Kings at Rockets Game Thread
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"Kenny Natt = shorter, fater, balder Reggie Theus. In fact Natt may end up being worse about playing the young guys."
EXACTLY...this is ridiculous. It seriously makes no sense. The thing that makes me so mad is that the young guys are better players right now anyway. Why does he keep giving valuable minutes to vets who have no future with us AND who are worse players right now than Spencer, JT, and Brown anyway?
EXACTLY...this is ridiculous. It seriously makes no sense. The thing that makes me so mad is that the young guys are better players right now anyway. Why does he keep giving valuable minutes to vets who have no future with us AND who are worse players right now than Spencer, JT, and Brown anyway?
First, welcome to Kingsfans.com!
Second, I think you've hit the nail right on the head. The Kings haven't even had a practice at Arco with Natt as head coach yet. People tend to have very little patience over things like these and want instant changes, etc.
I think we'll see tangible evidence of more focus on defense, better use of the kids, and other changes once Natt feels a little more confident that he's utilizing the players to the best way possible.
Second, I think you've hit the nail right on the head. The Kings haven't even had a practice at Arco with Natt as head coach yet. People tend to have very little patience over things like these and want instant changes, etc.
I think we'll see tangible evidence of more focus on defense, better use of the kids, and other changes once Natt feels a little more confident that he's utilizing the players to the best way possible.
He must have been effective doing something that does not show up in the statsheet eh? I stopped watching in the third quarter and Moore was just a body out there nothing more. I looked at the stats and confirmed that he just took up some space. Didn't they give Thompson's block to Moore too?
Also Crapo Udrih sucks..
We need a real PG.. Some teams have two.. I see so many teams out there getting 30+ assists a night.. Because they have two PGs.. We have a half of a PG..... I say we make a trade for a guy like Raymond Felton for the time being.
Also Crapo Udrih sucks..
We need a real PG.. Some teams have two.. I see so many teams out there getting 30+ assists a night.. Because they have two PGs.. We have a half of a PG..... I say we make a trade for a guy like Raymond Felton for the time being.
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Extreme Frustration Tonight.
Watching the Kings trying to rebuild has been painful.
Spencer did not get the minutes he should have received last year under Theus.
It was great seeing Spencer get the starting nod over Mikki a few games back, but it has been very frustrating watching the veterans eat up all the minutes during 'crunch time', while at the same time see a majority of the garbage minutes going to the young ones.
I was on the bandwagon to fire Theus earlier on, but when Theus actually started that third quarter against the Knicks with Spencer at Center and JT at PF, I thought that perhaps a corner had been turned and we were going to see more meaningful minutes for our future. So in that respect I wasn't completely thrilled at Theus being fired. Of course, if that was just a fluke and he was going to go back to his old ways of poor substitutions and 'win-at-all-costs' mentality, then I would have been back on the Fire Theus bandwagon.
Tonight, I'm really frustrated because it appears we are regressing even more under Kenny Natt.
I live in Laker territory unfortunately, but when I talk to my friends about basketball I make it clear that if we play our young guys I'm rooting for them to play hard, make an impact, and give us a chance to win the game. If we play our vets the meaningful minutes, I'd rather see a loss to help our draft position. I also hope to see those with trade value (Brad & Salmons) play well enough to possibly entice other teams, while those with no trade value to be exposed as having little value to force management to play the young guys more.
Tonight was just terrible.
Remember in the Portland game on Wednesday when Mikki was the first man off the bench in the 3rd Quarter when Brad came out? It was mentioned that perhaps Natt was just going with the Mikki = Center, JT = PF rotation.
Well, tonight in the 1st Quarter Mikki was again the first big off the bench but this time in replace of Spencer. So it looks as if Natt has moved Mikki ahead of JT in the rotation. (This is a joke, right....?)
Both Mikki and JT started the 4th quarter, but JT got 6 minutes in the 4th, while Mikki got 11 minutes, and we basically had a Miller/Mikki pairing down the stretch.
To be honest that is a pairing I want to have the Kings lose every game down the stretch until it becomes clear that we need to be looking to the future for this team.
Oh, and what did Mikki provide for us with those 20 minutes of play?
Zero Field Goals, Zero Rebounds, and Five Personal Fouls.
He's an offensive liability that the opposing defense can sag off of and he only gets rebounds if they fall into his hands while not being contested by the opposition. And I'm sorry, Mikki did not play Yao well at all. Mikki did not play well at all (I look forward to seeing the D+/F grade later), and his play certainly did not justify the minutes he got tonight.
I want JT to make a name for himself in this rookie class and make the Rookie team during the All Star break. I want Spencer to make the Sophomore team. And the more that they get benched during meaningful minutes the less likely that is to occur. I'm perfectly fine seeing their turn-overs and blocks against as they adjust to the NBA game, as it will give them a chance to work to improve. And usually for every mistake they make, they give us five glimpses of what they may be able to do for us once they gain some consistency.
