kingsfans.com presents:
By Stephen Tetsu, KingsFans.com Japan Correspondent
Hello Kings fans and welcome to another season of Kings basketball!
It's been a long road but Golden 1 Center is now open for business, half of the roster is brand new, and the media doesn't think we suck anymore. (Okay, that last one have been made up.) The point is the 2016-2017 NBA season is now well underway and things are thus far beginning to look up for our beloved royalty.
Then again, considering where we came from (the bottom of the bottom of the bottom of the barren bottom of rock bottom), anything aside from nuclear oblivion could be considered a positive. I mean, think about it. Five years ago, the Maloofs were in charge, actively torpedoing any efforts to build a connection with the city of Sacramento, hiring only a skeleton crew of staff, cutting corners and costs, drafting Jimmer in order to make a few more bucks before a presumed move to Anaheim/Virginia Beach/Seattle/anywhere-but-Sacramento-really. Things were rough. Paul Westphal was our coach. Jason Thompson was our starting power forward. Arco Arena, as much as we all loved that place, was already well past its prime, mismatched seats, scoreboard from the seventies, dusty jerseys in the rafters all belying the fact that all the critics were right. This was no home fit for an NBA franchise, let alone Kings. Sacramento needed a new arena.
People cried. KJ worked his ass off. The Maloofs looked for new ways to fund their cake-flavored vodka business. Seattle got a little greedy. Whales made their way up Business 80 to settle in Downtown Plaza. It was sort of a big deal.
And, when all the dust settled, a new arena we got, a spectacular one at that. While reportedly being as loud and rowdy as the old barn in Natomas, the new place also reportedly sports walkable concourses, bathrooms that actually work, and, I'm told, a scoreboard you can actually see.
Now, having now ventured back to the states for the past three years now, I've yet to have seen the place in person but I am sure that it is glorious. Full disclosure, back when I was a wee college student, I was privileged to be a part of Crown Downtown, a group who I'm sure you know give it all it had to do its part to get the damn building built. Also full disclosure, I was a relatively lazy part of Crown Downtown. Sure, I went to city council meetings and games and stuff but compared to the real movers and shakers, I did nothing. Those people donated countless hours of blood, sweat, and tears. A lot of those people also happen to help run this forum. The Golden 1 Center is a testament to their hardwork and many others. Mike, Jesse, Ron, Lynne, and anyone else I’m forgetting (and there are many of you), thank you.
PS, that opener was money.
The Team
Boogie- MVP
Rudy- Still on the team.
Kosta- Still on the team. Still good at defense. Still can’t jump.
Afflalo- Still on the team?
Lawson- Someone keep him out of the clubs in Miami.
Barnes- Suddenly an all-star.
Temple- Doug Christie.
Ben- Jamal Crawford or Orien Greene. There is apparently no middle ground.
WCS- Disappointing. Offseason ended a month ago, pal.
Tolliver- Thinks he can shoot like Curry. Currently shooting like Deandre.
Omri- Bench.
The Kids- Mateen.
Joerger- COY
Awards Time
After three games, here’s what I saw.
Tony Delk Memorial Award: Dewayne Dedmon. Dedmon is by no means a bad player but the Kings made him look like a potential DPOY candidate against the Spurs. I mean, four blocks in 22 minutes is great any way you look at it.
Shareef Abdur-Rahim Award: Pau Gasol. Never looked comfortable out there for the Spurs and Boogie absolutely punished him when Pau wasn’t on the bench sulking.
Luke Walton Vacuum Cleaner Award: Tony Parker. Outplayed by Patty Mills. Outplayed by Ty Lawson. Outplayed by Garrett Temple. Outplayed by some kid playing pick-up ball in Oak Park. Has age finally caught up to the French Flash?
Mikki Award: Devin Booker. HAd a great rookie season and followed that up in his season debut by getting super-duper cheered for while bricking shots and altogether not really having much of an impact.
Jason Hart/Andres Nocioni/Marco Bellinelli Award: WCS. Not a great start to the season as he struggles to do anything on offense and not be outrebounded by point guards and shooting guards.
WTF Moment of the Week: Kawhi steals B-Mac’s lunch money not once but twice in a row.
Coming up:
After starting the season off with the San Antonio sandwich, the Kings now get to take the show on the road courtesy of NBA schedule makers who still apparently have it out for a franchise that hasn’t even sniffed the postseason since Ron Artest was still Ron Artest and SAR still had knees.
