Why does sacramento hate spencer hawes

The team's in a tough situation. Kevin Martin notes is already on board, and deals for Spencer Hawes notes and Jason Thompson notes are impending.

Years away, but "impending" does not imply an actual term of time! I mean, Spencer Hawes ' 64th birthday is impending, as well. No player in the man rotation played in the NBA before , and while it's tough to call any of these youngsters an outright stud, it's tough to call any of them an outright dud either.

I already used "woof," which reminds of "dog," so I couldn't use "dog," so I had to use "dud" and create a rhyme as an unfortunate byproduct.

I apologize, but as you can see, my hands were tied in the matter. I go to great pains not to repeat myself, and I go out of the way to the point of discomfort to abstain from redundancy. The team just felt "OK" to me, eventually. I didn't think that "OK" would get here - in the form of a team playing around. Thought it a best case scenario, in that conference, for Not Kevin Martin is the best thing going here.

He's already on his second contract and coming off a massively disappointing year that saw him battle injuries and ennui. To these eyes, he loafed last season, barely going through the motions offensively and acting as one of the league's worst defenders.

The first part might be debatable. The rest is not. Martin didn't want to be there in Judging his off-court work thus far in , he's now clearly enjoying himself. Good to see. The coaching and infusing of youth has turned him into the perfect mentor as he recovers from injury. I've been a Martin backer since the preseason of his rookie year; I've always dug this guy, but he phoned it in last year. And for someone who has to work much harder than your typical point scorer just to get good shots off, merely showing up just doesn't cut it.

Even if he does bounce back this year, there's not much around him. Tyreke Evans notes will excite, but he's a rookie and doesn't appear to be the sort that would hoist a team on his back and onto 35 wins. Omri Casspi notes is another rookie. He had a fantastic preseason and will be taking the place of the injured Francisco Garcia , but is that enough to compete against a proper playoff team?

Jason Thompson? Fine all-around power forward. Spencer Hawes is the rare center who can walk and chew gum at the same time. This is a good little unit that has room to grow. But it's so, so young. The defense was awful last season, the offense was miserable and though internal development can be counted on, this is more or less the same team that was blown out of the water last year. You took a team that could barely stay within 25 points of most other outfits last season, added a year of growth, "another rookie," and Tyreke Evans.

I thought that would be enough to stay within 10 points of people. Didn't think they'd win 13 of 29 while barely losing to the Cavaliers and Lakers. It should come as no surprise that the last time the Kings posted an above-average defensive rating, the season, was also the last time they celebrated a postseason appearance. Last season was no exception for Sacramento. The Kings posted the worst defensive rating, not only over the last 15 years, and not only in franchise history but in the 75 years in which the NBA has existed.

They were somehow less effective than a win squad which saw Jason Thompson and Spencer Hawes combine for almost 60 minutes per game. They were that bad. Sacramento's lack of defensive effort last year was even more discouraging than usual because the Kings were actually pretty good everywhere else on the court - almost good enough to sort of compete.

They ranked 12th in offensive rating, and if they had tied the Washington Wizards for 20th in defensive rating, they would have finished the year with a slightly positive net rating. That would have put them ahead of the 10th-seeded San Antonio Spurs and right in line with the 9th-seeded Golden State Warriors and the play-in tournament, exactly where the Kings wished to be at the close of the season. If the Kings want to make that wish come true in , they're going to need to make wholesale changes on the defensive end of the hardwood.

Luke Walton and his staff must start game-planning for the roster they have, rather than forcing their rotation into an ill-fitting plan, while the players must take responsibility for their effort on defense.

This team can be average or better defensively if they allow themselves that chance. The first and most obvious adjustment is a complete change to the coaching staff's defensive philosophy.

Last season, the Kings switched just about every pick-and-roll and dribble hand-off, and they were murdered, raised from the dead, and murdered again every time a weak perimeter-minded big man, also known as every player outside of Richaun Holmes, was switched onto a guard. That sort of plan may work with highly adaptable forwards and centers with a passion for stopping opposing guard and wings, but those players don't really exist within this group.

Hopefully, that strategy is dead before training camp begins. Outside of the general mayhem of switching everything and hoping for the best, the coaching staff also needs to reconsider their deployment of weaker defensive players, namely Buddy Hield and Marvin Bagley.

In , Hield defended the most field goal attempts of any guard in the league, and while that's partially a compliment to his otherworldly game-to-game availability, it also serves as evidence as to how often teams targeted him in one-on-one situations.

Last year, Hield recorded the fourth-worst overall defensive field goal percentage differential in the league, allowing his opponents to increase their accuracy by 4. And when things moved closer to the hoop, his effectiveness grew worse.

Buddy also ranked first among guards in field goals defended at the rim, and he placed last in the NBA in field goal percentage differential in the paint, as his opponents knocked down Similar to Hield, Marvin Bagley was also ineffective across the board defensively, but his rim protection numbers were the most concerning of all. Despite his 6'11" frame, Bagley's opponents were almost as successful in the paint as when they were guarded by the 6'4" Hield, sinking That sort of weak rim protection isn't exactly ideal when Marvin is operating at the four-spot, but it becomes devastating when he's the only big on the floor.

Sacramento's most-used lineup with Bagley at center, Fox-Haliburton-Hield-Barnes-Bagley, posted the second-highest defensive rating of any of the lineups played between the 30 NBA teams last season, allowing a staggering points per 48 minutes.

Overall, the eight most commonly utilized Bagley-at-center lineups were outscored by a combined 67 points in minutes of play. Of course, every team features multiple players who are more prone to scoring than defending, but Luke Walton and his staff have consistently failed to hide Bagley's and Hield's defensive warts over the last two years. Instead, most of their strategies have actually highlighted their struggles and made it far easier for opposing teams to feast when they enter the game.

Switching everything hurts both players, as Marvin struggles to cover perimeter-oriented players and Buddy can't stop a rim attack to save his life. Playing Bagley at center has also proved to be ineffective defensively, especially when he's paired with a three-guard lineup. Switching everything, while playing Bagley at center, with a three-guard lineup, with Buddy as one of those guards, is just asking for disaster.

And that's exactly what happened last season. Buddy Hield and Marvin Bagley should not be counted as immune from criticism for their poor defensive performances, but simple, logical adjustments by the coaches can also work to de-emphasize those struggles. The Sacramento Kings may have been the worst statistical team in NBA history last season, but they were by no means the worst defensive roster in NBA history, nor will they be in In order to escape that hellhole of defensive incompetence, and in order to break the year playoff drought, the Kings must make major adjustments heading into next season.

Luke Walton needs to ensure that he's not exacerbating his worst defensive players' issues by playing them together and with undersized groups, the coaching staff must stop insisting on switching everything on defense, and the team as a whole must begin to take responsibility for their performance on the court.

If all of those things come together, the Kings may very well find themselves not only in the top or 15 of defenses next season, but in the playoff picture as well. Email address:. Willie was great, he came in, he worked.

Obviously, he was a different guy off the court just because he has a lot of different interests, but on the court, he came here, he worked hard. He had a lot of love for this city, regardless of the stuff that happened.

Known for his strong relationship with the fan base, Giles was wary of what might be in store for Cauley-Stein in his first game back in Sacramento when asked about the crowd's potential reaction.

He still put his time in too.