Also, how many of you would love to see Spencer and JT get at least 15-20 minutes of playing meaningful minutes together?
To me having a Miller/Hawes, JT/Mikki rotation doesn't make any sense. I mean I get the One Vet/One Rookie idea, but shouldn't we be having Spencer and JT play meaningful minutes together, building chemistry for our future?
And Donte's minutes have all but dried up. What happens when Kevin comes back? Donte will be lucky to get even garbage minutes at that point.
To the point being made that Kenny Natt has not yet had time to get familiar with the team and what the rotations should be, to that I say hogwash.
He's already made some minor adjustments. The four minor adjustments I've seen so far in three games is making Mikki the first big off the bench, a reduction in JT's minutes, a reduction of Bobby Brown's minutes (not that I think all that highly of Bobby B but he's more of a part of our future than Bobby Jax), and a reduction of Donte's minutes (who is raw and needs playing time to help his growth).
And all four of those minor adjustments are complete failures.
I was happier with the playing time Theus was giving to the young guys (though I wanted them to get more meaningful minutes).
And it's all so easy. Kenny Natt had a clean slate, the perfect opportunity to say 'We're Going Young', and the veterans would just have to accept that since it would be clear that was the direction the team was going.
So what's going to happen now? Kenny Natt is going to tease the veterans with extended minutes for 3 games, 5 games, 10 games, and then somehow figure out that his rotations should focus on the young guys getting more minutes?
That doesn't make any sense. You fire the coach, you have the opportunity for a clean break. The longer he uses the rotations he used today, the harder it will be to change the rotations to get our young guys more meaningful minutes.
If Spencer or JT are nursing some sort of illness or injury, or if Kenny Natt decided he wanted to rest them, so they can both play heavy (35+) minutes tomorrow then I'll apologize for being so hard on Natt. If, however, we see the same sort of distribution of minutes and substitution patterns tomorrow as we saw today, then I'll be hoping that the tongue-in-check 'Fire Kenny Natt' poll, is given a bit more serious consideration.
Watching the Kings trying to rebuild has been painful.
Spencer did not get the minutes he should have received last year under Theus.
It was great seeing Spencer get the starting nod over Mikki a few games back, but it has been very frustrating watching the veterans eat up all the minutes during 'crunch time', while at the same time see a majority of the garbage minutes going to the young ones.
I was on the bandwagon to fire Theus earlier on, but when Theus actually started that third quarter against the Knicks with Spencer at Center and JT at PF, I thought that perhaps a corner had been turned and we were going to see more meaningful minutes for our future. So in that respect I wasn't completely thrilled at Theus being fired. Of course, if that was just a fluke and he was going to go back to his old ways of poor substitutions and 'win-at-all-costs' mentality, then I would have been back on the Fire Theus bandwagon.
Tonight, I'm really frustrated because it appears we are regressing even more under Kenny Natt.
I live in Laker territory unfortunately, but when I talk to my friends about basketball I make it clear that if we play our young guys I'm rooting for them to play hard, make an impact, and give us a chance to win the game. If we play our vets the meaningful minutes, I'd rather see a loss to help our draft position. I also hope to see those with trade value (Brad & Salmons) play well enough to possibly entice other teams, while those with no trade value to be exposed as having little value to force management to play the young guys more.
Tonight was just terrible.
Remember in the Portland game on Wednesday when Mikki was the first man off the bench in the 3rd Quarter when Brad came out? It was mentioned that perhaps Natt was just going with the Mikki = Center, JT = PF rotation.
Well, tonight in the 1st Quarter Mikki was again the first big off the bench but this time in replace of Spencer. So it looks as if Natt has moved Mikki ahead of JT in the rotation. (This is a joke, right....?)
Both Mikki and JT started the 4th quarter, but JT got 6 minutes in the 4th, while Mikki got 11 minutes, and we basically had a Miller/Mikki pairing down the stretch.
To be honest that is a pairing I want to have the Kings lose every game down the stretch until it becomes clear that we need to be looking to the future for this team.
Oh, and what did Mikki provide for us with those 20 minutes of play?
Zero Field Goals, Zero Rebounds, and Five Personal Fouls.
He's an offensive liability that the opposing defense can sag off of and he only gets rebounds if they fall into his hands while not being contested by the opposition. And I'm sorry, Mikki did not play Yao well at all. Mikki did not play well at all (I look forward to seeing the D+/F grade later), and his play certainly did not justify the minutes he got tonight.
