[Grades] Grades v. Lakers 11/24/21013

By the end of this season, how many double figure scorers do you think the Kings will have?

  • 2

    Votes: 9 24.3%
  • 3

    Votes: 16 43.2%
  • 4

    Votes: 10 27.0%
  • 5

    Votes: 2 5.4%
  • 6

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • more

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    37
  • Poll closed .

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#1


Nope. Not tonight. We just did not have it, and looked every bit the team playing the second of a back to back. Especially the big guy, who got outworked by Jordan Hill on the night, and maybe even the little guy too, who had one of his worst games of the season..

Your Consoritum Graders tonight:
Bricklayer
Uncia03
Spudfan
Capt. Factorial
MassachusettsKingsFan


Boxscore

Stats: 32min 4pts (2-5, 0-0, 2-2) 6reb 1ast 2stl 0blk 1TO
Mbah a Moute ( C ) -- This was an uneventful night for Mbah A Moute (and the rest of the SF crew). He was fine, but his overall impact was limited because the Lakers don’t have an established wing scorer (or any singular scorer) that required Mbah A Moute’s attention on defense. Malone used some funky lineups that led to Mbah A Moute playing a handful of minutes at power forward where he competed fairly well on the glass all things considered. He had one really nice baseline drive as his only play of note offensively. He’s been better, but this was just another solid ‘glue’ game from Luc. --Mass

Stats: 22min 4pts (2-4, 0-0, 0-0) 5reb 1ast 1stl 2blk 0TO
Thompson ( C ) -- The effort from Jason was good tonight but there were a couple of times he didn’t hustle and gave up offensive rebounds which lead to easy points. His defense on Gasol was decent but it didn’t seem to matter as Gasol’s high skill level made it easy for him to score. Jason only took 4 shots and made two of them to finish with 4 points for a quiet night on the offensive end. I don’t remember him committing any of his typical boneheaded mistakes out there tonight which is refreshing. --Spud

Stats: 31min 17pts (6-14, 0-0, 5-7) 8reb 7ast 1stl 0blk 3TO
Cousins ( C ) -- Cousins had the effort out there tonight, but he couldn't put everything together at once for most of the game. In the first half he went 4-7 from the floor and scored 10 of his 17 points, including yet another full-court point-center fast break for a layup off a steal, the kind that really seems to get under some folks' skin and which just make me giggle with glee. Even then, his offense wasn't perfect, as he inexplicably missed a dunk and had one post possession where he was about as deep as you get and failed to convert. Defensively, he didn't bring it in the first half. My notes have at least five bad defensive plays by Cuz in the early going, three of those being late/no help D. Additionally, he managed a whole 3 rebounds in the first half. In the third quarter, Cousins came out like a man possessed, starting with a baseline drive for a dunk where he hesitated before driving because he was as shocked as I was that nobody was guarding him. He was cutting, he was drawing fouls (three of the first four team fouls to get the kings into the penalty with more than six minutes left), he was dishing the ball, and he was doing a better job grabbing rebounds. He even went to the floor to gather in a ball that he lost on a drive and called timout while being mercilessly fouled by some coward wearing yellow. He came back in after a rest in the early fourth and was immediately mugged in the post for a no-call and put up a shot that got blocked out of bounds, but he went directly back to it and the second time got the call and the and-1. He drew another three team fouls in his first three minutes on the floor in the fourth, and also drew a charge. The one thing that Cousins was consistent with all night was his passing - I believe 6 of his 7 assists came out of the double team on passes to the perimeter, but he did give McLemore a nice feed on a cut for a dunk. But all-in-all his effort wasn't enough and his line didn't really reflect the game we expect to get out of him. --Capt.

Stats: 26min 15pts (5-14, 3-6, 2-3) 1reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
McLemore ( C+ ) -- Ben continues to pose grading challenges. First trying to get a handle on what are reasonable expectations, secondly because he's an inconsistent rook even period to period, and third because whenever he does do something there is a damn good chance its something spectacular. On offense tonight he hit 5 shots, all 5 of them of the sort that could get used on highlight reels (two hyperathletic hoop slashes and three quick threes), but he also missed 9 others, scattered between ones perfectly in his comfort zones, and ones he continues to force up likely in a misinterpretation of some "be aggressive" advice. Defensively has fewer misadventures than he has of late while matched up against the Lakers', well, bigger guards (the Lakers don't actually have any SFs, they just have small guards, medium guards, and large guards, all of whom are tasked with running around and chucking up threes Pringles-style). In any case, he got off to a pretty solid start, matched against Wesley Johnson (taken 1 pick ahead of Cuz haha) on defense and hitting one of those quick release threes. Got off to a dynamic start to the third as well, this time with back to back explosions to the rim, the first one for a dunk on the move from Cousins, the second for an explosive layup as the Lakers parted the seas for him. But then as it often is, began to spoil the spell as he missed jumper after jumper to follow up, which are of course supposed to be his bread and butter. Eventually he even airballed one of them as our offense completely stalled out. Got back in for the closing minutes and did a complete 180, draining two threes in a game that was largely out of reach, but now struggling to finish inside as his attempts in the lane were blocked or altered. In the end you get 1 spectacular dunk, one nice slashing layup, three threes at unimportant stages of the game, a whole bunch of misses you have a tendency to forget about because the hits are pretty, less egregious defense against a team full of jumpshooters, no passes and one can't dribble turnover, no help on the boards this time out and just..something. Not a bad grade. Not a breakthrough game. More flashes of offense surrounded by fairly empty air.--Brick

