Kings coach Smart prepares to face former Warriors team
Keith Smart has his second chance as a head coach, with the Sacramento Kings, and Tuesday faces his former Golden State Warriors.
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Sacramento Kings: Grades for All Kings Players After One Month
Just a month ago, the Sacramento Kings had bested the Los Angeles Lakers 100-91 and spirits were flying high in the capitol of California.
After all, this was supposed to be the year where the young Kings utilized their talents and made something of themselves. The playoffs weren’t expected, but what was expected was a team that competed night in and night out.
Fast forward a month, and the Kings hold a 6-13 record. They’re 24th in the league points per contest and are 30th (also known as last) in the league in points allowed. Paul Westphal, who started the season as the Head Coach, didn’t even last two full weeks before being fired in favor assistant Keith Smart.
While the Kings show flashes of potential, and have some decent wins under their belt, the early season optimism is quickly fading.
Let’s take a look at the report cards for each King after one month of play.
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Sacramento Kings: Ridiculous Arena Situation Overshadowing Lackluster Start
On the court, it’s very difficult to stay optimistic about a team that is 6-13 and ranked dead last in the league in assists and points allowed.
On the other hand, Jimmer Fredette is shooting much better, DeMarcus Cousins is keeping his mouth shut, and aside from crippling injuries to Marcus Thornton and Chuck Hayes, they’re healthy. (Knock on wood.)
Off the court, the latest intrigue in the Sacramento Kings arena situation is very difficult to read, as just about every new development has been.
One thing seems for certain: every time the Kings are one step closer to getting support (financial, governmental, environmental, chiropractic), someone comes in and breaks their back.
When things don’t go my way as a writer, it’s easy to vent my frustrations by writing words exactly how I’d say them myself.
At this point in Sacramento’s ridiculous tango to “try” (I put that in quotes because I’m still not sure the Maloofs even care) to get a new stadium, I’m channeling Dr. Seuss and going with a short poem about the Kings’ precarious situation.
To tell the story of the Sacramento Kings,
We must say “boo-hoo” and not “check out all these rings.”
As you can see by this graphic starting out in oh-one, (note: green is attendance and purple is win percentage)
They had a winning percentage that screamed “Arco Arena is fun!”
But as time went along and the Kings started losing,
We saw more and more fans resort to hard boozing.
Arco Arena sold out every single home game
From oh-one to oh-seven but the team was so lame.
The rebellion began in the year of oh-eight
At this point fans seriously couldn’t see straight.
From oh-eight to today there’s a direct correlation
Between winning percentage and Kings’ fans exhilaration.
As we know every story has its breaking point
Where the hero falls down and tends to disappoint.
On Kings blogs and Facebook all over the net
Even right now on Twitter…you can see they’re upset.
So what can we do to make it all right?
To end community suffering and end the long fight?
At first I thought to myself, “Smart can’t be the answer”
Although not Phil Jackson, he’s certainly no cancer.
DeMarcus is a baby while Bobby Jackson is back,
But the worst of their problems is with the city of Sac.
I can’t really tell if the Kings are getting rejected,
But it’s obvious the players can’t help but be effected.
A new stadium would help to ease the pain,
Anywhere with hardwood floors so we can be loud once again.
I don’t want it to be in La-la land or even the Midwest,
Let’s keep them right here in the pocket on our chest.
Wouldn’t we all be a little happier if they stayed right here? I can’t help but think that cosmically, the Kings won’t have another winning season until they figure this out.
Even if they’re in LA or the middle of the country, they’ll still be my team. It’s understandably irritating rooting for a team that can’t win consistently year after year.
On the other hand, it’s even worse to know that your team is going to be sold. One way or the other, I won’t let that hold me back. Anaheim, Kansas City, Dubai, WHATEVER. I’ll be a Kings fan.
That’s the sad thing about being a sports fan though, isn’t it? Right when you’re at a breaking point and you can’t take it anymore, you remember why you started liking them in the first place.
