Happy Halloween!!! 
Salmons ( C- ) -- very quiet in the early going, which given how bad some of his teammates were doing, actually made him one of the better ones. The Heat were attacking our perimeter people hard, and Salmons really did not have an answer. Cannot really accuse him of being selfish in the half though, as he again responded to the extra pressure by passing and had 3ast to 0pts at half. Of course when he did try to shoot it was inevitably to force a drive into traffic, the result of which was that he also had 3TO to 0pts at halftime. Came out in the third apparently determined to make up for lost time and repeat what he had done in Minnesota, which in this case basically meant take a shot every time he touched the ball. Was absolutely the only thing we had going all quarter, but then again we could'nt possibly have anything else going with him playng keepaway. Gets some grade here for at least trying, something that precious few of the other Kings even appeared to be doing.
Moore ( D ) -- fed off of Spencer in the early going, taking his passes and combined with him inside to tower over the twerps the Heat call a frontline (they look like our all midget crew from a few years ago (and Beasley is about the size of KT), except with talent). But that was the last that was heard of him before the half, and he was completely invisible after the break. Numbers aside JT was nothing special tonight, but Mikki had still better pick it up with Brad coming back soon and both kids outperforming him.
Hawes ( B+ ) -- completely carried us in the early going. Carried us nowhere of course, but he was the only guy doing anything for us out there. Continued to get deflections and the occasional board, but the Heat locked in on him defensively and began harassing him out of rhythm after they realized he was a threat. Started turning it over in the face of the swarming defense and got one of his shots blocked as well. Funny that a guy who shot 4-11 on the ngiht was basically our shining star. In any case, encouraging in that it was another good night on the glass and on defense. On the other hand, once the Heat decided to take him away on offense, away he went and he wasn't much of a factor after half. It was that kind of night.
Martin ( F ) -- kept completely under wraps in the early going by the Heat defense, and Wade in particular. His first point came off a technical FT shot. Wobbled his way into some offense in the second quarter, but it was never easy, and he was racking up turnovers along the way. Started trying to play free safety on defense trying to make something happen, and just screwed himself up, arriving late and picking up fouls or letting guys go free. Kind of looked like he gave up in offense in the third quarter. Killing my fanatsy team in the KF Official League right now. Get it going kid.
Udrih ( F ) -- disastrous start seemingly turning the ball over on every possession and getting one sent back in his face by Wade. Got picked clean again in the open court in the second quarter coming out immediately after a timeout, threw up an airball in the third...he was hung over. There is no other explanation for it. If VF21 had played Beno in one on one tonight she would have blanked him. There was a small little blurb in the Bee this morning about how Reggie had intentionally stayed in Minnesota Wednesday night so as to limit the number of nights the team would be exposed to the temptations of South Beach. And I was thinking, yeah, but who on this current team is going to go out and party? Maybe some of the kids, but the vets...Brad? Salmons? Mikki? Just don't seem the type. But then I realized that one player does, and even had a rep for it in San Antonio. After watching Beno tonight...things that make you go hmmm...
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Thompson ( B ) -- nifty spinning move to the post as soon as he came in. Active again, but resulted in as much foul trouble as anything else. Was in and out throughout the second half and was spradically efdfective. Again mostly just with his activity where he had a size advantage over the entire Heat front line (and hell, isn't that nice to say about a King frontliner), but did have a few nice quick hitters in the post (where again hsi superior size must have made him feel like he was back at Rider). the numbers here look rather more impressive than the game itself was, but it was still a solid followup to that first effort, ans shows as a hustle guy at least, it may not have been a fluke. Now let's just hope that Brad's return does not knock him back in the rotation.
BJax ( D ) -- settled us after the early Beno misadventures, and came close on a couple of hustle plays, but the shooting woes continued, and while he was just mercifully ineffective rather than affirmatively awful, still not able to get anything going to help us. Sat out the entire 4th to let the young chuckers behind him throw things at the rim for a quarter.
