LPKingsFan
All-Star
As for the poll... I voted "reemerges and takes Outlaw's spot" with the understanding that he'd soon be traded at the deadline thereafter.
[Grades] Grades v. Magic 12/21/2013
- Thread starter Bricklayer
- Start date
Entity
Hall of Famer
We only have one player on the team that was here 4 years ago. Only five that was on the team last year. I thinks it's been blown up lol
I'll say it is well into the process of being blown up and I expect more explosions sooner and later. Good job so far.
L
Lennox
Guest
That was Thorton's 1st good shooting game, so don't bet on it. He's been in like 20 games and look at his 3 point percentage. Not that the kings know how to use shooters.
bajaden
Hall of Famer
I don't grade based on past performances, or what I think the future holds. I grade on what a player does in the game I'm grading. Anything else, would be biased. IT had a very good game! I'm not a fan of IT starting, but I can't let that interfere with what I see on the court. I almost gave him an A-, but opted for the A because I thought he held himself in check for the most part and did his best to set others up. He made some very nice passes after drawing the defense to him. What would have knocked his grade down would have been another poor defensive game, but as I stated in my grade, he wasn't up against one of the quick PG's that drives you to drink with one Pick and Roll after another. So defensively, except for a couple of mistakes, he was fine tonight. If you think an A should only be given for a perfect game, which would be to not miss a shot, not allow anyone to score on you, and have 15 assists and no turnovers, then your watching the wrong league. I'm not quite sure what you people expect from a 5'9" PG.
You keep saying the Kings don't know how to use good shooters but explain IT then....better yet, explain the sudden efficiency of Rudy Gay with the Kings. He's gone from an inefficient mess in Toronto to a quality stretch of play.
ShastaKingsFan
All-Star
I think he's refering to shooters who need more 'help' to get open shots, through screens and actual plays run for them. Gay is very good at creating his own shot
We've said this season isn't about wins and losses, it's about player development. If you say that the losses don't matter as long as the team is progressing in the right way then you have to say the same for the wins as well. I don't mean to sound all sour grapes after a win, and I'm not trying to pick a fight with anyone either-- but what happened in the fourth quarter last night was worst-case scenario for me after the Rudy Gay trade. All semblance of teamwork went out the window as IT, Gay, and *shudder* Marcus Thornton made the fourth quarter their own personal circus act. If you tell me we let Tyreke Evans go so we could pursue a different kind of team built around fundamental team defense, feeding Cousins in the post, and spacing the floor with shooters, I can live with that. I'm on board. But if we let Tyreke Evans go so we could hand the ball to these three and let them "create" off balance jumpers and pull up threes then I'm not happy. Those kinds of shots are fun when they're going in but they're fool's gold. Over the course of a season, a playoff run, those are still bad shots. The only difference between the Marcus Thornton we saw last night and the Marcus Thornton we saw the first two weeks of the season is that this time the shots went in.
Think about this -- you're Ben McLemore and you're having one of your best games so far this season. Afflalo is a tough cover but you're competing and contesting shots. The first time you touch the ball you set up a nice layup for Jason Thompson. Your teammates are actually finding you in motion with the ball and you're rising up and shooting with confidence. Shots are going in. Now, you spend the whole fourth quarter watching from the bench as Marcus Thornton runs to his spot and jacks up shots. What have you learned in this scenario? Does this encourage team play or does it encourage getting yours? We're a better team when Ben McLemore and Derrick Williams are involved in the offense. I don't care about the tank or don't tank argument, that will take care of itself. But this isn't the playoffs. We're not in a close race for the division lead. All I'm saying is: let's stick to the plan, not go chasing meaningless wins in the middle of December. That was unwatchable basketball as far as I'm concerned and I hope it was an aberration not an indication of what the next three months are going to look like.
I "shudder" at that thought, too. And I agree that we all can freely root for wins because thr W and Ls will take care of themselves this year - not to worry because we are going to get a high draft pick.
But I don't root for Cousins to get the most shots in the game nor do I have a preference for who and when Malone plays at the two. Leave that to the coach. And, I repeat, three players making most of the points and taking most of the shots is fine with me any time. Would it have been different if Cousins was one of the three? I don't know and I don't care much when the 8 and 18 Kings get a win. But I do understand your frustrations. I have those moments and frustrations, too, when Cousins dribbles all the way down the court an d when IT, Cuz,
Gay,and any of the others takes a stupid shot and it misses. Cringe.