Stats: 33min 20pts (9-18, 2-6, 0-0) 3reb 7ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
Vasquez ( B+ ) -- The King’s starting line-up has consistently failed at keeping the game competitive at the start of games. It looked as if in this on Vasquez was on a mission to make sure the King’s starters would keep pace with their opponent’s starters. To that end Vasquez started out the game deciding to be a scoring PG rather than a facilitating PG while lighting up Blake to the tune of 13 points on 6 for 6 shooting in the first 10 minutes of the game. After the very hot shooting Vasquez cooled down considerably only hitting 3 more shots for 7 points for the remainder of his 23 minutes out on the court. He did manage to find open shooters and get entry passes to Cousins in good position. His defense against Blake was below average as he allowed Blake to get into good spots on the floor where Blake had the opportunity to find teammates for good scoring looks. He isn’t the fleetest of foot and we’re always going to have concerns about his ability to guard his position so it’s going to be incumbent on Malone putting together team defensive schemes to help Vasquez for as long as he is our starting PG. I think that this game would have been far more impressive (20 points on 50% shooting and 7 assists) if the scoring had been spread through-out the game a bit more rather than almost all of it at the opening bell. With that said, this has been one of his best games of the year and the fact that Malone let him stay on the court for full starters minutes is a testimony to that.--Uncia
 
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Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#2
Bench
Stats: 16min 6pts (3-6, 0-2, 0-0) 2reb 0ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Outlaw ( C- ) -- And then there was Travis Outlaw to complete the trifecta of ‘meh’ that was the night for the Kings small forwards. Hit a long two almost immediately after entering the game that led me to believe he was going to have a big night, but it never really happened for him. He continues to shoot the ball well, but his effort defensively could have been much better. He was one of the many Kings players repeatedly late closing out on shooters. It’s starting to feel like Malone is going to have to choose between Outlaw and Salmons. Both players played 16 minutes tonight, and that isn’t enough for either guy to really get going. --Mass

Stats: 30min 9pts (4-11, 1-3, 0-1) 3reb 4ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
Thomas ( C- ) -- IT had a bad game. This was the first game this season where he failed to get double-digit points. He also got abused by Jordan Farmar on a number of occasions where either Farmar shot over him or drove right by him for easy opportunities at the rim. I will say that other than a couple of me-first shots of either the dribble around and shoot or shoot right at the start of the clock IT did a good job looking for open shooters and getting them in position to score. He only had 4 assists, but had his teammates been knocking down their shots at a better rate he would have racked up double that. Still, IT is needed to provide scoring punch and he wasn’t able to deliver while also being unable to keep either Blake or Farmar in check on the other end. --Uncia

Stats: 17min 1pt (0-3, 0-2, 1-2) 6reb 1ast 0stl 1blk 1TO
Patterson ( C ) -- After Patterson’s monster 21 point 7 rebound game last night he was almost invisible tonight. The only memorable play from him was a block on Gasol. It is a bit surprising he only attempted 3 field goals after taking 16 last night. While rebounding is known as his weakness he continued to show he is trying to improve it by grabbing 6 boards (2 offensive). --Spud

Stats: 16min 5pts (2-4, 1-2, 0-0) 4reb 2ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Salmons ( C- ) -- Salmons wasn’t effective or defective tonight, he was just kind of there. He was another guy that swung between two different positions tonight (SF and SG) and overall played 16 pretty forgettable minutes. He had one important 3-pointer on a broken play in the second quarter that cut into the Lakers lead and gave the team a bit of momentum, and then one drive late in the fourth for his only 5 points. He wasn’t playing very inspired defense tonight, but that could be said about anyone on this roster.--Mass

Stats: 14min 5pts (2-5, 1-3, 0-0) 3reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
Fredette ( C ) -- in to start the 2nd, with mixed results. Had a couple of good defensive stands, and got a high arcing layup to fall. But he missed his threes, and worse yet those long misses triggered Lakers breaks. Back at the end of the third and missed another layup. Finally helped with a three to begin the 4th, but it led nowhere and he rounded out his minutes overdribbling before we got Cuz and Greivis back into the game to try to save us. --Brick

Stats: 3min 0pts (0-0, 0-0, 0-0) 1reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Ndiaye ( INC ) -- N'Diaye only came in for the last three minutes of garbagetime, so he doesn't really get a grade, but I'd like to at least point out two things. One: Hamady works very hard on defense, even if a lot of it does involve flopping his arms around like a giant octopus on sticks in a 1950s monster flick. Two: If he's not Isaiah's best friend, he would be with more playing time, as in his short stint he set at least three great screens to get IT open. Not super-talented but does the little things. I want to see more of him on the floor. --Capt.
 
