Sorry for the delay. We (meaning me mostly, but let's blame Baja instead) at the Grading Consortium have been a little behind the eight ball here putting together templates and rules for the new season, so took a bit to get things organized, but voila! Here we are.
So that game was...interesting. If you did not get a chance to see it its almost hard to describe. We started off a complete hot mess on offense, and as Capt. Fact. and Hadlowe may mention, our defense, against Blake in particular just sucked. Cousins looked terrible, and the first way he didn't look terrible was by playing like Kyle Korver. Rudy was still playing kitchy coo with his baby. Rondo and Ben did nothing and got blown away by their counterparts. And yet somehow we never quite did get blown out. And when Cousins came online, kind of, and guys suddenly decided to hit their threes, we came roaring back and took the lead late in the game. That we then finished things off in typical Kings fashion only capped the head scratching here.
And this year we are starting a new tradition of giving an overall Grading Consortium Grades. I may eventually do full tables. For now:
Grading Consortium Grades (via Bricklayer, Capt. Factorial, Bajaden, Hadlowe, Cruz, Kingston Jamaica)
Gay: B (High: B+, Low: B-)
Cousins: B- (High: B, Low: C+)
Koufos: C (High: B-, Low: D)
McLemore: D (High: C-, Low: D-)
Rondo: D+ (High: C, Low: D-)
Casspi: C+ (High: B, Low: C-)
Cauley-Stein: INC
Belinelli: C+ (High: B-, Low: C)
Collison: B (High: B+, Low: B-)
Butler: B+ (High: A-, Low: B)
Anderson: INC
Boxscore
Stats: 31min 16pts (7-15, 1-3, 1-2) 6reb 3ast 0stl 2blk 0TO
Summary:
Gay ( B- ) -- in a lot of ways this is a B- most reluctantly given, and in fact it started out in the Cs. Rudy was not checked in here mentally. Now my fellow Consortium members liked his game better than I did, and I know what they saw. Despite getting off to a fugly rhythmless start, Rudy would eventually emerge as probably our best defensive answer to Blake's mobility, and he made a couple of plays late -- a three to cap our big run, a diving steal in the final two minutes -- to help give us a chance. But there was a cohesiveness and forcefulness lacking here. Early on it was a strait lack of focus, and I think most can guess why. He was no kind of factor at all, and we could have had Derrick Williams, Donte Greene or Travis Outlaw out there without substantially different production. By halftime we were working on a classic Boogie and the scrubs boxscore as Boogie was on his way to a 30-12 night and nobody else was in double figures and had made any play at all for #2 man status. Some of that was undoubtedly the silly "offense", if you want to call it that (too early to chase Mr. Dribble-Drive Offense out of town with torches and pitchforks?) which had everybody alternately throwing the ball all over the gym or standing around at the three point line awaiting their turn to catch the ball and try to drive it all the way to the hoop. But part of it was simply lack of focus. Bad angles, blown chippees, nothing consistent. But with a smile on his face even. The discovery that he could stay with Griffin a little, or at least a lot better than Karl's dubious choice for the job in a 7'0" center (Koufos) gave Rudy someway in which he could begin to contribute minute to minute, but there never was any extended run of Rudyesque offensive play. And in fact just before his big diving halfcourt steal from CP3 in the final minutes, Rudy had again come up short on a little gimme (for him) that put us in trouble. He wasn't consistently terrible, he just wasn't consistent period. I expect more. But I guess given that Griffin might have dropped 50 on us if Rudy has not started playing him (given Karl's indefensible decision to haze his rookie who clearly had the best chance mobility-wise to stay with him) I can bump this a little. --Brick
Stats: 35min 32pts (10-21, 4-5, 8-11) 13reb 3ast 0stl 1blk 8TO
Summary:
Cousins ( B ) -- there is a "where do you start?" element to trying to grade DeMarcus tonight. First of all some numbers: Cousins had 32pts, 13rebs, and because of the new wrinkle where he hit 4-5 3pt shots he's suddenly an analytics darling (90% of analytics surrounds the ability to hit a 3pt shot) with a TS% of .619. As of this morning he's 5th in the league in scoring, 5th in the league in rebounding, and he's certainly off to a helluva lot better start than Anthony Davis is. But now some more numbers: Boogie had 8 turnovers, and 6 Blocks Against, and half of his night consisted of perching out at the 3pt line and either throwing up threes or thinking about it, then pulling the ball down, and trying to rumble all the way to the rim to get blocked or turn it over. In other words despite Karl's promise to fix the offense it was the same stuff we saw in preseason. But the numbers piled up as he hit those threes (which mean there will be more boys and girls), and there was a definite attempt on Cuz's part to foul Jordan out of the game so that the big meanie would quit smashing all his of balance interior attempts. And when he finally succeeded in that task and the Clippers responded with their new smallball bench approach and tried to guard him with Josh Smith, either the coaching staff or Cuz himself responded appropriately. Suddenly Cuz was inside and pummeling the smaller player around the rim as we started to close, and his second half rebounds felt more legitimate too -- in the first half some of them were just somebody had to grab them things, as the game wore on increasingly they were I'm the biggest body with the best hands things. In fact by the end the biggest concern remained the damn turnovers, still occurring in all the same careless ways. Mostly the explosion is because of this ridiculous ethos that has developed ever since Malone left where our 6'11" C should be operating as a primary playmaker. Its not even the sort of playmaking that Vlade and Webber used to do with a strictly organized offense featuring long established teammates backcutting in front of stationary big men passers. With Cuz its a go create something off the dribble thing, with the occasional bad read out of a double thrown in. It really hurt us in the first half, and then in the final two minutes, with us down 2, it jumped up to bite us again as Cuz was slow to read a double team, telegraphed a crosscourt pass, and got it picked off easily by Blake hustling back. (One of the plays that finished us. Next time down we made a slight adjustment and Cuz quickly beat the double with a slick little pass to a cutting Rondo, so there is hope that eventually familiarity can cure the posting/cutting turnovers). I don't know. There is no other player in the league who puts up 32-13 on finally efficient scoring numbers and gets accused of having bad games, but there is so much dubious loosey goosey stuff going on right now its hard to muster great enthusiasm. Great talent, but just chaos.
