Grades v. Blazers 01/06

[ReinadelosReys]

And I would like to add that your shtick has already grown beyond tiresome. This isn't IloveDarkoMIlicic.com It's Kingsfans.com and I've yet to see you post anything of any value about the Kings.

I just took action for the good of the herd.

Another one bites the dust. Hey, Im gonna get you too. Another one bites the dust...

 

[Entity]

Hey Brick with the shape of our PF situation and they have no offense anway. we only use them for rebounds and defense. Justin Williams could be our starting PF and we would be no worse. Maybe even better.

 

[Krunker]

EW i just took a peak at the box score becaue i was scared to earlier. KT had 1 freaking rebound in 22 min. Thats aweful and is really the only reason he matters on this team is his rebounding.

Yes, but at least he is a "scoring machine".

 

[Entity]

yeah i believe he had a better % when he was taking elbo jumpers. He hasn't taken a shot outside of 4 feet all year and his % is worse.

 

[SacTownKid]

Hey Brick with the shape of our PF situation and they have no offense anway. we only use them for rebounds and defense. Justin Williams could be our starting PF and we would be no worse. Maybe even better.

Maybe? There isn't even a question of maybe. Justin would at least bring it 82 games a year. Oh that and he would actually fit the role perfectly.

 

[Entity]

I know its more than Maybe but i get picked on when i say things like that. Because some throw at me he hasn't played in an NBA game yet. So i backed off. but yes if we are going to use our PF position soley as a defensive position a taller shotblocking more skilled rebounder such as Justin would be a perfect fit yes. Also in his Draft Exprss wirte up they speak of him being one of the quickest they have seen in rotating. We could use that as well.

 

[SacKings384]

And I would like to add that your shtick has already grown beyond tiresome. This isn't IloveDarkoMIlicic.com It's Kingsfans.com and I've yet to see you post anything of any value about the Kings.

I just took action for the good of the herd.

ILOveDarkoMilicic.com ROFL!!!!!!!!!

 

[SacKings384]

I agree. I really don't want Justin to join the long lists of bigs who have rotted on the bench over the past few seasons. Give the guy a shot! Give him some damn minutes...

 

[SacTownKid]

I just had an idea.

We should trade for Darko Milicic.

 

[Big Cuz 15]

Mo Taylor for president!


Problem #4 with this team: still no plays run for Kevin Martin. He is like a deer in the forest, foraging for shots. He got some good ones, but then Portland abandoned their "leave Kevin Martin wide open" game plan and they dried up.

But hey -- one loss means one step closer to a better draft pick. This team needs to keep losing.

#4 cracked me up. cracked me up. they need to blow up this team. i would rather watch young entertaining players make highlight plays than this.

 

[Big Cuz 15]

And I would like to add that your shtick has already grown beyond tiresome. This isn't IloveDarkoMIlicic.com It's Kingsfans.com and I've yet to see you post anything of any value about the Kings.

I just took action for the good of the herd.

lol, is that domain taken yet?

 

[LMM]

Martin ( B- ) -- big scoring first quarter, but being scored right back on by Roy the other way, causing us to basically have to hide him so that Ron could take his man. In fact everyone he was guarding was scoring on him, and it really has to be mentioned how much his defense seems to hve fallen off. Got quiet offensively after half. And then missed not 1, but TWO huge FTs in the final seconds to let the Blazers tie it up. That's two nights in a row where Kevin had the game in his hands at the line and choked it away. Interesting phenomenon here, because second night in a row where his numbers are right on his averages, but I really was not in love with his actual game. Bad defense, choking in the clutch...Kevin needs to refocus here.

Yeah, lately Martin's been subbed out frequently for defensive purposes and it kind of concerns me. Martin has shown potential to be a decent defender but it seems like he's been bad lately. Also, Artest is nowhere near the defensive presence he can/should be.

Which leads me to ask if Muss has anything to do with this? Maybe his defensive strategies aren't working? Maybe he's not utilizing his players well? I don't know. Or maybe Artest and Martin are just having their own problem?

