Kings injuries mount

[JoMal]

Shareef Abdur-Rahim, out 2 to 4 weeks after having his jaw wired shut, which actually will take 6 weeks to properly heal. (Any idea how much "power" will be left in the King's power forward after six weeks of a liquid diet?)

Bonzi Wells, out another 2 to 3 weeks with a partially torn groin muscle. That should put a spring in the step of this season's best rebounder for the Kings.

Peja Stojakovich, day to day with a bulging disc in his back and a strained groin. Everyone knows, if Peja has to think of anything other then shooting straight, like having to remember to favor his back and groin while playing, he might as well not be playing at all.

Three starters out for the Kings.  Normally, you might think, uh oh, a bad team just got screwed. But these are the Kings, where injuries are a large part of the overall 'plan'.

So after it is announced that a makeshift starting lineup will play the first place Clippers..at Staples, no less..., the Kings proceed to win the road game by 17.

This, after getting completely outhustled by a supposedly worse Blazers team at home the night before. The Kings suck, but that one REALLY sucked.

Quotethed Brad Miller, "I had no energy tonight". Quothethed Coach Adelman, "The team was flat tonight". Quothethed Mike Bibby, "We just did not have any fire tonight". (none are actual quotes, but just a myriad of quotes I have heard after home loses this year).

The point being, why on earth would anyone pay the ridiculous cost for a ticket to see the Kings play, plus parking, plus concessions, to see the home team consistently play with such a lack of "energy"? Would having the Maloofs attach several large denomination presidentials to the Kings basket perhaps encourage a bit more "energy" for the King's starters to change that? Makes one wonder.

But at least we get to see young guys like Kevin Martin and Francisco Garcia get some playing minutes, along with vets like Kenny Thomas and Brian Skinner. The addition of that apparently elusive "energy" level noticably increased and helped in defeating the Clippers. It is such a shame that they are not the ordained "starters" on the Kings to begin with, so all that "energy" will be returned to the depths of Adelman's bench once the starters (maybe they just can't play 40 minutes a game, huh Rick?) return to bring the Kings another home loss due to a lack of "energy".

BTW, if you get to see Ronnie Price play, it may be worth it. The Kings undrafted rookie point guard is a nugget worth keeping an eye on.  

[westkoast]

The bench players see a perfect oppurtunity to get some good minutes so thats why they have that extra energy.  You would think that if these guys are playing with energy and helping beat one of the hotest teams in the WC at the start of the season that the rotations should switch right?

Anyone ever had their jaw wired shut?  I would imagine that Rahim not only will be weak from a liquid diet but he will also not fully be in NBA shape because he cannot do all the same workouts.

How much are ticks up there right now JoMaL?

[JoMal]

The bench players see a perfect oppurtunity to get some good minutes so thats why they have that extra energy.  You would think that if these guys are playing with energy and helping beat one of the hotest teams in the WC at the start of the season that the rotations should switch right?

Anyone ever had their jaw wired shut?  I would imagine that Rahim not only will be weak from a liquid diet but he will also not fully be in NBA shape because he cannot do all the same workouts.

How much are ticks up there right now JoMaL?

Ticks go for about a buck ninety a pop at the moment, westkoast. How many can I put you down for?

Guys like Garcia and Thomas are clearly not that interested in being bench players. Kenny Thomas sees himself as a starting 6'7" power forward in a League that eats up smaller players. Garcia has the particularly bad habit of hoisting up ill-advised shots from outside, while at the same time showing that once you pass the ball to him, you will not be seeing it come back. This is pretty unforgivable in the Princeton Offense - a major crime, actually. But he was a star at Louisville and has yet to understand that what he could do at the college level often gets slapped back in your face in the pros. His learning curve is on the upward swing, but his bench minutes early in the season were scarce because of it. Now he gets to start for a while.

Martin is still streaky. He looks great in one game and you forget he is out there the next. Consistency for him will go a long ways on his minutes.

Ronnie Price, however, looks totally awesome in limited minutes, and that is for a player who no one knows much about. Price is active on defense and handles the ball on offense. He should try shooting it more, though, to get familiar with doing that at the pro level.

[westkoast]

The bench players see a perfect oppurtunity to get some good minutes so thats why they have that extra energy.  You would think that if these guys are playing with energy and helping beat one of the hotest teams in the WC at the start of the season that the rotations should switch right?

