30Q: How Creative Will Paul Westphal Be?

I have alot more faith than i did with Muss. I liked Theus, but then again, all I saw was his press appearances and the Bee articles online… (Not too many Kings games available in the UK!) so that had little to do with his coaching prowess.

I like the fact that Westphal isn’t coming in with the attitude that he wants to put our square-peg players into his round-hole system, no matter what. He’s seeing what he has to work with, and will play to the strengths of the roster.

Good luck PW! If you can get them all singing from the same hymnsheet, that will be worth a couple more wins than last year… won’t it?

But I think we’re going to be around 15. We’re definitely going to be in the bottom 10 in the NBA in record, barring some major trade.

1 – Kevin Martin has to play 70+ games
2 – Tyreke Evans has to make his trips the FT line count – >75%
3 – JT has to stay in games long enough to score > 12 ppg
4 – rebounding has to improve and also be in the Top 20. Possessions!
5 – This Kings team isn’t fast enough to re-create D’Antoni’s Suns/Knicks or Nellies
       Warriors. They will have to outscore opponents… > 25 wins. (More wins = higher
       offense rank for this team, >30 wins=Top 10 as I don’t see their defense winning
       many games just yet)

The Kings are a young team with bigs that can run. They’ll try to run on every possession, and if they can’t get an easy basket, they’ll bring it out and run pick & rolls to death. Evans for the layup, Evans feeding the bigs, Evans kicking it into the corner, or Evans for the short jumper if the defender goes underneath.

But, bte is correct, with being thin at the 5, JT & Spencer are going to have to play 75+ games and stay out of foul trouble. PW has said he wants to play Hawes low in the paint more often. With JT, Spencer & Donte’s new found size, ( a lot of lifting this offseason) and the addition of Mays & Evans, the Kings are going to be competetive on the offensive & defensive boards.

at leading the league in FT attempts with Martin and Evans….games may last forever but I think this alone will put them in the top 15 in points per game.

Then we might lead in lay-ups, dunks, and put backs. Which is just as nice.

I think Westphal has the experience to actually know how to use his personnel correctly. He has made it to the conference finals! He has coached Gary Payton. We may have no where near the talent level, but no where near the craziness of a Barkley or a Payton.

Successful Head Coaches have to be creative and find that compromise between the “what they want” and the “what they have”.

TZ has made the point that Westphal has covered that ground via the sound bite. He publicly has made clear that he has a pretty good grasp of the limitations he has to face and that improvement will be an extended process.

Does he need to be Da Vinci? No, but he Nattin’ better be more than stick figures on a canvas. Maybe a roccoco Red Auerbach.

if they don’t improve at least marginally in both rebounding and defense. Personally, they can stay in the 20’s on offense, but I hope that they can get into the mid 20’s defensively and start to build some cohesiveness…

I apologize in advance for posting in this post but if I am the Kings and the Maloofs, why am I not adding Iverson for a one year deal and telling him that I want him to come in Bobby Jackson style in the second unit and shoot, shoot, shoot!!!???

I know I know, first thing you think is that Iverson would hate coming off the bench. So there is the initial flaw in my thinking, but bare with me…

How does this not help the Kings? You could run a 2nd unit of Sergio, Iverson, Garcia, and any of the bigs in the post and score in bunches against the other teams 2nd units at the tail end of the 1st quarter thru mid second and again in the second half. Plus when running with the 1st unit players you could make the argument that Martin can function with shoot first players (see: Artest, Ron and Bibby, Mike) so you can massage the minutes that Reke and AI spend together and other than low post touches for Shock and Hawes, you won’t see a major drop off in team play for those few minutes they all spend together.

Look, we aren’t going to the playoffs and we want to develop the young guys, but you could put some butts in the seats and with the right drive and kick system you could make it fun to watch.

Martin and Garcia can hit the open three, Donte has the ability to hit in bunches and even Nocioni can get it going from time to time. Throw that in with Reke driving and improving his shot and I say it is worth the gamble…who’s with me??!!

Is the Tiger dribble-drive’s best NBA comparison the current Spurs form where TP/Manu play isolation to kick to a corners or pop it back out with about 10-15 seconds left for the Tim Duncan bailout?

If so, Kings have the backcourt and the shooters, just not the Tim Duncan bailout.

Ziller, you make a good case for the dribble-drive type of offensive to make the most of Evan’s talent, but we have to mix it up and run different offensive strategies that make the most of who we have on the floor.

As long as we don’t impose an offense that doesn’t use all of our talent. That means we don’t run offensive that don’t make the most of what talent we have on the floor.

There can be no purist styles given this line-up. PW is going to have to be extremely creative. Playing to the strengths of all the players is the only way to win and I just don’t see how this mish-mash line-up allows this type of play.

They are already saying that they will not use their players to their strengths given the line-up. Saying Hawes is going to have to play down low is just stupid. He has a killer 3-pt shot, put him on the line and have him shoot. Get a big C to play down low.

The last few years have been really discouraging as I have watched this team try to force fit players into roles they just could not play. Douby as a ball distributor was probably the worst.

Maybe the dribble-drive style will work the best. It is something to think about… Good piece!

I think the Kings will remain in the bottom ten offensively.

I’m highly doubtful of Tyreke Evans having a significantly positive impact on the team’s offense due to his = low scoring efficiency numbers + poor jump shot + high turnovers + mediocre to below par playmaking/passing for a point guard + questionable decision making + over-dribbling.

I think all those areas are going to be works in progress for Evans, especially as a rookie, and I don’t think we’ll see an immediate impact from him offensively. As each of those areas improve — and at the very least, several of those flaws should improve — then I think we’ll see Tyreke morph into a far more effective offensive player.

But I’m pessimistic about his offensive impact as a rookie … down the road, I’m excited … but not right off the bat.