Luke Walton
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There are two reasons the Kings won a back to back against Dallas and Houston: Walton, and the players buying into Walton. After the Kings got their bell rung in the AT&T Center I really believe Walton had an accountability session with his guys. And maybe some of his guys had their own accountability session with each other. Some coaches talk about "playing the right way." Well, this is playing the right way. The Kings just grinded on both Dallas and Houston in their houses. They didn't win because of their awesome talent. They won because they were tougher, physically and mentally. They made them work on offense and defense, all with their two young stars out of the lineup, and after getting broadsided in San Antonio. I couldn't be happier. We have a great coach.
My only gripe with him so far has been his usage of Buddy Hield in important last second defensive plays. Hield blew it against San Antonio and was a Bjelica 35ft miracle shot away from blowing it in Houston by letting Westbrook drive the length of the court and go right by him as if he wasn't even standing there. Luke really needs to get Buddy off the court in those situations and get Ariza or even James in his place if he has to.
My best guess on why Walton is keeping Buddy Hield in the game in these defensive late game situations is that he's had a conversation that goes something like this: "Buddy, we're living or dying with you. It's up to you. You are going to be in the game when it counts. Period." I'll also speculate that Walton and Divac have had conversations about Hield in which they have agreed to put him in these situations. They want to coach him up as much as is possible, to expose him to crunch time on offense and defense, and then they'll be able to know exactly how he is going to fit into this team going forward. To sum it up, they are playing the long game with Buddy Hield and are willing to sacrifice some short-term losses for long term gain. Also, it may be that Walton does not want to expose his rookie Justin James to these defensive assignments in away games. On BBIQ and defensive ability Justin James is a superior defensive player to Buddy Hield right now, but to not play him a minute in either of the SA game or the Houston game and then have him guard a key offensive player at a critical point of the game may not be what Walton wants to do right now. That's the best I've got.
On the other hand, fouling was an ABSOLUTE no-no in that situation and Russ was gunning for contact. Buddy had to give ground without fouling and Holmes (for as good as he has been) was late sliding over to help. With the floor wide open like it was, and with the Rockets not calling a timeout, we couldn't pick and choose our defensive set/players. I thought Buddy did as much as he could.
My best guess on why Walton is keeping Buddy Hield in the game in these defensive late game situations is that he's had a conversation that goes something like this: "Buddy, we're living or dying with you. It's up to you. You are going to be in the game when it counts. Period." I'll also speculate that Walton and Divac have had conversations about Hield in which they have agreed to put him in these situations. They want to coach him up as much as is possible, to expose him to crunch time on offense and defense, and then they'll be able to know exactly how he is going to fit into this team going forward. To sum it up, they are playing the long game with Buddy Hield and are willing to sacrifice some short-term losses for long term gain. Also, it may be that Walton does not want to expose his rookie Justin James to these defensive assignments in away games. On BBIQ and defensive ability Justin James is a superior defensive player to Buddy Hield right now, but to not play him a minute in either of the SA game or the Houston game and then have him guard a key offensive player at a critical point of the game may not be what Walton wants to do right now. That's the best I've got.
My best guess on why Walton is keeping Buddy Hield in the game in these defensive late game situations is that he's had a conversation that goes something like this: "Buddy, we're living or dying with you. It's up to you. You are going to be in the game when it counts. Period." I'll also speculate that Walton and Divac have had conversations about Hield in which they have agreed to put him in these situations. They want to coach him up as much as is possible, to expose him to crunch time on offense and defense, and then they'll be able to know exactly how he is going to fit into this team going forward. To sum it up, they are playing the long game with Buddy Hield and are willing to sacrifice some short-term losses for long term gain. Also, it may be that Walton does not want to expose his rookie Justin James to these defensive assignments in away games. On BBIQ and defensive ability Justin James is a superior defensive player to Buddy Hield right now, but to not play him a minute in either of the SA game or the Houston game and then have him guard a key offensive player at a critical point of the game may not be what Walton wants to do right now. That's the best I've got.
Walton made the Kings players enjoy playing for this not so popular team again. Towel waving, chest pumping and simply with no moody behaviors I can see the light for this team first time in a long time. Also, going from a loser like WCS to lion heart Richaun Holmes was a huge upgrade for this team.
From reconstructing the play-by-play, it looks like the Rockets had Harden/Westbrook/McLemore/House/Tucker on the floor for that possession, against Joseph/Hield/Bogdan/Barnes/Holmes for us.
Yeah, ideally you get Joseph/Barnes to cover Harden/Westbrook leaving Buddy and Bogdan on McLemore/House and Holmes on Tucker. But I'm guessing if I could go to tape right now that we had Barnes contesting the inbounds due to his length (either BMac or House I'd guess) which means that CoJo is on Harden and either Buddy/Bogdan has to be on Westbrook. Bogdan's got a bad hamstring, so given Barnes is contesting the inbounds, Buddy is probably the lesser of two evils on that one.
But hey, Bjelica! It doesn't matter!
Yeah, ideally you get Joseph/Barnes to cover Harden/Westbrook leaving Buddy and Bogdan on McLemore/House and Holmes on Tucker. But I'm guessing if I could go to tape right now that we had Barnes contesting the inbounds due to his length (either BMac or House I'd guess) which means that CoJo is on Harden and either Buddy/Bogdan has to be on Westbrook. Bogdan's got a bad hamstring, so given Barnes is contesting the inbounds, Buddy is probably the lesser of two evils on that one.
But hey, Bjelica! It doesn't matter!
There have been certain areas where they can be better but it's usually just a question of when Walton and his staff figure it out. For instance they've been getting killed on pick and roll playing off the screen and in the two games that it could destroy you the most with that (Doncic and Harden) they go with some box and 1 (personally not a big fan of leaving the corners but I digress), blitz, hard hedge, etc. What a change from having season long stretches of no adjustment. The measure of a universally good coach is adaptability. The last coach the Kings had with that mindset that was Rick Adelman.
