[Grades] Grades v. Jazz 3/30/12

[Bricklayer]

Kings win! Kings win! You know, one of those double v looking things the fancy pants good teams are always doing.

Boogie is doing it every night now...although his opponents are still too often doing it right back. And assuming he does not rediscover his inner nutter and start slipping off the reservation to skin small animals or something, Terrence Williams is a keeper.

Oh..and in other NBA news JJ Hickson went for 29pts and 13rebs tonight while dominating Blake Griffin. No, that's not a misprint. And we could not even trade him fro a 2nd round pick and just waived him.

Boxscore

Outlaw ( D ) -- got the start...as a SF! But before you get too excited about playing SFs at SF and all sorts of other crazy stuff, let me just say that Travis accomplished almost nothing playing out of position from his natural center position. Missed jumper after jumper in the third and who knows whatever happened to his game, because he's not that old. Got an athletic o-board and dunk to close his minutes and send him off on a bit of a high I suppose. One benefit of being as bad as he's been this year is that you can put up 2pts 1reb, on the same play, as a starting forward, shoot 1-5 and still only get a D.

Thompson ( C ) -- started the game off again just out there smoothly operating as the"otehr" big, grabbing weakside rebounds, blocked a shot and triggered a break etc. But somewhere along the way his production faltered, and so did Smart's confidence in him. Had I think 8 rebounds by the end fo the first quarter. Would finish with 9. Got his first technical in a while arguiing a call in the early going as well. And the one on one post moves were not as efficient this time as the Jazz bigs were bodying him up and stoning him outside his comfort range. After a logn spell out of the game, finally got back in for the final 4 to 4:30 minutes, and turned the normal script by hitting both of a pair of FTs at the 3:00 mark to cut it to 1 -- in fact on the night all of his points came on FTs.

Cousins ( A ) -- just stuck his hands up and knocked a pass out of the air for a steal on the first defensive possession of the game as he got off to a roaring start, scoring 11pts in the first 4 minutes of the game. Smoothly stroking long jumpers, then turned to attacking the hoop, and was just nasty. Now anything holding this grade down would be that Big Al was scoring back at him at nearly as fast a pace, and both guys chewed up the other at the other end of the floor, basically canceling each other out statistically with matching monster statlines. Cuz met his first check when the Jazz began to get up and repeatedly block his groundbound shots inside again, which was the same thing that happend in last week's meeting. But he took a seat sitting on a strong start, and maybe just as importantly with 0 fouls. Celebrated his return in the 2nd with a huge one handed rebound. Had a couple of his full court takes with little body shifts late to avoid charges, and late in the game drew several more charges on the Jazz the other way, including one all alone to stop a Jazz break after a Donte turnover. Got bloodied in the late 3rd by a Hayward elbow that required stitches. Problem was, it didn't get called by the refs, and Cuz wasn't pleased, and so there came another T. In fact our whole team was upset at the refs during a chippy game in which the Jazz dished out a lot of punishment and still shot 20 more FTs. Nice pass out to MT from a double after returning with the bandage over his eye. Huge sequence at the 2:30 mark (the vid above) , getting his post turnaround blocked by Jefferson, snathcing the rebound out of the middle of a scrum, powering to the hoop, and finsihing off the +1. Ended up with the game winning FT as well after he was fouled on the power drive at the 4 second mark and split the pair (in fact he split the night from the stripe and only shot 5-10 again). I did consider a "-" because Big Al matched him pretty much hoop for hoop. But my relative scale only extends so far, and 21 yr old centers chewing up the league and powering their teams to victory generally get clemency.

