Something good things about the recent games! Anyone?

SacTownKid

SacTownKid

Hall of Famer
Here are some positives about the preseason thusfar that I've seen:

1. What I have noticed is that in most every game we lost we shot in the low 40's percentage wise (even in some we won) and we haven't been obliterated like you would think for this team shooting that low. If the team can get some chemistry, and they shoot somewhere in the 46-48% range things should look drastically different.

2. The spacing is terrible, but Bonzi and Reef draw double teams everytime they touch the ball, this could be very useful for the many perimeter guys we have. They need to get eachother's games down. Time. Time. Time.

3. Mike Bibby has been horrendous. This isn't the real Mike Bibby, and I am sure he will appear sooner rather than later.
 
If those are the positives, we are doom-ed to the hell known as mediocrity...
 
1) Bonzi looks good, and he's shown himself to be a surprisingly willing passer. Looks like a good teammate right now.

2) Skinner looks ready to go and I'm hopeful Rick may actually play our only interior defender some real minutes.

3) Radioactive space goo from the planet Prantron has not yet eaten through the roof of Arco and caused the stadium to melt into the Earth.


Has it? :eek:
 
I think Kenny Thomas performed pretty well tonight. He was aggressive. I think he will be one of Adelman's reliable eight players.

Peja rebounded tonight. He shot pretty well.

Given that Brad and Bibby appear to have been infected with a terminal dosage of "space goo", and most of the newer guys have been inconsistent, I suspect that Mr. Adelman will have to do the best he can around a core consisting of Skinner, Thomas, Stojakovic, Rahim, and Wells. Adelman will continue to start Bibby and Miller no matter how much they stink up the joint.

Sure is comforting to see Jimmy Jackson and Eddie House take us apart. :(
 
I don't think Miller's been real good or bad, but he's been fine/solid so far. I'm not really worried about him. Bibby I am a bit, but am really expecting him to be good by 11/1, and hoping he's good on Friday.
 
He has been erratic at best, but when Garcia hits a three pointer it does not look like a fluke. He is as competitive as anyone on the floor, too. He cares. There seems little question he will be an above average NBA player.
 
I think the biggest positive is that the ball is moving this preseason better than it has since Webber returned from injury and stalled the offense. That's really saying something considering that it's preseason and a lot of these guys haven't played together. It bodes well for an offensive juggernaut.

Since this post is about positive thinking we won't discuss the defense and rebounding.
 
nbrans said:
I think the biggest positive is that the ball is moving this preseason better than it has since Webber returned from injury and stalled the offense.
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How can the ball be stalled and they league the league in assists?
 
nbrans said:
When you have a team of jump shooters and no penetrators or low post threats.
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That doesnt answer the question! If a team is getting more assists then anyother team, that means the ball is moving better then any other team.
 
Yoda said:
That doesnt answer the question! If a team is getting more assists then anyother team, that means the ball is moving better then any other team.
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Not necessarily. Do you really think the Kings moved the ball better than the Suns this past year just because the Kings had more assists? The Suns scored 7 more points per game than the Kings and averaged one less assist, but because Amare was scoring points inside and not shooting directly off the dribble and Johnson and Richardson were penetrating, it translated into more points, less assists. But their offense was a clinic of ball movement and penetrating and dishes. They got many more quality shots than the Kings did.

The Kings may rack up assists, and certainly they were one of the better passing teams in the league last year, but in my opinion there was a noticeable dropoff in the quality of shots they were getting, the number of passes per possession and the ability to score against tough defenses. They just didn't look like the Kings of old.

This preseason, players like Wells, Skinner and SAR are showing some serious passing skills that we hadn't seen from them before, and the ball is moving around rather than getting stuck in the high post with Chris Webber. I think that's encouraging.
 
nbrans said:
I think the biggest positive is that the ball is moving this preseason better than it has since Webber returned from injury and stalled the offense. That's really saying something considering that it's preseason and a lot of these guys haven't played together. It bodes well for an offensive juggernaut.

Since this post is about positive thinking we won't discuss the defense and rebounding.
Click to expand...

Pre-AllStar break (roughly pre-trade), we were averaging 102.7ppg on 25.0apg in our stagnant offense.

I will be quite happy to see us even sniff those numbers with our current crew.

Ont he "positive" note of this thread -- we have had exactly one quarter in the preseason when we looked remotely at the level of the Kings of old when it came to ball movement: third quarter vs. Golden State. But it was a thing of beauty when it all clicked. At least we did it once to show that potential.

