Now that he has a few games under his belt, I can review what Musselman has changed from the Adelman basketball style with the SacTown Kings.
Musselman is one intense dude. He is constantly yelling at his players, especially to get back on transition defense. He will not hesitate to bench a player who fails to do his bidding, at least long enough for Eric to tell that player where he erred. As he showed in the Raptors game, he will rotate players to make better matchups favorable to his team without hesitation. In that game, Chris Bosh started the game by lighting up Kenny Thomas, so Musselman switched Ron Artest onto Bosh, essentially taking that option out of the Toronto gameplan.
The emphasis on defense has changed Mike Bibby into a much more rounded point guard. Mike CAN play defense, if asked to do so, and so far this season, he is doing an outstanding job of it. But for his wrist injury, he probably would be heading for his first All Star spot, because his shot is off a bit.
Without Brad Miller, the Kings are 3-0 with Shareef Abdur-Rahim playing a smallball center. He and Thomas, who are NOT friendly with each other, suddenly look like a great tandum, passing the ball back and forth and placing screens to free the other for open looks.
While the offense has taken longer to gel, it has looked much better during this home stretch. It will never match Adelman's open style, but these guys have not forgotten how to shoot the ball and have done a much better job of it, percentage wise, of late.
The best improvement over Adelman? There are several that I like very much. Musselman actually COACHES during games, changing things that don't work and rotating players in and out with better rhythm. Rick hardly changed a thing and left the players to figure it out when the other team started to dominate on something. Musselman refuses to do that, by yelling for better rebounding, getting back in transition, and putting in guys who perhaps would do better defensively against certain players.
His best improvement? Probably allowing Kevin Martin the full support he needed at starting shooting guard. The job is now his without question or the threat of a Bonzi Wells coming back to take it away. While most offensive sets have Bibby or Artest as the shooter, Martin's early season shooting stats are swaying the coaches to his involvement more and more. He is taking 14.3 shots a game, and shooting 54.7 percent, while scoring 23.8 points a game so far. He gets to the free throw line over 7 times a game and is shooting 93.2 % from the line and has not missed in his last 36 attempts. Those numbers would be hard for ANY coach to ignore. Martin's speed gets him separation so his awkward jump shot has clearance. He floats into the key for fouls and a nasty little shot that seems to have eyes as it frequently goes into the hoop for three point plays. He also can clear up missed garbage from Artest's poor early season shooting, thankfully.
What I would LIKE to see is more Ronnie Price and Francisco Garcia. They both need playing time to fully develop, and Musselman is not giving it to them yet. They can match the defensive of the starters (actually, both are better then the starters at defense - who would be Bibby and Martin), and can pass and shoot well enough to warrant more time on the court.
Our front court backups are not helping much while Miller is out for the next month or so, except for Corliss Williamson, who is finally getting off the bench a bit. Maurice Taylor and Vitaly Potapenko are not helping at all and against some teams, that will undoubtedly hurt the Kings. Fortunately, SAR is doing just fine filling in for Brad because there are not that many teams who have true, dominant centers in the West anyway, and he is quicker then the ones he has faced so far.
Musselman brought with him what has to be the youngest coaching staff in the NBA to Sacramento. Every one of the staff can still get out on the court and challenge a player, instead of just standing to one side and telling them what they mean. They are in the gym with them, lifting weights or riding stationaries. They look and act like contemporaries instead of sage old coaches. Kevin Martin certainly misses Coach Pete Carril, who is back at Princeton and is responsible for Martin's confidence boost and enhancing his abilities, but otherwise it appears the coaches have the attention of the players and have kept it focused.
After 82 games, it will be interesting to see if this level of intensity can be maintained for most of the season. THAT would be a trick in itself.
