[Grades] Grades v. Blazers 10/31/14

Which of our PFs deserves the best grade?


  • Total voters
    61
  • Poll closed .
#31
I'll try not to gush all over the place with how much I enjoyed this game. It was just great! Nice everything from start to finish. I take back everything I said from the last game.
 
#34
Evans should start Dab Namit.
He really shouldn't. The defense in the starting lineup will win us games. And Evans is one the worst offensive players in the league. Other than rebounding. But he really can't do anything else. Somehow he had a -14 last night.

Williams was hurt last night I thought. Less than a week ago Malone stated Williams would get the backup minutes.

If he wasn't hurt, then props to Malone for seeing what everyone else saw in the preseason. Casspi is better. At 1/6th the price.

Stay tuned.
 
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#35
Great win. When Rudy gets going there really is no stopping him. Boogie will pick up his game sooner rather than later, heard him on an interview saying that the most intense match-up for the Kings is against the Clips, so there you go!

Casspi looked good. Stauskas will somehow find his game, but I really think that Malone just likes McLemore better than Nik and it's shown: Last season Ben got to start over Thornton ever since day one and he got a chance, after a chance after another one... Malone really pisses me off with his dumb moves when it comes to minutes. Maybe one day The Kings would hire Mark Jackson instead...

All in all, I like what I see from the Kings and this W means a lot, becuse we have a crazy month going on and every home game that we win means much. Go Kings.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
#38
Great win. When Rudy gets going there really is no stopping him. Boogie will pick up his game sooner rather than later, heard him on an interview saying that the most intense match-up for the Kings is against the Clips, so there you go!

Casspi looked good. Stauskas will somehow find his game, but I really think that Malone just likes McLemore better than Nik and it's shown: Last season Ben got to start over Thornton ever since day one and he got a chance, after a chance after another one... Malone really pisses me off with his dumb moves when it comes to minutes. Maybe one day The Kings would hire Mark Jackson instead...

All in all, I like what I see from the Kings and this W means a lot, becuse we have a crazy month going on and every home game that we win means much. Go Kings.
Well considering how Ben has outplayed Nik during a lot of the preseason and thus far in the regular season, I'm not quite sure if that's the move I'd single out as stupid. You'd probably be better off pointing out how D-Will was our initial back-up 3.
 
#39
Overall I think it's been a wash with Ben and Nik but I give Nik a slight bump considering he's a rookie, I'm holding Ben to a higher standard this season and so far he's been very poor. But I don't knock his effort, he does work hard and he's held his own on D which he didn't do last season.
 
J

jdbraver

Guest
#40
Sessions defensively is as poor as it gets, Ray is solid....that alone makes Ray better
Ray's team defense is just as poor. Mostly because of inexperience. Sessions is so far ahead of Ray in offense this shouldn't be that hard of a choice. Especially w our backups that need scoring.
 
J

jdbraver

Guest
#41
Overall I think it's been a wash with Ben and Nik but I give Nik a slight bump considering he's a rookie, I'm holding Ben to a higher standard this season and so far he's been very poor. But I don't knock his effort, he does work hard and he's held his own on D which he didn't do last season.
If nik started we Prob would have lost. He wasn't shooting and if he is not shooting there is really no reason to have him out there
 
#43
Well considering how Ben has outplayed Nik during a lot of the preseason and thus far in the regular season, I'm not quite sure if that's the move I'd single out as stupid. You'd probably be better off pointing out how D-Will was our initial back-up 3.
Ben has been playing solid D. Involving him on offense is something they are working at, collison and boogie have both mentioned it. I keep Ben starting even if his shots dont fall solely because hes a much better defender than Nik at this stage and i dont think starting Nik makes sense as of yet. I give Ben at least until the All star break if not the season before i worry about making a swap. Minutes for Nik will be ample and starting wont make a significant difference to his development. Team defence and ball movement are key right now and continuity in the rotation is vital to build and espouse that
 
J

jdbraver

Guest
#44
Disagree, he has the ability to make plays Ben simply cannot on offense. Nik is not "just a shooter"

He held his own on D as well, certainly wasn't the weak link he was against the Warriors.
Not sure if you noticed but coach kept taking nik out for Ben to cover Matthews
 
#46
I think Ben would have developed faster if he hadn't started too early. I think that it is a great advantage for Nik not to start. Too much pressure on the rookies right from the start is not good for their development. NBA is a very tough and demanding environment. Many of Ben's problems are simply a result of that.

