[Grades] Grades v. Clippers 11/25/10

[Bricklayer]

How appropriate -- a complete turkey on turkey day.

So you can go no lower than what we just saw. A national TV embarrassment to the team with the worst record in the league with your star player playing like a scrub. Has the team quit on Westphal? This could be like Reggie's Knicks beatdown game -- something so ugly that it dooms him.

So away for the holiday and unable to take notes, so unless I can catch it later rather than grades I am going to go with a one time only player by player complaints format.

I don't see how this can't be talked about, and have reached the point wher I don't know what else can turn things around, so I think the theme tonight will be: Possible Coaching Replacements

Greene ( Game ): got off to a pretty decent start to this one, a lot of which we did not get to see, but luckily Westphal noticed and yanked him before there was any danger of any enthusiasm spreading.
Greene ( Complaints ): less serious than for most people right now, but time to grow up Donte. That means consistency, that means staying in shape and preparing for the season, and it wouldn't kill you to hit a three point shot here or there. This team is desperate for shooting, and with your height almost every look should be clean. Your nickname is Buckets remember? Keep shooting .190 from 3pt land and they are going to have to change it to Bricks, and I am jealous of my territory.

Mario Elie -- the easy and obvious selection out of the assistants if Westphal were to be replaced. Has no head coaching experience, but always has the respect you get from being a tough as nails NBA player for 11 years and picking up 3 gaudy rings along the way.

Landry ( Game ): easily our best offensive weapon on the night, and after we lost Daly to foul trouble and Griffin really began to abuse him, showed a little fight and got scrappy with him, including delivering a hard foul that was half a tic from dirty.
Landry ( Complaints ): well these are all commonly know after all the board chitchat, but in no particular order: rebounding, defense, and passing. The last is an evil because the last thing this team needs is another ball stopper. But the first two are just impossible on a starting PF. We are right back to SAR and Mikki and KT. Heck, we are right back to Wayman Tisdale for that matter.

Jeff Van Gundy (Career: 430-318, Playoffs: 44-38) -- their were anti-Adelman people calling for the hiring of the mad gerbil as far as 7-8 years ago. I've never been as impressed, but the fact of the matter is his teams have made the playoffs in 9 of his 11 seasons, he's had 4 50 win teams, and made the NBA Finals once (in a bit of a fluke during the lockout year). If he were hired he WOULD take the air out of the ball and have people complinnig bitterly about the offense agian -- that is what he does. But he would also clean upnthe defense and make that all out dedication to it an absolute corenrstone. The bigger questions would be why he, a true big city urban rodent, would want to leave his cushy anouncing job and come to Sacramento and teach kiddies when his rep might well entitle him to step into a better winning situation.

Daly ( Game ): -- barely got to play as the expected Griffin matchup had him in immediate and constant foul trouble trying to handle that quickness. Instructive BTW in that that has happened several times this year and hints that any Daly at PF stuff just would not work. He mushes big centers and slower PFs. But when he's had a tough night of it, it has largely been quicker PFs who cause the issues.
Daly ( Complaints ): I've really only got the one -- the offense. Over the summer Daly announced that he had spoken to the coaches and had been told he as going to get to play offense here in Sacramento. That was scary, but its been scarier still now that we've seen it. Despite inexplicably being used as an early game goto guy the last 10 daysm Daly if anything has regressed along wiht the rest of the team. He is a roleplayer, and take away offensive structure, throw things into chaos and ask a roleplayer to just score on their own, and all their limitations become evident.

Mike Fratello (Career: 667-548, Playoffs: 20-42) -- a little man with a big Napoleon complex, Fratello specializes in screaming at his troops until they give in and play mediocre basketball. By sheer force of will his teams are rarely much worse than .500. By sheer force of stubborness and unoriginality his teams are rarely much above it. He too would walk the ball up and play slam ball. He too would demand defense, although perhaps without quite Van Gundy's schemes (although on that front Van Gundy's defensive coordinator was Thibodeau). He also has a different sort of ego than Van Gundy, and has shown a willingness/eagerness to take over young teams so he can bully them for a couple of years until they inevitably revolt/tune him out. He has coached in Cleveland and Memphis, and he might actually come for the right offer. Whether you want a guy who's been living on his last true success 20 years ago (with the Hawks) and has a 2-17 playoff record since Reagan was president is another question.

