Grades v. Raptors 11/12

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WOW!

Interesting thread debating the relative "success" of the team. I suppose things will get really ugly if there's a losing streak this season.;)
Seriously!

I don't know what the high-end expectations of the "blind" optimists are, but so far there are definite signs that the Kings could be better than I thought they could be. I was thinking mid-to-low 40 wins and a 7th or 8th seed, and I thought that was being optimistic. Now I think you could realistically tack on five or so wins to a best-case scenario.

Also I don't think its fair to say we haven't played any good teams. Chicago and Detroit will probably be pretty good. Milwaukee will probably make the playoffs, and ANY game against KG and the Wolves is a tough matchup for us. Those teams may straddle the line between good and mediocre, but a couple will fall on the good side. Toronto is awful.

Things I am happy about:
1) Our points scored have gone up in each game. This without any contribution at all from Brad Miller who has statistically been our most important offensive player for the last three seasons.
2) All three home games have been solid double-digit victories. The home court mystique has taken a hit the last couple of years.
3) Kevin Martin.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
I guess people have an aversion to the truth around here.
What a lot of people have an aversion to is condescending attitudes. You have a right to your opinion but you don't have a right to assume it's better than anyone else's and you certainly don't have a right to continually snipe at a couple of people whose opinions don't agree with your view of things.

Truth is a relative term, nbrans.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
kupman said:
I am much happier 6 games into this season compared to 6 games into last season.
kupman - You and I see eye-to-eye on virtually nothing. It is nice, therefore, to see something upon which I am in total and complete agreement.

:D
 
What a lot of people have an aversion to is condescending attitudes. You have a right to your opinion but you don't have a right to assume it's better than anyone else's and you certainly don't have a right to continually snipe at a couple of people whose opinions don't agree with your view of things.

Truth is a relative term, nbrans.
Way to take that one out of context! I had just got done saying that a story about a kid setting his gamecube on fire because he didn't get a fire truck for Christmas was literally true. So when I said people had an aversion to truth around here I was not, how shall we say, being serious.

You know what else is relative? Irony. As in, it's pretty ironic that you say I have a condescending attitude.
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
The on/off court numbers are skewed by garbage time and small sample size... unless you want to somehow argue that Mo Taylor is better than Kenny and Shareef becuase his on/off court is +9.2.

And... let me get this straight. The Kings win four of five games against some of the best interior players (Ben Wallace, KG, Sheed, Bosh) in the league. And not only are Kenny Thomas and Shareef terrible in your book they are NOT EVEN REMOTELY why the Kings are winning. As in, they deserve no credit whatsoever.

You know, I once heard a story of a kid who really wanted a red fire truck for Christmas. He asked Santa for it, he drew pictures of it. He couldn't sleep Christmas Eve because he just knew he was going to get that red fire truck. He dreamed of red fire trucks at night, and he couldn't think of anything else.

Christmas morning arrived, and the kid ran downstairs. He couldn't even wait for his parents and siblings, he just started ripping into the presents. And finally, when there were no more presents to open, he realized that he did not get that red fire truck. He was devastated.

Now, the kid had some great presents... a bb gun, a gamecube, some nice clothes. But they weren't what he wanted. He wanted that red fire truck.

The kid was so upset that he set fire to the gamecube, threw the bb gun through the window, ripped his new clothes to shreds (and then threw them on the gamecube fire), tore down the Christmas tree, impaled some stuffed animals with glass and smeared his own blood on the mantle. He ended up burning the whole house down. His whole family died in the fire. All because he didn't get a red fire truck.

That kid is you, Brick. That kid is you.

You know nbrans, there are winners and losers in life. The losers are the ones who settle for mediocrity. Who forget the red fire truck, and settle in lying to themselves about how the bbgun is really enoguh, and its probably what they always wanted anyway. Feel free to clutch your comfie bankie to yourself on your own time.
 
Roman:

This is my last post on this topic because frankly it is starting to get boring.


1. You can call yourself whatever you want. Doesn't make it true. You call yourself cautiously optimistic. Well IMO cautiously optimistic would be happy of our accomplishments and wouldn't try to over-extend themselves by debating with everyone who doesn't see eye to eye. A cautious optimist would probably reserve judgement for later even though they like what they see now. You are more of a dilusional optimist because you like what you see and you think it will be the same against different teams. That is evident from your countless posts.

