up on my Cuban Boo-Goo before hitting the sack, as there's a lot of work to do in gett'n ready for Boo-night game doing silly-kings'-fans-tv-game-rituals for tomorrow night.


What are y'all wearing for the Boo-night, opening-night game tomorrow night?


~Mozart

 

[Vlade4GM]

congrats to you.

 

[Mozart]

Thanks

congrats to you.

Thank you. For once in my life, I feel good when I go, "Goo, Goo!". ;-)




Man, where's a cig-smok'n smile icon?

 

[6th]

Thank you. For once in my life, I feel good when I go, "Goo, Goo!". ;-)




Man, where's a cig-smok'n smile icon?

Here is Mr. Cool.

 

[kingzzzfan4ever]

No, I'm not smok'n my Goo cigars (damn, it's good, home-grown Cuban stuff, I'll tellya) when I make my declaration that I've got good vibes about the prospects of this season, but, unlike most of you, I've got a good feel'n about this season.


Dunno why, but here's a few clues:


1)New King: Theus. As I posted a while ago, I know the guy and, I'm tell'n ya, despite the odds of an unsuccessful season, despite the tough start with Bibs 'n Ron-Ron being out at the start of this season, Theus IS going to instill a winning, never-say-die attitude in most of the players on this team. There's gonna be very little quit on this team and it will be an entertaining team to watch and this will be primarily because of Theus' charismatic, persuasive personality and his deep experience with the game. I'm tell'n ya, Theus is a WINNER and getting him was a masterstroke. He'll get coach of the year before year two is over. I'm so glad that Theus is our coach.


2)Young players: Bibs is on his way out; I predict that he will become expendable due to the better-than-expected developments of more than one point guard from the PG-by committee that will eventually be dominated by Orien Green, who will likely become good enough to make Bibs expendable and tradeable to some team that would be willing to gulp down Bib's sizeable contract in order to fill in a PG void on their PG-starved, cap-friendly team. Bibs will be gone, sad to say, before the end of this season. Artest will likely stay and he'll behave well the entire season with nary an off-court distraction with excellent game production of strong defense and none of the stupid, muss-inspired one-on-one gaming of last year. Ron-Ron's matured, finally.


3)Hawes: Hawes will be a surprise player for the Kings with his soon-to-be established rotation spelling Miller to help keep a reinvigorated Miller fresh throughout the games. This will be huge and Hawe's knees will hold up.


4)Slow start: This season's gonna start out slow, but it will build up momentum as the players start to really buy into Theus' game philosophy and will not only wind up in the playoffs, but will be surprise contenders in the second round in the playoffs. Yea, second round.


5)PF position: The PF position will mainly be done by committee, like the PG position with good results and the right kinds of rotations that happen in accord to the matchups with the opponents and the play (read: defense) of the PF dudes on the team. Even SAR will do well this year, as well as KT, not to mention Williams, who'll come back after being exonerated with his situation, as I expect. Moore's gonna prove to be an excellent FA pickup with his spirited, energy-packed play with defense, rebounding, and, yes, scoring, not to mention having a nice head of hair, 'cept for that fugly white 'n girly hairband--dude, use something else to hold 'cher hair.


6)6th man: Douby will help ease the pain of losing B Jackson for many, as he'll provide awesome scoring punches coming in the game off the bench. Ya watch, he's going to do good!


There's more reasons, but I gotta go 'n light up on my Cuban Boo-Goo before hitting the sack, as there's a lot of work to do in gett'n ready for Boo-night game doing silly-kings'-fans-tv-game-rituals for tomorrow night.


What are y'all wearing for the Boo-night, opening-night game tomorrow night?


~Mozart

I just hope the Kings can do well too, I too have a good feeling about the Kings, I think Coach Theus is providing some direction and discipline towards the players and I hope Hawes turns out to be a great player that will give an offensive boost to the team.

 

[BMiller52]

Greene might actually compliment Kevin pretty well IMO, so I think you're right and he might win the starting PG spot. He defends well to help make up for Kevin's D(which needs to improve) and he's pass 1st so he can get him the shots he needs(because that's the only way we'll have a shot at winning, is if Kevin shoots a lot).

 

[mac]

So far I've been happy with the team. Agreed they have problems hanging on to leads but I think that's all part and parcel of a young team, mainly because there's no true superstar to close out the game. As good as Martin is, he still does not have the experience at this point to take over the game defensively and offensively. I'm really looking forward to Hawes, who will be one of the few young players who can score back-to-the-basket.

On the whole topic of wasted MLE, right now I feel its only been wasted on Moore, but regular season for the kings hasnt started so I'm in no place to make any proper judgement. IMO SAR was and still could be an excellent player, but due to injury has lost a lot of his talent. Salmons as we all know can be a sold contributor.

On a random note, I was rather shocked a while back. Being fairly young (16) and completely clueless bout happenings in the NBA before say ... 2000, watching brent barry in a slam dunk competition was like whoa. Now all he does is hang around and shoot bout 30% from the 3pt line. So I guess its the same thing with KT and SAR and stuff.

