New Sac-town players/Sac-town observations

[westkoast]

First of all whats up with Sac-town getting two players that look very similar to Doug Christie and Chris Webber?  I thought they were stunt doubles in so the players can't get hurt :lol:

Things I did notice, and yes I know its still pre-season, is that there is alot less fluid movement inside the offense.  Again, yes I know its still pre-season but the Kings have moved well and passed well in previous pre-seasons.  Whether the new less fluid offense is the result of Floppy comming to the Lakers or C-Webb's play last year the Kings just dont look like....well the Kings.  When the core starters were in (minus Christie) there was very little movement compared to what we normally see from Sac-town.  Not as many sharp cuts.  None of the good interior passing we normally see.  Less fast breaking.  Peja seemed like he didn't want to try to always move without the ball because he didnt think he would even recieve a pass.  Normally Peja and Vlade had the back door cuts down to a science.  Bibby, who is normally excellent in driving and kicking, was settling for jump shots way out behind a screen and wasnt distributing enough.    With all that said they were not all in for the whole entire game...on top of that the Lakers had to play there very very best game last night just to keep up with the Kings playing horrible.  Not a good sign, even if the Lakers won by a good amount.  One thing that did look better is the defense, for the most part.  Some of those new players looked like they had fresh legs and REALLY wanted to make the team.  When Ostertag and Christie come back this team will be even better defensively, thats always a good sign.

[JoMal]

First of all whats up with Sac-town getting two players that look very similar to Doug Christie and Chris Webber?  I thought they were stunt doubles in so the players can't get hurt :lol:

Things I did notice, and yes I know its still pre-season, is that there is alot less fluid movement inside the offense.  Again, yes I know its still pre-season but the Kings have moved well and passed well in previous pre-seasons.  Whether the new less fluid offense is the result of Floppy comming to the Lakers or C-Webb's play last year the Kings just dont look like....well the Kings.  When the core starters were in (minus Christie) there was very little movement compared to what we normally see from Sac-town.  Not as many sharp cuts.  None of the good interior passing we normally see.  Less fast breaking.  Peja seemed like he didn't want to try to always move without the ball because he didnt think he would even recieve a pass.  Normally Peja and Vlade had the back door cuts down to a science.  Bibby, who is normally excellent in driving and kicking, was settling for jump shots way out behind a screen and wasnt distributing enough.    With all that said they were not all in for the whole entire game...on top of that the Lakers had to play there very very best game last night just to keep up with the Kings playing horrible.  Not a good sign, even if the Lakers won by a good amount.  One thing that did look better is the defense, for the most part.  Some of those new players looked like they had fresh legs and REALLY wanted to make the team.  When Ostertag and Christie come back this team will be even better defensively, thats always a good sign.

The Kings were still a bit jetlagged from the China trip. Adelman wanted to test the younger players and rest his regulars; I don't think any starter played more then 14 minutes.

Of the new guys, Martin is certainly a keeper, though at 185 lbs, he needs another 20 pounds of muscle if he wants an NBA career longer then it takes a stiff breeze to blow him over. Minard looks like a backup at best, though he is intriguing on defense.

Bluthenthal has a game, but zero NBA experience, and the Kings have already signed him.  Ferguson is 7'0" and 205 pounds - 'nough said: Parada came to the game late, but has an NBA body and I would not be surprised if the Kings sign him until Ostertag comes back. Alexander is a walking medvac case - if he is our Anthony Peeler replacement, we need someone to replace the replacement. Barnes could easily make any NBA team out there - if he ever learns that the entire object of the game of basketball is to put the ball in the basket once in a while. Didn't he ever go to a gym and just shoot hoops like the rest of us?

Ford is big and capable of regularly planting any power forward into the first row of seats. Too bad that isn't the object of the game either. Bland is ......well named. Evans probably will be picked up by some other team once the Kings cut him as will Barnes. Liu was signed sort of to be our Chinese national representative when the Kings went to China to face Yao's Rockets. Turns out, he clearly can execute as an NBA point guard, but he won't do it for the Kings this year.

