[Grades] Grades v. Bucks 1/5/12
- Thread starter Bricklayer
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Evans (A) - Best game of the season for him, actually kicked out to shooters when driving, could have had a triple double if shooters hit their shot, still they are open shots and have to go down at some point.
Cousins (B+) Absolutely dominated the boards whenever he was in, he is like a vacuum on the boards. Could have had 30+ points on this frontline, foul trouble hurt him, the last foul was a terrible call, needs to improve on reading double teams and finding open shooters.
Thornton (B-) Was a black hole for most of the night, seemed to lose control of the ball alot, but hit some tough shots down the stretch, still they are hard shots that were created out of nothing, if they don't go in they are terrible shots.
Salmons (C) Terrible offensive night, his shot is off, didn't we bring him in to be a spot up 3pt shooter? ball rotations come to a dead halt with him, hit a couple shots down the stretch and played great d down the stretch.
Jimmer (C) Looks a little lost out there,and its hurting his shooting, just doesn't seem to have a connection with anyone other than Cousins.
JT (B) played solid, without doing much on the stat sheet, held Gooden in check down the stretch.
Hickson (C) He has hands like Kwame Brown, but he hustles, he is also a black hole when he gets the ball in the post.
Smart (A) Liked his rotation, kept the best players on, in a MUST WIN night. hopefully Outlaw get demoted. he sucks. Did something at half time to motivate this team.
Cousins (B+) Absolutely dominated the boards whenever he was in, he is like a vacuum on the boards. Could have had 30+ points on this frontline, foul trouble hurt him, the last foul was a terrible call, needs to improve on reading double teams and finding open shooters.
Thornton (B-) Was a black hole for most of the night, seemed to lose control of the ball alot, but hit some tough shots down the stretch, still they are hard shots that were created out of nothing, if they don't go in they are terrible shots.
Salmons (C) Terrible offensive night, his shot is off, didn't we bring him in to be a spot up 3pt shooter? ball rotations come to a dead halt with him, hit a couple shots down the stretch and played great d down the stretch.
Jimmer (C) Looks a little lost out there,and its hurting his shooting, just doesn't seem to have a connection with anyone other than Cousins.
JT (B) played solid, without doing much on the stat sheet, held Gooden in check down the stretch.
Hickson (C) He has hands like Kwame Brown, but he hustles, he is also a black hole when he gets the ball in the post.
Smart (A) Liked his rotation, kept the best players on, in a MUST WIN night. hopefully Outlaw get demoted. he sucks. Did something at half time to motivate this team.
Actually I think it's the other way around. The Buck went small at the end of game to combat the Kings going small - as soon as Smart inserted Salmons for Cousins, the Buck pull Ilyasova and put in Livingston.
Again, I have no problem with smallball, any ball, that result in a win or even just make us semi-competitive.
The one thing I did like from Jimmer was he wasn't picking up his dribble as much once he got into the lane. He either went up for a shot, passed immediately, and once kept his dribble alive and brought the ball back out. Much better in that aspect today. Definitely still feeling out his game and his style, but you can see him evolving a little. Still needs to be a little more forceful with his passes though.
Dude, your whole post is full of what if's. Well, basketball isn't about what if's. It's about the scoreboard. And on this night in Sacramento, the scoreboard says WE WIN! Enjoy it. There's a new sheriff in town, there was obvious effort on the court by the team, and the fairly small crowd sounded like ARCO THUNDER. You're assuming Keith Smart will fail. I'm not gonna buy into that and I doubt if many others will, especially after the guys pulled victory from the jaws of defeat in such an exciting manner.
This was a good night to be a Kings fan. Why not savor the moment?
EDIT: Oh yeah, almost forgot. I voted for Cousins simply because tonight he was the dominant force we've been hoping to see...and you could see by the look on his face that he was truly feeling the joy of the moment, even when he fouled out. A good, good night for Demarcus Cousins.
it was a fun 2.5 quarters of basketball for sure. don't get to see comebacks like that very often.
the assist to turnover thing got us way behind (and is a scary reoccurring issue), but defense and grit and sheer will brought us back. it's great to see that they didn't just throw their hands up and give in. some good maturity.
and speaking of which, despite the recent things we "hear" about couisns' immaturity, from what i SEE, i think he has been noticeably more composed in games so far this year. he handled that blatantly wrong 6th foul very well. better than *i* did as a fan even. for such a passionate and emotional player at such a critical time in the game, he was super professional. shows growth, and I'm proud of him.
go kings.
the assist to turnover thing got us way behind (and is a scary reoccurring issue), but defense and grit and sheer will brought us back. it's great to see that they didn't just throw their hands up and give in. some good maturity.
and speaking of which, despite the recent things we "hear" about couisns' immaturity, from what i SEE, i think he has been noticeably more composed in games so far this year. he handled that blatantly wrong 6th foul very well. better than *i* did as a fan even. for such a passionate and emotional player at such a critical time in the game, he was super professional. shows growth, and I'm proud of him.
go kings.
Don't forget that if guys weren't missing wide open shots (ahem Salmons) our assist numbers would be up by at least 4-5. This game was a little ugly, and it was raw, but it at least gave us some sense of what this team can be if guys hit their shots. It was far better than the real 48 min 1 on 1 crap we've been seeing. One thing I want to see from Salmons and to a lesser extent Tyreke - if the ball is kicked out to you and you have space, take the 3. Especially Salmons - if you're not going to take that shot created for you, or if you're not going to make them at a good rate, you have no place being one of our starters.
