[Grades] Grades v. Clippers 12/6/10

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#1
And it just goes on and on and on...

Theme tongiht will be Fun 80s Songs.

Official Boxscore


Greene ( D ) -- and boom, just like that Donte's single greatest nemesis -- inconsistency -- reared its ugly little head once agian, and instead of building on the excellent effort last game, the odds are 50/50 that our ADD coach will start OMri over him next game and he'll be back to 12th man. Just gave usnothing against noone in particular. Got into quick foul trouble, and you could just see from the beginning of this one that somehow, someway, the intensity/focus/whatever that we had against Dallas was not there. He did nothing awful. He just pretty much did nothing at all, and of course our guards going awol during his minutes meant that there would be no spot up threes or alley oops on this night.
Men At Work - Down Under (1982) -- from what I've been told a favorite to get stoned to for nearly 30 years now

Thompson ( C ) -- unlike Donte, who when he doesn't seem ready to play just loses his bounce, when JT isn't ready he just spazzes out. Its hard to imagine him not bringing the physical effort, but I think the mental part of the game is tougher for him and that's what gets left behind when he's not ready to go. And this time he was unquestionably unfocused. Showed some surprising saavy on defense against Griffin, repeatedly pulling the chair and letting the rook stumble around and fall to the floor trying to use his power moves. But on the other end of the court JT was just stupid, repeatedly charging out of control into the paint, picking up offensive fouls and turnover. The only hit I remember him getting was a banked in shot just before half, that he probably did not call (yes the box says he got another, it just didn't matter). So gets some grade here for making Griffin uncomfortable on the other end. But at the same time was making all of us, and more critically his coach, uncomfortable with the lack of focus, and ended up playing only 11 minutes.
J. Geils Band - Centerfold (1981) -- not quite a one hit wonder -- this band also had second tier hits like Love Stinks and Freeze Frame -- but Centerfold was their bid for catchy cheesy fun immortality, and featuring a classroom full of babes dancing in their lingerie is a good way to ensure it.

Cousins ( B+ ) -- and here was the first big positive of the night. In fact maybe the biggest big positive, and while the numbers did not quite support it, I was tempted to go higher with this grade. The reason being that here you saw the future. The post playing goto guy who you can run the offense through. And for stretches of this one he domianted play, even without putting up huge numbers. Actually its better he did not put up huge numbers -- one of the mistakes made time and again by Spencer and Jason as we tried t make them into this sort of player as that they got confused and thought the role of a post player is to score the basketball. It is not. And so they would consantly be trying to throw up shots as quickly as possible so as to get them off before the help comes. And that's just not getting it. Postup scorer are nice in that they are high percentage if done by a top player, and the rebounds are short and so don't start opposing fastbreaks. But the REAL use of a postup guy is the same as a great pentrator ont he perimeter -- its to draw the double team, then beat it wiht the pass. that is how a great post player makes everybody on his team better. And Cousins again displayed a real understanding of that. He was aggressive going at Jordan early as we went to him repeatedly, but hindered by getting back in quick foul trouble again. Came back in and showed a nice Duncanesque off the glass banker over Griffin. Was again aggressive inside un he third, and physically imposed himself in there, but the defense sucked as the middle was open again. Great post play to start the 4th as we went right through him, and beat a double team wiht a great skip pass to Omri for a 3ptr. Unfortunately stumbled down the stretch as we kept going to him, and again he showed he is a rookie, and not the advnaced sort of rookie we had last year. Begant ot turn it over, and made a rookie, not to mention selfish, mistake when at 2:00 mark he split the double, had Omri wide open in the corner in front of him, and went for the high degree of difficulty reverse flip/layup rather than making the obvious pass to Omri for what would have been a critical three if he hit it. Was again not able to get it to go in the last minute as we have been living or dying with out rook in the closing minutes of these last few games...and thy're going to have to send divers down to the bottom of the river to find us if we don't try a different strategy.
Proclaimers - I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) (1988) -- the crackpipe of 80's one hit wonders, this famous little pop tune has been addictively catchy for over 20 years now.

