[Game] Kings @ Jazz - Saturday, Jan. 18 - 6PT/9ET

[sactowndog]

Here's a question that may be worth it's own thread ... What happened? Go back to November when Fox was out and we were a physical, defensive, gritty team. We may not have won every game, but you could certainly see the team scrapping and playing hard on D. Yes, even with Hield and Bjelica playing large minutes. Plays out of timeouts were fantastic.

What happened? Did the league just figure us out?

Fox and Bagley came back and we lost our defensive identity and ball movement.

 

[ESP47]

Perhaps but we need to end the false narrative that Bagley played well. (Or good in some Kings announcers English). Not at all saying he can’t ever play well but Bagley needs to hear learn to shoot, set screens, and play defense. Right now Bagley is a young Montrez Harrell who needs to come off the bench in spot minutes just as Dave played him last year.

The problem is, of course, the Clippers drafted Harrell in the second round and we drafted Bagley 2 overall. So Luke plays him, Doug strains for reasons to compliment him, and the team loses badly.

I rolled my eyes when they cut to Koz and he said something about how they were going to talk about Bagley's good game in the post show. 17 points on 19 shots by your center is horrible. Their center scored 28 points on 11 shots. Bagley just can't defend the pick and roll to save his life. Constantly switching and leaving Bjelica to get scored on easily by Gobert. How many times did they get fooled on the exact same play?

What he is decent at is covering guys on the perimeter. Vlade basically drafted a guy who is the size of a center but can't play defense like a center. But he can play defense like a stretch 4 but he can't play offense like a stretch 4. Essentially the only guy that could play next to him would be Brook Lopez. Now if they're going to play Bagley, they're going to have to give up something. The obvious thing to do would be to play him at the 4 because they give up less that way.

 

[Kingster]

I hate to say it, but the lack of intensity and physicality may be a symptom of a larger problem - a loss of faith in the coaching schemes. When people (players, in this case) don’t believe that what they are doing will yield results then they effectively give up and just go through the motions.

The coaching schemes were fine and dandy earlier in the season. I saw the best defense from this team in a decade. It's not scheme; it's lack of physicallity, toughness, effort. Defensive communication is part of it when Bagley is in there because he's played in a handful of games and is a greenhorn, but it's like Walton said, it starts with toughness. The lack of physicallity of this team off the ball is laughable. Bjelica should be looking to to make the opposition's legs buckle on box outs for defensive rebounds; instead, he just stands there like a log, looking at the ball, not looking for the opponent to bang into. That guy should inflict pain on the opposition; instead he acts like he thinks he's some uber athlete who can jump over and out-quick guys to get to the ball. That's absurd. He's a below average NBA athlete that has bulk and strength as his main advantage; he needs to use it. Dedmon was a joke out there. Buddy tries to avoid contact off the ball, rather than initiating contact off the ball. The guy has the body of a fullback and he plays like Trae Young. He should start the game on defense running full speed into the bread basket of an opposition screener to let him know what's coming for the rest of the game. Instead, he dances around. Defense starts with attitude. You can have the most intelligent scheme in the universe and if you don't have the right attitude, you're going to repeatedly get punched in the face. They better get a new attitude or they will continue to get their heads handed to them.

 

[Chupacabra]

It still looks to me like Walton is trying to teach the team how to play winning basketball, and the team only knows how to play a particular style that happened to get them some wins in the past. These players look like they're out of their element when they focus on getting value out of possessions, as opposed to running and gunning.

However, there have been a few bright spots, particularly the play of Fox. He has been much more assertive and it's exactly what we need him to be. A player that talented has to impose their will, otherwise they're wasting their talent. Bagley still looks a little rough around the edges, but everygame since coming back from injury he shows glimpses of what he will become: a scoring and rebounding machine.

The coach is right. The players need time to fix themselves. As annoying as it is, this thing is going to take more time.

 

[Joshoua]

It still looks to me like Walton is trying to teach the team how to play winning basketball, and the team only knows how to play a particular style that happened to get them some wins in the past. These players look like they're out of their element when they focus on getting value out of possessions, as opposed to running and gunning.

However, there have been a few bright spots, particularly the play of Fox. He has been much more assertive and it's exactly what we need him to be. A player that talented has to impose their will, otherwise they're wasting their talent. Bagley still looks a little rough around the edges, but everygame since coming back from injury he shows glimpses of what he will become: a scoring and rebounding machine.

The coach is right. The players need time to fix themselves. As annoying as it is, this thing is going to take more time.

Post of the day stop blaming Luke

 

[dude12]

It still looks to me like Walton is trying to teach the team how to play winning basketball, and the team only knows how to play a particular style that happened to get them some wins in the past. These players look like they're out of their element when they focus on getting value out of possessions, as opposed to running and gunning.

However, there have been a few bright spots, particularly the play of Fox. He has been much more assertive and it's exactly what we need him to be. A player that talented has to impose their will, otherwise they're wasting their talent. Bagley still looks a little rough around the edges, but everygame since coming back from injury he shows glimpses of what he will become: a scoring and rebounding machine.

The coach is right. The players need time to fix themselves. As annoying as it is, this thing is going to take more time.

You might be right but, I have some serious doubts. I think we are soft as hell and injuries certainly haven’t helped this team and losing is taking its toll. That being said, almost every player is playing below their established norm, there is zero energy in every game. Took so long to increase the pace that we are already in a tailspin. Defensively, players and staff can take the blame I guess.

When being interviewed after games, once a ouch goes away from the canned answer of:
“I have to do a better job of getting them ready”, while in the locker room he can lay into them a bit
”We need to figure it out.” We, it’s always we.

Nope, he went down the “Go ask the players” answer. If he had a few years in here he could get away with that but he’s 41 or 42 games into this. For me, it’s a bad sign or red flag.

i hope they can come together and Walton is the guy to do it but right now we are a George Karl hot mess.