6 Games, 6 Positives, 6 Negatives

[Bricklayer]

Well, seeing as we have hit the epic 7.4% mark of the season and have a few days off, thought I would start a time filling thread:

6 Early Season Positives
1) Reke's jumper IS improved. By quite a lot. Not so much that it is a weapon in and of itself. But enough that on many nights when an opponent backs off and crowds the lane, he's got a chance to punish that now. So far this season he's shooting .489, .400 from 3pt land (you would imagine the latter will sink a bit).

2) Cisco is back. Actually Cisco is better than he's ever been, and part of that may be because his game was always designed to be a spot shooter next to a star player who drew all the attention and kicked it to him. This far he's shooting .536 from the field, and .462 from 3pt land. You would think that his ability to work with Reke would make him a serious candidate to start next to him at SG, but apparently not.

3) Dalembert is legit. The best defensive shotblocking/rebounding big we've had since Keon Clark, at least. His impact has been tangible whenever he has been in the game, and such a relief to finally have that option. He's going 8.2rebs and 2.4blks a game in only 21mpg so far.

4) We don't quit. We've fought nearly every minute of every game so far this season, not hanging our heads even when we have fallen behind by double figures. Of course it would be better not to fall behind by double figures in the first place, but having heart is a great intangible.

5) Here are the #8-#11 scorers in the league right now:
Wade 24.1pts (.487 .381 .778) 6.4reb 3.7ast 1.7stl 1.1blk 3.6TO
Kevin 23.0pts (.488 .429 .898) 2.2reb 2.3ast 0.3stl 0.3blk 2.7TO
Kobe 22.9pts (.442 .321 .879) 5.7reb 4.6ast 0.9stl 0.3blk 2.4TO
Reke 22.6pts (.489 .400 .704) 5.4reb 5.0ast 1.8stl 0.2blk 3.2TO

Just sayin.

6) Cousins talent is legit. Scary legit. I have been watching the NBA for 25 years now and I seriously don't have a good comparison. The names you do come up with are people like Daugherty, Vlade, Coleman, etc., except bigger and/or more athletic than any of them. Quick quick feet for such a huge man. And his head seems to be ok. Just not grown up yet. Long road ahead for him, but thus far there have been basically no off court "trouble ahead" markers.

6 Early Season Negatives
1) Landry's rebounding. We may have to revoke that Mandry nickname if this keeps up. We have added major size (when the coach actually plays it) and rebounding, and yet still are a minus rebounding team on the year (41.5rebs for, 42.0 against). And when you look up and down the lineup by far the biggest culprit has to be our PF, one of the main rebounding positions, rebounding like a guard. 13.8pts 4.3rebs are not starting PF numbers on a good team, and Carl is currently ranked #200 in the league in rebs/48, just behind Vince Carter and J.R. Smith. Can't continue.

2) Cousins defense. As impressive as he has been on offense, Cousins defense is just as bad. He has absolutely no clue what he is doing out there. Its like he hasn't even been taught, with the only lesson he remembers being how to take a charge from his junior high P.E. class when he was 5'8" not 6'11". Is about as unconcerned wiht being a shotblocker as any young big I have seen -- normally the major foul trouble for young bigs is because they are going after eveyrthing. Its not even a consideration for him. This is a major project on this side of the ball, and in the future may dictate roster moves because your center is normally your defenisve anchor and he may never be.

3) Donte's disappearance. A bit of a cause celebre around these parts, it nonetheless is a major storyline, and not a positive one. Something...unnatural has occured to the team very early in the season. Everybody knew the score coming into the season -- two talented young SFs were going to duke it out for the starting job, and the other was going to be the 6th man. Between the two we'd hopefully have a strong rotation as well as our future starter. And then something happened, something that nobody on the Kings side is talking about, and the Game 1 starter has just been pointedly disappeared and the rotation at the position thrown into chaos.

4) Muddled rotations. before the season began it was very clear how the team was going to be constructed. You weren't sure who would start and who would come off the bench, but we had a very young talented 9 man core of Dalembert, Cousins, Thompson, Landry, Green, Omri, Cisco, Beno and Reke. They would divy up the rotation minutes, we'd spot in the handful of reolplayers we signed over the offseason, develop Whiteside, and have the talent to compete every night. Six games in look at us. Our coach remains fascinated by bit players, Greene has disappeared, and our much hyped 5 6'11"+ player core has been totally ignored or played out of position, leaving only Daly and Cousins inside. What should ahve been simple, clean, and desirable has again become muddled.

