[Game] Kings at Timberwolves, 1/15/14 8PM EST/5PM PST

IT absolutely crapped the bed in the final few minutes, but we also don't win without his constant pressure of the opposition. IT and Cousins turnovers kept the Wolves in it, but to their credit they kept answering back, ugly games for both but we lose without them. People forget that for the first time in his career IT is the PG of this team, there is going to be a learning curve of when to get your guys involved and when to get yours. I trust IT will be the first to look at at this tape and learn from it. Good thing is we won and our players know there's plenty to improve on, can't get over confident.
 
Eh I don't know about that. This free agent class isn't as good as next year, if he keeps this up for the rest of the season, I could easily seeing him get something like 4 years 60M from a team, easy.
first, he will NOT get a MAX deal from a top contender, most of them will have not have anywhere near the cap space, and the teams with the space will be in full rebuild mode. If he does take a max deal he STILL leaves at lest 4 million on the table, but more importantly he leave a team that is well financed, wants him and has BY FAR the best center in the league for the foreseeable future for waht Boston with a bunch of rookies starting from Jump Street? I don't see it.
 
As much as IT irritates me, I will admit he was a net positive tonight. IT is an above average NBA pg, one who can do evertyhing on offense, and there aren't more than 10-15 PG's better than him.
But this game shows why a large portion of us want him off the bench, especially on a team with Cuz and Gay. IT is rightly getting these minutes, but his value isn't maximized on this team.
 
You've said this before, and my reply is the same: don't bet against it. The smart money is to take the long-term deal. Gay will be twenty-eight on Opening Night 2014, which means, chances are, he's only going to get one more big money multi-year deal.

A responsible agent will advise him that it's in his best interests to at least consider opting out of that last year, and signing a 6-yr deal at $14M per, rather than to take the option, risk having a bad year, and having to settle for four years at closer to $10-11M per.
I am not sure that one more year at Ruddy's age WILL make that much of a difference, and I would not be surprised to see our FO make necessary assurances to Ruddy about a 4-6 year deal if he stays. The point is we do have the cap space to Max him, just like any other team.
 

Glenn

Hall of Famer
IT absolutely crapped the bed in the final few minutes, but we also don't win without his constant pressure of the opposition. IT and Cousins turnovers kept the Wolves in it, but to their credit they kept answering back, ugly games for both but we lose without them. People forget that for the first time in his career IT is the PG of this team, there is going to be a learning curve of when to get your guys involved and when to get yours. I trust IT will be the first to look at at this tape and learn from it. Good thing is we won and our players know there's plenty to improve on, can't get over confident.
I am with you on most of this. I think IT played a great game. I think he is trying to get rid of the hero ball part of his game but it has always been his me-first attitude that has angered me and he damn near lost the game for us by being selfish. He isn't as good as he thinks and I don't give a damn what any stats say, I don't think he is as good as a lot of people think. Rudy Gay was the hero of this game and he shouldn't have to share accolades with anyone because he did nothing wrong. If not for Rudy, we would have lost no matter what happened early in the game.
 

Glenn

Hall of Famer
As much as IT irritates me, I will admit he was a net positive tonight. IT is an above average NBA pg, one who can do evertyhing on offense, and there aren't more than 10-15 PG's better than him.
But this game shows why a large portion of us want him off the bench, especially on a team with Cuz and Gay. IT is rightly getting these minutes, but his value isn't maximized on this team.
You said it better than I did.
 
As much as IT irritates me, I will admit he was a net positive tonight. IT is an above average NBA pg, one who can do evertyhing on offense, and there aren't more than 10-15 PG's better than him.
But this game shows why a large portion of us want him off the bench, especially on a team with Cuz and Gay. IT is rightly getting these minutes, but his value isn't maximized on this team.
Except for his defense which is blatantly poor - mostly to do with his size. If not coming off the bench, his natural role, we need PG who can at least come in, stabilize things final 2-3 minutes of quarters and especially down the stretch in crunch time. Hello, Andre Miller! And there's couple other ones out there for the taking in a needed temporary fix.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
I am not sure that one more year at Ruddy's age WILL make that much of a difference, and I would not be surprised to see our FO make necessary assurances to Ruddy about a 4-6 year deal if he stays. The point is we do have the cap space to Max him, just like any other team.
If the front office makes Gay such assurances, it will be in an attempt to try and get him to opt out, in order to sign him for less money per.
 

