INTERVIEW WITH JIMMER after Raptors game

[Hadlowe]

Jimmer's shooting could help stretch the floor, but he doesn't add much else and he's a weak point in terms of defense and ballhandling.

True enough, but could Jimmer develop those tools by his third year? What we need is for the key components of the team to hit their peaks at around the same time to get a 3-4 year period of serious playoff and championship contention which makes this team a destination. Give your stars two years to gel with the role-players and you get OKC. (I think the Kings would have been better with Udrih and drafting Leonard, but that also requires a competent coach and FO to recognize that.) Instead we continue looking for the next savior of the franchise instead of the role players needed to bring out the best in the two stars we have.

 

[funkykingston]

This has always been a flawed argument. Teams put their best defenders on the other teams better offensive players all the time. The only way to put the weaker defender on Evans to 1) run a pick and roll and get the switch 2) get a better player than Evans in the backcourt. But then people would whine about the better defender being on that player.

Do you remember the 2006 Kings/Spurs playoff series?

The Spurs had one very good wing defender in Bruce Bowen starting at SF, were starting Manu at SG and had 33 or 34 year old Michael Finley as the first wing off the bench. None of them could handle either Ron Artest or especially Bonzi Wells. The Kings didn't have enough other talent or experience (and Ron-Ron got injured in game 6) but Bonzi and Artest were a two man wrecking crew in that series. It didn't matter which one Bowen guarded, the other was a physical mismatch for whoever guarded him. Not to mention Bowen himself getting manhandled fairly regularly.

It isn't about the "better" defender being on Tyreke or another player, it's about preserving a mismatch. Obviously teams will try to switch their SG onto Tyreke to avoid having him overpower their PG. But if the guy next to him in the lineup is able to overpower the PG as well it disrupts their defense.

 

[funkykingston]

True enough, but could Jimmer develop those tools by his third year? What we need is for the key components of the team to hit their peaks at around the same time to get a 3-4 year period of serious playoff and championship contention which makes this team a destination. Give your stars two years to gel with the role-players and you get OKC. (I think the Kings would have been better with Udrih and drafting Leonard, but that also requires a competent coach and FO to recognize that.) Instead we continue looking for the next savior of the franchise instead of the role players needed to bring out the best in the two stars we have.

I think that was the hope of most Kings fans. Again, I absolutely thought Jimmer would be a better passer and ballhandler as a rookie and I was still disappointed with drafting him - which is to say nothing of the terrible trade that also happened on draft night. We all hoped Jimmer would become a guy that stretched the defense & accepted that role on offense, took backcourt pressure off Evans with his ballhandling and passing and who could develop into at least a decent defender.

I DO think Fredette will get more comfortable with the ball in his hands and make better decisions but I don't think he'll ever be a good or even mediocre defender. He was a poor defender in college and the argument was that his coach had him focused on the offensive end but he's even worse in the NBA where the players are quicker. Fredette is just never going to be a great defender.

But even if he excels in the other parts of his game, I disagree with the way Petrie & co are trying to build this team right now. Aaron Brooks is another example. IMO, the Kings should be looking to be a bruising, attacking, rebounding half court team. But they aren't looking to do that. But hopefully things work out.

 

[bajaden]

I'm late to this disscussion, but I'm curious, did anyone watch the 4th and 5th games? Did no one see a difference in his ballhandling. I mean, I did. I was sitting courtside with a great view, and he had no trouble getting the ball up the court in either of those games. And what was the difference. He attacked instead of dribbling defensively. He suddenly found his crossover dribble that he used to use at BYU, to create space. Not saying he was perfect, but it was damm welcome improvement.

I personally don't think there was anything wrong with Jimmers ballhandling other than confidence. I think the immediate pressure he got at the beginning of last season shocked him, and he became defensive, and tennative. And unfortunately he stayed that way most of the season, until they took the ball out of his hands. The first few games at summer league, the coaches were yelling at him to shoot the damm ball and attack the basket. Not once, but every time. He wasn't there to prove he could set up his teammates, he was there to shake off last years memories. Bobby Jackson told him all he wanted him to do was attack and shoot the ball. Period!

