Rookie Phenom: Evans Mentioned In MVP Race
December 11, 2009 by Andrew Nicholson
After four games in five nights, the Kings are well rested and “stronger than ever,” according to Coach Paul Westphal, and ready to take a bite out of the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night.
The contest will be the first matchup between the two young teams this season. Despite their record, the Wolves are playing better, thanks to the return of Al Jefferson and Kevin Love.
“Since Kevin Love has been back, he’s been sensational,” Westphal said. “I hear a lot of the same quotes coming out of their locker room as ours. ‘Just can’t quite close out the game. We’re playing hard. We’re playing together. We’re going in the right direction.’ We expect it to be a really tough game.”
Along with the return of two of the Wolves’ starters from a season ago, the team features talented rookie point guard Jonny Flynn. It will be the first time Flynn and Tyreke Evans go head to head, since they faced each other in Sacramento’s point guard pre-Draft workout on June 21.
“He’s a little at a disadvantage, like most of the NBA point guards are,” former collegiate teammate Donté Greene said of Flynn’s matchup with Evans. “Tyreke is a 6-foot-6, strong point guard. He’ll definitely have his hands full.”
Greene’s sentiment fittingly understates opponents’ feelings about Evans’ early exploits this season – he’s a handful. So much so that Evans’ point (20.2), rebound (5.0) and assist (5.1) averages as a rookie rank him among the most elite players in NBA history. Only Hall of Famers Oscar Robertson and Michael Jordan and League MVP LeBron James have finished their first-year campaign with at least 20, 5 and 5, respectively. With those stats in mind, it’s no surprise NBA.com ranks the Kings rookie among the top 10 for NBA MVP honors.
“I think when you keep playing well, awards follow,” Westphal, who is not one to discuss individual awards, said. “He’s certainly raising a lot of eyebrows throughout the League, and he will for a long time.”
Despite the strong play from Evans and the team’s improved assist and turnover numbers, the Kings have lost four straight. One area that has stood out during the stretch has been the team’s free throw shooting, which Kayte Christensen blogged about. In the last four games, the Kings have shot 69, 62.5, 47.4 and 53.5 percent from the free-throw line, respectively.
“Unfortunately, that does happen to good shooters sometimes,” Westphal said after the team’s spirited practice. “Unfortunately, it happens to good shooters at the same time sometimes. Doubly unfortunately, it happened to us that way.”
“We’re trying to emphasize free throw shooting every day and pressure situations. I think we have good shooters and over the course of the season we’ll make them, but we’ve hit a rough patch. So we’re just going to keep playing with confidence and figure that it will even itself out.”
Watch – Kings Practice: Coach Westphal, including his discussion of the team’s practice and the team’s matchup with the Wolves.
Through the first quarter of the season, the team has excelled at learning from its mistakes and making the necessary adjustments to put itself in the best possible position to win. The work continued before the team even hit the practice court on Friday, as Omri Casspi said the team had its longest film review of the season.
“We can take a lot of things (away from the Spurs game), especially on defense,” Casspi said. “We made a couple of mistakes on the defensive end at the end of the game and (finishing) the game on the offensive end… We were right there.”
Watch – Kings Practice: Omri Casspi, including his breakdown of the team’s extensive film session, his field goal, three-point and free throw shooting and the team’s matchup with the Wolves.
After a strong practice, the League’s third-ranked three-point (percentage) shooter is ready to follow up his career-high 20-point, seven-rebound outing with another exciting performance at home.
“We need to go out there and play really hard, play our game” Casspi said. “It’s our home court with our fans. There is no reason we should lose this game. We’re ready to go out there, play hard, play good defense, and I think we’ll be ok.”
See Casspi, Evans and the exciting young Kings take on Love, Flynn and the Wolves Saturday at 7 p.m. at ARCO Arena. Buy tickets now.
TYREKE CONTINUES TO RAISE EYEBROWS AROUND THE LEAGUE IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT! JUST TO BE MENTIONED AS A POSSIBLE MVP CANDIDATE SAY'S A LOT ABOUT THE IMPACT TYREKE HAS MADE ON THE KINGS ORGANIZATION. IT IS FABULOUS TO HAVE OMRI CASSPI'S FAMILY IN TOWN FOR THE HOLIDAY'S … A VERY SPECIAL HAPPY HANUKKAH AND MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL THIS HOLIDAY SEASON! GO KINGS!
well looking at the standings i believe that we can get into the playoffs by the end off the night on the19th we should be 13-13 the only loss i see is against portland we have minesota twice washington and milwake and if we play as we have we could steall portland thats 14and 12 on the negative side if i see another player smile or be friendly after a loss to the other team i will freak is ok to shake hands and move on but no need to be making dates take some pride you want respect earn it
right on victor! Kings have been unstoppable almost at Arco this year. Gotta get that swagger back. Like Casspi says though, there is no reason they should lose. they will be OK!
Coach has been real legit this year. it will be interesting to see Theus back in Sac but it is sure great to have Westphal as Kings coach now. Reke called him one of his best coaches ever the other day. Reke going against Flynn is going to be great, good luck Flynn, you are gonna need it!
Tyreke………what can I say? He is a welcome addition to the organization. Reke plays from start to finish 100%. The chemestry is coming together with the young team. Enjoy watching them.
Hope Coach has the team in the practice facility working on free throws. If the percentages were higher, they would have won ALL the road games. It's fundamentals…you learn that your freshman year in high school…………..
Evans has been amazing this season. that company he is in is LEGENDARY. He's a KING too! So glad the country will see him go against GilZeroooo on Wednesday. like you said Rockin'R, turnaround the FT and they'll be set.
I like your enthusiasm Craig. It's been exciting to see this team playing so well, despite Kevin and Francisco being hurt. Tyreke is a really special player. It's nice people outside of our city are noticing. Every game I've see in person, I'm even more impressed because of how easy he makes it look. Keep up the great work.
This season has been all about chemistry. you can tell the guys really fight for each other. no egos. even the losses have been fun to watch cuz you can see how much they fight till the end. casspi's shooting has been a very nice surprise!
Wish you the best Evans! You're great! Sactown! Yeah!!!!!
People will see how good Sacramento really is when we destroy Washington Wizards on national television
living in toronto, i never get to see him play, but i watch all of his highlights and he was my favourite college player as memphis is my college basketball team(Douglas-Roberts and Rose, to name a few in the past couple of years not including evans, its unfortunate to see those players playing for jersey and the bulls, teams having terrible years) so i know what hes about, scoring and driving to the basket and he does that very well. his shot does need improvement though. when it does improve, he will average around 26-29 ppg. now that evans is a king, i'm suddenly and raptors fan and a kings fan. btw when is martin coming back, that backcourt would be deadly(martin and evans). when is the last time both gaurds averaged over 20 ppg? i think they will be the frist
man were do so good ,and when we start making are free throws will be unstopable,im tellin you champions 2110 baby, i have big hopes for this team.
correction 2010
i like the way he carries himself, poise, clutch , handles pressure well, he knows hes good and the world knows hes good. hes not cocky, like james or kobe or carmelo. that creats hatred against you. noah was gonna knock out lebron for dancing, its ok to celebrate, dont over do it. this kid is speacial, hes calm, doesnt over react wen he robs gilbert arenas like taking candy from a kid. the worlds gonna love him, even joakim noah..
Can't wait to see how Francisco and Kevin will impact the team when they return. It used to be "Kevin Martin and the Kings"; now it's "Tyreke Evans and the Kings." Whoever's team it will be, it can't be anything but good! I see a bright future ahead of us… GO KINGS!!! (p.s., Geoff Petrie, you've done it again!)