Final Report Card Sacramento Kings 2009-10 Season - Part Four,The Coaches and Front Office

because he probably doesn’t care enough to squabble and he is not as scary as Nocioni.

are close with Tyreke, and that might mean Grant might not be able to stand next to him in the locker room

based on the scale I described above, I’d go with:

Last Year’s Team: F – abstract failure, multiple blowouts with no effort, rotating cast of coaches, talent dumping trades.

This year’s team:

Starters (loosely):
Tyreke: A – obvious and large impact, played better in his rookie year than his opposition including established stars at his position, and was frequently the best player on the floor for either team. I believe Tyreke can be the superstar on a team that’s competing for a title.

Beno: C+ – I’m not sure Beno is a starter on a playoff team. He’s improved wildly this year from last year (where he’d have been a D at best), but if I compare him to other 2’s or points in the league he doesn’t show very well in comparison

small forward (Donte/Omri/Noc): C – In the future, both Omri and Donte could be legitimate small forwards on playoff teams, but they need to improve (Donte’s presence/focus, Omri’s conditioning). I’m really hopeful about the combination of speed and height for Donte, but it sure seems like something’s missing from his game. Likewise, Omri’s controlled intensity was really nice to see, but the late season fade was troubling. Noc is a horrid fit on this team, and I hear people say how he can be a contributor to a playoff team, probably by being an enforcer/rough type defender and 3 shooter.

Landry: B – I believe Carl would work as a power forward on a playoff team. He scores efficiently but doesn’t rebound well (as we all know on here), what keeps him from being any kind of A to me is that the real contenders have ‘legit’ big men at the 4/5, from Gasol to Perkins, Dwight to Amare, and Carl doesn’t stack up in my mind like those guys do

Spencer: C – Spence shows potential to be a legit playoff contributor. He has basketball skills and IQ, but seems to get pushed around by the ‘legit’ big guys. Maybe he can change despite saying he can’t, and adopts that bull in a chinashop mentality later. As of right now, he’s not a starter on a playoff team, and probably won’t improve enough in the offseason to become one. I think of Spence as “Mehmet Okur-light” sometimes.

Bench:
JT: B- – I want to give JT a C score here, but that list that went about recently put his points/rebounds per game in with some pretty good company, and I wonder if my expectations are too high. I think JT is closer to being a starter on a playoff team than Spencer, and the Kings played well when it was JT and Carl in the 4/5. Foul less, and complain less about the calls!

Brockness: C – I want to see Brockman succeed in the NBA, I like having him on our team, but lack of height and/or hops (dunk competition what?!?) in game and a current lack of a shooting touch hurt his chances. I think his upside is that of a bench/energy guy on a competitor, he’s got some improvements to make to get there though.

Cisco: (INC) – CIsco’s season was ruined by the wrist injury, and he never seemed healed. His contract seems to large. Thinking forward he strikes me as another energy off the bench guy for a competitor, rather than a legit starter at the 2/3.

Ime/May: D – Although both played hard and acted as consummate professionals, I’m not sure either of these guys will be a serious contributor to a winning team.

Coaching/Front Office:
Westphaul: C+ – Westphaul got the guys to play hard all year, and the attitude change in the team was readily apparent. Westphaul also is possibly responsible for some player improvements (specifically thinking of Donte and defense), and is obviously a zillion times better than Natt/Theus was going to be this year. That said, the team’s offensive sets seemed ineffectual often, the constant lineup changes seemed to hurt consistency, and the final plays of the game (with all the 1on1 plays) worried me. Perhaps I’m still stuck on Adelman/Carril ball with all the movement, and its long gone and I should get used to it, but it seemed like something was missing.

Petrie: B – Petries grade here is predicated hiring Westphail, on the draft, and on Kevin’s trade. The Westphaul hiring looks pretty good right now (Rambis anyone?), the draft was phenomenal, as Tyreke is an impact player, and Omri may be one very soon, but the Kevin Martin trade was very troublesome, as the rumblings from around the league indicated that Petrie hadn’t reached out to many organizations that he was available, and seemed like he may have missed out on getting the most value for Kevin, especially considering we also had K9’s expiring, it seemed more draft picks or something could have been gotten with a little more prep. Drafting Tyreke trumps this, so I went with the B

Kings Media and outreaach: D – I strongly considered going for an F in this department this year. Killing the Kayte and Koz pre- an post game shows actually did make me watch a few less games, and letting Grant (recognized everywhere as the voice of the franchise) rant about team assets (Kevin) for weeks on end on public airwaves was really reckless. Saving them from the F was the plethora of artistic billboards around the city as well as the the variety of ticket promotions they ran over the course of the year.

Arena Progress: C+ – Kevin Johnson as mayor has more to do with this than anything, but the identification of various possible plans this year was heartening, especially since some of the plans didn’t involve public fincancing.

Overall Grade: C+ – The team gets a lot of credit in my eyes for committing to the rebuild, getting coaches in here that foster player growth, and going young, young, young. The team appears to have significant long term upside through the improvement of existing players and the upcoming draft, and it has cap room for now. I end the year hopeful that the team will be a playoff team in a couple of years, and retains the ability to develop into a full fledged title contender within 6 years, which, in my opinion, is all you can ask from your team – to have a shot to win it all.