Observations before the season starts

cdt3 · Post #1 » by **cdt3** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 6:29 am

Observations about the roster.

Tyreke is a PG, he put up 15/5/5 in preseason and is going to have a monster year.

I hope everyone appreciates how consistent Martin is and how he has to play next to Evans and Mason who are bad shooters.

Thomspon avgd a 15/10/1 with 11 or so touches in the preseason vs Boozer, Amare, Randolph, Aldridge, and Odom. I still hear people he is not a #1 big guy.

Hawes also avgd a very solid 12/7/1.4. He was injured in the preseason and still coming around but should be solid this year.

I hope that Westphal doesn't fall too much in love with Evans and Martin and works on getting more touches to the bigs. He has to have the bigs get more touches to keep defenses honest. With how bad of a shooter both Mason and Evans are they need production out of their bigs.

I am still really positive about this group.

RoyalCourtJestr · Post #2 » by **RoyalCourtJestr** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 7:07 am

Preseason stats are not counted for a reason - because they mean very little.

Lets see how we do when it actually counts.

sacking101 · Post #3 » by **sacking101** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 7:11 am

There are a lot of positives to take out of preseason. Evans being #1. Im confident he can play point next to martin. Kevin needs a guy to suck the defense in so he can get better shots and thats what evans does. Tyreke is turnover prone though but that can be fixed by learning when to pick the right time to penetrate and pass. JT looked good and spencer was ok but i like how May looks physically and think he could be a good big off the bench for us. I personally like sergio more then beno but westphal seems to hate him. And i was expecting more from donte in his second year but he still has plenty of time to prove himself.

OGSactownballer · Post #4 » by **OGSactownballer** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 6:56 pm

I think that the three biggest positives - in no certain order are Evans (pretty much what I expected to see actually - with the bonus that his shooting is coming around quicker than I had hoped), OMRI (man it would be sweet if this kid turns out to have a short sharp learning curve!), and Thompson (can we say legit?).

I am a little disappointed in Spencer, but injury does factor and I'd rather see him healthy and producing in the reg season. I am hoping that Beno comes around and adjusts to being the first point off the bench otherwise he is sure to become a millstone on the cap if there is no clause in the new CBA like the old where we can dump one bad contract.

Also, it is nice to see Noc looking good as that bodes well for moving him at mid-season for a player/cap-space.

OGSactownballer · Post #5 » by **OGSactownballer** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 7:00 pm

Also, I forgot, I think that Sergio probably had to learn the system a bit more but that is coming around these past three games here.

I am a little sour on Donte Greene in general, but who knows. He is - like Spencer - still very young and not physically developed yet. I still see where he can have a nice career as a Joe Smith/Robert Horry type of guy (obviously it would be a LOT to ask for him to be as good as Horry) a tall strong 3 who can guard 4's as a role player or b/u and pull them out of the paint with his range shooting on offense.

Website · Post #6 » by **Nicky Nix Nook** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 7:13 pm

OGSactownballer wrote:Also, I forgot, I think that Sergio probably had to learn the system a bit more but that is coming around these past three games here.

I am a little sour on Donte Greene in general, but who knows. He is - like Spencer - still very young and not physically developed yet. I still see where he can have a nice career as a Joe Smith/Robert Horry type of guy (obviously it would be a LOT to ask for him to be as good as Horry) a tall strong 3 who can guard 4's as a role player or b/u and pull them out of the paint with his range shooting on offense.

Robert Horry, style wise, is a pretty good comparison imo--minus all the greatness.

I think Spencer will come around. Sometimes (good or bad) when a coach messes with your confidence it can reflect on your performance. Westphal's attitude wasn't "You're our guy" and I think that had an effect on Hawes. Some people like the idea of Hawes having to earn it, but I think it may have backfired. We'll see how the season goes.

Post #7 » by **Wolfay** » Sat Oct 24, 2009 9:15 pm

OGSactownballer wrote:Also, I forgot, I think that Sergio probably had to learn the system a bit more but that is coming around these past three games here.

I am a little sour on Donte Greene in general, but who knows. He is - like Spencer - still very young and not physically developed yet. I still see where he can have a nice career as a Joe Smith/Robert Horry type of guy (obviously it would be a LOT to ask for him to be as good as Horry) a tall strong 3 who can guard 4's as a role player or b/u and pull them out of the paint with his range shooting on offense.

DO NOT mention that name EVER again.

But anyway, I think the most important thing we can take from the preseason is that aside from the typical rookie mistakes, Evans CAN play, and play very well. Thompson is really maturing as a player and holy cow I'm impressed with Casspi. He may very well be one of those late 1st round steals Petrie has become known for.

sacking101 · Post #8 » by **sacking101** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 6:53 pm

i just noticed that omri shot 52% from three in the preseason! Is that a fluke or what?

SacKingZZZ · Post #9 » by **SacKingZZZ** » Mon Oct 26, 2009 9:08 pm

Gotta say, I think Evans has a tremendous shot at ROY if he stays healthy. It really seems like the PG spot is his without any questions.

