[Grades] Grades v. Hornets 1/28/2017

[Bricklayer]

Link to Boxscore

Afflalo ( B ) -- scored enough to take a little pressure of Cuz, competed well, and kept the ball moving. Playing like an entirely respectable roleplayer right now.

Cousins ( A+ ) -- ok, look, just kicked the crud out of the Hornets' interior people, on the second night of a back to back, against a team that was 15-8 on its home floor, never appeared to tire, and made the big game winning plays down the stretch. But he did get a double technical for getting into it with Hawes, so, somewhere between a D and C I think.

Koufos ( D+ ) -- not sure this was hate worthy, but restricted to basically playing against Hibbert as the only non-wussy 3pt shooter amongst Charlotte "bigs", and didn't show very well + we weren't great in his time.

Temple ( C- ) -- just not going well right now, and if he wasn't Garret Temple and we actually needed his offense, might even deserve a lower grade than this. Didn't really slow either guard, didn't hit his shots, and we again actually were better with our dual-mini PG set.

Collison ( B- ) -- gave us 17 points as his scoring run continued. Also gave us 0 rebs and all of 22 assists on a night when everybody else was moving the ball beautifully. lost control of Kemba in the 3rd in a big way, but otherwise held his own.

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Barnes ( D ) -- missed all his shots, took his eye of the ball for a turnover, got overwhelmed at the rim. But did grab a few boards and mostly kept the ball moving.

Tolliver ( A- ) -- after some bad empty games earlier on the trip, really found a comfort zone against a Charlotte team who's bigs all play like him. Missed his first couple, then locked in from 3, and showed much more attention and effort on the glass than normal.

Lawson ( B ) -- got in the lane and collapsed the Hornets defense, and was a major reason why Willie had the night he had. Gap in creativity between he and Collison rarely so evident, but on the other hand only got off a couple of his Lawson special shots.

Richardson ( C ) -- had a couple of those confident mature little plays again with a nice pass and drive, and on and off made nice defensive plays. But it was the "off" on defense that likely shortened hsi night, as he lost Belinelli several times

Cauley Stein ( A- ) -- 13pts in 14 minutes, mostly just outrunning Hornets to the rim, but also adding in a midrange jumper. Not perfect, and a -11 in his 14 minutes is somewhat concerning and not being comfortable chasing guys out to the 3pt line did matter. But stil, this is WCS and he had a real impact scoring off the bench as a big man for us.

 

[gunks]

Rudy Gay effect, in effect?

Sucks how he went down, but what is our record sans Mr. Black Hole?

Heck of a game by Cuz. This is why he only gets Cs when he puts up those paltry 24/12 type scrub numbers.

 

[dude12]

I think if they can get a pick for Ben, they deal him and sign Patterson or something like that.....I'm not,so sure they deal Casspi unless they get enough in return....he's a good teammate.

 

[c-webb1s#1]

Ben needs to go! Trade him in for a used 2001 toyota corolla!

 

[VF21]

I don't want to see a trade if it affects what's happening right now. Chemistry is building and guys are starting to trust each other. You bring a new player into that and you risk disaster. Trade Ben for future picks or something but do not screw with what's just now starting to work.

 

[andjel]

No need for trade at all costs, but we still need talent.
Price of the folks that we have just went up from our perspective.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Rudy Gay effect, in effect?

Sucks how he went down, but what is our record sans Mr. Black Hole?

According to B-R.com, we're 11-19 this season when Gay plays. Which suggests that we're 8-9 when he doesn't play. #RudyGayEffect #OrSmallSampleSize #QuestionMark


Edited, because I can't count.

 

[swisshh]

Good win. Barnes second stint nearly killed the Kings.

As for the Q: If you can get a solution for a starting PF then I'd look at it. Now that Collison is figuring it out, PG is less of a immediate concern though still a longterm concern.

 

[glassman]

Collison is a free agent no reason to risk him walking for nothing after Rudy Gay went down .