There is going to be a race here in the early season -- the race is going to be between 1) us finding that breifly shown rhythm, buying in, playing as a team, and as a consequence winning, and 2) us getting frustrated, at either the player or ownership level, having guys start tuning out and doing their own thing + get selfish, and ownership perhaps lurking to make a trade or coaching move. If 1) wins we can settle on in, breath a sigh of relief, and get knocked out in Rnd 2. If 2) wins, things could fall apart for us and we could end up being a significant disappointment. Will be interesting.
 
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Bricklayer said:
Pre-AllStar break (roughly pre-trade), we were averaging 102.7ppg on 25.0apg in our stagnant offense.

I will be quite happy to see us even sniff those numbers with our current crew.
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They'd better exceed those numbers if they're going to have a prayer in the Western Conference. I think they have a good shot at it.
 
nbrans said:
They'd better exceed those numbers if they're going to have a prayer in the Western Conference. I think they have a good shot at it.
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Problem is NOBODY execeeds those numbers. Unless that team has Steve Nash on it. Through the years that's where we've always been, and we've always been just about the best in those areas.

04-05: 103.7pts 24.5ast .459FG% (pre All-Star: 102.7pts 25.0ast .460FG%)
03-04: 102.8pts 26.2ast .462FG%
02-03: 101.7pts 24.8ast .464FG%
01-02: 104.6pts 23.9ast .467FG%

If we're depending on the current crew to offensively somehow greatly exceed anything done by any of our contending teams in the past, we're toast. Key is on the other side of the ball. Get close to our old selves offensively and then find a way to get a stop somehow.
 
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Bricklayer said:
Problem is NOBODY execeeds those numbers. Unless that team has Steve Nash on it. Through the years that's where we've always been, and we've always been just about the best in those areas.

04-05: 103.7pts 24.5ast .459FG% (pre All-Star: 102.7pts 25.0ast .460FG%)
03-04: 102.8pts 26.2ast .462FG%
02-03: 101.7pts 24.8ast .464FG%
01-02: 104.6pts 23.9ast .467FG%

If we're depending on the current crew to offensively somehow greatly exceed anything done by any of our contending teams in the past, we're toast. Key is on the other side of the ball. Get close to our old selves offensively and then find a way to get a stop somehow.
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Agreed, and I don't think I'm saying that they need to go and score 115 points and rack up 30 assists.

I think in my opinion here I'm relying on a gut feeling, and that is that when I was watching the Kings last year the ball just didn't have the same movement and players just didn't get quality shots like they used to. Even pre-break. Sure, the numbers were there, and so my opinion is impossible to quantify statistically and easy to refute, but Webber held the ball a lot in the high post, there were a lot of forced shots, not as much movement off the ball, Peja wasn't involved (Peja's fault as much as anything), Christie wasn't involved.... when Webber came back things just weren't the same -- you can see it in the declining field team field goal percentage -- Webber's % went down, and so did Peja's.

When the current team is moving the ball they show shades of the old Kings -- everyone involved, ball moving, great passes for layups, things like that. I'm excited.
 
Here's the new take on the old Kings "style". Unfortunately, teams are making passing difficult. They are denying EVERY pass. Entry passes were routine for the Kings over the years, but get a load of how many deflections are occuring on every pass we attempt to initiate the offense. That didn't happen in the past.

IMO, Princeton Offense or not, our assists will be down this year, because other teams will force us to make more of our own shots by denying. Way down. Halftime last night was 20 phoenix 10 Sacramento, right? If we played them ten more times, I'd be surprised if it wasn't equally lopsided.

Admittedly I didn't see Bonzi go off in the 1st quarter last night, but our lack of driving ability has enabled defenders to clamp down on their man alone these days, rather than getting off their man to defend driving lanes.
 
nbrans said:
Not necessarily. Do you really think the Kings moved the ball better than the Suns this past year just because the Kings had more assists? The Suns scored 7 more points per game than the Kings and averaged one less assist, but because Amare was scoring points inside and not shooting directly off the dribble and Johnson and Richardson were penetrating, it translated into more points, less assists. But their offense was a clinic of ball movement and penetrating and dishes. They got many more quality shots than the Kings did.

The Kings may rack up assists, and certainly they were one of the better passing teams in the league last year, but in my opinion there was a noticeable dropoff in the quality of shots they were getting, the number of passes per possession and the ability to score against tough defenses. They just didn't look like the Kings of old.

