Kings early season power ranking

[cdt3]

I see all the experts have the Kings at 3-4 at #25 at best in all the power rankings while ESPN had Washington at 2-5 at #19 and Det at 3-4 at #16. ESPN took the injuries both teams had into account. We all know the Kings are playing without KMart and Garcia but did you know we are missing 5 of our top 6 scorers from last years team from trade or injuries. Plus we have a shot of hitting .500 against OKC after playing 6 of our first 8 games vs playoff contenders. OKC is at .500 also and beat us in the first game so we have a very good chance of beating them this game.

[Wolfay]

It's just nice to be out of the absolute bottom and get at least a little recognition.

[cdt3]

True. But there is no doubt the the Maloofs/Petrie/Westphal/Evans has bigger goals than a little recognition.

[10B10]

Eh, who cares? It's pretty much every ESPN columnist's job to hate on the Kings.

So, no surprises here. We put in a couple of quite strong performances over the weekend, but don't expect people to stop thinking we are a bottom feeder.

[_SRV_]

No one hates the Kings, the Kings are coming from 2 bad seasons with no proven players on the team to indicate success, Detroit was a PO team who went out and signed 2 new starters one of them was arguably the best player on another PO team, the Wizards have one of the best guards in the league returning after injury, with a team proven to be a good team.
The Kings are starting from scratch and need to prove consistency, other teams have previous seasons to support them.
Can anyone here say honestly that he is sure that the team from the last 4 games will be the team for the remainder of the season?

[OGSactownballer]

See that is the kind of flawed logic that so many people here and around sports like to use.

By your method, you can argue that the Kings have the player that is pretty much become the consensus to be the best player taken in this draft. Therefore they should be getting a break in the rankings - never mind either 1) the fact that their top two scorers on the roster are both out for 2 and 4 months respectively and 2) their current performance.

You cannot base a current power ranking that has a measurable performance base (6-8 games now) on the activities and actions of last year or the off-season. I have seen a couple of the Wizards games, and I'm NOT impressed. Similar with Detroit. You gotta ask whether Joe D should have gone for the straight breakdown/rebuild like us rather than trying to hang on for a couple more playoff shots as an eighth seed then REALLY going in the tank.

EEPN and other major media outlets rank teams based on:

1) popularity in their respective league (i.e. - Lakers)
2) proximity to the east coast media markets (New York, boston, any other east coast city)
3) star draw (San Antonio, Orlando, Utah)

I am not taking away from the ACTUAL strength or talent or ability of ANY of these teams, just pointing out the fact that it is NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE for any other team to get that fair and equal recognition for performance without having one of those factors on their side (and usually two if they are a small market team).

The Kings are actually an excellent case in point. When the team was a sixty win contender AND enormously popular internationally (due to a very international roster), they received attention from the national media outlets on a regular basis. This still maintained when Artest was here (although for the opposite reason). Now, even when they have the potential ROY, they are basically ignored and paid no attention to despite a truly surprising step-up performance in the abscence of their top scorers.

[_SRV_]

it's no flawed logic, no one in their right mind would put the Cavs behind Bulls or Rockets, despite worse record, because eveybody knows that their skills aren't represented by this sample, the same goes for lesser teams like Detroit and the Wizards.
Are you seriously saying that this 1 game difference between Kings and Wizards, should erase all of the past success the Wizards had with this very same core?

[sl1mshad33]

Neither the Wizards or the Pistons have much of a future to look forward to (both teams are rather mediocre and aren't stocked with young, promising talent), so I wouldn't get to caught up in these rankings.

[sacking101]

espn.com has a new thing on future power ranking for future seasons. I would be very interested to see where the kings are on those. The only problem is you need to be an espn insider

[KF10]

espn.com has a new thing on future power ranking for future seasons. I would be very interested to see where the kings are on those. The only problem is you need to be an espn insider

The Kings were rated 28th in the (future) rankings.

Check out sactownroyalty.com ... they put up an excerpt from the insider over there:

The front office would have rated at or near the top several years ago, but the Kings seem to have lost their touch since then. Horrific contracts for the likes of Beno Udrih and Francisco Garcia unnecessarily prolonged a salary-cap hangover from the glory days, one that would have been far worse if Bonzi Wells hadn't foolishly turned down a ridiculous five-year, $36 million offer three years ago.

....

The hyperbolic terms to describe Beno and Garcia (using the term "horrible") is silly. Yes, they are long but no where near cap-crippling.

[RoyalCourtJestr]

it's no flawed logic, no one in their right mind would put the Cavs behind Bulls or Rockets, despite worse record, because eveybody knows that their skills aren't represented by this sample, the same goes for lesser teams like Detroit and the Wizards.
Are you seriously saying that this 1 game difference between Kings and Wizards, should erase all of the past success the Wizards had with this very same core?

