[Grades] Grades v. Grizzlies 1/17/2014

[Kingster]

I'm not negative about any of the players specifically. I thought they all played and very hard and pretty well against a good opponent on the road and had an excellent chance to win. Memphis is talented. They haven't gone deep in the playoffs for no reason.

However, when it comes to the "coordination" or "team" aspect I might be a tad critical. Not getting the ball in bounds on two possessions. Not really knowing how to defend on the double screens that Memphis was using in the 4th quarter. If the team is coordinated enough to do those things, they win this game. It's just they still haven't had enough time to work together for some of the finer points. Also, the bad ref calls didn't help. Malone wasn't out there at the end of the game screaming for no reason.

 

[Entity]

For the record, I have never advocated getting our future pg in the draft.

Yeah sorry I see where that implies that you did. Your post just made me think of others I have seen that do think that way

 

[Entity]

I don't believe there will such PGs available this summer, so maybe just look for stopgap like Mo Williams.

Probably why the aggression toward Andre miller as well.

 

[bloom]

We really should have won this game, unfortunately there were 2 things that contributed in the loss (maybe 3).

1st (and the most important): We didn’t take care of the ball in the last 3 minutes. Sure there were some non call (which were incredibly frustrating) but when we resort to 1-on-1 ball, playing hero ball and the lack of just respecting our possessions, it allows a team like Memphis to come back and beat us in a game that we should have won.

This was a game where Rudy really tried to force a lot of things. Demarcus rushed some shots and I.T also tried to play hero ball.

I can’t believe I found myself saying that I’d wish the guys would pass to a open Marcus Thornton for a wide open 3. The guy hasn’t been making any shots recently and I was hoping that they’d make a simple pass to the one guy everyone least expected to make the shot.

2nd: The lack of calls. I don’t care that Memphis is known to be a defensive team. If we weren’t being aggressive on the offensive side, I’d try to understand how they could get calls and we didn’t, except it didn’t work out that way….Something that I hate about the refs, if you’re going to call something on one end, you better do it on the other end as well - especially if the other team is playing with the same intensity.

3rd: We couldn’t hold onto the ball.

 

[HereWeBoogie]

i wish we could have Mike Conley

 

[jcassio]

i wish we could have Mike Conley

Could have got him for an ice cream cone after his first year.

 

[pshn80]

Either team could have won this game for "an ice cream" but they each refused to do it and when time ran out one team was ahead. I'm sure both teams shook their heads.

 

[The_Jamal]

i wish we could have Mike Conley

I agree with you for once! He's one of my favorite PG's in the NBA and very underrated in general

 

[Chubbs]

My thoughts that our PG would have no chance in the playoffs cause he can't run an offense or play defense has been front and center in the last 4 minutes of these last 2 games. 8 minutes of hell. His fans can deflect all they want and blame who they want. You can twist perceptions, but reality won't budge. The play by play in the grades speaks very loudly. Once it was 88-81, meltdown city ensued with one player front and center on almost every play both ends of the court. And it was NOT Marcus Thornton. Little man has a LONG way to go to be a successful winning PG (which, to be fair, as a third year guard is not surprising) but so does the whole team when it comes to closing games. The problem is, one guy tends to dominate the ball. So he gets the heat. That's how this works, you wanna be the man, then be a man when you fail and take responsibility. That's part of being a leader.

But remember, other than Rudy, this is a very young team that just got thrown together. There will be more games like this. Especially in the road. And probably a few at home too. It's a process. Sure, our talent is much improved. But every team is talented. Playing together takes time.

But everyone had a tough offensive game. Cause everyone was playing the grizzlies defense. Which is quite good. And they get away with a lot.

Cuz's D was above average for him I thought. And if 22 and 17 vs the defending DPOY is a terrible game for him, then much brighter days indeed are ahead.

At the end of the day, we lost to a tough hot Memphis team. With gasol, that team is much better than the record shows. These are the kinds of games our guys need to learn how to win. It's not easy. Memphis is a great team. Remember, west finals? Last season?

I really liked malone's sprint on the court screaming "You're a coward!" Just beautiful.

 

[CruzDude]