5) Jason as a SF. Coming into the season it was clear Jason might lose some of his minutes. Nonetheless he was a pretty well thought of young PF/C with good size and career averages of 12pts 8rebs. Six games in and he has been reduced to a 5pt 5reb "SF" off the bench behind a starting PF grabbing 4 rebs a game (Landry) and a guy who entered camp with a non-guaranteed contract (Jackson). Greene and Thompson were core chemistry and 2nd tier youth movement guys, 6 games in they are marginalized and our talent pool no longer looks as deep as a result.

6) Team defense. Which ties in to some of the above. We have acquired great size...but rarely use it. Our opening night starting lineup included the 3 weakest defenders on the roster in Beno, Cousins and Landry, and Landry's rebounding of course has hurt too. And instead of taking the expected step forward, powered by more experience and great size/length, we are running stubby PFs, undersized guard lines, and have taken a step backward, even with Daly doing all he can in the middle. Guys are getting beat off the dribble, if Daly is not in nobody is closing the paint and the transition defense has sucked. Meanwhile some of our best potential defenders are either floating facedown int he American River (Donte), posing for mugshots (Wright) or sitting in the stands in a suit (Whiteside). We are allowing opponents 107.7ppg on .479 shooting. Again that cannot continue.

 

[MassachusettsKingsFan]

Good read and spot on.

I know its early. Real early. So keep that in mind when reading the following comments.

Alot the negatives you mentioned, and some you didnt, revolve around Carl Landry as the starting power forward. I know that if I said right now "We need to trade Landry!" that a lot of members here would tell me Im crazy, its too early, yadda yadda yadda. However, IF Landry was traded tomorrow, those same people would say "I can see why they did it".

Im not saying we need to trade Landry, but at this point there is no way I resign him for anything near what he wants. I would welcome and suggest moving Carl to the bench were he is a super weapon, but I have a feeling Westphal REALLY likes him and wouldnt do that to him.

A big reason to be excited about our offseason was the addition of interior defenders. Landry has been worse on the boards, and worse on D that he's starting to negate that advantage we now have. Alot of his weaknesses were exposed the past two weeks .. and its interesting that Westphal actually said Landry was struggling early on in camp, so we know he knows there is an issue. I wonder is he'll do anything about it.

 

[Fear the Putin]

7 Negatives.

#7 is that we dig ourselves into deep holes and only begin to play in the second half.

 

[kingsboi]

Another negative I want to add is that we don't have enough consistent weapons on the offensive side of the ball to atleast stay in games if we can't stop anybody. It's pretty much Reke doing iso plays or finding the open shooters off his double team. Also throwing the ball to Landry and him jacking up 15+ foot jumpers. -_-

 

[rainmaker]

Great thread.

Still like the idea of giving JT a shot at starting, and bring Landry in as a backup 3/4. If anyone is going to attempt to back up Omri who isn't a natural sf, it should be our pf who rebounds like a perimeter player, not JT. Right now JT is much better at both guarding opposing pf's, and rebounding against the 4's and the 5's, than Landry is, and those are two areas sorely lacking for us, an hurt us more than a need for scoring from the pf position. In fact, as long as Landry keeps settling for 18 footers, and avoiding the paint, I'm not so sure he's that much more effective for us on offense than JT would be in his place, and JT would be a big improvement in the other areas.

Funny thing is Lanry spent all offseason working on his perimeter play, especially defense,yet JT's stuck out there chasing the little guys around, all while JT is the vastly superior rebounder and defender, which are two of our largest areas of concern going forward.

 

[AyeCarly]

Regarding 6 Games, 6 Positives, 6 Negatives

Playing with a devil-may-care attitude has kept us in games.

Cousins skill is definitely the mark of a beast.

Donte is currently stuck in limbo, seems he has the devil to pay for something he did, but hopefully he can be resurrected from the bench.

Fallen angel JT, IMO went too quickly from starter to backup. Totally not gonna save us at the 3 position.

Year after year, fans are damned to watch the Kings horrible team defense. I feel tormented anyway.

 

[bajaden]

Well done Bricky! Excellent thread.. Not much to add except to nibble around the edges. The only problem I have with our starting lineup right now is Landry. I hate to draw to many conclusions from just 6 games, but so far he's been a completely different player this year. maybe he's a slow starter, but if Jackson keeps improving, he'll remove any need to resign Landry. I would still like to see Thompson get a chance at starting at PF instead of having him chase SF's around.

I agree that I wouldn't mind seeing how Cisco and Evans blend as a starting backcourt. With Dalembert not being much of a scorer, I think having Cisco to kick to would be a big help for the starting offense. Beno would still get plenty of minutes. I would also like to see Whiteside get a couple of minutes here and there when Cousins is on the floor. They played very well together in summer league, and seemed to develop some chemistry while there. Whiteside would take some of the defensive responsibility off of Cousins with weakside help.

