How the Kings Organization Fits Into Team Tyreke's Blueprint
by Tom Ziller on Jan 5, 2010 6:07 AM PST
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PrintSam Amick's profile of Tyreke Evans's support system (don't miss the blog addendum as well) was fantastic, and largely made me feel good about Tyreke's future. He is surrounded by mature men, fellows who obviously know what they're doing and really do seem to have Tyreke's best interest at heart.
The question is whether Tyreke's best interest matches up with the Kings' best interest.
I chewed on the profile after reading it, and something stuck in my teeth a bit. It's the full Blueprint, I think. The level to which Evans's future is charted. The Blueprint calls for the Rookie of the Year award, championships and league MVP awards, and, somewhat hilariously detailed, two max contracts.
Players should have goals, just like the rest of us. This is, in general, a good thing to hear. But there's another side, a side in which Team Tyreke, so desperate to lead Evans to his basketball destiny, thinks it knows how best to get Tyreke to a championship, to an MVP. What if Team Tyreke thinks that Evans can never be an MVP with a fellow high-scorer (say, Kevin Martin) in the backcourt? What if Team Tyreke prefers this big man to that one, and doesn't think the Kings can win a championship until that one is traded? What if Team Tyreke thinks the team's best chance to win comes with Tyreke playing this position with these players, even though the coaching staff and front office feel differently?
At what point does Team Tyreke step in to further its goals, to ask the Kings to trade another player or to play Tyreke differently? Does that happen next season? In three years? Is it already happening now?
This isn't a LeBron James situation, in which the pressure of losing James forces Danny Ferry to make moves with today in mind, and forces Mike Brown to defer to LeBron in the game plan. That's not explicit power -- that's implicit power. Superstars have that. Tyreke has that. If he has a disastrous relationship with a coach, you're going to fire the coach. No question. That's implicit power.
With such a smart, decisive, focused and mature support system, Tyreke could have explicit power. His brothers, so exacting and potent to this point in his career, could feel they need to change the conditions so that the Blueprint continues unabated. They may not even agree with Tyreke! Evans might actually like playing with a high-scoring guard, even if his numbers are depressed. But if it doesn't fit the Blueprint, if an MVP isn't in the cards ... what will Team Tyreke do?
That's what makes me nervous. It's too hard to win a championship to allow a team to cede power to outsiders with nothing on the line but personal achievement. The buck has to stop within the organization, and players and player reps -- agents, handlers, brothers or otherwise -- can't be making personnel decisions. Leave it those with the experience of building teams, a less biased worldview and a job on the line.
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I agree that it might be a bit scary as well
Tyreke is the best thing to happen to this franchise in a very long time and if the Kings ever hope to win a championship, I think it will be with him at the helm. Honestly, I’d be fine if Team Tyreke met everyone of their goals: RoY, MVP, Championship, 2 max contracts, as long as all of them came with the Kings (the Sacramento Kings I should add).
As for basketball decisions, I think that Team Tyreke is hopefully smart enough to realize that those kind of decisions are best left to people who know more about the game than they do, and who have to run the team as part of their day-to-day job. And for the record, I don’t think that Tyreke is the kind of guy that would put himself above the team and try to get rid of a teammate or coach. He’s too humble.
Father of the "Natt this!" movement and Grandmaster of the "Never let AnotherStupidSN forget what a Sham-Wow is" Order.
by Aykis16 on Jan 5, 2010 6:19 AM PST reply actions 1 recs
He's the best thing to happen to the Kings since, well, you know who...
"Oh, y ahora ¿quién podrá defenderme?" "¡Yo!"
This is the same question of almost anyone that has legitimate power
To put it in silly terms, do you use your power for good or ill?
Almost everyone looks out for their own interests to a large extent; the list of people that truly care about others as much or more than themselves or those close to them is very short. The question is, when you have a lot of power, and can affect a lot of people around you or benefit yourself, where do you draw the line?
If Team Tyreke is as filled with good people as your impression from the article indicates, we probably don’t have a lot to worry about. There is plenty of room for Tyreke to enjoy success, even by his specific definitions, in Sacramento, but Team Tyreke needs to use their power to both benefit Tyreke and to be fair to those around him (teammates, fans, organization, etc).
On the Team Tyreke side, the question is what happens as they start to enjoy success. How does it change them? In some ways its easier to be virtuous when you have no power, or at least your ability to affect others has a shorter leash. As Tyreke begins to achieve his goals, will Team Tyreke let those achievements change their perspectives?
From the Kings’ side, all of the above presupposes the Kings act in their own best interests while also acting in Tyreke’s. If the Kings’ organization is unfair to Tyreke naturally that changes Team Tyreke’s perspective.