I want JT to make a name for himself in this rookie class and make the Rookie team during the All Star break. I want Spencer to make the Sophomore team. And the more that they get benched during meaningful minutes the less likely that is to occur. I'm perfectly fine seeing their turn-overs and blocks against as they adjust to the NBA game, as it will give them a chance to work to improve. And usually for every mistake they make, they give us five glimpses of what they may be able to do for us once they gain some consistency.
Also, how many of you would love to see Spencer and JT get at least 15-20 minutes of playing meaningful minutes together?
To me having a Miller/Hawes, JT/Mikki rotation doesn't make any sense. I mean I get the One Vet/One Rookie idea, but shouldn't we be having Spencer and JT play meaningful minutes together, building chemistry for our future?
And Donte's minutes have all but dried up. What happens when Kevin comes back? Donte will be lucky to get even garbage minutes at that point.
To the point being made that Kenny Natt has not yet had time to get familiar with the team and what the rotations should be, to that I say hogwash.
He's already made some minor adjustments. The four minor adjustments I've seen so far in three games is making Mikki the first big off the bench, a reduction in JT's minutes, a reduction of Bobby Brown's minutes (not that I think all that highly of Bobby B but he's more of a part of our future than Bobby Jax), and a reduction of Donte's minutes (who is raw and needs playing time to help his growth).
And all four of those minor adjustments are complete failures.
I was happier with the playing time Theus was giving to the young guys (though I wanted them to get more meaningful minutes).
And it's all so easy. Kenny Natt had a clean slate, the perfect opportunity to say 'We're Going Young', and the veterans would just have to accept that since it would be clear that was the direction the team was going.
So what's going to happen now? Kenny Natt is going to tease the veterans with extended minutes for 3 games, 5 games, 10 games, and then somehow figure out that his rotations should focus on the young guys getting more minutes?
That doesn't make any sense. You fire the coach, you have the opportunity for a clean break. The longer he uses the rotations he used today, the harder it will be to change the rotations to get our young guys more meaningful minutes.
If Spencer or JT are nursing some sort of illness or injury, or if Kenny Natt decided he wanted to rest them, so they can both play heavy (35+) minutes tomorrow then I'll apologize for being so hard on Natt. If, however, we see the same sort of distribution of minutes and substitution patterns tomorrow as we saw today, then I'll be hoping that the tongue-in-check 'Fire Kenny Natt' poll, is given a bit more serious consideration.
Felton really isn't that good guys. He can't shoot, and he's had probelms holding down his spot even on a fellow crappy team. The only thing of note he has really done in his career is be the "other guy" drafted along with Deron and Paul. Which is of course why he might be available. But 4 years in, and only one of them breakng .400 (he shot .413 last year)...maybe if he dramatically picked up his defense.
While not quoting this whole post, I agree with the vast majority of it.
My concern becomes not just with Natt himself, but on just what the marching orders he received from the front office about the rest of the season were. If they said "play the kids", would Kenny Natt, interim coach, really defy them?
Agreed completely.
It just doesn't make sense, but I didn't really want to be one of the first to voice it. Because if the direction Natt has received from the front office is to win now at the expense of the young guys then my enthusiasm for watching this team play drops to near 0. Being that I'm actually going to be in Sacramento in January and have the chance to go to two games, I might decide to hold off if it's clear that the direction is win now with the Vets.
Now, if Petrie is actually planning on making some mid-season moves to clear the way for the kids, and is hoping to play them major minutes to show what they can do, then I am in full support.
However, if the vets are still here past the trade deadline, and they continue to get the majority of the meaningful minutes after the deadline, then I will have to consider this year another failure, especially if we hurt our draft position.
It just doesn't make sense, but I didn't really want to be one of the first to voice it. Because if the direction Natt has received from the front office is to win now at the expense of the young guys then my enthusiasm for watching this team play drops to near 0. Being that I'm actually going to be in Sacramento in January and have the chance to go to two games, I might decide to hold off if it's clear that the direction is win now with the Vets.
Now, if Petrie is actually planning on making some mid-season moves to clear the way for the kids, and is hoping to play them major minutes to show what they can do, then I am in full support.
However, if the vets are still here past the trade deadline, and they continue to get the majority of the meaningful minutes after the deadline, then I will have to consider this year another failure, especially if we hurt our draft position.
I was just venting more than anything.. It's crappy how a lot of teams have extra PGs that could come here and start and give us what a PG is supposed to give us, and we have a crappy starting PG, and a rookie who used to play SG backing him up. Felton might lose his job to Augustin and I figured that we might as well give him a shot here.
I saw the Brad to Charlotte on Yahoo! and figured that if it was Brad and Salmons for Wallace and Felton we might be able to get going on the rebuild.
I saw the Brad to Charlotte on Yahoo! and figured that if it was Brad and Salmons for Wallace and Felton we might be able to get going on the rebuild.
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