KingHallJD2007
Prospect
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/kelly_dwyer/11/17/kings/index.html
Kelly Dwyer: Insider the NBA
Leadership Vacuum
Bibby's plays on, off court will determine Kings fate
For about a week, following the news of Amaré Stoudemire's knee surgery and before the Clippers' lovely little jump out of the gate, the Sacramento Kings were actually the favorites to win the Pacific Division this year. Funny how a 3-5 start can turn wide-eyed optimism to shoulder-slumping despair.
But after winning the division crown in 2002 and '03, after being the preseason favorites throughout much of the Lake Show's most recent reign, after demonstrating the value of unselfish basketball, the Kings have seemingly been one loss away from disaster all season.
But If this is how far the franchise has come in seven years -- were I a Kings fan -- that'd be just fine. Seven years ago, the team was unable to throw enough free-agent dollars to even keep Michael Stewart, a former Kings ball boy turned onetime promising big man. Now it's a crisis if the team isn't headed for its sixth straight 50-win season. Even if meant employing a draft dodger in Vlade Divac, cost Chris Webber his knee, and gave rise to the notion of being "Doug Christie'd" -- it was worth the about face)
But when you factor in that Sacramento has lost those five games looking passive on defense and hideously sluggish on offense, the additions of underappreciated but oft-maligned Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Bonzi Wells and those alternate gold uniforms (also oft-maligned, but to me, underappreciated), and you can see why the Kings may be shuffling into panic mode.
(Or, they could be just a good team getting off to a poor start. Let's start with the freak-out stuff first, in case I ever want to be on basic cable TV)
The season-opener in Oklahoma City was an eye-opener for two reasons, primarily because they lost by 26 to a Hornets team that managed only 18 wins last season. Just as stunning was the fact that a team that averaged almost 104 point a games last year only managed a mere 67 points in this one, against the league's reigning worst team.
The Kings then lost two of three before seemingly putting it all together in a determined 16-point win last Friday over the Nuggets. It all fell apart two nights later against the previously-winless Knicks, who made the Kings look like a crew of scurvy-ridden sailors fighting over the last lime in the hull.
The next day, in practice, coach Rick Adelman mustered up every ounce of meanness in his collective being, telling the assembled throng that, during the Knicks game, he "didn't see any semblance of what they've done in the past. That is a concern. I told them (Monday), 'I can put you in a different offense. I know every offense that's been run in this league for the last 20 years.' I know our offense works, but it has to come from within, and I don't see an urgency."
It sounded a lot harsher in person, I'm sure.
Adelman's team responded with a 36-point win over the Jazz on Tuesday, which sounds like what we've come to expect from the Kings until you scan the box score. Missing in action for the Jazz were Matt Harpring, Gordan Giricek, Carlos Boozer, Andrei Kirilenko and Keith McLeod. That's four starters, and even if McLeod is the worst starting point guard in the NBA, he's still a starter, dammit. Milt bloody Palacio led the Jazz in scoring that night and he shouldn't be trusted to lead any team in anything more than high-fives and suggestions with the night's choice in gentlemen's clubs. You have to beat a team like that by 36.
So what's gone wrong?
It probably starts with Mike Bibby, who has improved his shooting to 40 percent, but scared everyone by shooting 36 percent in the preseason and missing 17 of his first 22 attempts to start the season. Bibby's usual touch from the outside makes him borderline un-guardable in a screen-and-roll situation. But without that sharp eye, Bibby and his increasingly lackadaisical decision-making has left a team looking for a leader with a power vacuum. Bibby just doesn't seem interested, and that attitude has carried over to the team's prime: brilliant all-around center Brad Miller and bearded small forward Peja Stojakovic.
Miller hasn't been making good choices all season, needlessly driving into traffic, trying to stretch defenses with perimeter shooting a pass inside is more necessary or picking up a charge in the paint when a defense is begging to be shot over. Peja's shooting stroke has looked fine -- always has -- but he just seems ... different. Never one to jump over people, which isn't a problem when you're dropping 23 a night -- Stojakovic still appears hesitant with both his body and his shot this year, even if the stats (21+ points per game, 46 percent from deep) don't reflect it. Maybe it was that sense of danger, that threat that Peja could unload at any time, which allowed the cutters to roam free in Adelman's offense. Either way, if teams aren't scared of Peja hitting his fair share of wild shots in a game, then this team will be hurting.
