Official 2008 Draft Night Thread...the future is now.

[SacKingZZZ]

Well if he's stuck behind Reef, Mikki, and Brad he has a 0% chance of even being in the discussion. Sometimes it all comes down to who gets the time. If Spencer was a starter for us last year and got major minutes I am pretty sure he would have been in the running last year with what he showed when he got time.

I just had a thought. I'm thinking more and more that the Kings were going to pick Thompson over just any PG that dropped. If we really wanted Bayless why wouldn't we just pick Rush for Indy and do the deal instead of Portland?

Spencer shot 46% from the floor last year, and had pretty horrible rebounding numbers even per minute. He wouldn't have been close.

As for the second part, part of it was probably because Geoff didn't want to give up extra young talent--in fact I know that was part of it. What young talent exactly--I don't know, but I'm guessing that the Pacers didn't want wings, but a backup PG. And also Portland can afford to package a lot of their youth together for risky trades because they have a lot more depth in their youth than we do--because they can buy picks, because their owner could probably buy the league if he wanted to.

Not bad when a lot of his shots were jumpers and he took his fair share of 3's as well. Horford was in the dicussion and put up 10 ppg, 9 rpg, and shot 49%. Spencers numbers in 30+ mpg as a starter (although it may be a small sample size) were around that neighborhood at 12 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 2.3 apg, 1.6 bpg. He would have been in the discussion without question if he put up numbers similar to that over the course of an 82 game season as a 19 year old.

[pillwenney]

Well if he's stuck behind Reef, Mikki, and Brad he has a 0% chance of even being in the discussion. Sometimes it all comes down to who gets the time. If Spencer was a starter for us last year and got major minutes I am pretty sure he would have been in the running last year with what he showed when he got time.

I just had a thought. I'm thinking more and more that the Kings were going to pick Thompson over just any PG that dropped. If we really wanted Bayless why wouldn't we just pick Rush for Indy and do the deal instead of Portland?

Spencer shot 46% from the floor last year, and had pretty horrible rebounding numbers even per minute. He wouldn't have been close.

As for the second part, part of it was probably because Geoff didn't want to give up extra young talent--in fact I know that was part of it. What young talent exactly--I don't know, but I'm guessing that the Pacers didn't want wings, but a backup PG. And also Portland can afford to package a lot of their youth together for risky trades because they have a lot more depth in their youth than we do--because they can buy picks, because their owner could probably buy the league if he wanted to.

Not bad when a lot of his shots were jumpers and he took his fair share of 3's as well. Horford was in the dicussion and put up 10 ppg, 9 rpg, and shot 49%. Spencers numbers in 30+ mpg as a starter (although it may be a small sample size) were around that neighborhood at 12 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 2.3 apg, 1.6 bpg. He would have been in the discussion without question if he put up numbers similar to that over the course of an 82 game season as a 19 year old.

But he wouldn't have, and he wouldn't have come close, mostly because he has grown throughout the year (by earning playing time and not just having it handed to him) and also because his injury really limited him earlier in the year. Not to mention that Horford is also the significantly better defender right now (and probably in the future, but that's not relevant to this discussion). And of course, Horford was a starter for a playoff team (albeit one with the same record as the Kings). If Spencer had started in front of Brad the whole year, it would have been very ugly.

[Ballings7]

I want to see what's going to happen with SAR/KT...

is KT going to sit out and play here and there for a whole year, again? Because even with his injury/ies he would of done similar. As Reggie indicated he wasn't in our future plans last year.

And SAR, is he going to get his minutes as the back-up C because he's a veteran? Or will he have a similar situation to Kenny...

[KF10]

I want to see what's going to happen with SAR/KT...

is KT going to sit out and play here and there for a whole year, again? Because even with his injury/ies he would of done similar. As Reggie indicated he wasn't in our future plans last year.

And SAR, is he going to get his minutes as the back-up C because he's a veteran? Or will he have a similar situation to Kenny...

Yeah, I know. This issue has been under the rafters too long(Well, not really but you get the point ). We should do something quick IMO.

I think Im the ONLY or the VERY few Kings posters that actually believe that Kenny Thomas could return to near his dbl-dbl level, hustle, energy, solid post D, and etc type of player, IF he works on his game i.e. like polish the rust from all those DNPs and should at least get consistent minutes in the rotation. If he does that, I could see him be likable by Kings posters. Yeah, I know. Seems impossible. But really, it could happen. I actually LIKED Thomas as a player when he came to Sacramento. He was just SOLID PF, really he is. I still kinda like him but his status/contract is forcing me to do the latter.

