Who will be our starting PF?
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Nice catch, Slim. The writing was on the wall for Shareef's downfall--especially since he failed to pass a physical. In a related subject--does anyone remember the Mateen Cleaves for Jumaine Jones "near" trade a while back--I believe Cleaves failed to pass his physical for that one. Not sure if that led to his eventual outing from the league entirely, as I think that's more predicated on his lack of a jumpshot, but it may have played a role.
Anywhoo, I forgot to mention about Mikki Moore in my last post. As much as he was the feel good story in Nets brass last year, Moore is clearly on the downhill slope. He's got a Kenyon Martinesque mean streak and intimidation shown on his face and while he dunks the part, he somewhat lacks the desired shotblocking skills to seriously patrol the paint for us. He's a nice stopgap asset for us at this point, with his veteran leadership, mid-range J, and height, and while he may start several games for us, I prefer him to be the energizer bunny for our second unit. If Miller misses time and Rahim and Hawes are injuried, he should temporarily start until Williams shows enough skills to warrant some starter's minutes.
Anywhoo, I forgot to mention about Mikki Moore in my last post. As much as he was the feel good story in Nets brass last year, Moore is clearly on the downhill slope. He's got a Kenyon Martinesque mean streak and intimidation shown on his face and while he dunks the part, he somewhat lacks the desired shotblocking skills to seriously patrol the paint for us. He's a nice stopgap asset for us at this point, with his veteran leadership, mid-range J, and height, and while he may start several games for us, I prefer him to be the energizer bunny for our second unit. If Miller misses time and Rahim and Hawes are injuried, he should temporarily start until Williams shows enough skills to warrant some starter's minutes.
I have to say it: I expect to be disappointed with just about everything this year. I expect this year's team to be, functionally, like last year's, except with fewer minutes of Corliss at center. Bibby will get big minutes in order to increase his trade value as will Brad. PF will trade back and forth between KT and SAR. Mikki and Justin will get the spare minutes behind last year's front court. Hawes will get added to that mix when he comes back. Despite it all, Artest will have an amazing season. His efforts will, singlehandedly account for 8 additional wins. We end the season attempting a mad dash for the 8th seed. We end up 10th, with 38 wins and a #17 draft pick. Artest gets resigned to a five year mega contract completing eating any cap room that was available for rebuilding. Upside - Fewer DUIs for the team this year! (OK, it can't be this bad, but it will be bad, and the less I expect the happier I will be when anything at all good happens.)
I think some people on the forum are short-changing Mikki Moore's defense. Watch tonight against Portland and watch how he defends the pick and roll at the top of the key. He shows very well. I'm not saying he's Ben Wallace but I think his defense has been good. His rebounding and shot-blocking are average....no doubt. But his defense is good.
Moore's team defense has always been solid, if not spectacular. That's his game...solid. He always seems to have some intriguing characteristics that bring him a step ahead of the curve for a big man, such as his height, length, mobility, and athleticism combination, and he uses that to the fullest with his aggressiveness, determination, and mean streak style of play. And he complements that all with a mid-range jumpshot. But again, you can't help but think that he doesn't have the necessary attributes to make him better than what he really is--his shotblocking is subpar, his fouls per blocks ratio is poor, he has a tendency to be very foul prone, he doesn't have much versatility offensively besides monster dunks off nice passes and offensive rebounds and the mid-range jumpshot, and he's really, really lanky.
He's been tossed around the league like a rag doll despite his nice physical attributes and mid-range J, but his lack of great scoring, rebounding, strength, post game, and prototypical big man shotblocking abilities have really limited his ability to stay in one place. He's one of those guys who look intriguing at first glance, but then his novelty wears off on you as you discover his game makes him what he really is--a role player.
He's been tossed around the league like a rag doll despite his nice physical attributes and mid-range J, but his lack of great scoring, rebounding, strength, post game, and prototypical big man shotblocking abilities have really limited his ability to stay in one place. He's one of those guys who look intriguing at first glance, but then his novelty wears off on you as you discover his game makes him what he really is--a role player.
And now that my first choice vote of Justin Williams is gone, my second choice would be Kenny Thomas. Now I know some of you would be wondering out loud, "Why, Arby's Roast Beef, would you choose Kenny Thomas over ahh...a more established player such as Shareef Abdur-Rahim, or a more consistent player such as Mikki Moore?