Thornton ( A- ) -- playing Robin to Cousins' Batman early, scoring whatever points Big Cuz did not. Forcing attacks at the hoop. Made a great open court one handed catch of a Cousins full court pass. As usual I have fewer notes for Marcus because its alwaus the same stuff -- he's not uniquely inventive in the way a Cousins or Reke is, but just relentlessly aggressive as a gunner. And tonight the shots were falling. Got particularly aggressive for a spell after we lost Cousins to the the stitches in the lockerroom and he stepped forward to carry us. Also thankfully, while he still had a few senior moments just wandering off from the guys he was guarding, he wasn't quite the defensive anything goes red light district he can be, and in an amusing turn, may have even made the defensive play that saved the game for us when at the 15 second mark of the game he stayed right with Burks and rode him toward the baseline until he just lost control and turned the ball over out of bounds.

Thomas ( B ) -- Harris defended him well early and IT airballed his first jumper (might have been tipped), but able to find more seams as the game went along. Rarely got disrutpive with his offense however, only had 1 or 2 forces and only took 8 shots on the night. Had a handful of nifty highlight reel plays, including a lookaway pass on the break to Thornton and a nice face first dive to save a loose ball from going out of bounds, then popping up and throwing the ball the length of court to Thornton out on the 3pt stripe. Finsihed with a strong +1 drive just before half and a drive and dish to Cisco in the corner on our final attempt of the half. Tied the game with 40 seconds to go after creating contact to force the foul out on the break. Not a brilliant game, but a solid and effiicient one.

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Bench

Greene ( B- ) -- in for Outlaw...at SF! Holy cripes. SFs at SF (don't worry dear readers, it did not last the whole game). Knocked down a couple of long jumpers, an alley oop, and a solid reserve stint. In the second half added a flying offensive board and follow dunk to retie it in the third. Wasn't knocking down his threes but defintiely a possive contributor this time out (and should be noted took active advantage of the shots suddenly freed by the guys who were out).

Hayes ( C- ) -- really struggled to keep the Kantor/Favors combo off the glass all night long and din't do much more than buy us mintues this time out. Somehow got an impossible arm fully extended to the side flip to go in the early 4th. Encouraged him to try it again the other way unfortunately.

Fredette ( C- ) -- back in front of the Utah fans again, who still believe and cheer when he ties his shoe. Hit his first shot this time,a catch and shoot along the basline. But missed the contested drive to close the quarter and was having problems with the traps again. Drew a foul in the early 2nd and actually missed both FTs. Traveled trying to run away from another trap in the early 4th and probably would not have goten thos e minutes if Reke and/or Salmons were healthy.

Williams ( B+ ) -- nice alley oop pass to Donte, and a strong take. Nice drive and dish to a wide open Jimmer too, although Jummer missed the three. Trying to do too much at times with bad passes though. Really showing ability as a drive and disher. Forced a quick long three in the early 4th but spent most of the quarter setting people up and looking really strong with that athleticism. Didn't get assists out of it, but helped create the key plays that won this for us with a great 3/4 court pass to a streaking JT for the foul at the 3:00 mark, and a big rebound and outlet to IT at the 40 second mark to set up the break that tied the game.

Garcia ( D- ) -- did nothing in his fiurst half minnutes. Just looked flat badly missed shots he needed to hit, Forced a few others.

Whiteside ( INC ) -- seemed to not get up on an offensive rebound he had a chance at to close the third, but did come up wiht anther atheltic block in the early 4th.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

 

[exGrizzly]

Yay! Grades! Grades!

i still hate smart -- but love the win -- and the boogie child

 

[Sac.1989]

Boogie, Marcus and IT for the win. If only it was sustainable

 

[jcwkings]

tonight proves that one of evans or thornton has to be our 6th man. Today our top 3 players were able to get their shots and all got going. If Evans starts one of Thornton or Isiah gets overlooked and we lose. Tonight the starters played a good 1st quarter, the second unit didn't do so well, If Evans can come in with that second unit and be agressive, it will help the overall balance of our team. Its not like Tyreke has been making a difference as a starter, he looks lost without the ball in his hands, and it affects every aspect of his game. Coming in as the 6th man allows him to get the ball in his hands and be agressive going against tired starters, or lesser bench players. Him and Williams can be deadly in the open floor if given time to gel. By the time the 4th quarter comes around, on most nights Cousins, Thornton, Isaiah and Tyreke will have a good flow going to close games out.

