I feel like I'm back in the early '90s. All the major networks are predicting a last-place finish for the Kings without giving them half of a chance to win so many as 25 games. The team's preseason games aren't being aired on television, and Sacramento's lone national TV appearance is on NBATV, which, adding insult to injury, isn't even carried by my cable provider. I'm half-expecting to look outside and see kids wearing Starter jackets, listening to "The Macarena" on their cassette players, and trading Pogs.
The fact that eight out of 10 ESPN NBA analysts predicted that the Kings would finish with the worst record in the West (the other two graciously had them second to last) is hardly a surprise in itself. After all, we're talking about a 17-win team that lost its starting small forward for four months after he broke his wrist in an exercise ball explosion.
Predictably, most of the experts found different ways to say the same thing — the Kings will be very, very bad — such as J.A. Adande quipping that the 2009-10 season "could make the dark times before the Webber-Vlade-Peja era look like the good ol' days" (yikes) and former King Jon Barry suggesting that Sacramento doesn't have "the talent needed to compete." I'll now need extensive therapy to cope with the repressed memories of Olden Polynice bricks and Duane Causwell hacks that have sprung back into consciousness.
All jokes aside, however, Jemele Hill's assertion that a "retread coach" — who she neglects to mention, has the fifth-best career winning percentage (.627) among all active coaches — is bad news for a young team that hasn't improved in any important category serves as the latest example of a respected media outlet haphazardly throwing out baseless analysis.
A quick look at the preseason statistics shows that Jason Thompson ranks fifth in the league in rebounding at nearly 10 per game and Spencer Hawes is averaging seven boards in limited minutes, which if nothing else, indicates improvement in a category where the Kings ranked 29th last season. A healthy Kevin Martin has gotten his shooting touch back to the tune of 46% from the floor (40% from downtown), critical since the Kings finished in the bottom-ten in field goal percentage. And if Tyreke Evans is, as Ms. Hill predicts, "this year's Derrick Rose," then it's hard to believe that his court vision, versatility and toughness on the defensive end wouldn't do wonders for a team that gave up almost 110 points per game and had the third-worst assist-to-turnover ratio. But perhaps these aren't important categories.
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