As for the new guys, Abdur-Rahim's been a hit, shooting 54 percent from the field and playing huge down the stretch of the team's lone close win -- a one-point triumph in Phoenix. Wells, on the other hand has been ... OK. He may be scoring 12 points per game but he's needed 12 shots per game to do it.
In the past, Doug Christie and Cuttino Mobley each were able to run delayed fast-breaks, with Peja and Bibby spotting up for jumpers. Both in transition and in the half-court this season, though, Wells looks hesitant if he has to dribble the ball more than once or twice. Perhaps Wells and the Kings would benefit to a move to the bench, where Wells could be the focus of the offense, while second-year guard Kevin Martin (who still takes some silly shots and confuses with his forays to the basket) and his ability to handle the ball in transition takes over as a starter.
But this team's fortunes will be told by Bibby, whose leadership skills are largely untested. At Arizona, Miles Simon handled the cajoling and yelling duties, while the tag-team of Divac and C-Webb handled the locker room (for better or worse) in Sacto. Remember, Bibby received his initial NBA "instruction" in Vancouver from Lee Mayberry, a kindly soul who couldn't out-shout a pneumonia-stricken gnat.
It's not so much that Bibby can't be effective leading by example, because on a better team that's usually enough. But a true leader has to be dynamic, showing off several facets of stewardship, and that's been lacking this season in Sacramento. Maybe Bibby doesn't have to get into his teammates faces after an on-court mistake, but it wouldn't hurt to remind them of their latest misstep during the next dead ball. Maybe throw in an impression or two, with lilting verbal tones and exaggerated movements. A mother joke wouldn't hurt either. Try to rhyme something. I've plenty of suggestions for "Stojakovic."
And really, that's all it should take. This can be a damn good basketball team, and their early schedule was no picnic: Detroit, Denver (twice), Phoenix, the Rockets -- tough teams. But the Kings have better talent than their record suggests. Bad teams don't win games by 36 points, even if it is over a depleted Jazz squad. Of course, great teams don't usually lose by 26 to the Hornets. But this probably isn't a great team anymore. This is probably a team that is good enough to win a weak division and entertain us with their daring-do in the process.
And if Kings fans take issue with that, than I'm pretty sure Michael Stewart is ready and willing to listen to whatever offer Sacramento can muster up.
Kelly Dwyer: Insider the NBA
Leadership Vacuum
Bibby's plays on, off court will determine Kings fate
For about a week, following the news of Amaré Stoudemire's knee surgery and before the Clippers' lovely little jump out of the gate, the Sacramento Kings were actually the favorites to win the Pacific Division this year. Funny how a 3-5 start can turn wide-eyed optimism to shoulder-slumping despair.
But after winning the division crown in 2002 and '03, after being the preseason favorites throughout much of the Lake Show's most recent reign, after demonstrating the value of unselfish basketball, the Kings have seemingly been one loss away from disaster all season.
But If this is how far the franchise has come in seven years -- were I a Kings fan -- that'd be just fine. Seven years ago, the team was unable to throw enough free-agent dollars to even keep Michael Stewart, a former Kings ball boy turned onetime promising big man. Now it's a crisis if the team isn't headed for its sixth straight 50-win season. Even if meant employing a draft dodger in Vlade Divac, cost Chris Webber his knee, and gave rise to the notion of being "Doug Christie'd" -- it was worth the about face)
But when you factor in that Sacramento has lost those five games looking passive on defense and hideously sluggish on offense, the additions of underappreciated but oft-maligned Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Bonzi Wells and those alternate gold uniforms (also oft-maligned, but to me, underappreciated), and you can see why the Kings may be shuffling into panic mode.
(Or, they could be just a good team getting off to a poor start. Let's start with the freak-out stuff first, in case I ever want to be on basic cable TV)
The season-opener in Oklahoma City was an eye-opener for two reasons, primarily because they lost by 26 to a Hornets team that managed only 18 wins last season. Just as stunning was the fact that a team that averaged almost 104 point a games last year only managed a mere 67 points in this one, against the league's reigning worst team.
The Kings then lost two of three before seemingly putting it all together in a determined 16-point win last Friday over the Nuggets. It all fell apart two nights later against the previously-winless Knicks, who made the Kings look like a crew of scurvy-ridden sailors fighting over the last lime in the hull.