 

[rainmaker]

tonight proves that one of evans or thornton has to be our 6th man. Today our top 3 players were able to get their shots and all got going. If Evans starts one of Thornton or Isiah gets overlooked and we lose. Tonight the starters played a good 1st quarter, the second unit didn't do so well, If Evans can come in with that second unit and be agressive, it will help the overall balance of our team. Its not like Tyreke has been making a difference as a starter, he looks lost without the ball in his hands, and it affects every aspect of his game. Coming in as the 6th man allows him to get the ball in his hands and be agressive going against tired starters, or lesser bench players. Him and Williams can be deadly in the open floor if given time to gel. By the time the 4th quarter comes around, on most nights Cousins, Thornton, Isaiah and Tyreke will have a good flow going to close games out.

I'd say the larger problem is defense, and that's why either IT/MT goes to the bench. Reke impacts the game in far too many areas as a guard, especially defensively. Put him on the bench and start IT/MT is telling everyone defense doesn't matter. If you have two guards who can score, but are both undersized and don't play much defense(IT is better defender than MT) and you have a third guard who can score just as well as either, yet is better on the glass and our best perimeter defender overall, then why would you put the 3rd guard mentioned on the bench, unless you completely ignore defense when putting your lineups together?

Basically, I see Smart rewarding both IT/MT for not playing defense as they're the ones both starting and getting more consistent minutes, as well as plays run for them. If you have to resort to benching Reke you should probably be an assistant coach.

BTW, NJ was down 20 in the 3rd and stormed back to beat GS. They'll be feeling good when we face them tomorrow. Reke has done very well against DWill in his brief career, and simply put, if we put IT on DWill tomorrow instead of Reke there is just no way Smart gives a crap about defense.

 

[steelevt]

nice to see smart play players in their actual positions for awhile. ie greene and outlaw as sf instead of pf

 

[Bricklayer]

tonight proves that one of evans or thornton has to be our 6th man. Today our top 3 players were able to get their shots and all got going. If Evans starts one of Thornton or Isiah gets overlooked and we lose. Tonight the starters played a good 1st quarter, the second unit didn't do so well, If Evans can come in with that second unit and be agressive, it will help the overall balance of our team. Its not like Tyreke has been making a difference as a starter, he looks lost without the ball in his hands, and it affects every aspect of his game. Coming in as the 6th man allows him to get the ball in his hands and be agressive going against tired starters, or lesser bench players. Him and Williams can be deadly in the open floor if given time to gel. By the time the 4th quarter comes around, on most nights Cousins, Thornton, Isaiah and Tyreke will have a good flow going to close games out.

If that's how you are going to play it, then it is imperative you start Tyreke Evans the remainder of this season, at whatever position where he will put up the biggest numbers. Becasue he is blowing town at the end of next year if you tell him you are benching him, and you aren't going to get anything back. So the ONLY smart thing to do as a franchise is pump his trade value as high as you can and try to prevent it from turning into a huge talent draining debacle that costs you Cousins in a few years too when he looks around and realizes there is not enoguh here to ever win big with.

 

[upinsmoke]

MT is beating Evans out for the 2 spot and I think most of us agree he's not a 1 or 3 that's why Evans was on the block. Honestly if Tyreke is going to fit in it's going to be the 6th man with him and Jimmer playing off each other.