This preseason, players like Wells, Skinner and SAR are showing some serious passing skills that we hadn't seen from them before, and the ball is moving around rather than getting stuck in the high post with Chris Webber. I think that's encouraging.
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I too think our ball movement has been nice. Kudos to RA.
I just have an objection for people who say our offense went stagnent when a certain player returned. We, as Kings fans, became accustomed to one of the best passing teams ever, Ever. A tandum of big men who passed like no other led an unselfish team to play pretty basketball. When Webb came back, many factoers were different such as: injuries to other players, rustiness, age factor, teams figuring out how to defend the offense. In spite of the factors against us, we still had excellent ball movement, just not the best ever. Sure the Suns scored more and they may have had excellent ball movement, better then ours even. But we still had one of the most fliud offenses in the game. Hardly stagnent.

As for the thread topic, I think Garcia is a positive. I know he has taken more then his fair share of bad shots, but he has shown some grittiness. I think of the Portland game in particular since he was so active on the glass, getting it done with hustle. Im hoping that his desire to get in there may rub off on another SF we have. Maybe some of it already has. Peja looked better on the boards even last night.
 
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Yoda said:
I too think our ball movement has been nice. Kudos to RA.
I just have an objection for people who say our offense went stagnent when a certain player returned. We, as Kings fans, became accustomed to one of the best passing teams ever, Ever. A tandum of big men who passed like no other led an unselfish team to play pretty basketball. When Webb came back, many factoers were different such as: injuries to other players, rustiness, age factor, teams figuring out how to defend the offense. In spite of the factors against us, we still had excellent ball movement, just not the best ever. Sure the Suns scored more and they may have had excellent ball movement, better then ours even. But we still had one of the most fliud offenses in the game. Hardly stagnent.

As for the thread topic, I think Garcia is a positive. I know he has taken more then his fair share of bad shots, but he has shown some grittiness. I think of the Portland game in particular since he was so active on the glass, getting it done with hustle. Im hoping that his desire to get in there may rub off on another SF we have. Maybe some of it already has. Peja looked better on the boards even last night.
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Yeah, and Peja got 5 boards in the Portland game. So he's been picking that up. Which is nice to see, even if it's pre-season. Gets him in a groove or something. I heard the announcers saying he came over to check the stat sheet at the half of the Portland game.

Garcia will definitely be driving to the basket, he's very good at it I'd say.
 
q[I heard the announcers saying he came over to check the stat sheet at the half of the Portland game.]q

RA probably told him he wasn't allowed to call Vlade for a week unless his stats improved. :)
 
Positives I have seen;
Bonzi- Great rebounder & Good defender
Garcia- Excellent Ball IQ, Is rebounding better then he was in college, Once his game shifts to the NBA will be a good rotation defender.
Skinner- Greatly Improved offensively, freethrows (18 footers)
Shareef- Won't shy from contact inside, surprising good penetrater off the dribble, passes well.
Martin- More confident, still young and needs to get more time in, but has impressed me with his Instincts in dis-rupting passes and what not.
Hart- Can stay in front of his man(See Boykins game), and slow down fast breaks.

I've seen more positives then negatives, we all know Bibbys shot will start to drop, the team is brand new pretty much, and Overall this pre-season I like what I have seen.
 
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Peja is driving to the basket, and if you notice, he doesn’t race to get back on defense if he believes he can grab the rebound on a missed shot; trust me, these guys know when a long-range shot is going to go in or rattle out for a possible rebound.

I like what Skinner is doing, altering shots. I like that Corliss is getting to the line 6-8 times a game even if he plays 15-20 mins.

This year it seems as if we have a team that wants to drive the line, and as you saw last night, we got to the penalty pretty early in a couple of the qrts.
 
Some positives......................
1. Bonzi, Bonzi, Bonzi
2. The heart shown from Cisco
3. Martin's improvement and growth as a player
4. Bibby's terrible pre-season, better now than later
5. Jason Hart, Bibby's alter ego.
6. Lakers vs. Kings tomorrow night
 
kingsfan916 said:
Yeah how can it when we "league the league", no but really kings offense looks solid, its the D i am worried about
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Obviously I meant lead the league. Thanks for the help.
 
nbrans said:
I think the biggest positive is that the ball is moving this preseason better than it has since Webber returned from injury and stalled the offense.
Click to expand...
Thats just totally wrong^. Not even worth responding to... the numbers have been posted so many times on this board. Even when comparing to the Suns(one of the most potent offenses the NBA has seen in years) we still were close in numbers. Offense was in no way a problem for that team, you just can't have numbers like that and call it a stagnant offense.

One positive I have seen is Peja is more aggressive on the boards and seems to be shooting better when under duress. He seems like he's trying to impose himself on defenses more rather than just waiting for open looks or lanes for layups. It seems to be working too.

I would also consider Bonzi and Reefs ability to draw those double teams a big positive... it can only help Brad, Peja, and Mike.
 
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