Kings vs Blazers

[KingInExile]

Since Theus was called out by the Kings owners for his 3 point defense...

Portland: 14/26 from 3's ...and another blowout loss.

The Blazers are also the best 3-point shooting team in the league. It's hard to hold Theus and the Kings accountable for failing to stop a team that is on fire from the outside. Sure, the Kings need to improve their perimeter defense. But the Blazers are not exactly the benchmark to use when judging them.

[deNIEd]

Does anyone think Bobby Brown can be our future starting point guard? I feel like he is already an upgrade over Beno. His vision and quickness is better than Beno's and his jumpshot is better than I expected.

And in 2010 if we go after a big name free agent I would think it would be a point guard. We are set for the future at all the other positions. I doubt we spend a lot of money on someone so that either Hawes or Thompson or Martin or Salmons/Greene sits on the bench.

Are there any big name PG's to go after? I think Nash but he'll be in diapers in another 2 years. I still think, and ever moreso with the Knicks entering the fray, that hoping or even worse, planning for a big name FA in 2010 is a bad idea and one that likely will end up pointless. The fact is there are about 10 guys I could see the Kings being interested in and they are the same 10 about 20 other teams under the cap are going to be interested in. We need a top pick in one of or both of the next 2 drafts. That's how we will build our team. With the youth we have adding a couple more top 5 picks will be the best thing possible for this team.

2009 PG's
Mike Bibby
Raymond Felton - RFA
Jason Kidd
Allen Iverson
Nate Robinson - RFA
Andre Miller

2010 PG's
Joe Johnson
Rajon Rondo - RFA
Anthony Morrow - RFA
TJ Ford
Mario Chalmers - RFA
Steve Nash

Ya, Not looking so great.
Brandon Jennings FTW

[Cruel_Ruin]

Yeah, that 14/26 was inflated by Steve Blake having the game of his life.

Personally, I am thrilled with this game, because for the first time, our young guys ran the offensive system. The only hiccups came in the third quarter, when John Salmons decided it was him against the world. What I liked about Bobby Brown was that he was willing to relinquish control of the offense to Spencer and Jason a lot. Beno and Salmons, take notes! When the Kings become a contender again, that is what our offense will look like.

Defensively, they were just hot from three. Unbelievably hot. But I think with minor tweaking we should be ok on that end. We held our own in the paint, it wasn't the layup drill it usually is when the Kings are bad defensively. And, Oden got stuffed twice by Hawes, which was awesome to see

John Salmons and Brad Miller are officially expendable after today. I'd like to get Jason and Spencer as much experience as possible running the offense. It's the fastest way back to the top of the mountain.

[BballFanAddict]

Yeah, that 14/26 was inflated by Steve Blake having the game of his life.

Personally, I am thrilled with this game, because for the first time, our young guys ran the offensive system. The only hiccups came in the third quarter, when John Salmons decided it was him against the world. What I liked about Bobby Brown was that he was willing to relinquish control of the offense to Spencer and Jason a lot. Beno and Salmons, take notes! When the Kings become a contender again, that is what our offense will look like.

Defensively, they were just hot from three. Unbelievably hot. But I think with minor tweaking we should be ok on that end. We held our own in the paint, it wasn't the layup drill it usually is when the Kings are bad defensively. And, Oden got stuffed twice by Hawes, which was awesome to see

John Salmons and Brad Miller are officially expendable after today. I'd like to get Jason and Spencer as much experience as possible running the offense. It's the fastest way back to the top of the mountain.

As an outsider watching the Kings play this game tonight I agree with your analysis completely. I was really impressed by the spacing, ball movement, and big man play from your team. It is nice to see another team that understands the importance of ball movement and teamplay as opposed to constant ISOs and the two-man game.

I definitely would not worry much about this loss. Missing 3 big players on your team with Portland again shooting at an unbelievable rate from 3, would spell a loss for virtually every team in the NBA.

Good luck this year. Petrie has done a great job of finding some "diamonds in the rough". Thompson is turning out to be a steal in the draft, and to think others were criticizing the pick.

[pillwenney]

Yeah I'd say there were a lot of positives considering that it was a blowout loss. Offensively we did pretty well considering that we didn't have Kevin or Cisco and that John was basically played perfectly by Portland's D.

Defensively, we still need to get a lot better. Yeah Portland had an awesome shooting night, but we crashed too hard onto Oden (not that I can blame Reggie considering that Brad is far from a decent individual defender), but sometimes we also just weren't crisp enough in our rotations.

[ICMTM]

I was at the game and part of it was that Theus was out coached! The defensive rotations were SLOW, but if you look at the 1st quater there were AT LEAST four blown layups by the Kings. A couple things I did see though:

Bobby Brown looks better than Beno Udrih, but at the same time Brown's inexperience shows. He reminds me a lot of Chauncey Billups. I like his game, and I think he's showing progress. Will he be the answer...maybe. Just maybe! My knock on Udrih has been his inconsistency. If he's ever going to be a good PG he needs to play well night in and out.

The Kings made Steve Blake an all star tonight. Oden didn't start the game, and I'm almost positive Blake had 20 (or close to) by half time. I'd like to say we were playing bad because of the attention we paid to Oden, but that wasn't it. We aren't there on the defensive end.

Donte Greene's not ready yet. He's playing beyond the arc by himself.

I think the consistency will come when both Kevin and Cisco are back.

Thompson's starting to be a presence on the low block! He's the real deal. I'm on the bandwagon.

Hawes will start when (not if, when) Miller is traded. I think the youth movement is in full effect because they are playing well. Hawes is looking good and quasi athletic. It looks like because he's more comfortable he's not tentative. Things are looking up right now.

[DaVoiceMaster]

Portland fan here... I'm lovin that Thompson kid. I remember when the Kings drafted him thinking ... WTF??? He's lookin like the real deal and a steal for you guys. Good luck on the rest of the season!

[ICMTM]

I like playing against Portland. You see young players that a couple of years ago showed promise, but didn't really win a bunch of games. Now they are on the cusp of being a really good team. We, I hope, are going in that direction.

[VeeJay24]

I like playing against Portland. You see young players that a couple of years ago showed promise, but didn't really win a bunch of games. Now they are on the cusp of being a really good team. We, I hope, are going in that direction.

And this is the model the Kings need to follow.

I have to ask, did the Blazers take Blayless just because they knew the Kings wanted him? It definitely looks like they don't need him!

[ICMTM]

The Pacers picked Bayless and then made the trade with Indiana. Listening to all the draft stuff by the Kings front office I think Thompson is the guy they wanted all along.

[The Sebastian Express]

I like playing against Portland. You see young players that a couple of years ago showed promise, but didn't really win a bunch of games. Now they are on the cusp of being a really good team. We, I hope, are going in that direction.

And this is the model the Kings need to follow.

I have to ask, did the Blazers take Blayless just because they knew the Kings wanted him? It definitely looks like they don't need him!

Bayless was picked to be the point guard of the future. Sergio was kinda in the dog house at the time of the pick. Bayless would be getting playing time right now but he still can't set up the offense and kinda pounds the ball and looks for his own shot. He does play real aggressive defense though.

[cdt3]

Well the bad news is including the loss to the Lakies last night, we have 5 games this week. With 2 back to backs this week, we picked the wrong week to be short handed. The good news is we may be 5 games closer to getting a great draft pick after this week.