Where does the Kings C/PF combo rank in the West?

[Bricklayer]

Continuing here in some effort to add a different kind of thread into our normal mix. Cuz is great. Cuz is wonderful. Cuz might drop 25 and 13 on people this year. But now the PF platoon is...

Choose whichever of the Kings PFs you want as the "PF" for these purposes. Out of the following tandems, where does the Kings starting frontcourt pairing rank in the West?

POR: Lopez/Aldridge
SAC Cousins/pick 'em
GSW Bogut/Lee
LAL Hill/Boozer
LAC Jordan/Griffin
PHX Plumlee/Morris
UTH Favors/Kanter
DEN Mozgov/Faried (maybe Mcgee/Faried)
OKC Perkins/Ibaka
SAN Duncan/Splitter
HOU Howard/Jones
DAL Chandler/Nowitzki
NOH Asik/Davis
MEM Gasol/Randolph
MIN Pekovic/Young

 

[HighFlyingMonkey]

Assuming that JT is the starter

1. Gasol/Randolph
2. Jordan/Griffin
3. Lopez/Aldridge
4. Chandler/Dirk
5. Asik/Davis
6. Cousins/JT
7. Howard/Jones
8. Duncan/Splitter
9. Bogut/Lee
10. Plumlee/Morris

Cousins/JT would be a top Western frontcourt in the same way that Michael Jordan/BJ Armstrong was a top backcourt. Mostly on the strength of the one guy.

 

[Bricklayer]

Just realized I messed up the poll a little by having 1-2, then 2-3 and repeating the same mistake later with 6-7/7-8. So I corrected it so now there is 1-2, then just 3 alone etc. Oops

 

[Gary]

I was thinking about 6-7 unless we have a stud PF then we have to put them behind a lot of those combos up there.

 

[bajaden]

I think I'll withhold my opinion until I know who the starting PF is going to be. Right now, its all speculation, and in several possible cases, like a Cousins/Moreland, or a Cousins/Hollins, we have nothing to go on.

 

[Dreadnought]

I think these front courts are better than ours at no fault of Boogie.

POR: Lopez/Aldridge
GSW Bogut/Lee
LAC Jordan/Griffin
OKC Perkins/Ibaka
SAN Duncan/Splitter
DAL Chandler/Nowitzki
NOH Asik/Davis
MEM Gasol/Randolph

 

[Bricklayer]

I think these front courts are better than ours at no fault of Boogie.

POR: Lopez/Aldridge
GSW Bogut/Lee
LAC Jordan/Griffin
OKC Perkins/Ibaka <---- ???
SAN Duncan/Splitter
DAL Chandler/Nowitzki
NOH Asik/Davis
MEM Gasol/Randolph

 

[VF21]

The intriguing thing at the end of the day is that with any kind of DECENT player at the 4 you immediately move our duo into the top 5.

 

[dude12]

I'll put whatever combo near he top tier. I think in our case, limiting the PF spot to one guy makes it difficult. Cuz is the best big guy in the league......our platoon or situational platoon with JT, Evans and Landry can be a better than average combination......and you may throw in the few minutes of stretch 4 from Casspi.

 

[twslam07]

I think these front courts are better than ours at no fault of Boogie.

POR: Lopez/Aldridge
GSW Bogut/Lee
LAC Jordan/Griffin
OKC Perkins/Ibaka
SAN Duncan/Splitter
DAL Chandler/Nowitzki
NOH Asik/Davis
MEM Gasol/Randolph

Perkins and Ibaka?! No way.

 

[kingsboi]

For me, Cousins/Filler will make it just outside the top 5 and that's only because Cousins is so good and we don't know how the other guy will do on a given night.

 

[206Fan]

I didn't know the West's front court was soo bad. There are really only 4-5 dominant PF-C combos.

 

[Tetsujin]

I think these front courts are better than ours at no fault of Boogie.