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Bosnian Diehard
Starter
Lol sarcasm is not a good thing to try on the internet.
Glenn
Hall of Famer
I don't think this was sarcasm. I think we need to accomplish something this year. We are not going to be in the playoffs. I would like to see our young talent developed yet McLemore who was having a very good game saw little court time. We didn't use McCallum. If we aren't going to develop our youngsters, let's lose and hope for a higher draft pick. We accomplished nothing except a few people momentarily got happy until they went back to the old debate standby.
Glenn
Hall of Famer
He was quoting himself, saying that he had erred in attempting sarcasm.
Which proves that even sarcasm when commented on can be confusing.
I have to agree with hrdboild: when people say that Cousins should be the focal point of the offense, it doesn't mean that he has to get the most shots (although there shouldn't be more than one game out of twenty where he ends up third), it means that he should be the one making the decisions most of the time. Whether that decision is for him to score, or for him to pass, the ball needs to go through him, before it reaches its final destination. Unless Cousins is on the bench, there should never be three consecutive possessions where he doesn't touch the ball - and here is the rub - inside of fifteen feet. Cousins is a great passer from the high post, but he doesn't have the ability to create shots for his teammates from out there in the same way that he does when he's down on the block; when he's out high, he's not drawing fouls, he's not drawing double teams, he's not getting his teammates open. Which means he's being wasted.
We were sold a change in the culture, and a new direction for the team, built around our franchise center. And, particularly since the Gay trade, it looks like all we've got is a handful of beans. Wins are better for team chemistry than losses, but I'd rather the team play a style that is conducive to winning basketball in the long term, if it means a loss in the short term, than see more of the "G.M.S.I." mentality that we saw from our perimeter players last night. We could have kept Smart on the payroll, if we wanted to see that.
Malone's objectives for this season should be (in order of importance):
We were sold a change in the culture, and a new direction for the team, built around our franchise center. And, particularly since the Gay trade, it looks like all we've got is a handful of beans. Wins are better for team chemistry than losses, but I'd rather the team play a style that is conducive to winning basketball in the long term, if it means a loss in the short term, than see more of the "G.M.S.I." mentality that we saw from our perimeter players last night. We could have kept Smart on the payroll, if we wanted to see that.
Malone's objectives for this season should be (in order of importance):
- Develop a defensive culture/mentality among our players (which is what he promised us he was going to do when he got here).
- Find out who's going to be able to fit into that culture, and who isn't; have D'Alessandro get rid of everyone who is described by the latter.
- Develop/refine an offense that features Cousins as the focal point.
- Develop both rookies. Let them sink or swim, in terms of results, as long as their playing within the system.
- Find out what we have with Williams.
- Win as many games as possible, within the framework of the above.
steelevt
All-Star
is that really too much to ask for?
actually there were many As given out this year that were well deserved. cousins and thomas got As from the mavs game is the first that came to mind. they werent perfect but played the best as we've ever seen. cousins also had a few other great games that deserved an A in those games and thomas deserved his A- in the rockets game which would be the high end of what i would give him this game but prob leaned towards a b+. were they perfect shooting? did they totally shut down their opponents? no, but they played great and you could see it in the game as well as the stat sheet. I admit that i might be nitpicking at IT's grade this game cuz he did have a good game, i was more surprised at MT's grade since the main point of my post was about how bad he played defensively. My thoughts on IT were B+ or maybe A- if i was reaching, yours was A-/A so its not that far off from my view. Maybe i just expect more from IT based on what i know he could accomplish.
Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Marcus had an obvious outlier game for him this season, at a key time to create a win. That's always been grounds for A-ness. Can't judge him as a 20pt scorer at this point.is that really too much to ask for?
Entity
Hall of Famer
I don't think you can base a teams change in philosophy based off one game. Again all of thortons shots came with cousins on the bench except 1. As far as Rudy gay goes things have changed a little once we got a legit #2. I mean cousins is still getting over 20 a game until last night. He is getting more assist since gay got here. I get what you are saying but gay and last night Thornton isn't the problem. The problem is isiah. If rondo was here it would be the same way. The offense would run through rondo.
Which would also be a mistake: the offense should never run through the point guard, when you've got a Top 5 center, who hasn't even entered his prime yet.