 

[Bricklayer]

Head ( Game ): -- entirely possible this was our best player on the night. That says it all. Notable that he notched 7 assits, and in fact our starting backcourt notched a respectable 12 on what was obiously just about the worst loss of the season. One of our best assist games and meant nothing. Also notable that when matcvhed on Gordon did not have NEARLY the effect he has had over the past 10 days on Devin Harris, CP3 and Deron. Of course some of that might be not having Daly and Donte looming behind him for more than a few minutes, but more of it just appeared to be Gordon's superior size/powere. Might also explain how Head has never been known as a great defender until hitting Sacto -- he's mostly played SG, and the lack of size may have made him no more than marginally effective there asa defender. Maybe he's found his nitch here as a tough PG defender.
Head ( Complaints ): -- Hey Luther, ever heard of the catch and shoot? Has a dribbling fetish that is not offset by actually having any 1 on 1 ability. Spots up for three, but when passed the ball absolutely refuses to just catch it and shoot it, and instead goes through ridiculous gyrations pulling I down, dribblibn around aimlessly without getting anywhere, using this incredibly amateurish show ball up fake thing, and then settling for a contested jumper from just about the same spot he could have had an open one if he' just catch and shoot. Don't get it.

Don Nelson (Career: 1335-1063, Playoffs: 75-91) -- anybody ever wanted to see how we'd look with Donte at center and Reke at PF? He's available, and after two months off no doubt hungry for more paychecks already (famously money grubbing). Could solve the whole keep Landry or Daly problem as well -- keep neither as we'd of course have to clean up our roster problems by eliminating all these outsized players slowing us down. As well as taking any pressure off of DeMarcus to develop post skills. Tyreke can get back to scoing a bazillion points. And best yet Beno and Omri will be happy again as they will never again get called out for their defense.

Evans ( Game ): -- saavy indeed for him to play this game on national TV on Thanksgiving night so that I would be away from home and unable to deliver unto him his inaugural F. Because that's what this was -- a completely dead hopeless effort, if effort is the word. Make him change jerseys and blank out his face and there is no way you would have thought this was the same player, even the same player you were watching 2 weeks ago. And the national TV setting is what makes this effort all the mor worrisome for both Reke and the team. With 2 days off for a young team to prepare, in maybe thier highest profile game of the year, against a 2-13 opponent, and it was just completely flatline. Something is badly amiss.
Evans ( Complaints ): -- basically what the hell happened. I don't share the haters' fascination with the PG/SG thing, nor do I buy into the knee jerk the jumper ain't better thing, as it looked somewhat improved as recently as two weeks ago. But everthing has fallen apart in the last two weeks, and its really hard to tll the cause right now. What is clear is that the one player you should be able to count on as the dependable influence and guy to lead you out of this is playing maybe worse than anyonre else and doesn't even resemble himself right now. The offense ain't helping as eertime he goes to turn the corner it seems like there are three defenders standing in front of him, and yet magically nobody else open (an impressive defensive feat), but there has to be something else. He doesn't look explosive on either end of the floor right now. So is it injury? Still seems most likely. Even when he does get in position to score he's not finishing. Effort? It would seem odd indeed for Tyreke of all people to quit on us so early in the season. Unhappiness/discomfort with somebody or something? Its all just speculation, but it has to stop if we are ever going to get this turned around.

Mike Brown (Career: 272-138, Playoffs: 42-29) -- fired after 5 years helming a similar style talent to Tyreke in Cleveland, this is an intriguing possibility. A great defensive coach and disciple of Popovich, of course the knocks on him are that his offense is similar to Westphal's current...thing, and that his teams did not quite get over the hump despite being led by the best basketball player in the world. But along the way there were 2 60 win seasons, 4 50 win seasons, a trip to the NBA Finals, and far more success than anybody the Kings have ever had except Adelman. I don't know if he's doing the sabbatical thing right now or not, but he coached in a snaller market, with a similar type of talent, and took them form thier youth through their contending years. Given sufficient cash considerations, its not hard to see hwo he could look at this current roster, see its potential, and be willing to make the move to get back on the horse and vindicate himself.

 

[Tetsujin]

 

[PurpleHaze]

Reggie made it to December 15 and I think his Kings record at time was 6-15. Kings now at 4-10, so I guess countdown begins...

Regarding possible coaching replacements. I like that guy on the Dos Equis commercial, you know... the most interesting man in the world.

 

[LWP777]

Sadly, I think it might be time for a coaching change. I believe the players have given up on him. They have no sense of purpose or organization on the floor. That's on PW. It's so disappointing because just one year ago we all thought we'd finally found a long term coach.

