I'm Confused: The Kings Inconsistency

[CruzDude]

With or without Bibby this year, the Orlando TV on-air guys pointed out some year long issues the Kings are having that have become major. It was objective conversation about both teams and in the first half the Kings were better in most stat categories than the much better Magic.

A little research and here is what I found about the Kings so far this year:

Worst in league in assist/TO ratio
29th in own Assists
30th in own TO's
27th in league in 3pt defense
25th in rebounding
28th in points allowed in the paint
23rd in league for opponent FG%

but in trying to keep my "half full glass" (it may be only 20% full by now!)
5th in league in FT shooting %
7th in steals
middle of league in most other categories

The second half of the Orlando game supported these stats big time. The first half did not. What changes at half time? Why don't Kings turn it on like most other teams? What changes many times when they have a good first half then go south?

Artest is great for the defense he does and getting to the basket but not so great when he starts to hog the ball and dribble too much that gets everyone else standing around. Dilemma #1: keep RonRon next or trade him? Probably not much question there. But can Salmons take over the SF role, defend and score consistently? We know he is much, much better as a starter but is he much better team player than RonRon?

Sometimes the Kings move without the ball really well but seems majority of time not. Kevin the exception but when he runs his butt off and doesn't get the ball consistently, hard to have an incentive. What keeps the Kings from moving without the ball?

With no good defender down low, I can see the bad 3pt defense and the only quick defenders are Kevin, Garcia and Douby (kinda). Maybe with some more playing time Shelden can start to become an enforcer down low. Don't know how quick he is but he shows flashes of being really good. But only flashes.

If Kings can beat Heat and Hawks, and they should, they can go 3-2 on this trip. Somehow we need to see more and more of Shelden for awhile to see what he can bring with more minutes. I'd like to see him take some of Mikki's minutes and bring some defense down low.

Guess I'm a bit frustrated in that the Kings know their problems but don't seem to do much about it. Coach can only coach so much then it's up to the players to carry it out.

The +'s
Brad's game is the best since he's been here but he does not deter anyone much from driving to the bucket.

Beno shows spurts of being a very good PG but not consistently yet.

When Kevin has the lightswitch ON, he is 20-25 ppg and a good defender.

RonRon can shut down just about anybody he guards for most of the game.

Cisco is fabulous off the bench, most of the time.

Hawes is coming along very good, slowly but for the minutes he's getting doing fine.

 

[piksi]

we are just not good enough

 

[tyrant]

period. and whats been said by piksi over and over again is the kings are consistant with inconsistancy.

 

[CruzDude]

yet on any given night we have beaten the best teams in the NBA. Then Kings get beat by the teams below them: Memphis, New York, etc. Why?

 

[Rockmeister]

yet on any given night we have beaten the best teams in the NBA. Then Kings get beat by the teams below them: Memphis, New York, etc. Why?

Because the Kings are playing to the level of their opponent. That would be my guess.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Bad teams are inconsistant. I'm not sure why this comes as a surprise to you.

 

[D13]

Hopefully we won't get too consistent for the rest of the season. I hope Reggie is conceding the season and will start developing guys for next year, not to mention try some new things himself.

...and I don't think Ron is all to blame for the ball hogging when it is obvious Reggie has most plays going to him inside. He's probably been instructed to pound away, break the D down and force the double team.

As far as Assists... it's hard to rack up the numbers when our guys don't finish. The passes are there. Especially inside, but they either choke or go to the line.

 

[bajaden]

I think the hardest thing to get consistant on is team defense. It takes desire on the part of the players, and a lot of time on the floor playing together. This team has had to many changes in the lineup to be consistant. That added to the fact it takes talent also, I'm not surprised by their play.
However, there's no excuse for Moore constantly leaving Lewis wide open on the perimiter when all he does is shoot 3pters.

 

[Glenn]

Other than the facts that there have been huge changes in the team's make up throughought the year secondary to injuries and trades, rookie coach, and the fact our players aren't as good as most teams, I don't know.

 

[NoBonus]

I think another additional factor would be the Kings tend to use a "spoiler" game plan as Theus has described it against the better teams the Kings do not have the talent to beat straight up; they use a strategy designed to disrupt the other team's gameplan. It is a risk to run this gameplan, however, so the Kings will be able to take down great teams from time to time (which I really appreciate) and lose when it does not work out. It is a crafty way to tally up unexpected wins and I think Theus should win Coach of the Year for pulling it off so many times.

However, back to the point, by using this game plan, the odds of the Kings winning or losing any individual game has less to do with overall talent and more to do with if the spoiler worked.

