Sunday, Kings-Raptors at Vegas Summer League
- Thread starter CruzDude
- Start date
gman23
Starter
Thank you once again, CruzDude. I'm really starting to get excited about the 2006-2007 Sacramento Kings!
C'mon VF it's always exciting one way or another. Either we scream in happiness or agony. But I feel ya.
Uncia03
Starter
I had the pleasure of attending the Kings-Raptors game to see how our Kings are looking so far this season.
As a team:
We were trailing the entire game, and at one point we got down into a double-digit deficit it was uncertain whether or not we were going to be able to pull out a win. However, mid-way through the fourth quarter we took our first lead and it was clear that the line-up of Price, Douby, Martin, Amundson, & Williams was the most effective. This was the line-up used for the majority of the fourth quarter when we broke even and pulled away from the Raptors.
We really buckled down and played defense the second half of the game. After allowing around 50 points in the first half, we held the Raptors to under 30 points for the rest of the game. We put on a full-court press numerous times through the game, and there wasn’t an instance of the Raptors getting a Gimme basket as a result of a failed press, and it was clear that our press did disrupt their rhythm on a few occasions.
Williams and Amundson were extremely active around the basket and though we didn’t have a lot of blocks during the game, but there were a number of blocks that ended up being called fouls, and numerous shots which were altered by their defensive presence.
Kevin Martin:
Pros: I’m a huge Kevin Martin fan, so I was hoping for a good showing while watching the game. He was definately the leader on the floor, there was no question about that.
As the box score indicates, he got to the foul line almost at will. He did a fantastic jump of using the pump fake to get his man into the air and then draw the foul. He was able to draw fouls beyond the 3-point line twice during the course of the game.
His defense was solid as he was able to stay in front of his man for the majority of the game. He handled the ball quite a bit, and it appears as if his ball handling has improved over last year.
Also, he pulled down the second most rebounds for the team at 7, and majority of the rebounds were him leaping into the air to grab them with some authority.
Cons: He did not have his shot at all the entire game. His three field goals were:
A called basket off a goal-tending, the alley oop slam from the Douby’s feed and his one three-point attempt
Though he got to the foul line quite a bit during the game, a lot of his trips came from a pump fake then shooting into his man. With his shot not falling like it was, I don’t think that he’d have gotten his defender into the air in a real NBA game.
Also, despite what was said on the Raptor’s forums, he took a lot of hard fouls and I just hope that he can keep from injury.
There were a few times when he tried to do too much. In fact, of his four turn-overs, two of them came on back-to-back possessions where he tried to go through too many defenders and was stripped.
Ronnie Price:
Pros: I was pleased with Ronnie’s game. He played good defense and handled the ball well. Most of his time playing, he was having to guard a smaller, quicker man, but he did a great job of keeping in front and not allowing dribble penetration.
He brought the ball up the court for most of the 2nd half, and the Raptors guard put a lot of back-court pressure on him, and he handled it very well with none of his turn-overs coming from that pressure.
He got himself to the foul line quite a bit and was very solid with his free throw shooting, missing only one attempt.
Cons: The Kings could not find the bottom of the basket, and Ronnie was no exception. He did struggle from the field.
Also, though he brought the ball up the court quite a bit, he wasn’t playing the role of ‘true point guard’ once the ball had been brought up. The box score has him at 3 assists for the game. If it was his job to be the set-up man and distributor for the Kings I don’t think he did that as well as he could have.
Quincy Douby
Pros: Despite Kevin’s performance, in my mind Douby played the best over-all game for the Kings.
He shot the ball very well; hitting spot-up jump shots, three-pointers, runners and being perfect from the line. (In fact, in the last minutes of the game, the Raptors had an illegal defense and he was selected to shoot the technical instead of Martin)
He handled the ball very well and he, along with Kevin, were the two people that played Bibby’s ‘role’ of handling the ball at the half-court line waiting for time to tick off the clock towards the end of the game.
Someone asked about the alley oop to Kevin, and to answer, QD was handling the ball at the three point line and whipped the ball to Kevin for the slam.
Quincy had no turn-overs and two steals, which is encouraging considering the amount of time he handled the ball, and the number of times he drove into the lane.
Also, his thin frame is really noticeable out there while he was playing, but he did a good job of staying in front of his man.
Cons: He did the majority of his damage in the third quarter and early fourth quarter, but seemed to fade in the last few minutes of the game. He played some defense and didn’t make any mistakes, and made his free throw technical shot, but sort of disappeared from the offense for the last three minutes or so.
The other concern is his ability to fight through screens while on defense. If he’d been guarding a great shooter, that shooter would have had a number of nice open looks while QD went under those screens.
Louis Amundson
Pros: He’s definitely an energy guy. He was very active on defense, and he used his body well to try to muscle his man out of the lane.
He also had the best Kings play of the game, where he came out of no-where and slammed the ball on a put-back.
Cons: I was really looking forward to seeing him in action as the first of these new young front-court players added to our roster.
All in all, it was a rather disappointing game for him. I had read that he had a knack for grabbing rebounds and that was not at all apparent in this game. Three rebounds in over twenty minutes of play was not impressive. Also, I did not see any offensive game from him. Besides that put-back, he did not look assertive on offense at all.
Also, though Lou did play energized on defense, his man, with his back to the basket had good success shooting over him.
Justin Williams
Pros: I was really looking forward to seeing someone in a Kings jersey go out and block shots and intimidate in the lane. All in all, he had a decent game, though nothing spectacular.
He had a few blocked shots and he did do a good job of forcing the Raptors to alter their shots when they got into the lane.
It was very nice to see him go into a crowd of people and pull down a rebound, which he did on numerous occasions.
If he’d managed to keep control of one rebound instead of it slipping through his hands and out of bounds, he’d of had his double digit rebound game, not bad for 20 minutes of play.
Also, he didn’t look to be that much taller then Amundson, and Amundson is definitely more filled out that Williams, but Williams was clearly the better rebounder in this game.
Cons: I was looking forward to seeing him defend against Andrea Bargnani, but he wasn’t tasked to guard him at all.
He really looked lost offensively. The one time where he had the ball and looked for his own shot, he traveled with the ball.
Christian Marakar
Pros: He had a solid game for the amount of minutes he played. It was clear that he was comfortable shooting the ball from mid-range and he shot the ball very well. Of the four young bigs who played, he clearly felt the most comfortable with his offensive game. He played decent defense and did a better job on the boards then Amundson. He definitely is not someone who will provide a lot of interior defensive intimidation as he did not attempt to block or alter shots like Williams and Amundson.
Cons: He didn’t get a lot of playing time, and though he played well, I’m not sure if what he brings is going to help the Kings. He lacked defensive intensity and it was clear that though he’s not a horrible defender, he isn’t going to bring much as far as intimidation and shot blocking.
Taj Gray
Pros: None worth mentioning
Cons: He had a horrible game. My stat line matched exactly with the official stat line: A free throw, a made basket and 2 turn-overs, very unimpressive. His second turn-over was a bad one, where he had the ball in the lane, and instead of taking a five foot shot, passed the ball to no-one where it went out of bounds.
Other Players:
I wasn’t focusing on any of the other players.
Lampley played a lot of minutes, and he had a decent game. Nothing to really write about and I would have rather seen more minutes for Taj Gray. What is of note is the fact that he played little to no minutes in the fourth quarter when we made our push and took the lead to win the game.
As a team:
We were trailing the entire game, and at one point we got down into a double-digit deficit it was uncertain whether or not we were going to be able to pull out a win. However, mid-way through the fourth quarter we took our first lead and it was clear that the line-up of Price, Douby, Martin, Amundson, & Williams was the most effective. This was the line-up used for the majority of the fourth quarter when we broke even and pulled away from the Raptors.
We really buckled down and played defense the second half of the game. After allowing around 50 points in the first half, we held the Raptors to under 30 points for the rest of the game. We put on a full-court press numerous times through the game, and there wasn’t an instance of the Raptors getting a Gimme basket as a result of a failed press, and it was clear that our press did disrupt their rhythm on a few occasions.
Williams and Amundson were extremely active around the basket and though we didn’t have a lot of blocks during the game, but there were a number of blocks that ended up being called fouls, and numerous shots which were altered by their defensive presence.
Kevin Martin:
Pros: I’m a huge Kevin Martin fan, so I was hoping for a good showing while watching the game. He was definately the leader on the floor, there was no question about that.
As the box score indicates, he got to the foul line almost at will. He did a fantastic jump of using the pump fake to get his man into the air and then draw the foul. He was able to draw fouls beyond the 3-point line twice during the course of the game.
His defense was solid as he was able to stay in front of his man for the majority of the game. He handled the ball quite a bit, and it appears as if his ball handling has improved over last year.
Also, he pulled down the second most rebounds for the team at 7, and majority of the rebounds were him leaping into the air to grab them with some authority.
Cons: He did not have his shot at all the entire game. His three field goals were:
A called basket off a goal-tending, the alley oop slam from the Douby’s feed and his one three-point attempt
Though he got to the foul line quite a bit during the game, a lot of his trips came from a pump fake then shooting into his man. With his shot not falling like it was, I don’t think that he’d have gotten his defender into the air in a real NBA game.
Also, despite what was said on the Raptor’s forums, he took a lot of hard fouls and I just hope that he can keep from injury.
There were a few times when he tried to do too much. In fact, of his four turn-overs, two of them came on back-to-back possessions where he tried to go through too many defenders and was stripped.
Ronnie Price:
Pros: I was pleased with Ronnie’s game. He played good defense and handled the ball well. Most of his time playing, he was having to guard a smaller, quicker man, but he did a great job of keeping in front and not allowing dribble penetration.
He brought the ball up the court for most of the 2nd half, and the Raptors guard put a lot of back-court pressure on him, and he handled it very well with none of his turn-overs coming from that pressure.
He got himself to the foul line quite a bit and was very solid with his free throw shooting, missing only one attempt.
Cons: The Kings could not find the bottom of the basket, and Ronnie was no exception. He did struggle from the field.
Also, though he brought the ball up the court quite a bit, he wasn’t playing the role of ‘true point guard’ once the ball had been brought up. The box score has him at 3 assists for the game. If it was his job to be the set-up man and distributor for the Kings I don’t think he did that as well as he could have.
Quincy Douby
Pros: Despite Kevin’s performance, in my mind Douby played the best over-all game for the Kings.
He shot the ball very well; hitting spot-up jump shots, three-pointers, runners and being perfect from the line. (In fact, in the last minutes of the game, the Raptors had an illegal defense and he was selected to shoot the technical instead of Martin)
He handled the ball very well and he, along with Kevin, were the two people that played Bibby’s ‘role’ of handling the ball at the half-court line waiting for time to tick off the clock towards the end of the game.
Someone asked about the alley oop to Kevin, and to answer, QD was handling the ball at the three point line and whipped the ball to Kevin for the slam.
Quincy had no turn-overs and two steals, which is encouraging considering the amount of time he handled the ball, and the number of times he drove into the lane.
Also, his thin frame is really noticeable out there while he was playing, but he did a good job of staying in front of his man.
Cons: He did the majority of his damage in the third quarter and early fourth quarter, but seemed to fade in the last few minutes of the game. He played some defense and didn’t make any mistakes, and made his free throw technical shot, but sort of disappeared from the offense for the last three minutes or so.
The other concern is his ability to fight through screens while on defense. If he’d been guarding a great shooter, that shooter would have had a number of nice open looks while QD went under those screens.
Louis Amundson
Pros: He’s definitely an energy guy. He was very active on defense, and he used his body well to try to muscle his man out of the lane.
He also had the best Kings play of the game, where he came out of no-where and slammed the ball on a put-back.
Cons: I was really looking forward to seeing him in action as the first of these new young front-court players added to our roster.
All in all, it was a rather disappointing game for him. I had read that he had a knack for grabbing rebounds and that was not at all apparent in this game. Three rebounds in over twenty minutes of play was not impressive. Also, I did not see any offensive game from him. Besides that put-back, he did not look assertive on offense at all.
Also, though Lou did play energized on defense, his man, with his back to the basket had good success shooting over him.
Justin Williams
Pros: I was really looking forward to seeing someone in a Kings jersey go out and block shots and intimidate in the lane. All in all, he had a decent game, though nothing spectacular.
He had a few blocked shots and he did do a good job of forcing the Raptors to alter their shots when they got into the lane.
It was very nice to see him go into a crowd of people and pull down a rebound, which he did on numerous occasions.
If he’d managed to keep control of one rebound instead of it slipping through his hands and out of bounds, he’d of had his double digit rebound game, not bad for 20 minutes of play.
Also, he didn’t look to be that much taller then Amundson, and Amundson is definitely more filled out that Williams, but Williams was clearly the better rebounder in this game.
Cons: I was looking forward to seeing him defend against Andrea Bargnani, but he wasn’t tasked to guard him at all.
He really looked lost offensively. The one time where he had the ball and looked for his own shot, he traveled with the ball.
Christian Marakar
Pros: He had a solid game for the amount of minutes he played. It was clear that he was comfortable shooting the ball from mid-range and he shot the ball very well. Of the four young bigs who played, he clearly felt the most comfortable with his offensive game. He played decent defense and did a better job on the boards then Amundson. He definitely is not someone who will provide a lot of interior defensive intimidation as he did not attempt to block or alter shots like Williams and Amundson.
Cons: He didn’t get a lot of playing time, and though he played well, I’m not sure if what he brings is going to help the Kings. He lacked defensive intensity and it was clear that though he’s not a horrible defender, he isn’t going to bring much as far as intimidation and shot blocking.
Taj Gray
Pros: None worth mentioning
Cons: He had a horrible game. My stat line matched exactly with the official stat line: A free throw, a made basket and 2 turn-overs, very unimpressive. His second turn-over was a bad one, where he had the ball in the lane, and instead of taking a five foot shot, passed the ball to no-one where it went out of bounds.
Other Players:
I wasn’t focusing on any of the other players.
Lampley played a lot of minutes, and he had a decent game. Nothing to really write about and I would have rather seen more minutes for Taj Gray. What is of note is the fact that he played little to no minutes in the fourth quarter when we made our push and took the lead to win the game.
Jerryaki
Starter
while watching the broadcast last night of the kings-knicks game, i'd have to say amundson had the opposite game. skyed high for rebounds, followed the ball for blocks, hustled, finished in traffic, cut through the backdoor, hit a good portion of hit FTs.
overall, i liked what he showed in that game and hopefully he'll develop some more over the summer.
