This week without Tyreke went about as expected, perhaps even worse with a loss to the lowly Nets. Not a fun week to be a Kings fan unless your into lottery position, because as of now we're basically dueling the Pistons to see who ends up 5th or 6th. And we both lost to the Nets this week.

The Good:

1. Carl "Top Hat" Landry

Top Hat is something else. Other than for the Nets game, in which the Nets focused most of their offense on stopping him, Landry had an awesome week. He dominated the Clippers and Celtics (who have some of the best interior defenders in the league), and held his own against Z-Bo. If anything, he should have gotten more touches in that game, because Z-Bo is a notoriously bad defender. Landry has the ability to score 20+ every single night on extremely efficient shooting (He shot 61% from the field and got to the line 27 times this week, where he shot 74%). He definitely needs to work on his rebounding, because although I never think he'll be an elite rebounder, he can be a 7-8 rebound a game player, which isn't bad, even if its not great.

2. Wabeno Udrih

See Player of the Week. Most Impressive.

3. Sean May

May played a total of 33 and 1/2 minutes this week and accrued 15 points (on 6-10 shooting), 9 boards, and 2 blocks. Not bad from a guy none of us expected much out of to start the year. But he comes in and plays with heart and energy, and he genuinely seems like a good guy and teammate.

4. Nessie begins working out again

That's a good sign for the knee, and hopefully we'll be able to see more of Nessie again before the season ends. We could've used him several times during his absence.

5. Kings taking the cautious route with Tyreke

Tyreke felt dizzy after practice the other day, and the Kings felt that it was prudent to keep him out of the Boston and Cleveland games as well, and re-evaluate him on Monday. I have to say I agree with this and hopefully we'll be able to see him play again on Tuesday in Indiana, or Wednesday in Minnesota. I have no problem with waiting on Tyreke to be 100% healthy, especially when dealing with a head injury like he had.

6. Dominic McGuire

I like Dominic, he plays solid defense, and rebounds extremely well. His shot is iffy, but I think he's potentially better for our team than Udoka. I think the Kings might take a look at keeping him along next year for a minimum deal, so they can have an above-average defensive stopper on hand. This all depends on the draft of course, and free agency.

7. The NCAA tourney and especially the Kansas St. v. Xavier game

I know this isn't Kings related, but if you didn't watch the Kansas St. v. Xave

The Bad:

1. Omri Casspi

Omri really needs to work on his conditioning over the summer because its still clear that he has tired legs, even with the extended rest he's been getting. And because of that rest, he's not as in-tune with the rest of the team as he was when he was getting extended minutes. Worst of all, his shot isn't falling, his defense is lagging, and his rebounding is regressing. All because of reduced energy. I'm not overly worried because of his experience, but there are clear steps Omri needs to take to have a long and great NBA career.

2. The officiating in the Memphis Game

Just atrocious. 'Nuff said.

3. Ime Udoka's shooting woes

I love Ime's hustle, defense, and rebounding. But there's a reason he's not playing for a contender right now. The guy cannot shoot. He shot 3-15 for the entire week, without hitting a 3 pointer. He's shot well at times (remember The Comeback?), but most of the time, he doesn't. It's unfortunate, because he does other stuff so well.

4. Cisco

This week saw more Bonehead Cisco than Good Cisco. Unforced turnovers, bad shots, you name it, vintage Bonehead Cisco. 10 turnovers in 4 games, and only 36% shooting from the field. This isn't the Cisco we want to see. Come on Flaco, you're better than this.

5. JT off the bench

Last week, JT was stellar off the bench, this week not so much. His offense wasn't good in any game but against Boston, and he fouled out in only 20 minutes in that game. JT has a lot he needs to work on over the next two years, but I think the main thing he needs to learn is patience. He could learn a lot from working with Carl this summer I think, especially on how to attack the basket and defending with your feet (something Carl does well, although he's not as big or strong as JT)

6. Kings Rebounding

The Kings were outrebounded in every single game this week, except the lone win against the Clippers, where they won the battle by 1, despite a blowout win.

7. Spencer's injury

Spencer's injury against Boston further hurts this teams depth at one of its weakest positions and it is currently unknown how much time he will miss if any. Hopefully Nessie can come back soon

8. The inconsistency of Donté Greene's Rebounding

Donté puzzles me, because at times he seems like he can rebound the ball extremely well (10 against New Jersey and 9 against Boston), but then he comes up with stinkers too (1 against the Clips and 2 against the Grizz, although the 2 was in 11 minutes). The good thing about his rebounding is that the last two games have been very good for him in that category, and I'd like to see if he can continue to rebound at a good rate for the rest of the season. He'll be going up against two very good rebounding SFs in the next two games in LeBron and Granger.

