[Grades] Grades v. Magic 1/10/14

IT is struggling in January, shooting only 37.1% thus far. What's the reason?

  • Teams scouting him and adjusting their defense

    Votes: 9 10.7%
  • Tiring out

    Votes: 3 3.6%
  • Simple cold streak

    Votes: 31 36.9%
  • Trying to get people involved/not comfortable in role

    Votes: 27 32.1%
  • Just coming back down to earth/his normal numbers

    Votes: 14 16.7%

  • Total voters
    84
  • Poll closed .
How good can Cousins be? He chips in 24/14/6 and I ridiculously think to myself...'meh. average game.'

Obviously NOT an average game for so many players. And yet I want more. Madness.

What can I realistically expect?

The sky's the limit.

Great feeling, and I'm right there with you...and I've sworn to savor every single moment this time around.

I LOVE THIS TEAM!
 
This was a very easy 20/10 game for Cousins. Perhaps the most effortless A grade game I've seen in his career.

Also, it seems Aaron Gray has taken up the Ronny Turiaf/Bazemore happy bench guy role. Props to him for taking up a job nobody else has wanted to do for the Kings.

Aaron Gray is getting the Mateen Award for being an enthusiastic bench dude.
 
In case you missed it in the Derrick Williams thread
DeMarcus "Magic" Cousins to Derrick "Carter" Williams different angle
O8zdIc.gif
I could watch this all day.
 
No, he has quite obviously been scruffing out there. In the last 5 games only once has he been above 40%, and I think that one was a bad half/good half split.

29 of his last 79 over the last 5 games .367.

I get where the OP is coming from. It seems a bit incongruous to have a "where does the problem lie" type poll after a big win. And if you are a big IT fan (i.e. Jamal) it's going to feel unwarranted. Having said that, I think it's an interesting story line. We won big, and IT wasn't part of it from a scoring perspective. As to why his % is down, I voted for 1, but it's probably more of 4, especially as it looks like he's playing against his instincts. He had some serious shot fakes and then dump offs on wide open 15-18 footers that he normally would have taken. That tells you that he's probably thinking too much about whether to shoot or not, which will affect his %'s over time.
 
just got home. great to see the team actually show up to play against a not so great team. I love that Malone went back to the big lineup with Gay at SG and Williams at SF. also glad to see Williams getting 33 minutes.
 
Gay is so versatile and athletic
I don't see why he can't play SG and D-Will SF.
Bruce Bowen was athletic as a rock, but he guarded SG's many times in his career such as Kobe and T-Mac
I don't see why gay can't do the same on particular nights.
 
How about cousins single handily keeping double digit lead throughout 4th with excellent defensive and offensive pretense.
He made sure the magic didnt have a chance coming back.

IT is being exposed and it's time to ship him and Thornton as soon as possiblr
 
Gay is so versatile and athletic
I don't see why he can't play SG and D-Will SF.
Bruce Bowen was athletic as a rock, but he guarded SG's many times in his career such as Kobe and T-Mac
I don't see why gay can't do the same on particular nights.
I can only assume those saying not to play Williams/Gay together from the jump want the team to tank, no one with a sane mind could tell me Craplemore and eMTpty can do anything positive or better on either end of the floor against opposition SG's that Williams/Gay can't.

This argument Gay/Williams can't stay in front of slashing guards.....well guess what niether can the garbage SG's we have now and niether can the majoirty of opposition in the NBA outside of the likes of Shumpert/Thabo.

I'm not sure what eMTpty has to do to get out of the rotation maybe someone should pay him to do a Andrew Bynum, I can understand developing Craplemore but Thornton seriously this guy should not be entering into another game. The big line up has worked twice now the two times we triedit the SG's have failed about 97% of the time. Every game we have limited there negitive impact on us we have pretty much won and we would have won against the Spurs easily if we went with the big line up. Two of our own players hurt us more than the opposition all the time which is actually rather amazing.
 
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Jimmer can only play well against a poor teams second unit. If that helps get him out of here and us a back- pg... All the better. Other than that he is a pleasant novelty and a good guy. Good game jimmer!
 