[westkoast]

First of all whats up with Sac-town getting two players that look very similar to Doug Christie and Chris Webber?  I thought they were stunt doubles in so the players can't get hurt :lol:

Things I did notice, and yes I know its still pre-season, is that there is alot less fluid movement inside the offense.  Again, yes I know its still pre-season but the Kings have moved well and passed well in previous pre-seasons.  Whether the new less fluid offense is the result of Floppy comming to the Lakers or C-Webb's play last year the Kings just dont look like....well the Kings.  When the core starters were in (minus Christie) there was very little movement compared to what we normally see from Sac-town.  Not as many sharp cuts.  None of the good interior passing we normally see.  Less fast breaking.  Peja seemed like he didn't want to try to always move without the ball because he didnt think he would even recieve a pass.  Normally Peja and Vlade had the back door cuts down to a science.  Bibby, who is normally excellent in driving and kicking, was settling for jump shots way out behind a screen and wasnt distributing enough.    With all that said they were not all in for the whole entire game...on top of that the Lakers had to play there very very best game last night just to keep up with the Kings playing horrible.  Not a good sign, even if the Lakers won by a good amount.  One thing that did look better is the defense, for the most part.  Some of those new players looked like they had fresh legs and REALLY wanted to make the team.  When Ostertag and Christie come back this team will be even better defensively, thats always a good sign.

The Kings were still a bit jetlagged from the China trip. Adelman wanted to test the younger players and rest his regulars; I don't think any starter played more then 14 minutes.

Of the new guys, Martin is certainly a keeper, though at 185 lbs, he needs another 20 pounds of muscle if he wants an NBA career longer then a stiff breeze can blow him over. Minard looks like a backup at best, though he is intriguing on defense.

Bluthenthal has a game, but zero NBA experience, and the Kings have already signed him.  Ferguson is 7'0" and 205 pounds - 'nough said: Parada came to the game late, but has an NBA body and I would not be surprised if the Kings sign him until Ostertag comes back. Alexander is a walking medvac case - if he is our Anthony Peeler replacement, we need someone to replace the replacement. Barnes could easily make any NBA team out there - if he ever learns that the entire object of the game of basketball is to put the ball in the basket once in a while. Didn't he ever go to a gym and just shoot hoops like the rest of us?

Ford is big and capable of regularly planting any power forward into the first row of seats. Too bad that isn't the object of the game either. Bland is ......well named. Evans probably will be picked up by some other team once the Kings cut him as will Barnes. Liu was signed sort of to be our Chinese national representative when the Kings went to China to face Yao's Rockets. Turns out, he clearly can execute as an NBA point guard, but he won't do it for the Kings this year.

The real tall guy who is skinny, forget his name.  He swatted Kobe in the 2nd half.  He looks like he could be a decent big man if the Kings trainers put him on a high carb, thick workout for the next 2-3 years.  He was getting up pretty quickly when he was jumping.  Kinda reminded me a bit of Ratliff with that speed getting up to swat.  Barnes wasnt bad.  Minard looks iffy to me.  Didn't get to really watch them for more than half a game so I can't judge really.

I forgot the team just got back from China.  That pretty much changes most of my observations lol.  Still at the same time the movement just wasn't there.  Jet lag or not.  Didnt they have 3 days of rest since the game overseas?  I don't think the movement was there during the GS game either.  They were settling for low % shots.  Webber was being guarded by Odom and didnt take much advantage.

[JoMal]

The real tall guy who is skinny, forget his name.  He swatted Kobe in the 2nd half.  He looks like he could be a decent big man if the Kings trainers put him on a high carb, thick workout for the next 2-3 years.  He was getting up pretty quickly when he was jumping.  Kinda reminded me a bit of Ratliff with that speed getting up to swat.  Barnes wasnt bad.  Minard looks iffy to me.  Didn't get to really watch them for more than half a game so I can't judge really.

I forgot the team just got back from China.  That pretty much changes most of my observations lol.  Still at the same time the movement just wasn't there.  Jet lag or not.  Didnt they have 3 days of rest since the game overseas?  I don't think the movement was there during the GS game either.  They were settling for low % shots.  Webber was being guarded by Odom and didnt take much advantage.

 

The tall kid blocking shots was Anwar Ferguson. At 7 feet and 205 lbs (that's right, 205), I think we both can see a little problem with his NBA chances at this time. Some guys just can't put on weight no matter what you do. Remember when Shawn Bradley came into the League? Everyone raved about his game, but thought just fattening him up would make him a great pro. They never could do it; he stayed skinny and mediocre.

As for the China trip, they flew back (16 hours) on Sunday, tried to sleep but kept waking up at 4 in the morning; tried to go back to sleep, then had to go practise at 12:30 on Monday. They definitely were still feeling the effects on Tuesday.

But Adelman was perfectly fine with playing the young guys extended minutes. He has said several times he is not looking forward to the first cuts (scheduled for today) because he wants to talk to the Maloofs about how many players they can carry on IR. He wants to use all three spots, as he likes many of these kids. As I said, there are likely spots on other teams for several of these guys once the Kings have to cut them.