Stats: 23min 10pts (5-6, 0-0, 0-0) 7reb 1ast 1stl 2blk 1TO
Summary:
Koufos ( D ) -- Koufos got a start in his first game as a King, and the first quarter was a quarter he will want to have erased from his memory. Kosta was tasked with guarding Blake Griffin, and he had absolutely no business doing so. He got exactly zero pressure on Griffin's jumper (4-5 in the first, 6-8 for the game) yet couldn't stay in front of Blake on the drive, either, where he went a very easy 2-2 and drew a foul. All told Koufos allowed Griffin to shoot 8-10 and allowed everybody else he guarded/got switched onto to go 4-6, adding up to 27 points on 17 shots (and that could have been worse had the players he fouled not gone 0-3 from the line). He had one play where he completely failed to pick up Chris Paul on a pick and roll giving up a very easy jumper in the lane. To his credit, he did play the PNR very well once or twice, and he got credit for two blocks - both of the fingertip squint-to-see-it type - but this simply was not the game I expected out of a player who was credited as being a very good defender, and the hole we dug ourselves in the first quarter by giving up easy shot after easy shot to Griffin was a major factor in the loss and his +/- of -10 shows it. Kosta did do a pretty good job on the boards, grabbing seven in his 23 minutes, and his offensive game was really nice considering we didn't really involve him much. He got two baskets on putbacks, one off of a nice Rondo pass (with the favor returned shortly thereafter) and went 2-2 in the post, even though the first make was on a goaltended shot that was going to come up short. His only miss was on a force on a baseline drive. So offensively he did get it done, but his defensive effort - mismatched though he may have been - was poor enough to get him a pretty bad grade on the night. --Capt.
Stats: 20min 5pts (2-5, 1-2, 0-0) 0reb 0ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Summary:
McLemore ( C- ) -- A theme to watch this year is going to be the Kings' off-ball movement. This has been an achilles heel for the team for years now, with set plays breaking down after teammates set weak screens and eventually the cutters and runners just stop cutting and running. In the first quarter, it was clear that the starters had no rhythm in their game. None of the movement was crisp, and the off-ball screens were incredibly weak or poorly timed. As a result, Ben was just invisible on the offensive end. Defensively, he actually did a decent job tracking Reddick around the floor. Redick didn't get going until the second half, and Ben repeatedly chased him off the three point line, forcing him into long twos, which he made. His rotations are still spotty, but his athleticism was clearly a problem for Redick who scored most of his points while Ben was out of the game. --Hadlowe
Stats: 25min 4pts (2-8, 0-1, 0-0) 7reb 4ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
Summary:
Rondo ( D- ) -- The big question with the Rondo acquisition was how will he fit on a team that needs perimeter offense and perimeter defense. If this game is a glimpse of things to come, then the spacing issue is a major concern as the Clippers were doubling off Rondo from the opening tip. With the Clippers able to sag well off Rondo and Deandre Jordan playing goalie inside, Rondo only once took the ball into the paint off the dribble once, and missed his runner. Early on, the offense for the starters just completely sputtered, with Rondo having to hoist up bad shots to beat the 24 second clock twice in the first five minutes. Offensively, Rondo's impact was nonexistent. 4 points on 8 shots and 4 assists (3 of which were dumpoff passes to Cousins on those three point shots.) On the other side of the ball, Chris Paul killed the Kings with his floor leadership, with 18 points and 11 assists. I'm not blaming Rondo entirely for Paul's dominance, but the effort to fight through screens and disrupt the pick and roll needs to be higher against this tier of competition. The Kings need Rondo to be more aggressive on both ends if he is going to lead the starting five anywhere near the playoffs. --Hadlowe
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Bench
Stats: 20min 5pts (2-5, 1-1, 0-0) 9reb 0ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
Casspi ( C+ ) -- its hard to get terribly enthused about Omri's game tonight. In most ways what Omri ended up being, after Karl started the wrong player, then foolishly benched the guy he should have started at PF, is a smallball PF. Or actually more of a smallball rebounding forward. That's was Omri's main contribution on the night, using his length to give us a lift on the D-glass. Offensively he not surprisingly contributed to our TO woes in our first quarter meltdown, and hit one big DEEP three in the midst of our fourth quarter run to take the lead. This was not a bad performance by Omri, and in fact we won his minutes more than we won the minutes of any other player on the team. But mostly he felt like an afterthought tonight. A useful tactical piece employed by Karl to achieve a particular roster construction in this particular game rather than a core part of what we were doing. I bumped him a half grade for the big three coming closer to the game's resolution than the two early TOs did. --Brick