The next day, in practice, coach Rick Adelman mustered up every ounce of meanness in his collective being, telling the assembled throng that, during the Knicks game, he "didn't see any semblance of what they've done in the past. That is a concern. I told them (Monday), 'I can put you in a different offense. I know every offense that's been run in this league for the last 20 years.' I know our offense works, but it has to come from within, and I don't see an urgency."
It sounded a lot harsher in person, I'm sure.
Adelman's team responded with a 36-point win over the Jazz on Tuesday, which sounds like what we've come to expect from the Kings until you scan the box score. Missing in action for the Jazz were Matt Harpring, Gordan Giricek, Carlos Boozer, Andrei Kirilenko and Keith McLeod. That's four starters, and even if McLeod is the worst starting point guard in the NBA, he's still a starter, dammit. Milt bloody Palacio led the Jazz in scoring that night and he shouldn't be trusted to lead any team in anything more than high-fives and suggestions with the night's choice in gentlemen's clubs. You have to beat a team like that by 36.
So what's gone wrong?
It probably starts with Mike Bibby, who has improved his shooting to 40 percent, but scared everyone by shooting 36 percent in the preseason and missing 17 of his first 22 attempts to start the season. Bibby's usual touch from the outside makes him borderline un-guardable in a screen-and-roll situation. But without that sharp eye, Bibby and his increasingly lackadaisical decision-making has left a team looking for a leader with a power vacuum. Bibby just doesn't seem interested, and that attitude has carried over to the team's prime: brilliant all-around center Brad Miller and bearded small forward Peja Stojakovic.
Miller hasn't been making good choices all season, needlessly driving into traffic, trying to stretch defenses with perimeter shooting a pass inside is more necessary or picking up a charge in the paint when a defense is begging to be shot over. Peja's shooting stroke has looked fine -- always has -- but he just seems ... different. Never one to jump over people, which isn't a problem when you're dropping 23 a night -- Stojakovic still appears hesitant with both his body and his shot this year, even if the stats (21+ points per game, 46 percent from deep) don't reflect it. Maybe it was that sense of danger, that threat that Peja could unload at any time, which allowed the cutters to roam free in Adelman's offense. Either way, if teams aren't scared of Peja hitting his fair share of wild shots in a game, then this team will be hurting.
As for the new guys, Abdur-Rahim's been a hit, shooting 54 percent from the field and playing huge down the stretch of the team's lone close win -- a one-point triumph in Phoenix. Wells, on the other hand has been ... OK. He may be scoring 12 points per game but he's needed 12 shots per game to do it.
In the past, Doug Christie and Cuttino Mobley each were able to run delayed fast-breaks, with Peja and Bibby spotting up for jumpers. Both in transition and in the half-court this season, though, Wells looks hesitant if he has to dribble the ball more than once or twice. Perhaps Wells and the Kings would benefit to a move to the bench, where Wells could be the focus of the offense, while second-year guard Kevin Martin (who still takes some silly shots and confuses with his forays to the basket) and his ability to handle the ball in transition takes over as a starter.
But this team's fortunes will be told by Bibby, whose leadership skills are largely untested. At Arizona, Miles Simon handled the cajoling and yelling duties, while the tag-team of Divac and C-Webb handled the locker room (for better or worse) in Sacto. Remember, Bibby received his initial NBA "instruction" in Vancouver from Lee Mayberry, a kindly soul who couldn't out-shout a pneumonia-stricken gnat.
It's not so much that Bibby can't be effective leading by example, because on a better team that's usually enough. But a true leader has to be dynamic, showing off several facets of stewardship, and that's been lacking this season in Sacramento. Maybe Bibby doesn't have to get into his teammates faces after an on-court mistake, but it wouldn't hurt to remind them of their latest misstep during the next dead ball. Maybe throw in an impression or two, with lilting verbal tones and exaggerated movements. A mother joke wouldn't hurt either. Try to rhyme something. I've plenty of suggestions for "Stojakovic."
And really, that's all it should take. This can be a damn good basketball team, and their early schedule was no picnic: Detroit, Denver (twice), Phoenix, the Rockets -- tough teams. But the Kings have better talent than their record suggests. Bad teams don't win games by 36 points, even if it is over a depleted Jazz squad. Of course, great teams don't usually lose by 26 to the Hornets. But this probably isn't a great team anymore. This is probably a team that is good enough to win a weak division and entertain us with their daring-do in the process.
And if Kings fans take issue with that, than I'm pretty sure Michael Stewart is ready and willing to listen to whatever offer Sacramento can muster up.
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