Tyreke Evans

[HereWeBoogie]

its not like there are other guards on this team that deserve to be playing over Tyreke. so its amazing that he only averages 31MPG while all the good guards on that list average much more. even old *** Kobe can handle 38mpg

 

[Padrino]

Despite living through the Smart years, Tyreke has become phenomenal. If Smart spent half the time helping Tyreke and getting him shots as he spends with IT, we'd have an all star. I do not understand Smart's priorities. Heck, with almost every half time having a show about IT and the announcers drooling all over him, I begin to wonder what is going on. No matter how much you develop IT, he still will be 5'9" and Tyreke will be 6'6" or 6'5" which ever it is. Tyreke came into this year with a much improved jump shot so let's not say this is a one game phenomena. IT is a great shooter but so is Tyreke.

This team's priorities have me scratching my head. Does Tyreke have to work on his smile more?

actually, IT's not a particularly great shooter. he's hitting at an inefficient 44% clip from the field this season, accompanied by 35% from three. and though he tallies more assists as a primary ballhandler than tyreke, he's an inferior playmaker in all respects, and don't get me started on his physical limitations and defensive shortcomings. however, in my opinion, it's apples and oranges. the two players have no business being compared, as 'reke is a starting level SG/PG with all star potential, and IT is a quality, high energy sixth man type. but we are in agreement that the team's priorities are absolutely head-scratching. 'reke's ceiling is clearly elevating itself further, as his jump shot--from three and from midrange--is showing vast improvement, along with his decision-making. his hands are getting lightning quick on defense, too. in that one respect, he reminds me of ron artest in his handsiest prime, disrupting the progress of the ball while piling up the steals...

 

[Spike]

Yup. I saw that. Shaq is also one of his biggest fans. Always talks about how he's criminally underrated. They both talked about how good he would be if he was part of a "winning" organization.

Thankfully, we're in a position to change the organization...

 

[Darth Divac]

Gawd knows he'll be an MVP candidate in the new organization...

 

[ESP47]

FG%:

FGA:

hmmm...

If he attempted more shots, his FG% would drop quite a bit. He'll raise up on the attempts list and then drop on the FG% list. I'm not saying he shouldn't take more shots, but it's not as cut and dry as that. I mean Chuck Hayes has shot over 50% in his career for a couple seasons. It means he's taking shots he can make and not forcing many. We've seen Tyreke forcing the ball in his 2nd and 3rd seasons and it wasn't pretty. Tyreke should be averaging around 18ppg with his current skill set. If he can develop a consistent mid range game he's a low 20ppg scorer. This year he's done a great thing in going from one of the worst 3pt shooters in the game to above average as far as efficiency goes. If Tyreke popped 3's the way Thornton does, he'd be shooting 30% again.

 

[Spike]

If he attempted more shots, his FG% would drop quite a bit. He'll raise up on the attempts list and then drop on the FG% list. I'm not saying he shouldn't take more shots, but it's not as cut and dry as that. I mean Chuck Hayes has shot over 50% in his career for a couple seasons. It means he's taking shots he can make and not forcing many. We've seen Tyreke forcing the ball in his 2nd and 3rd seasons and it wasn't pretty. Tyreke should be averaging around 18ppg with his current skill set. If he can develop a consistent mid range game he's a low 20ppg scorer. This year he's done a great thing in going from one of the worst 3pt shooters in the game to above average as far as efficiency goes. If Tyreke popped 3's the way Thornton does, he'd be shooting 30% again.

If Evans took one more shot per game, he'd be in Greivis Vasquez range in terms of shots per game.
If Evans took two more shots per game, he'd be in Raymond Felton range.
He's already averaging more ppg than both of them.

Three more per game puts him in the Tony Parker/JR Smith/Paul George range. Parker has a higher %, but it's not like he's launching threes all game, either. Three more shots per game is less than one extra shot a quarter. It's not like he's all of a sudden going to go into Kobe mode by taking a few more shots per game. If they're open and in rhythm, why should he pass them up? He could easily get those extra shots by upping his minutes per game to an average of 33 per game, which seems to be OK for an aging, one-eyed Tony Parker. We're not even talking about Kobe minutes. Pre-Smart he was at about 37 minutes, which would put him right now at 18ppg-ish, the number you mentioned, which would put him at about 18-5-4-2.

Just imagine an offense build around him, instead of one build to spite him. He has the skills for 20ppg right now. He shot selection is better right now. His % isn't going to drop that precipitously with 3-4 more shots per game, (unless he decides to just launch from 3, which wouldn't make sense). He just needs the 4 more minutes per game, really.

 

[bajaden]

Gawd knows he'll be an MVP candidate in the new organization...

Well lets hope that the only orginization he's with is ours!

 

[Glenn]

actually, IT's not a particularly great shooter. he's hitting at an inefficient 44% clip from the field this season, accompanied by 35% from three. and though he tallies more assists as a primary ballhandler than tyreke, he's an inferior playmaker in all respects, and don't get me started on his physical limitations and defensive shortcomings. however, in my opinion, it's apples and oranges. the two players have no business being compared, as 'reke is a starting level SG/PG with all star potential, and IT is a quality, high energy sixth man type. but we are in agreement that the team's priorities are absolutely head-scratching. 'reke's ceiling is clearly elevating itself further, as his jump shot--from three and from midrange--is showing vast improvement, along with his decision-making. his hands are getting lightning quick on defense, too. in that one respect, he reminds me of ron artest in his handsiest prime, disrupting the progress of the ball while piling up the steals...

I didn't look at stats. I was mentally factoring in IT's dumbass shots. Tyreke is quietly becoming one of the leagues best shooters. Couple that with the rest of the package and I have to agree with the NBA announcers. If Tyreke were on a better coached team, he'd be an all star as a coach's pick. He needs more minutes and the fact that he receives less that 35 minutes by A LOT perplexes me. The goal of this coach is to make sure everybody likes him and perhaps some other issues with his use of IT. I want a coach who has winning as his main priority. Heck, I think the fan base of the Kings has changed its attitude since the winning years and now will simply settle for nothing less than a good w/l record.

As an aside, imagine how this team would have done if the good players got the minutes most good players get and the mediocre players either got no minutes or minimal minutes.

 

[bajaden]

I guess I'm weird because I just don't get caught up in that, this player has to get this many shots and that player has to get less shots, type of thing. However, I do care if a player is being used efficiently, and in my humble opinion, Tyreke isn't. Other than the occasional isolation play, and the occasional pick and roll, Tyreke appears to be on his own. I think one has to admit that Tyreke edged a lot closer to being a complete player this season, even if his stat results don't show it. The only major flaw in Tyreke's game right now are his bad on court decisions at times. Not that he's unique in that area. Many on the team share in that problem. But thats to be expected with younger players.

There's nothing wrong with Tyreke, or the team, that a good coach can't fix. With some additional help from a GM as well. I wish I could predict the outcome of Tyreke's contract status, but were really shooting blind with new management coming in. My hope is, that because they'll have such a short window to evaluate things, they'll tender Tyreke the required amount to keep him a restricted freeagent and match any reasonable offer he gets. But there are no guarantee's. Worse case scenario is that we sign and trade him for someone, or something and someone that at least takes the sting out of it. It should be an interesting summer..

For those caught up in the numbers game, let me ask you this. And, this isn't likely! But what would happen if the Kings somehow lucked out and ended up with the first pick in the 2014 draft, and we drafted Andrew Wiggins. Wiggins is considered by almost all scouts as the best player to come along since Lebron James. Now hype is just that, hype. It remains to be seen if he lives up to that hype. But if we were to draft him, do you complain when he starts taking shots away from Cousins and Tyreke? You see to me, its all relative. If IT is red hot in a game, I really don't have a problem with him taking a lot of shots. But on the other hand, if he's not, or Thornton isn't hitting his shots, then what do you say we then defer to our most proven players. Now as for JJ, well, you really don't want me to go there. I actually asked Bricky to give JJ to someone else to grade because I just couldn't stand to watch the dude play, much less grade him.

 

[ESP47]

If Evans took one more shot per game, he'd be in Greivis Vasquez range in terms of shots per game.
If Evans took two more shots per game, he'd be in Raymond Felton range.
He's already averaging more ppg than both of them.

Three more per game puts him in the Tony Parker/JR Smith/Paul George range. Parker has a higher %, but it's not like he's launching threes all game, either. Three more shots per game is less than one extra shot a quarter. It's not like he's all of a sudden going to go into Kobe mode by taking a few more shots per game. If they're open and in rhythm, why should he pass them up? He could easily get those extra shots by upping his minutes per game to an average of 33 per game, which seems to be OK for an aging, one-eyed Tony Parker. We're not even talking about Kobe minutes. Pre-Smart he was at about 37 minutes, which would put him right now at 18ppg-ish, the number you mentioned, which would put him at about 18-5-4-2.

Just imagine an offense build around him, instead of one build to spite him. He has the skills for 20ppg right now. He shot selection is better right now. His % isn't going to drop that precipitously with 3-4 more shots per game, (unless he decides to just launch from 3, which wouldn't make sense). He just needs the 4 more minutes per game, really.

I agree that he definitely needs more minutes. I'm just trying to keep Keith Smart out of the equation so we can concentrate on Tyreke the player. I don't see Tyreke out there passing up wide open shots anymore, so other than minutes he would have to do some forcing to get more shots up. If you look at the 20ppg scorers of the league, he's just not in that category with those guys. If he was on a better team he would not be a 20ppg guy. I don't see why they should try and make him become one when it's not really in his game. I mean he could easily do it (so could Thornton, IT, Cousins) but it would hurt the team. The more we let Tyreke roam around with the ball in his hands for an extended period of time, the more the offense stalls and we wind up with bad shots in the end.

I guess I'm just trying to say that I like the way he's playing right now. He's super efficient without hogging the ball. When he hogs the ball he can squeeze 5 more points a game out but he could cost the team 10 points by giving everyone horrible shots at the end of the shot clock.

 

[Agent23]

I agree that he definitely needs more minutes. I'm just trying to keep Keith Smart out of the equation so we can concentrate on Tyreke the player. I don't see Tyreke out there passing up wide open shots anymore, so other than minutes he would have to do some forcing to get more shots up. If you look at the 20ppg scorers of the league, he's just not in that category with those guys. If he was on a better team he would not be a 20ppg guy. I don't see why they should try and make him become one when it's not really in his game. I mean he could easily do it (so could Thornton, IT, Cousins) but it would hurt the team. The more we let Tyreke roam around with the ball in his hands for an extended period of time, the more the offense stalls and we wind up with bad shots in the end.

I guess I'm just trying to say that I like the way he's playing right now. He's super efficient without hogging the ball. When he hogs the ball he can squeeze 5 more points a game out but he could cost the team 10 points by giving everyone horrible shots at the end of the shot clock.

What's the difference betwen him and the 20 ppg players in the league then?

 

[hrdboild]

I agree that he definitely needs more minutes. I'm just trying to keep Keith Smart out of the equation so we can concentrate on Tyreke the player. I don't see Tyreke out there passing up wide open shots anymore, so other than minutes he would have to do some forcing to get more shots up. If you look at the 20ppg scorers of the league, he's just not in that category with those guys. If he was on a better team he would not be a 20ppg guy. I don't see why they should try and make him become one when it's not really in his game. I mean he could easily do it (so could Thornton, IT, Cousins) but it would hurt the team. The more we let Tyreke roam around with the ball in his hands for an extended period of time, the more the offense stalls and we wind up with bad shots in the end.

I guess I'm just trying to say that I like the way he's playing right now. He's super efficient without hogging the ball. When he hogs the ball he can squeeze 5 more points a game out but he could cost the team 10 points by giving everyone horrible shots at the end of the shot clock.

Keith is that you?

I just don't think what you're saying here has a basis in reality. Not only is Tyreke choosing his spots better and connecting at a high percentage, he's also finding easy looks for his teammates. The 'horrible shots at the end of the shot clock' thing happens when somebody passes up a wide open jumper so they can put the ball on the floor and dribble into traffic. That's not the fault of the guy finding them for the open look. Certainly there are better playmakers in the league, but Tyreke is probably the best on our team right now which is why it's so confusing that he isn't allowed to create more often. All Tyreke has to do to become a 20ppg scorer again is take 2 more shots per game and draw 2 more free throws per game. That's hardly going to break our offense. And he doesn't have to roam around with the ball to do it. If you run a pick and roll to create a mismatch or run him off of a couple screens to open up different angles to the basket and get him the ball in motion, he could be even more efficient than he is now. And that would ultimately create better looks for everyone else. It maybe takes a more creative coach to realize it, but the 1-4 flat is not the only play in basketball by which a player can create off the dribble.

