The Outsider Optimism Thread

[tsherkin]

Hey guys,

There's probably a thread for this somewhere and your mods will move this there as appropriate. Didn't see one on first-pass, though, so I figured I'd drop this in there.

DeMarcus Cousins looks great! Foul trouble aside, which will go away as he gains experience, look at his PER36 Line:

21.7, 10.1, 3.5, 58.7% TS.

4 games, sample size, blah, blah. I wanted to make an appreciation thread because he's looking really good and there's been all kinds of blather about him elsewhere.

Good stuff, guys, hope he turns those into per-game averages!

[Nicky Nix Nook]

It feels cool to have outsider fans, not gonna lie. I think the Kings have a good thing going here, but I do expect a LOT of growing pains this year.

[KF10]

Yeah, we did have several threads similar to this over the offseason. But encouragement of outside fans is always welcome imo.

Cousins is very productive when he is on the court. If he manages to correct his foul prone self, I could see him entering the 2-man race of ROY with Griffin & Wall.

[KM44]

3-1?! A good start's a good start any way you put it!

[KingInExile]

As you said, fouling is the biggest problem he has right now...and that can go away with experience (and once refs stop giving him the rookie treatment). Hopefully he will learn how to get away from foul trouble faster than Thompson has. My other concern is whether he will have the conditioning to last 82 games. The rookie wall is brutal. My hope is that he will break through that wall rather than crash into it.

[DBrimstone]

Dude. Paul Westphal ftw. I was 9 when he coached the Suns too the finals. Love what your team has produced under him

[sacking101]

When you look at DMC's stats he's like 14 and 6 which you think isn't bad but he is only playing just over 20 mins a game. Dalembert actually helps us a lot so i dont think he'll get over 25 mins a game but to have (another) rookie be that productive is awesome. By the way why does westphal take him out at the 7 minute mark in the first? Is it his conditioning?

[longfellow44]

^^Not so much conditioning as it is that even in college he was held to around 20 minutes per game. So kicking it to an average higher than that immediately. is a recipe for hitting the rookie wall early. By keeping his minutes short before he gets a rest we slowly build up his conditioning and his cardio until he can sustain a high level of play for long periods of time. So in a way it's conditioning but it's not because he's in poor shape, it's because he hasn't been trained to sustain his current activity level.

One thing that the kings can do to help cousins is to get more shooters on the floor to provide as much spacing as possible. That will make him more effective in the post and it will give him more options when he needs to pass out of the double team. Because as we have seen he is a ready willing and able passer. It's actually one of the things that makes him so dangerous in the post.

[dozencousins]

Well it is good to see a 3-1 record it has been a few years since we have been over .500 or at least it seems that way .
That said there is still not a ton to get to excited over yet though our team records have sucked over the last 2-3 years at least we still have not played anyone that is suppossed to be really good
we played the nets , wolves , cavs ( no james ) & raptors ( no bosh ) so the cavs & raptors are not suppossed to be anything more than average teams at best .
Dont get me wrong i am happy to finally see a winning record no doubt !
Again we have not really played anyone yet that is expected to be realistically that good , every game we have had been way , way behind and have had to come back it would be interesting though to see if we could do that against much better teams ( lakers , heat , celtics , mavs etc. ) , we are a foul happy team right now & thats a bad thing as well .
A 3-1 record thats great but i think we all will find out by the end of November as to what type of team we really will be Really good , good , average , slightly improved or if we suck ! I am hoping we are at the very least a good team if for nothing else we need it to increase our chances of the KINGS staying in SAC if we get better by alot fans will become more interested in the team again & if that happens they go to games in turn increases our chances at fans supporting a new arena thus keeping the KINGS in SACTOWN !


GO KINGS ...........

[perezident]

Thanks for the thread. Big Cuz will (I think) be consistent in his own way. What I really love about him as PW points out is that he's a winner! And when the game is on the line this guy acts like he's been in the league for 12 years! He calls and wants the ball in his hands. That shows his willingness imo.

On another note: One thing that pisses me off about him is he cant jump over a credit card! He has nooo lift on his jump hook or another post move. He needs to work on that quick. Without that, his long arms are only going to be good for 6.8 rebs a game

[longfellow44]

^^i disagree prez, rebounding has nothing to do with jumping, it about positiining and using your body to seal your opponent. And cousins is great at that. That is why he gets 6-7 rbs in 20 minutes of play.

[SacKingZZZ]

Yeah, some of the best rebounders ever couldn't jump over the phonebook.

[longfellow44]

I'm 6'4 my little brother is 6'9 but I out rebound him in just about every pickup game because I spread my body wide when I box out and force him to take a step back creating space and giving me a relatively easy rebound. Sealing your opponent away from the rim is the way you pick up defensive boards. Offensive rebounds have a little more to do with leaping ability as you are generally being asked to jump twice in a row in order to pick up the board.

[tsherkin]

Charles Barkley in his 30s with bum knees (Dennis Rodman in his mid-30s...), Wes Unseld...

Most rebounds are taken below the rim. Reach helps, and Cousins has lots of that, but if you can figure out where the ball is going and clear space around it, you're going to do very well. Cousins has power and he's large enough that it isn't easy to get around him, especially since he knows how to lever his body.

Meantime, Dennis Rodman averaged 15 rpg at the age of 36, which is the highest average for a player of anywhere near that age. To get higher than that, you need to go back to Wilt in the 70s with the Lakers, and he was doing that based on minutes-played, not posting a comparable rebounding rate to Rodman in that particular season. Second and third jumps are important, but they don't have to be high at all, just tapping the ball and going after it. Rodman and Barkley LOVED doing that, and it's no coincidence that they stayed elite on the glass well past their physical primes.

[tgo2223]

Sixers fan here. Just wondering if you guys are willing to part with Whiteside, and if so what would it take to get him

[longfellow44]

I don't think we are willing to look at trading Whiteside at all right now. IF we were to trade the guy i'm under the impressing that we would be looking for Lottery level value. The kings fully expected Whiteside to be drafted in the teens of the draft and we feel that at 33 we got a steal.

[davidse]

caspi fan here...

if i were the kings, what i would focus on, is to get the right player in the backcourt next to evans.

i like udrich, but imo the best possible choice - skills, character, and even age (experience) is kirk hinrich.
i think that's the guy the kings should target in a midseason trade, and with washington being a rebuilding situation - hinrich should be available. maybe a 3 team trade with udrich+someone going to a third team.

1. get a hinrich/evans backcourt in place which would allow evans to be the best possible player he can be.

2.let the frontcourt situation play itself out - no need for hasty decisions - re-evaluate things at the deadline, and unless you have a real opportunity to land a top talent - make sure you maintain the cap flexiblity you have next summer.

[longfellow44]

^^honestly udrih is a fantastic fit with evans we just run into a priblem because we dont have a bench guard that can play well with evans or udrih.

[davidse]

^^honestly udrih is a fantastic fit with evans we just run into a priblem because we dont have a bench guard that can play well with evans or udrih.

well, i think that a less ball dominant guard who can still hit the outside shot but also play great defense (basicaly hinrich), would be a better fit next to evans.

but admitadly - i'm not a kings fan, probably don't watch as many games as you guys (although i do watch quite a alot of them), and if you feel that two guards who prefer penetration and having the ball in their hands - works for you - i'll take your opinion over mine in this case.

fwiw, i do think evans and udrich play well together, but the question is - is it because it's an ideal combination, or is it because it's the best you have at this point and it's possible that evans and hinrich compliment each other even better ?...

[Wolfay]

I'm a fan of Hinrich's play, but not his salary. Every dollar counts on a smaller market team like ours.