Cousins Working His Butt Off (New poll)
- Thread starter rainmaker
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LOL! Continue on with the BS. Maybe you can talk about how the thingamajig of Cousins' won't coexist with the whatsamagiger with Malone. Until you define the term"anchor", and provide a definition for the same from Malone, it's just meaningless blather. Until then have fun playing with your whatsayacallit.
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You don't know this. Just because we didn't see it yet does not mean it's not going to happen. He suffered from the same lack of coaching that ever other player did. Unless by "protect the paint" you mean specifically blocking shots and not just stopping drives to the hoop. He's already shown that he will stop an opposing player driving by standing there and taking the charge.
Protect the rim if it helps the visual. People always seem to kick, scream, and throw tantrums to avoid it, but its there. It was all over the playoffs, as usual. The geometry of basketball absolutely demands that you be able to challenge people up high. Asking a guy who can't consistently do that to try to play that role is setting him up to fail. And actually with Cousins is a recipe for disaster as so much of what we need to happen next year centers on him staying on the floor and dominating offensively. He won't be able to do that or stay focused if he is running around engaging in what for him is high risk defensive behavior. Shotblocking is a gift every bit as innate as floor vision or passing touch. Maybe even moreso since its so physically related. If a guy who doesn't have that gift is forced to try to play that role he inevitably is going to rack up fouls mistiming block attempts, banging bodies, getting called for blocking fouls etc. A disaster for a young center just getting past his foul woes otherwise.
Asking Cousins to protect the rim for us would fit in nicely with asking BMac to initiate the offense off the dribble, asking Grevis to check the opposing team's best offensive player, and having IT post up.
Asking Cousins to protect the rim for us would fit in nicely with asking BMac to initiate the offense off the dribble, asking Grevis to check the opposing team's best offensive player, and having IT post up.
Defensive awareness isn't a "skill" like ball handling or dribbling. You can teach a bad 1 on 1 defender to be a good team defender through communication and understanding of rotations. Was Kevin Garnett a great defender from day 1? Nope as a young guy he was very much an offensive PF like Cousins is now. As he got older and his understanding of the game grew, he became a great anchor for a defense. The only reason i bring up Duncan with Cousins is that they have similar builds/athletic ability. Being a defensive anchor doesn't mean you are being asked to be a great 1 on 1 post defender(which Cousins has the frame/length/quickness/strength to be), but being the guy that communicates with the whole team, a C typically is sees the whole floor defensively where the PG just cant. Defense is effort and dedication, not something you are "born" with as you think. Theres a reason you rarely if ever see a great rookie defender, you may come in as a good 1 on 1 defender (Tyreke), but an all around great defenders are typically Vets in the league with good coaching/defensive schemes, not 22 year olds on teams that play Jungle ball and win 28 games. If Malone truly makes defense his main focus and makes the team give a crap and play hard on both ends, there is no reason Cousins can't at the very least become a good defender.
you guys see the video of Cousins with Coach Malone at the end of the SL game today?
http://www.news10.net/sports/articl...ousin-and-Head-Coach-Michael-Malone-get-along
http://www.news10.net/sports/articl...ousin-and-Head-Coach-Michael-Malone-get-along
I don't think anyone is saying the want Cousins to be Dalembert, being an "anchor" doesn't just mean blocking shots, it means being the main communicator to the whole team on defense, look at the Miami Heat, they don't have an "anchor" on defense but their rotations and communication are elite for teams in the NBA. This team is notoriously known for not communicating on defense. If Cousins can be that "leader" that gives a crap on defense, talks, and gets everyone communicating as a unit, you instantly improve defensively. Even if Cousins can't jump 5 feet in the air and block shots, he can read his rotations, hold is ground and put his hands up, a 7'0 Cousins with length is still going to alter shots, even if he doesn't block shots, forcing a guard to take an uncomfortable shot is better than having an open lane for a layup like we saw countless times last season.
This is right on target!
@Bricklayer
If you are so convinced we desperately need a shotblocking, defensive PF, than you should maybe ask yourself, who is available for us. We weren't able to sign a defensive PF in FA and we don't have much value to trade for one in return, at least if you focus on those players, that provide something on the offensive end (like mid-range-jumper etc.) too and can't be leaved on an island by the opposing team, and therefore making it difficult for Cousins to score underneath the basket.
Who do you want to see as a member of the Kings? Iabaka? Haslem? Gibson? Henson? Favors? Sanders? No way we can trade for one of them with the garbage we have to offer right now outside of Cousins. And with Mclemore struggling we can't even trade Thornton, who might be the only player with some mediocre value throughout the league.