When I look at Tyreke so far, I see a good guy on the court. I see someone I’d like to play with, and not just because he’s been so good. He has had his moments of making bad decisions, but those have been few and far between. As he learns the offense, gets comfortable with his ability to impact a game and learns to trust his teammates he seems like the kind of player teammates feel good about playing with. I don’t see a lot of self-absorption at this point, which is honestly remarkable in some ways.
We’ll see if that changes. I remember when Terrell Owens played for the 49ers. That guy worked his ass off and was easy to root for. Over the course of a couple years we lost Mr. Owens, and some clown named T.O. showed up, and while T.O. was great, I didn’t enjoy rooting for him as much, and I don’t think he was as good of a teammate.
I’m not saying Evans will go the T.O. route, but you never know. I hope he doesn’t, so far its been a privledge to root for Tyreke; I’m shocked at how good he is, and what a good kid he seems to be. We’ll see how it plays out, and TZ has legit concerns, but all I can say is, everything we’ve seen so far indicates Tyreke’s going to turn out to be the real thing and a good guy.
Free Omri...trade.Noc.
I can't worry about this until I need to worry about this.
I like the kid, and if he keeps developing the way we think he will, the Maloofs will do the right thing by him financially, at least if they (and the NBA) are serious about keeping a team in Sacramento.
Assuming we don’t somehow turn a package of contracts into a legit big man before season’s end, we’ll be looking to pull someone out of the draft who will be what we need. I don’t feel like the clock is ticking from Tyreke’s point of view, and I also don’t think for a minute that his game will be stifled by the return of Kevin Martin. I’m absolutely confident that the presence of another outside/inside threat will enhance Evans’ game, even if it impacts his scoring slightly at the outset.
With no major additions, just based on the talent level we have now, and reasonably tempered expectations of growth, the Kings are a playoff team in the 2011-2012 season at the latest. With the addition of an A or A- or even B+ level PF or C, this team is a contender. The management knows this, we know it, and Team Tyreke has shown enough savvy to know it.
The Kings were a worldwide phenomenon at the start of the 21st century, and the team isn’t that far removed from gaining that level of attention again. Easier said than done, admittedly, but everyone with a stake in this knows what is required.
Rocks are free, and slingshots easily stolen.
by andy sims on Jan 5, 2010 7:47 AM PST reply actions 10 recs
Like Sims I'm not going to worry about this
I too chuckled at the details of “The Blueprint”, but I think that’s something to worry about at a later date. One of the best things about a players is how good of a support system he has. It can also be one of the worst things. But up until this point, they haven’t meddled in how Tyreke has been used.
I’m not going to say it isn’t possible because I know it’s possible Team Tyreke does the stupid shit that “Team LeBron” has done around LeBron. The reality is that Tyreke Evans is 20 years old, hasn’t even played in an all-star game yet, and the Kings are not a 500 team. Hopefully Team Tyreke doesn’t create the hysteria around Reke that LeBron James entourage did in his early years and the Kings don’t panic making a move.
But, on the other hand, I don’t think that will happen with Geoff Petrie. Something tells me that having a player of Reke’s caliber winning a MVP award is a good thing for this franchise, and “The Blueprint” can work to the Kings favor. Are the Cavs are a worse franchise, with the LeBron meddling, because of the meddling? Certainly losing LeBron James wouldn’t make the Cavs better even if LeBron isn’t helping them in the moment to acquire talent.
Mostly, I think Team Tyreke is a good thing, and the Kings organization is full of veteran men who have been down this type of similar path with players before. That kind of experience (something Danny Ferry did not have going into Cleveland) is something that will benefit the Kings moving forward.
I think the fact that you’re even worried about this TZ is something that suggests how you feel about Tyreke. Regardless of where the Team Tyreke and Kings organization relationship goes in the future, the fact that Tyreke has superstardom/franchise player written all over him gives the Kings great hope. At the very least, I think we can all agree that is something worth believing in for the future.
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
by pookeyguru on Jan 5, 2010 8:47 AM PST up reply actions 1 recs
Agreed to an extent
Gotta keep this short as I’m on a different writing deadline, but a couple of thoughts:
1) I had the same concerns as TZ. It’s one things to have Evans saying he wants an MVP, Max contract, rings, awards, parades, whatever. It’s another thing to have his handlers saying they want that. Because there is only so much they can do toward that end. At what point do they decide someone other than Evans is responsible for him not reaching a goal and start meddling?
2) Can you imagine K-Mart with Team Speed and the K-mart blueprint? This is why I love K-Mart. He works his butt off during the season and in the off season. he hires trainers. He picks new things to improve on. And he does it all while being one of the nicest, most humble people you’ve ever met. Vlade was the same way. I can just imagine Vlade having a smoke outside the arena and saying, “Blueprint?” with that winning smile of his. That being said, Evans is a kid who came from basically a one parent family in a bad, bad area of town. There is a very good possibility that team Tyreke is the difference that got Evans here and will keep him from doing crazy stuff like bringing guns to the locker room or all the other trouble young, very successful kids get into in the NBA.
