Back to .500! er...woot?
Peja ( D- ) -- And yes, I'm being charitable here and avoiding the obvious grade because of the maybe injury, and besides, we won. Easily the least effective King. Missed his first inside, but it was hard to tell what that meant because that's nothing new. But then missed his first outside, and another, and really wasn't getting after it on the glass, going for loose balls etc. Struggled guarding Kareem Rush on the other end. Out there, but consciousness of the injury appeared to have him effectively out of the game mentally anyway. Makes you wonder if him coming back for this one may not have had something to do with the public outcry, because it certainly didn't look like he wanted to be there. Pretty much completely ineffective in the first half. Finally hit a three in the second half, which I was glad to see as he was hearing a few boos and I'd rather not see that get started and spiral again. Probably just as well to get this one out of the way against the bad team on our home floor where it would not matter. Be interesting to see if he goes tommorow at Golden State (although he does have a nice soft matchup in Dunleavy).
Reef ( C+ ) -- missed everything in there early against the physical Okafor, and was the first guy subbed out for Kenny. Rebounded better than he has been however. Never did get much structured offense going inside, and the only reason he reached double figures was because of a few semi-desperation/frustration threes. Second time he's been reduced to that in the last week, but he's hit a few, so I'll take it. Okafor picked up major foul trouble though which helped, and really despite the offensive struggles I was not THAT unhappy with this effort. Offensively ineffective, but actually hustled, boarded, and banged better than he is wont.
Miller ( B+ ) -- more sharp passing, no rebounding stuff. Even against the non-rebounding Primoz Brezec, who just chewed him up on the glass in the first half 11-2 and scored against him easily as well. But as he often does, Brad won the saaviness battle again, and frustrated the Bobcats frontline with his unconventional herky jerky point center play as the game went along, and was a major figure as we blew them out in the third quarter. Yet another one of these head scratching games from him as a grader -- just hard to figure out what it all means. Basically as a center he's pretty much a complete abject failure right now. An uber-wuss who can't board, defend, or post. But as a point guard and saavy decision maker he is often brilliant and hurting teams with unconventional play. I can't ignore the fact he's supposed to be 7'0" tall and helping inside, but once again I think the whole adds up to a definite positive. So I think in the end its back to that familiar B+/A- range for him, and went with the lower mark because of his getting worked over by an equally soft player in Brezec.
Bonzi ( B ) -- not one of his huge games, but played an important role anyway getting into some serious banging with Wallace and keeping the jumping jack from really hurting us as so many athletic physical wings have done in the past. Banged, frustrated, got chippee, and on a couple of occasions a little cheap with Gerald, and in the end largely negated him and may have gotten the better of it by being more in control. Nice to have a banger to match those sorts of dirtywork players. Modest numbers, although once again snagged 8 rebounds, twice as many as our starting center. And he's doing it so consistently and easily right now just by coming back and going for the ball, that maybe, just maybe, he can keep this up for some signficant part of the season.
Bibby ( A ) -- remains scorching hot, and took it to another level this game. Started off as Mike Bibby vs. the Charlotte Bobcats. Mike could not miss in the first, nobody else could hit. Made a few unforced turnovers, and right now Mike is playing every bit as one-dimensionally as Peja often has in the past. He's shooting and hitting everything, but he's not really creating, isn't on the glass, is indifferent defensively. Just a scorer. But at the moment an extremely potent one, and really hurt the Bobcats nearly everytime he touched it. One dimensional yes, but scorching. 25 pts on 11 shots in 28min in a blowout win = A I think.
Thomas ( B+ ) -- perhaps his best outing of the season. Came in early off the bench and gave us a boost after Shareef was struggling. Grabbed a few aggressive rebounds, although this was one of those games where his atheltic rebounding style trumped actual results a bit. Threw in several nice passes in the flow of the offense. And of course the critical advance this time out was his aggressive offensive play. Impact game off the bench. Finally!