2. Trying to defend yourself against all criticism is a waste of time. Some people are going to disagree with you whether you like it or not. Making snide coments is not going to change that. And it won't strengthen your position either.

3. I could sit here and pick apart everything you say. But I'd rather just say what I think and move on. You should try that.


The mind is a very powerful instrument. Some people will see red because they want to see red more than there actually being red present.

The fact is that I agree with some of the things you say and I disagree with other things. IMO you were up in outer space and I thought I'd help you back down to earth. If you are more comfortable up there then fine. Have fun.
 
kupman - You and I see eye-to-eye on virtually nothing. It is nice, therefore, to see something upon which I am in total and complete agreement.

:D
Simply not true:

1. we both love the Kings
2. we both feel that Sacramento really, really needs a new arena
3. we both feel that citizens of Sacramento should be expected to pay for some of the new arena
4. we both have serious reservations about the Bee - to say the least
5. we both sit near the front on the Kmart bandwagon
6. we both feel that Voteno, Wert and Greenking lack acumen in most areas
7. we both feel that the Maloofs are really good owners

....should I go on?
7. and now we both like the start of the Kings season
 
You know nbrans, there are winners and losers in life. The losers are the ones who settle for mediocrity. Who forget the red fire truck, and settle in lying to themselves about how the bbgun is really enoguh, and its probably what they always wanted anyway. Feel free to clutch your comfie bankie to yourself on your own time.
This is just one of the many parcels of wisdom you'll find in EVERYTHING I NEEDED TO KNOW IN LIFE I LEARNED FROM MY CHRISTMAS PRESENTS by nbrans and Bricklayer, in stores now.

Seriously you should all should go buy a copy. We worked hard on it.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
Simply not true:

1. we both love the Kings
2. we both feel that Sacramento really, really needs a new arena
3. we both feel that citizens of Sacramento should be expected to pay for some of the new arena
4. we both have serious reservations about the Bee - to say the least
5. we both sit near the front on the Kmart bandwagon
6. we both feel that Voteno, Wert and Greenking lack acumen in most areas
7. we both feel that the Maloofs are really good owners

....should I go on?
7. and now we both like the start of the Kings season
See, we didn't even agree on what we agree upon.

;)

You are right, though. It appears we agree on more things than we disagree. :)
 
You are right, though. It appears we agree on more things than we disagree. :)

True - but this love affair has gone on long enough (about 30 minutes). I will be sure to post something to which you strongly disagree in the near future - something nice about K9 perhaps.
 

Entity

Hall of Famer
nbrans i loved the firetruck story. No we do not have KG, Tim Duncan, Chris Bosh, Dwight Howard, Emeka Okafor...ect. But none of those teams have Ron Artest, Mike Bibby, Kevin Martin. What i am saying is if you want the top notch PF you lose somewhere. Sure lets get KG and have a backcourt of Jason Hart, and Mateen cleaves, with Master P playing the 3. Who cares right we have KG.
 
sure, as long as you do not mind sitting next to a K9 apologist.

Hey Kup whats going on around here??????? I go to New Mexico for a few days and KT is getting some love. Is my little round headed, sad faced, bug eyed buddy starting to grow on people?? He still needs to look for a shot every now and then, I hope Muss comes to the plate for him come contract time beceause his numbers are all over the board. Which is exactly what happens when your asked to take a back seat and do the job no one else in their right mind would do without crying about it. Team Player baby! I may need to rent a bigger hall for our next K-9 apologist meeting.
 
Hey Kup whats going on around here??????? I go to New Mexico for a few days and KT is getting some love. Is my little round headed, sad faced, bug eyed buddy starting to grow on people??
I would like to say that I have been working hard in your absence, but I think that the 15 boards has more to do with it.
 
Hey Kup whats going on around here??????? I go to New Mexico for a few days and KT is getting some love. Is my little round headed, sad faced, bug eyed buddy starting to grow on people?? He still needs to look for a shot every now and then, I hope Muss comes to the plate for him come contract time beceause his numbers are all over the board. Which is exactly what happens when your asked to take a back seat and do the job no one else in their right mind would do without crying about it. Team Player baby! I may need to rent a bigger hall for our next K-9 apologist meeting.