Ty has proven to be more than qualified to start . By giving him the reins now it could even increase our chance to re-sign Lawson at the end of the year.

Of course we need a PG in return tho

 

[KingsFanSince85]

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate this win -- a lot. But I'm still pissed because the Kings should be 4-2 on this trip and could be 5-1, which would have been incredible. No excuse for blowing it against Indiana and should have gone to OT with Chicago for a chance to eek that one out.

That said, I'll take 3-3 and hope we can at least split the next 2 but greedily expecting to win out. 5-3 would be so awesome, especially after the home stand catastrophe.

 

[glassman]

According to B-R.com, we're 11-19 this season when Gay plays. Which suggests that we're 9-9 when he doesn't play. #RudyGayEffect #OrSmallSampleSize #QuestionMark

I don't think there's any question when you watch the games this team is better without. But still a 500 team Lol!

 

[jcwkings]

Id like to see how Casspi looks with this team, especiallg with Barnes playing how he is. Try and get something for Ben though, anything. Afflalo has looked much better since moving to SF and he looks hungrier being a starter.

 

[miltonap]

Barnes sucks

 

[KingsFanSince85]

Id like to see how Casspi looks with this team.

If Omri could shoot it like he did last season, it certainly would be a big boost.

 

[gunks]

According to B-R.com, we're 11-19 this season when Gay plays. Which suggests that we're 9-9 when he doesn't play. #RudyGayEffect #OrSmallSampleSize #QuestionMark

Thanks for the info!

#onlytimewilltell

 

[DesertFox]

Afflalo is more relevant in the offense without Rudy, and maybe those touches are giving him a little more juice on D.

 

[KingsFanSince85]

According to B-R.com, we're 11-19 this season when Gay plays. Which suggests that we're 9-9 when he doesn't play. #RudyGayEffect #OrSmallSampleSize #QuestionMark

Not to nitpick, but that can't be quite right as we only have 19 wins, not 20.

If the 11-19 is correct, it would be 8-9 w/o him, right?

 

[kingsboi]

I also notice that Cousins had made an emphasis on hitting the boards again, I'm sure the coaches had a say in that as well. There is no reason that he should be having single digit rebounding games, none. I'm glad to see that rebounding Boogie is creeping back up again.

 

[EIM86]

I think we should trade and get better if we can. People talk of chemistry and trust of each other but chemistry can only take you so far. We need as much extra talent we can get and the chemistry will get even better.

That board then behind the back pass by Cousins with 4 defenders trying to get it from him was beast mode. Superstar coming soon.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Not to nitpick, but that can't be quite right as we only have 19 wins, not 20.

If the 11-19 is correct, it would be 8-9 w/o him, right?

You are correct.

 

[ESP47]

I'm glad Joerger left Lawson on the court at the end there. We all love Temple but him and Collison on the court at the end means a bunch of passing around the perimeter and then feed it to Cousins with 5 seconds on the shot clock and cross your fingers.

There's no reason why Collison should be handling the ball when Lawson is on the court with him. Collison is a SG in a PG's body while Lawson is a true PG. Let Lawson break down the defense so we can take advantage of Collison's high percentage shooting.

They were a little bit better about it tonight but they remind me of the Niners' prevent defense at the end of games a few years back. Games that were out of hand always ended close because they played way too conservatively at the end. The Kings need to stop worrying about the clock and keep playing team ball. Seems like in close games under 5 minutes, the offense grinds to a halt because they just dribble the ball around and feed Cousins. Sometimes it works because Cousins is so talented but other times we blow it because it's so obvious what we're doing that the defense doesn't have to think much to defend us.

 

[SCKingsfan]

I'm having fun watching that 2nd unit compete. I love the Lawson/Willie connection that is developing, and seeing Malachi get some burn. Barnes has really been crapping the bed lately though - two bonehead plans for every one nice assist.

 

[KingsFanSince85]

You are correct.