 

[Arby's Roast Beef]

I love your enthusiasm, but second round of playoffs? A lot of things have to go right there. Douby can be a nice scorer off the bench, but I look for a solid development curve as he's shown so far this preseason, rather than a Barbosa sort of scoring explosion nightly off the bench. I hate to say wishful thinking, in that Hawes' knees will hold up, Ron's matured? and Justin will be exonerated and play well, etc...again, a lot of things have to go right. I can agree that Theus seems like an up-and-comer, but to turn things around in his first year of coaching particularly in the win-loss column would be appreciated mightily, but not expected; it's a gradual thing. I can agree with sorting out the kinks of the roster and seeing who plays well by committee, as well as looking for some high energy hustle and play and such, but to expect more than that may be out of the blue.

 

[KingsCitizen]

I think what truly provides more optimism on this season(than the Muss Era) is that were done some good upgrade at our frontline and perimeter defense.(Note: "Good" does not mean "Best").
At least now, I could say that Theus can get a player from anywhere in the bench to hit the floor and provide some good hustle.

Last year it was only Miller, that I considered a real big man on the line-up but he was very much out of shape. This year at least we can have Moore, Watkins, and Williams who stand at least 6'10"(enough big body and height even just for intimidation)

Last year we only have Hart, Price, and a rookie Douby in the backcourt. Now Douby earns 1 yr more to experience and has been showing some confidence in defense(a block/steal per game in pre-season) and offense(some good game against phoenix at pre-season). Plus we added Green, whom really impressed me on his defense. In short our backcourt has grown taller and better defensively.

As long as Artest will be back in the line-up, we should be able to compete well. Bibby is good floor general, but his always a liability on defense. With Green/Douby at PG, were actually adding defense.

Theus should just make better plays so that the ball can pass through the half-court safe. Once it's there we can always make use of Miller's passing, Martin's slashing, and hopefully Reef's post-skills. While Bibby or Artest is out.

Once Artest is back, the main priority is not to pass unless it's surely safe. This is where we'll miss Bibby coz he can do nifty passes. But just sacrifice some of the passes and rather focus on slashing and posting up. Artest is always a mismatch for any SF on the post. So does Martin and Miller always have decent range.

Yeah, maybe it'll be tough without Bibby. But look on the bright spot. Reggie may just be wise enough to switch offenses. Coz losing Bibby is actually a plus on defense.

 

[mac]

You're saying we switch offense to a halfcourt set? Not so sure that's gonna work because
a) we're depending on SAR to have his original post game
b) by putting our bigs on the perimeter we're kissing those few rebounds goodbye
c) we don't have real passing point guards, and the way they're gonna be utilised is high screen n rolls for open shots

That said of course it will cut down opponent's fast break pts. Personally I feel we're kind of in the middle now. As Theus has said he wants to run but he also wants the ball to go inside. The difference is, Phoenix has Amare, Marion inside and tons of 3pt shooters (bell, nash, barbosa). We have Artest, SAR inside, and injured bibby, inconsistent garcia and no way should he stand still Kevin Martin. So there goes the crazy phoenix offence.

Right now the biggest key is............making layups.

 

[KingsCitizen]

You're saying we switch offense to a halfcourt set? Not so sure that's gonna work because

>> Not really, it will depend who's the player on the court, we still have run-n-gun type of players (as long as Douby/Green proves they are better playmaker than the preseason).

a) we're depending on SAR to have his original post game

>> Artest also has a good post game and can outpower any SF.
Maybe Green also have some good post moves(being a 6'4" guard should an advantage down low). Again it will depend who's on court not SAR all the time.

b) by putting our bigs on the perimeter we're kissing those few rebounds goodbye

>> If Miller is on the floor, perimeter is always an option for him. Otherwise, we'll leave the offense to Martin/Douby(yes, he has a good offensive game) and let the bigs post or rebound.

c) we don't have real passing point guards, and the way they're gonna be utilised is high screen n rolls for open shots

>> But we have better passing big man(Miller) and good offensive PG(Douby). It'll be an unorthodox play, if they switch roles on the offense.

That said of course it will cut down opponent's fast break pts. Personally I feel we're kind of in the middle now. As Theus has said he wants to run but he also wants the ball to go inside. The difference is, Phoenix has Amare, Marion inside and tons of 3pt shooters (bell, nash, barbosa). We have Artest, SAR inside, and injured bibby, inconsistent garcia and no way should he stand still Kevin Martin. So there goes the crazy phoenix offence.

Other teams don't have Amare/Marion type players inside but they got to the playoffs. It's a matter of stepping up and playing in an unorthodox way now that Bibby is gone. Remember Cleveland last season? One unknown guy(not James) suddenly stepped and teams just don't know how to defend him and boo! their at the finals. I mean injuries to some veteran players is an opportunity for every bench kid to step up. Let's see by December if we might find one in our team this season.

Right now the biggest key is............making layups.

Yup! We should make those layups.

 

[Variant]

Expectations are very low for this team... so it's the perfect time to overachieve.

Personally I am expecting jack diddly, so I'm just going to try and enjoy watching the young guys develop.

 

[Gary]

Great outlook!

I don't agree with it all but it's good to be positive