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Improved free throw shooting, ball handling & SF play.

We lost quite a few games last year and over the past couple of years because we were unable to close games. Some of this can be attributed to lack of experience, which will come with time. A more easily fixable contributor to late game losses was poor free throw shooting. We can go back to the 2002 WCF to show the significance of poor free throw shooting. Ime Udoka's chokes a couple years back against the Lakers also stands out in my mind. The best Kings teams had Peja & Christie shooting free throws during the last 5 minutes of the game and that more often than not led to victories. Defenses step up in the 4th quarter and offensive execution and free throw shooting become more critical. How many times have you heard Grant say to Jerry, "missed free throws are just killing the Kings tonight"?

We picked up 2 very good free throw shooters (if not 1 great one) this offseason. Jimmer Fredette shot 88.2% over 4 years at BYU and nearly 90% his junior and senior years. John Salmons is a career 80.6% FT shooter and has shot as high as 83.0% for a season.

Beno had been our best clutch free throw shooter the past couple years so you could say we've netted only one additional good free throw shooter. Omri is 67.3% for his career & Donte is 67.8%. Our SF position will be manned by Salmons & Cisco (80.8% career FT shooter, 85.5% 2010-11). Tyreke shot 77.1% last year and Thornton was 80.5% after joining the Kings.

The guys handling the ball at the end of games for the Kings will be good to great free throw shooters and Jimmer, Salmons, Tyreke & Thornton can create their own offense when things tighten up during crunch time. DeMarcus only shot 68.7% as a rookie but I can see him being a 70-75% career FT shooter when all is said and done.

The trade for Salmons has been frowned upon by many. Is he a top 5 SF in the NBA? Not close. Could we have gotten a better SF via trade or free agency? Debatable. Can Salmons create offense & hit free throws? Yes. Is Salmons far better than any SF we trotted out on the court since he was traded? (remember Antoine Wright, Andres Nocioni, Ime Udoka, Desmond Mason, Dominic McGuire) Absolutely!

I definetly think that we have made upgrades to our roster. More than anything Salmons is "Consistant" He can create, defend and he is a veteran. Fredette has in the gym range, a great attitude and has shown that he can lead a team through out his hs/college career. I think fredette can also be the face/voice of this team - he does really good in interviews .. maybe this will help take some pressure off evans in that regard.. not saying much I know but every little bit helps.

The ft % you brought up is interesting - it slipped my mind, but its great to know that we've improved in that area (on paper atleast)

A few things of note ...

1. According to Geoff - they're not done tinkering with our roster...
2. We still have to re-sign thorton + Dally( or find a replacement)
3. Once our roster is complete there will still be the question of can these guys play together.. and if that is a yes.. how long will it take until they build up the team chemistry to a level that will translate to more wins.
4. We have young players with a lot of upside. They are inexperienced as well, will they live up to expectations? Surpass them? Stay the same? or totally disapoint? Who knows, but the answers to those questions will play a big part of our well we do next season....
^ to name some of those players with upside... Thorton/Evans/Caspi??/Whiteside/Cousins/ and donte .
5. Incoming rookies - Fredette/Thomas/Honeycutt - Can they have an impact? ... Hopefully towards the middle of the season we'll see Fredette in the top 3 running for ROY .. that would be nice

While the offense has improved, I don't think it was so bad with Marcus Thornton in the lineup. With him, the Kings went 10-17 -- a thirty win pace. That is ten more wins than the Kings were on pace to get based on the 13-40 record they had before the all star break. I've been re-watching Marcus-Thornton-led Kings games this off season and I think that the Kings hurt themselves the most by not having a defensive game plan. They almost never perform even the simplest defensive tricks, such as this one:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-szU93NAJFg[/youtube]

I say that the Kings will be lucky to reach thirty wins unless they get a defense. I read somewhere that Paul Westphal was trying to keep it simple for the guys. It doesn't get any simpler than the big man yelling "ice" and the perimeter player stepping up.

Right now I'm watching an April game against the Jazz. The Jazz offense is absolutely terrible, so the Kings aren't having that much trouble guarding them. As a result, the Kings are up by twenty points in the second quarter. Still, on the rare occasion that the Jazz run a pick and roll play, they easily get open shots and layups against the Kings.The transition defense is still terrible as well.

It's on Westphals shoulders now. No longer can he place the majority of the blame on his roster for not being what he needs, especially if the Kings add another piece or two.

Yeah, I think with the addition of Salmons the team will be better. (that's assuming that Salmons knows his role: plus defender + within the offense shot maker type).

Jimmer 3PT range should open the game more than Beno. (again: assuming that Jimmer hits his 3s @ a higher clip than Beno).

JJ Hickson should provide more than a guy like Thompson. Thompson is the jack of all trades kind of player. He does everything at a solid rate but nothing at a great rate. Hickson can provide good offense within his range (pos/close & occasional 15-17 jumper). Also, Hickson is the better (explosive) athlete than Thompson from what I saw. Thompson blows alot of easy gimmes around the basket while Hickson dunks everything near the basket.

I'm really hoping we can get past the 30-win barrier. I think anything below that is considered failure imo (pending any injuries of course).