Entity

Hall of Famer
Except for his defense which is blatantly poor - mostly to do with his size. If not coming off the bench, his natural role, we need PG who can at least come in, stabilize things final 2-3 minutes of quarters and especially down the stretch in crunch time. Hello, Andre Miller! And there's couple other ones out there for the taking in a needed temporary fix.
At this point if you do that to Isaiah he may shut it down completely. To change his role now... You would be better off trading him.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
If we were in the east, we'd only be 1 game out of the 8th slot :'(
As it is, we're seven games back in the win column from the current 8th seed in the west (The Suns).

Gotta remember that the bottom four seeds in the eastern conference playoff seeding are just teams that aren't good enough at tanking.
 
At this point if you do that to Isaiah he may shut it down completely. To change his role now... You would be better off trading him.
Maybe but alternative is bad too. Plus, he's still under rookie contract - so he better not shut it down. Trading him assumes there's takers. I doubt very many - if any. The NBA is not wildly impressed by a mostly shoot first, ask questions later 5'9" so-called PG.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
OK.. In the summer when someone brings up IT and talks about how good he is I want you to mention this game specifically and how he almost cost us the game. On 1/15/14 @ T-Wolves.

Just saying that people should be happy because we won, and I seriously doubt that people will bring up this specific game later on down the road when discussing IT's ineptitude. Yes he almost cost us the game and yes I would rather have another PG playing most of the minutes but I know I am not going to be bringing this specific game up when I am chatting about IT over the summer.

And no, I am not an IT worshipper.
I know you're not an ITlieber.

I will bring up this game if we're still depending on IT to be our floor general and he continues to make critical errors in judgment at crucial times. At the end of the first half, he didn't make the buzzer beater attempt ... I couldn't believe he got the ball on the inbound and just bounced it to the official. I cannot recall EVER seeing that before. He made costly and stupid turnovers. He passed up open teammates more than once so he could play hero ball. He showed me in big screen high-definition that he's not ready to be a starting point guard.

I'll freely admit that a lot of my anger is because Grant and Jerry have built IT up so high it's almost impossible for him to do anything but fall at some point. Unfortunately for us - and for IT - I fear Isaiah has bought into the hype, because it validates what he knows in his heart to be true - he IS a starting point guard. While he truly believes it, I just do not.

I'm excruciatingly happy we won. I just am not happy that it took a complete mental lapse on the part of IT for Grant and Jerry to comment on what a lot of us have been trying to say.
 

Entity

Hall of Famer
Maybe but alternative is bad too. Plus, he's still under rookie contract - so he better not shut it down. Trading him assumes there's takers. I doubt very many - if any. The NBA is not wildly impressed by a mostly shoot first, ask questions later 5'9" so-called PG.
Yeah I wonder how many calls PDA gets inquiring about Thomas
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
If the front office makes Gay such assurances, it will be in an attempt to try and get him to opt out, in order to sign him for less money per.
I think that's where some confusion lies. Some people think if Rudy opts out it's because he is going to leave the Kings. The idea that he'd opt out of a $19 million deal with the Kings to sign a longer, more lucrative net contract with the Kings is counterintuitive.
 
Early this year I thought IT was a great back up but would not be a great starter, as the season has worn on I could/can seriously see him as a Nash type PG where you over look the poor D given the offense he brings. Tonight did NOT confirm that thought. IF IT is to become a top starting PG he will have to learn to keep some of his instincts in check and play SMARTER. On the other hand he is still perfectly suited to be a 6th man. At any rate he deserves the criticism for bone head selfish play. BUT tonight's blemish on his permanent record hardly over shadows his body of work for the year
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Early this year I thought IT was a great back up but would not be a great starter, as the season has worn on I could/can seriously see him as a Nash type PG where you over look the poor D given the offense he brings. Tonight did NOT confirm that thought. IF IT is to become a top starting PG he will have to learn to keep some of his instincts in check and play SMARTER. On the other hand he is still perfectly suited to be a 6th man. At any rate he deserves the criticism for bone head selfish play. BUT tonight's blemish on his permanent record hardly over shadows his body of work for the year

Wait...Nash? As in Steve? Um...because they both have two legs? :p