 

[jcwkings]

If that's how you are going to play it, then it is imperative you start Tyreke Evans the remainder of this season, at whatever position where he will put up the biggest numbers. Becasue he is blowing town at the end of next year if you tell him you are benching him, and you aren't going to get anything back. So the ONLY smart thing to do as a franchise is pump his trade value as high as you can and try to prevent it from turning into a huge talent draining debacle that costs you Cousins in a few years too when he looks around and realizes there is not enoguh here to ever win big with.

didn't you hear me say that Thornton or Tyreke has to be the 6th man? Jesus Christ anything remotely negative about Tyreke and people here come at you with pitchforks

My only logic is that Smart has given the reigns of the team to Isaiah, that much is completely clear and only a coaching change will make that change. Tyreke is lost on offense when he doesn't have the ball in his hands, and it affects the rest of his game(defense, overall intensity, just looks like a deer in headlights). So the options are bench Isaiah and give Reke the reigns(not gonna happen under this coach at least), bench Thornton and Isaiah/ Reke split ballhandling duties, bench Reke and give him the reigns of the second unit.

And this being the 6th man means "x" player is out of town is a bunch of bs. James Harden, Jason Terry, Manu Ginobli, Lamar Odom(with Lakers) are all all star caliber players that accept a 6th man role, because they are winners and know that them coming off the bench isn't going to affect their overall minutes, and that role is as or more important to the team than most starters provide. If you want to play NBA 2k12 then leave the starting lineup as is, if you want this team to progress, players have to set their ego's aside and do whats for the good of the team. Thats everyone, not just Tyreke.

 

[BMiller52]

Enjoyed the win but the Maloofs stuff kind of put a damper on it for me.

 

[Tetsujin]

Kings win! Kings win! You know, one of those double v looking things the fancy pants good teams are always doing.

Boogie is doing it every night now...although his opponents are still too often doing it right back. And assuming he does not rediscover his inner nutter and start slipping off the reservation to skin small animals or something, Terrence Williams is a keeper.

Oh..and in other NBA news JJ Hickson went for 29pts and 13rebs tonight while dominating Blake Griffin. No, that's not a misprint. And we could not even trade him fro a 2nd round pick and just waived him.

Boxscore

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He also watched as CP3 pretty much just walked around him to win the game

 

[Agent23]

It was cool to win but I know this team is going nowhere currently constructed and most likely lose Tyreke just to watch him develop properly and dominate with another team. Hope they get to trade him and get something out of him so they can build this team around Cousins the right way.

 

[Tetsujin]

It was cool to win but I know this team is going nowhere currently constructed and most likely lose Tyreke just to watch him develop properly and dominate with another team. Hope they get to trade him and get something out of him so they can build this team around Cousins the right way.

ONly trade I can think of, Reke plus our pick for Anthony Davis. I'd settle for Reke plus our pick for Lebron or Durant too

 

[Agent23]

ONly trade I can think of. Reke plus our pick for Anthony Davis. I'd settle for Reke plus our pick for Lebron or Durant too

It's not that I don't like Isiah Thomas or Marcus Thornton. They have made the Kings a little more fun to watch. But their type of games are "cute". Like Nellie Ball Golden State Warrior cute. They will score a bunch of points but lose more. This organization gave up too early on the dream of having a dominant wing player and a dominant center that will obliterate other teams. At least they got the most important piece in place (dominant center). Now we just gotta hope that IT and MT can defend well enough to get this team to the playoffs.

 

[Gary]

MT is beating Evans out for the 2 spot and I think most of us agree he's not a 1 or 3 that's why Evans was on the block. Honestly if Tyreke is going to fit in it's going to be the 6th man with him and Jimmer playing off each other.

I dunno about that. I do agree Thornton has been playing better than Evans, but we have yet to see how Evans would do starting at SG with IT at PG. It might be as simple as putting Evans at SG and putting in a real SF or it might be that Evans cannot co-exist with the players we have right now. Could Evans be Carmello Anthony? Could he be a tremendous individual talent who makes the team worse when he plays? Not sure. Give it a couple years and see..

Going into next season though I would like to see IT/Evans/draft?/Thompson/Cousins as the starting 5 and seeing where it takes us.