Udirh ( F ) -- this was just terrible. Oh by the way I hear you locals got to listen to Walton again -- pouring salt on the wound. But in honor of him, this was Teeeeerrible! And it was terrible on both ends, and it just killed us. I don't get it sometimes, these rotating terrible games that just roll through our lineup. You never know who's going to have them, but there is always somebody, and on most nights multiple somebodys. And tonight it was Beno who not only did his normal get blown by at will by the opposing PG thing, but was just awful on the other end of the court too. Missing little pullups, drving inside and on two notable occasions getting spectacularly blocked by DeAndre Jordan, who literally knocked them all the way back over halfcourt, and then losing his confidence and passing up open shots again and thwoing it over to a nearly as cold Reke to toss something up against the clock. There were just no redeeming characerisitcs to this one, and...why? We are losing these games cloe now. All it takes is a vet who's been around to just give us even his C game and we probably win. Instead we get his F game. Grff.
Katrina & The Waves -- Walking on Sunshine (1985) -- another true one hit wonder, with its over the top sunny disposition its been making chipper people even chippier since 1985
 
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Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#2
Evans ( D+ ) -- and so it was right back to this for Tyreke as well. And it was the same pattern, the same struggle again, and again made you think injury? Fatigue Except there is no reason for the fatigue, so...injury? There is just such a distinct break between Tyreke looking like Tyreke, and this guy dragging himself around out there its got ot be something. And that same pattern is this -- has a burst in the first half, indeed that is what is responsible for just abour all the grade he has here. But after Cousins and Jordan left in the first Reke suddenly looked like himself, and just started torching Gordon on every possession, geting layups, setting people up. At no point was he hitting his jumpers though. May habe been our best player of th halfm althoguh Omri played well. And then we go to the break and there is just this enormous noticeable lag in energy in the third. Any life int he legs is gone, he's largely passive and frozen out of the offense, and he's taking the easy way out on defense going under every screen and givng the Clippers wide open looks from outside. Only highlight of the entire second half was when the Clips doubleteamed off of Reke on Cousins, so Reke hit a big three on them at the 2:30 mark. But the going under screens bit us at a critical time when he did it again with a minute to go on Gordon, and Gordon buried a three on us in response. I think made another mistake fouling Gordon with us down 3 and 16 seconds to go, and a chance to get the ball back if we kept them from scoring. But from the reaction from the bench, or lack thereof, that looked like Coach called it for whatever reason. Anyway...harumph. One possible explanation is that he's using up whatever goodwill that foot/ankle had in first half bursts, and then it is tightening up and limiting after the halftime break. but I can't be sure of that, and I just wish I knew what was going on. I mentioned under Beno's grade that if our vet just doesn't lay a turd we probably win this one. Well, the same is true of Reke. We could probably have 4-6 more wins this season with no larger change than Reke playing like he did last year. Or playing like he did last game for that matter. Or just sustaining his burst from the first half here. Just something. But instead the struggle continues, for him and us.
Corey Hart - Sunglasses At Night (1984) -- why is he wearing his sunglasses at night? Its the 80's.

Bench

Dalembert ( B ) -- nice game off the bench for Daly doing the things he does, mostly behind Cousins, but also alongside him for short stretches. Got it into gear defensively and on the glass, anchoring an effective zone that took away the middle form the Clippers, but could not convince any of our perimeter guys to consistently challenge Clipper shooters on the perimeter. Grabbed some excellent defensive boards in traffic, which were especially key during thos long stretches where he was teamed with Landry (3rebs in 34 min, all offensive).
Run DMC (w/Aerosmith) - Walk This Way (1986) -- an important moment in the nascient Hip Hop movement, by teaming with the nearly washed up Aerosmith to cover their own song in amuisng fashion it gave Hip Hop critical crossover credibility at a point at which it was still marginal, and actually ended up reviving Aersmith's career as well. It also I think helped begin the era of ridiculous hip hop fashions with its shoes with no laces (i.e. nonfunctional), which eventually moved on to baggy pants with no belts (non-functional), baseball caps with the bill turned off at an angle (non-functional), rolling one leg (and one leg only) of your sweats up (non-functional), bling, even on your teeth (good way to get mugged) etc.

Landy ( B- ) -- had a very quiet first quarter again, although perhaps stood out for not standing out in the worst ways on defense. I think finally got his first shot to open the second quarter, and began to get aggressive in the second with both Reke and Cousins out. Rather than resubmerging when our main personnel began filtering back in, started lurking around the hoop and taking dropoff passes for dunks amd layups, and capped a strong first half with a big big offensive rebound and follow in the final minute of the half. If he could have maintained the effort he would have been in line for a grade several ticks above this one, but again he did not, and did little after half except be part of the reserve crew in the 4th that brought us back. It wasn't Landry who was doing the bringing thoguh, although he was working against Griffin on D and manged to avoid getting posterized by him. Had another awesome night on the glass, grabbing three offensive bords because that helps your scoring of course, and amazingly grabbing a grand total of zero defensive boards again for the second night in a row.
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Don't Come Around Here No More (1985) -- I think half the fun of this one was that video, putting Johnny Depp's weird Alice in Wonderland to shame. Petty was known to ingest some pretty strahnge substances in his time, and I strongly suspect he was under their influence when they came up with the idea for this one.

Casspi ( A- ) -- some good team ball in the first, moving without the ball for a layup, and both passing and taking passes from Reke on the break. Started getting lit up by Gomes in the early 2nd, and there were several times when I was pretty sure he blew rotations, but was playing suhc a nice support game on offense that he got the run through the entire 2nd. It was like things all of a sudden clicked into focus for him how to get his shots withotu disrupting the main focii of the offense. Really upped his defensive intensity in the 4th as a key mmeber fo the backup group that got us back into the game, and was running the floor and slashing to take advantage of all the attention being paid to DeMarcus and the speed of Jeter. Notched 10 rebounds as well, helping to fill the niche vacated by Landry. Gets the minus on a very efficeint 20-10 night a) because we lost; and b) because Omri wasn't "the straw". He played a strong roleplaying game running the floor, taking passes, and finishing, but he wasn't the guy creating the opportunities. Which BTW wouldn't have stopped me from giving him the A if DeMarcus pases to him for an open 3 at the 2/:00 mark and we go on to win it.
Pat Benatar - Love is a Battlefield (1986) -- hehe, I am warming to this topic, and so many ideas are coming to me that I can see there is probably going to be another one of these, maybe even two. In this one we have Pat molested by a slezeball at a bar, at which point she decides there is nothing to do but summon her handy troop of friends, all dressed out in 80s day glo rags, and they proceed to shake their boobs at him, in synch. The 80s weren't all bad.
 
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Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#3
Cisco ( D ) -- the case of the missing Cisco is another oone of our interesting subplots. He started off the season bombing away, dropped off, got hurt, and now is playing far below his career level. Was missing his shots, and not contribting anything else, and this guy, who is supposed to be the veteran leader, just ended up shuffled off the bench and forgotten about with scarcely a lament.
Bangles - Walk Like An Egyptian (1986) -- starting the whole walk like an egyptian fad, this one annoyed me back in the day, but now it just makes me smile at the silliness. Besides, Susanna Hoffs was bigtime hot.

Jeter ( A- ) -- Pooh exploded off the bench...er...wait...Pooh got us running...er....no that's not going to work either...we threw Pooh at them....damn. Er.... Anyway, Mr. Jeter might have been the most significant player of this game for us, although ironically also is why I am not as encouraged by this one as I was by the effort vs. the Mavs. Really was the guy who changed our entire pace and fate in the 4th. Started off and it looked like it was going to be more of the slifish playground stuff -- using his quickness to race downcourt, find an opening and chuck up a jumper regardless of whether anybody is around. Bur he was hitting those, and more importantly was doing much more, leading the break with quickness, dishing off, getting fouled inside, and once at the 3pt line after which he hit 2 of the 3 FTs to get us within 2 midway through the 4th. Was too tiny to guard either of the Clippers power guards Baron or Gordon, but the Clippers had a hard time taking advantage of that (which is on the Clips -- Baron has a potent post up game if they could get the matchup), and Pooh got his hands on a lot of balls on defense too. Got the ball stripped off his knee on our last gasp chance in the final 10 seconds.
Cars - You Might Think (1984) -- the first video to ever use computer graphics, and the first winner of the the MTV Video fo the Year award. Song is light fun too -- in their prime The Cars could have written a 3 minute catchy pop hit about toothpaste.

Westphal ( ) --
Somebody requested The Final Countdown for Westphal, and I just could nto pass up the opportunity -- watch this -- its awesome.
 
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kingsboi

Hall of Famer
#5
Beno 1-10? Laugh out loud, way to help out. Donte & JT couldn't scratch 20+ min. it seems they were non-factors. Carl Landry played 30+ min. I assume it's because he bodied up Blake Griffin and made him earn his points? Casspi, Wow! Why can't we get this guy every night? I bet the next 3-5 games he won't even get 15 points. I can understand Gordon going off, but Ryan Gomes? Really? Yuck. Everybody else isn't worth mentioning.
 
#6
Wow at pooh jeter. He was amazing today. Do not start him though. He's a good spark off the bench. If only we could have gotten Blake Griffin. That guy scares me even when he has a bad game. Too bad kings couldnt close this out but i dont even think they deserved a win today considering how bad they played in the 2nd and 3rd. Inconsistency again. I guess the Dallas game was a fluke... again. We seem to play well against good teams but our inexperience usually wins in the end on those games. With less elite teams we seem to play lazy and selfish crap basketball. O and tyreke. Hmm i wonder why you did so bad after the first quarter? maybe because you kinda started shooting jumpshots instead of attacking the rim. Cmon tyreke. I thought we had a franchise turning superstar in you.
 
#7
5-19 really, tyreke?

dude's playin' terrible this year. At this point you start to think about what could have been, choosing someone like stephen curry.

we can't be any worse.

It's official...never wanted to see this day. But..the kings are the worst team in the NBA.
 

Larry89

Disgruntled Kings Fan
#9
Is tyreke injured or is he just dogging it?? Maybe we should just run the offense through Cousins see what he can do
 

gunks

Hall of Famer
#10
5-19 really, tyreke?

dude's playin' terrible this year. At this point you start to think about what could have been, choosing someone like stephen curry.

we can't be any worse.

It's official...never wanted to see this day. But..the kings are the worst team in the NBA.
Dude is hurting and being played around 40mpg recently. I still take Reke over Curry.

I mentioned that Reke's game against the Mavs was a fluke and I stand by that statement. His shooting was on that game. Thats it. His shot is nowhere near consistant, and his driving game has nosedived this year with his injuries (as well as the defense teams are playing on him). We're going to see a lot of sub 35% shooting nights from him. I'd be surprised if he finishes this season shooting over 42%. Plantar Fisciitis doesnt fix itself if you're playing 38+ minutes a night. And those Ankles arnt exactly healing up either.

Healthy Reke>>>Any guard from last year's draft class. The question is, will Reke ever be healthy?
 
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kingsboi

Hall of Famer
#11
5-19 really, tyreke?

dude's playin' terrible this year. At this point you start to think about what could have been, choosing someone like stephen curry.

we can't be any worse.

It's official...never wanted to see this day. But..the kings are the worst team in the NBA.
Tyreke def. has been struggling, he just needs to keep shooting and take what's there. If he's off, so what, atleast he is taking good shots.

The good thing about Curry is he hasn't fallen off at all this season, it helps when you can shoot and dribble and be crafty like he is.

We are the worst team, I hope we stay that way to be honest. When we do end up being in the worst three team conversations, we can talk about how we are going to get robbed of the number one pick again and ask ourselves what if..
 
#13
It's not just Reke's wheels. He gets to the hoop. He has just been exposed for his low BB IQ and his lack of position. He can't be a PG and he doesn't shoot or move well enough off the ball for a pure SG. That whole "he's just a basketball player!" line is now sort of bothersome.

And he hasn't been taking good shots. Tonight he was ice cold, injured his hip, was limping and instead of passing to the post, he launched an outside jumper. Why?

