[Grades] Grades v. Cavaliers 1/11/2015

[VF21]

When cousins has an A+ night, he's going to go for 40/20/4/3, with less than 4 turnovers. Or something like a current line in a playoff game we win (a kid can dream, can't he?). He legitly can put up these numbers weekly when he gets all his stuff together. Tonight the non "+" was settling for the jumpers in the second half when he could have gone right down the pike.

Two little words can put that + right back where it belongs.

FOUL TROUBLE

DMC has not put himself and the team in the hole by committing stupid fouls, thus making him spend minutes on the bench when he could be on the court.

That, in and of itself, cannot be overestimated.

 

[Guy Larboni]

Let's admit it, no one's gonna be talking about the Kings after that game, but who cares? we destroyed them today. Can't belive Wiggins, Bennett, a whole lot of draft picks just went by the cavs for a 1 year project.

But still, fire Corbin please. Or at least hire a new one so that he'll be assistant again.

 

[Siranthony]

Nice game! A great performance by our big three. Is Corbin a good coach? Hard to tell yet.

Cousins had his game face on all game. Not sure what to think of it. It looked like a good sign that Rudy was joking around during Thompson's interview.

I think a little bit of uptempo adds some spice to our game. But Defense is our game. There should be no doubt about that. I think when we play other uptempo type teams, we should not try to outpace them. If anything we should try to slow them down as much as possible.

 

[mac]

Great performance by the guys, but also interesting to see that contrary to certain posters' ideas, Rudy Gay and Cousins were pretty much taking turns being in the post. Whenever we posted up Gay Cousins would be way out at the free throw line or even farther. Not really evidence that PDA had this great idea to move Evans for Gay so that Cousins could work in the post more.

 

[Pace]

He shoots threes. Don't give the front office any ideas.

He's also the best outlet passer in the league.

 

[Tetsujin]

He's also the best outlet passer in the league.

He's also quite possibly the worst defender in the league.

 

[John Galt]

When cousins has an A+ night, he's going to go for 40/20/4/3, with less than 4 turnovers. Or something like a current line in a playoff game we win (a kid can dream, can't he?). He legitly can put up these numbers weekly when he gets all his stuff together. Tonight the non "+" was settling for the jumpers in the second half when he could have gone right down the pike.

I will never fault a guy for not banging for a stretch of the game if "not banging" is working out and we win a blowout. I remember the first time I sat close under the baskets it was kind of an epiphany for me. I was one who would sometimes criticize CWebb for shooting elbow j's instead of banging... and then I saw just what the routing banging underneath entails. ouch - it is a mans job.

If you're running the opps out of the gym, I think you can take a quarter off, hang out on the elbow, and just shoot baskets.

A+

 

[John Galt]

One thing I noticed was a couple times Rudy passed out of double/triple-teams and the team whipped the ball around and found a good look for Collison. I think it happened twice in a short span. It seemed that if Cousins was off the floor they would just freaking swarm Rudy, but the team handled it pretty well. Can't wait to see how we do against a half way decent team - I mean the Cavs looked like a steaming pile of crap to me, Love included.

If the Kings did some kind of trade that made Love their centerpiece, I really might defect. He does not do it for me at all.

 

[Chubbs]

He's also quite possibly the worst defender in the league.

David Lee disagrees.

 

[ppine]

A good win. The Kings have taken on a Jekyll and Hyde quality and it is hard to say which version of the team shows up each night.

They are capable of playing with great intensity, and also being very passive.

"Team chemistry" is a notion I think is over-rated.

The Kings seem to match up well with the James-less Cavs. Other teams give them fits on defense. They are unpredictable.

 

[Spike]

"Team chemistry" is a notion I think is over-rated.

Hold on there...

 

[FaStRmAn]

Only negative I can take from this game was when the game was in hand the reserves played awful sloppy. Ryan Hollins is a terrible player. Has no game whatsoever.

 

[206Fan]

My negatives from the game

-Ray McCallum is a horrid PG. We've all seen him mess up in transition in the past, but I think yesterday was his worst game thus far. Too much dribbling the clock down. I think he's a SG. He needs to play next to a ball handler, which is why I think Sessions-McCallum would be a really interesting backcourt. Of course that does force Nik into the 3.