Quincy ( B- ) -- passed up an open three off the catch soon after entering that led to yet another turnover for us. Consistently fails to utilize that roleplayer staple, the catch and shoot, and it hurts him (and us). Played some pretty good defense in his first half minutes, but otherwise they were empty. As per normal with Quincy, started to put up numbers in garbagetime, hitting several threes and playing keepaway with the ball from everybody else. Even finally did do the catch and shoot on one of them. tough grade -- 14 mostly garbagetime points, 0 assists. Did not like the game he played tonight, but one of the few Kings who was productive in any role at any time, so has to get some grade for that.
Williams ( B ) -- in the early going got stripped on a drive, but combined with Thompson to at least try to protect the paint. Strong on the glass vs. the undersize Heat, and while it was pretty much the only thing he did, on a godawful night he helped us stay even in at least one former weakpoint -- we tied the Miami mighty midgets 42-42 on the glass. Got the garbagetime minutes as well, and looked solid in a world of fellow 6'8" bigs. Clumsy offense was still cringeworthy to hold this down half a grade.
Brown ( C ) -- in for the extended garbagetime. Looked a lot like he did in preseason, which is to say quick, slightly out of control, and shot happy. Got his points as he and Quincy took turns going one on the Heat team on a night when we notched 10 assists. As a team.
Greene ( D+ ) -- well thankfully we got the message and brought along Donte instead of KT (might have just been because the Heat are small). With half the game consisting of garbagetime, would have been a crying shame to waste the opportunity to get Greene some minutes on Kenny. As for the minutes tehmselves...eh, came in, did his traditional miss of a three, then tried to drive one inside and got it knocked away. Therafter not quite quick enough to catch up with our quick little shoot happy combo guards to pry the ball away from them, and so was just kind of out there. Be nice to see him start to use that size on the glass at some point.
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Theus ( C- ) -- Well...I rarely tried to grade Reggie last year. Just did not make sense. grading coaches was something I did during the Adelman years beecuase I knew the coach -- I knew how he wanted to approach the game and had a baseline against which to judge his performance. But with a new coach you are really just judging what you think of the hire. Well, a year later, and I feel like I can grade Reggie on these things, and in this one we see the reemergence of one of the more dubious coach grading exercises from back in the Adelman days -- blaming (or crediting) the coach for the way his team comes out to play on any given night. And of course, we did not. Come to play that is. And what makes it worse is that Reggie had intentionally held them over in Minnesota on Wednesday night to avoid an extra party night in South Beach because he was convinced that was why we had sucked in our Miami game last year. Well..maybe not. We were completely awful from the get go here. Without Spencer playing inspired ball in the first quarter, and a swath of missed FTs by the Heat, we would have been down 20. Beno was drunk. Kevin is getting the full on smother the star treatment and hasn't figured out what to do about it yet. Nobody brought anything. To be fair I was very impressed by the activity of the Heat defense -- they gave up 120 to New York the other night, and you thought maybe defense had left Miami along with Riley, but apparently not. But that is still no excuse. We just weren't competitive from the start, and that goes into the coaching tally. We never did find any answers either. Reggie wasn't entirely passive over there -- he briefly bothered the Heat for abit by dropping into a zone against their reserves, but once their starters returned, it was so much for that. He again showed no hesitation in subbing in the kids, which is a good thing. And he made a good (and obvious) decision sometime between Wednesday night and Friday night, activating Donte Greene and inactivating KT, which paid unfortuate divdends tongiht after most of the second half turned into garbagetime. But the team wasn't prepared to play, John Salmons aside did not appear to be any more prepared to play coming out of half, and just got whipped. Now Reggie's next challenge is holding this crew together through the tough times without resorting to his name calling and media-coaching routine. One of the toughest tasks a coach has. One that the last coach I actually put out grades for excelled at, and a major reason why he (Adelman) had been arouond for 20 years now. If Reggie wants any similar longetivity, keeping his team unified even as they suck will be the test.
