[Grades] Grades v. Thunder 11/9/2014

[King Baller]

Frankly I have been amazed at the Refs calls so far this season. They have been mostly well called games until the last two. The Refs giveth and the refs taketh

That said OKC lit it up hitting their shots and grabbing all the boards and loose balls. As has been mentioned Brooks had a good scheme and his guys played it well.

For me the biggest negative take from the game was sitting Cousins, Gay and Collison all at once at the start of the 4th. I understand this was in response to "The Deep Hole Syndrome". Its when a team plays fiercely to come back from a large deficit. They get really tired and can't quite get over the hump and you lose anyway. So you run the subs out to rest the main guys. But as Malone stated "The Bench did not have it going".

The biggest positive take is Ben starting to assert himself and that is good. Ben and Nik can shoot. I would like to see schemes where they can warm up with little mid range jumpers. If you sink a couple of those sometimes the rim gets large. Right now it seems to be 3 pointers or nothing outside of the occasional drive to the hoop. I'm all for taking it inside but I think using the space outside the paint but inside the three is underutilized especially with guys in a shooting slump. Mix it up. pound it inside to Cousins, let Gay do his thing and then run your guards off of picks to free up for a little 18 footer.

Hay Malone!!! Crowd Source!!! ^^^^^^^

 

[ESP47]

I was one of the defenders of Sessions but even I'm starting to think it's time we go to Ray Mac as the backup PG. Lets ignore the fact that he can't make a shot, has blown about 5 point blank layups, picks up his dribble for no reason and turns the ball over every 3 or 4 possessions. Lets talk about his defense. It's absolutely atrocious. Our starting 5 are pretty solid defenders and as soon as Sessions comes in, you can always sense the momentum swing because the opposing guards just attack the basket and there's nothing he can do. Yeah you aren't going to have the best defense when Sessions, Stauskas, Casspi, Landry and Evans are on the floor at the same time but Sessions is a veteran and he's worse than Stauskas is....and Stauskas was considered a horrible defender in college.

Even if Ray Mac can't get you as many points off the bench, at least he'll stop the opposing team from going And 1 on us every other time down the floor.

 

[Albatros]

He brought Ray on to slow down Telfair who immediately took ray to the basket for an and 1.

 

[Spike]

I almost expected girls for this thread.

You don't know how bad we can lose a game. This wasn't "as bad" a loss as we've had in the past.

 

[Padrino]

For me the biggest negative take from the game was sitting Cousins, Gay and Collison all at once at the start of the 4th. I understand this was in response to "The Deep Hole Syndrome". Its when a team plays fiercely to come back from a large deficit. They get really tired and can't quite get over the hump and you lose anyway. So you run the subs out to rest the main guys. But as Malone stated "The Bench did not have it going".

coach is squeezing a lot from what i perceive to be a rather limited roster, which is impressive, but i agree that he has some substitution issues that he must iron out. like keith smart (boy do i hate saying that), malone seems to favor subbing out the entire starting unit at various points in the game. the kings' bench has contributed above their talent level thus far, but what worked as a rallying cry on the road against denver is not necessarily going to see sustainable success across the course of a season. for example, the kings should never be looking to post-up reggie evans repeatedly in the same game, yet it happens. cousins, gay, and collison are the engine for this team. in tight road games especially, at least one of them should be on the floor at all times. when cousins isn't in foul trouble (and he wasn't in foul trouble heading into the fourth quarter), coach is going to have to summon the strength to give big cuz more burn. sometimes you just have to let the superstar be a superstar (the work cuz did on defense in the third was astounding)...

 

[Albatros]

There was one point cuz couldn't even stand to set a pick he was that tired.

The play before this he didn't even make it into the OKC half of the court.

Maybe he kept him out too long but I suspect this went into his thinking, and he wanted to give him an extended rest for a big push in the 4th.

 

[Chubbs]

T'd up for dunking too hard?

http://gfycat.com/VerifiableSorrowfulBug

 

[Albatros]

Nah, for staring that dude down afterwards.

 

[Kingster]

"4) for all the basketball hipsters who like to claim Scotty Brooks can't coach, rewatch this game on replay, if you can stomach it They had the gameplan, they brought the effort from the opening tip."

