[Game] Kings vs Suns Jan 6PT-9ET

WCS is having his standard 13-15 pts mostly from alley-oops while missing 4-5 layups/2 ft bunnies and grabbing 7 boards... and the soft, low motor rookie he’s defending gets 17pts on mostly mid range jumpers and 12 boards in 29 mins. And WCS is not an issue?? Giles in less then 20 games has already shown he’s a better scorer, rebounder, passer, shooter, etc
This is absurd, Willie did an excellent job denying Ayton entry feeds all night. his help defense was as good in this game as any all season. did you not see the end??? plus he had his usual athletic steals and perimeter oriented defense.

Did you actually watch Harry's minutes, he had 3 turnovers 4 fouls and one of his putbacks was clearly a violation. He had careless passes, the ball ripped out of his hands... What exactly about what he's doing screams to people "sustainable over 30mpg everynight" eludes me completely, i guess they don't realize you only get 6 fouls....

Meanwhile the cleanest play the Kings run in crunchtime ends up in an easy alley oop to Willie...

Ayton is averaging like 17pts and 11boards he's the#1 pick in the draft for a reason. Colossally strong, nearly impossible to move.


The Kings could use a backup C like Richaun Holmes, instead of Koufos, that'd really shore up the rotation.
 
Willie in pick and roll is dangerous. He can attack off the dribble but teams are starting to figure out that in the high post 1 out of every 100,000 cuts he'll find someone on the pass but if you sag on him he has no choice but to slash.
Yep, that’s the adjustment every team is making. They’re sagging so much they’re clogging all the pssing lanes and begging him to shoot a wide open 8fter or try and create a bunny... all of which they know he will convert maybe 1 out of 3 times. His offense (or lack thereof) is affecting Fox’s effectiveness which is making him frustrated and feeling the need to try and make plays in double teams, otherwise the other option is to watch Willie miss a bunny
 
WCS was an efficient 6-11, lead the Kings in rebounding with 7, had 3 assists, 3 steals , 3 blocks., 0 turnovers. If scoring on dunks is so easy why don't other players do it? Why did Giles not just have the guards throw him alley oops all game and dunk the ball? You people think its easy because WCS makes it look easy. He knows when to move and how to free himself in the pick and roll.

Fox turned it over 8 times, Buddy 5, Bogdan 4. That is too much. I thought Bogdan's shot selection was ok, but his boxing out at the end of the game was horrendous.

Anyway, I think this was classic underestimating of the opponent (shout out @kingsboi ) by both the coach and the players. Someone had a comment saying it was an arrogant game by the Kings, perfectly said.
 
This is absurd, Willie did an excellent job denying Ayton entry feeds all night. his help defense was as good in this as any game this season. did you not see the end of that game? plus he had his usual athletic steals and perimeter oriented defense.

Did you actually watch Harry's minutes, he had 3 turnovers 4 fouls and one of his putbacks was clearly a violation. He had careless passes, the ball ripped out of his hands...

Meanwhile the cleanest play the Kings run in crunchtime ends up in an easy alley oop to Willie.

Ayton is averaging like 17pts and 11boards he's the#1 pick in the draft for a reason. Colossally strong, nearly impossible to move.


The Kings could use a backup C like Richaun Holmes, instead of Koufos, that'd really shore up the rotation.
Willie had a good couple of plays at the 3 minute mark where we he decided to try and block shots and grab rebounds. I’ll give him that. His 29 other minutes, he was a lob artist who couldn’t make a single shot other than a dunk and could only grab 6 rebounds. He is a liability and if there is a silver lining in all of this, Divac may get some urgency in making a move in the next month of 2. I don’t think we make the playoffs, so we need to get some trade value out of him
 

SLAB

Hall of Famer
WCS was an efficient 6-11, lead the Kings in rebounding with 7, had 3 assists, 3 steals , 3 blocks., 0 turnovers. If scoring on dunks is so easy why don't other players do it? Why did Giles not just have the guards throw him alley oops all game and dunk the ball? You people think its easy because WCS makes it look easy. He knows when to move and how to free himself in the pick and roll.

Fox turned it over 8 times, Buddy 5, Bogdan 4. That is too much. I thought Bogdan's shot selection was ok, but his boxing out at the end of the game was horrendous.

Anyway, I think this was classic underestimating of the opponent (shout out @kingsboi ) by both the coach and the players. Someone had a comment saying it was an arrogant game by the Kings, perfectly said.
To be fair, Yogi misses Giles on seemingly easy cuts at least twice a game and JJacks missed Giles on what would have been an easy alley oop.

(I’m not totally defending Giles here, he did a rough game for the most part... learning experience)
 
De'Anthony Melton is one of the guys the Kings could've had in the 2nd rd, he went after the Pick that was sold to Portland.

That statline he posted is like the ones he used to get in college. thats what earned him the 'swiss army knife' reputation.
 
To be fair, Yogi misses Giles on seemingly easy cuts at least twice a game and JJacks missed Giles on what would have been an easy alley oop.

(I’m not totally defending Giles here, he did a rough game for the most part... learning experience)
yeah i know we all notice the possible pass that could have been made to the player we are paying extra attention to. i've done the same as well. but if you pay attention there are many "passed" opportunities like that for all the players.

