Udrih does not deserve a B+. Away games are won down the stretch, and he certainly didn't play well down the stretch. Going one on one, which he can't do very well, jacking up a shot when only 5 seconds had ticked off the clock, driving into traffic. Then he's not quick to the ball on loose balls, which kills you in the 4th quarter. Not what you want from your veteran guard. He couldn't do anything on Bayless on the defensive end. Bayless is just too quick and Tyreke may be good on D, but he can't guard two people at once. And Sergio starts the quarter with a jump up in the air and throw it to nobody. He had the opportunity to drive on Pryz when Pryz was 15 from the basket. He chickened out. Then Hawes gets the ball and throws a quick turnaround up when he had a guard on him. Overall, no patience from this team. The guys who had a net positive impact in the fourth quarter were Tyreke, Casspi, Greene, and possibly Thompson.
Grades v. Blazers 12/15/09
- Thread starter Bricklayer
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I believe they need to go to Tyreke more in the 4th quarter. Espcially when trying to close the game. Give the kid experience; he is the future star of this franchise. Let him try to take over. The more opportunities he gets in the 4th quarter the faster he'll learn on how to close out a game and dominate. Correct if im wrong but I've watched several games, and it seems like we always go to Udrih late in the 4th. Sure Urdrih is more experienced right now but, we are a team full of young talent. Sometimes we have to give them the opportunity to take over the 4th.
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K
Like Brick said, PW didn't seem to have confidence in the matchups with him in this one. I think that with 2 minutes left Westphal realized that Omri can actually help in crunch time but unfortunately he inserted him to play right before the possession that finally killed the Kings chances. But you can't second guess that. The coach is still learning the players in different situations. This is like the second real tight road game they played this year.
Agree with grades for Bench. Amongst starters I think Greene is graded too high but I will admit that I think he is often graded too high. Despite Hawes' poor play I believe this game would have been won with Martin and Garcia in the starting lineup instead of Greene and Nocioni.
When Martin and Garcia return, start them, bring Nocioni off the bench, send Greene to the development league, continue to use Udrih, Thomas, and Rodriguez as now and let the rest of our young stars continue to develop. Oh, if things were only that simple.
When Martin and Garcia return, start them, bring Nocioni off the bench, send Greene to the development league, continue to use Udrih, Thomas, and Rodriguez as now and let the rest of our young stars continue to develop. Oh, if things were only that simple.
My personal musings from the game. Aldrige is the cleverest dirty player that I've seen in a while. With Brockman guarding him and trying to deny him the ball, he cleverly slides his arm under Brockman's arm and then tries to turn to his right. Of course dragging Bockman with him and getting the foul called on Brockman. With Evans under the basket, and blocking out Aldridge, Evans tries to jump for the rebound, but Aldridge has a hold of his arm and almost pulls him down to the floor No foul called of course. I noted five different times where Aldridge held one of our players under the basket.
During the last five minutes of the game whenever Evans had the ball, why did everyone just stand there and watch. No one moved without the ball. The easiest player in the world to guard is one without the ball who just stands in one place. Out of our starting lineup, only two players had good games. Not perfect games but good games. Nocioni stunk. And has been stinking for some time now. Here's a question. Because I kept track. Of all the times in the game that Nocioni got the ball, how many times did he pass the ball? Here's another. In last nights game, whom did this tough defensive minded player sucessfully guard.
We went down quickly by nine points because both Nocioni and Greene had their heads up a dark cavity. Greene I'll excuse because of inexperience, but Mr. Nocioni who in the offseason expounded on how he likes a team to play unselfish basketball, forgot to include himself in the unselfish part. That brings me to our skilled giant, Spencer Hawes. He's skilled enough to play center. He's big enough to play center. Sometimes the thing that seperates a good skilled player from an average (being kind here) skilled player is a thin line. Its a line that goes from one ear straight across to the other ear. Hawes looks as though he's thinking about everything he's doing out there. And for a guy in his third year, thats not a good thing. He should be at a point where he just reacts on offense and anticipates on defense.
