Sacramento Kings: 5 Things the Kings Need to Do to Improve

You gotta feel bad for Keith Smart. This can't be an easy job.

Smart has essentially until the end of the season to prove he's capable of coaching at the NBA level. But he's got to put together a team with no identity, no offensive strategy and tons of pieces that need to be super-glued together.

And he's got to do it on the fly, with minimal practice time and often four contests a week.

Still, the talent is obviously there. The Kings are 4-7, which is far superior than they should be considering all the drama and problems they've had coming into the season. But numerous problems still bubble to the surface and they all need to be addressed before the Kings can take the leap from "young team" to "good team."

So let's help Keith Smart out a bit and identify the Kings' five biggest issues. How can the Kings improve? Let's take a look.

Get a Starting-Caliber Small Forward

This is probably the toughest task for Sacramento.

But one thing is clear—John Salmons is, shockingly, really not that good. He continues to start for Sacramento because he is a decent defender, but on the offensive end, he's been utterly dreadful. Tyreke Evans gets heat for being a "black hole" on offense, but when compared to Salmons he's basically John Stockton.

Donte Greene is a very energetic player and a fan favorite, but he's not a starter caliber player. Neither is Travis Outlaw, who may become a decent player if he stopped taking so many threes.

So the Kings' small forward woes need to be solved from the outside. There had been rumblings during the offseason that the Kings were interested in former Utah Jazz star Andrei Kirilenko, who is currently playing in Russia. Sacramento should be calling Kirilenko and his agent constantly, begging Kirilenko to reconsider coming back to the NBA.

If that avenue doesn't work, the Kings need to figure out a way to trade for a better small forward. Maybe a call to Portland, who seem noncommittal about giving Nicolas Batum an extension. While Batum is slightly redundant for the Trailblazers since they have Gerald Wallace, Batum's defense is better than Salmons and he isn't as ball-needy on offense.  

Another option would be Wilson Chandler, who returns to the NBA in February or March after his Chinese basketball excursion, but the Nuggets could match any offer.

Keep Working on the Rotation

Keith Smart's rotation patterns can be forgiven if they don't work at the moment, considering he's only coached four games in a sped-up season. He hasn't had a ton of time to work this out, and his players haven't either, so all changes will have to be made on the fly.

But a few things are becoming obvious—one, Jimmer Fredette needs to be lower on the depth chart than he is. While fans complain that he isn't being properly utilized in the Kings' offense, he doesn't look comfortable for most of his playing time and his defense has been even worse than expected. He is currently just shooting 35 percent from the field.

Meanwhile, Isaiah Thomas has been very solid off the bench and should be getting more playing time than Fredette. His field goal numbers are no better than Fredette's—he's also at 35 percent shooting—but he comes with a swagger and confidence that Jimmer can't match.

In the Kings' 98-91 victory against the Raptors, Thomas finished with 20 points and a team-high six assists, and looked extremely comfortable as a pass-first point guard.

Smart also needs to continue figuring out how to juggle Francisco Garcia, Travis Outlaw and Donte Greene into the mix. In a sped-up season with most games back to back, the Kings need to have fresh legs every night.

Keep Giving DeMarcus Cousins the Ball

If the Kings want to win, they need to keep getting DeMarcus Cousins the basketball. Or run the offense through him in the low post, or keep working the passing lanes to get him the ball. Whatever it takes.

Cousins caused quite a stir with his alleged trade requests, but the Kings aren't considering trading him (see this article I wrote on why they shouldn't even consider it). And good thing too, because Cousins gets better and better by each day.

In the last five contests, Cousins is averaging 19.8 points, 11.4 rebounds, 2.0 blocks and a 56 percent shooting percentage. He's also playing excellent defense.

In the Kings' 98-91 win over Toronto, Cousins finished with 21 points and 19 rebounds, but only took 11 shots. He needs to get more shots in the post if the Kings want to win. Cousins, with his size and post skills is a rare commodity in the NBA and presents a dangerous matchup to nearly any opponent. While he still has the bad habit of taking long jumpers from the top, he's one of the most dangerous players when he gets the ball down low.

The Kings won the game against Toronto on Wednesday night because late in the game, Isaiah Thomas found Cousins multiple times in the paint. Tyreke Evans and Jimmer Fredette need to take a page out of Thomas' book and work on opening passing lanes so they can give the big man the ball.

Kings Need to Move

The biggest weakness for the Kings, both offensively and defensively, is that the team often stands still.

It seems that on nearly every possession at least three of the four players without the ball gets to one spot and stays there, watching the ball handler move. This is inexcusable offense and something Smart needs to fix now. There is no spacing from the Kings and only minimal use of screens or cuts to get open. Forget trying to make the Kings a running team—try making them move AT ALL.

The player most guilty of this Tyreke Evans. Evans is overly criticized for his ball handling and passing, but it's hard to run any offense when the team as a whole refuses to move.

And yet you'd think that after running the offense for most of the game and seeing his teammates glued to the floor, Tyreke would consider moving himself. When he's without the ball, most of the time he stands in one spot for the whole possession, occasionally taking one step or another.

Kings fans had been spoiled for years with the ball movement under Rick Adleman, which never would have happened without the constant screens, cuts, back-doors and general MOVEMENT from players without the ball. At this point, just seeing all the Kings walking around the court on offense would be a treat.

It's also a problem on defense and really showed in the Kings' losses to Orlando and Philadelphia. On the defensive end, the Kings seem to be befuddled by the simplest of passing games, as if they're stunned by the motion and wing defenders get burned by open shooters.

This cannot continue. Ball movement and wing defense won't begin to improve until the players stop stopping.

Continue to Build Team Chemistry

Something odd has happened in each of the Kings' four victories, besides the fact that they actually won a contest.

The players actually looked like they were enjoying themselves. Now Smart needs to make sure they smile more often.

Smart said early and often into his tenure that the team chemistry needed to improve.

"Right now the team is dealing with an identity crisis," Smart told the Sacramento Bee. "Each guy is trying to push forward his identity. … We've got to get each guy to understand, your identity will grow faster by trying to grow this team."

This team is young and many of its problems can be blamed on that youth. The lack of a longer training camp has probably impacted the Kings more than any team in the league. And to top it off, the team is having to transition to a new coach within the first month of the season.

And Smart is absolutely correct—if this team can figure out its identity, find some consistency in its rotation patterns and start moving without the ball, they have the talent to be a very good team.

Can they do it? Only time will tell, but Keith Smart has given Sacramento fans some new optimism.