Before I get one with my explanation, I just hope that Kenny Thomas isn't going on a downward slope. He put up a career low in points with 5.3 last year, and his constant pouting seriously put him on the bench for prolonged periods of time. However, despite being a prototypical undersized Kings player, he still puts up nice rebounding numbers per 48 minutes, and has the mobility and athleticism to still rack up some steals from time to time, as he did in that preseason game @ Utah yesterday. Yes, I know he was on the trading block by us Kings fans in this forum, but he doesn't need to score to be successful--and though he's a tad undersized, PF is clearly his natural position where he still manages to rebound and defend well, when motivated, and that should be modus operandi come this year. We have the scorers we need in Bibby, Martin, and Artest this year, and Miller, Bibby, and Artest are nice facilitators. What we need is a rebounder, and Kenny can fit the bill--at least more than Shareef and Mikki IMO, based on their respective careers. Besides, I want to see what Shareef can do for our post play bench production with Salmons and Garcia, and Mikki can be used as a spare center now with Hawes injured and Williams' troubles--can give us some much needed intensity off the bench.
Before I get one with my explanation, I just hope that Kenny Thomas isn't going on a downward slope. He put up a career low in points with 5.3 last year, and his constant pouting seriously put him on the bench for prolonged periods of time. However, despite being a prototypical undersized Kings player, he still puts up nice rebounding numbers per 48 minutes, and has the mobility and athleticism to still rack up some steals from time to time, as he did in that preseason game @ Utah yesterday. Yes, I know he was on the trading block by us Kings fans in this forum, but he doesn't need to score to be successful--and though he's a tad undersized, PF is clearly his natural position where he still manages to rebound and defend well, when motivated, and that should be modus operandi come this year. We have the scorers we need in Bibby, Martin, and Artest this year, and Miller, Bibby, and Artest are nice facilitators. What we need is a rebounder, and Kenny can fit the bill--at least more than Shareef and Mikki IMO, based on their respective careers. Besides, I want to see what Shareef can do for our post play bench production with Salmons and Garcia, and Mikki can be used as a spare center now with Hawes injured and Williams' troubles--can give us some much needed intensity off the bench.
you guys have some rose colored glasses on if you want Justin Williams to start on this team. He is really not that good. I understand he is athletic and tall and young. But he cant shoot jumpers, goes for pumpfakes too much, fouls far too often, and cant make freethrows.
i personally dont feel hes ready for a starting role at all. If anything i would like seeing him get 3-6 minutes once every 2-3 games
i personally dont feel hes ready for a starting role at all. If anything i would like seeing him get 3-6 minutes once every 2-3 games
Sure. With Justin temporarily out of the running, we need to come up with another active shot blocker and rebounder, and you never can be sure who your real "big" is (remember when it was Bonzi?), so time to look at stats.. Here's how the figures come out for the 4 games we've played so far.
Blocks per 48 minutes
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Cisco: 4.8
Greene: 3.0
Douby: 2.0
Artest: 1.8
Brad: 1.3
Moore: 1.1
Salmons: 0.5
Martin, Watkins, Bibby, Thomas: 0.0
Let's eliminate the bottom half, and see how the finalists do with rebounding.
Rebounds per 48 minutes
---------------------------------------
Greene: 9.0
Brad: 8.2
Garcia: 6.7
Douby: 6.7
Artest: 5.8
Ron doesn't make the cut, and is taken anyway, Brad barely squeaked by on blocking and is also unavailable, so I guess it's Orien Greene if we want more rebounds, or Cisco if we want more blocks, with Douby qualifying for some backup minutes.
Justin's lawyer seems convinced that there won't be any charges filed. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXGEHTT4cho) I think I changed my mind about changing my vote.
Blocks per 48 minutes
-------------------------------------
Cisco: 4.8
Greene: 3.0
Douby: 2.0
Artest: 1.8
Brad: 1.3
Moore: 1.1
Salmons: 0.5
Martin, Watkins, Bibby, Thomas: 0.0
Let's eliminate the bottom half, and see how the finalists do with rebounding.
Rebounds per 48 minutes
---------------------------------------
Greene: 9.0
Brad: 8.2
Garcia: 6.7
Douby: 6.7
Artest: 5.8
Ron doesn't make the cut, and is taken anyway, Brad barely squeaked by on blocking and is also unavailable, so I guess it's Orien Greene if we want more rebounds, or Cisco if we want more blocks, with Douby qualifying for some backup minutes.
Justin's lawyer seems convinced that there won't be any charges filed. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXGEHTT4cho) I think I changed my mind about changing my vote.