-not enough plays ran for Nik and Ben to get them involved. Nik only took 2 shots and one of them was a contested forced shot that might've been blocked. More plays should've been ran for him. I would not be objected to see Nik get the chance to handle the ball. I think he's an overall better shot creator than Ray.

-unproductive bench. Luckily tonight, the Cavs bench was also terrible.

 

[Chubbs]

Is it bad that I think we kinda miss Ramon Sessions?

Maybe he wasn't healthy early in the season?

He's certainly better than Ray McCallum when healthy.

 

[funkykingston]

Is it bad that I think we kinda miss Ramon Sessions?

Maybe he wasn't healthy early in the season?

He's certainly better than Ray McCallum when healthy.

Being the best backup PG on the Kings these days is like being the best bullfighter in Ohio.

 

[captain bill]

Rotations looked the best they have all year, which is a big part of why the lead stayed consistently around 19-21 and the Cavs never made any sort of serious run. Great composure throughout the game.

The other side of that is Cuz staying out of foul trouble, as the Cavs front court sucks and we got at least one no-call (on the Love strip) that had some contact and 95% of the time throughout his career that call has gone against Cuz. It will be interesting to see if we get more of these types of games going forward.

Cuz played A+. Only way you can ding him is because the Cavs suck, but it's not his fault that no one can stop him. Or maybe it is...

I loved that he showed his full array tonight:
-opportunistic steals leading to coast-to-coast dunks
-off the ball movement to get points (props to DC on an amazing pass as he drove to the corner)
-one of the best Boogie Ballet Boards ever (leaping up over Mozgov and Love to firmly secure the ball with one hand on a fully outstretched arm, safely corralling the ball and quickly putting it back in)
-clean midrange shooting
-BIG MAN POWER MOVES
-an excellent sky hook

One more piece of evidence that DMC has the tools to be an all-time great. He is a perfect Duncan- Shaq hybrid, and that is not hyperbole.

GO KINGS!!!!!

 

[randymoss1881]

One thing I noticed was a couple times Rudy passed out of double/triple-teams and the team whipped the ball around and found a good look for Collison. I think it happened twice in a short span. It seemed that if Cousins was off the floor they would just freaking swarm Rudy, but the team handled it pretty well. Can't wait to see how we do against a half way decent team - I mean the Cavs looked like a steaming pile of crap to me, Love included.

If the Kings did some kind of trade that made Love their centerpiece, I really might defect. He does not do it for me at all.

Ya dude is everything his owner said he was when they traded him. I would have been pissed right now if we got the first pick last draft cause I know PDA would have traded him for wiggins/Ben which would have been a big mistake.

 

[Spike]

I agree and for a very simple reason: They didn't just luck out against a decimated Cavs team. They came out and pretty much did everything right. With 20 assists and only 5 turnovers, they showed they do remember how to play team ball. The rotations were logical and balanced, which is something that used to drive me absolutely crazy.

Tonight was a good night to be a Kings fan. The cautious optimist in me would love to see it again very soon. I just wish we weren't playing the Mavs next.

GO KINGS!

That is the one (noticeable) positive I have taken away from Corbin. I think (at least it appears so) that he plays his starters more minutes.
Still, it shows how unreliable our bench can be, and I wonder if the extended minutes will provide any issues down the road. I don't think so, but, you never know...

 

[IfAt1st]

BTW, in case people have missed it: Boogie isn't fouling anymore. The result is big minutes and flat HOF numbers. --Brick

Have people been talking about this much?
If so, I've missed it.

I have never seen Boogie foul less in his entire career.
Do we think this is a shift in how he may play in the future, or is it a temporary aberration?

There are big Pros to him fouling so few times, but the big Con is that other Centers are getting lots of easy baskets and they are getting deep in the paint when they want to (even dudes who have no business scoring over/through Demarcus).

 

[bajaden]

My negatives from the game

-Ray McCallum is a horrid PG. We've all seen him mess up in transition in the past, but I think yesterday was his worst game thus far. Too much dribbling the clock down. I think he's a SG. He needs to play next to a ball handler, which is why I think Sessions-McCallum would be a really interesting backcourt. Of course that does force Nik into the 3.

-not enough plays ran for Nik and Ben to get them involved. Nik only took 2 shots and one of them was a contested forced shot that might've been blocked. More plays should've been ran for him. I would not be objected to see Nik get the chance to handle the ball. I think he's an overall better shot creator than Ray.

-unproductive bench. Luckily tonight, the Cavs bench was also terrible.

I like Ray, but tonight he was god awful terrible. It was as though he was on an entirely different planet than the rest of the team. Ben was struggling tonight, but maybe if they had run a few more plays for him he might have broken out. Nik was never involved at all. It's as though he's ignored when he's on the floor. Cuz is the only player that will find him from time to time. Ditto McLemore.

 

[ninjabiscuit]

That is the one (noticeable) positive I have taken away from Corbin. I think (at least it appears so) that he plays his starters more minutes.

Still, it shows how unreliable our bench can be, and I wonder if the extended minutes will provide any issues down the road. I don't think so, but, you never know...

This is probably just me, since I'm no basketball expert: I fully recognize and agree that firing Mike Malone was a terrible idea on a number of levels (strategic, karmic, team chemistry, public relations...take your pick). But if we were to completely ignore that and just look at the current situation, Corbin seems like a decent coach to me. If the team chooses to play hard and Boogie can stay out of foul trouble, I'm not sure Corbin is a massive downgrade.

Now, would George Karl be better? Yes, I'm sure, and I'd love to have him, but I'm getting the sense that the hand-wringing over Corbin is a LOT more about the atrocity that was Malone's firing than Corbin's actual ability to coach a basketball team. And I think that the attitude of the players (which seems to be improving) is a lot more important than whether or not Corbin is their coach.

EDIT: And I also wonder if some people will never warm to Corbin for the simple reason that Malone shouldn't have been fired, therefore Corbin is bad. (I'm oversimplifying, but you know what I mean.) My point is that as near as I can tell, this isn't really Corbin's fault, although he's getting a lot of backlash from the Malone thing.

What if the Malone thing caused a bunch of turmoil, but things are getting better, the players are getting back on track, and Corbin isn't actually a bad coach?

Am I way off base?

 

[Chubbs]

This is probably just me, since I'm no basketball expert: I fully recognize and agree that firing Mike Malone was a terrible idea on a number of levels (strategic, karmic, team chemistry, public relations...take your pick). But if we were to completely ignore that and just look at the current situation, Corbin seems like a decent coach to me. If the team chooses to play hard and Boogie can stay out of foul trouble, I'm not sure Corbin is a massive downgrade.

Now, would George Karl be better? Yes, I'm sure, and I'd love to have him, but I'm getting the sense that the hand-wringing over Corbin is a LOT more about the atrocity that was Malone's firing than Corbin's actual ability to coach a basketball team. And I think that the attitude of the players (which seems to be improving) is a lot more important than whether or not Corbin is their coach.

Am I way off base?

Corbin IS a decent coach. But not an upgrade. I haven't seen many claims otherwise.

But why make at best a lateral move with all the loss of effort and chemistry and momentum (oh, and games, lost a few of those as well) being a side product? I really can't figure it out. They could have installed Corbin in the offseason with a lot less extreme negative feedback from the fans.

As has been said, the only reason it would have needed to happen now was if the team had tuned Malone out, or they thought they needed to get Karl (or someone else) in immediately. Neither of those two things seem to be the case. From what I've read, the only coach they even talked to was Mark Jackson.

I think this was the plan all along. Lame duck coach, hope for individual improvement while keeping our draft pick. Expected dip as Cousins came back as the players went through the shock of a popular coach being fired.

Maybe I give them too much credit. If you discount the players as actual humans, it makes a sadistic sort of sense.

Now they are in earn the fans back mode. They never needed to lose them.

PDA immediately in the Carmichael Dave thing tried to spin complaints about the firing into an indictment of Corbin.

It's not.

I like his rotations, he's similarly hampered by a lack of talent off the bench, but he makes up for it by playing the starters more. Of course Boogie suddenly staying out of foul trouble makes better rotations a whole heck of a lot easier.

