Sacramento Kings: Changes Needed After Blowout Against New York Knicks

Just a week removed from their victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Kings have gone winless since their national televised showdown and were blown out in New York on Wednesday night.

Sacramento fell 100-85 to the New York Lins (er, Knicks...), but the fifteen point differential in the final score does not capture the beat down that the Knicks put on the Kings.

After winning the contest against the Thunder with passion and composure, the Kings have lost three straight games and in two of them looked absolutely lifeless. The Kings showed some passion but lacked composure in their 121-115 loss to Chicago on Tuesday.

The Kings are again showing serious weaknesses that head coach Keith Smart and the team must fix if they're ever going to become a consistent ball club.

What are the Kings biggest weaknesses, and how should they go about solving them? Let's take a look.

Fix the Small Forward Play

This isn't a new problem for Sacramento, but it's easily their biggest.

For some reason, John Salmons continues to start and continues to get playing time even though game after game after game he is simply the worst player on the court.

His mini competence streak from a few weeks past seems years gone. Salmons has averaged 25 minutes in the past five games and has put up 3.2 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists—on 22.6 percent shooting.

Tell me what I'm missing here, but with those numbers, Salmons shouldn't be starting. Heck, he shouldn't even be playing. He's a decent defensive player, but he negates his value on that end of the court with his utter lack of quality on offense.

Sacramento's best small forward is Donte Greene. And if he was on any other NBA team, he'd be known as the inconsistent one.

Somehow, Travis Outlaw still gets playing time despite suffering from an incurable disease that makes him shoot 16 percent from the three-point line—yes, that's not a typo, he's shooting 16 percent from downtown.

How do they fix it? One of two ways. They could call up Andrei Kirilenko, who they had talks with over the offseason and beg him to come back to the NBA...or they could make a trade.

While Sacramento's trading prospects are tough, general manager Geoff Petrie should be on the phone constantly trying to find a better small forward. My top selection would be Portland's Nicolas Batum, who doesn't seem to be a long-term fixture in the Blazers' future.

Keep DeMarcus Cousins out of Foul Trouble

This one is like trying to hold water. It's pretty much impossible, but it bears mentioning anyways.

DeMarcus Cousins plays with a ton of passion and emotion, and while this adds to his overall potential as a player, it also brings the unwanted side effect of fouls. Because Cousins commits such utterly foolish fouls, the refs are far too quick to blow the whistle on him other times. He could sneeze on a player, and the refs would find a way to give him a foul or two.

Cousins is the best charge-taker in the league. But this means that anytime he's not drawing the charge, he's probably getting called for a foul.

How do you fix this? Well, hopefully when Cousins is an All-Star the refs will start giving him All-Star calls.

Trade JJ Hickson Before It's Too Late

Remember when JJ Hickson was going to be an All-Star? That seems so long ago.

Hickson has struggled to endear himself to the Kings' faithful mainly because of his lack of a postgame, his lack of a defensive game and his inability to catch or hold the basketball.

His poor play is resulting in a lack of playing time. But before they stash Hickson on the bench for good and resign to letting him leave at the end of the season, they should do everything they can to get some value for him before he has no value left.

Sacramento gave up Omri Casspi (also struggling) and a conditional first rounder for Hickson. They need to get something for him or risk the trade going down as an utter failure for the Kings.

Develop a Consistent Rotation

There is no doubt that the team is playing better under Keith Smart than they were under Paul Westphal, but Smart is certainly having issues.

The biggest one is his inconsistent rotations. Whenever Travis Outlaw or J.J. Hickson are getting extended minutes, something is wrong.

Smart will also put out a lineup that lacks any sort of offensive punch or go-to guy. While none of the Kings players are exactly strong offensive players, a lineup without Tyreke Evans, Marcus Thornton or DeMarcus Cousins is just asking for serious trouble.

It's not like he has a deep talent pool to work with, but Smart needs to figure out his rotations and stick with them.

Figure out What Is Ailing Tyreke Evans

Something is bothering Tyreke Evans.

While he's making great strides as a point guard and is showing improvement running the team, his scoring is down big time. His offensive strengths are no longer evident, and his weaknesses are becoming even more pronounced. Until he gets more consistent in nearly every facet of his offensive game, both Evans and the Kings will continue to struggle.

Evans' play as a distributor has never been higher. After a poor start to the season, Evans has really become a much more willing passer since Keith Smart became head coach. And if the team could start consistently making their open shots, Evans would be averaging far more than his 5.2 assists per game. His numbers show an improvement passing-wise, but watching Evans shows a much bigger willingness than those numbers indicate.

Passing is not the problem (and neither is defense which he has also been improving). His problem is scoring, and until he figures out how to become far more consistent offensively, he'll never be the star the Kings need.

He's missing layups that the rookie Evans would never have missed. He has the same pretty juke-step that he used so effectively in his first season, but so far this season even his attacks at the rim are coming up duds.

And even after two seasons of working on his jumper and three-point shot, Evans still is a dreadful shooter. He still fades back on his shot even when he doesn't need to. When he was a rookie, his jumper issues were forgivable because he was so good at the rim, but now he's struggling to make those shots.

How do you fix it? That's up to Evans and the coaching staff.