Putting Reke in for Cisco killed the Kings in this game. It let Gordon go off and Reke was not hitting.
 

kingsboi

Hall of Famer
#14
It's not just Reke's wheels. He gets to the hoop. He has just been exposed for his low BB IQ and his lack of position. He can't be a PG and he doesn't shoot or move well enough off the ball for a pure SG. That whole "he's just a basketball player!" line is now sort of bothersome.

And he hasn't been taking good shots. Tonight he was ice cold, injured his hip, was limping and instead of passing to the post, he launched an outside jumper. Why?

Putting Reke in for Cisco killed the Kings in this game. It let Gordon go off and Reke was not hitting.
I saw one play in the end there where Cousins wanted the ball so badly and he had his guy pinned and Tyreke didn't even pass the ball to him. Cousins should easily take 20 shots a game, that's a given. While he is a rookie, he is only going to become better with more touches and experience becoming our primary post player. He can be a very reliable one to if we teach him and give him confidence.
 
#16
tyreke should focus on his shooting and forget trying to be a PG. let's get a PG in the next draft and have tyreke be our shooting guard. maybe he can become a better Eric Gordon-like player. GOrdon's shooting was awful his first 2 years and he's since become pretty good.
 
#17
We do have some decent shooters on our team. Catch and shoot situations depend on how well a player is set up, the better the set up (in rhythm, open look etc) the higher % a shot itll be. We saw some of that with Casspi and Cousins tonight, and Cisco and Pooh the other night.
 

gunks

Hall of Famer
#18
It's not just Reke's wheels. He gets to the hoop. He has just been exposed for his low BB IQ and his lack of position. He can't be a PG and he doesn't shoot or move well enough off the ball for a pure SG. That whole "he's just a basketball player!" line is now sort of bothersome.

And he hasn't been taking good shots. Tonight he was ice cold, injured his hip, was limping and instead of passing to the post, he launched an outside jumper. Why?

Putting Reke in for Cisco killed the Kings in this game. It let Gordon go off and Reke was not hitting.
He gets to the hoop, but he is driving a lot less. He isnt finishing as well either. Also, his D has fallen off considerably. I think you can blame a lot of that on the wheels.

I agree with a lot of the other parts of your post though. Reke at PG is a failed experiment at this point. The guy just doesnt have the BBIQ. He will hopefully become a smarter player, but he's never going to be "PG smart". If the guy wants to be a star in the league, his bros better add "learn off ball skills" to the blueprint.
 
#19
Yep another loss but Cousins showed much improvement. Too bad we got in such a deep hole. The energy Pooh displayed tonight was terrific. Was good to see Omri have a good game. Maybe a win on Wednesday....
 
#20
The Kings have the lowest pay roll in the league. You get what you pay for.

Every night, some players play okay and others don't. Another night, it's the same thing. This team can never play well as a whole. But then again, you're not exactly
dishin' out the dough for players who can CONSISTENTLY play.
 
#21
Paul Westphal - A. for being able to say "our bench was really good and it was particularly juiced up by Pooh" and keep a straight face...
 
#22
I told ya - one game was just a fluke. Stop wearing pink glasses all the time. We're where we do belong atm and thats at the ****hole of the standings.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
#23
The Kings have the lowest pay roll in the league. You get what you pay for.

Every night, some players play okay and others don't. Another night, it's the same thing. This team can never play well as a whole. But then again, you're not exactly
dishin' out the dough for players who can CONSISTENTLY play.
Just because you're throwing money at players oen't men they're going to be good pick-ups, just ask Mikki Moore.
 
#25
The Kings have the lowest pay roll in the league. You get what you pay for.

Every night, some players play okay and others don't. Another night, it's the same thing. This team can never play well as a whole. But then again, you're not exactly
dishin' out the dough for players who can CONSISTENTLY play.
Hopefully you don’t take this the wrong way – I’m not sure if you were one of these people or not – but people wanted a young team and this is it. We said we needed to rebuild and we’re starting to do that. And yeah, it’s going to be hard to watch sometimes but once these guys put it together and mature/gain experience together I’m sure everybody is going to be much happier. But right now, we’re young and we’re going to make mistakes. But at least - when we're on - we're fun to watch.