3) I think Pookey is right. The time to worry about this is when it actually starts to affect the team. So far i haven’t even heard rumors of Evans having a problem with minutes, other players, his role, etc. If his focus is on being an MVP and an All Star at the PG position, that requires him to be a team player as well as a strong one-on-one player. Any selfishness I’ve seen so far can either be attributed to rookie status or coaching decisions.
4) Finally, we all set goals. If you condense his goals to one thing, it comes out to, “I want to be the best player on the best team in the NBA.” As long as that happens with the KIngs, life is going to be pretty fun,
""Balance your right to dissent, with your responsibility to contribute."
Gordan Ryan
by SavageBeast on Jan 5, 2010 9:09 AM PST up reply actions 2 recs
Interesting Side-Note
I just happened to read an old (July 2007) GQ article about Worldwide Wes, and there is a direct link from him to Team Tyreke:
In addition to [Derrick] Rose, another of Wes’s "nephews" is showcasing his talents this afternoon: Tyreke Evans, Reggie Evans’s brother. Scouting service Rivals.com ranks Evans among the best juniors in the country. It’s easy to see why: Even when he’s warming up, Tyreke has a stunning array of pull-up jumpers and fallaway jumpers and leaners and floaters. At one point, Tyreke stops to show Wes some love. By the fall, Tyreke will decide on a college, maybe UNC, U Conn, Louisville, Villanova, or Memphis.
Spoiler: Tyreke got MVP of that Nike Super 6 game as a Junior over Rose, who was a Senior.
An interesting note is that Wes is attributed to leaning Dejuan Wagner, Derrick Rose, & Tyreke Evans to Memphis.
There’s more in the article, obviously, (with Tyreke’s inclusion starting on page 4) but I found it relevant to the whole “Team Tyreke” discussion in general, and something to keep in mind.
Too bad.
I thinking of ethnically cleansing your kind.
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
I was thinking^
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
Hah
I almost had to “pookey” my previous post because I typed “my” instead of “me” . . . so this made me laugh.
Honestly, there hasn’t been a lot that I’ve felt needed to be said that wasn’t already being covered. It’s a testament to StR when I haven’t felt like I had a lot to add to the conversation.
Or maybe it says something about me….nah, let’s go with that first thing I said.
This.
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
agreed
So imitate the action of the tiger!.
Lend the eye a terrible aspect
- and teach them how to war!
Henry V iii
by lietothegirls on Jan 5, 2010 9:47 AM PST up reply actions
At the end of his 5 years he either likes it here
or he doesn’t. I am much more worried about where the King’s will be then than I am Tyreke.
The Blueprint...
Sounds like a Jay-Z rip-off. Sure, it’s great that players have lofty goals. I still remember Gerald Wallace wanting to be the “Kobe stopper” or Mikki Moore’s wanting to become an All-Star. But please! Evans is not even through 1/2 of his first season in the NBA! MVP? Much less multiple MVPs? Are we really ready to place him in the ranks of other multiple MVP winners like Russell? Wilt? Magic? MJ? Or even Tim Duncan? (Okay, okay, so Steve Nash won two also, but) Kobe didn’t even win one until two seasons ago? Let’s focus on the now… such as not dribbling out 80% of the clock before making a move. Let’s also not forget that Lebron James will be playing in this league for most of the time that Tyreke will So can we temper the future MVP talk for now? Please?
by 6thgradefreethrowchamp on Jan 5, 2010 8:56 AM PST reply actions
Good point.
He must have forgotten that Lebron James is in the league. He should just resign to mediocrity now and stop setting goals.
How about instead of placing him in the ranks with Russell, Wilt, Magic, and MJ, we place him in the ranks with all the other talented young players with their heads on straight that are striving for excellence without alienating their teammates? On second thought, maybe that is pretty rare company these days as well.
Did I miss something?
Is Tyreke producing a Jay-Z album?
If man is 5 and the devil is 6 than Eric Maynor is a freakin 19!
by Dastardly D on Jan 5, 2010 9:04 AM PST reply actions
Nevermind
6th Grade beat me too it and will rec a rec for his efforts
If man is 5 and the devil is 6 than Eric Maynor is a freakin 19!
by Dastardly D on Jan 5, 2010 9:05 AM PST reply actions
Operating at cross purposes?
Tyreke has averaged 16.5 shots per game, and the Kings are 13-16 when he plays.
When he takes more shots than his average in a game, he averages 22.5 points and 5.1 assists, but the Kings are 5-10.
When he takes less shots than that, he averages 17.5 points and 4.8 assists and the Kings are 8-6.