Despite having three of our starters play badly (I'm being kind again), we still almost won the game. In fact we should have won the game. I would suggest benching Nocioni and moving Green to the SF position. I would then start Beno at the SG position. I think we would be tougher to guard, and would have a little more fire power on the floor.
Final note: I think Westphal ourcoached himself a little bit. The unit on the floor at the end of the third quarter had just brought us back from the brink and had returned momentum to the Kings. I would have liked that unit to start the fourth quarter and extend that momentum for a while longer. Instead, Evans, Thompson, and Thomas went to the bench and in went Hawes and company. And our struggles began again. Hey! Westphal hasn't made too many bad decisions so I'll give him a pass on this one. But sometimes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it..
During the last five minutes of the game whenever Evans had the ball, why did everyone just stand there and watch. No one moved without the ball. The easiest player in the world to guard is one without the ball who just stands in one place. Out of our starting lineup, only two players had good games. Not perfect games but good games. Nocioni stunk. And has been stinking for some time now. Here's a question. Because I kept track. Of all the times in the game that Nocioni got the ball, how many times did he pass the ball? Here's another. In last nights game, whom did this tough defensive minded player sucessfully guard.
We went down quickly by nine points because both Nocioni and Greene had their heads up a dark cavity. Greene I'll excuse because of inexperience, but Mr. Nocioni who in the offseason expounded on how he likes a team to play unselfish basketball, forgot to include himself in the unselfish part. That brings me to our skilled giant, Spencer Hawes. He's skilled enough to play center. He's big enough to play center. Sometimes the thing that seperates a good skilled player from an average (being kind here) skilled player is a thin line. Its a line that goes from one ear straight across to the other ear. Hawes looks as though he's thinking about everything he's doing out there. And for a guy in his third year, thats not a good thing. He should be at a point where he just reacts on offense and anticipates on defense.
Despite having three of our starters play badly (I'm being kind again), we still almost won the game. In fact we should have won the game. I would suggest benching Nocioni and moving Green to the SF position. I would then start Beno at the SG position. I think we would be tougher to guard, and would have a little more fire power on the floor.
Final note: I think Westphal ourcoached himself a little bit. The unit on the floor at the end of the third quarter had just brought us back from the brink and had returned momentum to the Kings. I would have liked that unit to start the fourth quarter and extend that momentum for a while longer. Instead, Evans, Thompson, and Thomas went to the bench and in went Hawes and company. And our struggles began again. Hey! Westphal hasn't made too many bad decisions so I'll give him a pass on this one. But sometimes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it..
I'm not sure if anyone caught Lamarcus Aldriges' comments after the game, but he said "in the 2nd half they kind of forgot about me, and that allowed me to get a few easy buckets and get going". We didn't forget about you, Spencer did. Or did he? If Spencer is playing defense on LA, which he was in the 3rd, and LA's response is they forgot about me on that end, that pretty much sums up the affect Spencer had on this game. Not good. Not good at all.
I have been a Spencer supporter for a while, and have given him the benifit of doubt longer than a lot of others here. But I can't come up with any more excuses. Missing shots is one thing, and eventhough it pisses me off when Spencer routinely flips up incredibly week shots around the basket, that isn't why I'm so dissapointed in him right now. Its the entire mental part of the game. He is always out of position on both sides of the ball. His defensive rotations are getting worse. He's not passing like he use to. His rebounding is atrocious. He constantly gives up and 1's because he refuses to commit a hard foul. Has he ever commited a hard foul? He's blocking far fewer shots than he was at this point last year. He's not even in a position to challenge as many shots. He actually looks worse, considerably worse, when he gets the ball in the post compared to last Feb/Mar. I can't pick one single area that Spencer has improved in. I don't care how much of a homer or Spencer fan you may be, there is no excuse for that. Every single night he is a mismatch at the center postion, in favor of the other team.