From my perspective, knowing the Kings are trying to wreak havoc on another team's game plan as their gameplan makes me think of them more as an outsider/outlaw team and more fun to follow. I look at the Kings as able to win or lose against any team on any given night when using this strategy.

 

[tyrant]

I think another additional factor would be the Kings tend to use a "spoiler" game plan as Theus has described it against the better teams the Kings do not have the talent to beat straight up; they use a strategy designed to disrupt the other team's gameplan. It is a risk to run this gameplan, however, so the Kings will be able to take down great teams from time to time (which I really appreciate) and lose when it does not work out. It is a crafty way to tally up unexpected wins and I think Theus should win Coach of the Year for pulling it off so many times.

However, back to the point, by using this game plan, the odds of the Kings winning or losing any individual game has less to do with overall talent and more to do with if the spoiler worked.

From my perspective, knowing the Kings are trying to wreak havoc on another team's game plan as their gameplan makes me think of them more as an outsider/outlaw team and more fun to follow. I look at the Kings as able to win or lose against any team on any given night when using this strategy.

down to how the gameplan works. where we're able to beat great teams?

 

[Vlade4GM]

Bad teams occasionally beat good teams, simple as that. We still suck.

 

[piksi]

we don't really suck - at least not as much as we need to suck right now

 

[Big Cuz 15]

elite teams pity us that why we win every so often against them

 

[tyrant]

bad teams will beat some good teams. thats just how it is. there are 82 games. you dont come to play all of them. we are under .500. thats a sign of a team that stinks. dont nickel&dime the situation

 

[fnordius]

Worst in league in assist/TO ratio
29th in own Assists
30th in own TO's

We need a solid pass-first PG. We've needed one for a while. The only guy on the team with a 2:1 A/TO ratio is Anthony Johnson, and, with the exception of Brad, the team have bad A/TO ratios for their positions. For some reason, most of the team would prefer to dribble right into the face of a double team rather than pass.

27th in league in 3pt defense

Ron can guard the #1 threat, but he can't be everywhere. Someone is going to be guarded by Kevin, and Brad guarding a smaller shooter rarely ends well. Despite much talk at the start of the season, we are still not a defensively oriented team.

25th in rebounding
28th in points allowed in the paint
23rd in league for opponent FG%

We alternate between not having defensive bigs, and not using them. The only FC in the NBA who gets more minutes than Mikki and grabs less boards is Boris Diaw. Only three in the NBA get as many minutes and get less blocks. Zero play more minutes and get less steals.

but in trying to keep my "half full glass" (it may be only 20% full by now!)
5th in league in FT shooting %

With Kevin taking half the team's FT, this comes easy.

7th in steals

Ron, mostly. Other Kings who have averaged at least 1.6 steals/40 have been Orien (2.0), Justin (1.7), Dahntay (1.6), Cisco (1.6) and Quincy (1.6). Our ranking in this stat has been dropping lately. I'm not surprised. Every player we've had who has gotten more than 1 steal per 7 shots taken has been waived. No player who got less than 1 steal per 7 shots taken has been waived.

Why don't Kings turn it on like most other teams? What changes many times when they have a good first half then go south?

Aside from the fact that our roster isn't very good, and we don't have much bench to fall back on, maybe it's that we started out playing a lot of home games, lost too many of those, and are now stuck playing a bunch of road games that don't matter. They serve little purpose beyond entertaining the fans of some other team, and who cares about that?

But can Salmons take over the SF role, defend and score consistently?

My guess is that he can.

We know he is much, much better as a starter but is he much better team player than RonRon?

My feeling is that he's not. I'm hoping that we have a more team-oriented SF by this time next year.

What keeps the Kings from moving without the ball?

Why get all winded running around when nobody's going to pass it to you anyway?

 

[CruzDude]

I guess, based on what I've seen, that the team is better than "they suck" and just beat better teams "cause poor teams do that sometime". When they have won 4 and 5 in a row there has to be some consistency not only in the team but in key individuals.

Maybe what I'm looking for is some rationale that with RonRon gone and not necessarily getting equal value at SF, that Salmons and the others will get consistency in their games, which they have shown they can. Mostly when RonRon was out for a bunch of games when Bibby was also out.

This harkens back to the timeframe when CWebb came back from his knee surgery, with the team doing great and in first place then the team deferred to his downgraded style of play and went in the tank. Maybe the real question here is: Does RonRon create that same scenario that when he is in everyone else defers to what he MAY do, loses their rhythm, stands around more and loses consistency?

The second question then is should Coach play RonRon 39 minutes or start to give significant hunks of his minutes to Salmons or Cisco or ???? for the remaining 28 games?? If he is gone, one way or the other, then see what the others can do in real game situations. BANG!!!