So in game four, he finally broke out and did what they asked, and in game five, he not only did it, but was even efficient at it. Don't get me wrong. It was still summer league, and in the grand scheme of things, meaningless. But if he can bring the same aggressive attitude to next season, he'll probably find himself some playing time.

 

[funkykingston]

I'm late to this disscussion, but I'm curious, did anyone watch the 4th and 5th games? Did no one see a difference in his ballhandling. I mean, I did. I was sitting courtside with a great view, and he had no trouble getting the ball up the court in either of those games. And what was the difference. He attacked instead of dribbling defensively. He suddenly found his crossover dribble that he used to use at BYU, to create space. Not saying he was perfect, but it was damm welcome improvement.

I honestly didn't see any summer league games after the first two. I gave Robinson a bit of a pass being a rookie but it certainly readjusted my expectations of him. Starring in the summer league doesn't guarantee anything, but I have yet to see a guy be a major impact rookie who didn't dominate in the summer league. So that was disappointing, but TRob can certainly become a good player.

On the other hand, the complete lack of development and effort from Whiteside and Jimmer's struggles in the first two games was enough for me to stop watching and wait for preseason games. I'm glad to hear Jimmer looked better. As I said, I wasn't surprised by his defensive woes or struggling to get his shot off in the NBA but his ballhandling issues really surprised me last season.

 

[Hadlowe]

I'm late to this disscussion, but I'm curious, did anyone watch the 4th and 5th games? Did no one see a difference in his ballhandling. I mean, I did. I was sitting courtside with a great view, and he had no trouble getting the ball up the court in either of those games. And what was the difference. He attacked instead of dribbling defensively. He suddenly found his crossover dribble that he used to use at BYU, to create space. Not saying he was perfect, but it was damm welcome improvement.

I personally don't think there was anything wrong with Jimmers ballhandling other than confidence. I think the immediate pressure he got at the beginning of last season shocked him, and he became defensive, and tennative. And unfortunately he stayed that way most of the season, until they took the ball out of his hands. The first few games at summer league, the coaches were yelling at him to shoot the damm ball and attack the basket. Not once, but every time. He wasn't there to prove he could set up his teammates, he was there to shake off last years memories. Bobby Jackson told him all he wanted him to do was attack and shoot the ball. Period!

So in game four, he finally broke out and did what they asked, and in game five, he not only did it, but was even efficient at it. Don't get me wrong. It was still summer league, and in the grand scheme of things, meaningless. But if he can bring the same aggressive attitude to next season, he'll probably find himself some playing time.

Like I said, he improved from game to game in summer league. I notice that we also started running T-Rob or one of our other bigs in front of him up the floor as a shield when teams threatened a press. I can count on one hand the number of times we did that for him in the regular season.

 

[Rookie]

Sitting court side for every game, Jimmer looked "crisp" and "quick" especially in games 4 and 5 while getting 30 and 19 points respectively. If some of you commenters had come here to summer league you could have asked him these questions face-to-face. bajaden was here up from Ensenada, Mexico and he met Gavin Maloof and asked him what he wanted and got a very pleasant response. I chatted with George Maloof, short but very cordial. Chatting with coaches, players, owners, GM's is all possible when you are here. Jimmer is the best interview off all the players on the Kings squad and easy to talk to and get straight answers. So guess some of you will have to make the pilgrimage to round ball summer mecca and find out for your selves.

I hope to be able to do that when my kids are older. Sound like a lot of fun. It's great that you guys could go there and then give us feedback. thanks.

 

[Section 101]

Do you remember the 2006 Kings/Spurs playoff series?

The Spurs had one very good wing defender in Bruce Bowen starting at SF, were starting Manu at SG and had 33 or 34 year old Michael Finley as the first wing off the bench. None of them could handle either Ron Artest or especially Bonzi Wells. The Kings didn't have enough other talent or experience (and Ron-Ron got injured in game 6) but Bonzi and Artest were a two man wrecking crew in that series. It didn't matter which one Bowen guarded, the other was a physical mismatch for whoever guarded him. Not to mention Bowen himself getting manhandled fairly regularly.

