I missed the game against Houston last night because I had an early thanksgiving celebration with some friends. Of course, I was checking the score on my blackberry constantly and thought the team was doing a great job at keping it close even without Reke. After learning he was out with the finger injury, I pretty much gave the team no chance of winning. When the Kings took the lead after the 3rd I was excited. Once again, these guys were showing how much they cared about playing hard and even after losing their main guy they were still finding ways to get the job done. Again, all these observation were being formed by just looking at the score and not really knowing what was happening on the floor.

The game ended up being a loss and I was ok with it. I thought the team fought and just couldn't find enough points at the end . Again, without knowing what happened, I was very proud of the team and expected to come home, read the threads, and see how they did in the eyes of you all. To my surprise, the game threads still had some negative comments about how awful they were playing and how bad we were being beat. I finally watched the recorded game to see what some were talking about and, considering our depleted rosted, I just didn't see it.

To me, it was as if most forgot that Tyreke was out and that our team was left with a bunch of average young players (average now) and average veterans. IMO this game should've been a loss before the game even started; we just didn't have enough healthy bodies to compete with a veteran scrappy Houston team. But the Kings did stay in it until the end, and yet some of us fans were still making statements such as "this is pathetic" or "I can't watch this much longer." Now I'll be the first to admit, I get sensitive about the criticism on this team, especially in game threads but I thought this was still a good intro (explanation) as to why I finally decided to look at what's to come after the jump.

For a while I wanted to compare this team, which we have so much hope for, to last year's team, the one we would like to erase form our memory forever. After getting frustrated with the constant lack of perspective and lack of appreciation (by some) for what these young guys are doing, I decided to find the numbers and present my results on some quick basic facts and stats about this year's Kings vs. last year's Kings. The following was not done to predict any future pattern this season, it was just a quick exercise to compare some of the numbers after 12 games of those two teams.

Roster

Last year's main rotation in the first 12 games:

Beno, Kevin (injured half those games), Salmons, Mikki, Miller, JT, Hawes, Bobby Brown, Bobby J, Shelden Williams

This year's main rotation in the first 12 games:

Reke, Kevin (injured after 5 games), Noc, JT, Hawes, Beno, Casspi, Donte, K-9, Brockman, May, Mason (waived, replaced by Udoka)

Record

Kings last year: 12 games played (6 home, 6 road) - record: 4 wins (3 home, 1 road) - 8 losses

Kings this year: 12 games played (6 home, 6 road) - record: 5 wins (4 home, 1 road) - 7 losses

Opponents winning percentage (after 12 games)

'08-'09 Kings = 0.44   

'09-'10 Kings = 0.58

This year, on average, we've faced much tougher opponents than we did last year but still manage to have a better record.

Points

'08-'09 = In wins, the Kings outscored their opponent by an average of 9.75 points. In losses, the Kings were outscored by an average of 13.4

As many of you might remember, the Kings were blown out quite a bit last season. In these first 12 games, the Kings lost by 2, 26, 18, 34, 8, 2, 2, and 15.

'09-'10 = In wins, the Kings outsocred their opponents by an average of 8.2 points. In losses, the Kings were outscored by an average of 9.7 points

We were only blown out in our first game by 13, against the Spurs by 19, and against the Bulls by 14.

Rebounds

'08-'09 = The Kings actually outrebounded (or were even) their opponent on 8 out of 12 games. The total rebounding count after 12 games though had a net of -2. The Kings outrebounded their opponents by double digits only once (1 out of 8), while getting outrebounded by more than double digits on 2 occassions (2 out of 4).

'09-'10 = The Kings also outrebounded (or were even) their opponents on 8 out of 12 games. This time though, the total rebounding count after 12 games had a net of +33! We outrebounded opponents by double digits on 4 occassions (4 out of 8), while getting outrebounded by more than double digits only once (1 out of 4 but still beating Memphis).

King's field goal percentage

'08-'09 = After 12 games, the Kings were shooting almost 48% from the field

'09-'10 = After 12 games, the Kings are shooting almost 46% from the field

Opponents field goal percentage

'08-'09 = After 12 games, Kings opponents were shooting 47% from the field

'09-'10 = After 12 games, Kings opponents are shooting 48% from the field

The main thing to me about the exercise was putting things into a bit of a different perspective, and realize in how much better of a situation this team finds itself all things considered. We can easily tell we are a much better team this year, especially after going through a whole season of mediocrity and dissapointments in '08-'09. To me, looking at how the roster changed, how much younger we are, and how the numbers have, for the most part, improved in some of these categories could maybe help some paint a better picture of today's Kings.

I appreciate these young guys that much more after remembering those awful blowouts last year and after seeing them play hard for 48 minutes every single game. I appreciate going down to the wire against teams, realistically, they have no business staying in games with. Some would say "but hey, we had a couple closed games last year too (Spurs and Phoenix)" but the difference is the type of team we have now. We don't have a veteran team that though average on talent could stay in games with other good teams. This year we have a bunch of young inexperienced kids with a lot of potential who are just learnng how to play the game but are still staying in games and playing their asses off to make up for their 'rookie' mistakes and even injuries.

Unfortunately, the intangibles these guys bring to the table won't show in the stats, but I trust most of you to take this into consideration and realize that what these kids are doing is truly remarkable. Much credit also goes to coach Westphal and his coaching staff who are definitely an upgrade from Theus and Natt. To me, they are leading this team in the right direction and I can't help but feel excited for what's to come.

I hope this is the last time I need to look at last year's numbers and, to be honest, with this new Kings, I have a hunch I won't be seeing any of that crap again.