POR: Lopez/Aldridge
GSW Bogut/Lee
LAC Jordan/Griffin
OKC Perkins/Ibaka
SAN Duncan/Splitter
DAL Chandler/Nowitzki
NOH Asik/Davis
MEM Gasol/Randolph

In what world is Ibaka/Perkins better than Demarcus/anyone on our roster?

 

[King Baller]

I think Cousins is the top Center in the West. I don't think any of the Kings PF make the top Ten PF in the West list. I like Evans to start with Cousins as he has the elite rebounding. I'm not sure how to rate them as a duo. I voted 3rd but after reviewing the list I found a couple other duos I like. The issue is that a lot of these guys are getting older and some are injury prone. If I take that into account I like Cousins/Evans at 3. How many of those duos would you rather have going forward than Cousins/Random PF?

 

[ShastaKingsFan]

The intriguing thing at the end of the day is that with any kind of DECENT player at the 4 you immediately move our duo into the top 5.

At this point, I'd like to know who we could get for McLemore and Williams. What teams are rebuilding that have a fit for us at the 4, who would be interested in a couple young players at the 2 and 3 positions?

 

[King Baller]

At this point, I'd like to know who we could get for McLemore and Williams. What teams are rebuilding that have a fit for us at the 4, who would be interested in a couple young players at the 2 and 3 positions?

I don't think either Ben Mc or D Will have much trade value. Its probably best to just keep working with Ben and hope his game improves.

 

[randymoss1881]

I don't think either Ben Mc or D Will have much trade value. Its probably best to just keep working with Ben and hope his game improves.

Ben still has value I think I would defiantly do a Ben/Landry/DWill for Henson. Helps both teams they need a young SG we need a shot blocker and one that shot 53%.

The irony is if we had Lopez/Boogie I would rank us top 3.

 

[kingsnation]

LAC Jordan/Griffin
SAN Duncan/Splitter
HOU Howard/Jones
DAL Chandler/Nowitzki
NOH Asik/Davis
MEM Gasol/Randolph

I think these are the 6 that challenge us the most IMO. Houston only because of Howard, which is still debatable. I say Memphis and San Antonio for sure and you can even swap out Tiago for Boris and they'd still be right there. The Pelicans are much improved with a very capable Asik next to Davis.

The Clippers are right there with us. I'd add Dallas but they're on the decline.

This question can be re-asked with "Which version of JT will be playing alongside Cuz?" That may change the scenario dramatically.

 

[Tetsujin]

Ben still has value I think I would defiantly do a Ben/Landry/DWill for Henson. Helps both teams they need a young SG we need a shot blocker and one that shot 53%.

The irony is if we had Lopez/Boogie I would rank us top 3.

First, I'm fairly certain that trade is fiscally impossible. Secondly, Henson's FG percentage looks great but take a look at where most of those shots are coming from:

Lots of yellow and red there, eh? The vast majority of the guy's shots (pretty much all of them) come riiiight around the hoop which is ideally where Demarcus is going to be a lot of the time. When forced out to the perimeter, he's not useless out there but Henson certainly isn't great.

For comparison, here is the shot chart for the guy Henson would probably be replacing in JT:

While there's a hell of a lot of red and yellow on that one as well, we also find JT's sweet spot at the top of the key and an outside-the-key shooting percentage hovering somewhere around the upper-mid-30-percentile mark, which once again isn't awesome but still better than Henson's percentage from that range last year.

Now obviously the big draw with Henson is his ability to block shots and the numbers sorta back that up. However, much as with Moreland, Henson still lacks the ideal bulk you need to bang inside in the NBA and grab rebounds and body up on defense, something that Thompson is at least capable of doing.

So in your move idea there, where you're essentially offering our two biggest trade chips for a guy who's okay at protecting the rim but not necessarily an amazing shooter, too skinny to guard the other team's best big guy (which is probably what would happen with our team), and might have inflated numbers by virtue of being on a bad team where some had to have stats of some kind and the opportunity to dump Carl Landry's contract, which you (and many others) might be fine with but I'm still not pulling the trigger on that one in the hopes that a better option will present itself somewhere down the line.

