Good piece, westkoast
First off, Chicago, with Ben Wallace, will compete for sure this year. They have balance, are very deep, and with Wallace, have a guy who knows what it takes to get to that next level.
Kobe's knees may be fine now, but knees and the NBA are never a good long-term relationship. I don't want to imply that this is the beginning of the end of the run by the best player in the NBA, but when the knees start getting operated on, it seems to go south for that player. It is a shame; I would expect Kobe to come out firing early in the season, but after sixty games or so, you probably will start to notice a dropoff in his play. Hope I am wrong about that, because as much as I have dissed Kobe, he is truly the best in the NBA today.
The Kings are in a bit of a decline. Artest will force them to play better, at least he did last year when he joined SacTown, and Musselman is extremely well-organized and a dynamo in practice so his players will definitely be in better shape, but the talent is iffy after Bibby, Miller, Ronnie, and I will throw Kevin Martin into that mix.
Backup point guard is not going to be too good with John Salmon or Jason Hart - Ronnie Price is the future there, but he is still learning to play the point after a college career as the scoring guard. Garcia is going to be good - very good. Terrific upside to him, in fact. But not for four or five years into his career and this is only his second year. Our #1 draft pick, with the unfortunate name of Quincy Douby, was also a shooting guard in college who is being converted into a point guard. Not much help there this year.
After Miller, we have Maurice Taylor as the backup center, fresh off the Knicks squad. At 6'9", we may see him only in spots, but he can score a bit. Musselman is testing Sharif Abdur-Rahim in the backup center spot, but as he proved against the Hornets this week, he is not up to going up against bigger, taller centers. Vitaly Potapenko is being kept, it looks like, so his end of the bench doesn't fly up when Musselman puts other bench players into the game.
The biggest problem is at power forward. Kenny Thomas?
? His contract goes out forever and at 6'7", he can simply blow by bigger, but slower PF's in the League. But guarding them? Teams will eat him alive. SAR is going to play plenty, but he is just not the answer either, and Corliss Williamson can come in and still score, but his is just a slower version of Thomas on defense.
Rebounding went out the door with Bonzi Wells. None of the top ten guys in the depth chart can essentially dominate the boards for the Kings. It will need a team effort, to say the least.
All that said, this season I can see Kevin Martin becoming the answer to the questions "Who is that guy and why haven't we heard of him before?" He is likely to get around twenty points a night without looking like he has been that effective. He won't ever be a superstar, but he could become a very good NBA player. Good defender too. He, Garcia, and Price all look like solid future NBA players, but the learning curve is still going up for all three.
Artest works hard, very hard. Say what you will about the guy, no one on the Kings, including that gym rat Mike Bibby, comes close to Ron Artest when it comes to putting in the time to improve. He also helps the rookies out, advising them on the NBA game. He has been a model citizen and he listens and implements exactly what Musselman asks of him. This is not at all the guy who left Indiana a shambles.
He has grabbed the leadership role with gusto and other then Mike Bibby, no one on the Kings comes close to being able to handle that role.
Whether that will be true at the end of the season will dictate where the Kings end up - in the post season or the lottery. If Artest messes up somehow, it will be the lottery.