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#4
btw the biggest problem for this team is not having a serviceable big man besides DMC! I cant believe after all these years JT has not stepped up with the IQ part of the game.

And at this point im willing too trade anyone outside of DMC and BMac for asik!
 
K

KingMilz

Guest
#5
We got a lesson in basketball today and the Lakers showed us how we should be playing on offense in particular. It showed tonight a team less talented than us (minus Kobe) when you play the right way and that's hustle, move the ball and shoot solid %'s you can be a 500. competitve team. The spacing the Lakers had was crazy Gasol literally had so much room and even when he didn't they swang the ball made the defense move and got anything they wanted.

#Bad game by Thomas hurt us was not himself with the energy and scoring we basically need him to play extremely well if we have any chance of winning tonight he didn't cut it
#Cousins was a 7/10 performance I was happy with the shot selection and another stellar passing game but the defense and no boxing out on Jordan Hill took away from his performance plus he was being doubled hard so kind of hard for him to go anything when no one makes shots or moves on offense.
#LRMAM I thought was solid on D as per normal
#Vasquez was great to start off with but cooled off to me he's not the PG for Cousins, his lack of D and inability to create for other's off the dribble in the long run will not pay off
#Mclemore was good when it didn't matter, showed crazy first step a couple times but the jumper started falling in garbage time we need him hiting those during intense time.
#Patterson, JT, Outlaw, Salmons, Jimmer, meh.......they were there that's all I can say

That looked like last yearfor the first time this season no effort in the whole four quarters.
 
#6
btw the biggest problem for this team is not having a serviceable big man besides DMC! I cant believe after all these years JT has not stepped up with the IQ part of the game.

And at this point im willing too trade anyone outside of DMC and BMac for asik!
What was wrong with JT tonight?
 
#8
I just get frustrated when i watch him, seems like he never learns year in year out. Still cannot play D without fouling, and he for some reason is not a shot blocking threat and yadadada i could go on but im not impressed
It sounds like it's time for you to lower your expectations for him. His chance of ever being an all-star is slim to none, but as a role player he is quite good.
 
#9
We got a lesson in basketball today and the Lakers showed us how we should be playing on offense in particular. It showed tonight a team less talented than us (minus Kobe) when you play the right way and that's hustle, move the ball and shoot solid %'s you can be a 500. competitve team. The spacing the Lakers had was crazy Gasol literally had so much room and even when he didn't they swang the ball made the defense move and got anything they wanted.
this
 
#10
frustrating, but predictable outcome tonight. After playing our butts off last night and the game being gifted to the Clips, I just didn't see us having the capability to do the same tonight. Plus, 2nd game of a b-b on the road is always difficult to pull off.

GV had a good offensive game, but man he really just gives it all back on the other end. There's an issue when Steve Blake is 9pts 12 ast 5rebounds on the night. JT's D on Pau the 1st half also cost us too many points.
 
#11
What was wrong with JT tonight?
I just get frustrated when i watch him, seems like he never learns year in year out. Still cannot play D without fouling, and he for some reason is not a shot blocking threat and yadadada i could go on but im not impressed
The biggest problem with JT is he gets frustrated with himself all the time - in middle of the game, in middle of a play. That shows lack of discipline, lack of poise, lack of judgment - ongoing stupidity. After all his time in NBA none of this nonsense has ever changed which is just shocking. One cry baby episode to the refs after another. One frustration antic after another instead of just going on to the next play - like right away pea brain JT! By complaining constantly he often takes himself out of "the next play" resulting in break away opportunity or other immediate advantage for opposition. Players like JT are bad for themselves and bad for their teammates - because they never learn. He's really an overall mediocre NBA big man and Kings would be best to package him in a trade if possible along with the likes of Salmons, MT and who knows who else.
 
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#12
It sounds like it's time for you to lower your expectations for him. His chance of ever being an all-star is slim to none, but as a role player he is quite good.
Im not asking for him too be an all-star....just for him too correct easily fixed parts of his game! Hes pretty much the same player from when he was drafted lol Where is the growth? Where is the maturity? Is it really asking of a player to be an all-star when all i want i solid decision making on the court?
 