Bibby has always been a bad defender. The rest of the guys are either too slow or small. It's just that Artest and Kevin are the ones that seem to be not performing up to their defensive abilities under Muss's system ?

 

[hrdboild]

i agree.

SIDE NOTE.........I WOULD LIKE TO INCLUDE that if we had Darko Milicic he would have blocked zach R's shot. we would have won the game.

the way i am looking at it is how much are we spending total for SAR, KT, Corliss, Miller, Taylor, POTATO HEAD ?

pay Darko the 50-60 mil for 5-6 years. he wants to start " hey we will put him right into the starting line up! "

everyone ones quick to hate on this guy but i ask why? hes super young, he has the ability to do something no one else on this team can do...... scare people away from the paint and BLOCK SHOTS, hes got a good shot, he reb's ?

SERIOUSLY I ASK AGAIN WHAT IS THERE TO HATE? its not like he was Put into the starting roll ever and failed. he hasnt even been give the chance to.

It's too bad his other topic was closed. It had one of the funniest topics and one of the funniest lines I've read in a long time. "DONT FORGET WHAT DARKOS EVEN BETTER AT..... if a cat tried to jump into a tree to get stuck Darko would shot block the crap outa that cat and it would never try to get stuck in a tree again!" Classic! I see a whole trend starting here that could rival Chuck Norris jokes in longevity. Forget Ronald Reagan's Star Wars, put Darko in front of the White House and he'll smack those nuclear missles right outta the sky!

 

[fnordius]

"DONT FORGET WHAT DARKOS EVEN BETTER AT..... if a cat tried to jump into a tree to get stuck Darko would shot block the crap outa that cat and it would never try to get stuck in a tree again!"

Well, you know what they're saying around ARCO lately: shotblocking is overrated, it's not as good as a steal, and it doesn't guarantee you any points.

That's why, when I see cats heading up trees, I dunk on their heads.

 

[4cwebb]

Look, I'm tired of everyone jumping on me for this. Kobe basically ignored him in the last game, and Brandon Roy has not exactly been tearing up the league recently. Ron's defense is not what it was. We can all sit around and make excuses, but it's just not. Ron bothered Kobe last year, he bothered Pierce last year, he was really a force on defense. He isn't this year. Ron used to be able to guard the best guy on the floor no matter how quick. Now he can't guard the quick guys? What's left?

I wasn't able to watch the game vs. the Blazers, but I didn't think that Kobe abused Ron in the last game. In fact, I thought that Kobe's aggressiveness increased when Ron wasn't on the floor, at least in the first half. In the second half Kobe made some difficult three point shots that Kobe is just going to make sometimes, but I don't attribute that to Ron's poor defense. Just mho.

 

[BigWaxer]

Man the grading scale has so lowered to this teams ability. Not sure I like the curve scale.

 

[jcassio]

Say it isn't so! (but) Martin is becoming a choker! When he takes those pressure free throws, you can see the grimmace on his face... he doesn't KNOW he's going to make it. He needs Vernon Maxwell's mojo, but (please) not Vernon's 37% shooting.

Nice to see Bibby and Artest hit their outside shots. At least we know they haven't LOST it, which would make trading either of them problematic.

Artest has lost a step on defense and is not well-served by the zone currently employed by Muss. It's not one or the other, it's a combination of these two things. No doubt the lost step is a result - directly or indirectly - of his back problem. Sometimes people don't even realize they have a back problem because it shows up somewhere else in the body. I'd bet 50 cents that Ron's newly discovered knee problem is actually a sciatic nerve issue.

 

[supamari0]

Say it isn't so! (but) Martin is becoming a choker! When he takes those pressure free throws, you can see the grimmace on his face... he doesn't KNOW he's going to make it. He needs Vernon Maxwell's mojo, but (please) not Vernon's 37% shooting.

Nah, MadMax was a nut. Vernon Maxwell was Ron Artest lite in terms of personality and play for that matter. He chucked up way too many stupid shots for every good one. And yes, he made a buzzer beater or two but he wasn't immune to the occasional Ron Artest brain freeze in play. And he whined his way off of the Rockets after we traded for Clyde Drexler.