Interesting point. Because his team player attitude was in question last year and at the beginning of this year. It is becoming obvious that this is something he heard about and is trying to work on. However, what would happen if Muss were to ask KT to come off the bench? It will be interesting to see what happens when Brad returns.
 
It will be interesting to see what happens when Brad returns.
Quite honestly, if we continue to mount wins, I don't want Brad Miller to return until next year.

If he returns, someone is going to get the shaft be it KT, SAR or BM. All are capable, quality starters. To be honest, it isn't right to sit any of them. They all bring something good to a table and all are legit starters.

I'm not a fan of losing starting position to injury, so I say as long as we're winning I hope he's recovering. Once we go into a slide or need him, he miraculously recovers.
 
Interesting point. Because his team player attitude was in question last year and at the beginning of this year. It is becoming obvious that this is something he heard about and is trying to work on. However, what would happen if Muss were to ask KT to come off the bench? It will be interesting to see what happens when Brad returns.
Probably the same way you or I would if our bosses asked us to do something and we did exactly what we were told even if we knew it wasn't the best thing for our careers but we put ourselves aside for the betterment of the company and then got benched for it. We would not be happy or at least I wouldn't! When its all said a done its a business his livelyhood his career. Every athlete should be a team player first but in professional sports everyone does not always live happily ever after.
 
Probably the same way you or I would if our bosses asked us to do something and we did exactly what we were told even if we knew it wasn't the best thing for our careers but we put ourselves aside for the betterment of the company and then got benched for it.
Only problem with this comparison is that I'm willing to bet the majority of the people here make under 75k (and statistically, that's being generous).

These guys make that in a night.

Sitting the bench and missing out on "payday" doesn't quite have the impact that it would on the average person's wallet when it comes time for promotion.

Something tells me, the guy on the bench and his 5-8MM can still afford to live and buy that nice, new TV ...

:D

I do understand what you're saying though. I think it's more ego-centric with these guys though. Not saying they have big "egos", but I think it strokes the ego to start and bashes it to sit. They feel "less than" when they're on the bench.
 
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Only problem with this comparison is that I'm willing to bet the majority of the people here make under 75k (and statistically, that's being generous).

These guys make that in a night.

Sitting the bench and missing out on "payday" doesn't quite have the impact that it would on the average person's wallet when it comes time for promotion.

Something tells me, the guy on the bench and his 5-8MM can still afford to live and buy that nice, new TV ...

:D

I do understand what you're saying though. I think it's more ego-centric with these guys though. Not saying they have big "egos", but I think it strokes the ego to start and bashes it to sit. They feel "less than" when they're on the bench.
Actually its all relative a guy making $8.00 an hour thinks the guy making $20.00 an hour should stop crying who thinks the guy making $30.00 an hour has it made. You know its all relative............

Yea your right they have HUGE EGO's that in a nut shell is what makes them so successful! They have to believe they are the best to play with the best players in the game. Ego in their case is actually a necessity not a charachter flaw........its all relitive!
 
Actually its all relative a guy making $8.00 an hour thinks the guy making $20.00 an hour should stop crying who thinks the guy making $30.00 an hour has it made. You know its all relative............
Not really.

While it is relative in one respect, it's not a really relative thing when you look at disposable income.

It boils down to disposable income. A guy making 50k a year will have little disposable income and a small boost to his salary is a massive boost to the disposable income. A guy making 8MM still has massive amounts of disposable income, a decrease to 5MM is still a huge drop, but unless his spending habits are close to that of King Tut ... his true disposable income is relatively untouched.

Yea your right they have HUGE EGO's that in a nut shell is what makes them so successful! They have to believe they are the best to play with the best players in the game. Ego in their case is actually a necessity not a charachter flaw........its all relitive!
It's not just that the ego's are huge or small, it's that we ALL have an ego. Doesn't matter who you are, there are things that boost your opinion of self and things that lessen it.

I think for a lot of NBA players - they've been "the man" all their lives. They've been the best player on most of their teams. When asked to sit the bench, they equate that to "you're not good enough". I could be stretching, but I think that's how i'd feel.

It's akin to the kid who gets picked last to play a game.
 
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