Salmons ( C- ) -- very quiet in the early going, which given how bad some of his teammates were doing, actually made him one of the better ones. The Heat were attacking our perimeter people hard, and Salmons really did not have an answer. Cannot really accuse him of being selfish in the half though, as he again responded to the extra pressure by passing and had 3ast to 0pts at half. Of course when he did try to shoot it was inevitably to force a drive into traffic, the result of which was that he also had 3TO to 0pts at halftime. Came out in the third apparently determined to make up for lost time and repeat what he had done in Minnesota, which in this case basically meant take a shot every time he touched the ball. Was absolutely the only thing we had going all quarter, but then again we could'nt possibly have anything else going with him playng keepaway. Gets some grade here for at least trying, something that precious few of the other Kings even appeared to be doing.
Moore ( D ) -- fed off of Spencer in the early going, taking his passes and combined with him inside to tower over the twerps the Heat call a frontline (they look like our all midget crew from a few years ago (and Beasley is about the size of KT), except with talent). But that was the last that was heard of him before the half, and he was completely invisible after the break. Numbers aside JT was nothing special tonight, but Mikki had still better pick it up with Brad coming back soon and both kids outperforming him.
Hawes ( B+ ) -- completely carried us in the early going. Carried us nowhere of course, but he was the only guy doing anything for us out there. Continued to get deflections and the occasional board, but the Heat locked in on him defensively and began harassing him out of rhythm after they realized he was a threat. Started turning it over in the face of the swarming defense and got one of his shots blocked as well. Funny that a guy who shot 4-11 on the ngiht was basically our shining star. In any case, encouraging in that it was another good night on the glass and on defense. On the other hand, once the Heat decided to take him away on offense, away he went and he wasn't much of a factor after half. It was that kind of night.
Martin ( F ) -- kept completely under wraps in the early going by the Heat defense, and Wade in particular. His first point came off a technical FT shot. Wobbled his way into some offense in the second quarter, but it was never easy, and he was racking up turnovers along the way. Started trying to play free safety on defense trying to make something happen, and just screwed himself up, arriving late and picking up fouls or letting guys go free. Kind of looked like he gave up in offense in the third quarter. Killing my fanatsy team in the KF Official League right now. Get it going kid.
Udrih ( F ) -- disastrous start seemingly turning the ball over on every possession and getting one sent back in his face by Wade. Got picked clean again in the open court in the second quarter coming out immediately after a timeout, threw up an airball in the third...he was hung over. There is no other explanation for it. If VF21 had played Beno in one on one tonight she would have blanked him. There was a small little blurb in the Bee this morning about how Reggie had intentionally stayed in Minnesota Wednesday night so as to limit the number of nights the team would be exposed to the temptations of South Beach. And I was thinking, yeah, but who on this current team is going to go out and party? Maybe some of the kids, but the vets...Brad? Salmons? Mikki? Just don't seem the type. But then I realized that one player does, and even had a rep for it in San Antonio. After watching Beno tonight...things that make you go hmmm...
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Thompson ( B ) -- nifty spinning move to the post as soon as he came in. Active again, but resulted in as much foul trouble as anything else. Was in and out throughout the second half and was spradically efdfective. Again mostly just with his activity where he had a size advantage over the entire Heat front line (and hell, isn't that nice to say about a King frontliner), but did have a few nice quick hitters in the post (where again hsi superior size must have made him feel like he was back at Rider). the numbers here look rather more impressive than the game itself was, but it was still a solid followup to that first effort, ans shows as a hustle guy at least, it may not have been a fluke. Now let's just hope that Brad's return does not knock him back in the rotation.
BJax ( D ) -- settled us after the early Beno misadventures, and came close on a couple of hustle plays, but the shooting woes continued, and while he was just mercifully ineffective rather than affirmatively awful, still not able to get anything going to help us. Sat out the entire 4th to let the young chuckers behind him throw things at the rim for a quarter.