@Bricklayer
If you are so convinced we desperately need a shotblocking, defensive PF, than you should maybe ask yourself, who is available for us. We weren't able to sign a defensive PF in FA and we don't have much value to trade for one in return, at least if you focus on those players, that provide something on the offensive end (like mid-range-jumper etc.) too and can't be leaved on an island by the opposing team, and therefore making it difficult for Cousins to score underneath the basket.
Who do you want to see as a member of the Kings? Iabaka? Haslem? Gibson? Henson? Favors? Sanders? No way we can trade for one of them with the garbage we have to offer right now outside of Cousins. And with Mclemore struggling we can't even trade Thornton, who might be the only player with some mediocre value throughout the league.
I wish we had a thread that was created by a wordsmith. Who could settle debates and prevent miscommunications due to misunderstanding phrases and terms. You could post a word or phrase in it and when a term was submitted the wordsmith could validate the meaning so arguments could stay on point easier. But I think that would deprive us of many good conversations
there is a significant contingent of people around here that wouldn't think twice about putting Cuz at PF if it meant he'd be paired with a strong helpside presence at the centre spot. guys like Gortat and Asik, who've been rumoured to be available, for instance. I also don't see quite as much need for these guys to necessarily contribute all that much on offense. as long as they know how to set screens, finish at the rim and stay out of the way, they'd be fine.
And who do we trade for Gortat or Asik? Those guys are starting caliber center. I doubt Houston would trade Asik for a bundle containing any combination of Jimmer, Patterson, Hayes or Thompson. And they dont need Thomas neither.
Phoenix has PF's like Scola, or the Morris-Twins. Do they need any of our mediocre power-guys and give us their insurance for the worst-case, that Len can't get healthy, in return?
That's the main problem around here. We don't have much to offer, to get some defensive impact-player.
Btw. Kirilenko opted out of his contract with the Timberwolves to sign with a contender. I doubt there was any chance to sign him for the Kings.
Brandan Wright would be a an option but we dont have to act like it was a major letdown to pick Landry, a proven PF in the league, over this guy. On top of that he has expressed interest to return to the Mavs, so it is not clear, if we had a chance to sign him anyways.
Sacramento needs some positive headlines under the new ownership to become an attractive destination for FA.
Phoenix has PF's like Scola, or the Morris-Twins. Do they need any of our mediocre power-guys and give us their insurance for the worst-case, that Len can't get healthy, in return?
That's the main problem around here. We don't have much to offer, to get some defensive impact-player.
Btw. Kirilenko opted out of his contract with the Timberwolves to sign with a contender. I doubt there was any chance to sign him for the Kings.
Brandan Wright would be a an option but we dont have to act like it was a major letdown to pick Landry, a proven PF in the league, over this guy. On top of that he has expressed interest to return to the Mavs, so it is not clear, if we had a chance to sign him anyways.
Sacramento needs some positive headlines under the new ownership to become an attractive destination for FA.
The Miami Heat have 2 great perimeter defensive players, 1 good, big one in Chalmers, and feature bigs that do nothing BUT play D in Joel Anthony and Birdman. Shane Battier off the bench is also a top defender, or was not too long ago. You get a perimeter lineup with that kind of defensive ability and you don't need to worry about having an anchor to stop guard penetration to the rim, because those guards are never going to beat their man in the first place. Extremely different from a line up of Vasquez/IT and MT.
For the record, anchor tends to be really great defensive players that the entire defense funnels the opposing offense to.
For the record, anchor tends to be really great defensive players that the entire defense funnels the opposing offense to.
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just because these options aren't available right now, there is no need to go in the complete opposite direction and spend a large chunk of your money on a guy like Landry. if Landry is supposed to be an impact player, he must play with Cuz, which also means that Cuz' current weaknesses are exposed even more. I know some think that changing Cuz is the way to go about this, but I don't buy into that. if you have a guy as young and talented as Cuz, you make the team around him fit and don't try to change him in order to make that happen. right now we're asking him to do just about everything and I don't know if he'll take too kindly to that. with his free agency looming and no word from our FO on whether or not they're going to sign him to the max extension his agent is looking for, that makes me nervous.
LOL! Continue on with the BS. Maybe you can talk about how the thingamajig of Cousins' won't coexist with the whatsamagiger with Malone. Until you define the term"anchor", and provide a definition for the same from Malone, it's just meaningless blather. Until then have fun playing with your whatsayacallit.
There is actually a fair amount of that post I agree with, but the key confusion remains: being an anchor is not the same thing as being a captain. The anchor back there really does need to block or alter shots. That's the point. you win games defensively by protecting the rim. The defensive anchor is your backline stopper, the guy who cleans up all the messes.