 

[mr. moustache]

Well done Bricky! Excellent thread.. Not much to add except to nibble around the edges. The only problem I have with our starting lineup right now is Landry. I hate to draw to many conclusions from just 6 games, but so far he's been a completely different player this year. maybe he's a slow starter, but if Jackson keeps improving, he'll remove any need to resign Landry. I would still like to see Thompson get a chance at starting at PF instead of having him chase SF's around.

I agree that I wouldn't mind seeing how Cisco and Evans blend as a starting backcourt. With Dalembert not being much of a scorer, I think having Cisco to kick to would be a big help for the starting offense. Beno would still get plenty of minutes. I would also like to see Whiteside get a couple of minutes here and there when Cousins is on the floor. They played very well together in summer league, and seemed to develop some chemistry while there. Whiteside would take some of the defensive responsibility off of Cousins with weakside help.

On paper; I like Cisco, Casspi, Thompson, and SamD as the starting unit. I'm not sure I've seen that unit all year.

 

[ForlornKing]

Well done Bricky! Excellent thread.. Not much to add except to nibble around the edges. The only problem I have with our starting lineup right now is Landry. I hate to draw to many conclusions from just 6 games, but so far he's been a completely different player this year. maybe he's a slow starter, but if Jackson keeps improving, he'll remove any need to resign Landry. I would still like to see Thompson get a chance at starting at PF instead of having him chase SF's around.

I agree that I wouldn't mind seeing how Cisco and Evans blend as a starting backcourt. With Dalembert not being much of a scorer, I think having Cisco to kick to would be a big help for the starting offense. Beno would still get plenty of minutes. I would also like to see Whiteside get a couple of minutes here and there when Cousins is on the floor. They played very well together in summer league, and seemed to develop some chemistry while there. Whiteside would take some of the defensive responsibility off of Cousins with weakside help.

I was at BJ's with Reke and Cisco after the Grizzlies game and this came up and Cisco said that he prefers to come off the bench. Doesn't think there'd be enough scoring from the bench if he started.

 

[est.1999]

6 games. 6 postitives. 6 negatives. 3 wins. 3 losses.

 

[Prince_XY]

The only thing I don't like about the summary are the numbers.666.

Everything is a fair assessment of what was going on, although Bricky missed to mention some specifics regarding the defense. But I understand this is a summary, so I still say it is a very good objective job of summarizing the pluses and minuses of the first 6 games.

I hope coach Westphal and the players can read this and can do the necessary adjustments ASAP.

I also hope Westphal tries using the midget Jeter once in a while against the speedier PG of the opponents to slow down their offense. Beno and garcia are just too slow to give transition defense and Beno is consistently beaten on the dribble by his man (usually the other team's PG) making the entire Kings defense to crumble and chaotic. Just watch closely the first five games coach Westphal. You'll see what I am saying.

 

[Geoff]

I was at BJ's with Reke and Cisco after the Grizzlies game and this came up and Cisco said that he prefers to come off the bench. Doesn't think there'd be enough scoring from the bench if he started.

I agree with this. Cisco is a pretty decent player, but he would have a lot more impact coming off the bench than Beno would...

 

[Jkbiker]

I really feel for JT, the poor guy for last two years has had to play out of position at C because we didnt have anyone except Soggy Waffles

Last year JT always seemed to play better at PF, Its his natural position, let him get in the groove and his jumpers will fall and we get rebounding out of the position.

Now he has to play out of position at the SF? WTH?

Landry has struggled at the 4, there was a lot of talk of him playing some 3
He is quick enough to guard the SF, opponents wont tower over him, off the bench could be a good sparkplug scorer.

I think JT and Darnell at the 4 would help the rebounding, with Reke,Beno, and Omri I think we have enough offence and JT and Sam can rebound and control the paint

The second Unit Has Beno, Garcia, Landry, Cousins for offence
and Darnell will help Cuz on defence and hopefully will be big enough for the opponent 2d unit

Bottom line if darnell is gonna force a PF to play the 3 it should be Landry

 

[Kingster]

Very good summary. I have a few minor disagreements:

1) Reke's jumper. Six games in is way too early to make pronouncements on his jumper. Let's wait until the All-Star break to make a intermediate conclusion. It's one thing to make jumpers when you're nice and fresh at the beginning of the season; it's quite another after the fatigue of the season starts to take hold. Then all the flaws in your shooting form are magnified and the leg starts kicking out even more, the elbow gets too high, etc., etc.

