The View From Section 214, Special Section 104 Practice Edition

The guy was in great shape much better then I would have expected. You gotta give it to the guy. Beno rode the bench ALOT not a good sign.

When Reke had an awesome steal on Dante Greene(who still is taking bad shots) but was active on defense.

Just got back from the open practice Some observations:
There aren’t going to be any easy uncontested baskets during practice and hopefully during games. Someone is going to miss games after being hurt in practice.

I was most impressed with Brockman, Martin, & Mason
Also, Tyreke, Sergio, JT, & Cisco were very active and played above my expectations.
Thomas played ok but not well enough to earn PT. Beno was ok on offense but still very slow on defense. He just couldn’t stay in front of anyone. Noc looked slow, but still tough and with a good outside shot.

 My only real disappointment was with Donte. Donte’s defense is better than his offense, but his offense isn’t there yet. He had no problem defending Noc, but lost Mason acouple of times. But, he moves well and uses his height to force people to alter their shots. Offensively, he didn’t make much other than some free throws and even bobbled some fast break opportunities.

Mason can still compete in the slam dunk contest. He also reminds me alot of McCants. He likes to play in close for tha alleyoop or wild fallaway shot. Brockman will lead the team in fouls and putting people on their backsides. He’s also everything he’s touted to be. A rebounder who can finish on the offensive glass or on the fast break.

Sergio will give Beno a run for his money. Tyreke still takes the ball back over his head, but like another less than perfect shooter on the team, he can make the shot.
If Martin can stay healthy, this could be his year. Tyreke & Martin were on opposing teams so I’ve yet to see how they’ll play together. But, Tyreke had more dishes off of dribble penetration than he did jumpers, so I see no problems on the horizen.

JT looks just as quick, but relies on the tip back too much, rather than actual lo post moves May showed more midrange jumpers than any actual moves in the paint. Cisco is still the best block from behind shotblocker in the league. Omri looks like a rookie except for the beard.

Hawes didn’t play, but I missed the explanation why.

Thanks for the info guys, great read! I’m looking forward to seeing our new team in action!

Disclaimer: I just finished typing all of this and realized I just went Pookey (wrote way too much) on this thing. Sorry about that, feel free to ignore as much as you want.

Got there a bit late (end of the second game) because the wifey had to work ’til 7 so had to sit all the way to the back of section 104 (I was there too section!). Funny thing is that just a couple minutes after getting there, a couple of season tix holders leaving (how dare you leave a free practice after half an hour you bad fans!) randomly came up to us and gave us their tix printouts letting us move all the way down (to the red seats reserved for season tix holders). It was a great start to my night. Now onto some random observations…

I found myself paying close attention to certain aspects of players games and wished I could have seen more of this or that (like JT in the post,or Reke in the post, or JT’s jumper, or Donte’s D, May in the post, etc.) but because of the nature of the games it ws impossible to get everything I wanted. This practice session was still pretty good to get an intitial feel for this year’s team

JT looks definitey bigger and seems to have more control of his moves on the post. Still not a lot of use for his left hand but had some good moves down there. He looks ready to be more physical.

We’ve heard and said this many times but it’s so true: We are going to LOVE Jon Brockman. Dude’s everywhere. He rebounds, bangs downlow, hits the floor, sets hard moving screens that knock opponents down (ask Desmond Mason). To me, the only reason he wouldn’t find at least 10 minutes a game is if JT, Hawes, and May are totally dominating the boards and banging hard. Otherwise he should get some minutes. I was very impressed with our second rounder.

May looks fit, still a bit big, but that’s just his frame size. He got on the stationary bike when he wasn’t on the game; his conditioning still a work in progress. One great thing that surprised me about Sean: he talks a lot on the court which is very important for this young team. He was constantly telling teammates where to be on the floor, yelling out loud offensive sets, warning his PGs if the screen were set behind them, and just communicating well with everyone. Overall I thought the team did a great job of talking which I thought was great.

One big thing after watching this practice: looks like the layup drills for other teams is over (have fun with that one lttg!). I don’t see JT, Brockman, May, Noc, or Hawes (even if he wasn’t there tonight) letting opposing players to come in and own the paint. These team is very aggressive and what happened last year will not happen again, I can almost guarantee that.

