What you see is what you GOT!!

[CruzDude]

Way back in early September, Marty Mac at the Bee intonated that what we see is what we (likely will) get for the "new" Kings under Coach Reggie. (here is original link: http://www.kingsfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22511f )

Well it ended up just about like that. Two games into pre-season and the Kings are down to a roster of 15 with no real suprises and no new faces, Orien Greene excepted. Shakur and Greene are battling for playing time, Douby has really stepped it up, Mikki is starting to look like a starting PF, KT is still smiling coming off the bench, Bibbs is hustling his defensive butt off, KMart looks to be a point-a-minute and Brad is slim, trim and hustling HIS butt off.

My only suprise, and a mild one at that, is Watkins staying and Caner-Medley let go. Boths were 4-year college players in the Big East at Syracuse and Maryland respectively. But what we saw is what we got. It now boils down to the troops buying 100% the program Coach Reggie is selling and getting a team "personality" in the next 25 games.

The Kings are still missing a major distributor who regularly gets 7-9 assists, shoots a bunch of FT and maybe gets 8-10 pts a nite. A true PG, if you know what I mean. But with Douby doing more of that, it remains to be seen if Greene or Shakur can step up into that role.

Kings are also in desperate need of rebounding.

Also, where are the 3pt buckets going to come from other than Kevin and Douby. Bibbs is still getting into his groove and may get there. But who else poses that threat when we need it? That's where I saw Caner-Medley, a bigger guy who can shoot the lights out from 3 range. Ahh well.

 

[Arby's Roast Beef]

Caner Medley's reputation is more as an inside-outside hustler/banger type who can occasionally stick in the three, much like Brian Cardinal. As much as he's proven with his spurts of nice games with us, it's tweener unathletic forward stereotypes like him who never really get the benefit of the doubt with GMs; even Cardinal, who had that one good year in Memphis that landed him that uber-fat contract the Grizz have lived to regret, has shown his true colors in the league again. I can't fault Caner Medley for not playing hard at all, but it's a long way up for him to even stick it as a 12th man in the league.

And clearly, I think the fact that Watkins was kept--even though he's probably inevitably going to be waived--sends signals that the Kings are more dedicated to shoring up their interior defense i.e. shotblocking. For the time being at the very least, he serves as a nice rookie foil to Hawes' offense; however, I don't think Watkins has quite the goods to stick. Remember a couple of preseasons back we had this 7-foot "shotblocker" in Anwar Robinson (sp?), and he got cut. While Watkins was a name player in college, he was a fringe draft pick at best because his offense literally came off offensive rebounds or catch-and-layup/dunks. Not to mention his foul prone defense. I don't think he's shown enough flashes to play at this level. Needs a D-League of seasoning and maturity, or two, methinks.

 

[CruzDude]

Very good, object post Arby's. Good info. Thanks and come on more often.