Your 09-10 Starting PG: Beno Udrih?

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NoBonus

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I have been thinking a lot about the draft (which Kings fan hasn't?) and thinking about the needs at PG and Beno's terrible 08-09 season and I have come to the distinct conclusion that he may still be the #1 option at PG.

Here is why:
The main reason the Kings need to replace him was because of his lackluster year this past season; if he keeps playing like that, the Kings will end up high in the lottery again... but why did he have a bad year?

I think, for Beno, there was a lack of leadership on the team, an intolerably bad coaching situation, no contract to work towards, and tons of team changes. Beno has never seemed "tough" or "gritty" to me and it is entirely possible all of this demotivated him; made him apathetic. (Let's face facts, most fans became apathetic by all-star break)

If that is the case, it is possible that the arrival of a new rookie PG(s), new and improved head coach, and some time with this group as a team, he may get interested in playing basketball again the way we all loved cemementing him as the starter for the season.

Do I think this will happen? Maybe... but it must be considered.
 
He is clearly not our PG of the future. I would rather have him get like 20 minutes behind our potential rookie PG we will have as a back up. A losing season with a rookie is at least some progress, a losing season with Beno is so last year. Honestly, I felt if Bobby could have played more minutes, he was so much more productive than Beno.
 
Maybe Beno will respond to the addition of another young PG or two by suddenly becoming competitive, or maybe he will respond to it by deciding that he can join KT on the early retiree's bench. But I can think of one clear reason why he probably won't be a big part of next year: ticket sales. He got his fat contract, then blew us all off. Not just with his lousy assist/TO ratio and bricked 3s, but with his seeming lack of effort. I don't think most of us are glad he's on our roster. If Rubio's around, or even Jonny Flynn, they will be getting the rockstar treatment from the fans, and that means badly needed $ for the Maloofs.

So I suspect that Beno's going to be seeing his minutes decrease a lot next year, and that he may lose his starting position before the season's over.
 
He'll probably still start for a while. Hopefully he does get motivated and starts playing better, then we'll have a much better chance of trading him.
 
Section 101 said:
It really depends on him not getting a hang nail and missing a month.
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Excellent point. That's basically the same reason why I think anyone suggesting we trade for Baron Davis should have their head examined. Beno's a bargain compared to that guy.
 
Im sure he will start the first 3rd of the season or until he gets injured. I dont mind him as a 15-20 min backup.
 
If we pick Rubio or Flynn theres not a chance that Beno Starts...

If its Holiday, Evans or someone else then yeah Beno will start... at least at first.

Beno wants to prove he can play at this level but he's too lazy to keep himself in top shape. Thus hes to slow, gets tired faster, and injured all the freakn time.

I think its pretty obvious to everyone why he sucks so bad so and if we bring in a more athletic PG like Flynn or Rubio that can handle the team Benos done.
 
It would have been nice if Mike had just left some when he went to Atlanta. ;)
 
What options do we have with Beno? I can not imagine any team wanting to take his contract on...is he untradeable?
 
Beno would be a decent backup PG for a team with championship aspirations.

I dont think we'd be able to get much for him in a trade though, maybe some junk player with less years on their contract.
 
Many posters seem to not remember that Beno does have talent... and proved it in a pretty good season for us, considering our PG options at the time.

Ya, it might have been motivated by a contract (it happens throughout the league), but the guy is capable.... would you agree?.. If not, please explain why?

What if Westphal gets some results out of him?.. would everyone still be down on Beno?... From this kingsfans board, it's obviously yes. Beno is a target of everyones disappointment it seams....

He was in demand at the time we signed him, remember? Other teams were bidding his value up.... we paid market for him, in hopes of getting more wins next season. Reggie even endorsed him... am I wrong?

If you personally feel the Kings should have made a better choice at the time, you should be able to back it up. Who and what?

Sorry but I gotta go there...., I could only imagine how the anonymous internet critics would fair in a real business ownership of there own, (ever seriously own a business?)..., if you've never owned or managed a business and had to make decisions on it's future, are you really qualified to second guess the real professionals that analyzed Beno's re-signing?

Soooo, we're stuck with Beno... because I guess he had a bad season... but then again, did he, or was it coaching? Natt not using him to his strengths? Whatever. Keyboard backseat driving is cheap....
 
Unless he needs to be forklifted onto the court, Beno will start this season. For how long? Depends on both him and the performance of our PG rookie.

Keep in mind that PG is the hardest position to learn in NBA basketball, and like your big man, it usually takes 3 years to really see what you've got. Derrick Rose and CP3 are freak exceptions to the rule...thus, Beno will likely need to start at least half of the season.

Personally, I really would like to see him do better this year. I was really against that contract we gave him as even at the point we signed him he wasn't worth the MLE, but his laziness and negativity are now a real drain on team chemistry. I hope he finds the motivation to get in shape this offseason, and hopefully Coach Westphal can motivate him. Even if he gets back to the level he was at, he'll be very hard to trade for the next two years...remember, he has a fifth year player option.

Frankly as fans we hate to see laziness on the floor, and even though Beno's not that good, I hope to see him play harder next year.
 