Dude, Smart literally took over a few hours before the game and hasn't run a practice yet. What exactly did you expect Smart to do and what exactly did you expect from the team?!
This game is as good as we could have expected and in a lot of ways perfect on so many levels. Fall behind 20, have a coach involved in the game, yelling out instructions, calling timely time-outs, tightening rotations and all of a sudden things started clicking, confidence grew and bob's your uncle! He gets the first win as a coach, the players start believing in him and what he is preaching, players get some much needed confidence and belief back.
Did you all of a sudden expect us to run the sort of offence we ran with Divac-Webber-Peja-Christie-Bibby?! Give it a bit of time and it will turn around. Whether it turns with Smart is yet to be seen but we will obviously run things differently than we did with Westphal.
This game is as good as we could have expected and in a lot of ways perfect on so many levels. Fall behind 20, have a coach involved in the game, yelling out instructions, calling timely time-outs, tightening rotations and all of a sudden things started clicking, confidence grew and bob's your uncle! He gets the first win as a coach, the players start believing in him and what he is preaching, players get some much needed confidence and belief back.
Did you all of a sudden expect us to run the sort of offence we ran with Divac-Webber-Peja-Christie-Bibby?! Give it a bit of time and it will turn around. Whether it turns with Smart is yet to be seen but we will obviously run things differently than we did with Westphal.
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I am a fan of the tightened rotation. Other players got spot minutes, which is really where they should be. I expected IT to get a little run, but maybe it was because I was fooled by Westphalian rotations. I'm OK with how the minutes and rotations worked out. I didn't see players get yanked immediately after doing something stupid, and I won't lie when I say that I got nervous when Smart went to Nellie-ball. I don't know why Skiles didn't go big and work the ball inside, especially with a lead. If you have a size advantage, use it.
That being said, a win is a win is a win.
Very good play from Tyreke - he should have been flirting with a triple double had our players been able to hit shots earlier in the game.
That being said, a win is a win is a win.
Very good play from Tyreke - he should have been flirting with a triple double had our players been able to hit shots earlier in the game.
A few points:
* Yes, the Kings were fortunate to be in a position to win this game after their horrendous shooting and TO's in the 1st half - BUT!
The Bucks will probably not shoot that well again all season. It goes both ways, and anyone dismissing the Kings' win and not realizing the Bucks shot out of their minds is missing it.
* DMC needs to do something about his fouling. He has to be on the floor to be dominant, and he reaches out with his arms WAY too much. I also initially thought the 6th foul was BS, until I saw the later replay - he DID stick his arms out, at an angle - his arms were not straight up, and that's supposed to be an automatic foul (tho the refs aren't consistent with the call).
* Tyreke was great tonight (when he wasn't coughing it up on breakways - seriously, those are agonizingly bad TO's).
I'm really glad he showed flashes on rookie Tyreke - here's to hoping he can come out of his coma (and amazing how someone goes from shooting 58% FT's to 100% - it further enforces the fact that the whole team DECIDED to play badly with Westphal as the coach to deliberately force managements hand to get them a new coach).
* Tyreke said this in the postgame comments :
"Coach lets us play - he runs pick-and-rolls, he lets guys get to the spots they like..."
AHHHH!!! Coach Smart has already mentioned to Tyreke that he'll be doing some pick-and-rolls! That alone is sign for MUCH optimism! And Tyreke noted it enough to mention it as a difference, even when there weren't any pick-and-rolls during that game that I noticed. Tyreke certainly noted the coach telling him there'll be more....
* Yes, the Kings were fortunate to be in a position to win this game after their horrendous shooting and TO's in the 1st half - BUT!
The Bucks will probably not shoot that well again all season. It goes both ways, and anyone dismissing the Kings' win and not realizing the Bucks shot out of their minds is missing it.
* DMC needs to do something about his fouling. He has to be on the floor to be dominant, and he reaches out with his arms WAY too much. I also initially thought the 6th foul was BS, until I saw the later replay - he DID stick his arms out, at an angle - his arms were not straight up, and that's supposed to be an automatic foul (tho the refs aren't consistent with the call).
* Tyreke was great tonight (when he wasn't coughing it up on breakways - seriously, those are agonizingly bad TO's).
I'm really glad he showed flashes on rookie Tyreke - here's to hoping he can come out of his coma (and amazing how someone goes from shooting 58% FT's to 100% - it further enforces the fact that the whole team DECIDED to play badly with Westphal as the coach to deliberately force managements hand to get them a new coach).
* Tyreke said this in the postgame comments :
"Coach lets us play - he runs pick-and-rolls, he lets guys get to the spots they like..."
AHHHH!!! Coach Smart has already mentioned to Tyreke that he'll be doing some pick-and-rolls! That alone is sign for MUCH optimism! And Tyreke noted it enough to mention it as a difference, even when there weren't any pick-and-rolls during that game that I noticed. Tyreke certainly noted the coach telling him there'll be more....
I think some of us are just better at seeing the future than others.
Remember all the poster on this board who claimed that Hickson is the next Al Jefferson? And the ones who said what a great trade it was to get Salmons? Where are they now? Bottom line is that a few of us can see disaster from miles away while the majority is still basking in ignorance.Make no mistake about it, the coaching change should be just the beginning. The next step is to trade away some of the dead weight on this team. Until we actually have a "TEAM" and not a collection of individuals, I don't anticipate much improvement. I'm a big believer that the coach can only do so much.
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