But man was he a phenomenal defender (also ala Artest). MadMax and Doug Christie were seriously Michael Jordan killers on defense.

 

[BigWaxer]

I was thinking about Maxwell the other day. How funny it was that as soon as you made him mad, he was draining 3's. Keep him happy and he couldn't hit a barn.

 

[KingDog]

Yes, but at least he is a "scoring machine".

You know, you are exactky right. Kenny IS a scoring machine.
I just wish that somebody would adjust that layup servo.
His layups are almost all the same. 700 miles per hour 90 degrees from the backboard. No chance for it to drop in.

 

[Entity]

Brick your grade or analysis of Muss looks more like the grade for GP. you are almost saying what i said in another thread. Muss can't work with what he don't have. I don't think he has the power to sign players and GP don't have the ability to sign defensive, shotblocking, rebounders over 6'7. Really what can Muss do with this. It is so apparant to everybody here every anaylist on TV. Its rediculous that for the 3rd year in a row we have nothing in the frontcourt. I guess they realize it a little because of the Justin Williams signing which i like but we could use more than him.

replace one or 2 of these with somebody Mo, Corlis, Brad, Kenny, SAR, Vitaley. Geesh look at that it makes me sick to my stomach.

 

[Merdiesel]

There is no f****** way Martin gets a passing grade.

 

[VF21]

So this was supposed to be the sure thing. The one and only game that we win everytime this year -- the sub .500 opponent on our home floor. We came into the game 8-1 against those teams. 6-15 vs. everyone else. Make that 8-2 against those teams now. This one featuring all of our inconsistency and frontcourt impotence on full display.

In the first half, our not so big three all went off...and yet we still trailed at half because of terrible defense. In the second half the Blazers tried everythign possible to give the game to us -- missing open look after open look after open look, and we STILL couldn't put them away on the power of a mighty 12pt 4th quarter. Along the way our entire 5 man frontcourt (SAR, Kenny, Brad, Mo and Corliss) put up 23pts and 21rebs. Zach Randolph alone put up 32 and 15.

And yet fair or not, this one is probably remembered as the one we should have gotten had our best FT shooter just hit his FTs in the clutch. Well, Muss did not miss the FTs anymore than Rick did on a far greater stage back in the day. Nor did he have any particular answers up front, where he rode the only effective "big" he had (6'5"ish Corliss) as far as he could before Nasty fouled out. On the other hand, at no point in this game did we have an effective defensive scheme, and really the only reason we were not blown out on our home floor is because the Blazers missed open shots at an alarming rate -- why they suck of course (and a charitable grader might suggest our strategy was to depend upon their crappy shooting to miss).

We smallballed ourselves into trouble in the second quarter, and as laudable defender that he is, we put Ron into a very tough position having to try to guard a hulking mega-scoring PF like Randolph down in the post. That guy can drop 30 on Duncan, and just too big for even Ron's brawn. Of course given our absolutely pathetic frontcourt, maybe the smallball theory was "why not?" But it didn't work. Randolph went inside, when we finally started doubling him, their perimeter guys got all the open looks they wanted, and our smallballing insertion (Salmons) was only moderately more effective than our bigs.

And of course the Kings being the Kings, consistency of any sort is not allowed, so we score 31 in the first quarter, and then proceed to score all fo 36 in the second half, including a terrible 4th quarter collapse where the only thing saving us was an even worse effort form the Blazers.

You can feel free to explain to me what happened our high scoring backcourt down the stretch, and why Mo Taylor was jacking up shots like it was 1998. Better yet, explain it to Muss so that maybe he can go crunch some numbers to figure out its bad.

So we lose...and if we jsut keep on losing its not necessarily the worst thign that could happen. If we lose 20 in a row there is hope for the future via a top draft pick. If we win 20 in a row there is hope for the present in the playoffs. But instead, we just wobble along, and unless Geoff finds some reinforcements, how's that going to change?

Great points, Brick, and worth having to wait overnight for...