 

[funkykingston]

Corbin IS a decent coach. But not an upgrade. I haven't seen many claims otherwise.

But why make at best a lateral move with all the loss of effort and chemistry and momentum (oh, and games, lost a few of those as well) being a side product? I really can't figure it out. They could have installed Corbin in the offseason with a lot less extreme negative feedback from the fans.

As has been said, the only reason it would have needed to happen now was if the team had tuned Malone out, or they thought they needed to get Karl in immediately. Neither of those two things seem to be the case.

Now they are in earn the fans back mode. They never needed to lose them.

PDA immediately in the Carmichael Dave thing tried to spin complaints about the firing into an indictment of Corbin.

It's not.

I like his rotations, he's similarly hampered by a lack of talent off the bench, but he makes up for it by playing the starters more. Of course Boogie suddenly staying out of foul trouble makes better rotations a whole heck of a lot easier.

Yep, pretty much exactly how I see it. Malone had the team bought in to what he was doing and Corbin isn't enough of an upgrade (if he's an upgrade at all) to disrupt the team by changing coaches 24 games in. Especially when even after all the games DMC missed the team was still on pace for a much better season than last year.

I like Corbin. I thought he was a great hire as an assistant and I'm rooting for him as the Kings coach. But the reasons given by PDA for why he is now the head coach still make zero sense.

At this point my confidence in the Kings FO/ownership is so low I'm absolutely hoping that Corbin stays in place as HC beyond this year because I'm afraid the alternative is Chris Mullin.

 

[CurseOfTheSalmons]

My negatives from the game

-Ray McCallum is a horrid PG. We've all seen him mess up in transition in the past, but I think yesterday was his worst game thus far. Too much dribbling the clock down. I think he's a SG. He needs to play next to a ball handler, which is why I think Sessions-McCallum would be a really interesting backcourt. Of course that does force Nik into the 3.

-not enough plays ran for Nik and Ben to get them involved. Nik only took 2 shots and one of them was a contested forced shot that might've been blocked. More plays should've been ran for him. I would not be objected to see Nik get the chance to handle the ball. I think he's an overall better shot creator than Ray.

-unproductive bench. Luckily tonight, the Cavs bench was also terrible.

I agree with your first two points. In theory, Nik should be sharing ball handling duties with Ray McCallum, but it seems like nobody on the team trusts Nik. Even if Nik makes a ton of mistakes, I think it will be better than the team ignoring him and trying to play 4-on-5 offense.

 

[Spike]

I agree with what Chubbs and Funky said.

Corbin isn't an upgrade - certainly not defensively. His defense leaves a lot to be desired (in fact, his Jazz team was pretty bad defensively) - thankfully DMC keeps trying to hold teammates accountable. Thus far, his only true upgrade has been getting more minutes out of the starters, which, I give him credit for recognizing that the bench can't be left to fend for itself.

That said, I understand Corbin is in a no-win situation. He has to replace a popular coach (both by fans and players), and he has to install an offense that seems to be counterintuitive to what makes this team successful. (Notice a theme in the Kings' past two wins? Notice DMC calling out the defensive effort after every loss?)
I can't imagine what kind of conversations have happened after each win. Is the FO giving him an "atta boy!", or are they saying, "hey...what about running a bit more? I mean, we won, right? So let's [finger quotes] add on [/finger quotes] to what we're doing, Ty. OK?"

I've said it before, I'll say it again. Corbin gets a pass from me because of what the FO has done. If he can get the players from falling apart, then he should be commended and may be rewarded with a job somewhere else next year. I don't think it will be here - the FO has likely intimated as much.

 

[ForlornKing]

I'm still not really liking the change from seeing Cousins more in the high post than the low post. I think this new system means he takes more jumpers. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Livinthedream]

Corbin IS a decent coach. But not an upgrade. I haven't seen many claims otherwise.

But why make at best a lateral move with all the loss of effort and chemistry and momentum (oh, and games, lost a few of those as well) being a side product? I really can't figure it out. They could have installed Corbin in the offseason with a lot less extreme negative feedback from the fans.

