John Hollinger and Ric Bucher have been breaking down each NBA team as their way of filling the summer void. The basic premise is that Hollinger provides one player per team that, based on his statistical analysis, is trending up, one player trending down, and then Bucher chimes in with a player to watch. Yesterday's installment (Insider) covered the Kings.
Overall, I thought it was a decent write-up with some good thoughts. The trending up player was Spencer Hawes, the trending down player was Francisco Garcia, and Bucher's player to watch was Tyreke Evans. I'm not going to recap their entire analysis, apologies in advance to those without Insider.
What bothers me is when a national sportswriter, such as John Hollinger, haphazardly throws in comments that have no supporting basis, and explanation. Statements such as this:
Hawes likely will start in the middle, though it's possible he'll come off the bench as the top frontcourt reserve if Jason Thompson shifts to center.
Statements like this make me angry. There's no other way for me to describe it. I like to consider myself a rather informed and well-read individual when it comes to the Kings, and I haven't seen anything that indicates that the team is considering such a dramatic shift to the starting line-up. If I missed it, please let me know and I will quickly remind everyone that I am an idiot.
The first possible explanation I can come up with is that Jason Thompson started at Center in Summer League games. This, of course, was because of Spencer Hawes' well-documented miscommunication with the team. But Thompson struggled in the new role, so it wouldn't exactly lend itself to speculation that Thompson would relegate Hawes to the bench.
The only other explanation I can think of would be if Hollinger had heard some whispers from his sources. I struggle to believe this possibility, not only because of the reasons I've listed above, but because Hollinger provides no other details.
With no supporting details, this becomes a reckless piece of speculation that cheapens what should be an otherwise interesting article. I'd probably even consider giving Hollinger a pass if he didn't follow up with a similar throw-away line about Kevin Martin during his discussion of Garcia a few paragraphs later, saying:
Garcia may end up starting at small forward depending on how the Kings want to line up this season; Andres Nocioni or even moving Kevin Martin are other possibilities at the 3.
The Kings certainly do not lack options at the 3. Between Nocioni, Garcia, Casspi and Donté, the mere mention of Martin at the 3 seems to indicate a complete lack of research regarding this team.
I'm not sure if there is any solution to this type of problem, at least not until the season starts and we can talk about real games again. This season cannot come soon enough.