Garcia ( B+ ) -- came in looking pretty good, along with Miller and Thomas helped actually BUILD a lead with the backups rather than lose it. Has settled down and is no longer forcing as many stupid shots, and its helping his shooting immensely. Also continues to show flashes of the passing ability which may make him a good fit here in time. Good solid return to the bench game should be enough to keep him lurking around the rotation, although one gets the feeling either he or Kevin is going to lose out here once Peja is healthy and the starters resume their big minutes together.
Martin ( C ) -- not really effective again in the first half when the game was still in question, and have no idea whether it is significant or not, but entered the game after Garcia. Made a poor unforced turnover down the sideline when he basically just dribbled himself right into the stands. Was starting to endanger himself again in the first half (I mention this occasionally, just because I think I've got a feel for the Adelman egg-timer) with Garcia back on the bench competing for minutes, but helped himself by playing pretty well in garbagetime. In the 4th went up and snatched some aggressive boards, and dropped a nifty one on one spin into the lane. Key word for Kevin now is consistency. My prediction is that the first kid to bring it every night will be the guy to get Rick's confidence, and thus the bulk of those swingman miinutes. As with others who played both halves, the grade here is weighted toward the production during the first half minutes while the game was still in doubt.
Hart ( C ) --nothing offensively in the first half, but did not hurt us, and ran the offense better than he has been. By the time he returned it was garbage time, and his play went that way too. Scored a few hoops, but also started turning it over and generally getting into the garbagetime spirit. Going to weight this toward the more solid stint when it mattered.
Skinner ( B- ) -- got into the game for the first time in garbagetime (the whole fourth quarter), and provided one of his best/most solid stints of the season, albeit largely against the scrubs on a second year expansion team. Immediately scored a pair of hoops, finally grabbed some boards, picked up a block etc. There's a limit to how well you can show against Jake Voskuhl, but looked solid in there. Maybe not solid enough to DEMAND more minutes. But solid enough that maybe you aren't afraid to play him if it looks like its called for. Baby steps folr the bench.
Corliss ( B- ) -- last of the established players to get into the game as usual, and also as usual did the Corliss thing. Which is to say take it aggressively down into the paint, rinse, repeat. And also as usual, was pretty effective at it. Feel almost bad judging a Corliss Williamson on 7 minutes of garbagetime and giving him a grade, but 6 minutes is my grading cutoff.
Price ( D ) -- came in surprisingly for Cisco, so that we were running a mini-Price/Hart backcourt. Unusually long stint for him, but pressed and was wild.
Adelman ( A- ) -- I kept on checking these grades, because much as on some nights they seem to add up too high given the result of the evening, tonight they seemed to do the opposite. Nonetheless, they all look more or less right to me. In any case, this was pretty easy. The Bobcats made an occasional run at us but were never a serious threat, and they showed all of the disorganiztion that you might expect out of a young inexperienced franchise. Think Okafor's foul trouble really hurt them too. We got good games from a few people, a ridiculous shooting game from Mike, and FINALLY a good bench performance. And it was more than enough. We just simply have more talent on our team than they do on theirs. Was that simple. So Rick didn't have to do much really. Switched Peja and Bonzi defensively on Rush and Wallace, which was wise I think (although Rush did light Peja up early), and he also limited Peja's minutes, which was also wise (really wise) given the way he was playing. Think he may have left him in there as long as he did just to let him make a shot -- remember Rick doing that a few years back with Webb, and think it is a good idea, especially with a few boobirds lurking about. Let Peja go to the bench with a little dignity intact and not stewing over an o-fer. But the best thing we did was secure the victory early and just throw the whole bench in there and let them close it up. I know it was likely done because we have a game tommorow, but that doesn't change the fact that it was absolutely the right thing to do, and that its something that Rick unfortunately does not always do as much as he should. But tonight it was done right. Everybody played. Several people who have not been playing well showed some signs of life. Just generally a good all around win. Proves nothing of course. But I think we accomplished just about everything we wanted to tonight, with the possible exception of getting Peja back into rhythm.