It isn't about the "better" defender being on Tyreke or another player, it's about preserving a mismatch. Obviously teams will try to switch their SG onto Tyreke to avoid having him overpower their PG. But if the guy next to him in the lineup is able to overpower the PG as well it disrupts their defense.

I was there. And your comparing apples to oranges. Your taking 2 players with similar game who played mostly in the post against a guy who was a perminter defender. So let me ask you this. Who shot the game 2 winner and who was supposed to be guarding him? under your reasoning they should have been match up by position.

 

[Section 101]

I'm late to this disscussion, but I'm curious, did anyone watch the 4th and 5th games? Did no one see a difference in his ballhandling. I mean, I did. I was sitting courtside with a great view, and he had no trouble getting the ball up the court in either of those games. And what was the difference. He attacked instead of dribbling defensively. He suddenly found his crossover dribble that he used to use at BYU, to create space. Not saying he was perfect, but it was damm welcome improvement.

I personally don't think there was anything wrong with Jimmers ballhandling other than confidence. I think the immediate pressure he got at the beginning of last season shocked him, and he became defensive, and tennative. And unfortunately he stayed that way most of the season, until they took the ball out of his hands. The first few games at summer league, the coaches were yelling at him to shoot the damm ball and attack the basket. Not once, but every time. He wasn't there to prove he could set up his teammates, he was there to shake off last years memories. Bobby Jackson told him all he wanted him to do was attack and shoot the ball. Period!

So in game four, he finally broke out and did what they asked, and in game five, he not only did it, but was even efficient at it. Don't get me wrong. It was still summer league, and in the grand scheme of things, meaningless. But if he can bring the same aggressive attitude to next season, he'll probably find himself some playing time.

As I think it was Rick Mahorn said on the broadcast, he needs a few midcourt screens to make the defender have to look for them. He got those in games 4+5.

 

[funkykingston]

I was there. And your comparing apples to oranges. Your taking 2 players with similar game who played mostly in the post against a guy who was a perminter defender. So let me ask you this. Who shot the game 2 winner and who was supposed to be guarding him? under your reasoning they should have been match up by position.

I see it as apples to apples because I think a guy like Terrence Williams starting in the backcourt next to Tyreke would be a similar difficulty for opposing backcourts. No matter how they match up, someone is going to physically dominate their smaller PG. Neither is a post player but as physical slashers it's the same basic idea.

But of course it would require a sharpshooting SF to work which the Kings don't have.

 

[bajaden]

I honestly didn't see any summer league games after the first two. I gave Robinson a bit of a pass being a rookie but it certainly readjusted my expectations of him. Starring in the summer league doesn't guarantee anything, but I have yet to see a guy be a major impact rookie who didn't dominate in the summer league. So that was disappointing, but TRob can certainly become a good player.

On the other hand, the complete lack of development and effort from Whiteside and Jimmer's struggles in the first two games was enough for me to stop watching and wait for preseason games. I'm glad to hear Jimmer looked better. As I said, I wasn't surprised by his defensive woes or struggling to get his shot off in the NBA but his ballhandling issues really surprised me last season.

I'll give you a hint for the future. Being a seasoned summer league veteran now, and I'm sure many of the people that go to the summer league games would agree with me, that if your going to skip some summer league games, then skip the first two, not the last two. The early games are usually very sloppy. And not just the Kings, but its prevelant thoughout the teams. Its not unusual to have half time scores of 36 to 28. Believe me, we saw some real clinkers. And if per chance there is a team, and the Bobcats are and example of this, that is playing good basketball, that team usually has many of its 2nd or even 3rd year players competing. In the Bobcats case, they had three of their starters from last seasons team on their summer league team.

Anyway, next year you might want to take in the last two games. Oh hey, come and join us!

 

[bajaden]

As I think it was Rick Mahorn said on the broadcast, he needs a few midcourt screens to make the defender have to look for them. He got those in games 4+5.

Very very true! Not sure why the Kings didn't run those screens for him last season at all. I think the fact that in games 4 and 5 he really pushed the ball up the court, which made those screens more effective.