NBA Blog Previews 2011 (Sort Of): SACRAMENTO Kings

by Tom Ziller on Oct 3, 2011 8:00 AM PDT in Commentary

The Fate of the Animals, Franz Marc (1901)

Team Name: SACRAMENTO Kings.

Last Year's Record: 24-58

Key Free Agents: Marcus Thornton, Samuel Dalembert.

Team Needs: Time, money, a new arena, time, manna from Heaven, time.

1. What are your team's biggest needs this offseason?

The Kings' biggest need is time. The team's young core needs time to grow together and on their own. We saw last season that Tyreke Evans is not yet an All-Star caliber player, that DeMarcus Cousins wasn't born a fully developed player and that youth is a roller coaster. Only time and experience -- and some expert floor-stretching from Jimmer Fredette, we hope -- will allow the garden to bloom.

2. What are the team's biggest strengths & weaknesses? (so far)

The Kings' frontcourt should be among the best on the boards in the league, even if the team doesn't add another big man. J.J. Hickson and Jason Thompson are great young offensive rebounders, and Cousins is quite strong on the defensive glass. The team will likely chase a big man; if that search turns up gold, the team could be in even better shape up front. If for some reason Samuel Dalembert is retained, the addition of John Salmons could turn this into a nice defensive team.

The team still needs more shooting, with just Marcus Thornton and Fredette to carry the load from deep. (Donte Greene is up and down as a shooter.) It's also unclear as to whether Salmons, Evans and Fredette will be able to combine to make one whole point guard, or whether the team will need to chase a PG via trade or free agency or play lots of Isaiah Thomas (himself a question mark in terms of purity). As with all young teams, defense will also be a concern.

3. If there is no season in 2011-12, how is your team set up for 2012?

The team would still have cap space, though as other teams open up space the Kings' own space would be discounted quite a bit. (Cap space inflation, everybody!) Really, this team needs time on the court, so a lockout -- bringing us a year closer to the rookie-scale players' second contract -- would be a big fat blech for Sacramento.

4. If you could make one change the NBA's new CBA, what would it be?

I would make shots over 26 feet worth four points. Call it the Jimmer Rule.

(No really, I would institute a revenue sharing program that had real effects on the ability of small-market teams to profit heavily when winning and survive when losing. Even up the margins for error, please.)

5. Can you prove that Tyreke Evans isn't Merlin?

No. No, I cannot.

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Comments

Losing a season would be so terrible for the Kings

There’s the fact that JT, Donté and Hickson will all be up for new contracts, and we wouldn’t have even got to see how Hickson fit in.

Also our players would all be a year older, losing a year of their youth and as such, a year of development on the court. Jimmer won’t start playing until he was 23!

Everyone else will have much more cap space too. We don’t have any big contracts going up this year like others do.

Losing a season would just be the worst.

Author of NBA Mashups. Follow me on Twitter here.

by Aykis16 on Oct 3, 2011 8:05 AM PDT reply actions

Why

does that blue deer have a red stick up its butt?

SACTOWN ROYALTY - Try our thick creamy shakes!

by section214 on Oct 3, 2011 9:07 AM PDT reply actions 6 recs

it's "blasting off"

Where's my pie

by TheFifthMookie on Oct 3, 2011 9:14 AM PDT up reply actions

Doe D'oh!

by betweentheeyes on Oct 3, 2011 12:41 PM PDT up reply actions 1 recs

Deersicle

Author of NBA Mashups. Follow me on Twitter here.

by Aykis16 on Oct 3, 2011 9:52 AM PDT up reply actions 1 recs

Love Franz Marc!

Might be obvious from my profile pic.

by lead_pipe on Oct 3, 2011 9:58 AM PDT up reply actions

Projectile Hemorrhoids

"Live Long and Prosper." - Spock

by hozr on Oct 3, 2011 4:41 PM PDT up reply actions

Wizards fan here. Question (s)

I assume that Reke, Jimmer and Thorton will make up the backcourt rotation with Salmons primarily at SF but those three all need the ball in their hands and seem like high usage players to me. With Tyreke dominating the ball, Thorton and Jimmer would have to play off guard I guess, but to me both seem more scorers than distributer/spot up guys, or am I wrong? Also, with Green in the mix, what do you guys expect from Honeycutt (I really liked him with our pick if not for Singleton being available at # 18)

Cousins is a high usage player as well and though I haven’t seen a ton of Hickson last yr I thought he moved towards being more ball dominant if I’m correct. An offense consisting of taking turns iso-ing isn’t ideal so how do you guys see the distribution of touches?

Defensively…uhm well, how do you guys view the roster at that end?

"My logic fails all the time...especially when talking to females" Rook6980

by Dutch Hoopfan on Oct 3, 2011 10:00 AM PDT reply actions

Well …

Words of wisdom from the great Billy Dee Williams

Oh so you disagree. Well then, here is a mature, sophisticated, and compelling rebuttal.

by wallywagon11 on Oct 3, 2011 10:21 AM PDT up reply actions

with all our high usage players

there won’t be enough ball for the other team!

Where's my pie

by TheFifthMookie on Oct 3, 2011 10:23 AM PDT up reply actions 1 recs

That was just mean

by Mityt on Oct 3, 2011 12:19 PM PDT up reply actions

Dangerous move Wally

I don’t want to open up the long list of posterisations Javale has had against the Kings :)

GREENE! You’ve been superfluously apostrophe’d! - andy sims
iashwash, you are the voice of reason - Holmdel

by iashwash on Oct 3, 2011 1:42 PM PDT up reply actions

Wasnt the epic fail FT line dunk against you guys?

