I don't know about you guys but damn am I ready for basketball to be back. It's been a long summer and I want to see how the Kings look on the court. The Kings are starting preseason basketball today in Vancouver to take on the Toronto Raptors in the first preseason game of the year, but unfortunately the game isn't going to be televised, which stinks. The game will be carried on Sports 1140 KHTK with Grant Napear filling in for Gary Gerould and will start at 4:00 PM Pacific.
Even though there's no TV, we'll put up a game thread anyway in case you want to follow the radio broadcast and any internet box scores. From asking around on Twitter, it appears a few of you will actually be at the game, and if you are, I highly recommend that you take the time to write a FanPost with your observations.
3 THINGS TO LOOK FOR
1. I am interested to see who Michael Malone goes with as his starting five. Last year he had several starting lineups over the course of the first few preseason games before he settled on the one that started the regular season, and it's possible that happens again. The biggest questions are at Shooting Guard and Power Forward. DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay are locks, and Darren Collison is more suited to a starting role than either Ramon Sessions or Ray McCallum, but at SG and PF we have a few choices. Ben McLemore is the incumbent, but by no means does that mean he's a lock for the job. He did well in Summer League, but Nik Stauskas proved to be far more efficient with his shooting. At PF we've heard a lot about how Jason Thompson and Reggie Evans have been the MVPs of training camp so far, so I'd expect one of them to get the starting job tonight but we also have a healthy Carl Landry now.
2. Speaking of which, we have a healthy Carl Landry now. I want to see if Carl can stay healthy and be productive. Last year, he only played 18 games and none of them were Carl at full capacity. We know that Carl can be an incredibly useful player, especially off the bench, and if he can return to that form that will be a big boon for a Kings team that was lacking any depth last year.
3. Ball movement was a big priority of the Kings this offseason, so let's see just how many assists this Kings team can rack up in preseason with Darren Collison leading the way. It's going to have to be a team effort though.
PREGAME LIMERICK
Sacramento Kings preseason is here,
What a wonderful time of year!
The results don't matter,
unless you're a mad hatter,
so chill out and have a beer.
PREDICTION IN GIF FORM