Still better than 11-19 And easily could be 9-8 or even 10-7 if not for some late game collapses after leading throughout.

All in all, they are playing better w/o Rudy coincidence or not.

 

[The_Jamal]

We're almost there to getting the optimal lineups with our current group of guys. Get rid of Barnes, plug in Casspi for 25-30 minutes, and then we're cooking with fire.

No Rudy on offense (and frankly defense too) is helping this team so much. Cousins carves out his 35-40% USG and everyone else is getting involved. The FGA attempts tonight:

22- Boogie

11
9
8
7
7
6

Essentially, we've become the OKC and Houston blueprint: Let your star put the shots and playmaking and let everyone else share what's left-over. You don't see a Rudy Gay type stealing usage from Russ or Harden and we're seeing the benefits of that now running everything through Boogie.

 

[The_Jamal]

Still better than 11-19 And easily could be 9-8 or even 10-7 if not for some late game collapses after leading throughout.

All in all, they are playing better w/o Rudy coincidence or not.

No it isn't. I've been harping on this for awhile now, ever since Casspi broke-out last season and he developed great chemistry with Boogie. Rudy's USG and ball-stopping ways took away from everyone else getting involved in the game; as Boogie was always going to get his touches. This has honestly been the issue since he got here; we've been so dependent on Boogie-Rudy-PG (IT, Collison for a bit, Rondo) to provide everything that no one else was engaged on the offensive end or expected to get heavily involved.

The team looks better because we're involving everybody. That hasn't been the case for 3 years.

 

[KingsFanSince85]

No it isn't. I've been harping on this for awhile now, ever since Casspi broke-out last season and he developed great chemistry with Boogie. Rudy's USG and ball-stopping ways took away from everyone else getting involved in the game; as Boogie was always going to get his touches. This has honestly been the issue since he got here; we've been so dependent on Boogie-Rudy-PG (IT, Collison for a bit, Rondo) to provide everything that no one else was engaged on the offensive end or expected to get heavily involved.

The team looks better because we're involving everybody. That hasn't been the case for 3 years.

I ain't arguing against you bro. Not at all. I see it the same way. Just making the point that whichever side of the coin you're on with regard to reason, the Kings are undoubtedly playing better in Rudy's absence.

 

[glassman]

I'm glad Joerger left Lawson on the court at the end there. We all love Temple but him and Collison on the court at the end means a bunch of passing around the perimeter and then feed it to Cousins with 5 seconds on the shot clock and cross your fingers.

There's no reason why Collison should be handling the ball when Lawson is on the court with him. Collison is a SG in a PG's body while Lawson is a true PG. Let Lawson break down the defense so we can take advantage of Collison's high percentage shooting.

They were a little bit better about it tonight but they remind me of the Niners' prevent defense at the end of games a few years back. Games that were out of hand always ended close because they played way too conservatively at the end. The Kings need to stop worrying about the clock and keep playing team ball. Seems like in close games under 5 minutes, the offense grinds to a halt because they just dribble the ball around and feed Cousins. Sometimes it works because Cousins is so talented but other times we blow it because it's so obvious what we're doing that the defense doesn't have to think much to defend us.

I'd rather have temple and the law son

 

[Glenn]

You are correct.

That's what you get for ****ing around with math.

 

[Glenn]

I'm having fun watching that 2nd unit compete. I love the Lawson/Willie connection that is developing, and seeing Malachi get some burn. Barnes has really been crapping the bed lately though - two bonehead plans for every one nice assist.

Lawson/WCS are an interesting pair. Seems like the team is figuring out that Willie can always be found in a 20 ft corridor from the three pt. line to the free throw line. Ally oop or whatever.

 

[ElRey]

Ben needs to go! Trade him in for a used 2001 toyota corolla!

Ben is an expiring contract right? I hope they don't take back any contracts in exchange for him. Don't think anyone is going to be willing to give us anything decent players for Ben. I would be happy for a draft pick. Either late first round or early 2nd round pick.