 

[jcwkings]

It's not that I don't like Isiah Thomas or Marcus Thornton. They have made the Kings a little more fun to watch. But their type of games are "cute". Like Nellie Ball Golden State Warrior cute. They will score a bunch of points but lose more. This organization gave up too early on the dream of having a dominant wing player and a dominant center that will obliterate other teams. At least they got the most important piece in place (dominant center). Now we just gotta hope that IT and MT can defend well enough to get this team to the playoffs.

well you could argue that Isaiah and Thornton our the two toughest players we have, both are undersized for their position, but you cant question the toughness and hart of either of them.

 

[Agent23]

well you could argue that Isaiah and Thornton our the two toughest players we have, both are undersized for their position, but you cant question the toughness and hart of either of them.

I never questioned their toughness or heart. A starting backcourt of 5'9 and 6'4 and a small forward that's 6'6 will never amount to anything in this league. NEVER. Like I said, this team had a chance to build through Tyreke and Cousins. Instead, they gave up on the infinite possibilities that a dominate Reke and a dominante Cousins could have presented. Hope we are able to draft MKG then...

 

[Bricklayer]

well you could argue that Isaiah and Thornton our the two toughest players we have, both are undersized for their position, but you cant question the toughness and hart of either of them.

Love their scrappiness. But this isn't The Mighty Ducks, its not even the NHL, this is the NBA. The scrappy underdog doesn't win in the NBA. He gets an atomic wedgie delivered by the big talented overdog and gets sent home to mommy.

 

[Sac.1989]

That heart can lead us off the bench. Its imperitive that we fit tyreke into our system

 

[upinsmoke]

I dunno about that. I do agree Thornton has been playing better than Evans, but we have yet to see how Evans would do starting at SG with IT at PG. It might be as simple as putting Evans at SG and putting in a real SF or it might be that Evans cannot co-exist with the players we have right now. Could Evans be Carmello Anthony? Could he be a tremendous individual talent who makes the team worse when he plays? Not sure. Give it a couple years and see..

Going into next season though I would like to see IT/Evans/draft?/Thompson/Cousins as the starting 5 and seeing where it takes us.

At this point why would you want to bench MT and for Evans you say? No thanks As I wrote Give Evans free reign over the second unit. (or trade him)

 

[JB_kings]

It's not that I don't like Isiah Thomas or Marcus Thornton. They have made the Kings a little more fun to watch. But their type of games are "cute". Like Nellie Ball Golden State Warrior cute. They will score a bunch of points but lose more. This organization gave up too early on the dream of having a dominant wing player and a dominant center that will obliterate other teams. At least they got the most important piece in place (dominant center). Now we just gotta hope that IT and MT can defend well enough to get this team to the playoffs.

I agree with you on Thornton. I think he might be best suited as primary scorer off the bench that comes in and plays a big role. I think we forget though that IT is a rookie and he is still learning. I don't see why he can't develop his defensive game. Not all of his mistakes are because of his size. The problem with filling the starting SG spot is that the obvious person, Reke, needs to show some improvement in his mid-range game and be a better and smarter team defender. Reke is a very good one on one defender, but he doesn't exactly stand out from MT in the team defense area. I'm hoping that the mid-range game is priority 1 this summer. That just takes putting in work. Being a better study on team defense just takes being a willing learner.

 

[pshn80]

Fun to see them win. It seems to make all the difference in the world for me. They looked good and Williams continues to play well both ways.

 

[Sac.1989]

At this point why would you want to bench MT and for Evans you say? No thanks As I wrote Give Evans free reign over the second unit. (or trade him)

Thornton and Thomas are great to watch but they will not take us to the promised land together. Working Tyreke into the backcourt is a must not only to avoid losing talent in the future but because in the long term its our best way to success.

 

[Agent23]

I agree with you on Thornton. I think he might be best suited as primary scorer off the bench that comes in and plays a big role. I think we forget though that IT is a rookie and he is still learning. I don't see why he can't develop his defensive game. Not all of his mistakes are because of his size. The problem with filling the starting SG spot is that the obvious person, Reke, needs to show some improvement in his mid-range game and be a better and smarter team defender. Reke is a very good one on one defender, but he doesn't exactly stand out from MT in the team defense area. I'm hoping that the mid-range game is priority 1 this summer. That just takes putting in work. Being a better study on team defense just takes being a willing learner.

I want to see a starting lineup of IT Reke FULLSIZED SF Thompson Cousins. I want a jack of all trades SF and IT to run the team and get the ball to Cousins and Reke at comfortable spots so they can utilize their special abilities. Marcus Thornton as a Jason Terry type off the bench and this team is in the playoffs next year EASILY. You are right though, this only works if Reke comes back next year with a decent mid range game to go along with his elite driving ability. This organization has to commit to him being a SG and tell him exactly what is expected of him next year. Leaving him as a bystander is wasting his potential and they might as well trade him away now. Thank goodness this team has Cousins.

 

[JB_kings]

Gotta say this about DMC, seriously wouldn't trade him for Dwight Howard right about now. I think the Kings finally caught a break and got one of those once a decade big men that make a franchise.

Now my biggest worries aren't about the starting SG and are more focused on what kind of damage Larry, Curly and Fredo Maloof are going to do to this franchise. I think it's time to take Fredo out fishing.

 

[Gary]

At this point why would you want to bench MT and for Evans you say? No thanks As I wrote Give Evans free reign over the second unit. (or trade him)

I don't want to bench MT.. At least not this season. I voted to keep things the way they were. Next year though I would like to see how Evans does at SG. If the chemistry just doesn't work with Evans at SG then we probably look into trading him. We tried him at PG and the Kings were inconsistent, Evans is too small to play SF regularly, so the logical choice is SG only MT is there and he has been playing well.

I don't think our offense would skip a beat with Evans starting at SG instead of Thornton. We would lose quite a bit of outside shooting though so I would want the starting SF to be able to hit the 3 when needed.

 

[Gary]

I never questioned their toughness or heart. A starting backcourt of 5'9 and 6'4 and a small forward that's 6'6 will never amount to anything in this league. NEVER. Like I said, this team had a chance to build through Tyreke and Cousins. Instead, they gave up on the infinite possibilities that a dominate Reke and a dominante Cousins could have presented. Hope we are able to draft MKG then...

What if Evans just can't fit with what we have out there? Then what?

Ever since we drafted Evans I have been saying that in order for the Kings to get the most out of Evans you have to have Evans as the centerpiece and then build around him with players that would fit with his play style. It would be difficult to try to fit Evans into traditional offense or an up tempo offense like we have now. Evans is strongest in the half court where he is the ball handler. I am not sure if it can work with him at SG, but I am definitely excited to see the Kings try. It would be nice to have Evans and Cousins work well together (as long as Evans isn't playing PG lol).

 

[OnYouLikeGlue]

I don't want to bench MT.. At least not this season. I voted to keep things the way they were. Next year though I would like to see how Evans does at SG. If the chemistry just doesn't work with Evans at SG then we probably look into trading him. We tried him at PG and the Kings were inconsistent, Evans is too small to play SF regularly, so the logical choice is SG only MT is there and he has been playing well.

I don't think our offense would skip a beat with Evans starting at SG instead of Thornton. We would lose quite a bit of outside shooting though so I would want the starting SF to be able to hit the 3 when needed.

This exactly. I think Thornton could be the ultimate 6th man guy that still gets 30-35 minutes off the bench with Tyreke starting at the SG. Thornton would be able to come in for either guard. But this definitely means they need a real SF who can shoot in the offseason.

 

[Quix]

I love all three of MT, IT, and Evans, honestly.

But only one has ever blown my mind and made me think at some point "holy crap, this guy could be unstoppable"

Because of that, if I had to pick one, it would be Tyreke. So I'd start moving things around him to make it work, not move him around.

As much as I hate the Lakers...I'm cool with trying the Kobe/Shaq model. Cousins and Tyreke got like...half a season to test this out, and as a rookie and sophomore no less. It deserved more time.