Even before the Kings’ game against the Raptors started, it was a big night for Tyreke Evans.  Wednesday night, the Sacramento Kings held a ceremony for Tyreke Evans in order to show their support for his Rookie of the Year candidacy. There were t-shirts given out, video presentations and a special introduction for Tyreke Evans.  Evans responded to all of the love by posting his very first triple-double of his career.  Let’s take a look at each aspect of the triple-double closer.

The Assists

In my opinion, assists are the toughest stat to compile when a player is going for a triple-double.  This is because it is all dependent on your teammates.  You can throw some great passes, but if your teammates don’t finish they don’t count.  However, if you teammates are stroking it, you can have your assist count rise really quickly, and that’s what happened last night.  Out of Evans’ 10 assists, only 4 of them were inside 10 feet, and the three that were at the rim were in transition:

The remaining 6 assists for Tyreke Evans lead to baskets outside 16 feet.  Some of them (including his final assist) were simple passes in the flow of the offense where his teammates caught it and hit the jumper:

The 6 assists doesn’t mean Evans was just standing on the perimeter throwing passes.  He was also attacking the basket strong, causing defenders to collapse on him, and then spotting teammates on the outside:

Watch that video again.  Evans strong drive forces 4 defenders to crowd up on him, and as that happens Evans finds Beno Udrih spotting up in the corner.

The Points

If Tyreke Evans assists were perimeter oriented, you can say his scoring was the exact opposite.  If you look at the advanced box score (from the great HoopData.com) you will notice that all of Evans’ baskets (that he made) were inside 10 feet.  He was 7-11 from that distance, including an amazing 5-7 at the rim.  While Evans’ shot is still coming along, the one thing that is for certain is his body.  Even as a rookie, Tyreke Evans is bigger than most point guards, and he knows how to use that size effectively:

He basically just bullied DeMar DeRozan there and then flexes after.

The Rebounds

Another benefit of Tyreke Evans size is that he is able to go up with the big man and pull down rebounds:

Now I know this is a simple rebound, but I want to talk about what happens after.  As he grabs the rebound, he pushes it ahead and starts a one man fast break.  Now he turns the ball over later in the play, but to be able to have a point guard grab a rebound and start a fast break without needing an outlet pass is rare.