What do we do now?

[mobiuseinz]

We lost 8 in a row, and honestly a lot of ppl are playing selfish basketball right now... and that is on the coach as well. They dont seem to be playing like a team, they are playing like street ballers. Dalembert is dumb as ****!!! I knew that when we got him and I was hoping he would play only sparingly and we let Cousins start.

I think we should try and shake things up, bring in some new faces... maybe trade for OJ Mayo to run alongside Tyreke... or maybe even someone else who's a good shooter and can finish on the fast break.

[darkadun]

Biggest thing right now is to trade for a point guard that....

1) knows when to get each player the ball. that will recognize, "ok, demaracus or landry can abuse his defender, I need to feed him down low."

2) Someone that can run a fast break and actually pass off to the guy running on the wing.

3) Someone that will that keep other guys in check and say and show on the court, "hey, this is how we win ball games."


Thats what we need IMO. As we've seen in the last two games, the kings have had the lead going into the last two minutes and completely collapsed on offense.

[SacKingsPejaFan]

(1) Trade Udrih. He is selfish, does not know how to play the PG position, shoots almost every time he brings the ball up before even passing or running a play, and is just a terrible basketball player. He shoots 24% from the three point line but takes 2.5 a game. He also averages about the same number of FG attempts per game as Carl Landry, which is second most to Tyreke. Do we seriously think he should be taking the pretty much the second most shots on our team? No, he's a D-league benchwarmer. Please, homers, don't be fooled by his occasional 20 point game--if anyone in the NBA shot as much as him, they'd do that too. He is the #1 reason why we suck. I've watched pretty much every game since he got here, and have seen how much of a worthless and negative effect he has on our team.

(2) We have to accept that our "defensive" line-ups suck so bad on offense that we can't win games with them. Play our best offensive players--the difference between their offense and defense is smaller than the difference between our defensive players defense and offense. Start Evans/Garcia/Casspi/Thompson/Cousins with Landry the first guy off the bench. Garcia will stop the bleeding from Udrih and Head's embarrassing play until we find a replacement.

(3) Accept that Donte Greene does not have potential. Stop playing him. We've seen the best he can do and that's 1 good game a month. People make vague statements about his "defense," but his guys still go off. And his offensive stats are atrocious and speak for themselves. He's not good. We traded Artest for nothing and have to come to terms with that. Life goes on.

(4) Tell Tyreke to limit his jump shots, even if he is wide open. Teams leave him wide open out there for a reason. Teams will leave Shaq alone at the three point line but that doesn't mean he should shoot from out there. Tyreke's shot did NOT improve from the offseason; just look at the numbers. It got "worse" technically, but that's probably because he shoots more and we're seeing his true percentage. Accept that the league has figured him out and exposed a huge weakness in his game, and that he might not be the future all-star we had hoped for. Adjust--work around that, and realize that even if he "needs to dominate the ball to be effective," he has to learn how to be effective in different ways, because him dominating the ball has led to a 4-15 record. He's not good enough right now.

(5) Give the ball to DeMarcus Cousins. A lot. Good things happen.

Cliffnotes:
-Udrih is garbage. Get rid of him.
-Head is worse. We have the worst PG lineup in the history of the league, and just need to play Garcia there until we can make a trade.
-Greene is garbage. He doesn't have potential. Quit with him and our "defensive" lineups. They don't win.
-Tyreke needs to stop shooting jumpers and share the ball more, particularly with DeMarcus Cousins.

[dozencousins]

Change our starting line up to

JETER at PG
EVANS at SG
COUSINS at C
GREEN at SF
THOMPSON at PF

BACK UPS

BENO
HEAD
DALY
CASSPI
LANDRY

[KingInExile]

The biggest liabilities right now are Dally, Landry, the lack of a consistent outside threat and lack of a true floor leader. All of these need to be addressed for this team to improve...possibly in that order.

In some ways it looks like Beno is stepping up some as a floor leader. But he needs others to either buy in or exert control. I'm optimistic that this is a work in progress and will resolve itself (slowly) as the young guys mature more and more. They are frustrated with losing. That much you can see in their body language. Now they need to collectively turn that frustration into motivation. I was encouraged to hear that the team had a players only meeting prior to the Dallas game. I'm also encouraged that they came out of that meeting with the energy we saw in that Dallas game...that was some of the best ball they've played all season. They just need to sustain that energy now. Hell, maybe they should have a players only meeting before every game until they get it right!

