Play the Kids!!

Its the warcry around here.  Everyone loves them and is excited for their future, including me.  I'm going to argue though that benching Brad Miller and/or Mikki Moore aren't the right move right now.  You guys can start sharpening the knives and finding rocks to throw now.

The first consideration for playing the youth is Kevin Martin, the guy we're all hoping will grow into the leader of the team, its centerpiece.  Kevin paid his dues.  He got 10 minutes a night as a rookie behind Cuttino Mobley, and 26 minutes a night in year two behind Bonzi Wells.  Think about Cuttino Mobley trying to defend even a raw Kevin Martin in practices; consider Bonzi doing the same.  I never was at a practice, but I have to think Kevin was destroying them routinely while also getting torched on defense.  My point is, he must have looked pretty good in practice, just as JT and Hawes do now.  But he still earned his minutes, and Theus has to consider the impact of handing minutes to the young guys when Martin earned his.  Probably Kevin isn't the kind of guy that would care...probably.  It is a legit concern though.

JT

 22,19,24,30,25,11,19,41,34,22,34,34,31,35,31,18,13,23,18  AVG: 25.6

The above is the log of JTs minutes so far this year.  His first few games, he showed a lot, and was handed a lot of minutes, the last five games he's gotten less.  He's deserved less minutes the last five games.  He exploded onto the scene, was given what he deserved, now opponents are adjusting and he's had a lot of rookie moments lately.  Its ok, I'm not dogging him for having them, but he needs to work through them now.  The best way to work through them isn't logging 35 minutes a night of frustration.  He needs to work through them by having success in shorter minutes.  When he's playing better he'll get longer minutes.

I guess I think people are looking at things backwards when they say Mikki should play less.  Mikki's minutes should be a function of JT's development, essentially Mikki gets the minutes JT isn't ready for yet.  The important thing is the development of JT.  He will develop best, in my opinion, by getting the right number of minutes, not as many as possible.  When JT deserves more minutes, then Mikki should play less, until then we as fans suffer.  Be patient though, he'll get there.

Look at it this way, when the opponent scouts the Kings, what's the report look like?  They turn it over a lot, don't defend the three, get out on Hawes/Miller, blah, blah blah.  The only thing of note on these reports I bet is the book being developed on JT.  The bad guys are making the book, now we need to put JT in his best position to succeed.  To me, the biggest disservice this year has been giving JT minutes at 3.  When he plays 4, he's quicker than almost everyone he plays against, longer/taller than many and looks really good.  At 3, he's exposed because he doesn't have the footspeed 3s have and is not used to being run through screens all night and getting out on shooters.  Stop the madness! Let JT be a quick big man rather than a slow small forward please.

Hawes

Spencer has been a revelation this year.  His situation is different than JT because Brad Miller actually brings something to the table.  Miller is actually in Hawes' way, where I don't think Mikki is for JT.  Miller plays the game the way Petrie and I expect Reggie want it to go.  He needs to play to give identity to the team.  Now at some point, we're going to need to transition from Miller's top of the key control of the game to Hawes' mid post game.  I just think we're not there yet.  Spencer's getting almost 30 minutes a game.  That seems about right to me, eventually Miller will be traded or moved to backup center and Hawes' minutes will grow to 34-36, assuming he can learn to stay on the floor and out of foul trouble.