2) By reading your summary, I guess Jackson is a "bit player". Right now I think that bit player is outplaying both Thompson and Landry. He just is soo much more poised and intelligent than Thompson on the floor. He can actually finish his shot under the basket and doesn't panic with a "mouse in the house". He doesn't hurt you, which on this team, is a big plus. And he's soo much more physical than Landry. Jackson is no All-Star, but he's playing better than the other guys. That said, I would expect Westphal to continue to rotate these guys, depending on the matchups.

3) Westphal can put all those big players out there just like you want and then this offense will look sicker than a dying dog. You'll think last game's turnovers were an example of "valuing the ball." Imagine a lineup of Dally, Whiteside (pf), Thompson (sf), Wright, and Tyreke. There would be more comedy of errors than a Marx Bros. routine. There are offensive trade offs with the defensive players we have. We saw that in the last game with Dally. That's going to be one of Westphal's challenges going forward - how to minimize the offensive deficit with Dally while at the same time maximizing his defensive output.

 

[Superman]

Very good summary. I have a few minor disagreements:

1) Reke's jumper. Six games in is way too early to make pronouncements on his jumper. Let's wait until the All-Star break to make a intermediate conclusion. It's one thing to make jumpers when you're nice and fresh at the beginning of the season; it's quite another after the fatigue of the season starts to take hold. Then all the flaws in your shooting form are magnified and the leg starts kicking out even more, the elbow gets too high, etc., etc.

If his form deteriorates due to fatigue, or any other factor, really, that's a horse of a different color. As for right now, his jumper is improved. It's too early to claim that it's either consistent or a deadly weapon, but what's important is that he's making them. That's all you can ask for.

 

[kingsfan101]

Great thread.

Still like the idea of giving JT a shot at starting, and bring Landry in as a backup 3/4. If anyone is going to attempt to back up Omri who isn't a natural sf, it should be our pf who rebounds like a perimeter player, not JT. Right now JT is much better at both guarding opposing pf's, and rebounding against the 4's and the 5's, than Landry is, and those are two areas sorely lacking for us, an hurt us more than a need for scoring from the pf position. In fact, as long as Landry keeps settling for 18 footers, and avoiding the paint, I'm not so sure he's that much more effective for us on offense than JT would be in his place, and JT would be a big improvement in the other areas.

Funny thing is Lanry spent all offseason working on his perimeter play, especially defense,yet JT's stuck out there chasing the little guys around, all while JT is the vastly superior rebounder and defender, which are two of our largest areas of concern going forward.

I think Landry should play with Sammy and JT with Cousins.

In both cases, we shall have some defense, and some post play.

If JT and Sammy play together, our frontline shall carry little offensive firepower. And if Landry and Cousins play together, we shall get killed on defense. So, I think the latest combination is fine. What we need are

• A little more time: The new starting lineup has been seen for all of one game, against a Memphis team playing fairly well. Let's give it a little more time.
• Landry's jumper: He actually has a fairly reliable jumper, and was hitting it on the road trip too. It's suddenly gone MIA. He and our offense shall be much better once he starts hitting it again.
• More Donte: I guess PW must have some reason for benching him. Would like to see him anyway.
• Less Luther Head: What I hated most against Lakers was not that he was missing his jumpers (and missing badly), but that he insisted on taking them, often early in the clock, sometimes when better options were available (like a pull up 3 he tried on a fast break when we had numbers). Just for that performance alone, I would like to see him at the end of the bench for the time being.
• Better perimeter defense: Ties into the point above, and Bricky's comments about team defense. Personally felt that our perimeter defense was atrocious, with guards driving at will.

 

[pshn80]

Reading all these interesting posts on this thread leads me to conclude that Westphal and staff have their hands full dealing with the very same questions, facts, pluses and minuses that have been brought up in this thread. The Kings we have now are a work in progress and will be for the foreseeable future. The deficiencies pointed out on our thread are pretty obvious for them and have shown up glaringly in these last few games. It'll be interesting to see what is done about them over the next games. I look for improvement if not a miracle or two. I'm looking forward to attending the game tomorrow night.

 

[mcsluggo]

Good read and spot on.

I know its early. Real early. So keep that in mind when reading the following comments.

Alot the negatives you mentioned, and some you didnt, revolve around Carl Landry as the starting power forward. I know that if I said right now "We need to trade Landry!" that a lot of members here would tell me Im crazy, its too early, yadda yadda yadda. However, IF Landry was traded tomorrow, those same people would say "I can see why they did it".

