30Q: Will Paul Westphal's Rotation Be Consistent?

Like you said, much of the turmoil last season was due to lack of talent. This year, I think any volatility in the lineups will be due to match-ups and improved play. We have more talent this year.

Small steps in the right direction. Just keep improving.

with regards to his rotation. He would react to what the opposing coach was doing or how opposing teams were playing and that would guide his hand. A lot of this wasn’t his fault, as he had to deal with a bunch of young players and the loss of the two highest scorers from previous years.

This year he needs to set the tone so that other teams react to the Kings. With such a deep frontcourt this could be vital. I also think we’re going to see some experimentation with Dalembert guarding Power Forwards to try to pair him up with DeMarcus at times, because the team will want him getting minutes, although probably not nearly as much as Tyreke got last year.

The Kings still only have legitimate starting talent at Center, Power Forward, and Point Guard. Our options at the 2 (Beno, Cisco) would make capable backups on a good team, but are strictly “it could be worse” as starters.

The same can be said at Small Forward. Neither Omri or Donté is a legit starter, although unlike Garcia and Udrih, I have very little doubt that at least one of them is going to grow into the role.

I’d put it this way: The 3 of our bright future is already on the roster, the 2 of our future glory days is not.

No one has talked about this, unless I missed it somewhere. Will he see it as a demotion and complain? He did just quit the Slovenian team because he was unhappy with his role, which was to back up Jaka Lakovic. I don’t know, but it will be interesting to see.

After the Hawes incident he did become more aware of the feelings of the players and he did stabilize his rotations, somewhat. And, although there wasn’t a marked improvement in the end results, the team did make improvements together. Throw in the added depth on the frontcourt, and I think his need to manipulate the rotations to improve the defense won’t take control of his decision making.

Also, with the slightly easier start to the season, if the starters play well and put a string of wins under their belt the need to go searching for a more successful rotation won’t be there. Although if he does start to mix up the rotations, I doubt if anyone on the team openly criticizes him.

I think that the starting line-up and rotation “pattern” will be in flux for the first half of the season and will settle down after that. And while it drives us crazy to watch, I believe there is a method to the madness.

The method? Put young players into different line-ups to see how well they do in various offensive and defensive schemes, and against different match-ups to see where they can be most effective.

This is really the last year Westphal has the luxury of low expectations to do that. Nobody but the most optimistic of homers believes that we have even an outside shot at the playoffs in 2010-11. But next year, if the goal isn’t to get there and not be one and done, there will be blood.

I think this year will have much less of the “experimenting” that we saw last year (Sean May as Center, the Beno-’Reke combo, JT as Center, etc.), partially due to personnel changes but also because some of the uncertainties of last year have been sufficiently answered. Yes, Beno and Tyreke work rather well together in the backcourt. Yes, JT is probably equally as effective at Center as he is at Power Forward (if not more effective). There is still the “Who Wants to be a Starting Small Forward?” gameshow going on, and there is the matter of deciding which combination of frontcourt confections is the most delicious, but I expect both of those questions to be approached with much more patience than the frantic “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” methods that we saw last year.

I could see a fairly solid starting 5 playing-out the first half of the season (my guess is ‘Reke-Cisco-Omri-Dally-Landry), regardless of whether Donte is outplaying Omri overall or which of the frontcourt combos is emerging above all others. That way, we’ll have a solid sense of what we have on our hands by the trade deadline and go from there. If Boogie appears ready for a starting role by the middle of the season, maybe Dally or Landry are more likely to be shopped. If Cisco doesn’t look to be starting material, maybe we look harder for either a starting 2 if Beno is working well off the bench, or for a solid backup PG if the Beno-‘Reke combo becomes to tasty to resist. Maybe Donte gets a chance to play out the second half of the season as a starter, if Omri hasn’t solidified his position there by the middle of the season. The first half is “lets see what we got”, the second half is “okay, now we think we know what our best group of guys is, let’s see what they can do”.

Just for our sanity. Watching the Kings last year was like watching a game show. You didn’t know what was behind door number 3 and often times it wasn’t a brand new car.

Hopefully with a more experience, some more veterans (Landry, Cisco and Dalembert) and some more talent (Cousins), he can get consistent enough production to keep the rotation set.

It is sort of a chicken/egg scenario, however. Will the players be more consistent if they know their minutes are set? I think so. But if someone isn’t producing, their minutes should certainly be shortened.

