The Kings of Folly

             

              The Sacramento Kings are one of the most absurd teams in sports.  In fact, I have watched more Kings games than Miami Heat games this year.  Alright, that was a lie, but I have watched more Kings games this year than anyone should ever have to.  I love The Jimmer and I have DeMarcus Cousins on my fantasy team, so I sort of have a legitimate reason.  Then again, there is no legitimate reason to watch the Sacramento Kings for four quarters.  Bill Simmons tweeted about the Kings: “Sacramento needs to change its name this year to the Sacramento Blackholes.  Every Kings assist is an accident”.  And it’s true; assists are hard to come by for the Kings.  As a team, they rank last in assists and have only one player averaging more than four assists a game.

               Let’s be real, the only reason the Kings aren’t making more headlines for being stupid-faces is because the Wizards are bigger stupid-faces.  At one point it looked as if Tyreke Evans was a promising star and the future face of the franchise, but now that isn’t the case.  His points, assists, and field goal percentage have all dropped significantly since his first year in the league.  Evans is a significantly less effective version of Derrick Rose at the combo guard position.  I don’t like the combo guard as a position in general, but Derrick Rose is enough of an athlete and enough of a point guard to make it work.  Tyreke Evans is neither of those things.  While it appears Evans doesn’t have the talent to be a franchise player, DeMarcus Cousins certainly does.

               Cousins’ problems have been his attitude and his proneness to foul trouble.  DeMarcus ran Paul Westphal out of town, and in the games since has appeared more motivated, but it will be interesting to see if his effort and positive attitude are maintained throughout the season.  It was nice to see Cousins waving his towel from the bench in a close game after fouling out.  Notice the last three words of that sentence, “after fouling out”.  Cousins continually gets in foul trouble and is averaging just under 5 fouls a game for the year.  In turn, he has only averaged 27 minutes a game.  If Cousins played more, his statistics would show a significant bump.  Another statistic that shows the ineffectiveness of the Kings is that DeMarcus Cousins is second on the team in field goal percentage… shooting 42%.

               Not only are the stars of this team bad, the role players suck too.  Jimmer Fredette certainly has value in the right situation, but will not succeed in the NBA as a creator.  Similarly, Marcus Thornton and Isaiah Thomas are decent role players, but that is all they are.  Finally, we get to John Salmons.  John Salmons is the Andray Blatche of the Western Conference.  For those of you who are currently living under a rock, that is not a compliment.  This year Salmons is shooting 35% from the field and just 20% from downtown.  Don’t worry though; he will still jack up over three treys a game.

               To recap: If you want to watch fluid basketball watch the Spurs, if you want to watch athletic basketball watch the Heat or the Clippers, but if you want to watch the best kind of basketball of all, incompetent basketball, the Kings are your team.




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