Yet Another Post About Tyreke Evans

Like Iverson to Philly, the answer came to me.

Rec’d for that comment alone.

Ouch!
More later

I definitely haven’t had enough Tyreke stories lately

Now all I need is another:

Climate change story
Michael Jackson movie
Leftover turkey sandwich
Christmas Carol remake
Holiday family newsletter
and K-Mart trade suggestion

Sorry. Well written post, I’m just a little ’Reke’d out at the moment.

the type that knows when to turn it on & off. MJ was a great defender, but he didn’t go at in 100% of the time. But, there were those special moments. Of course, going up against another marque player was one, but there were also times when the game was getting away. When teams were making their runs, and MJ would rise up and put an end to the run defensively & offensively. But, the most defining moments were at the end of games when the outcome was uncertain. MJ & Pippen would rise up their defensive intensity and take over the game. In Chicago, we called it “letting out the dogs”.

Martin & Tyreke are already 1 & 2 in SPG for the Kings. I’ll we happy with solid defense. But, if they can up the intensity when the game is on the line, make that steal, block that shot, and end that run, you’ll hear a might howl from this dog.

I see Tyreke as being that needed offensive star that usually plays stout defense. With the return of Martin, I think that could help him focus on the defensive side of things, as Martin can still drop 20+ any given night. And I fully expect Tyreke to be near that 20 ppg mark night in and night out…that’s 40-50 points a night right there. Get one more horse going(Hawes/Thompson/WABENO)….then you got 60-70 points out of three players…you’d hope the other 5 players that typically play could conjure up 30-40 points(6-8 points a piece) FTW.

I’d rather have Tyreke conserve his energy for offense if the Kings really need scoring at the time. Even the greatest players (MJ, Kobe, and LeBron) usually only play high intensity lock down defense when it comes to the crucial moments in the game.

Also, the great ones always had the luxury of fellow teammates that could be used to hold the opposing teams’ best offensive players down which allowed them to focus on offense (MJ had Pippen/Rodzilla, Kobe had/has Ariza/Artest and Magic had Cooper). Unfortunately, Tyreke is arguably the Kings best option on Defense and Offense (we’ll further discuss this when Kevin gets back).

Donte, Udoka or Noc have been doing decent jobs of taking on the best scorer for the most part. I don’t see Tyreke letting down on the defensive end. I’m sure he knows when conserve his energy and when to truly ‘turn it on’ and shut someone else with star-caliber talent down.

Was because he had the talent, ability, and desire to play both sides of the ball. That is the goal of this team now. The Kings are more on the gritty, dirty side of plays than they have ever been. And a lot of that has to do with Evans (a lot has to do with coaching, and players like Nocioni, Udoka, Thomas, Brockman, and Thompson as well.) I don’t see Evans becoming so disinterested in defense that he hurts the team.

It is interesting that while you don’t have to play D to be a star, you usually do have to at least show some effort to be on that uber-star level. Kobe, Wade, James can all lock down their opponents (so can a healthy Duncan, Howard, and and Garnett, but we are talking about guards here, even though, please note, Garnett was in MVP discussions 2 years ago based on defense alone, as he consistently was a leader on D, and was not the teams primary weapon on offense.)
Players like Melo, Bosh, Nowitzki are in MVP discussions this year, but nobody has them on the same level as the other guys because they all have been inconsistent on defense.

I think it is interesting to bring up Battier. There isn’t a coach in the league who wouldn’t want 3 or 4 Battier type players. But they will also say that they need 1 or 2 guys who can score a bunch to in order to win. I think that the Kings are doing a fine job in building a team that is similar to that; we got Kevin to score, but the team as a whole is focusing on defensive effort. The defensive smarts are all the way there yet, but they will improve. Think about how OKC jumped from 23rd to 7th in defensive rankings.

Overall, Evans has the best defense of any rookie out there. Even better than Thabeet. But if he has to pick and choose in order to help this team on offense, I don’t mind that either. That is exactly what Wade, Kobe, LeBron do. And it isn’t something to be criticized. What we really should hope for is the team getting better playing defense together- individual defense is great, but team defense wins championships. See Pistons 2004, Celtics 2008, Lakers 2009, the Spurs ever.

Reke and Jennings are virtually tied at this point offensively. Add defense and there is simply no contest.

Reke can also play three possibly 4 positions while Jennings can only play one.

Its like comparing Garnett to Iverson. Who do you want on your team?

Iverson doesn’t win championships just scoring records.

Great post. Just making visible the deep south people’s needs. :)