Peja ( D- ) -- And yes, I'm being charitable here and avoiding the obvious grade because of the maybe injury, and besides, we won. Easily the least effective King. Missed his first inside, but it was hard to tell what that meant because that's nothing new. But then missed his first outside, and another, and really wasn't getting after it on the glass, going for loose balls etc. Struggled guarding Kareem Rush on the other end. Out there, but consciousness of the injury appeared to have him effectively out of the game mentally anyway. Makes you wonder if him coming back for this one may not have had something to do with the public outcry, because it certainly didn't look like he wanted to be there. Pretty much completely ineffective in the first half. Finally hit a three in the second half, which I was glad to see as he was hearing a few boos and I'd rather not see that get started and spiral again. Probably just as well to get this one out of the way against the bad team on our home floor where it would not matter. Be interesting to see if he goes tommorow at Golden State (although he does have a nice soft matchup in Dunleavy).
Reef ( C+ ) -- missed everything in there early against the physical Okafor, and was the first guy subbed out for Kenny. Rebounded better than he has been however. Never did get much structured offense going inside, and the only reason he reached double figures was because of a few semi-desperation/frustration threes. Second time he's been reduced to that in the last week, but he's hit a few, so I'll take it. Okafor picked up major foul trouble though which helped, and really despite the offensive struggles I was not THAT unhappy with this effort. Offensively ineffective, but actually hustled, boarded, and banged better than he is wont.
Miller ( B+ ) -- more sharp passing, no rebounding stuff. Even against the non-rebounding Primoz Brezec, who just chewed him up on the glass in the first half 11-2 and scored against him easily as well. But as he often does, Brad won the saaviness battle again, and frustrated the Bobcats frontline with his unconventional herky jerky point center play as the game went along, and was a major figure as we blew them out in the third quarter. Yet another one of these head scratching games from him as a grader -- just hard to figure out what it all means. Basically as a center he's pretty much a complete abject failure right now. An uber-wuss who can't board, defend, or post. But as a point guard and saavy decision maker he is often brilliant and hurting teams with unconventional play. I can't ignore the fact he's supposed to be 7'0" tall and helping inside, but once again I think the whole adds up to a definite positive. So I think in the end its back to that familiar B+/A- range for him, and went with the lower mark because of his getting worked over by an equally soft player in Brezec.
Bonzi ( B ) -- not one of his huge games, but played an important role anyway getting into some serious banging with Wallace and keeping the jumping jack from really hurting us as so many athletic physical wings have done in the past. Banged, frustrated, got chippee, and on a couple of occasions a little cheap with Gerald, and in the end largely negated him and may have gotten the better of it by being more in control. Nice to have a banger to match those sorts of dirtywork players. Modest numbers, although once again snagged 8 rebounds, twice as many as our starting center. And he's doing it so consistently and easily right now just by coming back and going for the ball, that maybe, just maybe, he can keep this up for some signficant part of the season.
Bibby ( A ) -- remains scorching hot, and took it to another level this game. Started off as Mike Bibby vs. the Charlotte Bobcats. Mike could not miss in the first, nobody else could hit. Made a few unforced turnovers, and right now Mike is playing every bit as one-dimensionally as Peja often has in the past. He's shooting and hitting everything, but he's not really creating, isn't on the glass, is indifferent defensively. Just a scorer. But at the moment an extremely potent one, and really hurt the Bobcats nearly everytime he touched it. One dimensional yes, but scorching. 25 pts on 11 shots in 28min in a blowout win = A I think.
Thomas ( B+ ) -- perhaps his best outing of the season. Came in early off the bench and gave us a boost after Shareef was struggling. Grabbed a few aggressive rebounds, although this was one of those games where his atheltic rebounding style trumped actual results a bit. Threw in several nice passes in the flow of the offense. And of course the critical advance this time out was his aggressive offensive play. Impact game off the bench. Finally!