Stats: 8min 2pts (1-2, 0-0, 0-0) 2reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Cauley-Stein ( INC ) -- Willie only got one stint in his first NBA game, and while the "excuse" for him not starting was that we didn't want him to get his first NBA experience against Blake Griffin...he couldn't have done any worse than everybody else did. In his short minutes Trill actually had a pretty nice outing. He only went 1-2, missing a half hook in the lane and converting his first NBA basket on a putback. He played solid defense, being quick and agile on the help, forcing two missed shots (against allowing no makes) and didn't get credit for a "second block" on Jordan after Koufos got a fingertip on it first. It's pretty mysterious to me why he didn't play more - he seemed to earn both the PT and the chance to cool off Blake Griffin. --Capt.
Stats: 32min 9pts (3-12, 3-7, 0-0) 2reb 7ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Belinelli ( C+ ) -- Not an efficient game for Marco from the field. A few of the shots he took were buzzer beaters and shot clock forces. Others were attempts to draw body fouls coming around screens with a trailer. He did this a lot in San Antonio last year too, and was rarely rewarded with a foul call. After the 183,000 four point plays in the playoffs a two years ago, the officials are not calling crowding a shooter as a foul nearly as often, so he needs to stop taking those shots. That said, he was pretty good at moving the ball, getting Collison and Butler some open looks, and a highlight dime on a pick and roll with Cousins. He hit some key shots to keep the Kings within striking distance and contributed one of the four threes in the fourth quarter run. Defensively, he didn't stand out as being out of position or not being able to stay in front of his man, but he also didn't create any stops defensively. I really like the Collison/Bellinelli tandem. If Butler can fit in as a safety valve and we can get WCS involved in the offense as well, that bench unit is going to win a lot of games for the Kings.
Stats: 30min 13pts (5-12, 1-4, 2-5) 1reb 6ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
Collison ( B- ) -- Not a great shooting night for Darren tonight, but his leadership of the bench unit was able to keep the Kings within striking distance of the Clippers for the first half of the game, and then brought the Kings within a hair of victory down the stretch. We saw quite a bit of Rondo and Collison together on the floor tonight, and the results were great for offense with the Kings able to push the ball in transition and get a few easy open buckets as a result. Collison and Bellinelli also clearly have chemistry as an offensive tandem off the bench, and it was that bench unit spark that got the 15-1 run in the fourth that briefly got the Kings a lead. On the defensive end, Collison had the relatively easy task of guarding Austin Rivers who is bad at basketball (despite a career high against the Kings last year.) The major problem came when Collison was repeatedly stuck on an island guarding Paul Pierce who just took him into the post and scored over him without a problem. Not every team will have a guy like Paul Pierce who can do that, but it ended up beating the Kings tonight. -- Hadlowe
Stats: 13min 8pts (4-7, 0-1, 0-0) 2reb 0ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Butler ( B ) -- you know, I made fun of Caron all preseason long for having a piece of cutlery sticking out of his back, but maybe he was just doing the old man shuffling through the practice games thing and saving it for the ones that counted. Not that he suddenly looked talented again -- indeed he still looked drab and mediocre, and missed several little easy ones that a young Caron, who was somewhere close to a Rudy in talent, would have finished without a problem. But what he did is exactly what you would hope an old vet might -- he came in and visibly stabilized us at a time when we were playing like chickens with our heads cut off. There was nothing spectacular to what he was doing, but he was just doing it right. Playing smart, and in control, and it seemed to have a calming effect on the whole team. I don't know what he is going to provide over the whole year, so I don't want to go too far on the grade for a little solid 8pt game. But tonight he gave us just about what we could ask for from him. --Brick
Stats: 3min 0pts (0-0, 0-0, 0-0) 0reb 0ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Anderson ( INC ) -- that Anderson/McLemore SG competition is a barnburner
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