[Grades] Grades v. Bucks 11/25/2015

[Kingston Jamaica]

I loved the way Casspi played. As usual brought up his energy, hustling and scoring; but most notably he never forced anything, played within his limits. When he does that he's easily the best bench player to me.

I think this was Bellinelli's best scoring night, although his scoring % is the worst of his career this season. Yet his timely made shots are always money, impacts the game.

I agree with you. I know that Beli is a shooter and a shooter has to shoot. However, he is often too trigger happy and that disturbs the flow of the game. In the Bucks game he played much more focused and I think his team mates liked it. He has to realize that it goes both ways. When he passes the rock, in the end he'll get much more open shots as well.

 

[rainmaker]

I don't think you misinterpreted me, but it's clear we have different assumptions about what the role of a second option scorer on a basketball team is. You seem fixated on how many points Rudy Gay scores only while playing alongside Cousins. To me that's a frivolous qualification. Did the points Peja scored when Chris Webber was injured not count? Did they not help us win games? The second option scorer should be a guy who's capable of winning games without your star. It should also be someone who knows their role and is willing to defer when your star is playing. Both are true of Rudy.

If I were actually going to undertake some objective study of who the best second option scorers in the league are than the distinction you're making would be relevant. But I didn't say Rudy Gay was the 5th best #2 guy in the league, I just pointed out a statistic which is true as of today and suggests he's pretty damn good. Top 5, top 10, top 20, somebody else can trouble themself with figuring that out.

That's great and all and I agree with the overall premise, usually, but on this team Rondo is the 2nd option. As you alluded to early in your post, being a top 2nd option isn't dependent upon points.

Leading the NBA in assists and triple doubles, top 10 in steals too, while being the far and away top leadership piece on this squad is what our current 2nd option is.

And that makes Rudy an even better 3rd option. I'm not down on Rudy like some here, I'm just that high on Rondo.

It also means our failure is largely around Karl's misuse of everyone else as this squad has talent.

 

[DeMoN]

Nice tweet by Jason Jomes....Kings are 5-3 since the team meeting.....should have been 6-2 but that's something positive to look at.

Jason Jones is apart of a facebook group i'm in, i talk to him daily.. great guy, Although he's a Laker fan im pretty sure.

 

[Warhawk]

Jason Jones is apart of a facebook group i'm in, i talk to him daily.. great guy, Although he's a Laker fan im pretty sure.

Oh, he is. Been very clear about that in the past sometime. I haven't, overall, been impressed with his work. During the season he gets his articles in, but lots of his tweets have been about missing cruising LA and rap music, etc. National writers were pushing out stories from the Kings and there are crickets from our own beat writer.

 

[pshn80]

That's great and all and I agree with the overall premise, usually, but on this team Rondo is the 2nd option. As you alluded to early in your post, being a top 2nd option isn't dependent upon points.

Leading the NBA in assists and triple doubles, top 10 in steals too, while being the far and away top leadership piece on this squad is what our current 2nd option is.

And that makes Rudy an even better 3rd option. I'm not down on Rudy like some here, I'm just that high on Rondo.

It also means our failure is largely around Karl's misuse of everyone else as this squad has talent.

And our success is largely around Karl's good use of everyone else.

 

[dude12]

Oh, he is. Been very clear about that in the past sometime. I haven't, overall, been impressed with his work. During the season he gets his articles in, but lots of his tweets have been about missing cruising LA and rap music, etc. National writers were pushing out stories from the Kings and there are crickets from our own beat writer.

Agreed....seems odd to have a guy as a beat writer here who is such a big LA fan. He gets beat to lots of story lines.

 

[VF21]

Agreed....seems odd to have a guy as a beat writer here who is such a big LA fan. He gets beat to lots of story lines.

He was a Laker fan from LA before he got the job in Sacramento.

 

[hrdboild]

That's fair. I guess I inferred from your comparing his PPG to those other guys that you were essentially implying "Gay scores as much as these other second options (who are pretty good), therefore he is just as good a second option as these guys". Perhaps my inference was wrong. I don't disagree that Gay has (contrary to what it may seem) played well. Let's say both Gay and Cousins went down for a third of our games and Karl designated Ben as option #1, taking 30 shots a game, and Ben ends up averaging 20ppg because of that. It wouldn't then make sense to compare him to a 3rd option on another team and say "Aha, Ben is averaging more than that guy, so he's a much better 3rd option". As such, comparing PPG doesn't mean much IMO, but again that depends what point you were trying to prove in bringing it up.

Scoring on its own is not a stat I take very seriously, and maybe we differ there. In my opinion anybody in the league could average 30 points. It may take them 50 shots a game and they might never win a game, but that players' PPG would still be a high number. In fact, you probably said it best yourself: the second option scorer should be a guy who's capable of winning games without your star. In that regard, Gay hasn't quite been that good this season.

The thing is... wins and losses aren't really a very effective way to evaluate individual player performance either. You need a lot more than one good player to win a game. You need a strong team effort in addition to strong individual play. OKC is a special case, they really have two #1 options not a first and a second option. By any realistic standard, Rudy Gay is more than capable as a second option scorer. He's not a two-way star which limits our ceiling and he's probably not going to win us a lot of games on his own. That doesn't mean he isn't an important part of the team. There's no way we win the Milwaukee game without him. And since you brought up the topic of scoring efficiency, Rudy Gay is also shooting .474 from the field right now. He's tied for 21st on the list of qualified scorers. Of the 20 players who are currently averaging more points per game, only 6 of them shoot a better percentage (Steph Curry, Lebron James, Blake Griffin, Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard, and Brook Lopez) so it's not as if Rudy Gay is just throwing up shots either. He's making them count. As a pure scorer (i.e. a guy who finishes plays with made baskets) he's elite.

That's great and all and I agree with the overall premise, usually, but on this team Rondo is the 2nd option. As you alluded to early in your post, being a top 2nd option isn't dependent upon points.

Leading the NBA in assists and triple doubles, top 10 in steals too, while being the far and away top leadership piece on this squad is what our current 2nd option is.

And that makes Rudy an even better 3rd option. I'm not down on Rudy like some here, I'm just that high on Rondo.

It also means our failure is largely around Karl's misuse of everyone else as this squad has talent.

We're getting into semantics here, but you'll get no argument from me that Rondo is the second most important player on the team. That's not the same thing as being the second option in the offense. Rondo is the quarterback in this scenario. He takes the snap (inbounds pass) and looks up court for his receivers. If Cousins is open or in good position to score he's the first option. If Cousins is covered and Gay is in good position to score he's the second option. An open jumper from Marco, Omri, Ben, or Darren is the third option, a lob or pocket pass to whoever happens to be playing PF at the time is the fourth option, and the fifth option is Rondo taking it to the basket himself or shooting an open elbow jumper. This is a much different hierarchy than you'd see on a team like Portland where Lillard is the PG and hunting out opportunities to score it himself is always his first option. Everybody on the team has a role to play on the offense and we need all of them playing well to win.