I actually see so much tripping over teminologies and theory and whatnot in this thread its not clear who actually has divergent assessments and who has divergent terminology. To that end, I want to clear up what I can there by laying out essentially a theory of three distinct defensive roles, and where Cousins could fit.
Role 1
Basic: Man Defender (stops the man in front of him)
Elite: Stopper (locks down the man in front of him)
Role 2
Basic: Team Defender (rotates, shows, switches, calls out screens etc.. may also play passing lanes)
Elite: Defensive Captain (all of above at elite level and sets defensive tone for team)
Role 3
Basic: Shotblocker
Elite: Defensive Anchor
Some examples: Dalembert is a shot blocker/defensive anchor. But not a defensive captain. Brook Lopez is a shotblocker, but not an anchor or captain. Tyson Chandler is rare in that he's barely a shotblocker, but he's a Defensive Anchor and Defensive Captain. As is Marc Gasol. Doug Christie was both stopper and Defensive Captain. Bruce Bowen actually was just stopper, but not a Defensive Captain.
Of those three roles, I think Cousins can definitely be a solid to good man defender in time. But very unlikely he'll be a stopper. I think Cousins can definitely be a good team defender. And on that front I think he may even have the potential to be a great one, although its hard to see him ever so focused on that end to be a captain. But Cousins will never be more than a middling shotblocker, and isn't going to be able to anchor that backline. When Westbrook gets around Grevis for the 8th time in the game, there is just no way Cousins is going to be able to get over and effectively challenge again and again without ending up on the bench with fouls.
Defensive anchors are rare and elite pieces. If I just went around the Western Conference I would say there are only about half the teams even have one:
Portland: no
Sacramento: no
Golden State: Bogut if healthy
Lakers: no with Dwight gone
Clippers: probably not, have shotblocker (Jordan) but not true anchor
Phoenix: maybe, Gortat is poor man's version
Utah: no, Favors is shotblcoker, will have to prove he's an anchor
Denver: no, McGee is shotblocker, too dumb for anchor status
Dallas: Dalembert is low level
Houston: Dwight AND Asik
San Antonio: Duncan
Memphis: Gasol
New Orleans: Davis eventually (last year not really, just shotblocker)
Minnesota: no
Oklahoma City: maybe not. Perkins is a man/help defender, but not a shotblocker/anchor anymore. Ibaka is more shotblocker than achor.
I actually see so much tripping over teminologies and theory and whatnot in this thread its not clear who actually has divergent assessments and who has divergent terminology. To that end, I want to clear up what I can there by laying out essentially a theory of three distinct defensive roles, and where Cousins could fit.
Role 1
Basic: Man Defender (stops the man in front of him)
Elite: Stopper (locks down the man in front of him)
Role 2
Basic: Team Defender (rotates, shows, switches, calls out screens etc.. may also play passing lanes)
Elite: Defensive Captain (all of above at elite level and sets defensive tone for team)
Role 3
Basic: Shotblocker
Elite: Defensive Anchor
Some examples: Dalembert is a shot blocker/defensive anchor. But not a defensive captain. Brook Lopez is a shotblocker, but not an anchor or captain. Tyson Chandler is rare in that he's barely a shotblocker, but he's a Defensive Anchor and Defensive Captain. As is Marc Gasol. Doug Christie was both stopper and Defensive Captain. Bruce Bowen actually was just stopper, but not a Defensive Captain.
Of those three roles, I think Cousins can definitely be a solid to good man defender in time. But very unlikely he'll be a stopper. I think Cousins can definitely be a good team defender. And on that front I think he may even have the potential to be a great one, although its hard to see him ever so focused on that end to be a captain. But Cousins will never be more than a middling shotblocker, and isn't going to be able to anchor that backline. When Westbrook gets around Grevis for the 8th time in the game, there is just no way Cousins is going to be able to get over and effectively challenge again and again without ending up on the bench with fouls.
Defensive anchors are rare and elite pieces. If I just went around the Western Conference I would say there are only about half the teams even have one:
Portland: no
Sacramento: no
Golden State: Bogut if healthy
Lakers: no with Dwight gone
Clippers: probably not, have shotblocker (Jordan) but not true anchor
Phoenix: maybe, Gortat is poor man's version
Utah: no, Favors is shotblcoker, will have to prove he's an anchor
Denver: no, McGee is shotblocker, too dumb for anchor status
Dallas: Dalembert is low level
Houston: Dwight AND Asik
San Antonio: Duncan
Memphis: Gasol
New Orleans: Davis eventually (last year not really, just shotblocker)
Minnesota: no
Oklahoma City: maybe not. Perkins is a man/help defender, but not a shotblocker/anchor anymore. Ibaka is more shotblocker than achor.
