Tetsujin
The Game Thread Dude
ANY QUESTIONS???!!
legitimately hard to explain
Someone, possibly a former coach, can hold a press conference and explain.
legitimately hard to explain
To me it seems obvious. Fewer things in this league are a better measure of the will to win and play for each other than gritting it out when the going gets tough.
legitimately hard to explain
Which just seems like really bad coaching considering our starters were playing the most minutes in the league at the time and some of them were working/playing through injuries. Did it not occur to him that some rest might be beneficial? Just very odd to hear about all of this stuff now.Best explanation that I have heard is that Christie eased up on practices and the players are fresher. They were getting beat up under Brown - not enough recovery time.
I really like Coach Brown - but there is ample evidence at this point that letting him go was the right call.
Best explanation that I have heard is that Christie eased up on practices and the players are fresher. They were getting beat up under Brown - not enough recovery time.
I really like Coach Brown - but there is ample evidence at this point that letting him go was the right call.
I'm past the point in my life of taking a fundamental stand that players should put out effort every night no matter what because of their paycheck. That line of thinking (which is understandable), is so 1990's. We are beyond that as a society in a number of ways. The players are who they are, and are paid sums of money that are unthinkable to any of us (I assume...) We might not like it, but the thought that they should be grateful for what they have and should put it all on the line every night to prove it is just not realistic. Better to not cry about it, and instead find a coach that can find other ways to motivate and get the most out of a team.To me it seems obvious. Fewer things in this league are a better measure of the will to win and play for each other than gritting it out when the going gets tough.
Couple of those under Christie involved very impressive comebacks too. The team's heart has been revived. Brown had killed it.
And before you go all Chuckster on me and say "the players should take responsibility!!!"... Just as much as a coach can motivate and moralize a team, a coach can demotivate and demoralize a team. Holding personal vendettas against players is a great way to create a culture of demoralization. Brown obviously did that with at least Keon, one of the best rising young guards literally in the Association. And probably Sasha last year too.
The players quit on Coach Brown to give the owners and excuse for firing him. That's how much they disliked playing for him.
Yeah, that is the one thing that seems to get reported, but I think there must be more driving the big change in play.
The players didn't seem to enjoy playing the game together under Brown for some reason. It seemed labored, really. Whether it was Brown's practices, they didn't trust his play calling / rotations or they just no longer bought in to what he was selling, he clearly lost the locker room.
What Doug brought in was a sense of energy and creating a "family" on this team and the team has bought in big time. That is the reason I would prefer they keep the core 7 that are playing big minutes intact (Fox, Domas, DDR, Keegan, Monk, Keon and Carter) past the deadline and see what kind of run they can put together. Add some depth at the deadline, but don't disrupt the chemistry. No need to make a big splash or rash changes right now, let it simmer and see what we have cooking.
I have to believe there's an X's and O's component here too. I always got the feeling that Brown was installing more and more concepts each season. At least to me it seemed like he was calling out more plays this season than in the original Beam Team season. That can be a bit constraining. Also, whatever the defense concepts were this season were clearly not working. I can't imagine Brown WANTED the team to give up so many open threes to protect the painted area, but either way, that was the end result and it meant a big disparity in made 3's most nights.
The 3's thing made no sense. Every single game it was a 5+ 3PM disparity. We've closed the gap a bit, but pretty much under Brown, we spotted the other team 15 points on 3's, every single game.
Probably didn't help Brown kept saying "We tell the guys to get out and defend the 3 and they're not doing it" or something to that extent. So what was it? Players ignoring orders, or following the defensive game-plan and allowing open 3 after open 3?
Yeah, I don't know what the defensive concepts were *supposed* to be in theory, but in practice it looked like Kings defenders purposely sagging into the paint and off of three point shooters. And there were seemingly never any adjustments despite the results.
Yeah the concept was the help defender *always* tagged the driver and then got out on the shooter. Problem was there was always way too much space and that kick-out was always way to easy to find. I remember one play where Keegan instinctually went out to the corner shooter, stopped himself to help on the drive and then was late on the contest. Was just a maddening game-plan
Which just seems like really bad coaching considering our starters were playing the most minutes in the league at the time and some of them were working/playing through injuries. Did it not occur to him that some rest might be beneficial? Just very odd to hear about all of this stuff now.
Which just seems like really bad coaching considering our starters were playing the most minutes in the league at the time and some of them were working/playing through injuries. Did it not occur to him that some rest might be beneficial? Just very odd to hear about all of this stuff now.
I'm not sure about practice, but Christie at some point has to start dwindling those starters minutes down too because he's actually riding all the starters even more than Brown was. Since DC took over the Kings have dropped to 29th in bench minutes. The bench is only averaging around 12 mpg which is nutty. And he's still spreading those few minutes around 4 guys at times which is going to work against him at some point.
I agree, but most of our bench is horrible (and really, it shouldn't be as bad as it has been) so I can understand him riding the starters more. Huerter, Keon, and Trey looks solid on paper, but Huerter is essentially unplayable right now and Trey has been inconsistent. We are sorely lacking a better back-up big man, so Sabonis is doing a ton of heavy lifting lately too.I'm not sure about practice, but Christie at some point has to start dwindling those starters minutes down too because he's actually riding all the starters even more than Brown was. Since DC took over the Kings have dropped to 29th in bench minutes. The bench is only averaging around 12 mpg which is nutty. And he's still spreading those few minutes around 4 guys at times which is going to work against him at some point.
I agree, but most of our bench is horrible (and really, it shouldn't be as bad as it has been) so I can understand him riding the starters more. Huerter, Keon, and Trey looks solid on paper, but Huerter is essentially unplayable right now and Trey has been inconsistent. We are sorely lacking a better back-up big man, so Sabonis is doing a ton of heavy lifting lately too.
Carter is still a relatively new addition to the lineup though, so it's not like we have weeks and weeks of data to confirm that, though I have no doubt he will pan out (especially as he gets his legs under him). I think our issue is size. Our starting line up isn't very big to begin with and when 2/3 main guns off the bench are smaller guards, it puts us in a tough spot matchup wise.It's tough to say what's horrible though. In glancing at the 5 man lineups, when Keon and Carter are in the lineups that play the most you have BY FAR the best defensive net ratings of all their consistent rotations. With any team if you can have 3 legit rotation pieces off your bech you should be good.
ANY QUESTIONS???!!
Carter is still a relatively new addition to the lineup though, so it's not like we have weeks and weeks of data to confirm that, though I have no doubt he will pan out (especially as he gets his legs under him). I think our issue is size. Our starting line up isn't very big to begin with and when 2/3 main guns off the bench are smaller guards, it puts us in a tough spot matchup wise.
I still think we need a better partner for Sabonis and slide Murray to a 3 spot (yes I know that positions don't really matter anymore). This will allow us to have better balance from the bench, reduce the workload for Sabonis, and increase in size/length overall. The second option would be to offload some dead weight off the bench and get a better backup big man.
Positions definitely still matter, which for example, is why Sabonis doesn't work well playing the 4 and Fox is not really the best idea playing the 2.....and we're seeing more and more that Monk is best as a lead guard.