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I will start by saying that I am first and foremost a Raptors fan, but the Kings are quickly becoming one of my favorite teams. After two highly successful drafts, my question for you Kings fans is; are the Kings ready for a playoff berth yet? The most important factor in deciding this question has to be the advancement of Evans games. Will he be able to take the next step to become truly "elite"? For that to happen he obviously must improve his shooting game, which is a lot easier then trying to improve a handle. The other factor has to be if Cousins is ready to be that dominant inside force that Webber used to provide. I think its possible for Cousins to average over 13 and 8 if given enough time. With the two most important positions covered, the role players are abundant. Casspi is the perfect fit next to Evans, and Landry's main weakness is covered by Cousins. So do you think its possible to make the playoffs this year? If all the question marks are answered, i think you very well could. Thoughts?

The quick and dirty answer is NO. Although I like the direction the team is going and think we have some high-caliber talent, the team is lacking one very important thing...experience. They need to learn how to play together before even thinking about the "P" word. They also could use some veteran role players to fill in the gaps and mentor the young guys.

The team could be a 30+ win team next season. But that is no enough to sniff the 8th seed in the West. I'm fine with that. I would rather the team and fans kept expectations in check and stay focused on long-term rebuilding. Playoffs discussions just distract from that goal.

Not this year. If we don't get at least an 8th seed by next year -- Tyreke's 3rd year and Cousins' 2nd year -- I'll be surprised and disappointed. By Tyreke's 4th year and Cousins' 3rd year, I want to be at least a top 4 seed. If management can't build around those two guys with all of our cap space in the next two years to build a contender, there needs to be some mass layoffs.

KingInExile wrote:he team is lacking one very important thing...experience.

While I agree that they are lacking in experience, was the same thing not being said about the Thunder last year? While granted Evans may not be on Durant's level yet I think that with the recent faltering of Phoenix it's still possible that they could make the playoffs, but granted highly unlikely. What does eveyone expect out of Cousin's first year?

Another factor is the west is still tough. Every team that made the playoffs last year i can't see falling out besides possibly phoenix. Then you got houson waiting in wings and there is no denying the lonely clippers have got more than enough talent to contend for a playoff spot if everything clicks. I see us ending up somewhere around 11th or 12th seed. But if evans improves and cousins overachieves who knows we could be that surprise team that contends for that 8th.

Reke needs to improve in the area of managing a team and facilitating an offense. That's his biggest weakness. If everything is clicking we could make the playoffs, but there will be no run! We'll get swept in the 1st round.

Not quite yet, we are still WAY too young and if we learn how to play defense as a "team" then maybe we can sneak in like OKC did last year. I highly doubt that happens, so I will expect 35-39 wins this year and then hopefully next season we make that leap back into the postseason. It all depends on how Reke improves his game to make his teammates better and if his team can take advantage of the double teams he will see. As for Demarcus, I don't expect much really out of him this year, a solid 10/6 will do. I expect one of Donte/Casspi to take a leap and finally implant a starting SF rather than switching by the week.

Mediocrity wrote:

KingInExile wrote:he team is lacking one very important thing...experience.

While I agree that they are lacking in experience, was the same thing not being said about the Thunder last year? While granted Evans may not be on Durant's level yet I think that with the recent faltering of Phoenix it's still possible that they could make the playoffs, but granted highly unlikely. What does eveyone expect out of Cousin's first year?

To put it in (probably overly) simple terms, last year was Durant's third year and Westbrook's second. This year is Tyreke's second and Cousins' rookie year.

I have thought of a scenario in which we could possibly make it. We have to first out perform Clippers, Memphis, Warriors, and T'Wolves by ourselve. Some of those will be easy, but not all of them.

Then the following things have to happen.
1) Phoenix has to basically fall apart. Age has to finally catch up with Nash, basically.
2) Chris Paul either has to get hurt again, force a trade, or pout in NO.
3) Yao has to get hurt again.
OR
4) One of these can be replaced by Melo being traded for not much in return (in terms of wins right now).

And beyond all of this, we still have to REALLY overperform. But if all of those things happen, we'll have an outside shot of an 8 seed and getting swept by the Lakers in the first round.

So basically, no. Not this year.

There are just too many good teams for us to pass up this year. Not only do you have Phoenix, NOH, and Houston in the way, but you also have the Grizzles, who almost made the playoffs last year, and a greatly improved Clippers team with Blake Griffin returning from injury. So essentially, you have 4-5 teams going for one spot.

No, IMO we need more then just Cousins having a good year, and and improvement to Evans shot. First and foremost we'll need to solidify our line up and figure out who is starting and who is coming off the bench. Once we do that, we'll need to create some team chemistry with our primary and secondary squads and make sure when they're on the court they know what they will work well together. We'll need a solid "ROOKIE" year from cousins (10/10) would be ideal, we'll need either caspi or greene to assume the sf spot and have a solid year - and of course for the other to give us solid minutes off the bench. We'll need both beno and evans to repeat what they did last year - and if evans could show some improvement at team management and his shooting game/range - I think we'll be in pretty good shape.