I thought power rankings were supposed to be condusive to the 'power' of a team currently... not what people EXPECT them to be in a few weeks.

[_SRV_]

it's no flawed logic, no one in their right mind would put the Cavs behind Bulls or Rockets, despite worse record, because eveybody knows that their skills aren't represented by this sample, the same goes for lesser teams like Detroit and the Wizards.
Are you seriously saying that this 1 game difference between Kings and Wizards, should erase all of the past success the Wizards had with this very same core?

I thought power rankings were supposed to be condusive to the 'power' of a team currently... not what people EXPECT them to be in a few weeks.

Thunder just routed the Magic, who's the better team?

[deNIEd]

The front office would have rated at or near the top several years ago, but the Kings seem to have lost their touch since then. Horrific contracts for the likes of Beno Udrih and Francisco Garcia unnecessarily prolonged a salary-cap hangover from the glory days, one that would have been far worse if Bonzi Wells hadn't foolishly turned down a ridiculous five-year, $36 million offer three years ago.

....

The hyperbolic terms to describe Beno and Garcia (using the term "horrible") is silly. Yes, they are long but no where near cap-crippling.

Garcia isn't a horrific contract, but Beno is. Beno currently is the worst contract in the league. There is no way to deny it. And yes, Beno's contract is kinda cap-crippling. It's 6-7 mil that will be on our books for the remainder of his deal.

[_SRV_]

The front office would have rated at or near the top several years ago, but the Kings seem to have lost their touch since then. Horrific contracts for the likes of Beno Udrih and Francisco Garcia unnecessarily prolonged a salary-cap hangover from the glory days, one that would have been far worse if Bonzi Wells hadn't foolishly turned down a ridiculous five-year, $36 million offer three years ago.

....

The hyperbolic terms to describe Beno and Garcia (using the term "horrible") is silly. Yes, they are long but no where near cap-crippling.

Garcia isn't a horrific contract, but Beno is. Beno currently is the worst contract in the league. There is no way to deny it. And yes, Beno's contract is kinda cap-crippling. It's 6-7 mil that will be on our books for the remainder of his deal.

It's really not that bad.

[Nicky Nix Nook]

The front office would have rated at or near the top several years ago, but the Kings seem to have lost their touch since then. Horrific contracts for the likes of Beno Udrih and Francisco Garcia unnecessarily prolonged a salary-cap hangover from the glory days, one that would have been far worse if Bonzi Wells hadn't foolishly turned down a ridiculous five-year, $36 million offer three years ago.

....

The hyperbolic terms to describe Beno and Garcia (using the term "horrible") is silly. Yes, they are long but no where near cap-crippling.

Garcia isn't a horrific contract, but Beno is. Beno currently is the worst contract in the league. There is no way to deny it. And yes, Beno's contract is kinda cap-crippling. It's 6-7 mil that will be on our books for the remainder of his deal.

Ya Beno definitely does NOT have the worst contract in the league.

[deNIEd]

Ya Beno definitely does NOT have the worst contract in the league.

Name 5 contracts that are worse...

[Nicky Nix Nook]

Ok well now you're going from worst contract to top five. And even still.

Diop, Davis, Peja, Brand, Maggette

[deNIEd]

Ok well now you're going from worst contract to top five. And even still.

Diop, Davis, Peja, Brand, Maggette

Diop - Diop's contract is essentially a wash with Beno. It's not worse. It then comes down to personal preference and team need, I'd take Diop over Beno on the King's any day (due to fit).
Davis - Davis might be worse, but Davis ever stays healthy and trys again, he's still a top 10 PG in the league.
Peja - 1 more year left compared to 3, and an additional 6 mil. Beno is worse than Peja.
Brand - Brand is easier to move than Beno, simply due to the potential reward if Brand ever pulls his act together.
Maggette - K, Maggette might be worse.

[ICMTM]

If Beno Udrih can play consistent ball like he did two seasons ago and has been this year his contract is a bargain. End of story.

About the power rankings:

ESPN, Ball Don't Lie (Yahoo!), and the major outlets will use historical data and popular opinion in these rankings versus actual up to the moment games played. Even still this is subjective. If the Kings are a .500 team come January Reke will be given the credit for the turnaround, but in actuality the culture change (offing Artest, Miller, Salmons, Theus, and Natt) is really what I see that is the big change. I started to see it last season. The rankings are just slow to notice this stuff, and they are there more for entertainment and readership than say the BCS where it means everything. If you try to take these rankings and make more of them than they really are then you're stupid.

Somewhere I saw a ranking system where they had top tier teams, middle of the pack, and bottom tier teams. It wasn't just a 1-30 thing. It made more sense.

[Nicky Nix Nook]

didn't want to start a thread but

I got cut my SAR in Chipotle...I let it go because they're playing well.