Well, it's nice to finally have your theory on the definition of an anchor - an elite shot blocker. That's not the definition everybody has, however. It's certainly not mine. (As far as I know, there is no Nasmith Dictionary that is authoritative). In particular, we don't know if your definition is the one Malone had in mind when he used the word. Therefore, any disagreement with Malone on the matter of using Cousins as an "anchor" is more of an internal head trip than anything else.
Just picture Ben Wallace role in that great Pistons team that kick the butt of that great Lakers team and one can surely picture what a defensive anchor really entails and mean.
Another good example is Roy Hibbert of the recent Indiana team.
Cousins is not built like these guys and can never be honed to be one.
Another good example is Roy Hibbert of the recent Indiana team.
Cousins is not built like these guys and can never be honed to be one.
I don't know what Malone meant and in the end, that's what counts as it is HIS expectation of Cousins that counts and not ours. What worries me and actually sends out warning bells is that Malone may want to change Cousins into something he is not - a defender. Perhaps the pickup of Landry was with the expectation that Cousins would take up the defensive slack. I ALWAYS want a player playing to his strengths and the team constructed to fill in the holes rather than having the player work on a skill he may never acquire. We already lost Tyreke by trying to make him into something he is not and we may do the same with Cousins.
I don't automatically assume Malone knows what he is doing. I already have questions about PDA. We drafted a SG who may have been BPA (how would we know as we never worked him out?) when we already had two competent SGs in Tyreke and MT. I am supposed to have patience but I don't see our team moving in anything but a lateral direction if not worse.
We have no anchor no matter how you define it. I suspect the team thought we didn't need an anchor as we already had one in Cuz. Good luck with that.
I don't automatically assume Malone knows what he is doing. I already have questions about PDA. We drafted a SG who may have been BPA (how would we know as we never worked him out?) when we already had two competent SGs in Tyreke and MT. I am supposed to have patience but I don't see our team moving in anything but a lateral direction if not worse.
We have no anchor no matter how you define it. I suspect the team thought we didn't need an anchor as we already had one in Cuz. Good luck with that.
Amen, Glenn.
The way I see it, we have a guy playing the 5 that can give us 40/20 on a given night. That's buck *** crazy. That's how he alters the game. I don't want him expending so much energy on one end to the point where it affects his gift. Bring in some schmoe to play the 4 and cover the inside to help Cousins there. It doesn't have to be someone elite this year, but at least avoid the stubbies who do more harm than good on that end.
All this work with help d won't mean a lick if we don't shore up the perimeter as well. We'll see how that looks in the fall.
The way I see it, we have a guy playing the 5 that can give us 40/20 on a given night. That's buck *** crazy. That's how he alters the game. I don't want him expending so much energy on one end to the point where it affects his gift. Bring in some schmoe to play the 4 and cover the inside to help Cousins there. It doesn't have to be someone elite this year, but at least avoid the stubbies who do more harm than good on that end.
All this work with help d won't mean a lick if we don't shore up the perimeter as well. We'll see how that looks in the fall.
I wish we had a thread that was created by a wordsmith. Who could settle debates and prevent miscommunications due to misunderstanding phrases and terms. You could post a word or phrase in it and when a term was submitted the wordsmith could validate the meaning so arguments could stay on point easier. But I think that would deprive us of many good conversations
Brandan Wright is not the answer. He is lower level guy and not a starter on a good team
Don't bother mate! Kingster is notorious for being a smart ***! Maybe I should ask him what is his definition of a pick and roll and what is Malone's definition of pick and roll and how they differ (if at all) so until then he should not be commenting on pick and rolls?!
That's is as ridiculous as his request of definition of an "anchor"!
Don't bother mate! Kingster is notorious for being a smart ***! Maybe I should ask him what is his definition of a pick and roll and what is Malone's definition of pick and roll and how they differ (if at all) so until then he should not be commenting on pick and rolls?!
That's is as ridiculous as his request of definition of an "anchor"!
Brandan Wright is not the answer. He is lower level guy and not a starter on a good team
Don't bother mate! Kingster is notorious for being a smart ***! Maybe I should ask him what is his definition of a pick and roll and what is Malone's definition of pick and roll and how they differ (if at all) so until then he should not be commenting on pick and rolls?!
That's is as ridiculous as his request of definition of an "anchor"!
Don't bother mate! Kingster is notorious for being a smart ***! Maybe I should ask him what is his definition of a pick and roll and what is Malone's definition of pick and roll and how they differ (if at all) so until then he should not be commenting on pick and rolls?!
That's is as ridiculous as his request of definition of an "anchor"!