Kevin did what Kevin does best. Attacking the rim, getting to the line, and making shots. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but there is something different about his game. Not sure if it was that he was looking to control the ball more (maybe he worked on his dribbling) or that he was looking to move the ball more. Maybe others who were there saw some of that too.

I was really excited to see Tyreke, especially running his team, and I thought he did a good job. His dribbling looks better than it did in SL and he was able to knock some shots down. Couple things we already knew but that I saw at the practice: it’s gonna be tough for PGs around the league to go around him (I don’t care who they are) and if they do it’s gonna be tough to make a layup because he will recover and block those shots with that crazy wingspan. The only concern I had with Reke was that he wasn’t very vocal on the court and as the PG he would need to improve on that. I’m excited for next week’s game against the Blazers to see how that backcourt of Reke n’ Speed is going to work.

Cisco was alright though he seemed a bit out of control some times. I’m a big fan of his passion but I wonder if he’s evergoing to figure it out when it comes to being in control of his game and realizing when is good to attack and when is good to just le the game come to him. I think he could benefit a lot from Mario Ellie

I couldn’t decide who had a better showing between Beno and Sergio. They were both alright at running their teams (I’d give the slight edge to Sergio), they both got their teammates involved, and probably made and missed the same amount of shots. One thing I do have to mention about Beno: he’s just so exasperating to fans when it comes to dealing with teammates. To Beno,it is never his fault, it’s always everyone elses. During a time out he went to JT and started arguing about a turnover between the two of them (Beno made a “not great” entry pass and JT fumbled the ball and gave it away to the other team) that hadjust happened and you could tell that JT was just tired of listening to Beno’s “advice.” Coach Westphal was close to the huddle and started to walk towards them but didn’t get there intime as both Beno and JT were done with the conversation. This is, to me, what’s going to make Kings fans hate Beno. It won’t be so much his contract but they way he carries himself.

Mason was a pleasant surprise and I will be extremely shocked if he doesn’t make the team. Hell he may even be the starting 3 for the Kings this season. Had a couple alley ops with good ol’ Beno that had some people standing up.

Donte was OK. I was paying close attention to his D and he seemed solid in that department. He was very active when defending. He didn;t have much of a chance to do anything on offense so I don’t know where the criticism about taking bad shots is comng from (thought I read some of that ona previous post). I do believe he still has long ways to go if he wants to crack the rotation.

And if Donte has long ways to go, Omri has even more. I think it’s going to take him a while to get use to the league but he should figure it out. He seems too smart not to. Aside from a big dunk and one good D set and block against Noc, he had a pretty uneventful night.

Same for Noc. Hit some shots, complained to the refs a lot, and hustled. It was meh..

It was good to see Joe Maloof sitting courtside and looking much better healthwise. He wasn’t looking good at all last year after a couple surgeries (if I’m not mistaken) and, as much as some people don’t like them, it’s always good to see the brothers hanging out courtside supporting this team. I even got a free hat and shirt from Joe… thanks buddy!!

After the game, some players stuck around to sign autographs and interact with the fans. For sure I knowthat JT, Tyreke, Cisco, and Ely stayed back while pretty much everyone else went back to the locker room.

Great night overall,especially after learning we won’t get preseason games on TV. Loking forward to the real games

Donte still does not know what he’s doing on the offensive end. Honestly, his three point shooting is almost always a miss. Still, he was very active on the defensive end.

Sergio could see a lot of time. He seemed more active on both defense and offense than Beno, but his shot is pretty bad. His court vision is amazing though.

Tyreke’s shot on the other hand is starting to worry me less and less. Yes his form is horrible, but he actually seems to make a decent amount of his shots, especially if he’s left open. I think he’ll be pretty consistent with shooting jumpers this year, and eventually might even be really good. You don’t need good form to be a good shooter (ask K-Mart). Also he continued to show how easy it is for him to get into the lane. He was also looking for his shot a lot less than I thought he could have and found open teammates consistently when the defense collapsed on him. I think he was trying to quell the “not a point guard talk”. He definitely seemed the part to me and based on tonights performance, I’d want him as the starter.

Kevin Martin is just on another level than these guys offensively. There’s really not much to say about him other than that he pretty much dominated.

Desmond Mason will make the team and contribute. I don’t really want him taking any shots though, because they are as bad as advertised. Still, he has a decent inside game and his athleticism doesn’t seem diminished by last years injury and he could fulfill the role of slasher when Tyreke is on the bench. His defense is also pretty good.