I think Spencer needs to forget about offense for the time being.Just concentrate on improving his defense and rebounding, and take it from there. Baby steps. Because whether or not he's performing well on offense, which he isn't, he has to be able to contribute in other ways, which he isn't. If he would just focus on defensive positioning, and have a personal goal of getting his rebounds up to 8-10 per game, then we can actually keep him on the floor. He has to improve somewhere, because right now he's letting down him teammates and coaching staff. I don't think anyone on this team has confidence in Spencer right now, which is a big problem for this team.
I expect Donte to have his ups and downs because this is his first span of meaningful minutes in the nba. He didn't play well last night, but he's trying, and improving. Each game he does something new which I haven't seen him do before. He has a **** load of talent, but will be inconsistent for a while, although his defense is becoming more consistent by the week.
Noc is just too damn trigger happy right now. But a lot of those shots are shots he can make. He's not taking terrible shots. He's just in a funk right now. I still want him out there, because of the leadership and defensive intensity he brings. But he has got to stop jacking up a shot every time he touches the ball, especially when he's not hitting. But I have no problem with Westphal starting him, and if he's having another off night, bring Casspi in at the 6min mark, or earlier, in the 1st and 3rd quarter.
I love what Brock does for this team, and he really fills a void that Spencer has created. Its great having a physical presence coming off the bench. He needs a consistent 10-15 mins a game.
I think we will win tonight, and I'm pretty excited about this game. The atmosphere will be agreat for this young team. Tyreke is about to introduce himself to the nation! I am just praying Spencer has a good game tonight, and it can carry over to the road trip. If we're going to end this road losing streak, which we should in Minn, we need Spencer to contribute.
I have been a Spencer supporter for a while, and have given him the benifit of doubt longer than a lot of others here. But I can't come up with any more excuses. Missing shots is one thing, and eventhough it pisses me off when Spencer routinely flips up incredibly week shots around the basket, that isn't why I'm so dissapointed in him right now. Its the entire mental part of the game. He is always out of position on both sides of the ball. His defensive rotations are getting worse. He's not passing like he use to. His rebounding is atrocious. He constantly gives up and 1's because he refuses to commit a hard foul. Has he ever commited a hard foul? He's blocking far fewer shots than he was at this point last year. He's not even in a position to challenge as many shots. He actually looks worse, considerably worse, when he gets the ball in the post compared to last Feb/Mar. I can't pick one single area that Spencer has improved in. I don't care how much of a homer or Spencer fan you may be, there is no excuse for that. Every single night he is a mismatch at the center postion, in favor of the other team.
I think Spencer needs to forget about offense for the time being.Just concentrate on improving his defense and rebounding, and take it from there. Baby steps. Because whether or not he's performing well on offense, which he isn't, he has to be able to contribute in other ways, which he isn't. If he would just focus on defensive positioning, and have a personal goal of getting his rebounds up to 8-10 per game, then we can actually keep him on the floor. He has to improve somewhere, because right now he's letting down him teammates and coaching staff. I don't think anyone on this team has confidence in Spencer right now, which is a big problem for this team.
I expect Donte to have his ups and downs because this is his first span of meaningful minutes in the nba. He didn't play well last night, but he's trying, and improving. Each game he does something new which I haven't seen him do before. He has a **** load of talent, but will be inconsistent for a while, although his defense is becoming more consistent by the week.
Noc is just too damn trigger happy right now. But a lot of those shots are shots he can make. He's not taking terrible shots. He's just in a funk right now. I still want him out there, because of the leadership and defensive intensity he brings. But he has got to stop jacking up a shot every time he touches the ball, especially when he's not hitting. But I have no problem with Westphal starting him, and if he's having another off night, bring Casspi in at the 6min mark, or earlier, in the 1st and 3rd quarter.
I love what Brock does for this team, and he really fills a void that Spencer has created. Its great having a physical presence coming off the bench. He needs a consistent 10-15 mins a game.
I think we will win tonight, and I'm pretty excited about this game. The atmosphere will be agreat for this young team. Tyreke is about to introduce himself to the nation! I am just praying Spencer has a good game tonight, and it can carry over to the road trip. If we're going to end this road losing streak, which we should in Minn, we need Spencer to contribute.