Anyone ever had their jaw wired shut?  I would imagine that Rahim not only will be weak from a liquid diet but he will also not fully be in NBA shape because he cannot do all the same workouts.

How much are ticks up there right now JoMaL?

Ticks go for about a buck ninety a pop at the moment, westkoast. How many can I put you down for?

Guys like Garcia and Thomas are clearly not that interested in being bench players. Kenny Thomas sees himself as a starting 6'7" power forward in a League that eats up smaller players. Garcia has the particularly bad habit of hoisting up ill-advised shots from outside, while at the same time showing that once you pass the ball to him, you will not be seeing it come back. This is pretty unforgivable in the Princeton Offense - a major crime, actually. But he was a star at Louisville and has yet to understand that what he could do at the college level often gets slapped back in your face in the pros. His learning curve is on the upward swing, but his bench minutes early in the season were scarce because of it. Now he gets to start for a while.

Martin is still streaky. He looks great in one game and you forget he is out there the next. Consistency for him will go a long ways on his minutes.

Ronnie Price, however, looks totally awesome in limited minutes, and that is for a player who no one knows much about. Price is active on defense and handles the ball on offense. He should try shooting it more, though, to get familiar with doing that at the pro level.

Sign me up for 40!!!  I did not realize tickets were that much.  Staples gets away with ripping off the snobby business men driving 200k dollar Mercedes Benz' but Sac-town is mainly a middle-class working mans town I thought?  How can they justify high ticket prices?  Am I the only one who thinks that teams should adjust their ticket prices based on team record?  Clippers tickets are no longer half of what the Laker tickets are...so if your team wins and you charge more shouldn't you charge less if your team is losing?


 :nonono:  @ Kenny Thomas.  When will this guy learn?  Staring PF? LOL.  Hello Kenny this is the Western Confrence......starting PFs include Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and Amare Stoudamire.

So much for Bonzi's contract year right?  

 

[Joe Vancil]

And, as I understand it, the Pacers are calling the Kings' team doctor to see if they can get information about how they wired Shareef Abdur-Rahim's jaw shut.  I understand they're wondering about trying the same thing with Ron Artest.

 

[westkoast]

And, as I understand it, the Pacers are calling the Kings' team doctor to see if they can get information about how they wired Shareef Abdur-Rahim's jaw shut.  I understand they're wondering about trying the same thing with Ron Artest.

 :rofl:  :rofl:  :rofl:

I haven't had the best day today but this one made me laugh real good.  Thanks Joe.

[JoMal]

Sign me up for 40!!!  I did not realize tickets were that much.  Staples gets away with ripping off the snobby business men driving 200k dollar Mercedes Benz' but Sac-town is mainly a middle-class working mans town I thought?  How can they justify high ticket prices?  Am I the only one who thinks that teams should adjust their ticket prices based on team record?  Clippers tickets are no longer half of what the Laker tickets are...so if your team wins and you charge more shouldn't you charge less if your team is losing?


 :nonono:  @ Kenny Thomas.  When will this guy learn?  Staring PF? LOL.  Hello Kenny this is the Western Confrence......starting PFs include Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and Amare Stoudamire.

So much for Bonzi's contract year right?

Actually I was, like, referred to the bloodsucker-type ticks there, westkoast, mainly because picking a decent price out of all the price ranges at Arco is a bit harder, and you sound like you would prefer the bloodsucking ticks.

The main seats run in the range of $115.00, $140.00, and $165.00, but the Maloofs have lots of friends and business associates anyway, so.....

The nosebleed seats go for $25.50 for poor line of sight seats up to $40.50 and you can actually get a seat for $10.00 in the back, where you have to guess about what is going on down on the court.  

Decent first tier seats in the back are $89.50 and in the front of the second tier with clean sight lines are $68.50. Then another $10.00 for parking, and do I have to say anything about the $8- to $10 dollar beer prices and other concessions?

Personally, the continued adage they all cling to after every home loss about a general lack of hustle and energy- is there something about the climate around here that saps millionaires of their strength while the rest of us can continue to cheer until our cows go deaf?

That's another issue. Arco has NO accommodations for parking your cows!!! How inconsiderate!!

Thomas has a decent offensive game if he isn't getting his shot blocked under the basket, can rebound okay, but gets posted on defense constantly, even though he tries like the dickens. He would dominate in a League where PF's can't exceed 6'10" in height. As it is, he likes to mention his situation alot.