 

[Telemachus]

Keith is that you?

I just don't think what you're saying here has a basis in reality. Not only is Tyreke choosing his spots better and connecting at a high percentage, he's also finding easy looks for his teammates. The 'horrible shots at the end of the shot clock' thing happens when somebody passes up a wide open jumper so they can put the ball on the floor and dribble into traffic. That's not the fault of the guy finding them for the open look. Certainly there are better playmakers in the league, but Tyreke is probably the best on our team right now which is why it's so confusing that he isn't allowed to create more often. All Tyreke has to do to become a 20ppg scorer again is take 2 more shots per game and draw 2 more free throws per game. That's hardly going to break our offense. And he doesn't have to roam around with the ball to do it. If you run a pick and roll to create a mismatch or run him off of a couple screens to open up different angles to the basket and get him the ball in motion, he could be even more efficient than he is now. And that would ultimately create better looks for everyone else. It maybe takes a more creative coach to realize it, but the 1-4 flat is not the only play in basketball by which a player can create off the dribble.

If Tyreke was playing 37-38 minutes a game (like he should be) he would be averaging right around 20 pts a game already. That is dispite taking fewer shots per minute than his previous seasons. I am at a complete loss as to why he is playing only 31 minutes a game. It makes no sense whatsoever.

 

[mac]

If Tyreke was playing 37-38 minutes a game (like he should be) he would be averaging right around 20 pts a game already. That is dispite taking fewer shots per minute than his previous seasons. I am at a complete loss as to why he is playing only 31 minutes a game. It makes no sense whatsoever.

You just have to give John Salmons and MT their minutes, so Tyreke has to benched. - Keith Smart

 

[KingMilz]

Best of March watch on 720

 

[flipray]

Best of March watch on 720

Watched it last night. If you've been watching Reke the whole season, I would say he's been the most consistent player on the Kings. He needs an extension asap and with new management coming, I won't be surprised to see Reke/DMC dominate next season

 

[Chupacabra]

If Tyreke isnt resigned how will we attain another player of the same caliber?

 

[pshn80]

If Tyreke isnt resigned how will we attain another player of the same caliber?

It's called "cash".

 

[Spike]

It's called "cash".

If we lived in a large market, sure, cash is king. There's also the draw that larger cities bring.

Unfortunately, that's where Sacramento falls short. It has never been a free agent destination, especially for the big fish type player, similar to someone like Evans. The only thing we can do is grow our own and hope to keep them...even with new management, we'd have to overpay to bring people in.

 

[HereWeBoogie]

^were gonna have new owners, with deep pockets, and a brand new arena on the way. that might help

 

[Spike]

It might, but we can't assume it will. Good fitting pieces and a fair amount of winning will help as well.

 

[Chupacabra]

even if Tyreke is only deserving of a contract in the 10 million $ range id still offer him the max. The difference between what Tyreke is worth vs the max contract isnt a huge number and i think keeping Tyreke is worth the price of that 4-5 million excess per year payment. He produces on both side of the floor. Hes shown a decent spot up 3 point shot. I just dont think its wise to let Tyreke go because hes worth less than what the market will pay him. Sacramento doesnt easily come across players of his cloth.

 

[KingMilz]

Hopefully not the last mix of Reke in Kings uniform

Best of Reke April 2013

 

[Darth Divac]

I know we haven't had any good years lately, but.....I can't imagine Kings Basketball without Tyreke.

 

[ppine]

Evans has worked on his shot a lot and that has enhanced his ability to drive even more. He is a good defender and decent rebounder with a lot of strength at his position. I think he needs to become a better passer and get his assists up. Sometimes he can't see double-teams and when the lane is stacked to stop him. He drives into trouble especially at the end of games. But that tendancy also gets him to the hoop. Evans is a great talent. Better passing would really help him stand out. He also gets tired in games. He runs the team in slow motion from the 1, and I believe he is best suited to the 2, but can play the 3 for some situations. Versatility is one of his greatest strengths. I give him a lot of credit for improving his shot from dismal to decent in a short amount of time.

A lot of the arguements for better stats with more minutes are moot. Evans gets fatigued more than most players. Maybe it is driving style or he needs to work on conditioning. He rests sometimes on offense and that's why he shouldn't bring the balll up. The 24 second clock starts to look like the 18 second clock.