FanHouse previews all 30 NBA teams in advance of the 2009-10 season.Every season, the NBA is filled with a few abjectly awful teams. These squads trudge through their affairs, offering spirit in infrequent spurts while otherwise counting down the days until summer vacation. You take bad players and strip their motivation, their energy ... and it's ugly quickly.
And somehow, the Kings were even worse than that.
Sacramento sold off two of its five best players at midseason, shedding the better (John Salmons) to lose the onerous 2009-10 contract of the lesser (Brad Miller). The Kings were the worst team in the league with Salmons and Miller; the pair was replaced in the starting line-up by Francisco Garcia (a poor man's Salmons, awkwardly) and Spencer Hawes (a poor man's Miller, doubly awkwardly).
The Hawes ascension wasn't bemoaned -- in fact, the opportunity to free Hawes (and free up some to-be-unused cap space) came with the cost of Salmons, who performed well as an Alpha character while team star Kevin Martin nursed a bashed ankle through the winter. Hawes did well once Miller moved, but promoting Hawes left a hole in the corps of frontcourt reserves. Kenny Natt, who mercifully replaced an overmatched Reggie Theus yet somehow became the definitive definition of overmatched himself, ignored midseason acquisition Ike Diogu until the final week of the season. Diogu certainly could have filled the gaping gap behind Hawes and Jason Thompson, and perhaps that result would have gotten Sacramento to 19 or 20 wins. A boy can dream, yes?
Obviously, wholescale change is in order after such a disaster. However, the Kings had already traded or cut everyone they could: Salmons and Miller went to Chicago in February, while Bobby Brown and Shelden Williams were sent to Minnesota for Rashad McCants (who has since become a free agent) and Calvin Booth (who has since joined a cult devoted to the art of the German Expressionists). Sacramento cut Quincy Douby and bought out Mikki Moore before the season ended, and let Diogu scat off to New Orleans. Change basically came in three forms: hiring a new coach (apparently scarlet-lettered Paul Westphal), drafting some excitement (Tyreke Evans, Omri Casspi, Jon Brockman), and ... well, let's say there was a serious antibiotic scrub at the start of training camp for all returning Kings. Can't be bringing the Desperately Awful virus back to the gym.
How will all the change shake out? Westphal can obviously coach -- he's been to the NBA Finals, and even took Jordan's Bulls to six games. It wasn't apparent that Theus could be an effective NBA head coach, and I'd argue it was rather apparent Natt cannot be an effective NBA head coach. Evans will start at point guard for the Kings in the team's preseason opener. While analysts and fans are split on whether Evans can play the position long-term, the Kings need more energy, more power and more talent than Beno Udrih offered last season. Evans should offer all three. As you'll read in our Player to Watch piece, the Kings desperately need big things from Big Hawes to get back on course. Hawes is a bit of an enigma, while Thompson is expected to produce solid results every night. The Kings will take that while praying Hawes, he of many rare skills, can occasionally offer superlative performances.
And of course, there's Martin, he of the stunning and shocking offense, racking up points and points on so few shots. Any analyst or fan chiding Martin for a lack of health last season might need to be reminded how hard the task Martin faces every night is -- before accounting for the fact one leg was borderline unusuable for basketball purposes for 90 percent of last season. Martin's injury is not chronic and he has lit up the gym during camp. He'll be ready, and Praygod he'll avoid misfortune. If he does, the Kings at least have a chance at not being completely and utterly disgusting. And a chance is all I can ask for.
Last Season By the Numbers
Record: 17-65 (6-18 under Reggie Theus, 11-47 under Kenny Natt). Finished 5th in the Pacific Division, 15th in the Western Conference.
Offense: 105.5 points per 100 possessions, 25th in the NBA. 22nd in shooting, 25th in turnover rate, 26th in offensive rebounding, 5th in free throw rate.
Defense: 114.7 points per 100 possessions, 30th in the NBA. 28th in shooting defense, 16th in opponent turnover rate, 29th in defensive rebounding, 27th in opponent free throw rate.
Top Performers: Kevin Martin scored 24.6 points per game. No other player who finished the season with the Kings scored more than 14 points a game with Sacramento. Jason Thompson and Spencer Hawes each averaged just more than 7 rebounds per game. Beno Udrih averaged 4.7 assists per game; no other player who finished the season with Kings averaged as many as three assists per game. Martin (19.2) was the only guy in Kings purple at season's end with a PER better than average, though Rashad McCants finished at 17.2 in fairly limited minutes.
All statistics via Basketball-Reference.com.
Player to WatchFanHouse's Matt Moore and Tom Ziller preview one player to watch from each team. Here's a snippet of Ziller's post on Kings center Spencer Hawes.
Still others look at Big Spencer and see a future NBA Talisman, and evolutionary pivot whose name will demarcate avenues all over the world when his career ends. If you think this subset of the population is filled with lunatics, this post may not be for you.
The skinny, pale kid is a smooth, lean Man now. I mentioned Sunset Tan, but it bears repeating: Spencer Hawes made a guest appearance on Sunset Tan! Also, he has been photographed chilling with rapper Juelz Santana. This is not your typical lily white hard-ass, a la old mentor Brad Miller. This is the new White NBA Star, in the mold of Luke Walton rather than Chris Kaman.
See Ziller's full post on Hawes.
Offseason Tracker
IN: Tyreke Evans (draft), Omri Casspi (draft), Jon Brockman (draft), Sergio Rodriguez (trade), Sean May (free agency), Desmond Mason (free agency).
OUT: Rashad McCants (free agency), Ike Diogu (free agency).