Ahh McGee…. You gotta love him but he makes me cry myself to sleep some nights ;-)

"My logic fails all the time...especially when talking to females" Rook6980

by Dutch Hoopfan on Oct 3, 2011 1:46 PM PDT up reply actions

Yeah it was

In the waning moments of a 30 point blowout loss too. I was at that game.

Author of NBA Mashups. Follow me on Twitter here.

by Aykis16 on Oct 3, 2011 1:55 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions

it was in jest

was going to double down with the McGee failed FT line dunk here but Dutch Hoops already stole my thunder

Words of wisdom from the great Billy Dee Williams

Oh so you disagree. Well then, here is a mature, sophisticated, and compelling rebuttal.

by wallywagon11 on Oct 3, 2011 2:26 PM PDT up reply actions

Defensively, assuming Sammy does not return

I view 3 players average or maybe above (Salmons, Reke, and Cisco (Maybe Donte if he makes it into the rotation)). So defensively, they will really have to buy into team defense.
You are also correct that we have a lot of ball dominant players , so that could be an issue. The good news is that they all are willing (and quite capable) passers. Cousins will be one of the top passing bigs in the league. So if they double an ISO someone will be open. Not as pretty as the Princeton offense but I think it has a good shot at being a top 10 offense.
I think the primary thing to consider though, is that GP has a lot of money to find good pieces to balance out the playing style (assuming those kinds of players are available).

As a result of the NBA going dark and staging a lockout I plan on saying only depressing things until the season starts. If they put out the schedule I plan to also go and sit in the Arco parking lot on nights games would have been played. I will Tivo CSN on games nights. They can't stop me. Its my team and I'll cry if I want to, cry if I want to.

by ElRonToro on Oct 3, 2011 10:23 AM PDT up reply actions

Unfortunately a lot of "cap space" to find good pieces

is different than “a lot of money” to find good pieces.

by Gabraham on Oct 3, 2011 10:31 AM PDT up reply actions

True

but I think (If there is a season) Mr. Stern will call and ask “Joe, Gavin how’s that cap space of yours doing?”

by ElRonToro on Oct 3, 2011 10:47 AM PDT up reply actions

I think you are right.

Who woulda thunk a guy named Stern would be so passive agressive???

by Gabraham on Oct 3, 2011 11:22 AM PDT up reply actions

If I had been his dad his first name would be

Ernest

by ElRonToro on Oct 3, 2011 12:32 PM PDT up reply actions

How about

Frank N.

by luckthefakers on Oct 3, 2011 6:26 PM PDT up reply actions

Nice to see another Dutchman around

In my view, the coming season (whenevre that will be) could have the Kings either exploding into something great and exciting reminscent of the Golden years, or imploding into something really ugly.

Can key players buy into a team concept where ball movement and movement without the ball is paramount, and make the extra pass? Or will some guys just demand and take their shots? Can PW manage a team where the key veteran presence is John Salmons? I can imagine DMC hugging Tyreke by mideason, or trying to strangle him.

As to defense, it all depends on whether Dalembert stays or they can pick up a good veteran FA for the frountcourt. If that doesn’ happent, the offense better be damn good because I cannot see anyone who has the skill to quarterback team D. I truly believe that Dalembert presence and vocal leadership on that side of the court was a big part of the good play near the end of the season. If Hickson is the main man playing next to DMC, this will not bode well. If they can pick up someone like Nene, it could be good. Very good, even.

Groeten, Rik

by RikSmits on Oct 3, 2011 11:51 AM PDT up reply actions

Nederlanders zijn ook overal hė? lol

I don’t really like the idea of Salmons being the veteran leader… I thought Udrih (could be completely wrong though) was perfect in that role and as important, he is more of a distributing, low usage pg. Isnt Tyreke most effective with such a player next to him? I personally saw Thorton as an ideal backup, filling in the scoring duties when Tyreke needs a rest.

I just didn’t really get the Kings draftnight (trade nor the Jimmer pick) I guess. Anyway, tnx for the insight guys. I’ll follow the Kings from a distance but certainly with interest. Good luck!

"My logic fails all the time...especially when talking to females" Rook6980

by Dutch Hoopfan on Oct 3, 2011 1:42 PM PDT up reply actions

I think Jimmer makes sense...

Jimmer is similar enough to Beno, who is not such a pure PG. I would say that Beno is more PG (60%) than a SG (40%), but still a combo guard. Jimmer should probably be close enough to that same proportion. If I remember right his assist rates were actually quite good.

Tyreke is a combo guard and would seem to play best with another combo guard like Beno. Given that, he should do better with Jimmer, as he is more of a combo guard, than Thornton, who seems more of a pure SG.

Tyreke is more similar to Tony Parker than he is to Steve Nash and needs somebody is a mix of playmaker and scorer so that you have, between the two of them, 1 PG and 1 SG.

I didn't major in Common F-cking Sense, but ...

by MustangMBS on Oct 3, 2011 2:29 PM PDT up reply actions

We zijn net onkruid, zeker op het internet. :-)

I don’t really like the idea of Salmons being the veteran leader

Neither do I.
Beno didn’t seem to be a real vocal veteran, but I thought he had a steadying presence. And although it’s hard to be as bad on D as Beno, Jimmer still has to show he is an improvement.

by RikSmits on Oct 3, 2011 11:31 PM PDT up reply actions