Sunday, February 17, 2013
Does Tyreke have a future with Kings?
By Tom Carpenter
Regardless of whether the Sacramento Kings end up sticking in Sacto or heading up the coast to Seattle, they have plenty of roster issues to consider. One of which is determining what they have in Tyreke Evans and what to do with him as a restricted free agent this coming offseason. Evans was the Rookie of the Year but has not lived up to those expectations in the following three campaigns. Regardless, Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee thinks Evans still holds a lot of promise. Jones asked himself whether Evans can be a dominant NBA shooting guard.
"Yes, if his jump shot becomes reliable and he stays healthy and becomes more aggressive," Jones wrote. "Evans is shooting a career-best 48 percent but is just 29.5 percent from 15 to 24 feet. Too often, he has stretches where he's not a factor on either end of the court, and his scoring is down to 15.3 points per game. The Kings need him closer to 20 points."
As for his offseason restricted free agent value, ESPN NBA Insider Kevin Pelton ranks Evans as the No. 4 free-agent shooting guard on the market:
Kevin Pelton
Top NBA free agents of 2013"Quietly, Evans has shown growth this season. He's making a career-best 50.1 percent of his 2-point attempts and has matched the level of play he reached during his rookie of the year campaign. To get beyond that point, Evans will have to improve his outside marksmanship, especially now that he has settled in at shooting guard. He's making 32.7 percent of his 3s, a career high, but has attempted only 55."