Last year Hawes blocked 1.48 shots per 36. This year he's blocking 1.33 per 36. I mean, that's less, but "far less"? The difference turns out to be one shot per 232 minutes, which means given his PT, one fewer blocked shot per 8 games. And he's still the best per-minute shotblocker on the team. As a point of reference, Thompson is blocking 1.00 per 36, but there's been little complaint about that.
In defensive rebounding, he has definitely taken a step back from last year, at least thus far. His assist percentage is down, but his absolute assist numbers are almost the same. Steals, almost the same. Blocks, barely down. Offensive rebounding is up a little, particularly looking at ORB%. And his FG% and FT% are up (along with FTA up). His 3PT% is down thanks to a dismal start, but he's not taking any more threes than last year.
No doubt he's a bottom-tier starting center, but I just don't see this "huge regression" that everybody else seems to. Suffice to say, I will refrain from joining in on the Spencer Hawes Feeding Frenzy that has recently developed.
In defensive rebounding, he has definitely taken a step back from last year, at least thus far. His assist percentage is down, but his absolute assist numbers are almost the same. Steals, almost the same. Blocks, barely down. Offensive rebounding is up a little, particularly looking at ORB%. And his FG% and FT% are up (along with FTA up). His 3PT% is down thanks to a dismal start, but he's not taking any more threes than last year.
No doubt he's a bottom-tier starting center, but I just don't see this "huge regression" that everybody else seems to. Suffice to say, I will refrain from joining in on the Spencer Hawes Feeding Frenzy that has recently developed.
I was comparing his blocks at this point in this season to this point in last season, although I didn't make that clear. At this point last year Spencer was one of the leading shotblockers in the league, and had multiple 5+ block games. True his blocks aren't "way down", but his overall presence in the paint on that end doesn't compare to last season, IMO. He's not in a postition to block or contest as many shots this year. JT averages fewer blocks, but his blocks are more timely, and tend to be more impressive as well. So Spencer's shot blocking has regressed IMO.
You of course are entitled to your opinion. I have supported Spencer from day one, and think he will get it together at some point. He has too much talent, and is too young not to put it together. But the statistical analysis was more to prove the point that he hasn't improved in any one area(except ft%), while all the other young guys are improving. We can argue about his stats, which I don't think either of us wants to do at this point, but I think we can agree on the fact that he isn't having anywhere near the impact he was last season. Similar to Beno last year. Beno's stats the last 3 seasons have been comparable to eachother, but last season he played far worse than the 07-08 season and this season. I'm not giving up on Spencer, but I think it is becoming more clear by the day that he needs help in there, asap.
You of course are entitled to your opinion. I have supported Spencer from day one, and think he will get it together at some point. He has too much talent, and is too young not to put it together. But the statistical analysis was more to prove the point that he hasn't improved in any one area(except ft%), while all the other young guys are improving. We can argue about his stats, which I don't think either of us wants to do at this point, but I think we can agree on the fact that he isn't having anywhere near the impact he was last season. Similar to Beno last year. Beno's stats the last 3 seasons have been comparable to eachother, but last season he played far worse than the 07-08 season and this season. I'm not giving up on Spencer, but I think it is becoming more clear by the day that he needs help in there, asap.
If there is a stat that assesses complete inability to play man-to-man when backed down in the paint, or to play help defense, I think you could say "true regression" with some confidence. While not a defensive force down low last year, he wasn't clowned to the extent we are seeing this year.
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I have really refrained about talking about Noc (except saying that I don’t like him), but since you mentioned it…This has been my problem with him the whole time. He came in here (a messed up team with no chemistry) and said harshly that he hated the lack of team/chemistry/ball movement and yet in a year that the players are coming together – he just takes shot after shot rather than see if other teammates have a better shot or a wide open shot. I will say that I don’t mind him shooting wide shots, but I feel that Noc takes a lot of forced shots…I’m glad that someone was seeing what I have been.
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