There has been literally nothing exciting or good this season. Watching them play is brutally painful. I had so much fun watching last year despite the lack of winning. This year, I'm lucky if I don't turn off the TV by the time the 4th quarter starts.

 

[kingsboi]

I want to see Cousins back in the starting unit. Sure, he can't defend a light post and can't stop fouling, but it won't hurt to just put him in there and learn. Let him learn and get a lot of burn and get confidence that way. We have nothing else to lose, we will be lucky to win 20 games this year.

 

[jcassio]

I've been a Kings fan since they came to Sacramento, and I've therefore seen the good, the bad, and the ugly during this time. But this team has hit an all-time low for me in terms of disappointment and futility. And whether to blame the players, or the coaches, or the head coach, or the owners or whatever, does it really matter? Pathetic. Just pathetic.

 

[Entity]

I will be glad when they move to Las Vegas. New arena New city new uni's new coach. Lets go Maloofs pull the trigger.

 

[gunks]

Great grades theme.


As for the grades themselves: Fs for errbody! Getting blown out by the Clippers is pathetic.

Although, props to Landry for holding Griffin to a mere 25/15/5. I expected a more dominant effort from the future ROY over our lil man.

 

[Andre87]

I'm boycoting the Lins' games from now on.

 

[fnordius]

Let's get Red Auerbach to coach. He's absolutely legendary, and would require even less pay than PW. How many candidates bring that?

Besides, I heard that he already has as many offensive plays drawn up for our team as Westphal does.

 

[bloom]

We wait till Rick Adelman is fired and then we beg him to come back to coach the Kings....Just a dissapointing game from beginning till the end. We were giving them dunk after dunk after dunk on each play. Too much one-on-one and no energy.

 

[Dr. Spaceman]

For all of the complaining about our offense that Beno was doing, he sure was spending quite a bit of time tonight ignoring our big men in the post and pick & rolls while driving into oversized traffic and forcing up (blocked) shots.

Our offense this season is one of the most frustrating sports related experiences I've ever had (I'm also a Niners fan, including this season, so that's quite a statement for me), and it's because it is an offense predicated on setting every single one of our players up for failure. Each and every time we bring the ball up the court. There is no hyperbole in that statement.

If our scrawny guards aren't passing up open perimeter shots to drive recklessly into traffic (*glaring in Luther Head and Beno Udrih's general direction*), then we're gonna completely disregard our low-post centric big men unless we can set them up 20 feet away from the basket so that they can chuck jumpers or attempt their own awkward dribble drives, also into heavy traffic.

We're also all about driving our gimped star guard into the ground by expecting him to play the way he did last season with busted ankles and plantar fasciitis instead of installing a two-man game with Cousins to lessen the load that he carries any time he gets the ball on offense. We're about ignoring his massive size advantage that he utilized in the low-post last season and allowing him to continue his ineffective drive game or toss up half hearted jumpers.

Regarding Landry -- though my post right now might indicate otherwise, I'm usually someone who stays on the optimistic side of the perspective and I had thought that other people's declarations that he was the Kevin Martin of big men was just an exaggeration. With each passing game, the exaggeration dissipates from that statement. Blake Griffin was wrecking him tonight, and when we finally threw JT at Grffin to slow him down (which actually worked reasonably), it was Craig Smith's turn to step up to the teeball. And who was guarding him? Simply atrocious.

All that said, this is a team that can do so much better than its record indicates with a ridiculously few number of changes. This is a team that should hang its hat on defense first every single night, which it started to do before tonight. On offense, they need to cram the low-post options (*psst* Westphal! We've got three of them! FYI) down the opponents' throats until they can stop us, at which point we cram our two stars down their throats with pick & rolls out on the perimeter and create for everyone from there. The fact that we do none of this currently and the fact that our two best players (that'll be Reke and Cousins if that wasn't clear) have almost no chemistry at all on the court is on the coach entirely.

We're not asking for perfection from this young team -- we're simply asking for logic. There is none right now, Westphal.

Also, on topic: mostly Fs all around, like others have said.

 

[The Hammer]

Yeah a lot of this is on the coach... but why did they alienate Adelman in the first place... why did they pick 2/3 duds in a row... why now did a previously very promising coaching situation turn sour inexplicably all the sudden... what might the Maloofs be doing that is contributing to this??? If Westphal is just not a very good coach, then ok, find a decent one. But geez.... to me it's so much more about just finding a decent person with potential and then backing up their decisions and cultivating them. Isn't that what you do in all other business ventures? Turnover is a killer.