 

[BMiller52]

The second question then is should Coach play RonRon 39 minutes or start to give significant hunks of his minutes to Salmons or Cisco or ???? for the remaining 28 games?? If he is gone, one way or the other, then see what the others can do in real game situations. BANG!!!

Cisco is good no matter where he plays(we can find enough minutes for him backing up Kev and Ron). Salmons has been trash off the bench no matter how many minutes he gets. Salmons sucks.

 

[Vlade4GM]

we don't really suck - at least not as much as we need to suck right now

Exactly.

 

[VF21]

What keeps the Kings from moving without the ball?

Why get all winded running around when nobody's going to pass it to you anyway?

I'm amazed by how much mileage Kevin puts on his legs every single night. The guy is always moving without the ball, standing wide open and jumping up and down to try and get the ball, etc. The fact he's able to get as many points as he can is a constant source of amazement AND frustration to me.

 

[CruzDude]

I think that (VF21 thread) is a major reason why Kings don't move without ball: They likely won't get it anyway. But then shouldn't Coach do something about that? Or can he? A rock and a hard place meet head on I guess.

 

[VF21]

The coach can scream himself hoarse telling them to pass the ball. He can emphasize it in practice. But he can't force them to pass when they're on the court and in the game.

We all know how sweet our offense looks when the ball is moving around. Unfortunately, the one thing Reggie most wanted to instill in the players - TRUST - is still a work in progress. Until they trust each other the way Mike, Doug, Peja, Chris and Vlade did, they aren't going to stick with the unselfish game when the going gets tough. Some players just feel they have to do it all themselves - and we have several of those on our roster at the moment. If we CAN get them to show more trust in each other, the offense will definitely step up a notch or three.

 

[NoBonus]

Thinking about our three-point defense:

The Kings tend to have their guards/wings double down on the big men leaving the perimeter open because their big men are not super good defenders. Additionally, the Kings play a lot of zone defense and the best strategy to fight the zone, as we all know, is pass, pass, pass, pass, three. I see it as more a deficiency of the Kings bigs and style of plan than the talent of the Kings perimeter defenders.

 

['89 Kings Fan]

Worst in league in assist/TO ratio
29th in own Assists
I think we are a collection of stat padders now. The only one who ever throws the ball ahead is Brad. Every time we have a fast break the person with the ball will try to take it all the way. Of course we stink at filling the lane also.

Also the only person who hits a set 3 with any regularity is Cisco. Salmons never looks like he wants to shoot, and Martin seems to worried about his shooting percentage.

Lastly, with Mikki Moore as the starting power forward we can't run any pick and rolls with him since he can't catch a return pass.

30th in own TO's
Too much dribbling not enough passing. This also I think comes from the fact that only Brad sets effective screens. I think Sheldon could really help Martin in this regard. We also look for the refs to bail us out on offense a lot.

27th in league in 3pt defense
This is what we get for having no shot blockers and having to double the post all the time. We also don't communicate on defense at all.

25th in rebounding
28th in points allowed in the paint
I think our PF woes have been well documented.

23rd in league for opponent FG%
I think we have also had too many lineup changes because of injury to develop any real consistency on defense.

About the Orlando game, we started the fourth quarter down 6 and the let them go on a 15-2 run while playing a two man game with Douby and Hawes. We also did not take a timeout. So I assume the decree came down to give Douby and Hawes so playing time regardless of the game outcome.

 

[fnordius]

I think we are a collection of stat padders now.

I'm wondering if this isn't the natural outgrowth of basing PT too heavily on offensive numbers. I don't recall either Muss or Theus benching anyone for being a ballhogging iso player. I do recall a great many times when it seemed like someone was benched for as little as missing a FT. Maybe what we've got is the natural payoff.

This might be a very different team with (1) a defensive big, and (2) uncompromising emphasis on team play.

 

[CruzDude]

Tonights game vs. the Heat is a perfect example of the original thought for this thread, no consistency and tonight, no effort. so bad was it the worst team in the league beat the Kings by 21!!!!

Something is wrong (DUH!). They are professionals being paid Million$$. So when are they going to earn it? I wish we could structure the NBA like the NFL: NO GUARANTEED CONTRACTS!!! And no college players until after their junior year. off the subject..........

When your rookie is the only guy getting a decent grade, the wheels are off the wagon.

 

[Fresno King]

They're a sub-500 team. Bad in some statistical categories, decent/good in others. Middle of the road all the way. We're 26-30. We have strengths and weaknesses. It's what being mediocre is all about. I'm not surprised by the numbers at all.