Bonzi would be playing if he could, we at least have learned that about him. But this will certainly lessen his worth next season, unless he can bounce back and finish strong.

There's a strong motive for him to do so.
 

[JoMal]

And, as I understand it, the Pacers are calling the Kings' team doctor to see if they can get information about how they wired Shareef Abdur-Rahim's jaw shut.  I understand they're wondering about trying the same thing with Ron Artest.

I think the gist of the questions they are asking has to do with how much force is needed to break a jaw so it would HAVE to be wired shut willingly by the recipient.

So they are calling Zack Randolph, not the Kings.

[westkoast]

I understand that they were the higher ticket seats but even then I didn't expect them to be that high.  Staples Center, if you can believe it, is actually cheaper than how you broke down the tickets at Arco.  Some of the prices are about the same.  The thing I don't get though is the location of where the teams play.  It costs more to live in LA so you would assume the average Staples atendee makes enough to afford inflated prices.  Sac-town is more of a working mans place than it is a place for rich business men, movie stars, and overpaid corporate worker bees.

 Even concession stand prices seem to be the same.  Im curious what it is across the US at other NBA games.  8.50 for domestic, 10 for imported.  4.50 for a quarter pounder and 3 bucks for fries with a 2 dollar soda!  How insane right?  Who doesn't enjoy getting a meal from the worst of the worst for oh say, 10 bucks.

You are right though, I like the bloodsucker tickets!  Sitting in nose bleeds is not fun when your eyes are not 20/20.  Even then everyone looks like little ants.

[JoMal]

I understand that they were the higher ticket seats but even then I didn't expect them to be that high.  Staples Center, if you can believe it, is actually cheaper than how you broke down the tickets at Arco.  Some of the prices are about the same.  The thing I don't get though is the location of where the teams play.  It costs more to live in LA so you would assume the average Staples atendee makes enough to afford inflated prices.  Sac-town is more of a working mans place than it is a place for rich business men, movie stars, and overpaid corporate worker bees.

 Even concession stand prices seem to be the same.  Im curious what it is across the US at other NBA games.  8.50 for domestic, 10 for imported.  4.50 for a quarter pounder and 3 bucks for fries with a 2 dollar soda!  How insane right?  Who doesn't enjoy getting a meal from the worst of the worst for oh say, 10 bucks.

 

Kings tickets are close to the top in price in the NBA and I really can't understand why. Sure, our payroll is up there, but all that extra corporate money is not available in Sacramento. So we have to watch this 'lack of effort' crap every home game. At times, I have to wonder that because of the new arena problems going on, the team is tanking games so fans stop supporting the team and thus justify a move to Vegas. So far, that plan has not worked; Arco is still crammed every game.

You are right though, I like the bloodsucker tickets!  Sitting in nose bleeds is not fun when your eyes are not 20/20.  Even then everyone looks like little ants.

At least the bloodsucking ticks can't get at you up in the rafters of Arco. But that walk back to the car through the cow fields......

[westkoast]

Not only do you not have as much corporate dough up there you do not have  the amount of tourists flowing into the area.  The tourists normally have Laker games up on the list of typical So Cal spots to hit like Disney Land, Knotts Berry Farm, Getty Museum, downtown LA, etc.

In fact when I was at the game a few weeks ago I was stopped in front of Staples Center by a large group of tourists who wanted me to snap a bunch of photos of them in front of the building.

[JoMal]

Tourists can be funny. I have to dodge them when I walk back to my truck after work, as they stand in front of the State Capital Building, snapping photos. Sometimes they ask me in which direction a certain street is. Downtown Sacramento is a grid. Lettered streets run from the north to the south and numbered streets out and away from the river. Not that hard to figure out.

Once, when my wife and and I were doing the tourist thing in San Francisco, we went up to Coit Tower for the views. As I was standing along the edge of the parking lot, looking out, I heard a scuffling noise to my left, with pauses every now and then. I finally looked over and saw a small Japanese man, who was in the slow process of moving into the frame of a photo that his wife was going to take, that would include an unknown tourist attraction of the United States - ME!!

They apparently wanted a reference point as to the size of Americans compared to them. Not that I am huge or anything, but I dwarfed him. So I put my arm around him and posed for the picture.

To think, I may be hanging on the wall of someone's Japanese abode, or in a picture album. I just wonder what the caption might read.

Any suggestions on that one, guys?