Maybe Elie is the next coach. Something tells me if PW doesn't make it, he'd be the next in line.

 

[William Blake]

This is a nightmare, wake me up please!

 

[mac]

This team needs a spark. Whether it's a coaching change, a trade, some new signing, anything!! We cannot win with such poor 3 point shooting, lackadaisical defence, 1 on 1 play ...

 

[Boogie-havoc]

You know whats so annoying to me?

That every start of the game - our first offensive play seems to be feeding Dally in the post! what the hell is that? I mean really, who in his right mind would do that during the game in general, let alone allow it to be your first play of almost each game.

 

[LPKingsFan]

With the Maloofs' penchants for being wowed by the big names (see recent hires of Bill Walton, Jim Gray) someone like Fratello rumbling about wanting to coach again scares me.

I hope Westphal hasn't lost this team yet. Another coaching change might set this team back another year or two. But at this point I'm not sure what else can be done to right the ship.

 

[CruzDude]

This team needs a spark. Whether it's a coaching change, a trade, some new signing, anything!! We cannot win with such poor 3 point shooting, lackadaisical defence, 1 on 1 play ...

Maybe the spark the team needs is some DIRECTION from a LEADER and to be held accountable. This line up doesn't cut it. Why not go back to JT & Omri as forwards and Beno & Tyreke as the guards with Cousins in middle and Dalembert off bench. Plus Cisco, Jackson, Greene and Jeter off bench??

 

[est.1999]

You know whats so annoying to me?

That every start of the game - our first offensive play seems to be feeding Dally in the post! what the hell is that? I mean really, who in his right mind would do that during the game in general, let alone allow it to be your first play of almost each game.

Lmao I was the game sitting up front next to the kings bench and the kings we're on offense on that side of the court. First play goes into Dally and I looked at my brother and said see what I told you?

I just knew it was gonna happen!

 

[cuad]

Here I take a look at the Kings' 1rst quarter melt down.


The score is 15-8. VDN calls timeout.

The five following offensive/defensive possesions:

1) Defense: Dalembert gets pinned in the post, doesn't communicate with Evans to pressure the entry pass, or maybe he does and Tyreke ignores him. Dalembert picks up foul #2 and gets dunked on. Cousins in the game.

1) Offense: Landry slips a screen and is open, Tyreke is oblivious, passes the ball the other way and the play is broken... Play ends with Tyreke Evans trying a lay up instead of a floater or other short range shot, gets called for an offensive foul.


2) Defense: Landry ****s up defending the pick and roll (again), forcing Donte Greene to leave his assignment (Aminu). Aminu cuts, forcing Head to collapse to the paint (pulling him away from 3pt threat Eric Gordon. Because Head is in the paint he's got to go under a screen to stay in front of Gordon. Gordon gets wide open three.

2) Offense: DeMarcus Cousins chucks with 18 seconds on the clock


3) Defense: probably pissed because Cousins chucked, Evans trots up the floor. His assignment (Bledsoe) beats him down the floor for a layup.

3) Offense: Evans ignores the play and tries to take Bledsoe off the dribble (probably mad because Bledsoe just embarrassed him), chucks a 20 footer with 14 on the clock. Evans has the ball the entire possession.


4) Defense: Evans realizes he's a dumbass and gets back on defense. Clippers isolate Blake Griffin on Cousins. Cousins plays him way too close, falls for a pump fake AT 20 FEET. Griffin runs right around Cousins and dunks on him.

4) Offense: Pick and pop, Cousins is open on the wing. Cousins doesn't read the defense, and attacks the basket even though DeAndre Jordan did not fall for his pump fake whatsoever (and is giving Cousins all the space in the world). Throws up an off balance shot.


5) Defense: Cousins is crying for a foul and doesn't get up the floor. As a result, he isn't even in the front court to box out. Clippers get the offensive rebound and another dunk.

5) Offense: Timeout Kings. Score 15-18.

Conclusion: Westphal certainly wasn't the problem during this implosion... our players are simply retarded.

Just for kicks, this is what we get out of the timeout:

5) Post Timeout Offense: Cousins sets a pick for Evans. Evans tells him to f*ck off. Cousins decides to post up. Evans throws the ball to the other side of the court to Donte Greene. Bledsoe falls asleep defensively. When he wakes up he finds himself standing in front of Greene. Greene realizes he's got a mismatch (10 inch height advantage) and chucks a three.

Not a bad shot, really. Had he held on to it, his only other option would have been to dump it to Cousins in the post, who was being guarded by someone his height.