Jon Brockman. I want to go back and change my predictions for next year because I think Jon is actually going to see ample playing time and could surprise a lot of people next year. The guy is a beast. Rebounds extremely well, and he seems to have developed a nice elbow jumper that goes in most of the time. He’s also ok at getting to the free throw line and drawing contact, although he’s not very good at shooting free throws. But he has a chance to crack the rotation next year and be a legitimate rotation guy. I feel a little less worried about our lack of size knowing the Brock Ness Monster is waiting to come in.

Sean May impressed me more on the defensive side, because like someone above said, he was talking a lot and keeping his team involved. On the offensive end, he looked solid, but always a step behind the other bigs. I think that even though he’s in good shape, he still needs to get into game shape and work on his conditioning.

Omri is going to need some time to adjust to the NBA game. He seems like he wants to do everything, but isn’t really good at anything yet. He has a promising future ahead of him though.

Beno is still Beno. He shot pretty well and ran his team ok, but based on tonights performance, I’d make him the 3rd string point guard behind ’Reke and Sergio.

Jason is going to be the quietest double-double guy in the NBA next year. He almost never looked for his shot and pretty much just worked his butt off on both ends of the floor. I have a feeling most of his points this year will be off of put backs and off of dunks from Tyreke after the defense collapses on him and away from JT.

Cisco and Noc are still Cisco and Noc, I didn’t really notice any improvements on their games from last year, nor did I see any regression. They’re both solid and shot well.

Ely and Smith are not going to make the team, they just aren’t good enough. They’re just extra bodies for camp at the moment.

Kenny Thomas showed he still can play, but I still don’t want him getting any playing time.

Overall it was a really fun night, and I think we have a lot to look forward to this season. We’ll definitely surprise some teams who underestimate us.

First Martin Evans and Brockman were the best 3 players on the floor. Forgot how quick Martin was and man does every shot go in..he even tried ti play D. Evans looked good, he will pick up a lot of assists just on Drive and kicks. Brockman was everywhere, decent shot and faster than you’d think (going straight not laterally).
Mason obviously belongs, quick , with hops and very active. I think he’ll start.
Forgot about Thompson, excellent on the boards, seemed to handle the ball in open court even better than last year, and seems to have found a little running half hook.
If you based it on the scriimmage only those 5 would be the starters.
I would say Udrih looked good, but again not as a point but as a shooter. Noc and Garcia are who we thought they were.
May looks he is out of shape and took a while to get in the flow.

This has already been mentioned over and over here but I just had to chime in. I was pleasantly surprised to see Tyreke get in to the lane and make the correct call to dish to open team mates. Tyreke was the second best passer on the floor behind Sergio but commanded way more attention from the defense. You just don’t know what he is going to do. Back down a smaller point guard and command help? Yes. Hit an open three if you don’t get out on him? Yes. Get into the lane and find an open team mate with a shovel pass? Yes. About the only thing he didn’t do last night was actually finish at the rim in traffic, I think he missed three or four layups after working hard to get to the rim in traffic. He did have an emphatic breakaway dunk however. I am sure that was just an anomaly. Or maybe the black teams plan all along was to deny those penetration drives? Either way, good players know how to make an opponent pay when they try to take something away from your game, dish it to the open man.
 
On draft night was sitting depressed in a bar in Tampa Florida over this pick. I am now a Tyreke convert. This guy would steal Rubio’s lunch bag and bop him over the head with it. I think we have the real deal here.

I don’t know if the player introductions where shown on the pod cast. The crowd gave each and every player a warm applause. I was perticularly proud of the warm welcome that they gave to Thomas.

My wife who has only been to a couple of games, comment on how loud the players were and if they were always that talkative. I can’t remember last year them being that vocal, so as some others here have mentioned, I can only assume it’s due to the addition of May and some of the other new vets.

It’s nice to know there are others like us out like there. Sometimes I feel like we are some of the only ones left. It was nice that no matter our opinions on certain players (beno EH-HEH! k9 EH-HEH HEH!) excuse me, we still love & support our Kings. Can’t wait for the season to start. GO KINGS!

those that attended. Thanks.

So excited to see them in the 1st preseason game on Tuesday… oh, never mind.

3 weeks from Wednesday.

It looks like we have a real good shot at 29th or better in the Leauge, and that my fellow fanatics, is very good news.