I, for one, hope Westphal sticks with a pretty rigid rotation for the first couple months at least. I hope he will.

Make the madness end, please.

LAST SEASON:

No established starter and many different line-ups
Center – Hawes, JT, May, Brockman,
PF – pre-Landry – JT, Brockman, Donte, Casspi
SF – Donte, Casspi, Udoka,

Stable positions with limited rotation: Established starter, though the backup for SG was wild.. Not saying Beno should be a starting SG, just that he was filling that role since PW stated Evans was PG and Beno started most of the games he played. I would almost create a third category just for SG as more stable, but unfilled by a true SG due to lack of talent.
PG – Evans/Beno
SG – Beno, Backup Donte, Casspi, Udoka, Garcia
PF – post Landry

I would say that there was only 2 of 5 positions with clear starter last year and that was PG and SG. Then came Landry to make it to make it 3 of 5.

This year : We are in much better shape.

Center – Starter as Dalembert
PF – Starter as Landry
SF – No starter but two clear prospects – Greene or Casspi
SG – No starter but two clear prospects – Garcia or Beno
PG – Starter as Evans

We still only have 3 of 5 clear starters because SG is now up in the air. Garcia either can hack it as a starter or not. If Beno gets back into the starting line up then we have 4 or 5. Also, with Udoka out it is clearer that either Donte’ or Omri get the start at SF. Either way that SG and SF go we are much more stable.

And what’s especially stupid about it is that the team didn’t end up settling into a lineup at the end of last season, and now there’s almost an entirely new roster. So what exactly was learned or gained by it except to drive the team crazy?

by my count.
Tyreke, Beno, Cisco, Omri, Donte’, Dal, Landry, JT and Cousins. That leaves precious few for the rest of the team. Everyone knows its unusual to get past the ninth man barring injury.
I don’t really see a problem in the backcourt, Tyreke, Beno and Cisco will all get enough minutes to satisfy. My main concern (strangely) is the frontcourt minutes, especially if Cousins shines early. You always worry about some discontent blooming.
At some point, if things go as well as we hope for Cousins, something will have to give either at the trade deadline or next summer. Who will be the odd man out? Will Landry or Sammy or both be offered a new contract? Either might be a tasty mid season aquisition for a playoff bound team – but in exchange for what?
I think by Midseason either Omri or Donte’ (his 3rd year!) will probably be the consensus SF going forward. If not, there’s a real question as to whether that position needs to be addressed.
I do expect more stabilty early from PW barring injury, but things might change.

Due to the lack of talent Tyreke Evans was thrust into the role of starting in the Kings backcourt as the 1. In a stroke of good luck, Evans was up to the task and produced a historic season.

DMC is not in the same situation and his star will rise on a different trajectory as he will be a part of a 5 (4 and Whiteside) frontcourt. He may end up a starter but he won’t begin as one. As his game improves he will go from soon to be starter to starter. He is the future.

The backcourt and the SF will be more of a shuffle (Reke excluded). Simply, Coach Paul has to figure out what he has before he can figure out how to use it. Expect the first few months to be somewhat of a carousel.

You play your strengths against your opponents weaknesses. If the match up isn’t good on paper, it more than likely is NOT going to be good on the court. You want to start strong!! If it doesn’t work, there’s the bench! It use to drive me nuts when Adleman would keep a cold starter “in” at the end of a game or even throughout the game. I don’t care HOW GOOD you are!!! If you are having an off night “And Everyone Does”, sit your ass down like a grown up and cheer your ass off for the bench player with the hot hand thats on the floor taking your Place!!! PW is such a welcome relief with that regard and I’m thrilled he does it!!! He takes out who not getting it done. A couch with vision DURING the game. Priceless!!!

He can consistently play three future starters-slides Green into 3- Falco into 2- Consistently bring Omri-Beno spark off bench. You get 6-7 players playing consistently in same position/rotation. or continue driving players-yourself crazy . It pays off starting next year. But-You get 2 bingo players to fill in the holes…+ another decent draft pick. Trade 2 players…have some NM. jalopies sauce-I heard King bear from powder blue days is back!

hole=bingo players-need

S-1 Evans Beno
S-2 hole Falco
S-3 hole Green Omri
S-4 Landry Jason-8
S-5 Cousins Dalem