So we are somewhat operating at cross purposes here, and goal number one for Team Tyreke is to win Rookie of the Year. Averaging 22 and 5 gets him the Rookie of the Year. 17 and less than 5? Maybe not. In fact, probably not.
Some other numbers:
SHOTS PER GAME
- Tyreke takes 14-19 shots: Kings are 12-7.
- Tyreke takes 20 or more shots: Kings are 0-5.
- Tyreke takes less than 14 shots: Kings are 1-4.
THREE-POINT FGAs:
- Tyreke shoots 0: Kings are 1-0.
- Tyreke shoots 1: Kings are 7-4.
- Tyreke shoots 2: Kings are 2-5.
- Tyreke shoots 3: Kings are 2-4.
- Tyreke shoots 4: Kings are 1-2.
- Tyreke shoots 7 (against the Cavs): Kings are 0-1.
SCORING
- Tyreke scores more than his average of 20.1 per game: Kings are 7-7.
- Tyreke scores 20 or less: Kings are 6-9.
Tyreke played nine games before Brandon Jennings scored 55 points in his seventh pro game. The Kings were 5-4 at the time. In seven of those nine games he took less than his average number of shots. Since then he’s taken more than his average number of shots in 13 of 20 games and the Kings are 8-12 in those games.
I think Tyreke can meet his scoring and ROY goals and still make the Kings a better team by taking better shots and making his teammates better. Make that pass to Casspi for the open three against the Cavs instead of taking a fallaway from the third row. Stop jacking up so many threes.
"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 5, 2010 9:35 AM PST reply actions 2 recs
He shoots them to try to keep the defense honest
Because if he happens to make one, they have to cover him and pack the lane less. Unfortunately, I think teams are starting to learn that he shoots more if he does make one so they should pack the lane always, until he does become a good 3 point shooter, which I think will happen, probably never great, but probably decent enough that you can’t just leave him wide open.
Father of the "Natt this!" movement and Grandmaster of the "Never let AnotherStupidSN forget what a Sham-Wow is" Order.
Great analysis
Once Martin comes back, it should help a lot. He can start letting KMart take those extra shots from outside. Tyreke just needs to get a lot better at reading the defense before getting trapped, and better at passing out of the double (or triple) team.
StR Token Female
by LeaguePassAddict on Jan 5, 2010 10:14 AM PST up reply actions
Echoing a lot of what is here already...
I am a firm believer that you have to truly envision a path by which you are able to accomplish your goals/dreams in order to actually do so. That Tyreke himself has this inner belief says a lot about the maturity of the young man and as long as his support system has the best interests of Tyreke at heart, these are issues the Kings should hope to have.
"Granted, this is not a great situation, but when all you have is lemons, you add some vodka to dull the pain..."
The article gave the impression that ultimately the buck stops with Tyreke
Currently that mostly comes in the form of decisions on sandwiches and massages, but at some point Team Tyreke will be telling him what they think is best for him regarding more important things. I’m sure ‘Reke is more likely to defer to his handlers earlier on, but I have faith that as he matures and gets his legs under him, he’ll learn to trust his own instincts. It won’t hurt to have role models like Kevin Martin around either.
"Sometimes the capriciousness of youth anesthetizes common sense." -Let Geoff's words guide our patience this season.
by AnotherStupidSN on Jan 5, 2010 10:35 AM PST reply actions
I think the people around Evans have his best interest in mind...
…and I think the best interest in mind for Evans is the best interest for the Kings. I think the two are nearly synonymous in nature. Remember when Tyreke pleaded with Geoff via twitter to come to Sacto…I think they all recognized the opportunityhe would have in Sacto.
The power is in Tyreke's hands now
He’s not a youth being directed by older advisers any more. He’s a grown man, and like most of us, our dreams and visions change when we get older. He’s going to get his Max contract here and maybe somewhere else eventually, because the Kings themselves are doing everything they can to make him a star.
Right now he’s got friends on the team, and maybe someday that’s not enough. And, maybe the comradery that made Webber,Vlade, Bibby, and the rest of that team happy to play in Sacramento will be enough. If not, and he feels like he needs to move on to further his career and fulfill his dreams, then I say thanks and wish him well. And, like every Kings fan does when a past player returns, I’ll cheer him and welcome him back whenever he comes back to play.
"If you don't have anything good to say, LIE" - Mom
The greatest impact player in NBA History - Tim Donaghy
Welcome to the real world of professional basketball. reke having a goal plan is not unethical. players of his calibur should to maximize their player value. fans need to realize players are not here just for the love of the game. this is their profession and their primary responsibility is to themselves. if the kings can keep him happy then he will likely stay. if not look back to square 1.
Who said it was unethical?
Kinda sucked when Jordan retired the first time, didn’t it?
And the second time?
Rocks are free, and slingshots easily stolen.
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