Shareef. He is just had that knee surgery (Supposedly to be minor). I expect him to get minutes and ready to produce IMO.

[Ballings7]

I really liked KT as well up to around Jan. 07... that's when he started to trail off, lose minutes, and eventually was out for the year. Hasn't been able to get back to that since.

KT was a key part of our run in 06.

[VeeJay24]

I really liked KT as well up to around Jan. 07... that's when he started to trail off, lose minutes, and eventually was out for the year. Hasn't been able to get back to that since.

KT was a key part of our run in 06.

I think the KIngs are just waiting for both guys contracts to expire.....I wouldn't be surprised to see both guys on the end of the bench or tuck away on IR. If Theus wants to run an uptempo offense neither can really play that style especially Reef.

[KingInExile]

^^ I agree about Douby. So far he's looking to be a bust. And knowing who we left on the table makes that pain sting.

That's what I've been saying since before we ever even drafted him. He's had a couple of years to adjust to the big time show of the NBA, but he has never gotten rid of that deer-caught-in-the-headlights look about him. Fortunately, Martin and Garcia turned out to be two invaluable players despite being late 1st round picks, which leads me to believe that the mistake of picking Douby was a one-time thing. I have faith Thompson will be a good player.

Naw...the draft is just a crap shoot, and the Douby pick just shows that. There are few guys in the draft that are sure things, so you're always taking a risk that you're going to draft a dud. Even the best judge of talent won't be able to nail every decision. That's why the idea of rebuilding solely through the draft is foolish IMO.

[SacKingZZZ]

That '06 draft will be known as one of the weakest ever. That at least should save Petries rep a little bit.

[SacKingZZZ]

But he wouldn't have, and he wouldn't have come close, mostly because he has grown throughout the year (by earning playing time and not just having it handed to him) and also because his injury really limited him earlier in the year. Not to mention that Horford is also the significantly better defender right now (and probably in the future, but that's not relevant to this discussion). And of course, Horford was a starter for a playoff team (albeit one with the same record as the Kings). If Spencer had started in front of Brad the whole year, it would have been very ugly.

I would bet anything that he would have simply "grown" at a much greater rate. He was a skilled player coming in. He isn't someone that has to learn the game before he hits the floor, you said he wasn't ready last year and were proven wrong to a certain extent. Is he ready to lead our team to the playoffs as a full time starter? No. But what ROOKIE is!? Their job is to learn to play at this level and improve. Now it's Petries job to put them in a position to succeed and to make the future a little brighter for all of us Kings fans.

[pillwenney]

But he wouldn't have, and he wouldn't have come close, mostly because he has grown throughout the year (by earning playing time and not just having it handed to him) and also because his injury really limited him earlier in the year. Not to mention that Horford is also the significantly better defender right now (and probably in the future, but that's not relevant to this discussion). And of course, Horford was a starter for a playoff team (albeit one with the same record as the Kings). If Spencer had started in front of Brad the whole year, it would have been very ugly.

I would bet anything that he would have simply "grown" at a much greater rate. He was a skilled player coming in. He isn't someone that has to learn the game before he hits the floor, you said he wasn't ready last year and were proven wrong to a certain extent. Is he ready to lead our team to the playoffs as a full time starter? No. But what ROOKIE is!? Their job is to learn to play at this level and improve. Now it's Petries job to put them in a position to succeed and to make the future a little brighter for all of us Kings fans.

Every rookie has to adjust to the pro game--it's very different from the college and high school games. So no matter how smart a player may be there are still a whole lot of new things he has to learn, aside from just adjusting to the much greater speed of the game, the bigger players, the better athletes--everything.

But a much greater rate? No. He was learning the game all year long, and once he fully recovered from his knee surgery he got consistent playing time.

But we've had this argument before, and I'm not into having it again, because you never seem to want to acknowledge the idea that playing time isn't directly proportional to a players' improvement.

I said that he wasn't ready to be a starter last year, and he never was. I said that he wouldn't be able to consistently play in the post, and he wasn't because he wasn't strong enough. In fact I repeated that over and over and over again--that his post skills were useless until he gained enough strength to hold position down low. I said that he could come in right away and shoot jumpers and that a combination of him and Brad would be poor defensively.

I was wrong in assuming that he would be so poor defensively (although he wasn't as great as some would say), but that's pretty much it. He wasn't ready to consistently utilize what he'll eventually be able to utilize in this league--at least not nearly to the extent someone like Horford was. Horford was much more NBA-ready because his body was NBA ready.

[Ballings7]

Brad being dealt soon will only make things better for Spencer.