HOOPSWORLD | Basketball News & NBA Rumors

Uncertainty currently plagues the Sacramento Kings. There’s no telling when they’re going to put an end to their playoff drought, which dates back to 2007, but it doesn’t look like it will be this season. There’s also no telling where their home will be whenever they do manage to finish the year in the Western Conference’s top eight. All signs point to a move from Sacramento, but nothing official has been agreed to yet. The only thing that is certain at this point is that the Kings will be in Sacramento this season as they look to improve on their 22-44 campaign from 2011-12.

HOOPSWORLD takes a look at the 2012-13 Sacramento Kings:

Five Guys Think…

Nothing against former Kings head coach Paul Westphal, who is a quality coach, but he was not the right guy for this talented young Kings team. Keith Smart on the other hand, is the right guy. Kings management made a wise decision in officially making him the team’s new head coach, which was unanimously approved by the players who responded much better to his open style of communication. Smart has their trust and respect. Now it’s up to him to get them to play their best together. Tyreke Evans is his biggest challenge. With true point guards in Aaron Brooks and Isaiah Thomas on the team, he won’t have to try to be something he isn’t anymore. As important as the guard play will be for the Kings, their interior players will make or break their season. DeMarcus Cousins, Jason Thompson, and Thomas Robinson are capable of controlling the paint. If they do so consistently, the Kings can make a push towards .500. Due to the depth of the Pacific, their standing in it won’t be a true indicator of their growth.

5th Place – Pacific Division

-Yannis Koutroupis

 
On paper, the Sacramento Kings are one of the best young teams in the NBA. DeMarcus Cousins is a can be a dominant force in the paint, Thomas Robinson might prove to be the best player in this year’s draft class, Marcus Thornton gets better every year and Aaron Brooks could be the first rate point guard for whom the Kings have been searching. The two X factors are Cousins and Brooks. Cousins’ explosive personality and lack of discipline make him a wild card, to say the least. Head coach Keith Smart did a great job of winning him over, but Cousins is still impulsive and unpredictable. Brooks can score with the best of them, but can he be a set-up man for what is an impressive front court duo in Cousins and Robinson? The Kings could be a team on the rise if their X factors play out, but that’s a big "if."

5th Place – Pacific Division

– Bill Ingram

 
Will this be the year that the Sacramento Kings start to realize their full potential and make a push for one of the final playoff seeds in the Western Conference? The Kings have the talent, but they haven’t been able to take that next step in recent years. The additions of Thomas Robinson and Aaron Brooks make the Kings a team to keep an eye on this season, but they’ll need significant contributors such as Tyreke Evans, DeMarcus Cousins and Marcus Thornton to further elevate their games if they want to sneak into the playoffs. Securing a playoff berth will be a difficult task, especially since many non-playoff teams in the West have bolstered their rosters for a playoff push. If the Kings played in the East, they may be a playoff team. However, in the loaded West, they’ll likely be headed back to the lottery.

5th Place – Pacific Division

– Alex Kennedy

 
Thomas Robinson was a great pick with the fifth selection in this summer’s draft, but he didn’t have a standout showing at Summer League, and he’s going to have to be great for anyone to have any real confidence in this team showing major improvement. DeMarcus Cousins is a fantastic talent, but he was last year, too, and the team still wasn’t very good. New point guard Aaron Brooks should help, but there’s that crowded backcourt with all those me-first shooters: Jimmer Fredette, Tyreke Evans, and Marcus Thornton. They’ll need to thin that out and develop some serious chemistry between Robinson and Cousins if they hope to be markedly better this season. I don’t see it happening, but the Kings really are starting to amass some nice pieces. It’s just a matter of getting all those pieces to fit together, which is easier said than done.