Im not saying we need to trade Landry, but at this point there is no way I resign him for anything near what he wants. I would welcome and suggest moving Carl to the bench were he is a super weapon, but I have a feeling Westphal REALLY likes him and wouldnt do that to him.

A big reason to be excited about our offseason was the addition of interior defenders. Landry has been worse on the boards, and worse on D that he's starting to negate that advantage we now have. Alot of his weaknesses were exposed the past two weeks .. and its interesting that Westphal actually said Landry was struggling early on in camp, so we know he knows there is an issue. I wonder is he'll do anything about it.

I agree. Start:
TE
frisco
Caspi
JT
Dally

people saying there wouldn't be enough O coming off the bench are insane.

Landry/Beno/Cousins is about as good of an offensive punch off the bench as you could POSSIBLY hope for.

also.. I agree that you HAVE to work greene back in as the ninth guy. Period. Exclamation point! (in essentially a 9-rotation-- and 10th should be Hassan, with spot minutes)

 

[sactownfan]

great post brick... very, very good!

 

[Kingster]

Great thread.

Still like the idea of giving JT a shot at starting, and bring Landry in as a backup 3/4. If anyone is going to attempt to back up Omri who isn't a natural sf, it should be our pf who rebounds like a perimeter player, not JT. Right now JT is much better at both guarding opposing pf's, and rebounding against the 4's and the 5's, than Landry is, and those are two areas sorely lacking for us, an hurt us more than a need for scoring from the pf position. In fact, as long as Landry keeps settling for 18 footers, and avoiding the paint, I'm not so sure he's that much more effective for us on offense than JT would be in his place, and JT would be a big improvement in the other areas.

Funny thing is Lanry spent all offseason working on his perimeter play, especially defense,yet JT's stuck out there chasing the little guys around, all while JT is the vastly superior rebounder and defender, which are two of our largest areas of concern going forward.

I don't get either Landry or Thompson. Thompson is much longer than Landry, yet Thompson can't make a 2-footer if his life depended on it. Landry is supposed to be the guy that could outquick Randolph (according to Reynolds), but he gets demolished by Randolph on the offensive and defensive end of the floor. So much for Reynold's talent evaluation.. Yet, Landry does show up at times against the long Laker lineup and makes some difficult shots under the basket. I think we've all been dancing around these frontcourt issues for a while now. The fact is, we just don't have chemistry in the frontcourt. If Cousins was two years older and wiser and an offensive force, if Casspi could consistently be a threat from the 3, then you could make do with Thompson's offensive deficiencies with that lineup. Similarly, if we had a really good defensive/ rebounding 3, you could make up for Landry's deficiencies by having a lineup of Dally, Landry, and Mr. X. But, alas, we don't, and there's the rub.

 

[rainmaker]

One of Westphals explanations for Dally into the starting lineup was that Landry and Cousins are our two best post players, and having them on the floor at seperate times makes sense so we always have a post presence, and they also have more room to operate. Makes sense, in theory.

Now, if Landry continues to play 18 ft from the basket, and pretty much avoids post play at all costs, which he has the last few games, then that explanation goes right out the window. The Landry we saw last year was more of a post presence, and a better rebounder. The Lndry we have seen this year is more of a jumpshooter, and less of a rebounder. If Landry continues this way, we won't have a post presence in our starting frontcourt, while our rebounding ability goes into th toilet as well. JT doesn't offer much more of a post presence, but he is a much better rebounder and man to man defender. Much better help defender as well.

So, and it's early, but if Landry doesn't decide to get his *** down on the block, or pick up his rebounding, put JT a the 4, because he does many more things a starting pf should be able to do. And the few things Landry can do that a starting pf should do, he's not doing. Our starting pf is playing more like a sf, while our backup pf is being forced to play sf.

 

[bajaden]

I don't get either Landry or Thompson. Thompson is much longer than Landry, yet Thompson can't make a 2-footer if his life depended on it. Landry is supposed to be the guy that could outquick Randolph (according to Reynolds), but he gets demolished by Randolph on the offensive and defensive end of the floor. So much for Reynold's talent evaluation.. Yet, Landry does show up at times against the long Laker lineup and makes some difficult shots under the basket. I think we've all been dancing around these frontcourt issues for a while now. The fact is, we just don't have chemistry in the frontcourt. If Cousins was two years older and wiser and an offensive force, if Casspi could consistently be a threat from the 3, then you could make do with Thompson's offensive deficiencies with that lineup. Similarly, if we had a really good defensive/ rebounding 3, you could make up for Landry's deficiencies by having a lineup of Dally, Landry, and Mr. X. But, alas, we don't, and there's the rub.