Monday: To start off the trip, we have the Atlanta Hawks, a team that had, to say the least, a puzzling offseason. After several competitive years with a solid veteran team, the Hawks decided to change things up by getting rid of some of those vets and replacing them with, uh, different players. Al “Better than Boogie” Horford is gone, replaced by a faberge egg version of Dwight Howard, a guy who Boogie has absolutely eaten for dinner over the past several seasons. Jeff Teague is gone, Dennis Schroder stepping up to take his place (and accept a rather expensive extension). Tim Hardaway, the new one not the old one, is also playing a bigger role this season and the Hawks remain one of the better coached teams in the league. Boogie remains better than anyone on their roster though.
Tuesday: The following night, the Kings head to South Beach and take on the “new look” (i.e all the good players from a few years ago are gone) Miami Heat, featuring Hassan Whiteside, Tragic Dragic, and Justise Winslow. They’re rumored to want Rudy. If they give us Winslow, I say yes. Pat Riley already establishing a firm future for his guys but that Dragic trade with the Suns handicaps him here for a few years. (You think our pick swap is bad?)
Thursday: Then, after a night off in Miami (someone keep Ty Lawson from doing something stupid), we play the Orlando Magic, a sudden player in the worst team in the league sweepstakes. Frank Vogel is a good coach but that roster is drunk and Aaron Gordon probably isn’t a SF which makes starting him there a problem. Ibaka also not looking so great now that Russ and KD aren’t there to get him easy shots.
Saturday: After that the Kings skip up to Milwaukee to face the Bucks in a battle of teams that Seattle wanted to have but couldn’t. The Bucks are, erm, interesting. Giannis is starting at point guard and putting up solid numbers while still struggling with the whole point guard part of things. Parker’s still been solid but I’m still not all that confident in Jason Kidd’s actual ability to coach.
Road trips are never easy but all the games are at the very least “winnable” and there’s not a single team on the schedule this week that would make me go “Oh, that’s a loss”. But it’s a road trip so we’ll just have to see how Joerger’s squad does.
This week’s prediction? 3-1. Boogie does Boogie things.
Kings Week in Review, Week 1
By Stephen Tetsu, KingsFans.com Japan Correspondent
Hello Kings fans and welcome to another season of Kings basketball!
It's been a long road but Golden 1 Center is now open for business, half of the roster is brand new, and the media doesn't think we suck anymore. (Okay, that last one have been made up.) The point is the 2016-2017 NBA season is now well underway and things are thus far beginning to look up for our beloved royalty.
Then again, considering where we came from (the bottom of the bottom of the bottom of the barren bottom of rock bottom), anything aside from nuclear oblivion could be considered a positive. I mean, think about it. Five years ago, the Maloofs were in charge, actively torpedoing any efforts to build a connection with the city of Sacramento, hiring only a skeleton crew of staff, cutting corners and costs, drafting Jimmer in order to make a few more bucks before a presumed move to Anaheim/Virginia Beach/Seattle/anywhere-but-Sacramento-really. Things were rough. Paul Westphal was our coach. Jason Thompson was our starting power forward. Arco Arena, as much as we all loved that place, was already well past its prime, mismatched seats, scoreboard from the seventies, dusty jerseys in the rafters all belying the fact that all the critics were right. This was no home fit for an NBA franchise, let alone Kings. Sacramento needed a new arena.
People cried. KJ worked his ass off. The Maloofs looked for new ways to fund their cake-flavored vodka business. Seattle got a little greedy. Whales made their way up Business 80 to settle in Downtown Plaza. It was sort of a big deal.
And, when all the dust settled, a new arena we got, a spectacular one at that. While reportedly being as loud and rowdy as the old barn in Natomas, the new place also reportedly sports walkable concourses, bathrooms that actually work, and, I'm told, a scoreboard you can actually see.
Now, having now ventured back to the states for the past three years now, I've yet to have seen the place in person but I am sure that it is glorious. Full disclosure, back when I was a wee college student, I was privileged to be a part of Crown Downtown, a group who I'm sure you know give it all it had to do its part to get the damn building built. Also full disclosure, I was a relatively lazy part of Crown Downtown. Sure, I went to city council meetings and games and stuff but compared to the real movers and shakers, I did nothing. Those people donated countless hours of blood, sweat, and tears. A lot of those people also happen to help run this forum. The Golden 1 Center is a testament to their hardwork and many others. Mike, Jesse, Ron, Lynne, and anyone else I’m forgetting (and there are many of you), thank you.