Have you noticed that the ESPN stats pages are up there again. I noticed that Omri was on the 9th place of all SAC players in playing time, but was better than that in basically all categories,
 
#48
Alter? It shows nik wasn't holding his own on D. Not that I'm down on him he is a rook and needs strength.
Well they were in together in the 4th for 4 minutes 10 seconds and Matthews was 1-2.

Also a short period in the second where Matthews had 4 points. Hardly describe that as getting torched. But can't exactly be sure who was guarding who without going back and watching, and honestly I'm not fussed anyway.
 
#49
Nik isn't ready to start yet. It's not a bad problem if you have two promising young SGs. Ben has played GREAT defense these first two games. I'm not sure if anyone remembered, but Ben was on Batum a few times on switches and to, and he denied Batum each time or forced him to take a bad shot.. Nik struggled against Klay, but he was really solid today.

Both players' shots haven't been falling, so I think the start goes to the person who would contribute better overall right now. Ben does all the right things on offense, and has been great on defense.
 
#50
I think Ben would have developed faster if he hadn't started too early. I think that it is a great advantage for Nik not to start. Too much pressure on the rookies right from the start is not good for their development. NBA is a very tough and demanding environment. Many of Ben's problems are simply a result of that.

Have you noticed that the ESPN stats pages are up there again. I noticed that Omri was on the 9th place of all SAC players in playing time, but was better than that in basically all categories,

It wasn't part of Malone's plan to start him so fast but MT stunk up the place last season and then was traded leaving us basically no 2 guards besides Ben. I still think that it will pay off giving Ben all this PT and a starting gig his team and individual Defense have been much improved.
 
#51
Nik is actually decent on defense, at least for a rook. His downfall is that he's not strong enough to handle guys in the post, once he adds strength I think he will be a competent defender, not great, but not a liability. Ben has been pretty solid on defense, you would just hope he can eventually hit an open jumper.

Despite the poor shooting, Cousins has affected the game big time, draws a ton of attention and has been key for the team defense being solid. No techs yet and hes hustling back on defense(this is huge compared to last year). Id like to see him in the post but I guess against Bogut and Lopez the gameplan has been to attack from the high post more. Just stop getting cheap fouls, we need you on the floor as much as possible to compete.

Collison outplayed Lillard, very nice, something I wasnt expecting. Now if only Sessions can start playing well.

JT and Landry did as good a job as you can do on Aldridge.

Overall a very nice bounceback game, we cant expect Gay to off for 40 every night, but if we can become a consistent defensive team, we will have a chance on any given night, plus you would expect Cousins to shoot better.

Next onto the clipper game, which I will be attending.
 
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#52
If nik started we Prob would have lost. He wasn't shooting and if he is not shooting there is really no reason to have him out there
There's a reason Nik wasn't shooting. The Portland defenders were not giving him ANY SORT of breathing room. Nik was so active in moving without the ball last night but the Blazer defenders were always fighting through screens, going around screens, switching to make sure Nik didn't get good looks.
There were a couple of hesitant moments on his part, of course, but overall you could see that Portland had a priority in not letting him shoot the basketball and get easy looks.
 

Kingster

Hall of Famer
#58
Outstanding shooting performance by Gay. Maybe the best in his career? Pretty good D and good rebounding plus Gay led to the win.

Putrid assists, but the TOs were cut in half from the GS game, which was necessary to win. In the first half there were 7 assists, 4 by Collison. The starters played one-pass-iso for 90%+ of the possessions in the first quarter, with an occasional two-pass-iso possessions. It was when the backups came in that you started to see movement and passing - Stauskas, Casspi and Landry in particular. It appeared to me that Malone essentially said to Gay - don't worry about passing - shoot the ball! The same for Cousins. We'll see how it evolves. Will the one-pass-iso capitulation continue with the starters, or will there be an evolution toward more passing? If the one-pass-iso continues I would expect opposing teams to start trapping to take advantage.
 
#59
Overall I think it's been a wash with Ben and Nik but I give Nik a slight bump considering he's a rookie, I'm holding Ben to a higher standard this season and so far he's been very poor. But I don't knockp his effort, he does work hard and he's held his own on D which he didn't do last season.
Probably true in comparison but the performance of our SG is poor enough to call for a better alternative. I hope the position doesn't sink the ship in the first months of the season.