Just an FYI, OKC "snuck" in with fifty wins. 50!

This discussion keeps coming up and going round and round.

What I'd like to know - from the absolute naysayers - is would you really have a problem with this young team showing that they really ARE going to be THAT good early and making the jump?

I mean seriously, how could even a first round and out in a hard fought match against the likely world champions be a bad experience?

I'm not saying go out and sell out the farm to make it to round one and out. Just that there is nothing better than playoff experience to teach guys how to WIN in the playoffs.

OGSactownballer wrote:This discussion keeps coming up and going round and round.

What I'd like to know - from the absolute naysayers - is would you really have a problem with this young team showing that they really ARE going to be THAT good early and making the jump?

I mean seriously, how could even a first round and out in a hard fought match against the likely world champions be a bad experience?

I'm not saying go out and sell out the farm to make it to round one and out. Just that there is nothing better than playoff experience to teach guys how to WIN in the playoffs.

We need to first get there obviously to get that experience, but at the same time we just need experience in the win category to motivate our youngins to keep their hunger to win at a high level and continue to do so by playing team basketball, rebounding & playing solid defense as a unit. I have fairly high expectations this year, playoffs...no, but a nice leap would not be out of the question.

If you're talking playoffs, you're most likely talking 50 win territory and that's just too much to ask of a team this young. This team has tons of potential but I wouldn't put down money on any super duper initial returns on this investment. Talents there so it's possible but experience is just way too important in the NBA.

OGSactownballer wrote:What I'd like to know - from the absolute naysayers - is would you really have a problem with this young team showing that they really ARE going to be THAT good early and making the jump?

I mean seriously, how could even a first round and out in a hard fought match against the likely world champions be a bad experience?

I'm not saying go out and sell out the farm to make it to round one and out. Just that there is nothing better than playoff experience to teach guys how to WIN in the playoffs.

I don't think anyone would say it would be a "problem" when the worst you could say is it lowers our 1st round pick a bit. The benefits of playoff experience outweighs any negatives, as long it is earned the right way. What I mean by that is that if the reason we made the playoffs is because we went out and traded some youth for veterans as some sort of short-term fix, then obviously that somewhat negates the point of that playoff experience.

The playoffs just seems incredibly unlikely considering it would probably take a "perfect storm" of conditions outside the teams control for it be able to compete that quickly. It isn't just a matter of being young, it is also the simple fact that a lot of these players haven't played together before. Guys like Dalembert, Jeter, Cousins, and Whiteside are all completely new to the team, while guys like Garcia and Landry have limited experience with the others. Chemistry doesn't develop overnight. Yes there are a few teams that have jumped quickly to the playoffs like OKC, but as was pointed out previously by someone, even their key players needed one more season together than this team will have as it enters this season. That was also with one of their key players happening to be an emerging superstar who became a top-10 player in the league. I certainly hope Tyreke follows the same upward trajectory that Durant did, but it isn't something that can be counted on.

SacKingZZZ wrote:If you're talking playoffs, you're most likely talking 50 win territory and that's just too much to ask of a team this young. This team has tons of potential but I wouldn't put down money on any super duper initial returns on this investment. Talents there so it's possible but experience is just way too important in the NBA.

Last year was a fluke, though. Instead of the usual spread-out 2-8 of 56 to 44 wins, there was an entire battlefield of very evenly matched teams hovering just above 50 wins. With those playoff teams apparently going in very different directions, I don't think we will see the huge 8-game divide that separated the playoff teams from Houston at 42 wins. It will be more like 6 or 7 teams will be clearly in the playoffs, followed by a divide and a battlefield of many decent teams battling for the last 1 or 2 playoff spots.

45 wins may very well get you in this season, but then +20 wins is probably too much to ask. I mean, you wouldn't ask for more than +15 wins from Yao Ming, let alone Samuel Dalembert. From the summer league, I don't see Cousins being anywhere near an impact player in his rookie season. He's way too raw. Persoanlly, I think next season will be better than the season after the next when Dalembert and Landry walk in FA. Adding players of the departing Dalembert and Landry's quality will be difficult to say the least.

OGSactownballer wrote:This discussion keeps coming up and going round and round.

What I'd like to know - from the absolute naysayers - is would you really have a problem with this young team showing that they really ARE going to be THAT good early and making the jump?

I mean seriously, how could even a first round and out in a hard fought match against the likely world champions be a bad experience?

I'm not saying go out and sell out the farm to make it to round one and out. Just that there is nothing better than playoff experience to teach guys how to WIN in the playoffs.