4th Place – Pacific Division

– Joel Brigham

 
A lot of what the Kings are trying to accomplish this season will rest on the burly shoulders of third year center DeMarcus Cousins. The former University of Kentucky standout oozes 20/10 per night potential, but has seemingly been plagued by maturity issues since entering the league. Kings head coach Keith Smart has worked extensively with Cousins since taking over the reins and the two have a very solid relationship. However, there are too many other questions which will hinder this unit. Where will the team ultimately land? What’s the future status of Tyreke Evans with the franchise? Was Jimmer Fredette worthy of a top 10 pick a year ago? The team will make progress behind coach Smart, but it likely won’t be reflected in the win column.

5th Place – Pacific Division

– Lang Greene

Top Of The List

Top Offensive Player: At a time where scoring centers are hard to come by, the Kings have one of the league’s best in DeMarcus Cousins. In his second season the Kentucky product upped his offensive averages nearly across the board, posting 18.1 points a game on 44 percent shooting from the field and 70 percent from the free throw line, where he attempted 5.8 shots per contest. He even managed to trim his turnovers down from 3.3 to 2.7 while playing more and having an increased role in the offense. This year there’s no question that Cousins should be the Kings’ go-to guy.

Top Defensive Player: It’s a true testament to the caliber of player Cousins is that he is also the Kings’ best defensive player. In 2011-12 Cousins led the team in blocks (1.17) and steals (1.45). At 6’11, 270 lbs. there’s no center in the league who Cousins can’t match up with physically. They’ll rarely, if ever, need to double down low, which will be key for them defensively.

Top Playmaker: There are three players who could vie for this honor, but Isaiah Thomas gets the slight edge over Tyreke Evans and Aaron Brooks. Thomas looks to create for his teammates more frequently, and he sports the best assist-to-turnover ratio of the three at 2.5:1. Now that the Kings know what they have in Thomas they’ll utilize him better from the start of the season on.

Top Clutch Player: This is also tough to give to just one player because Marcus Thornton and DeMarcus Cousins are equally deserving, but Tyreke Evans tends to be the best option late in games because of his wide variety of skills. Evans can get his own shot, finish around the rim, or set up someone else. He’s not the best three-point shooter, but he rarely settles for the long ball anyway. In 2011-12 he averaged fewer than three turnovers a game for the first time in his career, making it easier to put him in control when it mattered most.

The Unheralded Player: The Kings saw immediate benefits after they traded Carl Landry for Marcus Thornton during the 2010-2011 season and he continued to pay off in his first season as a full-time starter in 2011-12. Thornton led the team with 18.7 points a night, which put him amongst the top 30 scorers in the league. A true threat to score from anywhere on the court, opposing defenses focus on Thornton as much as they do any other King.

The Best New Addition: It went completely under the radar, but the Kings got a steal in Aaron Brooks for $3.25 million late in free agency. The Phoenix Suns renounced his rights, which allowed the Kings to get him at a bargain. It’s like everyone has forgotten what Brooks, who was stellar in China last season, did the last time he played starter’s minutes in 2009-10. He was good for 19.6 points and 5.3 assists a game then. He’s been forced to split time since, which he’ll have to do with Isaiah Thomas, but it’s not like he didn’t still prove to be very serviceable. The addition of Brooks allows the Kings to quit kidding themselves with Jimmer Fredette, who just can’t give them what they need at the point.

– Yannis Koutroupis

Who We Like

1. Keith Smart: After taking over for former Kings head coach Paul Westphal early last season on an interim basis, the Kings wisely removed the interim tag and made him the permanent head coach this summer. Smart has been a head coach on two different occasions earlier in his career; the experience he gained from those stints should serve him well with this opportunity, which has to be considered his best yet. Smart has a tough task on his hands, but the players really believe him and there is some serious talent on the roster. We’ll know what he’s really made of as a head coach by the time the season is over.

2. DeMarcus Cousins: It’s past time for Cousins to start being mentioned as one of the top five centers in the NBA. He’s one of the most misunderstood and underrated players in the league. Just look at the 180 degree turn USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo did on Cousins after actually dealing with him to get an idea of how inaccurately portrayed he is. He may have some maturing to do, but what 22-year-old doesn’t? Of course, most of them aren’t 6’11 with the ability to provide 20 points and 10 rebounds a night for the next decade like Cousins can. Most teams in the league would kill to have a "problem" like Cousins. Fact is, he’s a much more difficult problem for opposing teams to handle than he is for the Kings.