Very accurate. Brooks saw the Kings weakness - outside shooting - and responded with the zone. The Kings just didn't have the outside shooting or the wisdom to know how to deal with it. Throw in a couple of Thunder bangers who relished bruising up Cousins, and a team that still has talent despite most of it being in hospital, and it wasn't a good night for the Kings. Yes, and it didn't hurt that the Kings probably were a little overconfident.

It took several games for an NBA coach to throw a zone at the Kings. Has their outside shooting been a secret up until now? Sometimes you just wonder what the deal is with coaches and their scouting reports. Reminds when Tyreke Evans faced Utah (wasn't that Corbin?) and he went crazy because they had no idea how to defend him and then he went invisible against the Spurs. Let's see if the copycats now throw up the zone against the Kings and if the Kings can finally start hitting enough 3 pointers to make 'em back off. At least McLemore is starting to show up.

 

[kingsboi]

It's not the loss that bugs me...we knew this wasn't going to be an easy one to win regardless of their injuries. It's the fact that no adjustments were made for their focal point on offense...Reggie Jackson, he has plenty of playoff experience and he's had some big games so he can play. Another thing is allowing 100 points to this team, unacceptable.

 

[ShastaKingsFan]

Nah, for staring that dude down afterwards.

Looking at someone for 1-2 seconds, before turning around and running back, is considered "taunting"? If Durant was playing and did the exact same thing, there is zero chance they make that call.

This isn't the powderpuff league. Ridiculous

 

[Chubbs]

There was one point cuz couldn't even stand to set a pick he was that tired.

The play before this he didn't even make it into the OKC half of the court.

Maybe he kept him out too long but I suspect this went into his thinking, and he wanted to give him an extended rest for a big push in the 4th.

I think lost in all these glorious Boogie's per 36 numbers, and criticizing Malone for not playing him, is some strong evidence he just can't play 38-40mpg like most NBA superstars have traditionally. Yao Ming is the other guy I can think of that couldn't play big minutes. Boogie is below Ming's career 32.5 mpg at 30.4 mpg, also his average so far this season. If Boogie can't get those minutes up at his age, when is it going to happen?

They need to manage his minutes more carefully, where and when they come, etc. Playing most of the third left him dead as shown above. It's more than foul trouble. He gets tired. They need him to get him rest but not by sitting long amounts of game time.

 

[GQ_Gabriel]

Give Coach Malone a bad grade for this one, I wasn't too fond of his substitutions and line up patterns throughout the game, most notably towards the end of the 3rd period. No bueno!

 

[Bricklayer]

I think lost in all these glorious Boogie's per 36 numbers, and criticizing Malone for not playing him, is some strong evidence he just can't play 38-40mpg like most NBA superstars have traditionally. Yao Ming is the other guy I can think of that couldn't play big minutes. Boogie is below Ming's career 32.5 mpg at 30.4 mpg, also his average so far this season. If Boogie can't get those minutes up at his age, when is it going to happen?

They need to manage his minutes more carefully, where and when they come, etc. Playing most of the third left him dead as shown above. It's more than foul trouble. He gets tired. They need him to get him rest but not by sitting long amounts of game time.

No, I don't think it really is more than foul trouble. All of the great centers, all of them, have looked tired because they play the most tiring position on the floor as the biggest bodies on the floor. Anybody who ever watched Patrick Ewing hose down the floor with sweat has seen it before.

But with Cuz its all about the fouls. He's the #1 fouler in the entire NBA since he entered it. And that doesn't mean he'd be playing 48 a night without them. But it does mean that when he's not in foul trouble he can frequently be up in the upper 30s, but the foul trouble games, including the subtle ones you can't see after the game because he got 2 in the first quarter and it cut his first stint in half, balance out the big minute foul free games. Shave 1 foul a game from Cuz's total, and he gets those extra 4-6min a night.

 

[pshn80]

No, I don't think it really is more than foul trouble. All of the great centers, all of them, have looked tired because they play the most tiring position on the floor as the biggest bodies on the floor. Anybody who ever watched Patrick Ewing hose down the floor with sweat has seen it before.