It was a good win but underneath there was some really poor play..IT (coughs) Ben and MT.

Next game is huge.
 
I really think Malone screwed up Ben's first year. If he had brought him along slowly, allowing him to play limited minutes against 2nd unit players, he wouldn't have completely lost his confidence. Now Ben looks worse than at any time this season, and his shooting percentage is awful. He just looks like a guy who has no confidence. And Marcus? He should feel embarrassed for his play this season.

I'd like to think it's because Ben has hit the wall from not being accustomed to playing this many games in a season.

Wasn't able to watch the game, but the box score looks great. Gay with another efficient night and Dwill back in the mix, love it. Hope this team can keep it up. Cousins is pulling this train with all that he's got. Go Kings.
 
Ha. In one season from naysayer to suggesting he's the next Shaq. :p

These are the kinds of fans of other teams we could use more of around here.
Well....The only reason he isn't her already is he commits 2 stupid fouls a game and his point gaurd won't give him the ball. Can you imagine how many he could score if he was playing with a point guard like Stockton?
 
I love that guys attitude. He is just happy to be here playing is just a bonus. I want him to take that shot when he had the ball at the elbow wide open. What does he do? Passes to a rookie trying to make a name for himself. That's an awesome person

Last night, he was smiling in literally every single shot they cut to him. Just a big, goofy looking guy with a big smile. Who sets picks like a bulldozer. Can't help but like that guy.

I'm pretty happy with all three of the guys from the Raptors. Acy is an awesome energy guy who dunks the ball angrily, Gay is (obviously) one of the smoothest scorers we've ever had, and Gray is our smiling lumberjack/brick wall who cheers for everyone. Good times.
 
I can only assume those saying not to play Williams/Gay together from the jump want the team to tank, no one with a sane mind could tell me Craplemore and eMTpty can do anything positive or better on either end of the floor against opposition SG's that Williams/Gay can't.

This argument Gay/Williams can't stay in front of slashing guards.....well guess what niether can the garbage SG's we have now and niether can the majoirty of opposition in the NBA outside of the likes of Shumpert/Thabo.

I'm not sure what eMTpty has to do to get out of the rotation maybe someone should pay him to do a Andrew Bynum, I can understand developing Craplemore but Thornton seriously this guy should not be entering into another game. The big line up has worked twice now the two times we triedit the SG's have failed about 97% of the time. Every game we have limited there negitive impact on us we have pretty much won and we would have won against the Spurs easily if we went with the big line up. Two of our own players hurt us more than the opposition all the time which is actually rather amazing.
I can understand wanting to play Gay/Williams together. I like the idea of going big.

But do we have to tear down our other players in the process? Our rookie who was put in a role that he wasn't ready for, so we resort to calling him names. Give him time. Thornton probably knows his time with the team is short if the team has anything to do with it possibly affecting his play. He's human, let's treat him as such and hope for his and the team's sake there is another team that he fits better on and is willing to take on his contract.
 
No, he has quite obviously been scruffing out there. In the last 5 games only once has he been above 40%, and I think that one was a bad half/good half split.

29 of his last 79 over the last 5 games .367.
You want to raise shooting % ? If he'd take at least 10 more shots a game his % would go up to where it usually is. But we ask IT to take less shots and distribute more. He is trying to do that. Don't beat him up for low shooting % when he is "not one of the primary scorers". How many of the last 5 games have we won?
 
You want to raise shooting % ? If he'd take at least 10 more shots a game his % would go up to where it usually is. But we ask IT to take less shots and distribute more. He is trying to do that. Don't beat him up for low shooting % when he is "not one of the primary scorers". How many of the last 5 games have we won?

Taking less shots shouldn't necessarily correlate with a lower shooting percentage. If anything, it should help his percentage rise as he has to be more choosey with when he does hoist one up there.
 