Its hard to have chemistry when players keep getting jerked around as to their roll on the team. Thompson has been a starter and a bench player. He's been a center, a PF, a SF, and probably a candlestick maker next. He's had to play in starting lineups next to Hawes, Mikki Moore, Brad Miller, Cousins, John Salmons, Kevin Martin, Carl Landry, Tyreke Evans, Omri Casspi, Donte Greene, Beno Udrith, Desmond Mason, Francisco Garcia, Nocioni, and god knows who else, and all in the span of slightly over two years. And some are shocked by the lack of chemistry and continuity. Its amazing that he even knows where to be on the floor considering he has a new player next to him on any given night.

You can get away with switching players in and out of the lineup if you have a team made up of 5 and 6 year plus vetreans. But you can't do it with a team made up of rookies and second year players. These guys are still trying to figure out what they can and can't do in the NBA. The least you could do for them is give them a set roll and let them get good at it. I'll make no excuses for Hawes. He lacked toughness. But he left here a confused young man. I wouldn't be surprised if Thompson is trying figure out if he should be a post player or if he should work on his three point shot. Right now, Landry looks like a confused player compared to last year. What did he work on during the summer? How to defend at the SF position, instead of improving at his normal position of PF.

Does Greene seem confused to you? I think you see where I'm going here. I'm looking for progress and some consistency with this team. I don't expect miracles. Tiny steps will do. But one thing should be clear to Westphal. Yes he's here to win, and thats the mantra of any coach. But he's here first and foremost to develop the talent of the young players we have. Those players are the future of this team, and this team can't afford to have those talents wasted. So I guess I'm saying that I hope he knows what he's doing. Because at times I sure the hell don't.

 

[fnordius]

I don't know what Westphal's thinking by playing JT at the 3 and Landry at the 4. JT may be struggling, but he can rebound and defend a bit, whereas Landry is a one-trick scorer. If we're not going to trade Landry soon, he should swap those guys.

 

[Arby's Roast Beef]

I and some other posters brought up the fact that Landry had probably tapped out his potential at Houston, and even last year the warning signs were there when he severely regressed with us. It's actually quite normal--undersized bigs peak early, start lose their athleticism as they near their 30s, and Landry in particular was always this offensive rebound/scoring guy in his heyday, so with the further loss in athleticism his defensive miscues/inability to rebound just get exacerbated. He's a free agent after the season, it's quite obvious we have to let him go--we can appreciate the veteran leadership and solid play, but if he's not bringing in the toughness and looking overmatched out there, he's just impeding the minutes we should give to JT/Whiteside in particular.

I like Cousins, but there's an identity crisis offensively somewhere--he needs to take much more shots in the rim, because he's a super effective finisher and gets to the line extremely well. Instead, he takes nearly half of his shots from 10 feet and beyond, and as of now he just doesn't have that touch--yes, he's hit off balance threes before which gives hints of the talent there, but offensive decision-making is a problem and that's why he just isn't very efficient right now. To his credit, he can hit free throws and also hit his mid-range shots in college, so that will come in time when he's more adjusted to the pace of the game. The greatest thing I'm most impressed with is that he's able to command such a high usage rate and create so many shots for himself, and that combined with his offensive potential will pretty much make him an offensive star in the making provided he continues down this trajectory. Even with his bad offensive decision-making (taking too many jumpers, turning the ball over a bit too much, getting blocked inside a bit too frequently) there's potential--as said before, he can hit those threes with the shot clock winding down, and he has shown nifty behind-the-back passes as well. There's a balance Cousins has to strike with his offensive versatility and knowing his limitations as of now, but is bread and butter right now is the his sheer ability around the basket--he perhaps needs to stick with that more. But there's massive potential on the offensive side. On the defensive side--meh; he can't block shots for a big man and is an absolute hack with no control of fouling, and I like to use the parameter of blocks/fouls as a measure of defensive upside, so it doesn't quite bode well for him. He tries to draw charges but his rate is rather ordinary, but to his credit he has quick hands for a center--he might be best operating as a groundbound center who can poke balls away, but as Brick mentioned we might need to pair him up with a shotblocker as a result. We'll also see if off-the-court issues get in the way, and of course hopefully it doesn't.

I predicted that Dalembert would be very good for us early in the season, not just because we haven't had a defensive impact big in a long time but because even amidst the fact that Philly didn't want him last year, he was still very good. He was an iron man before he missed several games early this season. I'm still making the prediction that Whiteside is also legit based on what I can see, and really, he needs to get playing time (Landry might need to go for that).

 

[LPKingsFan]

I agree. Start:
TE
frisco
Caspi
JT
Dally

people saying there wouldn't be enough O coming off the bench are insane.

Landry/Beno/Cousins is about as good of an offensive punch off the bench as you could POSSIBLY hope for.

also.. I agree that you HAVE to work greene back in as the ninth guy. Period. Exclamation point! (in essentially a 9-rotation-- and 10th should be Hassan, with spot minutes)

With that starting lineup, I'd argue that there's actually not enough post offense, and too much offense off the bench. Landry and Cousins (theoretically, if both play inside like they should) are redundant, and shouldn't play as often together as the other possible pairings.

 

[Lockehead]

I like Cousins, but there's an identity crisis offensively somewhere--he needs to take much more shots in the rim, because he's a super effective finisher and gets to the line extremely well. Instead, he takes nearly half of his shots from 10 feet and beyond, and as of now he just doesn't have that touch--yes, he's hit off balance threes before which gives hints of the talent there, but offensive decision-making is a problem and that's why he just isn't very efficient right now. To his credit, he can hit free throws and also hit his mid-range shots in college, so that will come in time when he's more adjusted to the pace of the game. The greatest thing I'm most impressed with is that he's able to command such a high usage rate and create so many shots for himself, and that combined with his offensive potential will pretty much make him an offensive star in the making provided he continues down this trajectory. Even with his bad offensive decision-making (taking too many jumpers, turning the ball over a bit too much, getting blocked inside a bit too frequently) there's potential--as said before, he can hit those threes with the shot clock winding down, and he has shown nifty behind-the-back passes as well. There's a balance Cousins has to strike with his offensive versatility and knowing his limitations as of now, but is bread and butter right now is the his sheer ability around the basket--he perhaps needs to stick with that more. But there's massive potential on the offensive side. On the defensive side--meh; he can't block shots for a big man and is an absolute hack with no control of fouling, and I like to use the parameter of blocks/fouls as a measure of defensive upside, so it doesn't quite bode well for him. He tries to draw charges but his rate is rather ordinary, but to his credit he has quick hands for a center--he might be best operating as a groundbound center who can poke balls away, but as Brick mentioned we might need to pair him up with a shotblocker as a result. We'll also see if off-the-court issues get in the way, and of course hopefully it doesn't.

Cousins just needs better conditioning... Everything he does points to bad conditioning. Sure he has flashes of brilliance but thats about all he can physically do at this time, short bursts of energy. He takes alot more jumpers instead of doing his moves, taking it to the hole, or banging body to body in the post, because it saves energy. He draws charges instead of patrolling the block trying to block shots because it saves energy. Rarely do i see him box out his man or fight to get in better position with sustained effort. In transitions it looks as if his legs are made of lead, hard to pick up and run. I think he is really good right now, but he can be so much more effective if he is in better shape, even if he doesnt improve his skillset.

 

[mcsluggo]

With that starting lineup, I'd argue that there's actually not enough post offense, and too much offense off the bench. Landry and Cousins (theoretically, if both play inside like they should) are redundant, and shouldn't play as often together as the other possible pairings.

point taken about post offense--- however, Landry has been completely allergic to the inside this season so-far (whether it is his call or the coaches),
and you don't do a Hockey-style "line switch" in basketball- so they won't all swap at the same time.

 

[pshn80]

Cousins just needs better conditioning... Everything he does points to bad conditioning. Sure he has flashes of brilliance but thats about all he can physically do at this time, short bursts of energy. He takes alot more jumpers instead of doing his moves, taking it to the hole, or banging body to body in the post, because it saves energy. He draws charges instead of patrolling the block trying to block shots because it saves energy. Rarely do i see him box out his man or fight to get in better position with sustained effort. In transitions it looks as if his legs are made of lead, hard to pick up and run. I think he is really good right now, but he can be so much more effective if he is in better shape, even if he doesnt improve his skillset.

I agree and it needs to be said. I don't believe he's making the progress iin getting in shape that he should have by now - training camp plus two weks of the season. Hopefully he sees that and ups the ante - he has to so that he has the physical capacity to use the talents he already has and develop the ones he needs. Otherwise only a season with hints of what he might do.

 

[Kingster]

Its hard to have chemistry when players keep getting jerked around as to their roll on the team. Thompson has been a starter and a bench player. He's been a center, a PF, a SF, and probably a candlestick maker next. He's had to play in starting lineups next to Hawes, Mikki Moore, Brad Miller, Cousins, John Salmons, Kevin Martin, Carl Landry, Tyreke Evans, Omri Casspi, Donte Greene, Beno Udrith, Desmond Mason, Francisco Garcia, Nocioni, and god knows who else, and all in the span of slightly over two years. And some are shocked by the lack of chemistry and continuity. Its amazing that he even knows where to be on the floor considering he has a new player next to him on any given night.