But with Cuz its all about the fouls. He's the #1 fouler in the entire NBA since he entered it. And that doesn't mean he'd be playing 48 a night without them. But it does mean that when he's not in foul trouble he can frequently be up in the upper 30s, but the foul trouble games, including the subtle ones you can't see after the game because he got 2 in the first quarter and it cut his first stint in half, balance out the big minute foul free games. Shave 1 foul a game from Cuz's total, and he gets those extra 4-6min a night.

I DO think it is more than foul trouble but even so it's OK. I sort of thought Cuz and the team were down a notch on energy in the first part of the game and Cuz played like he had a sprained thumb. And it didn't help that OKC couldn't miss to start the game AND when they did miss they got the rebound. Not a formula for a Kings victory

 

[rainmaker]

There was one point cuz couldn't even stand to set a pick he was that tired.

The play before this he didn't even make it into the OKC half of the court.

Maybe he kept him out too long but I suspect this went into his thinking, and he wanted to give him an extended rest for a big push in the 4th.

Boogie is averaging 30.4 MPG, less than a full HS game. He simply is going to have to learn to play through fatigue. 38 yr old Tim Duncan is averaging more mins than he is. Being tired isn't an excuse when playing so few mins and wanting to be considered the top center in the game.

There is simply no reason why a guy like Marc Gasol, a big and heavy guy in his own right who centers the Grizzlies defense and is their focal point on offense can play 36+ per night but a younger Cuz gets burned out at around 30. Either learn to conserve energy and pace yourself, or push through it. Guys across the league push through fatigue every night and one of Boogie's weaknesses is there's quite a drop off at times when he is tired. That's an issue he has to fix. Limit the drop off.

 

[bajaden]

This is why I've said in the past that there is no win now draft pick. Only prospects. Pick the best prospect or trade the pick. We still don't know what will become of Nik. Just needs to fix the defensive part of his game or whatever he gives on offense will be negated.

Very few college players come into the NBA as good defensive players. Go watch some sandlot basketball and tell me how much defense you see being played. So its a learning process, and to be honest, Nik has actually been better than I thought he would be. Now I realize that it has nothing to do with real time in a game, but its the reality of the situation. To ask Nik to guard Telfair is asking for trouble. Ditto Lamb, and to be fair, Lamb hit some of those shots with a hand in his face. Last time I checked, your not allowed to tackle a player in the NBA. By the way, I loved Lamb at UCONN, and wished we could have traded for him at some point.

I hate to repeat myself, but Nik needs to get stronger, and he needs to be more aggressive when he has the ball in his hands. He's trying too hard to be loved by his teammates, who so far have shown little love for him by passing him the ball when he's open. The real question shouldn't be why he scored no points in the game, but why is it that he only took two shots in the game. Were being critical of Stauskas for apparently doing litttle to nothing, but saying nothing about Sessions who four times drove into a crowd attacking the basket and ignoring Nik who was open on the perimeter. In short, what Nik is going through is normal. He's learning what playing in the NBA is all about. Eventually he'll be accepted and looked for by his teammates. He's a smart kid and a hard worker who will become a better defender. By the way, the Thunder did a great job with the zone, and they ran the pick and roll down our throats. Our switches were lazy, and at times we were confused. The Thunder got everything they wanted, and despite that, we were still in the game with a chance to win. Now if we could just get Ibaka to switch teams.

 

[bajaden]

OKC broadcasting team have climbed up my ladder of worst commentators.

We are in agreement!

 

[HereWeBoogie]

i really hope Boogie can work on his fatigue but it just might not happen. He is in way better physical shape than he used to be but it's still not working. Not being able to play 38-40 solid minutes is not only killing his potentially disgusting per game numbers, but hurts his team as we have all seen the comparison between the team with him on/off the floor.

 

[FaStRmAn]

I have no idea why Sessions keeps going out there, he hasn't shown anything in ANY of the games we played so far.

Continuing to run Sessions onto the court is waiving a white flag at this point. He needs to be replaced by Ray Mac. You might get some rookie like mistakes occasionally, but you will certainly get a lot more effort and production from Ray then Sessions has shown. Sessions is not the player he used to be. He seems out of place and tentative. His defense is a non factor. It's like he thinks he is only in there for his non existent offense. Malone needs to give Ray Mac some minutes to show what he has because Sessions has shown what he has and honestly he doesn't have much.

 

[ForlornKing]

I remember last year, Malone made a comment about always having at least one of Rudy or Demarcus on the floor at all times, and it never happened. When he said it this year, I thought maybe he would actually do it. Nope. A little like Keith Smart in that way.

 

[Livinthedream]

Very few college players come into the NBA as good defensive players. Go watch some sandlot basketball and tell me how much defense you see being played. So its a learning process, and to be honest, Nik has actually been better than I thought he would be. Now I realize that it has nothing to do with real time in a game, but its the reality of the situation. To ask Nik to guard Telfair is asking for trouble. Ditto Lamb, and to be fair, Lamb hit some of those shots with a hand in his face. Last time I checked, your not allowed to tackle a player in the NBA. By the way, I loved Lamb at UCONN, and wished we could have traded for him at some point.

I hate to repeat myself, but Nik needs to get stronger, and he needs to be more aggressive when he has the ball in his hands. He's trying too hard to be loved by his teammates, who so far have shown little love for him by passing him the ball when he's open. The real question shouldn't be why he scored no points in the game, but why is it that he only took two shots in the game. Were being critical of Stauskas for apparently doing litttle to nothing, but saying nothing about Sessions who four times drove into a crowd attacking the basket and ignoring Nik who was open on the perimeter. In short, what Nik is going through is normal. He's learning what playing in the NBA is all about. Eventually he'll be accepted and looked for by his teammates. He's a smart kid and a hard worker who will become a better defender. By the way, the Thunder did a great job with the zone, and they ran the pick and roll down our throats. Our switches were lazy, and at times we were confused. The Thunder got everything they wanted, and despite that, we were still in the game with a chance to win. Now if we could just get Ibaka to switch teams.

I've said it before, but I have nothing against Nik. I want him to do well. I'm just calling it like I see it and trying to bring balance to the discussion as it relates to our SG situation. I don't believe I've been far off yet as far as my observations of the two. I've pointed out strengths and weaknesses of both.

As far as passing the ball to Nik, It's going to be a situation of trust from the vets before he gets the ball. Ben has this issue too. Collison looks Ben off only slightly less than IT did. Gay and Cuz don't hesitate to give the ball as much as Collison. But that may be because Ben has blown some assists for Collison early and Collison wants to win. Same goes with Nik.

Nik is exactly where he's supposed to be right now and I have no issues with that. Ben is exactly where I expect him to be. To expect that one is the second coming or that one doesn't belong in the league are extremes. At this level any weakness will be exposed and we get to watch them go through their growing pains.

 

[ppine]

Kingster got to the heart of this thread. The Kings were outcoached. Brooks had a brilliant strategy. The secret is out and the Kings had better wake up and get used to playing against zones.
The team has never been good at outside shooting. Until recently no one really cared.

 

[206Fan]

Sessions is the worse thing to happen to the Kings since the Maloofs.. his inability to run the 2nd unit is hysterical. My god, I've never wanted a player gone as much as I do Sessions. This may be an overreaction, but he's looked like poopoo in all 7 games. Don't want him on the team anymore. Even Ray can do a better job than him. He's horrible on both ends of the floor. Vet experience, my ass.

 

[hrdboild]

Kingster got to the heart of this thread. The Kings were outcoached. Brooks had a brilliant strategy. The secret is out and the Kings had better wake up and get used to playing against zones.
The team has never been good at outside shooting. Until recently no one really cared.

I agree that we were out coached in this game. This is a seasoned playoff team where everybody knows their role and they're used to winning. The bench guys are hungry to prove themselves right now and expand their roles once the playoffs come around. We used to do the same thing to teams back in the day when we were a solid playoff team and one of our key guys was injured. But I don't think the solution is to get better shooters. That's been the solution to every problem for the past decade and it hasn't ever solved anything. It was clear they weren't going to allow Cousins to post up in the lane and receive the entry pass. I suppose if Rudy or Ben were on their way to a 40 point shooting explosion the defense might have stretched out a little bit, but I don't think that's ever going to work for us reliably. Ben has improved and hopefully Nik and Darren will as well but they're not the focal point of the offense. Rudy is not a gifted 3 point shooter, most of his work is done in the mid-range and close to the basket. Same with Cousins. We simply couldn't get them the ball where they needed it to operate effectively and that was a much bigger problem than missed jumpers.

Once we realized we couldn't just throw the ball into Cousins on every possession there needed to be an adjustment. Giving him the ball at the three point line and asking him to make plays from there accomplished nothing and passing it around the perimeter and shooting jumpers had only modest success. Why not run a high pick and roll to get Cousins the ball where he likes it near the top of the key? That was working pretty well for OKC in the first half and none of their bigs have anything close to the ball skills Cousins has on offense. A good number of those OKC screens were probably illegal, but we could have at least given it a try. Collison has been doing a solid job of distributing the ball before this game but it'd be nice to see a little more creativity in our offensive sets. Quick passes, quick cuts, back screens, and stagger screens are all proven methods of getting the ball to your play makers inside a zone defense. If they're going to collapse with four defenders in the paint that's when you throw it out to a shooter who needs to hit a wide open shot but we couldn't even get the ball into the paint in the first place.

 

[VF21]

I remember last year, Malone made a comment about always having at least one of Rudy or Demarcus on the floor at all times, and it never happened. When he said it this year, I thought maybe he would actually do it. Nope. A little like Keith Smart in that way.

That's not quite far. The majority of the time Malone has tried to have one or the other of them on the floor. Last night it just didn't happen. There is NO COMPARISON Between Keith Smart and Mike Malone.

 

[VF21]

General observation: The sky isn't falling. The Kings learned some valuable lessons last night and I strongly believe they will be better for it. Our Kings got off to a tremendous start against quality opponents. They lost one last night in a game a lot of people were nervous about ahead of time. It happens. The only shame in it will be if they don't learn those lessons.

 

[dude12]

Very few college players come into the NBA as good defensive players. Go watch some sandlot basketball and tell me how much defense you see being played. So its a learning process, and to be honest, Nik has actually been better than I thought he would be. Now I realize that it has nothing to do with real time in a game, but its the reality of the situation. To ask Nik to guard Telfair is asking for trouble. Ditto Lamb, and to be fair, Lamb hit some of those shots with a hand in his face. Last time I checked, your not allowed to tackle a player in the NBA. By the way, I loved Lamb at UCONN, and wished we could have traded for him at some point.

I hate to repeat myself, but Nik needs to get stronger, and he needs to be more aggressive when he has the ball in his hands. He's trying too hard to be loved by his teammates, who so far have shown little love for him by passing him the ball when he's open. The real question shouldn't be why he scored no points in the game, but why is it that he only took two shots in the game. Were being critical of Stauskas for apparently doing litttle to nothing, but saying nothing about Sessions who four times drove into a crowd attacking the basket and ignoring Nik who was open on the perimeter. In short, what Nik is going through is normal. He's learning what playing in the NBA is all about. Eventually he'll be accepted and looked for by his teammates. He's a smart kid and a hard worker who will become a better defender. By the way, the Thunder did a great job with the zone, and they ran the pick and roll down our throats. Our switches were lazy, and at times we were confused. The Thunder got everything they wanted, and despite that, we were still in the game with a chance to win. Now if we could just get Ibaka to switch teams.

But we passed on Elfrid Payton and I was not on board with he pick of Stauskas but now that he's here, I hope Nik pans out but the reality is Payton could help us right now defensively. It's all hindsight and doesn't matter but many of the forum members wanted Payton. Payton could play behind Collison or with him, he could run the point while with Ben. We could have signed a vet SG instead of Sessions. And after watching Nik for just these handful of games, I just don't think he's ever going to be a good defender but he's got to be at least a solid defender and he's had moments where his length has helped but he gets beat off the dribble a lot. Lots of teams going to the quicker 2 guard system.....Utah playing Exxum and Burke together a lot.

I'm just saying we passed on a player who could have contributed more right now.

 

[HereWeBoogie]

i think i'm perfectly happy with Collison so i'm no too upset about Payton, But KJ McDaniels could have been a great pick, he's playing really well. and he did this yesterday

 

[CurseOfTheSalmons]

this loss was more painful than any in the last few years.