[Game] Kings @ Pacers - Friday, Dec. 20 - 4PT/7ET
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Well, this certainly appears as if Walton has his work cut out for him. It would have been nice to hit the ground running but it's going to be a process. So are the trials of running team offense and team defense sets. I think in the next game He needs to start Fox with Buddy. There is no time to waste on them getting this working as well as it can. The issue with bringing Bagley and Fox back into the rotation is you lose a bit of shooting in the process so he's going to have to figure out how to put shooting around them to space things out. There's too much action going on offensively. That was needed with someone like Joseph at point but this is a different look now.
I'm impressed by the Pacers. They remind me of younger Spurs team that plays smart, unselfish basketball. When they get a healthy Oladipo back they are going to be a tough out in the playoffs. They were playing chess all night to the Kings' checkers.
Buddy Hield should thank his lucky stars that he's getting in the vicinity of $$$ that Brogdan is getting. Either that or Brogdan should be PO'd and immediately ask for a raise. My God. What a disparity there is between the two. The only thing I'm waiting on now with Hield is to see how he's going to play when Fox is fully back with no minutes restrictions. Bogs has already played (or not played) himself off this team as far as I am concerned. If Hield keeps this up, he's going to be right behind him.
For Christmas I'm asking Santa Claus for more minutes for Justin James. No, he's not going to be scoring 30 points in a game anytime soon, but I sure do like his IQ, competitiveness, and defense. I'd love to see the experiment where he got close to 30 minutes in a game so he could get into more of a rhythm.
Buddy Hield should thank his lucky stars that he's getting in the vicinity of $$$ that Brogdan is getting. Either that or Brogdan should be PO'd and immediately ask for a raise. My God. What a disparity there is between the two. The only thing I'm waiting on now with Hield is to see how he's going to play when Fox is fully back with no minutes restrictions. Bogs has already played (or not played) himself off this team as far as I am concerned. If Hield keeps this up, he's going to be right behind him.
For Christmas I'm asking Santa Claus for more minutes for Justin James. No, he's not going to be scoring 30 points in a game anytime soon, but I sure do like his IQ, competitiveness, and defense. I'd love to see the experiment where he got close to 30 minutes in a game so he could get into more of a rhythm.
Buddy Hield has been struggling shooting most of the season. But his shot volume was high , so the total points masked it. Barnes has disappeared and it has nothing to do with Bagley and Fox coming back. Overall the teams shooting has been hit or miss all. The Kings have been flirting with disaster all season.
Yeah, the style of play changes when Fox and Bagley were there. But all it did was expose the flaws on offense the defense was masking. Near bottom of the league in pace and points. Good playoff teams are rarely hovering around the bottom of important categories.
Yeah, the style of play changes when Fox and Bagley were there. But all it did was expose the flaws on offense the defense was masking. Near bottom of the league in pace and points. Good playoff teams are rarely hovering around the bottom of important categories.
I feel like it would have worked better had Bjeli not used up all his good basketball powers in the first quarter and proceeded to be incapable of putting the ball in the basket for the rest of the evening. I love the guy but he and Buddy have to stop drinking together before the game or something because that was, er, not great.
Unfortunately I'm questioning if this team is as good as last year....can they make it to 30-26? .... 4 games over .500? They've had some rotten luck, but I dunno....the defense has been refreshing, but the fall-off on offense is severe. They're trying to rewrite their identity, but its not taking well.
Bagley's playmaking ability is fairly pedestrian.....the Kings have yet to take advantage of his shooting the way they did last season. Bagley last season did play well with Giles....I see they don't seem to know better or care to try. In both Fox and Bagley's defense, getting game speed type play may take more games.....Fox being so quick, its not as apparent or affecting. Fox on a few series tonight played 1 on 3 or 4 which ended in a turnover or forced shot. The offense needs alot more movement and cutting consistently every play. They'll have 1 good series and then 2 bad ones. (on offense).
Its true - Bjelica was missing wide-open 3s during much of the rest of the game after the 1st - at least 4 to 5 of them. In the NBA, a wide-open 3 aside from a center or bang-up post player, I feel like a pro shooter should be able to hit 2 of 4 or minimum 2 of 5 every time when wide open. Then when Bjelica attempted to go inside he got stuffed by better athletes on the Pacers. This gets to the heart of why the Kings lost this game tonight, poor shooting - and not enough passing for open shots......their defense, although improved, is not good enough to allow for very poor shooting nights. The Kings played cumulatively about a half of good basketball today against the Pacers.