3. Tyreke Evans: Like many players in the league, when Tyreke Evans is talked about his weaknesses are brought up far more often than his strengths. He is not without fault, but there aren’t many players in the league who can provide the 16 points, four rebounds, and four assists a game that Evans did last season. It’s going to be interesting to see how Coach Smart uses him this season, because that has been problematic. All reports indicate that Evans has been working extensively with the Kings’ coaching staff and should be in great shape from game one on.

4. Thomas Robinson: Word around the draft was that the Kings were going to trade the fifth overall pick, unless Robinson fell to them, which is exactly happened. Robinson was pegged by many, HOOPSWORLD included, as the second-best player in the draft. For the Kings to get him at five was huge, especially when you consider how promising the duo of him and DeMarcus Cousins can be inside. Don’t pay much mind to his summer league struggles, which had far more to do with him being used more as a small forward than his actual ability to play at this level. Coach Smart will use him properly and he should be one of the most productive rookies as a result.

5. Isaiah Thomas: One pick away from going undrafted in 2011, Thomas turned out to be one of the best players the class had to offer. Overlooked because of his size, Thomas proved that you don’t have to be over six foot, or even 5’10 for that matter, to succeed in the league. He’s become a real fan favorite and someone who his teammates love playing with.

– Yannis Koutroupis

Strengths

With DeMarcus Cousins, Thomas Robinson, and Jason Thompson the Kings have a talented interior trio that they have to play through. By working inside and then out it will make the perimeter players’ lives easier since the defense will eventually have to collapse on the bigs. They ranked sixth in the league last year in points per game, but could stand to improve on that if they utilize their big men properly. As a team, the Kings did a nice job of taking care of the basketball, forcing more turnovers than they committed last season. That should continue this year with the addition of Aaron Brooks and the growth of Isaiah Thomas.

– Yannis Koutroupis

Weaknesses

There are several key areas that plagued the Kings last year that they must improve on this year if they’re going to take any steps forward. It starts with their defense. They gave up 104 points a game last year, the worst in the league. That has to be Coach Smart’s top priority from day one, and taking care of the boards would go a long way in helping their defense. The Kings were outrebounded by two a game last season, something that should never happen considering the talent they have inside. They really struggled shooting the three last year and that looks like it could be an issue this year. It’s important for the Kings to differentiate good looks from open looks. Opposing defenses are going to give them open looks by design, but the Kings still have to look inside first, second, and third.

– Yannis Koutroupis

What Needs To Be Said On Opening Day….

No one around the league doubts our individual talent. But before we can be taken seriously as a threat to the rest of the conference, we have to make a strong commitment to being a team. Everyone, from DeMarcus to Isaiah, will be asked to sacrifice parts of their game for the betterment of the group. Winning games must be the priority over comfort, stats and fame. If we put our emphasis from the start on making simple, winning plays, this team has the chance to be very good. But we must focus on growing as a group, not just as individuals.

– Anthony Macri and Brett Koremenos

The Burning Question

Can the Kings ignore outside distractions and grow enough from within as assembled?

There is far more intrigue across the league over where the Kings could be moving, a topic that will frequent headlines until a decision is made, than there is on how they are going to do this season. The Kings cannot worry about that, especially early on. If they go out and perform well they will be able to get the talk off where they’re headed and change it to where they are as a team. However, that is going to take a lot of internal growth since the additions they made this offseason were mainly complementary. Thomas Robinson has the potential to be something more, but it’s unlikely that happens in year one. This will be a big season for Tyreke Evans, and could determine whether or not he remains with the club long-term. A big year, combined with serious improvements on the defensive end as a team, should put the Kings in contention to finish .500.

– Yannis Koutroupis