Should I hold your hand? Jimmer starting would take away from what he does best that is ball in hand firing away at his streaky best. You don't want that interfering with Gay and Cousins. Isaiah disrupts it enough when he plays hero ball. And here you want a guy who is FINALLY having some success in a role to be taken out of that role and inserted with 3 other players that need the ball to be successful. We have 2 guys on this team that do not need the ball to be successful in their roles that is JT and Acy.

What I learned from Entity today: It is a bad basketball combination to put great shooters with great bigs.

I feel like everything I ever knew about basketball was a lie.
 
Taking less shots shouldn't necessarily correlate with a lower shooting percentage. If anything, it should help his percentage rise as he has to be more choosey with when he does hoist one up there.
Are you praising him for his effort to do what "we" want?
 
What impressed me about Gays 8-13 shooting is that he forced 2 unnecessary jump shots and still shot 61%, amazing. He needs to do more pick and rol with DMC instead if IT, rudy makes more plays for his teammates than IT off of it.

I found it interesting, that almost all, if not all, the backdoor cuts, give and goes, and lane cuts, were initiated by either Cousins or Gay. And, as I was the grader for IT, I saw him miss at least 4 opportunities for those same plays. So my question is, does he just ignore those plays, or does he not see them because of his height? Because there's no question that those plays were there.
 
Should I hold your hand? Jimmer starting would take away from what he does best that is ball in hand firing away at his streaky best. You don't want that interfering with Gay and Cousins. Isaiah disrupts it enough when he plays hero ball. And here you want a guy who is FINALLY having some success in a role to be taken out of that role and inserted with 3 other players that need the ball to be successful. We have 2 guys on this team that do not need the ball to be successful in their roles that is JT and Acy.

By no means am I advocating we start Jimmer. I'll leave that to the powers that be, but can we have a conversation without throwing in some negative comment about Jimmer. To call him a streaky shooter when he's shooting 48.4% from the three and 44.1% overall just isn't fair. Yes, he'll have his occasional bad game, but it appears that every miss that Jimmer has is magnified, while other players are ignored. The truth is, he's one of the best, if not the best overall shooter on the team. By the way, he's shooting 100% from the freethrow line so far this year. At least that's what the stats say. I thought for sure he had a miss somewhere.

Other than that, I pretty much agree with you. By the way, for those interested in a comparison. IT is shooting 44.6% overall and 37.8% from the three. His percentages have taken a hit through december and January so far.
 
Jimmer can only play well against a poor teams second unit. If that helps get him out of here and us a back- pg... All the better. Other than that he is a pleasant novelty and a good guy. Good game jimmer!

So basically, anything/anyone that takes away from the shining star that is Isaiah Thomas (whether it's Jimmer Fredette or Demarcus Cousins) is unworthy of anything remotely resembling praise?

Give me a break.

PLEASANT NOVELTY? I really hate to burst your bubble (well, really I don't) but if ANYONE on the Kings could be called a pleasant novelty, it ain't Jimmer.
 
Well....The only reason he isn't her already is he commits 2 stupid fouls a game and his point gaurd won't give him the ball. Can you imagine how many he could score if he was playing with a point guard like Stockton?

I'd kill to see him with Mike Bibby or even Jason Williams. ;)
 
very solid and decisive win last night. granted, it was against one of the league's bottom-of-the-barrel teams, but it's good to see the kings throttle a beleaguered opponent so convincingly. they played particularly well in the second half, building on their lead with emphasis. more importantly, cousins and gay are fast developing a workable and sustainable chemistry. their near-nightly dominance as a duo continues to impress. i maintain my stance that isaiah thomas should be returned to his sixth man role as soon as the kings are able to acquire another starting-caliber PG, but i will freely admit to being very wrong about rudy gay's impact on this team (brickie can go ahead and gloat, if he'd like, at least in the short term)...

i thought it likely that we'd see a "honeymoon" uptick in gay's level of play upon arriving in sacramento, a short burst "for the haters," so to speak, but he's played so well, so smartly, and so within himself that he's almost completely unrecognizable from the rudy gay of the last couple of seasons. he's been as clear a #2 talent as you could hope to pair with demarcus cousins. in 14 games with the kings, gay is averaging 20.6 pts (51% shooting), 5.5 rbs, and 2.8 asts, while taking considerably fewer boneheaded jumpers than he did in toronto, and establishing a real connection with DMC on the court. i'd like to see gay's 3-pt shooting percentage return to its career average, i'd like to see a decrease in turnovers, and i'd like to see consistent defensive effort, but other than that, it's extremely hard to criticize the guy. i fully expect gay to come back down to earth a bit, but i guess playing alongside a once-in-a-generation center has its benefits...