 

[KingMilz]

Assuming fully healthy
1. Dirk/Chandler: Tyson from the one preseason game seems to be playing with energy again which is a good thing and I think he's a better defender overall than DJ, Dirk (still think he has one good year left) if he can play like last year with all the talent/shooting surrounding him in Dallas now (Parsons, Jameer, Harris, Charlie V, Crowder, Ellis) could have a monster season in terms of efficient play.

2. DJ/Blake: Blakes jumper seems to be improving again but imo they just don't get in done in the playoffs most the time which makes it impossible for me to put them in the top spot

3. Marc/Z-Bo: Only 3rd because I believe Z-Bo is in decline

4. LMA/Lopez: Could be higher, LMA was huge last year and Lopez while he does get torched man to man he's a excellent team defender

5. Rest, could be anyone you could make a case

 

[mac]

Hmm I think Dallas, Portland, LAC, New Orleans and Memphis are definitely above us. SA is debatable in the sense that they probably won't dominate offensively like Cousins or the others will, but they play a very big role in the overall success of the team. Golden State and Houston are slightly smaller question marks for me. So overall... Definitely top 7 or 8, top 6 at the most.

 

[KingMilz]

Hmm I think Dallas, Portland, LAC, New Orleans and Memphis are definitely above us. SA is debatable in the sense that they probably won't dominate offensively like Cousins or the others will, but they play a very big role in the overall success of the team. Golden State and Houston are slightly smaller question marks for me. So overall... Definitely top 7 or 8, top 6 at the most.

I don't think NO is better than us to me Cousins and JT are more well rounded players (when you combined both), Asik is extremely limited but effective and Davis at this point while he has a wider range of skills is still somewhat limited as well.

 

[Glenn]

We could have a thread of who is the best Center and "name a position" and as Cuz is the center of the question from the Kings' side, it will prove little. Hmm, but maybe who is the best Center/SF could be interesting. Anyway, I am glad we have Cuz or Brick would have a significant less number of questions to pose for us moral humans. Thanks, Brick.

 

[randymoss1881]

After looking at those PFs in the west if be willing to trade for Hibbert. The only ones that would give him problems would be Dirk, Griffin, and Aldridge and those guys will give anyone trouble. Guarding them will take away from his offense but that what it means to be a top 5 player. Hibbert will instantly boat our defense by a lot and the big catch is Hibbert played in the motion offense in college. He also averaged 2apg his first 2 years and he is an average shooter to 15ft which is plenty room for DMC to operate in the post.

 

[SacKings384]

Says a lot about JT when you could argue that Cousins is the best or second best center in the league and the combo probably falls in the 5-8 range.

 

[Prince_XY]

If Cousins finally and truly commit himself to be that shot-blocking BIG with 2-3 blocks per game to anchor our defense, we easily go #1-3. Either Thompson or Reggie and even Landry would be good enough to play with him. Cousins needs to be in top shape though because he also should not stop from being our number one option in offense. If he do this, we'll see an All-Star and probably a superstar in our roster.

 

[KingMilz]

After looking at those PFs in the west if be willing to trade for Hibbert. The only ones that would give him problems would be Dirk, Griffin, and Aldridge and those guys will give anyone trouble. Guarding them will take away from his offense but that what it means to be a top 5 player. Hibbert will instantly boat our defense by a lot and the big catch is Hibbert played in the motion offense in college. He also averaged 2apg his first 2 years and he is an average shooter to 15ft which is plenty room for DMC to operate in the post.

Yeah Hibbert is one I would be willing to take a gamble on

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Says a lot about JT when you could argue that Cousins is the best or second best center in the league and the combo probably falls in the 5-8 range.

I come at this from the other direction: I think it says more about Cousins. Why? Because, IYAM, there aren't two other centers in the entire league that you could put next to Jason Thompson, that would even be in the running for Top 5 in the west.

 

[HereWeBoogie]

Bogut is always hurt and Lee is overrated and only plays one side of the ball. I wouldn't put them ahead of us. No matter who we trot out there next to Cousins