Garcia ( B+ ) -- came in looking pretty good, along with Miller and Thomas helped actually BUILD a lead with the backups rather than lose it. Has settled down and is no longer forcing as many stupid shots, and its helping his shooting immensely. Also continues to show flashes of the passing ability which may make him a good fit here in time. Good solid return to the bench game should be enough to keep him lurking around the rotation, although one gets the feeling either he or Kevin is going to lose out here once Peja is healthy and the starters resume their big minutes together.
Martin ( C ) -- not really effective again in the first half when the game was still in question, and have no idea whether it is significant or not, but entered the game after Garcia. Made a poor unforced turnover down the sideline when he basically just dribbled himself right into the stands. Was starting to endanger himself again in the first half (I mention this occasionally, just because I think I've got a feel for the Adelman egg-timer) with Garcia back on the bench competing for minutes, but helped himself by playing pretty well in garbagetime. In the 4th went up and snatched some aggressive boards, and dropped a nifty one on one spin into the lane. Key word for Kevin now is consistency. My prediction is that the first kid to bring it every night will be the guy to get Rick's confidence, and thus the bulk of those swingman miinutes. As with others who played both halves, the grade here is weighted toward the production during the first half minutes while the game was still in doubt.
Hart ( C ) --nothing offensively in the first half, but did not hurt us, and ran the offense better than he has been. By the time he returned it was garbage time, and his play went that way too. Scored a few hoops, but also started turning it over and generally getting into the garbagetime spirit. Going to weight this toward the more solid stint when it mattered.
Skinner ( B- ) -- got into the game for the first time in garbagetime (the whole fourth quarter), and provided one of his best/most solid stints of the season, albeit largely against the scrubs on a second year expansion team. Immediately scored a pair of hoops, finally grabbed some boards, picked up a block etc. There's a limit to how well you can show against Jake Voskuhl, but looked solid in there. Maybe not solid enough to DEMAND more minutes. But solid enough that maybe you aren't afraid to play him if it looks like its called for. Baby steps folr the bench.
Corliss ( B- ) -- last of the established players to get into the game as usual, and also as usual did the Corliss thing. Which is to say take it aggressively down into the paint, rinse, repeat. And also as usual, was pretty effective at it. Feel almost bad judging a Corliss Williamson on 7 minutes of garbagetime and giving him a grade, but 6 minutes is my grading cutoff.
Price ( D ) -- came in surprisingly for Cisco, so that we were running a mini-Price/Hart backcourt. Unusually long stint for him, but pressed and was wild.
Adelman ( A- ) -- I kept on checking these grades, because much as on some nights they seem to add up too high given the result of the evening, tonight they seemed to do the opposite. Nonetheless, they all look more or less right to me. In any case, this was pretty easy. The Bobcats made an occasional run at us but were never a serious threat, and they showed all of the disorganiztion that you might expect out of a young inexperienced franchise. Think Okafor's foul trouble really hurt them too. We got good games from a few people, a ridiculous shooting game from Mike, and FINALLY a good bench performance. And it was more than enough. We just simply have more talent on our team than they do on theirs. Was that simple. So Rick didn't have to do much really. Switched Peja and Bonzi defensively on Rush and Wallace, which was wise I think (although Rush did light Peja up early), and he also limited Peja's minutes, which was also wise (really wise) given the way he was playing. Think he may have left him in there as long as he did just to let him make a shot -- remember Rick doing that a few years back with Webb, and think it is a good idea, especially with a few boobirds lurking about. Let Peja go to the bench with a little dignity intact and not stewing over an o-fer. But the best thing we did was secure the victory early and just throw the whole bench in there and let them close it up. I know it was likely done because we have a game tommorow, but that doesn't change the fact that it was absolutely the right thing to do, and that its something that Rick unfortunately does not always do as much as he should. But tonight it was done right. Everybody played. Several people who have not been playing well showed some signs of life. Just generally a good all around win. Proves nothing of course. But I think we accomplished just about everything we wanted to tonight, with the possible exception of getting Peja back into rhythm.
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