We used to throw MLE’s and try to patch it up and now we’re getting young guys and building this team. My question to those people who wants us throw money on one of the free agents – who did you want? Let’s just throw our money away on a player that probably doesn’t fit this team/will harm our future (again).

I love we have - a nice young team and guys who seem to get along with each other. Maybe it’s just me but I think people need to stop being ungrateful. Could we be better – Of course. But I like that we’re starting to play again and hopefully we’ll keep improving and having fun. Plus, your payroll says nothing about the type of team you have...I feel bad for the Wizards fans – they gave Arenas 100 million dollar deal. Atlanta just gave Joe Johnson some ridiculous contract.

I don’t know, maybe I don't see it like everybody else, but I like the guys that we have and yeah they do need to grow/become more consistent/improve/etc. but I like the potential that I see in them and I love when I see them clicking on all cylinders. :D
 
#26
We need to start grade the whole team as a unit and not each player individually.
We can only win as a team since we are currently individually not strong enough.

Casspi had a nice game but does it always mean that Donte needs to have a terrible one and not getting any minutes?
I love Omri but think that PW needs to let them both get same playing time.
We are killing ourselves by benching Omri or Donte all the time.
 
#27
We need to start grade the whole team as a unit and not each player individually.
We can only win as a team since we are currently individually not strong enough.

Casspi had a nice game but does it always mean that Donte needs to have a terrible one and not getting any minutes?
I love Omri but think that PW needs to let them both get same playing time.
We are killing ourselves by benching Omri or Donte all the time.
I'm sorry but you are making way too much sense. That is unacceptable in Westphal-Land.
 
#28
One thing for sure in the next few games though.

Whenever Pooh is on the court, Casspi has to be right there with him... the guy sprints the floor so fast for his position.. you could see how he just woke up and came back to life from those 5-6 last games and this season in general when he was getting buckets on the fast breaks.. same was in Clevland when he got those steals and ran the floor... we can really use Omri speeding on the floor for some quick easy scores, like to have him running straight when he sees it's gonna be an easy rebound and have Cousins or JT look for the quick outlet - like the Pacers did to us the other day with Mcroberts if you remember.. those easy buckets like the Dally ally-oop with reke etc need to get more attention, cause our halfcourt offence is clearly suffering.. if we do these stuff whenever we can in games we'll be alot better.

The wing players cuts to the basket when Cousins is on the block are great too, both Omri and Donte got easy buckets whenever we've done that play cause Cousins finds those cutters brilliantly, but again we hardly do it and should try do it alot more often... what do you guys think?
 
#29
I was at the game and it was a blast even though they lost. We were in row 4 behind the Clippers bench, so they got an ear full from me. Couple things I noticed:

- Tyreke HAS to be hurt because his defense is pathetic
- Cousins whines and complains A LOT. If he gets this in check and starts to finish around the basket, he can be unstoppable. But on one play, where he got fouled and missed the dunk, he was scared to go up so he went up soft. Not sure if Griffin intimidates him or what, but he needs to toughen up.
- Garcia has become really useless
- Dalembert should NEVER have the ball on offense unless he grabs an offensive rebound
- Griffin already gets every superstar call

Oh, and LOTS of Israelis came out to show support for Casspi. They were waving Israeli flags and had chants going strong through the stadium. There were also surprisingly quite a few of Kings fans.
 
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#30
I was at the game and it was a blast even though they lost. We were in row 4 behind the Clippers bench, so they got an ear full from me. Couple things I noticed:

- Tyreke HAS to be hurt because his defense is pathetic
- Cousins whines and complains A LOT. If he gets this in check and starts to finish around the basket, he can be unstoppable. But on one play, where he got fouled and missed the dunk, he was scared to go up so he went up soft. Not sure if Griffin intimidates him or what, but he needs to toughen up.
- Garcia has become really useless
- Dalembert should NEVER have the ball on offense unless he grabs an offensive rebound
- Griffin already gets every superstar call

Oh, and LOTS of Israelis came out to show support for Casspi. They were waving Israeli flags and had chants going strong through the stadium. There were also surprisingly quite a few of Kings fans.
who in their right mind WOULDNT be intimidated by Griffin. lol. That guy is a beast.