[GRADES] (Pre-season) Kings v. Trailblazers - Monday, Oct. 9 - 7PM PT

[206Fan]

I am absolutely impressed with Frank Mason. He's Isaiah Thomas just not quite as fast.

He reminds me a little bit of Isaiah. I think Mason is slightly more explosive, but IT is much faster(one of quickest players in the league). However, IT is definitely a better scorer than him. His ability to score inside is really good, and extremely impressive considering his size.

I couldn't disagree more. I felt Mason might of been the lone bright spot yesterday. Anytime Mason was off the floor the team lost ground against Portland. He was basically responsible for 9 of Jackson points with three nice assists... I could make an argument that Mason is more of pure point guard than Fox at this point.

I don't think Mason nor Fox are good playmakers, but Fox runs an offense better. Mason struggles to run the PnR game. The NBA game today is heavily dependent on it. Anytime we set a pick, he struggled reading the actions. Something he does well is driving and drawing all the defenders in, and then kicking it out. Aside from that, I don't see a lot of PG skills from Mason. Our offense suffered without a floor general. Running the offense through Skal is not ideal..

 

[King Baller]

Nurkic absolutely deserved that elbow, so Cooley A+ from me.

Cooley was demonstrating what can happen. It should have Been delivered to Randle in the Lakers game.

 

[HndsmCelt]

Yup, Cooley is an old school enforcer. Gets the boards, fills up space in the paint and has his team mates backs. Given his very limited skill set I am not sure how this throwback fits in the modern NBA but I hope he can stick. It is refreshing to see a guy who grits his teeth and gives the other guy something to whine about.

 

[ESP47]

He reminds me a little bit of Isaiah. I think Mason is slightly more explosive, but IT is much faster(one of quickest players in the league). However, IT is definitely a better scorer than him. His ability to score inside is really good, and extremely impressive considering his size.


I don't think Mason nor Fox are good playmakers, but Fox runs an offense better. Mason struggles to run the PnR game. The NBA game today is heavily dependent on it. Anytime we set a pick, he struggled reading the actions. Something he does well is driving and drawing all the defenders in, and then kicking it out. Aside from that, I don't see a lot of PG skills from Mason. Our offense suffered without a floor general. Running the offense through Skal is not ideal..

I don't think he got a ton of opportunities last night. Joerger seemed pretty insistent on running the offense through the high post most of the time. When Mason was free to do his thing, good things happened way more often than when we ran those crappy high post sets.

If Mason played starter minutes, he would probably average about 5 assists a game. Nothing earth shattering but if your backup PG can come off the bench and give you around 10 points a game, a few rebounds and a few assists....you've got yourself a good solid backup. If he can score with good efficiency and at least involve his teammates here and there, he will be a great backup for us.

 

[Kingster]

I hope you are right. I think Willie looked mostly awful last night. There is NO decisiveness to his reads when he has the ball at the top of the key. I don't interpret that as coasting through preseason, I interpret that as a guy who lacks the skills to put the opponent at a disadvantage. He's just not that good. His post moves pretty much stink and his face up game is awkward. I am not that worried about most of the guys not playing that well, including Buddy and Boggy. Willie is the one guy who stands out who needs to take a step forward and has not. I do think Willie is a guy who is best when he is a consistent lob threat a la Rudy Gobert and having Hill and Fox on the court will help to make him and more consistent lob threat.

Willie looks like a back-up to me, and if we are going to be a surprise team this year, Willie needs to be more than a back-up.

I agree that his offense is mediocre at best. He's just not gifted in that regard. Defense and rebounding is where he's got to make a big positive impact for this team.

 

[sactowndog]

I agree that his offense is mediocre at best. He's just not gifted in that regard. Defense and rebounding is where he's got to make a big positive impact for this team.

Right except he seems to be a poor rebounder with limited anticipation of where the ball will go.

 

[Kingster]

Right except he seems to be a poor rebounder with limited anticipation of where the ball will go.

I think we saw him rebound the ball at the end of last year pretty well. If he puts his mind to it, he can do it.

 

[kingsfan1984]

Is WCS BMAC 2.0?