Lets face it, the Kings were outmatched from the onset. The only thing that kept them in the game in that first quarter was Bjelica playing like an MVP candidate. I wasn't even all that excited that they had the lead because I knew that the Pacers were just playing their normal brand of basketball while the Kings were being led by a guy playing 10x over his head.
Hield just kills them in these games where he can't hit the broad side of a barn because his defense is just so awful. Almost all of those plays where it looks like some random player is getting an easy bucket was because Hield just let his man blow right by him off the 3 point line with a straight line move and everything just snowballs from there. It happened seemingly every other time down the court while he was out there. I thought he should have been benched for his defense personally. Most of the shots he took were just fine, he was just missing them. But the lack of concentration on defense was a huge reason why the Pacers were scoring at will. It's unacceptable to let a player like Aaron Holiday blow by you at will like that.
I'd like to see more of James going forward. Even if it's just spot minutes here and there. His offense has a really long ways to go but man this kid has a very high IQ on defense. From what I've seen so far, I'd put him behind CoJo and Ariza as far as our best perimeter defenders go. Fox has the ability to be the best perimeter defender on the team but he disappears on that end sometimes. He was disruptive tonight but it was too little too late.
Hield just kills them in these games where he can't hit the broad side of a barn because his defense is just so awful. Almost all of those plays where it looks like some random player is getting an easy bucket was because Hield just let his man blow right by him off the 3 point line with a straight line move and everything just snowballs from there. It happened seemingly every other time down the court while he was out there. I thought he should have been benched for his defense personally. Most of the shots he took were just fine, he was just missing them. But the lack of concentration on defense was a huge reason why the Pacers were scoring at will. It's unacceptable to let a player like Aaron Holiday blow by you at will like that.
I'd like to see more of James going forward. Even if it's just spot minutes here and there. His offense has a really long ways to go but man this kid has a very high IQ on defense. From what I've seen so far, I'd put him behind CoJo and Ariza as far as our best perimeter defenders go. Fox has the ability to be the best perimeter defender on the team but he disappears on that end sometimes. He was disruptive tonight but it was too little too late.
We need a better SF, Barnes is not worth the money nor does he impact the game much, he makes more than bjelica/Holmes combined and they have been better than him by a mile. You could replace Barnes with a Crowder/last year Shumpert and you would not even notice Barnes is not there. The only thing Barnes had going for him is replacing the biggest scrub SF we have had in a while in JJ but JJ cost a fraction of what Barnes did.
The problem with the team is our two best players this year both were projected to come off the bench in Holmes/Bjelica as soon as one does not have a good game it's over they carry us in wins.
Dedmon/Barnes/Cojo/Ariza are all making to much for what they bring. But hey Brogdan can't play PG/carried by Bucks/ nor can he guard quicker guards so we don't need him.......................................
The problem with the team is our two best players this year both were projected to come off the bench in Holmes/Bjelica as soon as one does not have a good game it's over they carry us in wins.
Dedmon/Barnes/Cojo/Ariza are all making to much for what they bring. But hey Brogdan can't play PG/carried by Bucks/ nor can he guard quicker guards so we don't need him.......................................
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He's been a beast the last month or so, he can flat out play I can see why they let Cojo go he's far superior all around player. Pacers got good talent scouts they got Vic/Sabonis for PG13 a excellent return identified Brogdan being a beast and got TJ Warren who is a stud as well while drafting Goga (will be a starting C) and Holiday who has been fantastic lately.
Do you realize that it's not time for the playoffs yet? You're absolutely correct, but your take is silly because it's only December. If this were the same exact team in May, THEN your bombastic take would make sense. Do you think it's reasonable to make an argument that is only valid if absolutely nothing changes between now and the end of the season? Your argument assumes that there will be no improvements in team play for the rest of the season. That's one of many reasons why it's a waste of time. I blame BSPN for teaching people that's how one talks about sports - it's important to be bombastic no matter what you're saying.
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