Kayte Christensen: It's Early, But Kings Look Promising
Three games into the NBA season is not the time to be making predictions or wild assumptions about the potential of a team. I am against predicting win totals as a general rule, but there are a few things that we can take out of the Kings' start to the 2016-17 season.
Things are noticeably different in many facets.
Let's start with defense. We all know Dave Joerger has made a name for himself in the NBA by coaching one of the most consistently high level defensive teams in his three seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies. The crazy thing about that fact, he did it in the Western Conference where scoring reigns supreme. Yet he led a low scoring team to the playoffs in three straight seasons as the head coach in Memphis.
No matter how you slice it, no team at any level in any sport is going to be successful without being a quality defensive team.
Kings and defense haven't been things uttered in the same sentence for some time without the addition of words like hideous, lackluster, inexplicable, or non-existent.
In just three games, what we've seen on the defensive end of the ball is all the evidence I need to feel like this team is in fact changing the culture. I'm talking about consistent transition defense. Help side rotations actually happening and happening with regularity. A defense based on technique and fundamentals not gambling.
If that's not something to hitch your wagon to I don't know what is.
But then there is the offense to talk about.
The Kings have never had a problem scoring the ball. But now they are coming up with stops on a more regular basis and that is only going to help their offense.
Let's keep in mind Joerger has put in about a quarter of his total offensive playbook. There's a reason for that by the way.
Coach Joerger is about teaching and enforcing good habits. Executing and mastering things a stage at a time instead of throwing the whole playbook at a group of guys who don't have a ton of time and experience with one another. That's how you BUILD something.
It's like when you're learning how to write. You start off with print and graduate to cursive (well, at least they did in my day before these fancy new things called computers).
The point here is, master the basics and build on that a step at a time. It sounds like common sense but a lot of coaches don't focus enough on the fundamentals. Without that foundation you'll always feel like you're in quicksand.
I can say this with complete certainty, Joerger is not that guy.
Just wait until January when we get to see a more complete version of Coach Joerger's system. Yes it's early, but what I'm seeing on the court, I can tell you it's very promising.
This is the kind of process I am happy to sit back and watch happen. Because the payoff will be worth it.