Hopefully, this arena situation is just a “chicken or the egg” problem and the Kings can start winning some games in order to gain solid public support.
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Jimmer Fredette: Is NBA Rookie Finally Ready to Break out for Sacramento Kings?
It’s been a rough go for Sacramento Kings rookie Jimmer Fredette to begin his NBA career.
He’s seen his minutes drastically decreased and he’s offered up little to no production. Fredette has the reputation of a scorer and if he’s not scoring, he doesn’t offer up much value.
That was until three games ago.
After scoring only 49 combined points in a 10-game stretch before Saturday’s game against Memphis, Fredette has erupted and scored 52 points in his last three games; including a career high of 20 against the Grizzlies.
He followed that with a 13-point effort against Portland and a 19-point game against Denver.
That begs the question: Is Fredette ready to break out?
The answer could be yes.
As long as he’s getting enough minutes, Fredette can get hot as a scorer and keep this roll going.
The main difference between early Fredette and what we’ve seen lately has been the confidence on his jump shot.
He’s taking more and making them at a higher rate, especially from three-point range, where he’s connected on 11-of-18 (.611) from behind the arc during the last three games.
In the 13 games prior to this recent stretch, Fredette had connected on only 13-of-49 (.265) from long range.
As long as Marcus Thornton remains banged up, Fredette will be given the opportunity to remain in the starting lineup. If he continues to play with confidence, Fredette will make it hard for coach Keith Smart not to give him major minutes.
Sometimes it takes a young player some time to find his way in the NBA. It takes a while to get enough confidence to play in this league.
That could be the case with Fredette. He could be ready to break out.
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Kings’ Fredette adjusting from ‘big fish’ to role player
Rookie guard Jimmer Fredette has not found great difficulty going from “big fish” at BYU to a role player with the Sacramento Kings.
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Kings stun Spurs to end 9-0 home start (AP)
In an already tumultuous season for the Sacramento Kings, road trips have been especially brutal. They finally caught a break away from home, in perhaps the most unlikely place. Tyreke Evans had 23 points and 11 rebounds, including a 22-foot jumper with 47.2 seconds left to put the Kings ahead for good in a surprising 88-86 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Friday night.
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Sacramento Kings: Report Card Grade for Each Player so Far
The Sacramento Kings aren’t the “Greatest Show On Wood” anymore.
Even if you’re a die-hard Kings fan, it’s really hard to watch all four quarters because some of the guys do things that you would see in pick-up games at your local park.
People have a lot of different opinions on the roster, the coach, and management, but that’s for another day.
They haven’t looked pretty, but if you had to put a letter grade based on the expectations coming into the season, what would they be? Remember, it’s based on expectations!
Chuck Hayes, Tyler Honeycutt and Hassan Whiteside have been left out of the article because they really didn’t play much or at all.
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Adelman unsentimental about time with Kings
MINNEAPOLIS — There was nothing different in his voice, no twitch of a facial muscle that might suggest a smile.
When Rick Adelman took the podium after the Timberwolves’ 99-86 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Monday, he treated it like any other game, any other win. There was no indication that this victory, his team’s fifth of the season, might be just a bit sweeter.
Because for Adelman, who coached the Kings from 1999-2006, it really wasn’t. The coach has seen six years pass and two teams, two playoff appearances and 198 wins since he sat on the Kings bench. Only one man who played there under him remains, Francisco Garcia, and for the veteran coach, the Kings are just any other team.
“Nostalgia is way down the list of things right now,” Adelman said before Monday night’s game.
As it should be. Adelman has been vocal all season about the myriad changes he wants to implement in Minnesota, and he’s still in the process of doing so. And despite having taken over the Kings job in a similar situation, during the 1998-99 NBA lockout, Adelman says he’s never faced a challenge like this one.
Adelman joined the Kings the September before the lockout-shortened season of 1999. It was a similar time frame to the one he faced this year with the Timberwolves — no contact with players, a shortened preseason — but for the coach, there’s no comparison.
“You look back, you look at the schedules that you had,” Adelman said. “I don’t remember the schedule being as brutal as this has been for us, but I also have to remember when I was in Sacramento I had some veterans who were on that team.”
In the 50-game 1999 season, Adelman’s team played on average every 1.78 days. In 2012, the Timberwolves will play every 1.85 days. The schedule is actually less demanding in that way, which underscores how much a good base of veteran players can alleviate the stresses of a lockout season. The average age of Adelman’s 1999 team, which included experienced players like Vlade Divac and Chris Webber, was 26. The average age of this year’s Timberwolves, without counting 35-year-old Brad Miller, who hasn’t played a game, is 24.1. That’s a sizeable difference, and it shows.
In fact, a greater similarity exists between the Timberwolves and Kings of 2012. Both teams have new coaches and young players, factors whose downsides have only been exacerbated by the lockout. Both Adelman and Sacramento’s Keith Smart, who stepped in after the Kings fired Paul Westphal on Jan. 5, have had their struggles, and despite their differing levels of experience, each seems to know what he’s in for in 2012.
“I’m dubbing it a traveling training camp because I have to try to implement what I know I’m comfortable with . . . but I’ve got to get them up to speed to me,” Smart said about this season. “Some of them are walking on eggshells a little bit, but I’m trying to keep it very simple.”
Adelman has embraced a similar mentality with his young team, trying never to overwhelm his players with too much, too fast. Both teams have faltered, and both have had their successes, to varying extents. So much of that success, the frequency and the amount, has depended on players buying into their new coach’s systems, and on Monday night, both teams saw flashes of rhythm and chaos.
Fast forward to the second quarter, when Sacramento came back from an eight-point deficit. The Kings took complete control of the game and held the lead through much of the third quarter. But then it was Minnesota’s turn, making the run it needed to respond as Kevin Love and Luke Ridnour seemed almost unable to miss. The Timberwolves outscored the Kings 32-24 in the fourth quarter, and in the game’s final minutes there was little doubt of which team would finish the game on top.
If only for a night, Adelman’s system seemed to be in place. His players are on board with the things he wants to implement, and it’s beginning to show.
“Everybody’s been on the same page with him since day one,” Love said of his coach. “He’s an easy guy to get along with . . . We know exactly what he wants, day in and day out. We don’t want to let him down.”
And on Monday night, they didn’t. Even if the win wasn’t special for Adelman, it seemed different for the much of his team, which appeared at its most confident. The locker room was louder postgame than it had been all season, laughs and high fives replacing the almost somber silence of last week’s loss to Chicago. Instead of hurrying home, players relaxed with their sore feet in ice baths, laughing about tough referee calls that would have caused headaches and complaints on any other night.
It won’t always be like that. Adelman said he’s still looking for answers to his questions about this young team, and there will be nights when it doesn’t function as cohesively as it did on Monday. Players will linger in the training room after games; others will hurry home. But that experience and trust the Timberwolves must have to be successful is building with each win.
Right now, it’s difficult for Adelman to find similarities between these Timberwolves and his first Kings team in 1999, which finished with a 27-23 record and advanced to the first round of the playoffs. And though the challenges may be greater and different, there’s always the chance, the hope, that the end result might not look too dissimilar.
Follow Joan Niesen on Twitter.
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Mavs win fifth straight, rip Kings 99-60 (AP)
The Dallas Mavericks were able to rest their regulars in the fourth quarter thanks to a record defensive effort. Jason Terry scored 21 points, Vince Carter added 16 and the Mavericks stretched their winning streak to five games with a 99-60 rout of the Sacramento Kings on Saturday night. The Kings went 22 for 86 from the field (25.6 percent) against a Mavericks team that allowed the fewest points…
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Kings add Hall of Famer English to staff (AP)
The Sacramento Kings have hired NBA Hall of Famer Alex English as an assistant coach. Coach Keith Smart said in a statement announcing the hiring Friday that having a former elite player on the staff will be especially good for the current players. English comes to the Kings after spending seven seasons as an assistant coach and director of player development with the Toronto Raptors.
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