PS, that opener was money.
The Team
Boogie- MVP
Rudy- Still on the team.
Kosta- Still on the team. Still good at defense. Still can’t jump.
Afflalo- Still on the team?
Lawson- Someone keep him out of the clubs in Miami.
Barnes- Suddenly an all-star.
Temple- Doug Christie.
Ben- Jamal Crawford or Orien Greene. There is apparently no middle ground.
WCS- Disappointing. Offseason ended a month ago, pal.
Tolliver- Thinks he can shoot like Curry. Currently shooting like Deandre.
Omri- Bench.
The Kids- Mateen.
Joerger- COY
Awards Time
After three games, here’s what I saw.
Tony Delk Memorial Award: Dewayne Dedmon. Dedmon is by no means a bad player but the Kings made him look like a potential DPOY candidate against the Spurs. I mean, four blocks in 22 minutes is great any way you look at it.
Shareef Abdur-Rahim Award: Pau Gasol. Never looked comfortable out there for the Spurs and Boogie absolutely punished him when Pau wasn’t on the bench sulking.
Luke Walton Vacuum Cleaner Award: Tony Parker. Outplayed by Patty Mills. Outplayed by Ty Lawson. Outplayed by Garrett Temple. Outplayed by some kid playing pick-up ball in Oak Park. Has age finally caught up to the French Flash?
Mikki Award: Devin Booker. HAd a great rookie season and followed that up in his season debut by getting super-duper cheered for while bricking shots and altogether not really having much of an impact.
Jason Hart/Andres Nocioni/Marco Bellinelli Award: WCS. Not a great start to the season as he struggles to do anything on offense and not be outrebounded by point guards and shooting guards.
WTF Moment of the Week: Kawhi steals B-Mac’s lunch money not once but twice in a row.
Coming up:
After starting the season off with the San Antonio sandwich, the Kings now get to take the show on the road courtesy of NBA schedule makers who still apparently have it out for a franchise that hasn’t even sniffed the postseason since Ron Artest was still Ron Artest and SAR still had knees.
Monday: To start off the trip, we have the Atlanta Hawks, a team that had, to say the least, a puzzling offseason. After several competitive years with a solid veteran team, the Hawks decided to change things up by getting rid of some of those vets and replacing them with, uh, different players. Al “Better than Boogie” Horford is gone, replaced by a faberge egg version of Dwight Howard, a guy who Boogie has absolutely eaten for dinner over the past several seasons. Jeff Teague is gone, Dennis Schroder stepping up to take his place (and accept a rather expensive extension). Tim Hardaway, the new one not the old one, is also playing a bigger role this season and the Hawks remain one of the better coached teams in the league. Boogie remains better than anyone on their roster though.
Tuesday: The following night, the Kings head to South Beach and take on the “new look” (i.e all the good players from a few years ago are gone) Miami Heat, featuring Hassan Whiteside, Tragic Dragic, and Justise Winslow. They’re rumored to want Rudy. If they give us Winslow, I say yes. Pat Riley already establishing a firm future for his guys but that Dragic trade with the Suns handicaps him here for a few years. (You think our pick swap is bad?)
Thursday: Then, after a night off in Miami (someone keep Ty Lawson from doing something stupid), we play the Orlando Magic, a sudden player in the worst team in the league sweepstakes. Frank Vogel is a good coach but that roster is drunk and Aaron Gordon probably isn’t a SF which makes starting him there a problem. Ibaka also not looking so great now that Russ and KD aren’t there to get him easy shots.
Saturday: After that the Kings skip up to Milwaukee to face the Bucks in a battle of teams that Seattle wanted to have but couldn’t. The Bucks are, erm, interesting. Giannis is starting at point guard and putting up solid numbers while still struggling with the whole point guard part of things. Parker’s still been solid but I’m still not all that confident in Jason Kidd’s actual ability to coach.
Road trips are never easy but all the games are at the very least “winnable” and there’s not a single team on the schedule this week that would make me go “Oh, that’s a loss”. But it’s a road trip so we’ll just have to see how Joerger’s squad does.
This week’s prediction? 3-1. Boogie does Boogie things.
Go Kings!