I think I know what you're saying and I can't say that I have any issue with that. Yes, the more games the guys play together, especially games that count, the more experience they gain. I wouldn't be upset IF they were somehow able to slide into the 8th spot. But I think that is a HUGE IF. I don't think that they currently have what it takes to make a push for the 8th slot...not necessarily from a skill perspective, but from an overall experience perspective. My feeling is that this season is the season for the young guys to get that experience.

Like you said, this is not a time to sell the farm to make an all-or-bust playoff push. There's no reason to. I'm satisfied with letting the team play without grand expectations (ie, playoff birth) and gain experience together. As long as they put together more wins than last year and continue to show that they're progressing, I'll consider the season a success.

Oh yeah, I'd be absolutely thrilled with a playoff spot, so long as we wouldn't have to sacrifice any youth to get it. Playoff experience would be much, much more valuable than a few spots higher in the draft. I wouldn't give up any really big pieces for a vet, but for the right vet, I would give up a JT/Donte or Casspi package.

Leithid wrote:Last year was a fluke, though. Instead of the usual spread-out 2-8 of 56 to 44 wins, there was an entire battlefield of very evenly matched teams hovering just above 50 wins. With those playoff teams apparently going in very different directions, I don't think we will see the huge 8-game divide that separated the playoff teams from Houston at 42 wins. It will be more like 6 or 7 teams will be clearly in the playoffs, followed by a divide and a battlefield of many decent teams battling for the last 1 or 2 playoff spots.

45 wins may very well get you in this season, but then +20 wins is probably too much to ask. I mean, you wouldn't ask for more than +15 wins from Yao Ming, let alone Samuel Dalembert. From the summer league, I don't see Cousins being anywhere near an impact player in his rookie season. He's way too raw. Persoanlly, I think next season will be better than the season after the next when Dalembert and Landry walk in FA. Adding players of the departing Dalembert and Landry's quality will be difficult to say the least.

Not really though. I think some of the teams that were expected to drop off actually got stronger. Teams like Utah lost Boozer but gained Al Jefferson, and while who knows how it will work out he's at the very least either an upgrade or a very, very slight drop off. The Suns are the question mark but I think they put pieces around Nash that he can just destroy teams with, no Amare might not be such a problem. Denver is the other question mark with the Melo situation but with Karl back they are certainly going to get some type of boost. Houston could indeed be the team to cut some wins off the records of the established playoff teams but still, we're in the second level behind those teams. I don't know if the magic number will be 50, but 45 is close enough to it IMO.

I think Cousins could most certainly be an impact player as early as game one, depending on what you mean by "impact" of course. There will be growing pains for sure but he already has the skill that most bigs come in still needing to learn. Cousins could write a book on footwork and post play right now. I also think playing next to guys like Landry and Evans will take a lot of pressure off of him to be a main option initially. That will hopefully help in his transition.

I wouldn't be surprised to see one or maybe even both of Dalembert and Landry back here long term. Depends on how the team looks. I still think Petrie is going to shuffle the deck come the trade deadline. One of Landry or Thompson is gone, heck, maybe even both, I'm still very interested to see how Cousins and Daly work in the frontcourt together. Could be a perfect combination. I can't remember a time when this franchise was in such a position to drastically alter their fortunes via a blockbuster type of trade. Now the situation has to present itself, but I don't think there is another team with the flexibility the Kings have right now to make that type of move.

KingInExile wrote:

OGSactownballer wrote:This discussion keeps coming up and going round and round.

What I'd like to know - from the absolute naysayers - is would you really have a problem with this young team showing that they really ARE going to be THAT good early and making the jump?

I mean seriously, how could even a first round and out in a hard fought match against the likely world champions be a bad experience?

I'm not saying go out and sell out the farm to make it to round one and out. Just that there is nothing better than playoff experience to teach guys how to WIN in the playoffs.

I think I know what you're saying and I can't say that I have any issue with that. Yes, the more games the guys play together, especially games that count, the more experience they gain. I wouldn't be upset IF they were somehow able to slide into the 8th spot. But I think that is a HUGE IF. I don't think that they currently have what it takes to make a push for the 8th slot...not necessarily from a skill perspective, but from an overall experience perspective. My feeling is that this season is the season for the young guys to get that experience.

Like you said, this is not a time to sell the farm to make an all-or-bust playoff push. There's no reason to. I'm satisfied with letting the team play without grand expectations (ie, playoff birth) and gain experience together. As long as they put together more wins than last year and continue to show that they're progressing, I'll consider the season a success.

Man, could you imagine if this team as is, or at least under a system built around Evans/Cousins made the playoffs this season!? That would be so huge for the growth of this team. Thunder-esque but with potential for even higher long term results. I agree, making wholesale changes unless they are nobrainers is not the thing to do. Might be by the deadline though.