I'm not what you'd call a huge Kings fan, but I've often come to this site from the myriad of links I find that Blazersedge has to the copious amounts of excellent coverage here. Seeing as how the Kings just signed one of my favorite players and fellow Portlander Ime Udoka, I thought I could maybe give some insight into their new and underrated acquisition. Also, to voice my bitterness that he did not become a Blazer again, evidently not by the coaches or general managers choice. Thanks Paul "now second richest owner in the NBA to that one guy who bought the Nets" Allen. You have made my dream of getting a Udoka Blazers jersey UN-POSSIBLE!

According to adjusted plus minus (found here) Udoka has been quite valuable over the last two seasons to the Spurs, even with modest minutes. He wasn't just carried by Duncan and the other top spurs players, performing well in many weaker units, the Bowen-Gooden-Mason-Thomas-Udoka five for example.

PER, a statistic favoring offense, doesn't look very kindly on Udoka, but his defensive rating and defensive win shares relative to his minutes are quite good. (stats from here) A new defensive metric, found here, rates Udoka very highly, giving him a 98, which puts him in the somewhere around or in the company of the 14th and 15th ranked defenders in the league, with the caveat that he played considerably less minutes. For quick reference here is the top 15 defenders list.
Rank    Team    Player                          Rating    Std Error    95% Confidence Interval
1           BOS    Kevin Garnett                90                     2.4    (84.9, 94.2)
2           ORL    Dwight Howard            90                     1.7    (86.2, 92.9)
3           CLE    LeBron James             92                     1.9    (88.3, 95.6)
4           LAC    Marcus Camby             92                     2.2    (88.2, 96.7)
5           CHA    Gerald Wallace            93                     2.0    (89.1, 96.8)
6           NOH    Chris Paul                    95                    1.8    (91.5, 98.7)
7           POR    Joel Przybilla                95                    2.2    (90.5, 99.3)
8           BOS    Rajon Rondo                96                    2.0    (92.0, 99.8)
9           CLE    Anderson Varejao        96                    2.1    (92.1, 100.3)
10         UTA    Andrei Kirilenko            96                    2.4    (91.7, 101.3)
11         HOU    Luis Scola                    97                    2.0    (93.0, 100.7)
12         LAL    Lamar Odom                 97                    2.0    (93.5, 101.4)
13         SAS    Tim Duncan                  97                    2.0    (93.7, 101.3)
14         DEN    Chris Andersen           98                    2.6    (92.6, 102.7)
15         LAL    Trevor Ariza                    98                    2.2    (93.9, 102.6)

His 3pt% took quite a dive last season, but one should expect at least a mild bounce back in that department. The Pro Basketball Prospectus Guide projects Udoka to shoot 3's at a respectable .368% clip with a resurgence in overall fg%.

I haven't approached Udoka with every advanced metric or stat, I haven't seen him play very often in the last couple of years and obviously I've got the fan bias, but I think what I have shown would support the idea that Udoka would be a fine addition as a role player on a contending team, which, uh... the Kings, um, aren't. Oops, that was awkward. But for what was available, the Kings got a nice player on the cheap who will work hard and contribute. So don't feel too bad and enjoy this story of Udoka that has made the internet rounds, in which he takes "people out like in Mortal Kombat" It has been in various places but originally conveyed here, by former teammate Gabe Muoneke.

THE IME UDOKA STORY

It’s a trip when you get to know people. Ime was so quiet and I figured he was just some guy who could play with a Nigerian father. Well, folks in S.A., don’t be fooled. That dude in an Afr-I-CAN! I mean damn! The only thing non-African about him is his accent. We went to Nigeria, man… When they brought out the food I figured uh oh… He aint eatin’ th… What the?! Ime was tearing that Fu-fu (thank Jay-Z for everyone knowing what that is now) to shreads. I asked him about his adornment of the vittles. He said that’s all he ate growing up. Imagine my surprise when I saw he must have grown up doing the African ju-jitsu too.

When the National Team went to Algeria for the African Championships in Algiers, every team was on edge because the Top 3 squads got the invite to the World Championships. So after we lost to Angola in the semis and had to play Algeria for the third spot, they knew, we knew, everyone knew they had no shot. First quarter… Tactics. African ball, man. Trust me: as corrupt as can be. Despite all the cheating from the three-man (North African) refereeing crew they just couldn’t beat us. So the coach sent in their best player, who was injured but came in with a purpose. I think his name was Ali Bidane or something. We had the ball out of bounce under. He guarded me. As the ref handed us the ball, he turned, looked at me as if there was not a game going on. And pop! Not an elbow, not even a signature yours truly gutter. He decked me right in the jaw. I couldn’t believe it. And come on. I freely admit when I throw cheap shots. I wouldn’t hide it if I started to. I mean, I’m in the middle of basically middle eastern country playing the local team. I know better (read on to see my contradiction). He nailed me, we turned it over, and yes, my Rodman 101 class did well. I looked up court, saw both refs back and calmly asked him in by most polite French, "Pardon me sir, I object to you striking me." Next thing you know… Both teams on the court going at it. Wow.

Imagine my surprise! (My cheeks hurt). That wasn’t the real brawl. After we won was the real issue. After the game, they were waiting for us to come out of the locker room. And seriously, I didn’t start it. Kingsley Ogwudire was in front of our team in an all-out tirade in his best Arabic. The next thing you know, there were three Algerian players on him. Everyone was engaged in combat save me, if you can believe it. And lo and ehold… Ime! He was taking people out like in Mortal Kombat. Finish him! Incredible. I was so out of it as I had five guys I was fighting (oh yeah, the crowd jumped in as the fight spilled over to the court of the championship game of Senegal and Angola).

In the middle of the whole thing I heard Ime, literally in mid-swing of another opponent say,"Watch back, Gabe" and he calmly, I mean calmly, smeared a guy who, as I turned to see his warning, jumped from the stands with a chair to probably kill me or knock me out to where the crowd would have. I mean, Ime caught the guy in mid air with a fist and calmly continued his dispacthing of oncoming people. He and other guys (yes, me too) were whoopin’ so many people the crowd backed up. True to the letter! But Ime had the most notches by far. As we retreated to the locker room to kind chants of, "You cudly blackies! We highly doubt your ability to leave this gym with lives intact" in French, (it might have been a bad translation) all I could do was marvel at Ime. This guy, I thought, was a quiet American guy was standing there – all his stuff gone (gym bag, wallet, shoes, jersey) – with a stick in his hand we tore off the walls of the locker room in the middle of North Africa quite literally with our lives on the line… laughing. All the while I was texting my wife that I loved her and might have a hard time seeing her again while she was watching the whole incident on BBC News. And Ime… laughing. He is and always will be my 9ja broda. Ime… Wetin happen bros? Abi na notin. Notin dey happen. To this day I don’t know how we got out of there. But that night we ate like kings at the Nigerian Embassy. And Ime was with us… Killing his Fu-fu.

Tell me how I could have seen a thing like that if I had made the NBA out of college! You just can’t make this stuff up.

Shalom.