Entity
Hall of Famer
For the most part it is run through cuz. Unless your talking 100%.?
The point guard's job on offense is to bring the ball up the floor and get the team into the offense, i.e., call out the play, and get the ball into the star player. The only time the offense should run through the point guard is if the point guard is the best player on the team. And, on the Kings, the point guard is not the best player on the team.
If Cousins is off, then the offense should go through Gay.
If Cousins is off, then the offense should go through Gay.
Entity
Hall of Famer
Then why do so many ppl value a pg by his assist totals. If that's the case then all you need is a good defender at that spot. Toney Douglas should be our starting pg. I know you slim. You don't really think that way. Maybe your wording is just wrong in this case. I am by no means defending IT. He should be on the bench but I also know there are times in every teams season that you play the hot hand in the moment. Maybe I am in wrong argument. My thoughts started with thortons streak last night. Not sure how it got here.
Entity
Hall of Famer
To be honest I thought Demarcus half assed it last night. Now the past few years that meant 6-10 pts and 5-8 reb. Now it means 14 and 11. Maybe it was the 4 in 5 that got him a bit but he wasn't going all out. I actually pleased that the others didn't pack it in and call it a night. They stepped up and took some slack off the big fella. He let veucivic push him away from the basket on most sets. He is tired. In the past he would get lazy and not care. He kept fighting last night and did decent. The night before he ran and ran against the heat matching tempo and got 27 8 and 5.
K
KingMilz
Guest
People are arguing about IT when there are far bigger issues on the team than IT who has by landslide been our 2nd best player and one of the keys in 7 of our 8 wins should not even be disucssed as a negitive he's the best starting PG we have and we have tried to replace him 2-3 times but can't and the guy is only making 800k. For the money he's making the production we get out of him is unreal.
We need to be discussing how to get the most out of Williams and not put him in another Minny situation and getting something from the bench like Thornton and the whole team defence rather than singleing (I have been guilty of this at times) out one player.
As far as Cousins that was the best man to man D he played all year Nikola could not do anything so therefore you can forgive the sub par offensive performance.
We need to be discussing how to get the most out of Williams and not put him in another Minny situation and getting something from the bench like Thornton and the whole team defence rather than singleing (I have been guilty of this at times) out one player.
As far as Cousins that was the best man to man D he played all year Nikola could not do anything so therefore you can forgive the sub par offensive performance.
KingsCitizen
Starter
Clearly due to Rudy Gay. But I would also suggest that having IT in the starting line-up ensures that other than IT, Gay, and DMC, the rest of the roster will be lucky to score double digits any given night.
Not sure if this is just me. But I would like IT to turn into some sort of Damon Stoudamire floor general for the benefit of the team, if we keep him that starting line-up.
A sobering point about all this today is that we have been writing about it all day long and a game only lasts 48 minutes. I don't like a strategy that says let the ball go through Joe Dokes hands and let him decide who gets the ball next unless Joe is the PG. The team needs to be capable of scoring in a variety of ways and you have to share and move it without being predictable. When it works don't knock it. Unfortunately for us it's not working often enough right now. Last night we won including the 4th Q. Another win tomorrow night.
Don't I? I happen to think that when and where a point guard gets his assists are more important than how many assists he has, by an order of
A point guard who gets most of his assists on drive-and-kicks is fine, if you're a jump-shooting team. I don't like jump-shooting teams and, even if I did, we aren't particularly set up to be such. I like it when teams have a clear hierarchy, and I don't like to see chuckers jump the hierarchy for the sake of their G.M.S.I. tendencies.
When you have a Kevin Love or a Blake Griffin or an Anthony Davis or an over-the-hill Kevin Garnett, then you want a point guard who monopolizes the ball, because those aren't guys who can make their teammates better, so they need a point guard to do it for them. We don't have a guy like that: our guy is more Ewing than Malone, more Shaq than Kemp. A guy like that, you want more of a John Paxon, Derek Harper, Derek Fisher-esque point guard; give him the ball, and get out the way.
Tetsujin
The Game Thread Dude
Well in all fairness, it's not like Nikola is Hakeem out there. He's among the top young bigs in the game but he's a couple tiers below the Brow and the Boogs
K
KingMilz
Guest
Yeah for sure but still the guy has had 20/20, 30/20 games in the past and gets them fairly often, to keep him to 4-6 point was a great effort regardless.