9. Turnovers

The Kings averaged 15.3 turnovers per game this week. That's not a good mark, especially when you take into consideration the fact that in both the Boston and New Jersey games, we barely had more assists than Turnovers. We turned the ball over more than the opposition in each of our losses this week. Obviously, taking care of the ball is essential to winning.

The Ugly:

1. The Nets game

The Kings just couldn't get anything going in this game, and the Nets were simply hungrier. The only person that was at all able to find the basket with any semblance of consistency was Beno, but the rest of the team was horrible. Congrats to the Nets for winning, and the Kings tried, but they just could not get anything to fall. If anything, this game showed how important Tyreke is to this team, a guy that can get points for himself, and by extension his teammates as the opposing defense tries to stop him.

2. Andres Nocioni's shooting woes

Ok I get it Noc. When the coach puts you in late games when we're down, he wants you to shoot. And sometimes, it works. But most of the time it doesn't. After a 3-6 outing against the Clippers (a win), Noc shot a combined 2-16 including 1-11 from 3. And these misses aren't even close anymore. I have a feeling that if Noc didn't try to force his shot and played within the offense better, he'd be more accurate. It's as if Noc and Donté switched shooting strokes at the end of last season.

3. The Kings 3 Point shooting

The Kings shot a combined 15 of 59 from long-range this week, which is an absolute atrocious 25.4%. I have a feeling that this is an area 'Reke helps the team in, because his penetration causes defenses to collapse and the Kings shooters to have better, more open looks at the 3.

Player of the Week:

Wabeno Udrih

18.3 PPG, .516 FG%, .417 3P%, 11 APG, 3.14:1 A:TO, 5.5 RPG, 2.5 SPG

What a week for Beno. Without Tyreke, Beno carried the load of the work on the offense and played like an All-Star. Those numbers speak for themselves. Beno has really proved to be a boon to this team this year, and you really can't put any of the blame for our losses this week on him, and in fact he was a huge part of our only win. He was the only guy that was truly consistent all week, and the fact of the matter is that he was consistently awesome. I salute you Wabeno "Orville Redenbacher (That's a Gary Gerould special)" "King of the Stop N' Pop" Udrih.

Comment of the Week:

Highlight of the Week:

Caption Contest:

Link to Last Week's Picture

Last Week's Winner: MustangMBS

Last Week's Runner-Up:

Nobody. I blame myself for not finding a picture worthy of your comedic talents. But seriously only one caption got rec'd and that was Mustang's. I promise to find a better one this week if you guys promise to be funnier.

This Week's Picture:

Lottery Projection and Profile of the Week:

Current Projected Lottery Position: 5th

Current Lottery Range: 5th – 8th

Draft Profile: Cole Aldrich, 6'11, 250 lbs, C, Junior Kansas

Cole Aldrich is not the pretty pick. He's perhaps the one pick that you absolutely know what your going to get from though. He's able to score when needed, and doesn't try to force it. But the biggest thing he provides is defense and rebounding, two attributes the Kings would love to have in a big man. This guy averaged nearly 10 boards and 3.5 blocks per game at Kansas this year, all in 27 minutes. The best part of his defense is that he's able to affect the game without fouling, using his long arms and tremendous lower body strength to keep opposing bigs from getting good looks inside. Because of his strength he's very hard to post up. His weakness lie in his quickness, offensive game, and upside. He'll probably be one of the better rookies, and one of the few able to play in the NBA relatively quickly, but he likely won't improve all that much statistically over his career, although I expect you'll see consistent lower end double-double averages with a couple blocks thrown in throughout his career.

Next Week's Profile: Don-tdraft-as Motiejunas

And Nostradumbass Prediction for Next Week:

@ Cleveland 3/28 L (Cleveland is the best team in the NBA, and we're without Tyreke. I'll be happy if we keep it semi-competitive)

@ Indiana 3/30 L (Even with Tyreke I think we'll have trouble with Indiana. They've won 6 of their last 7, and 5 in a row, including blowing out Utah and OKC. And their loss was a 5 point loss in Cleveland. Danny Granger is playing out of his mind right now)

@ Minnesota 3/31 W (Even without Tyreke, this Kings team should be more than talented to beat Minnesota, and the guys won't want an 0-fer road trip)

v. Portland 4/3 L (Portland seems to have our number this year, and they're desperate to stay in the playoff hunt. They'll bring their A-game)

Nostradumbass Record for the Season 42 – 31 (Good for 5th seed in the East and 9th in the West).