As has been said, the only reason it would have needed to happen now was if the team had tuned Malone out, or they thought they needed to get Karl (or someone else) in immediately. Neither of those two things seem to be the case. From what I've read, the only coach they even talked to was Mark Jackson.

I think this was the plan all along. Lame duck coach, hope for individual improvement while keeping our draft pick. Expected dip as Cousins came back as the players went through the shock of a popular coach being fired.

Maybe I give them too much credit. If you discount the players as actual humans, it makes a sadistic sort of sense.

Now they are in earn the fans back mode. They never needed to lose them.

PDA immediately in the Carmichael Dave thing tried to spin complaints about the firing into an indictment of Corbin.

It's not.

I like his rotations, he's similarly hampered by a lack of talent off the bench, but he makes up for it by playing the starters more. Of course Boogie suddenly staying out of foul trouble makes better rotations a whole heck of a lot easier.

I've gone back and forth in my mind on why Malone was fired when he was. I'm confident Malone was never in the plans beyond this year. I'm confident PDA and Malone didn't see eye to eye also.

However, I'm starting to think the only reason Malone wasn't fired in the off season was because the FO wanted a stable situation for as long as possible. When we began winning and the team looked stable and strong, but Malone was vulnerable, PDA pulled the trigger figuring they could keep same staff and players and basic outline of a system with a few tweaks, minus Malone and not skip a beat.

Bad miscalculation, but it's the only reason for PDA to do what he did when he did it. All the pace and data point talk is just misdirection and cover up. Malone was the stabilizer. Malone was the culture.

 

[206Fan]

Is it bad that I think we kinda miss Ramon Sessions?

Maybe he wasn't healthy early in the season?

He's certainly better than Ray McCallum when healthy.

I'm starting to think an injury bothered Sessions. No way he should've been that terrible..

 

[206Fan]

I've gone back and forth in my mind on why Malone was fired when he was. I'm confident Malone was never in the plans beyond this year. I'm confident PDA and Malone didn't see eye to eye also.

However, I'm starting to think the only reason Malone wasn't fired in the off season was because the FO wanted a stable situation for as long as possible. When we began winning and the team looked stable and strong, but Malone was vulnerable, PDA pulled the trigger figuring they could keep same staff and players and basic outline of a system, minus Malone and not skip a beat.

Bad miscalculation, but it's the only reason for PDA to do what he did when he did it. All the pace and data point talk is just misdirection and cover up. Malone was the stabilizer. Malone was the culture.

I believe Malone and Pete probably just didn't get along. They both saw different things. I think they just couldn't work together. There's a lot of things us as fans, don't know. Malone could've stole Pete's lunch for all we know.

 

[pshn80]

Corbin IS a decent coach. But not an upgrade. I haven't seen many claims otherwise.

But why make at best a lateral move with all the loss of effort and chemistry and momentum (oh, and games, lost a few of those as well) being a side product? I really can't figure it out. They could have installed Corbin in the offseason with a lot less extreme negative feedback from the fans.

As has been said, the only reason it would have needed to happen now was if the team had tuned Malone out, or they thought they needed to get Karl (or someone else) in immediately. Neither of those two things seem to be the case. From what I've read, the only coach they even talked to was Mark Jackson.

I think this was the plan all along. Lame duck coach, hope for individual improvement while keeping our draft pick. Expected dip as Cousins came back as the players went through the shock of a popular coach being fired.

Maybe I give them too much credit. If you discount the players as actual humans, it makes a sadistic sort of sense.

Now they are in earn the fans back mode. They never needed to lose them.

PDA immediately in the Carmichael Dave thing tried to spin complaints about the firing into an indictment of Corbin.

It's not.

I like his rotations, he's similarly hampered by a lack of talent off the bench, but he makes up for it by playing the starters more. Of course Boogie suddenly staying out of foul trouble makes better rotations a whole heck of a lot easier.

Good observations. Makes you think the FO/ownership combo had some serious if unnamed grievances with Malone. Malone was hand picked first thing by Ranadive so you know something significant had changed between his expectations and what transpired. May be we'll learn more later when someone writes a book and, incendally, we no longer care.