Post by CHANGEME on Jan 21, 2008 22:46:55 GMT -5
The Kings entered the season with an expectation of improving to 50 wins or so and possibly making the championship again, hoping to at least make the Western Conference finals. The Kings started off hot...really hot. 14-1 to start the season. I'm not really sure what happened after that, but the Kings put up subpar sim after subpar sim. After those first 15 games, the Kings went 28-39...let that sink in for a bit.
In the offseason, a heavy focus was placed on defense. We hoped this would translate to more wins, but it's apparent that the youth movement that a lot of teams have made is paying off big time. It seems that the Kings need to take a step up from good to great, and that usually doesn't happen via trades. It often happens with making excellent draft choices, and for the Kings, that could mean a teardown to acquire those kind of picks.
I'll recap the starting 5 for the Kings.
Spencer Hawes - Hawes got bumped up to be the #2 option for most of the year, and he got the bulk of the offseason focus for the coaching staff so we expected big things out of him.
With a little offseason training to work on his inside scoring, we thought we'd see a small improvement in his point production. We got that. With heavy work on the defensive side, we thought we'd see him take a step up with his blocked shots and overall defensive play. I'm not sure about the overall D without taking an in-depth look at the centers we faced this year. He did ramp up his blocked shots from 3.1 to 3.4.
In the playoffs, he averaged more like 6 blocks a game, including games of 10, 9, and 9 against Memphis in the 5-game series win to open up. We were extremely pleased with Hawes in the playoffs. Next year, it'd be great if he could average a double-double and become a bigger part of the scoring.
Jamaal Magloire - It's tough to play all of the games with WEAK SPOT tattooed on your forehead, but that's just what we had Magloire do this year. We knew PF was a weak spot, and we explored a number of options to try to fix that, but came up empty.
Magloire was solid on the boards with 9.2 per game, but didn't help out much shotblocking and only put up 7 points per game.
Carmelo Anthony - I'm not sure our reason for trading for him was very good ("The idea of having a superstar intrigues me"). Looking at Artest with a slew of ATC's thrown at him makes us regret it just a little bit.
Melo took a small step back to 29.1 ppg, and pretty much had a worse season in every statistical category except assists...not by much, but I was hoping to see him put up his career numbers again. To his defense, he did play slightly fewer minutes and in a slower-paced offense than in the past.
Kevin Martin - He got some offseason work, and quite frankly, he was disappointing. He got more consistent time as a scoring option, and he only put up 13.9 points per game. An offense that was either balanced or inside-based did not suit him well. He did improve his defense and rebound a little more, but to regress by 3 points per game is just a bit horrendous.
We know that Martin can thrive at times. In the right offensive scheme, he can be a deadly outside shooter, but something about how this team meshed was not good for him.
Jason Kidd - It was a time when we really needed Kidd to hold onto his game, and then he regressed. We pushed him, and his body seemed to break down.
He did help the lagging scoring attack with 15 points per game, up from last year. Unfortunately, his assists dropped. Perhaps that was due to a slower offense. One thinge that was apparent is that he got a step slower defensively. We remember him shutting down Steve Nash in the playoffs in previous seasons, but drops in steals and blocks does not bode well for the future.
Points per game - 101.5 This should be higher, what more can I say? We need to get better scoring, and have weapons at every point on the floor. The good teams now do not settle for having 3 primary scorers, everyone can score on the elite teams.
Points Allowed Per game - 100.8 - This was supposed to be an improved defensive team, and quite frankly, we got lit up a bit. We need a more complete defense, all the way through the bench.
Offseason plans - I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. Honestly, I think the plan has to be to build around Hawes (age 21) and Carmelo (age 25). Hopefully we can obtain a little cap room around that plan and add some other talent and hopefully we can actually make a 1st round draft choice in this league that will pan out.
Things I've learned -
1. Don't underestimate A+ defense (Artest).
2. Don't underestimate top 15 draft choices (I dunno, everyone lately is blowing up)
3. Don't overvalue defense and undervalue scoring (I may have done this in the offseason)
4. Don't wait too long to write articles
In the offseason, a heavy focus was placed on defense. We hoped this would translate to more wins, but it's apparent that the youth movement that a lot of teams have made is paying off big time. It seems that the Kings need to take a step up from good to great, and that usually doesn't happen via trades. It often happens with making excellent draft choices, and for the Kings, that could mean a teardown to acquire those kind of picks.
I'll recap the starting 5 for the Kings.
Spencer Hawes - Hawes got bumped up to be the #2 option for most of the year, and he got the bulk of the offseason focus for the coaching staff so we expected big things out of him.
With a little offseason training to work on his inside scoring, we thought we'd see a small improvement in his point production. We got that. With heavy work on the defensive side, we thought we'd see him take a step up with his blocked shots and overall defensive play. I'm not sure about the overall D without taking an in-depth look at the centers we faced this year. He did ramp up his blocked shots from 3.1 to 3.4.
In the playoffs, he averaged more like 6 blocks a game, including games of 10, 9, and 9 against Memphis in the 5-game series win to open up. We were extremely pleased with Hawes in the playoffs. Next year, it'd be great if he could average a double-double and become a bigger part of the scoring.
Jamaal Magloire - It's tough to play all of the games with WEAK SPOT tattooed on your forehead, but that's just what we had Magloire do this year. We knew PF was a weak spot, and we explored a number of options to try to fix that, but came up empty.
Magloire was solid on the boards with 9.2 per game, but didn't help out much shotblocking and only put up 7 points per game.
Carmelo Anthony - I'm not sure our reason for trading for him was very good ("The idea of having a superstar intrigues me"). Looking at Artest with a slew of ATC's thrown at him makes us regret it just a little bit.
Melo took a small step back to 29.1 ppg, and pretty much had a worse season in every statistical category except assists...not by much, but I was hoping to see him put up his career numbers again. To his defense, he did play slightly fewer minutes and in a slower-paced offense than in the past.
Kevin Martin - He got some offseason work, and quite frankly, he was disappointing. He got more consistent time as a scoring option, and he only put up 13.9 points per game. An offense that was either balanced or inside-based did not suit him well. He did improve his defense and rebound a little more, but to regress by 3 points per game is just a bit horrendous.
We know that Martin can thrive at times. In the right offensive scheme, he can be a deadly outside shooter, but something about how this team meshed was not good for him.
Jason Kidd - It was a time when we really needed Kidd to hold onto his game, and then he regressed. We pushed him, and his body seemed to break down.
He did help the lagging scoring attack with 15 points per game, up from last year. Unfortunately, his assists dropped. Perhaps that was due to a slower offense. One thinge that was apparent is that he got a step slower defensively. We remember him shutting down Steve Nash in the playoffs in previous seasons, but drops in steals and blocks does not bode well for the future.
Points per game - 101.5 This should be higher, what more can I say? We need to get better scoring, and have weapons at every point on the floor. The good teams now do not settle for having 3 primary scorers, everyone can score on the elite teams.
Points Allowed Per game - 100.8 - This was supposed to be an improved defensive team, and quite frankly, we got lit up a bit. We need a more complete defense, all the way through the bench.
Offseason plans - I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. Honestly, I think the plan has to be to build around Hawes (age 21) and Carmelo (age 25). Hopefully we can obtain a little cap room around that plan and add some other talent and hopefully we can actually make a 1st round draft choice in this league that will pan out.
Things I've learned -
1. Don't underestimate A+ defense (Artest).
2. Don't underestimate top 15 draft choices (I dunno, everyone lately is blowing up)
3. Don't overvalue defense and undervalue scoring (I may have done this in the offseason)
4. Don't wait too long to write articles
