Small ball, as you know, is a strategy that has been employed to varying degrees of success over the last few years.  With the current Kings roster, I believe the Kings could do just the opposite.  Tall ball.

Near the end of the season last year, readers of this blog flirted around with the idea of moving Carl Landry to the SF position.  I know many of you hate it when someone rehashes an old topic. . . deal with it

I believe Landry would dominate the post against people his own size, and against the smaller threes in the league, we would have a major mismatch here.  His inability to rebound consistently against the other PFs in the league would be negated by the move. .. but again this argument has been made before, and in a much more eloquent fashion ( i would post a link here, but this is my first fanpost of any kind, and I am technologically retarded).

The other big move that must be made for the kings to transition into 'tall ball" is to start Donte at the 2.  I still believe he isnt the most talanted 2 on the team (both Beno and Garcia could play either guard position and are more polished than him), however this jump just makes sense to me.  He is athletic enough to guard most of the twos in the league, and his height will present HUGE match-up problems on the other end. 

My proposed starting lineup (with heights and weights in parentheses) is as follows:

PG: Tyreke (6-6 220lbs)

SG: Donte (6-11 226 lbs)

SF: Landry (6-9 248 lbs)

PF: JT (6-11, 250 lbs)

C: big man from draft, preferably cousins (6-11 270) 

This is not going big for the sake of going big.  I honestly believe this group could work and present some serious match-up problems.  With an average height of almost 6-10 and an average weight of about 243 pounds, we should be able to dominate the paint.  Also the lineup is athletic enough, I believe, to compete and keep up with the smaller teams. 

This lineup would leave both Beno and Garcia providing solid leadership off the bench, and, given PW's tendency to shy away from a set rotation, i believe those finishing the game will often be very different than those starting it. Hawes, Casspi, and Brockman could round out the second five.

 The lineup I have presented only works based on three admittedly large assumptions: 1) Donte's game continues to mature along with his attitude 2) the kings draft a big man (preferably DMC) 3) no major free agent signings disrupt the depth chart.  Again, these are three large assumptions, and knowing Petrie, anything can happen between now and the start of next season.  However, next season, if the opportunity presents itself, what do you guys think of at least giving this starting line-up a look during the preseason? (go somewhat easy on me please, it is my first post after all)