Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Artest ( C- ) -- this was an easy win tonight, and yet remarkably had very little to do with Ron being on the court other than perhaps the confidence he inspires. In fact the only thing really bolstering this grade is the number of shots he created for others. Because Ron himself got off to a slow start beyond one nice open court steal, was having problems with that shot again, and his decisionmaking was just...off. He never looked really comfortable out there, and the Blazers are one of those teams where there's nobody even worthy of getting too excited about as a defender. In some ways I have to put a little ? over this performance and see how things develop. The "?" is this: we had a few days off here and apparently tried to put in some things offensively to get Ron within a structure. Well...one game results were not promising. As a team we scored a lot. But then again this is Portland and I'm pretty sure Coachie scored at least one hoop in there just by accident. But Ron himself looked uncomfortable, and like he was trying to play a role that maybe isn't a comfortable fit. Lot of outside shots, lot of passes. Random shooting. Kind of an uninspired effort. Hope it gets better.
Thomas ( A- ) -- very active start keeping balls alive on the offensive glass, and in a short outing tonight managed to rack up a double double in only 25 min. Blazers just had nobody at all on the glass, and having energy alone was more than enough for Kenny to beat every blackshirt to ball after ball. No real complaints about this outing at all.
Miller ( A- ) -- Freed from the terror that is Wiltzilla, Brad had himself a strong game. Made some all around contributions early, but the shot was off. But it was really Brad who stepped forward just before half to help us build a nearly unassailable lead with a series of butt ugly scrappy "drives" and then a three pointer from the corner to close the half. And he really wasn't needed much therafter as we quickly built the lead up to more than the Blazers score in most halves. An ugly near triple double, but the numbers don't lie, and he did it in less than 30min. A man amongst (in many cases literally) boys in there, and only Skinner taking it to him at the other end as a negative.
Martin ( HOME ) -- I think its time to stop the letter grades with Kevin. Time to just start grading Kevin as either "Home" or "Away".
Came out with a big first quarter flurry for 13 points, many of them on dunks and layups in the open court. Slowed down thereafter, but was still getting open looks, easy breakouts, right until the end. And the energy was there of course -- hit the glass, was disrupting the incredibly sloppy Blazers passing. If he were still on a letter scale an easy A, and tying his career mark once again at home.
Bibby ( B- ) -- pretty good start getting open looks against the various Blazers scrub-worthy PGs. But never at any point really controlling the game, and seemed to be somehow making a scrappy effort out of a gamelong blowout. Got a good number of assists, and as is so often the case in Kevin's good games, it was Mike making a number of the passes. Steve Blake was lighting us up there for a while as well, although I think that sometimes he may have been Kevin's man too -- he was open enough to leave doubt. In any case, for a lot of our players this game seemed all too easy, and the crowd reacted that way as well. But Mike was scraping and scrapping and at least looked like he was having to work hard for modest results in a complete wipeout.
Reef ( B+ ) -- came in with energy, and while early results were modest, he closed his time with a flurry. Another prolific outing off of the bench, and only held down by his having problems finishing around the hoop. An interesting question with all of this: Reef has been far more aggressive here in the last few weeks than he ever was early in the year. So 1) is he feeling freer to just score off the bench wihtout the competitors? And hence is suited for the 6th man role?; or 2) Is he playing inspired ball just trying to get his starting job back but would return to passivity once he got the spot? or 3) Has Ron Artest managed to inspire the unlikliest lowest-key member of the Kings? or... Its very pronounced. But the root cause is unclear.
Garcia ( B ) -- chipped in with his own normal energy on a night whenh we had a lot and the Blazers had none. Had his normal shooting woes, but got on the glass, made some of his fun hustle plays and open court blocks. A 3-9 performance, but his energy fit right in with Kevin, Kenny, Reef as we just beat the Blazers to every loose ball.
Corliss ( B- ) -- Got to play the entire 4th quarter of the blowout. And while its kind of sad to see Corliss out there reduced to babysitting a bunch of kids, scrubs, and brand new players, he showed some leadership as well as some modest oncourt contributions, including his second three in the last few weeks as Rick has finally cured him of that nasty post play habit.
Price ( INC ) -- actually got into the game before Hart and looked pretty good in his minutes
Sampson ( INC ) -- an unusally long garbagetime stint for him (3 minutes!) in which he decided to play Chris Webber and go crazy with the assists ( had 3 -- 1 per minute!). Continues to look a little awkward on the court.
Hart ( INC ) -- for this one at least, dropped all the way behind even Price in the garbagetime cue, although maybe only to get the kid a few extra minues of work. Hit a baseline jumper off of one of those oh-so-sweet Samposn feeds.
Potapenko ( INC ) -- got in for the last few minutes of garbagetime and the poor guy just looked lost. Corliss did try to get him a bucket at one point by calling him over into the post and trying to feed him. Unfortunatelyt the two Kings failed to note that the guy Pot was trying to post, Seung-Jin is 7'3".
