41 games into the season: Mid-Term Report Card Part III
by betweentheeyes on Jan 22, 2010 1:37 AM PST
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4 Core and 6 Nears ago were parts I and II. Here Todays are what make up the remainder of this current roster: Look fast at these 6 – they may not be here after February 18th and none are expected to be wearing the Purple for the start of the 2010-11 season
The Here Todays
Andres Nocioni: Tough, gritty, and a Pro’s Pro when he arrived last season. That hasn’t changed. But the Chapu of today is not playing like the Noce of the first 15 games nor of last season. Insead of a short 4 slow 3, Nocioni has turned into a tall 2- slow 3 on offense, always looking to hoist from behind the arc and settling for the drive instead of the other way around. He has become Doratio Kane aka Nocé. On a team with an abudance of 3’s with Cisco soon to return, look for his 21 min per game avearge to continue to decline. A change in scenary seems on the horizon for this gaucho. C -
Ime Udoka: Half Man, Half Ninja Udoka has found a home in Sacramento. Used for his reliable defense and low turnovers he has provided spurts of offense. Just don’t look at his stat sheet to tell his story. There is a reason he is currently averaging 15 minutes a game. C -
Sergo Rodriguez: Point guard insurance. As the current 5th backcourt choice off the bench,Sergio has turned into the radish on the salad plate. His skills look good on presentation but he adds little to mix. Tyreke’s big minutes and Beno’s production have eaten his playing time. As a defensive liability he won’t see time with Beno or Kevin Martin and his lack of a steady jump shot doesn’t allow him to fit in with the second unit which is a bereft of scorers. He can control the offense, but who does he make plays for? D
Hiton Armstrong: A tall warm body. This season’s version of Calvin Booth, but younger.Seems like a good kid. Now in his fourth season he still needs time to develop. He is 25 years old. INC
Kenny Thomas: Other than an 18 rebound game in early December against the Suns, Kenneth Cornelius Thomas has had no other impact since. His efforts this season have been admirable as he continues to rebound and defend well. His lack of playing time show that he is little more than an expiring contract. D
Sean May: Incentivized to lose weight and try to make a career Sean May is not even on the bench anymore. Nice guy but not a player. D –
(This is a FanPost from a member of the Sactown Royalty community. The views expressed come from the member, and not Sactown Royalty staff.)
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Same grade for Ime as Noc?
How does Udoka end up with a C-. What has he been expected to do that he hasn’t? I’d give him a solid B.
""Balance your right to dissent, with your responsibility to contribute."
Gordan Ryan
Ah, but you missed his scale in a prior post
A=Starter on all but a few teams
B=Starter on some teams; top 15 player at their position; have either singular talent or bright future
C=Average guy; ranked between the 15-30 players at their position
D=Please behave and you’ll get paid, we need you to fill up our team photo.
So according to betweentheeyes’ scale, Udoka would be Average-Guy/Bench-Warmer-Upper.
Got'cha
Wasn’t paying attention. I was assuming the grades were based on how they performed for the year. This is kind of a misleading report card then. Because a bench player should always be around a C or he’d be a starter.
""Balance your right to dissent, with your responsibility to contribute."
Gordan Ryan
I don't think it matters SB
After all, if Udoka hadn’t played well, he wouldn’t be on the roster.
No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. Simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get all tangled up, you just tango on.....
Oh, hes in the laegue two and Jayson Thomson and that Boggins dude on Milwokee, and Occur for the Jizz. Its a talented laegue.--Kfan in Korea
According to Basketball Reference
Udoka and Noce are basically the same player except one is making the lg. minimum and one is making 7.5 M.
Which you knew would be the case.
Complaining about it now is pure hindsight. It is what it is.
No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. Simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get all tangled up, you just tango on.....
Oh, hes in the laegue two and Jayson Thomson and that Boggins dude on Milwokee, and Occur for the Jizz. Its a talented laegue.--Kfan in Korea
Ime is a minimum salary player who could not find a home elsewhere. He fits in nicely in Sacramento
but overall his talents are somewhere between ho and hum. He isn’t quite up to league average in some respects and the Kings are happy to have him but he won’t win them any more games than another such guy. It bespeaks more the lack of talent on the club than to Ime. I hope to see return next year.
by betweentheeyes on Jan 22, 2010 8:17 AM PST up reply actions
See I would disagree with that
I don’t think he’s a starter, but I think he’s proven to be a very capable defender off the bench., and a reasonable shooter from inside 15 feet and from teh corner three. I can think of one game and maybe two where we would not have won if he hadn’t come in to shut down the guy he was guarding. Not a starter by any means, but at his price and for what he does, I think he’s great.
""Balance your right to dissent, with your responsibility to contribute."
Gordan Ryan
You have a reasonable point, let me counterpoint
If we were to grade Udoka as a league minimum, picked up off waivers who is now a consistent role player and asset to the squad – his performance is a B, and relative to value, arguably better.
As a talent and in what he brings – his veteran presence, his tough defense and limited but less turnover prone qualities, relative to his value (not monetary as the Nocioni comparison validates, and Kenny Thomas even more so) he is close to average. You can pop in one name from each team to match him – (let’s take the M teams: Miami: Dorrell Wright or Jamal Magliore, Milwaukee: Hakeem Warrick, Francisco Elson,Minny: Damien Wilkens, Sasha Pavlovic, Memphis:Darrell Arthur, Marcus Williams). All of these guys bring something to the table. It is not what Ime brings, but they contribute to their clubs in similar ways, and if they were on this ball club they would replace but not replicate Udoka’s significance. Stat-wise – and they are just numbers – he is a D+ (PER, +/-, etc). I have upgraded him but still find him too inconsistent to place higher.
by betweentheeyes on Jan 22, 2010 12:58 PM PST up reply actions
I don't have a real problem with how you graded Ime
Every team needs players like him and at this point in the season PDX probably wishes they had kept him. I rate him a little higher on D than you do and his game in our win at Chicago was fantastic. He has also been invaluable in settling down the kids when they’ve gotten a little over amped. He is the perfect definition of a journeyman player and a good example of the value of the league minimum player. I think we re-sign him for the minimum again this summer and if we don’t some team will. As far as value goes he rates an A.
Hilton Armstrong and Sergio are on the roster because they are free players and as long they don’t infect the locker room with anything nasty they are no risk all reward. Sergio has contributed a little but I personally think he belongs back on a European team. Unless Westphal and company can unleash the beast, Armstrong will be playing somewhere else next season after the Kings renounce him this summer. Given his height, alleged athleticism and relative youth some team will be willing to risk the vets minimum next season.
Along with Sean May ,who I thought looked pretty dang slick in his suit at the Atlanta game these guys also provide trade filler if needed. I’m not sure why we offered Sean May a guaranteed contract because as I recall no one else was offering him one but regardless the cost is low, the bar is set low and if one of them breaks out or gives you more than you were expecting they represent reasonable value and really once you get past the 9th man on the roster these are the type of players you are going to be looking at.
Nice mid-season evaluation bte, looking forward to your take on your take on the coaching staff, FO and ownership.
"I make love to pressure" - Stephen Jackson
thanks BlueJohn
your comments and opinions are appreciated.
As for Sean May – at the time he was a veteran signing at the minimum with only JT finishing his rookie campaign and young Spencer Hawes still young and occassionally injured. Kenny Thomas hadn’t seen floor time for the previous 3 coaches and Jon Brockman was still eating pancakes in Seattle. He was expected to be the first big off the bench. And Desmond Mason was supposed to be a defensive presence and the first sub for Kevin Martin. They are veteran versions of Hilton and Sergio – low pay (you can’t pay less than the minimum) with past proven not recently seen abilities, they just didn’t pan out. Ime Udoka did.
by betweentheeyes on Jan 22, 2010 2:59 PM PST up reply actions
BTE
Did I miss evaluations on the coaching staff/front office? Not sure if you want to do a part 4 or edit one of the existing posts…
"When you look at him, you say: 'Holy God.'" - Pete Carril on Tyreke Evans
I would suspect that's part 4.
No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. Simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get all tangled up, you just tango on.....
Oh, hes in the laegue two and Jayson Thomson and that Boggins dude on Milwokee, and Occur for the Jizz. Its a talented laegue.--Kfan in Korea
Yep, you are right
My bad, he did mention in his first installment that part IV would be coaching and front office. Looking forward to it.
"When you look at him, you say: 'Holy God.'" - Pete Carril on Tyreke Evans
Expected the unexpected
I think at least one of the “core” players won’t be around at the start of next season. I also think when you do the same writeup at the end of the season, the chairs will have shifted more than you might think.
"The basis for winning an NBA title is having a superstar in his prime. Not an all-star, or a bunch of all-stars, but a superstar."
by coolcatreportdotcom on Jan 22, 2010 12:43 PM PST reply actions
Coolcat:
Is that a rhetorical question or do you have some thoughts on the matter?
"I make love to pressure" - Stephen Jackson
I don't see a question
Just a statement. Frankly, the way Westphal is constantly switching gears, I think it will be a while before I can venture to read the tea leaves. Naturally we should get some clues if the team swings a deal or deals before the deadline.
While the chairs are already in a swirl, I think at some point the Kings brain trust has to make some choices and clearly identify the core they are going to build around, and then give those players the kind of minutes it’s going to take to get there while mixing in some key veterans along the way.
I think the way the Hawks were built offers some clues as to how we might proceed. The Grizzlies and Thunder are a couple of other franchises I see as role models. All these teams have a clearly identified starting five, which we clearly don’t have. At some point after the evaluations are completed, that’s the starting point.
How long we want to to delay that starting point while we still check out the goods is the real question. My guess is by the end of this season some hard choices will need to be made to allow the Kings to start the road to becoming a playoff contender and hopefully more.
As has been mentioned, most of these teams have a core or potential core made up of higher draft picks than us. In that case, maybe we have a one-man core and next year’s choice, if high enough, becomes piece No. 2.
We have a lot of prospects, and we might need to package them to get our version of Joe Johnson, a tough, physical, steady go-to guy every night. Besides the lack of a front court, that’s what we’re lacking at the moment.
"The basis for winning an NBA title is having a superstar in his prime. Not an all-star, or a bunch of all-stars, but a superstar."
by coolcatreportdotcom on Jan 22, 2010 2:03 PM PST up reply actions
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