Stats: 39min 14pts (5-14, 2-6, 2-3) 3reb 9ast 1stl 0blk 3TO
Thomas ( C- ) -- This one was quite a mixed bag for Isaiah. Some good, more bad, decent numbers but they didn't reflect his overall level of play. This might sound harsh, I realize that and what I did was take a bunch of notes and thought given how the game went it would be best and most insightful to post my notes. Not all mind you as I don't have all evening, but here's the majority of them in chronological order.
-Put up a semi-contested 3 early in the shotclock less than 1 min in
-Instead of reposting JT who had Randolph on his back with plenty of space, immediately took JT's kickout, drove into a contested shot and missed
-Hit a spot up left wing 3
-Hit Thornton for a wing 3
-Going too far under screens on Conley-Conley getting wherever he wants
-Pick & Pop with Cuz for jumper and the foul
-After Cuz hit back to back jumpers above the FT line, looked off a wide open Cuz in that same spot to gun a contested jumper which he missed
-Came down on the break and put up a contested 3 with 19 on shotclock, missed
-Do any stores in Memphis sell rogaine?
-After returning in the 2nd, forced another pullup transition 3 early in shotclock (was 1-5 from the floor at that time), missed
-Last play of half missed a contested runner with Rudy wide open in left corner
2nd half
-Conley blew by him for +1
-Nice find to Cuz rolling into lane for +1
-Ran pick & roll with Cuz, Cuz wide open at top of key, IT takes both men with him and forces contested jumper over both, missed
-Nice closeout on Conley
-Came down in transition, forced up a tough shot over two defenders, scores and the foul. Had Rudy wide open on right wing and Rudy looks pissed. Didn't celebrate, shakes head and walks other way down court
-Dribbled into traffic, lost ball after not waiting for play to develop and screen to be set. Turnover. Lee scores 2 at other end
-Bit on Conley pump-fake straddling 3pt line in Memphis 2 for 1 situation
-Hit Ben curling for jumper
-Bang. Makes tough jumper from up top to close the 3rd
-Nice hesitation to beat Conley to rim for the reverse
-Hits step back right wing 3. Heating up?
-Fastbreak with Rudy wide open again on his right, ignores him again, dribbles into 3 defenders, shot rejected, ball off IT, turnover. Rudy looks even more pissed
-Nice lob to DWill for dunk
-Interesting exchange. Tech called on Memphis, Rudy walks to FT line to shoot it, he and Isaiah have words and he waves Isaiah off. First tech FT Isaiah hasn't taken this yr when on the floor?
Score: 88-81
1st possession-Conley beats IT for runner off glass
2nd possession-Conley beats IT to set up Prince for the layin
3rd possession-Conley loses IT on wing screen, hits floater off glass
Score: 88-87
-Comes down, dribbles all but 2 secs of possession, launches terrible/contested wing 3, missed
4th possession-Fouls Conley off the ball on a backdoor cut. Inbounds, Conley beats IT off the dribble as Cuz sags off to help, Conley pass to Gasol, Cuz tries to recover, Gasol fakes, draws foul.
Score: 88-89
-Great hustle, forces Lee transition miss
-Comes down, tries dribbling through two defenders, picked, Memphis breaks other way and Conley fouled
-Last play, dribble straight into Conley, picks up dribble, Conley gets hand on the ball as IT plays a tough pass to Rudy
----In the game thread someone posted Rudy shouldn't have cut when IT had the ball there and Rudy cut in his way. That's wrong. Rudy stayed wide on the wing while IT attacked and didn't make his cut until after IT picked up his dribble and needed help

I left out a few notes from the 1st half but really, it's an incredibly rocky performance. There's also the defense. I kept close track of who scored on IT. Conley scored 21 of his 25 directly on IT.Rain[/quote]

Edited version of Rainmaker grade on IT. The red is the last 2 minutes or so. Same kind of comments from IT almost losing the Wolves game. This has got to stop. A young, emotional team needs a floor leader who helps make the team better, someone who can help Cuz get his due and who recognizes when others are wide open. Not someone who thinks one-on-one is a solution when it almost never is a solution. Thats it. My opinion on the "team" or lack thereof.

 

[Glenn]

Thank you, CruzDude! It looks worse when the reader gets a chance to digest what happened. At least for me it looks worse.

The question in my mind is if IT can grow into his role mentally. Can he learn how to manage a team? Can he learn judgment? I'll give him the smallest amount of a pass in that he is being asked to manage a team that is not fully formed, he is inexperienced although he has had 4 years in college and 2 1/2 years in the NBA (I think he also was a starter last year for a lot of games if I am to believe Chubbs ), and is expected to play an immense amount of minutes because of the inadequacy of Jimmer.

Sooooo, can he improve? That means if given a more ideal situation and plenty of rest, can he play with better judgment? I think "judgment" is the issue. Maybe some people like BBIQ. I don't care what term suits you. I have my own answer in my head but will leave it as it is and hope this question generates discussion and not just heat. BTW, I usually hope this and it never happens.

BTW, it might help if someone knows how many games IT has been on the court at the end of games.

 

[KingMilz]

The question in my mind is if IT can grow into his role mentally. Can he learn how to manage a team? Can he learn judgment?

Sooooo, can he improve? That means if given a more ideal situation and plenty of rest, can he play with better judgment? I think "judgment" is the issue.

Not a single player on our team has "good judgement" yet people only call Thomas out for it, we are a very low basketball IQ team (we don't have anyone with slightly above average IQ) which is why we lose games like we did against Memphis. The dumbest player in there starting 5 has better judgement than the smartest in ours.

There's games where we look good cause the talent overrides the poor IQ but against team's like the Spurs/Grizz/Pacers the talent alone can't make up for the terrible shot selection/poor ball movement/me first basketball from 90% of the squad.

For those complaining about the ref's seriously? We got more foul calls and more free throws the ref's can't/won't call every foul in particular at the end of games unless your Lebron/KD. We were in a position to win the game but simply threw it away with "poor judgement" plays.

 

[Gilles]

If you can't score against the other team defense, you can't score. But when coach draws a play out of timeout, and it's broken within 3 seconds...Thomas deserves the blame. Kings really need a serious threat to shoot from outside with ease (Ben, please, grow up fast), cause Grizzlies packed within 15 feet, there was little space, plus being good defensive team they moved quickly and with purpose, keeping soft doubles at all the time, that quickly turned to hard ones.

 

[King Baller]

Not a single player on our team has "good judgement" yet people only call Thomas out for it, we are a very low basketball IQ team (we don't have anyone with slightly above average IQ) which is why we lose games like we did against Memphis. The dumbest player in there starting 5 has better judgement than the smartest in ours.

There's games where we look good cause the talent overrides the poor IQ but against team's like the Spurs/Grizz/Pacers the talent alone can't make up for the terrible shot selection/poor ball movement/me first basketball from 90% of the squad.

For those complaining about the ref's seriously? We got more foul calls and more free throws the ref's can't/won't call every foul in particular at the end of games unless your Lebron/KD. We were in a position to win the game but simply threw it away with "poor judgement" plays.

Two things:

Those teams you are comparing this Kings team to have played together for a long time. The Kings have been together a relatively short time. Those teams have been in late game close situations lots of times. This Kings team has only experienced being in close games against good teams a couple times. This is very recent development for a very young team. I think you are judging them too harshly.

The Refs sucked in this game.

KB