And it's the inconsistency that has me the most worried. I'm more and more convinced that Musselman cannot adapt a game plan to save his life - or a win. Douby taking a corner shot when he's been on the bench is one example of him trying to find a way to win. Taylor taking a jump shot ... EVER ... is just wrong unless Bibby, Martin, Artest, Salmons, Garcia and Corliss have all fouled out. You don't draw up plays for garbage players, IMHO.

I'm repeating something I've said elsewhere, but there is NO sense of rhthm or continuity with this team. Musselman seems to feel each player is interchangeable with any other player as long as the total number of bodies on the floor equals 5 in Kings jerseys. Players need to know their roles. Our players don't even know the positions they're going to be asked to play let alone what their role at that position will be...

Unless, of course, you're talking about poor Ron who is apparently being asked to produce on offense and, while he's at it, find time to block some shots, make some good cuts to the basket, cover blown defensive assignments of at least two other Kings players on the court, and shut down guys like Randolph.

It's not a matter of us being a good or bad team. We aren't a team at all...

 

[Vlade4GM]

At this point I am fully embracing this idea.

everyone should be embracing it, not only does it mean higher draft pick, but the better chance that petrie gets proactive towards rebuilding which is our ONLY SHOT at competing again.

 

[kupman]

Wow VF - nice post. I always do a double take when I agree with you on something and I think you are spot on here.

I am troubled by Muss. At the beginning of the season I heard him preach/emphasis 2 main points - defense and consistency. I am seeing neither.

His rotations are just plain strange to me. How can we expect the players to be consistent when they do not know their roles night to night?

I would be especially confused if I were any of the young players on this team - Garcia and Price in particular.

 

[chelle]

It's not a matter of us being a good or bad team. We aren't a team at all...

And that is the saddest part of all of this.

 

[venom_7]

I agree. I really don't want Justin to join the long lists of bigs who have rotted on the bench over the past few seasons. Give the guy a shot! Give him some damn minutes...

Same situation Ben Wallace was in.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

I agree. I really don't want Justin to join the long lists of bigs who have rotted on the bench over the past few seasons. Give the guy a shot! Give him some damn minutes...

Same situation Ben Wallace was in.

Not quite; Wallace had already proven himself before signing with Detroit. He was given minutes after Webber and Wallace were traded, and averaged 8.3 rebounds and just under two blocks in just about twenty-six minutes a game, and then averaged eight rebounds and over a block and a half in twenty-four minutes a game.

Williams, by comparison, has yet to prove anything on an NBA level. More to the point, Wallace only "rotted on the bench" to any arguable degree in his rookie season. After that, he was given plenty of time to prove what he could do; he just wasn't a good fit on the first two teams he played for.

 

[venom_7]

Not quite; Wallace had already proven himself before signing with Detroit. He was given minutes after Webber and Wallace were traded, and averaged 8.3 rebounds and just under two blocks in just about twenty-six minutes a game, and then averaged eight rebounds and over a block and a half in twenty-four minutes a game.

Williams, by comparison, has yet to prove anything on an NBA level. More to the point, Wallace only "rotted on the bench" to any arguable degree in his rookie season. After that, he was given plenty of time to prove what he could do; he just wasn't a good fit on the first two teams he played for.

Yes that is true. But my point was that it is the same situation. Here you have Justin Williams, undrafted (like Big Ben), but who is on a team itching for some rebounding and interior defense. Big Ben only got into 34 games with about 5 minutes a game. I think Justin can contribute a little more with this team. Wallace couldn't get off the bench with Webb and Juwan Howard in front of him. Seeing as we are lacking in decent post players, I think Justin can contribute right now. Don't get me wrong though, I'm not saying he is the next Big Ben. I was just stating that his scenario is very similar.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Yes that is true. But my point was that it is the same situation. Here you have Justin Williams, undrafted (like Big Ben), but who is on a team itching for some rebounding and interior defense.

But that's not exactly true, which was my point. During Wallace's rookie season, he was playing behind Webber (10.3) and Howard (8.0). So yeah, they probably could have used him, but they were ninth in the league that year in rebounding, so it's not like they were exactly "itching" for it.

Williams, by contrast, will not be playing behind anybody in particular who has shown, by their play this season, that he should have to sit behind them.