Again, **** statistics.
All of us saw last year how, for the first time in ten years, a Kings team actually played hustling team defense.
That was not a fluke, it wasn't an accident, and it it means something that the players don't want to play that kind of defense for any other coach the Kings have trotted out there.
(Btw - it's asinine to look at defensive Kings statistics when Cousins was out with viral meningitis).
Have any of you been noticing the coded language the Kings' players have been using?
Go look up Rudy's post-game on-air interview after that game he played great on (Bucks?) : he said "It's all about the defense. Defense wins games."
Go look up Demarcus' post-game on-air interview after the Dallas game: he said "It's all about the defense. Defense wins games."
As any knowledgeable KF knows, Malone was famously fired lasy year immediately after stating in his post-game interview, "I don;t care about the analytics - it's all bull$hit. Defense wins games in the NBA : PERIOD."
If I had to read the tea leaves, I think there's a civil war going on with the Kings this year - the players HATE the system George Karl has, and his rotations, and the guy's attitude.
I think the players are subtly protesting with their coded language after wins, directly reinforcing that things need to change with the coaching, to a more defensively-oriented, slow-it-down type of system.
As a matter of fact, for the first time I can remember recently, in the pre-game before the Dallas game, Grant Napear himself mentioned the need for a focus on defense and used the same language the players have been using (focusing on the coach and system, not just complaining about the player's lack of defense which he always done). He mentioned it again at the beginning of his radio show today, specifically saying the Kings should slow down the pace and stop the focus on threes and get Demarcus into the lane.
I am guessing that the players have the ear of management, and management is starting to pressure Grant to start changing the public narrative and start questioning the horrendous defensive coaching.
I believe this is a lead-in to the firing of Karl, or at the least, the strong-arming of him into slowing the pace down by walking it up and getting Demarcus in the post/elbow.