;)

of course, if gay's level of play isn't at all a mirage, if his developing chemistry with cousins isn't fool's gold, then he's gonna prove to be a pretty expensive re-signing in '15. he won't cost nearly as much as the contract he's currently on, but we're looking at a major veteran salary commitment, so PDA really needs to get to work in re-shaping the rest of the roster to determine if a winning team can be built around cousins/gay...
 
...i thought it likely that we'd see a "honeymoon" uptick in gay's level of play upon arriving in sacramento, a short burst "for the haters," so to speak, but he's played so well, so smartly, and so within himself that he's almost completely unrecognizable from the rudy gay of the last couple of seasons. he's been as clear a #2 talent as you could hope to pair with demarcus cousins. in 14 games with the kings, gay is averaging 20.6 pts (51% shooting), 5.5 rbs, and 2.8 asts, while taking considerably fewer boneheaded jumpers than he did in toronto, and establishing a real connection with DMC on the court. i'd like to see gay's 3-pt shooting percentage return to its career average, i'd like to see a decrease in turnovers, and i'd like to see consistent defensive effort, but other than that, it's extremely hard to criticize the guy. i fully expect gay to come back down to earth a bit, but i guess playing alongside a once-in-a-generation center has its benefits...
;)
of course, if gay's level of play isn't at all a mirage, if his developing chemistry with cousins isn't fool's gold, then he's gonna prove to be a pretty expensive re-signing in '15. he won't cost nearly as much as the contract he's currently on, but we're looking at a major veteran salary commitment, so PDA really needs to get to work in re-shaping the rest of the roster to determine if a winning team can be built around cousins/gay...
Well, at this point we might start to talk that Gay won't find the same post presence to make his life easier anywhere in the League. Again I don't expect Gay to get more that $14 million per, that's ok for 2nd option, and with Cousins locked for 4 years at pretty low figures for franchise player, there's going to be enough flexibility.
 
Offense ain't the problem in the starting five. Defense is. Jimmer doesn't do anything to help solve that playing at the 2.
Ha. In one season from naysayer to suggesting he's the next Shaq. :p

These are the kinds of fans of other teams we could use more of around here.

I remember people that didn't want to draft Cousins. How long ago was it that some on this forum wanted to trade him away. Where the hell are they now? I preach patience for a reason. It doesn't always work out, but you'll never know if you don't stay the course. If you want instant gratification, go play a video game and buy paper plates so you don't have to wash dishes. But don't apply it to human beings in sports. Who would have ever thought that Afflalo would be the best player on his team, and how long did that take?
 
I can only assume those saying not to play Williams/Gay together from the jump want the team to tank, no one with a sane mind could tell me Craplemore and eMTpty can do anything positive or better on either end of the floor against opposition SG's that Williams/Gay can't.

This argument Gay/Williams can't stay in front of slashing guards.....well guess what niether can the garbage SG's we have now and niether can the majoirty of opposition in the NBA outside of the likes of Shumpert/Thabo.

I'm not sure what eMTpty has to do to get out of the rotation maybe someone should pay him to do a Andrew Bynum, I can understand developing Craplemore but Thornton seriously this guy should not be entering into another game. The big line up has worked twice now the two times we triedit the SG's have failed about 97% of the time. Every game we have limited there negitive impact on us we have pretty much won and we would have won against the Spurs easily if we went with the big line up. Two of our own players hurt us more than the opposition all the time which is actually rather amazing.

Could you please make you point without calling players garbage! When you use that type of approach, I quit reading and don't caree what your point is.
 
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