#13
Im not asking for him too be an all-star....just for him too correct easily fixed parts of his game! Hes pretty much the same player from when he was drafted lol Where is the growth? Where is the maturity? Is it really asking of a player to be an all-star when all i want i solid decision making on the court?
He is a career 10 point 7 rebound 50% 1.5 TO player in 27 minutes a game. He has been extremely consistent in achieving those numbers every year. It's now his sixth year in the league. He is what he is and we know exactly what we will get out of him. Why you think he might have the ability to grow is a bit puzzling. His physical stats and basketball knowledge haven't ever hinted to us that he was going to get much better. Some games he plays better than others, just as any player does. There isn't some magically switch that a player can throw to "make solid decisions" (whatever it is you declare those to be). Although he did reduce his fouls from ~3.8 a game his first two seasons to be been around 2.5 since, which most would consider is a result of making better decisions. As far as maturing, he has matured. He doesn't whine nearly as much as he did when he came into the league.

Go ahead and list the areas you expect him to grow in. How does he need to mature? Please be specific as using such general terms makes it hard to agree or refute what you say. If there is a certain stat line that you are expecting out of him post that too.
 
#14
#Vasquez was great to start off with but cooled off to me he's not the PG for Cousins, his lack of D and inability to create for other's off the dribble in the long run will not pay off
.
Terrible D I agree, but inability to create for others? are you keeding me? He has been creating for others all season long, but the team keep messing. Yesterday he was creating for others when he was driving, but then he was alongside IT for most of the second half, and then he did not have the ball in his hands to create. Moreover, he hits DMC almost every time.
 
K

KingMilz

Guest
#15
Terrible D I agree, but inability to create for others? are you keeding me? He has been creating for others all season long, but the team keep messing. Yesterday he was creating for others when he was driving, but then he was alongside IT for most of the second half, and then he did not have the ball in his hands to create. Moreover, he hits DMC almost every time.
He can't off the dribble he's terrible at it for a starting PG, while he can see the floor ok he can't break down defences consistantly off the bounce the only times he's been able to go to places off the dribble was against Steve Blake today and the retirment home Brooklyn Nets. He puts very little pressure on oppositions at the point of attack while he's not a terrible player I really think we need to start looking for a starting PG before we look for a starting SF I can live with LRMAM as a starter.
 

Capt. Factorial

trifolium contra tempestatem subrigere certum est
Staff member
#16
Hilarious distribution of grades tonight. 9 of 10 graded players in the C range, which fits with my observation that nobody out there was killing us, but we just didn't have anybody out there getting it done, either. This is the NBA, you can't win on C work from your entire team.
 

Kingster

Hall of Famer
#17
I'm still seeing the glass as half full right now. The Kings have played three out of their last four games very well. They could beat the Clipps next Friday at home. We'll see. The team just isn't talented enough to have an "off night" and still win.

P.S. McLemore is showing more signs of becoming a very good player down the line.
 
#18
I understand the talent on the lakers appears similar or worse than the kings. But dantoni is maximizing what he has by playing his style of ball. Malone is making the team adhere to his style of ball whether the players can do it or not (that whole defense thing) in the hopes in the future the guys that can do it well will be here and effortlessly fit into the system. If that makes any sense. We lose now to win later. The lakers for some reason want to win right now. Good on them I say. Go for that 8th seed and another first round sweep.
 

HndsmCelt

Hall of Famer
#19
I understand the talent on the lakers appears similar or worse than the kings. But dantoni is maximizing what he has by playing his style of ball. Malone is making the team adhere to his style of ball whether the players can do it or not (that whole defense thing) in the hopes in the future the guys that can do it well will be here and effortlessly fit into the system. If that makes any sense. We lose now to win later. The lakers for some reason want to win right now. Good on them I say. Go for that 8th seed and another first round sweep.
Pretty much the deal. DeAntoni got a bunch of guys who LIKE to run and shoot and "Tada" they fit his system (lots of these guys were loto picks) Malone is trying to get a group of guys who for the most part like to score and are NOT good 1 on 1 defenders to buy in to a defense first system. Even when the souls are willing the flesh is weak. I am NOT saying Malone is wrong, actually I think he is right, some of the guys are wrong, and the rest need work/time for this to pay off.
 
#20
I understand the talent on the lakers appears similar or worse than the kings. But dantoni is maximizing what he has by playing his style of ball. Malone is making the team adhere to his style of ball whether the players can do it or not (that whole defense thing) in the hopes in the future the guys that can do it well will be here and effortlessly fit into the system. If that makes any sense. We lose now to win later. The lakers for some reason want to win right now. Good on them I say. Go for that 8th seed and another first round sweep.
in addition, Kobe just got a $48M, two-year extension, which should work out very nicely for their long-time prospects. as Webber once said to David Kahn: "Good luck."