Quincy ( B- ) -- passed up an open three off the catch soon after entering that led to yet another turnover for us. Consistently fails to utilize that roleplayer staple, the catch and shoot, and it hurts him (and us). Played some pretty good defense in his first half minutes, but otherwise they were empty. As per normal with Quincy, started to put up numbers in garbagetime, hitting several threes and playing keepaway with the ball from everybody else. Even finally did do the catch and shoot on one of them. tough grade -- 14 mostly garbagetime points, 0 assists. Did not like the game he played tonight, but one of the few Kings who was productive in any role at any time, so has to get some grade for that.
Williams ( B ) -- in the early going got stripped on a drive, but combined with Thompson to at least try to protect the paint. Strong on the glass vs. the undersize Heat, and while it was pretty much the only thing he did, on a godawful night he helped us stay even in at least one former weakpoint -- we tied the Miami mighty midgets 42-42 on the glass. Got the garbagetime minutes as well, and looked solid in a world of fellow 6'8" bigs. Clumsy offense was still cringeworthy to hold this down half a grade.
Brown ( C ) -- in for the extended garbagetime. Looked a lot like he did in preseason, which is to say quick, slightly out of control, and shot happy. Got his points as he and Quincy took turns going one on the Heat team on a night when we notched 10 assists. As a team.
Greene ( D+ ) -- well thankfully we got the message and brought along Donte instead of KT (might have just been because the Heat are small). With half the game consisting of garbagetime, would have been a crying shame to waste the opportunity to get Greene some minutes on Kenny. As for the minutes tehmselves...eh, came in, did his traditional miss of a three, then tried to drive one inside and got it knocked away. Therafter not quite quick enough to catch up with our quick little shoot happy combo guards to pry the ball away from them, and so was just kind of out there. Be nice to see him start to use that size on the glass at some point.
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Theus ( C- ) -- Well...I rarely tried to grade Reggie last year. Just did not make sense. grading coaches was something I did during the Adelman years beecuase I knew the coach -- I knew how he wanted to approach the game and had a baseline against which to judge his performance. But with a new coach you are really just judging what you think of the hire. Well, a year later, and I feel like I can grade Reggie on these things, and in this one we see the reemergence of one of the more dubious coach grading exercises from back in the Adelman days -- blaming (or crediting) the coach for the way his team comes out to play on any given night. And of course, we did not. Come to play that is. And what makes it worse is that Reggie had intentionally held them over in Minnesota on Wednesday night to avoid an extra party night in South Beach because he was convinced that was why we had sucked in our Miami game last year. Well..maybe not. We were completely awful from the get go here. Without Spencer playing inspired ball in the first quarter, and a swath of missed FTs by the Heat, we would have been down 20. Beno was drunk. Kevin is getting the full on smother the star treatment and hasn't figured out what to do about it yet. Nobody brought anything. To be fair I was very impressed by the activity of the Heat defense -- they gave up 120 to New York the other night, and you thought maybe defense had left Miami along with Riley, but apparently not. But that is still no excuse. We just weren't competitive from the start, and that goes into the coaching tally. We never did find any answers either. Reggie wasn't entirely passive over there -- he briefly bothered the Heat for abit by dropping into a zone against their reserves, but once their starters returned, it was so much for that. He again showed no hesitation in subbing in the kids, which is a good thing. And he made a good (and obvious) decision sometime between Wednesday night and Friday night, activating Donte Greene and inactivating KT, which paid unfortuate divdends tongiht after most of the second half turned into garbagetime. But the team wasn't prepared to play, John Salmons aside did not appear to be any more prepared to play coming out of half, and just got whipped. Now Reggie's next challenge is holding this crew together through the tough times without resorting to his name calling and media-coaching routine. One of the toughest tasks a coach has. One that the last coach I actually put out grades for excelled at, and a major reason why he (Adelman) had been arouond for 20 years now. If Reggie wants any similar longetivity, keeping his team unified even as they suck will be the test.
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