The Baseline Sees All: Sacramento Kings

Elsewhere in our web of basketball knowledge, you’ll find comprehensive team previews by experts intimately acquainted with what makes these NBA teams tick, where they’ve been, and what might be next for them. So why another set of previews? Because sometimes, it’s worth listening to your crazy uncle about that broken leg before you take a second trip to the doctor’s office.↵
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↵Last season was not kind to the Kings, at least not if you interpret kindness in terms of games won. Then, despite having the worst record, the Maloof hoops brigade was stuck picking fourth. They ended up passing on Ricky Rubio, who wanted to come to Sactown and would’ve been a PR coup. And yet it didn’t take long this summer for top pick Tyreke Evans to make a strong impression on even the most H&M-ed up Ricky fanboy. Their roster now looks even crazier, riskier and yes, has a little bit of a feeling of adventure to it. Onward!↵
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↵Most Likely To Breakout: Can I use a rookie as a breakout player? What about one whose stock is already pretty high? Whatever, I make the rules around here. Tyreke Evans should be odds-on favorite for Rookie of the Year. If the team had tons of known quantities to feed, his ability to walk in today and distribute might be more of an issue. But this team is looking for an identity, and to that extent, for now only the rapport between ‘Reke and Kevin Martin matters. That shouldn’t pose a problem, since K-Mart No. 2 is among the league’s most efficient, and polite, scoring machines. Martin winning a scoring title would also qualify here.↵
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