Post #10 » by **KF10** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 4:01 am

I would like to see how Westphal going to distribute the minutes between Beno, Evans and Sergio.

perezident · Post #11 » by **perezident** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 4:34 am

id like to see if we actually address this 7 fter question...lol somewhere Loren Woods is saying, he forgot how to shoot three's :rofl:

deNIEd · Post #12 » by **deNIEd** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 5:36 pm

Sam Amick: Evans is the latest to grow tired of Nocioni's style. Pretty chippy between the two.
-Via Twitter

I know its just twitter..but lol...does anyone in Sacramento still like Nocioni?

sacking101 · Post #13 » by **sacking101** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:13 pm

deNIEd wrote:Sam Amick: Evans is the latest to grow tired of Nocioni's style. Pretty chippy between the two.
-Via Twitter

I know its just twitter..but lol...does anyone in Sacramento still like Nocioni?

Hate to play against him but love his style on your team. We need a tough guy who will play scrappy D on the other teams best perimeter player. If it means he is scrappy in practice too then that should be a good thing right?

Post #14 » by **KF10** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:18 pm

deNIEd wrote:Sam Amick: Evans is the latest to grow tired of Nocioni's style. Pretty chippy between the two.
-Via Twitter

I know its just twitter..but lol...does anyone in Sacramento still like Nocioni?

Wait. So, Evans does not like Nocioni's style of play? Tough and grit? I have to see more info to fully evaluate the situation here.

deNIEd · Post #15 » by **deNIEd** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:26 pm

KF10 wrote:
deNIEd wrote:Sam Amick: Evans is the latest to grow tired of Nocioni's style. Pretty chippy between the two.
-Via Twitter

I know its just twitter..but lol...does anyone in Sacramento still like Nocioni?

Wait. So, Evans does not like Nocioni's style of play? Tough and grit? I have to see more info to fully evaluate the situation here.

I dunno. That's all the twitt said (also why twitter is a bad place for info)

-Either Evans doesn't like Nocioni's playing style
or
-Evans doesn't like Nocioni's personality

Post #16 » by **KF10** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:29 pm

deNIEd wrote:I dunno. That's all the twitt said (also why twitter is a bad place for info)

-Either Evans doesn't like Nocioni's playing style
or
-Evans doesn't like Nocioni's personality

One might perceive it as that Evans was bothered by Nocioni's "defense" during practice. And Evans is whining about it. "Nocioni is playing too tough on me. It's only practice! Chill out"

*All my remarks are purely speculation. And I don't think I share that notion*

KM44 · Post #17 » by **KM44** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:45 pm

I didn't get to see much outside of some highlights for the preseason, but here are my causes for excitement and concern.

Excitement:
1. Sergio's play was amazing. I think he'll be superb off the bench and he'll look great setting up martin, evans or the bigs.
2. Omri surprised me tremendously. I thought he would at best be a 6th or 7th man in this league, but he looked like a promising rookie. I still think that dajuan blair would have been a better pick and we didn't really get to see much of brockman in the preseason, but Petrie definitely saw something in Casspi.

Concern:
1. Our record. As much as we can find positives out of the play of this team, they still went 2-5. Promise is nice, but winning is better.
2. Evans' turnovers. He led the league this preseason with 4 per game and his assist/turn ratio was barely over 1... Not too good for a pg.

Post #18 » by **pillwenney** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:59 pm

^^Basically agree with that. I would also add Spencer and Donte to the list of concerns. Both had pretty bad preseasons. I also am nearing the point where I would trade Beno for almost any shorter contract. I'm just waiting for somebody's PG to get injured so that Beno might be more tradable (I'm looking at you, Duhon!). Sergio seems like he will be a fine backup, so we really have no need for Beno.

I do think that we shouldn't ignore Evans' turnovers (although we do have to remember that a) it's preseason and b) he just turned 20), but there were also a lot of encouraging aspects of his play. Also on the plus side, Jason had a very good preseason.

deNIEd · Post #19 » by **deNIEd** » Tue Oct 27, 2009 7:02 pm

Positives
Kevin Martin
Tyreke Evans
Omir Casspri
Jason Thompson

Negatives
Beno Udrih
Nocioni
Spencer Hawes
Donte Greene

Who Cares
Everyone else

Smills91 · Post #20 » by **Smills91** » Wed Oct 28, 2009 1:26 am

mitchweber wrote:^^Basically agree with that. I would also add Spencer and Donte to the list of concerns. Both had pretty bad preseasons. I also am nearing the point where I would trade Beno for almost any shorter contract. I'm just waiting for somebody's PG to get injured so that Beno might be more tradable (I'm looking at you, Duhon!). Sergio seems like he will be a fine backup, so we really have no need for Beno.

I do think that we shouldn't ignore Evans' turnovers (although we do have to remember that a) it's preseason and b) he just turned 20), but there were also a lot of encouraging aspects of his play. Also on the plus side, Jason had a very good preseason.

Baron Davis is a better and more likely target for that to happen. Plus Dunleavy is still enamored with Beno.