I'd like to see how coach westphal can make use of Beno's strengths. To me these are: driving left and finishing, pulling up for elbow jumpshots. Problem is we don't have a starting guard or small forward who can really initiate the offense like lebron or kobe and thus we are forced to play into beno's weak ball handling and passing
 
mac said:
I'd like to see how coach westphal can make use of Beno's strengths. To me these are: driving left and finishing, pulling up for elbow jumpshots. Problem is we don't have a starting guard or small forward who can really initiate the offense like lebron or kobe and thus we are forced to play into beno's weak ball handling and passing
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Beno is a good penetrator IMO and can shoot the ball well. I noticed he had pretty good fundamentals when arriving at Sac but they have seemingly worn off. I think his weaker shooting & lack of defense are more to due with being out of shape and unmotivated...his poor passing is due to both his ability and the system he was prescribed.

But good point about having an unselfish 2 or 3 - this is a big problem with the team among other things as both Kevin and Noc are poor passers, which requires the team to have a pass-first PG and a good passing high-post 4 and/or 5 to compensate for the lack of ball movement...currently we are lacking in that dept as Beno is not a good passer and Spence is decent but still not fully grasping Brad's skills...
 
One and Done said:
Beno is a good penetrator IMO and can shoot the ball well. I noticed he had pretty good fundamentals when arriving at Sac but they have seemingly worn off. I think his weaker shooting & lack of defense are more to due with being out of shape and unmotivated...his poor passing is due to both his ability and the system he was prescribed.

But good point about having an unselfish 2 or 3 - this is a big problem with the team among other things as both Kevin and Noc are poor passers, which requires the team to have a pass-first PG and a good passing high-post 4 and/or 5 to compensate for the lack of ball movement...currently we are lacking in that dept as Beno is not a good passer and Spence is decent but still not fully grasping Brad's skills...
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Yup. Spence has a long way to go but of course he's still really young so there is lots of time for him to become way way better. Another problem is that Kevin is more a Rip hamilton off the ball kind of scorer. Which makes it so important that we have a good passing PG unlike in the past where Christie wasn't exactly our primary option on offense. That allowed for us to have a scoring PG in Bibby. Kevin has yet to show that he can create his own shot consistently off the dribble (making the shot, not drawing fouls) which is probably why he hasn't had much success in clutch time and potential game tiers/winners.
 
mac said:
Yup. Spence has a long way to go but of course he's still really young so there is lots of time for him to become way way better. Another problem is that Kevin is more a Rip hamilton off the ball kind of scorer. Which makes it so important that we have a good passing PG unlike in the past where Christie wasn't exactly our primary option on offense. That allowed for us to have a scoring PG in Bibby. Kevin has yet to show that he can create his own shot consistently off the dribble (making the shot, not drawing fouls) which is probably why he hasn't had much success in clutch time and potential game tiers/winners.
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If your comparing the Spence of today to the Miller of today, then I would give Miller the edge. But Spencer is way ahead of where Miller was at the same age. And thats the comparison you have to make.

Any problems with our offense last year had little or nothing to do with Hawes or Thompson. I'm not really sure what offense we were playing at times, but for sure it was a perimeter dominated offense. As for Beno. He's suppossed to be the captain on the floor. The distributer of the basketball. How he was able to not see a couple of guys that were 6' 11" and above is beyond me.

I don't have enough fingers on my hands to count how many times I saw a big man run the floor, be standing right under the basket unguarded, and not get the ball. Beno's response was, sometimes you just don't see them. I thought that was his job. But it was a typical Beno response. An excuse, which he seems to be full of.

As for D13's question about having your own business. I started my own business and built into a sucessful one. Its still going strong today. So yes, I've had the responsibility of making personal decisions. Finanical decisions, etc. But that alone doesn't make me a basketball expert. It just means I understand the concept better than someone who hasn't done it. It also doesn't mean I want Beno to fail. Why would I? The team has a lot of money tied up in him. But I'm not going to sit here and look at things through rose colored glasses.

Beno was terrible last year! And someone has to take responsiblilty for that. And it should be Beno. He has the ability to change our minds. Come into camp in great shape, and start playing in a way thats representive of what he's being paid for. No one expects him to be Steve Nash. But we do expect a reasonable impersonation of a NBA point guard.
 
It's important to note that Beno's lack of motivation and laziness were exactly the knocks against him in San Antonio and was why they traded him away. And he was only the backup PG there.

If Popovich couldn't get what he wanted out of Beno, I doubt we can blame his issues on coaching. This falls squarely on the shoulders of Beno and, frankly, I'm tired of hearing his excuses and/or blaming his teammates. :rolleyes:
 
kennadog said:
It's important to note that Beno's lack of motivation and laziness were exactly the knocks against him in San Antonio and was why they traded him away. And he was only the backup PG there.

If Popovich couldn't get what he wanted out of Beno, I doubt we can blame his issues on coaching. This falls squarely on the shoulders of Beno and, frankly, I'm tired of hearing his excuses and/or blaming his teammates. :rolleyes:
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Bu...but...Beno's so cute!!!
udrih_beno.jpg


You're just mean. :(
 
If we draft a pg at #4, I wouldn't be surprised if Beno still starts, at least for a while. I also think Beno will play better because of the competition. But I would be surprised if the #4 doesn't get significant minutes from the start, at least 20 mpg.
 
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