You can get away with switching players in and out of the lineup if you have a team made up of 5 and 6 year plus vetreans. But you can't do it with a team made up of rookies and second year players. These guys are still trying to figure out what they can and can't do in the NBA. The least you could do for them is give them a set roll and let them get good at it. I'll make no excuses for Hawes. He lacked toughness. But he left here a confused young man. I wouldn't be surprised if Thompson is trying figure out if he should be a post player or if he should work on his three point shot. Right now, Landry looks like a confused player compared to last year. What did he work on during the summer? How to defend at the SF position, instead of improving at his normal position of PF.

Does Greene seem confused to you? I think you see where I'm going here. I'm looking for progress and some consistency with this team. I don't expect miracles. Tiny steps will do. But one thing should be clear to Westphal. Yes he's here to win, and thats the mantra of any coach. But he's here first and foremost to develop the talent of the young players we have. Those players are the future of this team, and this team can't afford to have those talents wasted. So I guess I'm saying that I hope he knows what he's doing. Because at times I sure the hell don't.

It could be that the long term vocation for some of these guys is candlestick maker.

Although I've been an apologist for Westphal so far, his playing of Thompson at the 3 really has me mystified. It's difficult for me to defend that.
I said I'd give 10 games for Westphal to sort this thing out, so for me has four more games to go. I think Grant and Reynolds alluded to the fact that Westphal will be cutting down on the number of players in his rotation, so that's a start. Now, if he can simplify their roles a little, we can go from there. I dunno. Maybe Westphal has a rotation fetish. Maybe he figures that if just finds that perfect lineup that matches just right with the opposing team, then he'll find nirvana. Maybe he should focus a little more on strengthening the weaknesses of some of our players so he doesn't have to find that perfect lineup. Just wondering...

Regarding Thompson, I could have sworn that I heard that he went to big-man's camp where supposedly he was working on his low post game. Sure can't tell by what I've seen so far though. His low post game reminds me of Martin's reverse pivot move (Believe it or not, I saw a Houston game recently where Martin tried that move; yes, he still hasn't gotten it down). There are a lot of areas for reasonable people to differ on Westphal, but I just don't see how anybody can look at Thompson after he get's an offensive rebound, or when he has a mouse in the house, and come to the conclusion that he has made substantial progress in those situations. I really wonder what exactly the practice regiment is? If it doesn't simulate the game situations, then it's not going to help him. For example, it seems like he should have some lousy shooter shoot the ball while he runs to get it after the miss and then he should not dribble the ball; he should regain his balance and put up a jump shot (or a quick half hook if he's under the basket). Instead, I see over and freaking over again Thompson dribbling the ball after he takes possession. Jason Thompson : PLEASE STOP!

Regarding Greene, if clueless means confused, then yes, he does seem confused. I don't know what to think when a guy who is fighting for a job comes into camp so out of shape. It's incredibly dissapointing. It totally defeats the culture of improvement and competitiveness that Westphal is trying to instill. It's not just bad for Donte, it's a slap in the face of the other players because he's letting them down. It's too bad that corporal punishment has gone the way of the dinosaur. Personally, I'd have Donte run the gauntlet...

 

[Kingster]

One of Westphals explanations for Dally into the starting lineup was that Landry and Cousins are our two best post players, and having them on the floor at seperate times makes sense so we always have a post presence, and they also have more room to operate. Makes sense, in theory.

Now, if Landry continues to play 18 ft from the basket, and pretty much avoids post play at all costs, which he has the last few games, then that explanation goes right out the window. The Landry we saw last year was more of a post presence, and a better rebounder. The Lndry we have seen this year is more of a jumpshooter, and less of a rebounder. If Landry continues this way, we won't have a post presence in our starting frontcourt, while our rebounding ability goes into th toilet as well. JT doesn't offer much more of a post presence, but he is a much better rebounder and man to man defender. Much better help defender as well.

So, and it's early, but if Landry doesn't decide to get his *** down on the block, or pick up his rebounding, put JT a the 4, because he does many more things a starting pf should be able to do. And the few things Landry can do that a starting pf should do, he's not doing. Our starting pf is playing more like a sf, while our backup pf is being forced to play sf.

But if Landry plays with Dalembert, then Dalembert is going to drag his man into the low post where Landry is trying to post, right? I'm trying to figure out if this outside play by Landry is by his choice or by Westphal's design.