Anyway, he briefly made it onto the court, but I'd hardly call this a first appearance for him.
Adelman ( ) -- coming
Skinner ( A- ) -- came out and in one of those visiting players wanting to show their old team moves, scored all over us. Did not rebound or defend as well as the Blazers needed, but dropped 17 points on us and at one point was clearly the dominant offensive player on the floor with an assortment of simple but effective moves.
Thomas ( A- ) -- very active start keeping balls alive on the offensive glass, and in a short outing tonight managed to rack up a double double in only 25 min. Blazers just had nobody at all on the glass, and having energy alone was more than enough for Kenny to beat every blackshirt to ball after ball. No real complaints about this outing at all.
Miller ( A- ) -- Freed from the terror that is Wiltzilla, Brad had himself a strong game. Made some all around contributions early, but the shot was off. But it was really Brad who stepped forward just before half to help us build a nearly unassailable lead with a series of butt ugly scrappy "drives" and then a three pointer from the corner to close the half. And he really wasn't needed much therafter as we quickly built the lead up to more than the Blazers score in most halves. An ugly near triple double, but the numbers don't lie, and he did it in less than 30min. A man amongst (in many cases literally) boys in there, and only Skinner taking it to him at the other end as a negative.
Martin ( HOME ) -- I think its time to stop the letter grades with Kevin. Time to just start grading Kevin as either "Home" or "Away".
Came out with a big first quarter flurry for 13 points, many of them on dunks and layups in the open court. Slowed down thereafter, but was still getting open looks, easy breakouts, right until the end. And the energy was there of course -- hit the glass, was disrupting the incredibly sloppy Blazers passing. If he were still on a letter scale an easy A, and tying his career mark once again at home. Bibby ( B- ) -- pretty good start getting open looks against the various Blazers scrub-worthy PGs. But never at any point really controlling the game, and seemed to be somehow making a scrappy effort out of a gamelong blowout. Got a good number of assists, and as is so often the case in Kevin's good games, it was Mike making a number of the passes. Steve Blake was lighting us up there for a while as well, although I think that sometimes he may have been Kevin's man too -- he was open enough to leave doubt. In any case, for a lot of our players this game seemed all too easy, and the crowd reacted that way as well. But Mike was scraping and scrapping and at least looked like he was having to work hard for modest results in a complete wipeout.
Reef ( B+ ) -- came in with energy, and while early results were modest, he closed his time with a flurry. Another prolific outing off of the bench, and only held down by his having problems finishing around the hoop. An interesting question with all of this: Reef has been far more aggressive here in the last few weeks than he ever was early in the year. So 1) is he feeling freer to just score off the bench wihtout the competitors? And hence is suited for the 6th man role?; or 2) Is he playing inspired ball just trying to get his starting job back but would return to passivity once he got the spot? or 3) Has Ron Artest managed to inspire the unlikliest lowest-key member of the Kings? or... Its very pronounced. But the root cause is unclear.
Garcia ( B ) -- chipped in with his own normal energy on a night whenh we had a lot and the Blazers had none. Had his normal shooting woes, but got on the glass, made some of his fun hustle plays and open court blocks. A 3-9 performance, but his energy fit right in with Kevin, Kenny, Reef as we just beat the Blazers to every loose ball.
Corliss ( B- ) -- Got to play the entire 4th quarter of the blowout. And while its kind of sad to see Corliss out there reduced to babysitting a bunch of kids, scrubs, and brand new players, he showed some leadership as well as some modest oncourt contributions, including his second three in the last few weeks as Rick has finally cured him of that nasty post play habit.
Price ( INC ) -- actually got into the game before Hart and looked pretty good in his minutes
Sampson ( INC ) -- an unusally long garbagetime stint for him (3 minutes!) in which he decided to play Chris Webber and go crazy with the assists ( had 3 -- 1 per minute!). Continues to look a little awkward on the court.
Hart ( INC ) -- for this one at least, dropped all the way behind even Price in the garbagetime cue, although maybe only to get the kid a few extra minues of work. Hit a baseline jumper off of one of those oh-so-sweet Samposn feeds.
Potapenko ( INC ) -- got in for the last few minutes of garbagetime and the poor guy just looked lost. Corliss did try to get him a bucket at one point by calling him over into the post and trying to feed him. Unfortunatelyt the two Kings failed to note that the guy Pot was trying to post, Seung-Jin is 7'3".
Anyway, he briefly made it onto the court, but I'd hardly call this a first appearance for him.Adelman ( ) -- coming
Skinner ( A- ) -- came out and in one of those visiting players wanting to show their old team moves, scored all over us. Did not rebound or defend as well as the Blazers needed, but dropped 17 points on us and at one point was clearly the dominant offensive player on the floor with an assortment of simple but effective moves.
Last edited:
