[Grades] Grades v. Bobhornets 1/4/2014

Is there any possible way for this team to not suck at D as currently constructed?

  • Yes

    Votes: 14 24.6%

  • No

    Votes: 43 75.4%
  • Total voters
    57
  • Poll closed .
Npliam said:
I don't think this is true. Cuz gets frusterated on the court sometimes but so did every other great player. Being a leader in the locker room requires 2 things. 1) you have to be a great player. Nobody cares what a scrub says. 2) you have to be intelligent and well spoken. Cuz is both of those things. I really think he can lead a team. Will he be better at in 10 years? Of course.
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In no way did I suggest he would never be a good leader. Just that with his current level of maturity his emotions could cause problems with the rest of the team.
 
sdballer said:
In no way did I suggest he would never be a good leader. Just that with his current level of maturity his emotions could cause problems with the rest of the team.
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Guys are different off the court. I would bet Cuz is pretty level headed in the locker room after the heat of the moment.
 
dmj said:
As much as our defense gets blamed for our losing, our offense is actually pretty bad too. People like to point to our PPG and say that our offense is fine, but in reality PPG is a poor measure of a teams offensive production since it doesn't take into account pace. Our team FG% actually places us 20th in the league. The worst offenders are McLemore and Thornton who are both shooting an abysmal .370% from the field on a combined 16 attempts per game.
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Cousins, Rudy and IT take the bulk of the shots and are all shooting at around over over 50%. The offense may not be elite, but it's nowhere close to the problem. Defense IS the problem. Not sure how you can argue otherwise.
 
John Galt said:
I still remember IT insisting on shaking CP3's hand after a loss to Clippers. Everyone on the team left the floor except IT, who wanted to play pals with the opponent. Bugged me then, bugs me now. It was conspicuous - IT was the only guy on the team who defied Cuz that day.
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He seems to have some sort of chip on the shoulder, where nobody is going to give him advice or imply that maybe he is making the wrong move. We saw it on the court tonight. Instead of saying sorry, he's telling everyone else to calm down or yelling at them when his man gets to the basket
 
Npliam said:
Guys are different off the court. I would bet Cuz is pretty level headed in the locker room after the heat of the moment.
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And I would guess that you would be guessing wrong.

Just to be clear I think cuz is the only sure future piece for this team and I don't have a problem with him calling out teammates. Just concerned with how he might deliver those messages.
 
KingsFanSince85 said:
Cousins, Rudy and IT take the bulk of the shots and are all shooting at around over over 50%. The offense may not be elite, but it's nowhere close to the problem. Defense IS the problem. Not sure how you can argue otherwise.
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It's both. Let's be realistic. The team lacks chemistry both ends of the court.
 
With the poll question as written, I had to answer YES because there is "any possible way" ... just not a very likely one.
 
Remember after xmas, IT said that "it felt good to get away from the team".. and I thought this teams chemistry is doomed.. Yet some told me here not to read anything into it.
 
KingsFanSince85 said:
Cousins, Rudy and IT take the bulk of the shots and are all shooting at around over over 50%. The offense may not be elite, but it's nowhere close to the problem. Defense IS the problem. Not sure how you can argue otherwise.
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We're 20th in FG%, despite the play of Cousins, Gay, and Thomas, who take a little over half of our teams shots. We're in the bottom third of the league both offensively and defensively, it's just that our defense is at the very bottom. They're both problems, but our defense is definitely the greater issue.
 
rainmaker said:
I want to know which side Gay is on.
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I suspect Rudy is trying very hard not to take sides, especially since he's the new kid on the block and all. But, having said that, I did notice at the last game I attended that Rudy seemed much more animated and involved when he was talking with DMC than he was with IT. I got the impression a "brothers-in-arms" kind of relationship could be developing.
 
IT just plays "me me me me" ball out there. every play it seems like he's looking to get a bucket first, then if that backfires he passes the ball and makes someone create with minimal time on the clock.

How many times per game does the guy get stuck in the air on a shot and have to make a desperation pass out of the shot? more than anyone ive ever seen before
 
HereWeVivek said:
IT just plays "me me me me" ball out there. every play it seems like he's looking to get a bucket first, then if that backfires he passes the ball and makes someone create with minimal time on the clock.

How many times per game does the guy get stuck in the air on a shot and have to make a desperation pass out of the shot? more than anyone ive ever seen before
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Tonight he was 'forced' to make a pass out to Derrick for a three, which he made. After that, Derrick didn't have much of a hope of seeing another look to find out if he might have a hot hand
 
VF21 said:
I suspect Rudy is trying very hard not to take sides, especially since he's the new kid on the block and all. But, having said that, I did notice at the last game I attended that Rudy seemed much more animated and involved when he was talking with DMC than he was with IT. I got the impression a "brothers-in-arms" kind of relationship could be developing.
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Which way? Rudy can very well be the key and if he sides with IT, this team probably will implode. Rudy seems to be the voice of reason and he can have a big impact on the positive side.
 
I have heard DMC in a few recent post game interviews mention that the team is "full of excuses" and they need to "Do their fn job". couldn't help but think Isaiah is part of that. especially after seeing him yelling at Williams and Acy tonight after his own awful defense.....
 
dmj said:
We're 20th in FG%, despite the play of Cousins, Gay, and Thomas, who take a little over half of our teams shots.
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20th since the trade? Or 20th since the beginning of the season?? I haven't verified the numbers, but I'm betting it's the latter and not the former. The defense, however, has become far worse since the trade. That I know for certain.

EDIT: According to Hollinger's team stats, the Kings are tied for 13th in OFF. efficiency and 29th in DEF. efficiency.

As I stated earlier, offense is not the issue.
 
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DMC isn't going, so it will have to be IT. Man Jimmer sucked big time. He's only there really for his shot and it wasn't there tonight.
 
VF21 said:
Sorry. I was unclear. I meant that I sensed a bonding between DMC and Rudy.
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GOOD!!!!! Thanks. If there is a bonding between Rudy, DMC, and Malone, we can tolerate a lot of chaos. It may mean a lot of house cleaning but we might as well find out who is with Malone and who isn't because ultimately that may be the issue. I think Malone needs to take a strong line and show great faith in what he wants and that is far easier to do with the two best players on your side than without. So far he hasn't been the least bit shy about explaining what he wants.
 
I'm assuming most of us played basketball before whether be in a league or street. Now when you played who was everyone pissed off at, would never like to play with and just dispised. It wasn't the guy who dominated and passed if you cut (DMC). It was the pg who would shoot 80% of the time, not play defense, then proceed to scold you for his mistakes (IT).

IT is the obvious problem get rid of that clown and get a pass 1st guard or a defensive guard.
 
VF21 said:
With the poll question as written, I had to answer YES because there is "any possible way" ... just not a very likely one.
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Well, I guess that every player on the other 29 teams could all simultaneously get mononucleosis and basically have to sit the season out. I bet we'd play pretty good defense against D-League fill-ins.

Outside of that??? My optimism is waning.
 
2 of our big 3 are clearly on a completely different level than the other one. Sides look to have been chosen.

One way or another, the 3rd is likely gone within 6 months. It becomes more clear every game.
 
VF21 said:
I suspect Rudy is trying very hard not to take sides, especially since he's the new kid on the block and all. But, having said that, I did notice at the last game I attended that Rudy seemed much more animated and involved when he was talking with DMC than he was with IT. I got the impression a "brothers-in-arms" kind of relationship could be developing.
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I don't sense a problem between Rudy and Cuz. Good thing as I don't care about any other player's opinions on the team to be frank as long as those two are on the same page. They regularly look for one another and are talking to get things worked out. I've gotten the impression they enjoy playing together.

I personally don't see Gay siding with IT when I regularly see Gay standing there waiting for a damn pass and not seeing the rock. I see him rush to grab an inbounds after a make to get the ball and wave IT off a number of times. I think Gay/IT are competing for the ball and Gay sees it just as that. Gay/Cuz run a far better two-man game than IT/Gay and I don't think anyone could argue different, and that takes trust.

Speculation though.
 
Capt. Factorial said:
Well, I guess that every player on the other 29 teams could all simultaneously get mononucleosis and basically have to sit the season out. I bet we'd play pretty good defense against D-League fill-ins.

Outside of that??? My optimism is waning.
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Ah, but he didn't say "good defense." He asked if there was any possible way we could not suck at D. And, there is. We play IT off the bench in limited minutes. We play Ray at the 1 (assuming his defense is, in fact, better than IT's). We utilize Acy a lot more in the big rotation and maybe even try Cousins and Gray at the same time. We float Rudy between the 2 and 3, and use Williams to backfill for Gay at the SF. We use the other players as best we can and hope for the best. Will we win? Oh, hell no. But we'll look better losing.
 
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