I thought Giles reverted a bit trying to do too much as opposed to letting it come to him like last game. Although it did not help that the Kings were kind of stagnant tonight.
 
Willie had a good couple of plays at the 3 minute mark where we he decided to try and block shots and grab rebounds. I’ll give him that. His 29 other minutes, he was a lob artist who couldn’t make a single shot other than a dunk and could only grab 6 rebounds. He is a liability and if there is a silver lining in all of this, Divac may get some urgency in making a move in the next month of 2. I don’t think we make the playoffs, so we need to get some trade value out of him
I doubt it; the Kings are facing some adversity, but still are better than any Kings team since 06. Could they fall off? Maybe, but when the group is playing well together, they have shown good ability. I look at this game as an aberration. Sooner or later the Kings were bound to lose to a lower tiered team, statistically.
 
Willie had a good couple of plays at the 3 minute mark where we he decided to try and block shots and grab rebounds. I’ll give him that. His 29 other minutes, he was a lob artist who couldn’t make a single shot other than a dunk and could only grab 6 rebounds. He is a liability and if there is a silver lining in all of this, Divac may get some urgency in making a move in the next month of 2. I don’t think we make the playoffs, so we need to get some trade value out of him
Willie is clearly here to stay. If there's a move to be made at C it's further down the depth chart.
 

kingsboi

Hall of Famer
Just got back from the game. Kings up 19 at half, I figured they would put them away. What then happens from there is a putrid third quarter full of turnovers and steals by the Suns which sparked the fast break and gave them life again. Giles was absolutely atrocious out there and Holmes straight up took his lunch money. Koufos was no better either and no one could handle Oubre's strength on the inside. What a disappointing loss, without Booker too. Sigh.
 
Yeah, this one isn’t on Willie. He almost saved the game only for our ball handlers to keep turning the ball over or play hero ball. I don’t care for his iso attempts either but it comes down to the 17 combined Fox, Bogdan, and Buddy turnovers. The starters were collectively bad all game. The starters fell behind early, the bench built a big lead, the starters blew that lead.

I really wish Fox would look for a bucket instead of foul calls in crunch time. It’s becoming a trend where a big possession is Fox trying to get to the line. He passed up a wide open Buddy on the wing to go against 2 or 3 and then when the Kings really needed one he drove with the intention of getting a call. As if he hasn’t been dogged by the refs all year. Maybe he’s grooming them but I’d prefer some wins.
 
To be fair, Yogi misses Giles on seemingly easy cuts at least twice a game and JJacks missed Giles on what would have been an easy alley oop.

(I’m not totally defending Giles here, he did a rough game for the most part... learning experience)
Great point. Plus, if Giles actually gets mins with Fox, we would see the same alley oops. He did get a few when he ran some pick and rolls with Bogey.

Giles did have a terrible game but the tools are visible enough for me to know Willie is expendable... and I would rather trade him for a defensive-minded player and focus on developing Bags and Giles
 

SLAB

Hall of Famer
Great point. Plus, if Giles actually gets mins with Fox, we would see the same alley oops. He did get a few when he ran some pick and rolls with Bogey.

Giles did have a terrible game but the tools are visible enough for me to know Willie is expendable... and I would rather trade him for a defensive-minded player and focus on developing Bags and Giles
Word. We’re not making the playoffs this year. It’s about development.

As for expendable, WCS would be a great third big behind the infinite upside of Giles and Bagley. Idk if his ego allows it though.
 
So many teams seem to have wave after wave of long, athletic wings. Somehow in today's NBA, we have zero.
These types have gotta be licking their chops going thru the scouting report the day of the game too....

Teams like the Suns and Trailblazers can actually give the Kings waves of matchup issues at the small-4 (and 3) with Josh Jackson/Warren and Harkless/Aminu..

It seems Vlade prefers to play rock paper scissors. Marvin's absence looms large in this whole equation tho which stinks.
 
Word. We’re not making the playoffs this year. It’s about development.

As for expendable, WCS would be a great third big behind the infinite upside of Giles and Bagley. Idk if his ego allows it though.
Stein, has better lateral quickness than either of the other 2. You see glimpses of his fight on defense, but he holds it back too often especially on rebounds. and he has regressed in his shooting. Giles on the other hand is competing hard most of the time consistently which is more than Stein at this point. Giles focuses on his jump-shooting while Stein looks like he's throwing darts or something. Bagley may have the best overall offensive game and jumping ability of the 3. Giles is fundamentally strong, but his reactions sometimes look slow. Love his boxing-out and hard defense. Its good to see him getting minutes.

I think more players on the team need to be shooting the ball with more confidence - too much reliance on Hield and Bogdanovic. Work with Giles and Stein on the elbow jump shot. Encourage them to practice that shot if defenders sag off.
 
It’s funny because if Willie had Holmes mentality or career trajectory he would be a perfect Holmes like player. Circumstance is everything. Sadly Willie will want top 10 pick money. Honestly I would like an Acy type player for certain games like this
 
Word. We’re not making the playoffs this year. It’s about development.

As for expendable, WCS would be a great third big behind the infinite upside of Giles and Bagley. Idk if his ego allows it though.
I would have to agree and add that a team can't lose the kind of games that we have seen recently and expect to make the playoffs. No.