[stock01234]

1) Fire Westphal.
Spend some money on a good coach. Maloofs can't expect to have sellouts first and then spend the money. First improve the product, win games and fans will be back.

2) Trade Landry for a PG (young, shooting, floor-spreading) Aaron Brooks type OR young PF
Chances are very less that Landry will be with Kings next season. Unless Kings grossly overpay him, which he doesn't deserve at all. So trade him before he has some trade value.

3) Trade dumb-ass dalembert for a veteran SG OR PG
Not sure what made PHI give this moron 13M/yr contract.
He has possibly one of lowest bball IQ.
Offensive liability
Decent on defense. But $13M for a 10rebound, ~2blocks guy who has no IQ and zero offense? There are tons around the league who could do the same for half the money. So trade his expiring for SG (if Landry -> PG) or PG (if Landry -> PF)

The rootcause of all the problems Kings are facing right now or since last couple seasons, is that Maloofs are not ready to spend. You have to spend money to make team better. Better Coach and 1-2 veteran guys would definitely help. Sacramento is not a contender or a big market team, that good coaches and veterans would be ready to play for less money. You have to pay more to attract them.

[tru6playa]

The biggest liabilities right now are Dally, Landry, the lack of a consistent outside threat and lack of a true floor leader. All of these need to be addressed for this team to improve...possibly in that order.

What makes you think dally is the biggest liability? He does everything I expected him to do - rebound and block shots. On top of that he's a good passer as well.

Biggest liabilities by far is Udrihs defense and Tyreke hasn't been all that great either. We constantly get beat to the basket by the opposing guards.

Udrih is not even close to a leader - if by leader you mean when he's shooting 1-9 - charges to the basket and into a triple team decides to throw a layup that is easily swatted by Jordan, instead of dishing it off to Cousin who was wide open and ready for a throw down.

I think our team, due to its youth has poor bball iq and overall awareness.

[Wolfay]

Yea, I don't see Dally in the long-term anymore on the Kings. The dude is an idiot. He's great defensively, but offensively he's a huge liability. Bill Walton mentions this every game he commentates and many Kings fans see it as well. He can't hit water if he fell off the boat. He does make some good passes, but I've seen quite a few bad ones as well.

Beno is the opposite. He can produce on the offensive end (albeit inconsistent this season), but he gets absolutely torched on the other end. We need a better version of Beno. I think Pooh can fill that void for right now. Give him a shot!

Landry stops the ball WAY too much. He either needs to stop that or be traded.

Those are my thoughts for right now.

[stock01234]

i have a feeling that
1) Petrie won't fire westphal..
2) will make some idiotic trade for landry.. which will have near zero return value..
3) won't trade dalembert and let him expire, because freaking maloofs don't want to spend..
4) another league-bottom season.. courtesy Mr. Stern we will get the lowest possible pick..

[sacking101]

(5) Give the ball to DeMarcus Cousins. A lot. Good things happen.

Idk if it was because he got kicked out of practice but he looks real good the past two games. Even his attitude is obviously better. So I say get him the ball, Tyreke supposedly said he is done trying to please everyone so let tyreke be tyreke.

starting linup
pg-tyreke
sg-casspi
sf-donte
pf-JT
c-Cousins

I really wanna see this linup. It forces the opposing pg to gaurd either tyreke or a 6-9+ guy and at the same time doesn't hurt us defensively.

[Nicky Nix Nook]

(5) Give the ball to DeMarcus Cousins. A lot. Good things happen.

Idk if it was because he got kicked out of practice but he looks real good the past two games. Even his attitude is obviously better. So I say get him the ball, Tyreke supposedly said he is done trying to please everyone so let tyreke be tyreke.

starting linup
pg-tyreke
sg-casspi
sf-donte
pf-JT
c-Cousins

I really wanna see this linup. It forces the opposing pg to gaurd either tyreke or a 6-9+ guy and at the same time doesn't hurt us defensively.

Casspi can't handle the ball very well, and would almost definitely get burned by SG's.

[LightTheBeam]

^ 100% agree with that lineup... The biggest prob i have seen is the fact westphal will not play Tyreke at point, he is very bad off the ball doesn't move and the offense just gets stagnant. And we have no 3 point shooters, im all for playing Garcia and Casspi at the 2 more of the game while Reke is in.
The ball movement is just terrible whenever Cousins or Landry see the ball in the key they get doubled very fast and still try to put up the shot(usually resulting in a blocked shot) i dont mind seeing Demarcus do it as much hes got the body to muscle down there and hes learning.

[perezident]

Pray and ask God for forgiveness because CLEARLY he's angry with the Kings..thats what we do now

[davidse]

get rid of evans and cousins.
get more dependable team oriented young players - even if less talented, and pick up your backcourt star in next year's draft.
(for example - pick up favors either straight up, or in a 3 way where anthony goes to n.j.)

sorry, but that's truly how i see it.
the sooner you give up on evans, the faster you'll be on your way to being a team with a bright future.
he's just a classic great player on a bad team and you will waste years in trying to find the right mix around him when you can chose a better easier path by letting someone else struggle to do that...

[perezident]

^^^wow who is this guy?

[Wolfay]

^^^wow who is this guy?

I think I've seen him on the T-Wolves board or somewhere else. I don't think he's a Kings fan, but I'm too lazy to check.

[perezident]

Go figure...i guess he wants us to trade Evans and Cousins to them to "take on our problems" and in turn give us Flynn and Darko

[SacKingZZZ]

Just keep giving the ball to Cousins and Evans. That's the future, not anything short term unless that's one hell of a player. Westphal still needs to wrangle in an offense, but he's FINALLY doing the right thing. Putting his best players in a position to both improve AND help their team. Things are looking up and if Westphal at least just stays out of the way and as always, knows where his bread is buttered, we're on the right track. Keep doing that and wins will be in store sooner than we all think. THEN it might be time to make some short term moves. Just ride the big guy, ride Evans (if healthy of course). That's what this season needs to be about.

[SacKingZZZ]

1) Fire Westphal.
Spend some money on a good coach. Maloofs can't expect to have sellouts first and then spend the money. First improve the product, win games and fans will be back.

2) Trade Landry for a PG (young, shooting, floor-spreading) Aaron Brooks type OR young PF
Chances are very less that Landry will be with Kings next season. Unless Kings grossly overpay him, which he doesn't deserve at all. So trade him before he has some trade value.

3) Trade dumb-ass dalembert for a veteran SG OR PG
Not sure what made PHI give this moron 13M/yr contract.
He has possibly one of lowest bball IQ.
Offensive liability
Decent on defense. But $13M for a 10rebound, ~2blocks guy who has no IQ and zero offense? There are tons around the league who could do the same for half the money. So trade his expiring for SG (if Landry -> PG) or PG (if Landry -> PF)

The rootcause of all the problems Kings are facing right now or since last couple seasons, is that Maloofs are not ready to spend. You have to spend money to make team better. Better Coach and 1-2 veteran guys would definitely help. Sacramento is not a contender or a big market team, that good coaches and veterans would be ready to play for less money. You have to pay more to attract them.

I doubt they expected sellouts. Spend money unwisely and those non-sellouts could number into the years. They should have followed through initially with the idea that this was a Cousins/Evans thing. Just keep riding that wave, try to create a type of atmosphere like last year. See what the potential looks like, what type of players would best fit with them, THEN make a move. Don't do any "in theory" type of moves because they don't always work.

Landry was much better last game about staying out of the way of Cousins, but he's still getting in there while he's trying to work. I think a guy like Troy Murphy might be a nice idea as was brought up in another thread. Somebody that can both help on the boards and spread the floor. Maybe even shed some $$$ in the process of making that type of deal too.

Guys like Murphy, Prince, Battier, Billups, and maybe a few others should be on the radar. Each of them provide something needed, could potentially fit with our "core", and none necessarily are much risk to our cap flexibility moving forward.

Oh and as for Dalembert. I can't believe the turn around on this guy! He's not playing terrible by any stretch. He is what he is and he does provide a skillset more needed for this team moving forward than any other from anyone not named Demarcus Cousins or Tyreke Evans.

[cdt3]

Troy Murphy is shooting 31% from the field for $11million.

JT is shooting 47% this season for $2million.

JT is NOW Troy Murphy like in his prime out to the 3 point line. LaMarcus Aldridge is shooting 43%

JT is a perfect compliment to DMC/Tyreke and is 24.

Donte and Casspi are 22 still. Donte shoots the same FG% as Bargniani and LA who get $9-11mil a year. Casspi shoots 40% from 3.

Trading Landry for a Brooks like PG would be great, if not we have 2 more studs coming next year.

8 years when the Kings were great they used 1 system with 1 coach.

They have used 6 different coaches in the past 6 years.

Let the youth continue to master Westphal's system and they will win when ready together.