[Game] Game 22: Sacramento Kings @ LA Kobes, 12/09/14. 7:30 PST, 10:30 EST

Hey Kobe, how does Shaq's ass taste?

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  • Total voters
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It would seem that without Demarcus this team is pretty much back to being in full-time suck mode and finding any way they can to lose.

Malone isn't helping. He's the best coach they've had since Adelman in a while and he does have some positives in his coaching ability........his coaching with the lead and coaching in the 4th quarter leaves a lot to be desired. You give him a lead in the 4th quarter and he always finds a way to leave an ineffective group of subs in for too long. The sad thing is that he will come out and trash the players again tonight and they certainly shoulder a large part of the blame but so does he.

Last thing is I've seen enough of Rudy Gay now myself to find out exactly what Memphis and Toronto fans have said about him, he is not a winner. It's sad to say but it's the truth, some guys have knack for winning and Rudy just doesn't. Rudy is a guy that puts up big numbers on bad teams if he is your best player or maybe even second best player.

Watching McLemore bust his ass on defense down the stretch and make key hustle plays it's starting to look like Ben might actually have some of that winner's mentality. I think going forward in another year or two, Ben Mclemore might need to be this team's 2nd best player in order for them to ever get the hump and be a playoff team. Rudy might be better as the 3rd option at that point. I've just watched enough of Rudy to see that he's not suddenly going to will his teammates to win.
he is not a first option.

great 2nd option with demarcus.

the growth of ben is great and in time will lead us to great things but just because rudy lacks this percieved mental edge and subjective winners mentality does not take away from the fact that prior to demarcus going on leave he was the best SF in the west
 
One thing is a coach is supposed to manage the clock, but Malone does it the other way, he let the clock manages him
His adjustments always take way too long. Always waits to long to change a lineup that isn't working or address a gaping hole. Such as Reggie Evans on the bench for 10 mins in the 4th quarter as we give up offensive boards on every missed shot. And how he waited till the Lakers cut it to 1pt game with a little over 4mins left to get Ben and JT back in
 
Malone harping on FT's - no question about his substitutions - thus loss was no fault of his. Said execution on last play was "ok, just needs to be better." Nothing about putting play in hands of a fricking rookie. Media lap dogs and Napear was main mouth in the useless presser.
 
Malone said he doesnt want any more my-bad moments from the players. Tonight he should be saying "my bad"
To his point though, he should starting coaching and using his best players like a pro coach. Not just say, "my bad".

I really wonder if there's something else going on here. Some sort of "chess" with how these players are being used and not used. It feels like after DMC has been out and losses have come, that the front office made a "change of direction call". Almost as if they weighed the odds of playoffs, and decided at this point, to roll the dice towards something else
 
Malone harping on FT's - no question about his substitutions - thus loss was no fault of his. Said execution on last play was "ok, just needs to be better." Nothing about putting play in hands of a fricking rookie. Media lap dogs and Napear was main mouth in the useless presser.
Sounds like Dennis Allen
 
Very interesting point. It does seem that way, as oppossed to reacting to the play of each game and the flow of different quarters
When Kobe came back in the 4th with 5-6 minutes left, the common sense would be put Ben back in, but you could tell that he had already made up his mind that he had a specific time to put Ben back into the game.
 
To his point though, he should starting coaching and using his best players like a pro coach. Not just say, "my bad".

I really wonder if there's something else going on here. Some sort of "chess" with how these players are being used and not used. It feels like after DMC has been out and losses have come, that the front office made a "change of direction call". Almost as if they weighed the odds of playoffs, and decided at this point, to roll the dice towards something else

Certainly looks like the "we are measuring this season by wins and losses" mentality has been pushed aside lately
 
When Kobe came back in the 4th with 5-6 minutes left, the common sense would be put Ben back in, but you could tell that he had already made up his mind that he had a specific time to put Ben back into the game.
It feels like he's letting guys learn under fire, as oppossed to just making winning decisions for the here and now. Maybe that's what the front office has decided is the better road at this point?
 
It feels like he's letting guys learn under fire, as oppossed to just making winning decisions for the here and now. Maybe that's what front office has decided is the better road at this point?
If there was a fighting chance, then yes. But it was Kobe vs Nick, there's not much to learn under fire, everybody knew Kobe would burn Nick badly.
 
Malone harping on FT's - no question about his substitutions - thus loss was no fault of his. Said execution on last play was "ok, just needs to be better." Nothing about putting play in hands of a fricking rookie. Media lap dogs and Napear was main mouth in the useless presser.
One thing worse than being wrong.....not knowing that you're wrong. (Coach guilty of this)
 
When Kobe came back in the 4th with 5-6 minutes left, the common sense would be put Ben back in, but you could tell that he had already made up his mind that he had a specific time to put Ben back into the game.
I wanted to add something else to this. I would think if the letting the guys learn under fire thing was on his mind, that he would have wanted Ben on Bryant as much as possible down the stretch. Ben is the one who seemed ready for the challenge.

So maybe that's not the explanation. Who knows? o_O
 
It's like they are just conceding loss with Cousins out and choosing to expirement at the cost of wins. Already a couple of wins thrown away since Cousins went out.
 
I wanted to add something else to this. I would think if the letting the guys learn under fire thing was on his mind, that he would have wanted Ben on Bryant as much as possible down the stretch. Ben is the one who seemed ready for the challenge.

So maybe that's not the explanation. Who knows? o_O
Malone probably doesn't know too
 
Let's see now...

o_O

What is Omri Casspi good at?
(This year specificly)

  • Drives to the rim with high percentage scoring (best TS% on team)
  • Making his FT
  • Creating more ball movement
  • Hard hustling on the boards, mainly DRs
  • Guarding the perimeter
  • Guarding dangerous SG's
  • Boosting team energy
Now - let's figure out what was lacking tonight:

  • Low use of drives (and low % too)
  • Bad % in FTs (D-Will & DC combined were 4/14)
  • Sticky ISO - Insufficient ball movement
  • Weakness in Reb, especially DRs (apart from Reg) - LAL got 14 ORs! 5 more than we did...
  • Low rebounding from supporting cast and from 2/3/4 positions generally - Landry, Williams, Ben & Nik combined had only 8 boards in 85 minutes. Even adding Rudy makes it only 13 in 120 minutes.
  • Bryant & Johnson making 3s in money time
  • Lack of energy in the 4th
Now - what am I missing here?

How would anyone figure out that Omri could not be of use tonight?
:mad:
 
I don't like to criticize the coaches or players too much, but this loss IMHO is clearly on Malone. You may also blame the players for not performing, but that's why you have a bench. I just can't figure out what were the reasons to play the lineups of tonight. Not giving any minutes to Casspi was clearly a grave mistake in many ways. If Casspi was on the floor during the last possession, he could have made a drive to the hoop either scoring or getting to the line. Worst case scenario would have been overtime. Giving the ball to Nik Stauskas, a rookie struggling with his confidence, for a game winning situation, was outright insane. It was not fair to the team and it was not fair to Nik. Malone had plenty of time to see how especially the bench players are performing. He did nothing to change the mode. This game was really destructive for the team. If Malone goes on like this, the team will find itself in a tailspin.