[Grades] Grades v. Magic 12/7/2012

[Bricklayer]

probably don't like pulling teeth, just like we don't like seeing it.

And little kids would rather be outside playing than inside hitting the books. Nonetheless fun or not, if you don't get disicplined and do the work you'll grow up to be mowing the lawns of the guys who stayed inside and worked.

 

[bajaden]

Well paired out there with Jimmer/Brooks/IT he is not going to look his best. One of these guys needs to get moved, Which one? Errr Ummm hmmm your call boss.

Thornton had his looks and his shots, he just missed! Its that simple. Don't blame others for his bad shooting night. As matter of fact, he's several bad shooting nights recently. He's a streak shooter. He's great when he's hot, but not when the shots aren't dropping. Lets not forget that the rest of the league knows what he's out there for, so they're going to make him the focus of their attention. Thornton is capable of creating his own shot, but Kobe he's not!

 

[bajaden]

And little kids would rather be outside playing than inside hitting the books. Nonetheless fun or not, if you don't get disicplined and do the work you'll grow up to be mowing the lawns of the guys who stayed inside and worked.

Be careful or I'll unleash the lawnmowers union on you!

 

[upinsmoke]

Thornton had his looks and his shots, he just missed! Its that simple. Don't blame others for bad shooting night. As matter of fact, he's several bad shooting nights recently. He's a streak shooter. He's great when he's hot, but not when the shots aren't dropping. Lets not forget that the rest of the league knows what he's out there for, so they're going to make him the focus of their attention. Thornton is capable of creating his own shot, but Kobe he's not!

Calm it down baja nobody is blaming his recent poor shooting on anyone but himself. Im simply pointing out a three gunner guard rotation is not the best way of utilizing him. MT either needs to start or be traded because jimmer and MT on the same roster does not make sense to me.

 

[ESP47]

While not disagreeing with that general prognosis, it hasn't really been the offense moving to Reke and Cousins that has been Marcus's problem -- its been the BENCH offense moving away from him. I think to some degree that we helped Reke by dumping Reke's problems on Marcus, took the few guys willing to curtail their shots and put them in the starting linuep, and turned the bench into a chaotic cluster of little guys all trying to gun up shots off their dribble. Now that doesn't explain all of Marcus's struggles by any means -- even when set up perfectly he is missing. But just as it was for Reke, it is how you neutralize a great scorer -- just never let him get into a rhythm. Hell, that's how you try to defend a great scorer too -- our guys are defending our own man. This is on Geoff -- we have so many guys who think they are the man, that its very hard to get our featured guys the shots and rhythm they need.

I am concerned. I was concerned for Reke because our management is stupid. I am concerend about Marcus because of Marcus himself -- I don't think he will take this sitting down if it goes on too long. He'll be unhappy, and we'll be forced to do something. We need him to have some big games on this upcoming trip, and we need him to have them without our coach interpreting that as a reason to limit Tyreke.

Half the time, Thornton is out there with Hayes, Robinson, Johnson and either IT or Jimmer. Hardly a lineup full of chuckers. Thornton just sucks right now. He can't shoot and he isn't getting easy points either. He's still as clutch as ever though.

What happened to the Thornton we traded for? That half year, he scored over 20 ppg efficiently, rebounded and had 3 assists a game. Ever since then he hasn't been the same player.

 

[Glenn]

Be patient. I wasted a half hour writing a note about this very issue.

 

[Bricklayer]

Half the time, Thornton is out there with Hayes, Robinson, Johnson and either IT or Jimmer. Hardly a lineup full of chuckers.

I think what you're missing there is that IS a lineup full of chuckers, or at least overdribblers, stickyfingered guys, out of control young players. basically every one of those guys except Hayes is very used to, and thinks, that he has dribbling/scoring rights, and at any time can decide to charge in lookign for his shot. Now, that doesn't make them any differnet from Marcus except that Marcus has proven far more than those four guys, but it does make it very hard to run an organized offense where TRob knows he's jsut a roleplayer and should pass first, think later, JJ knows he's a roleplayer who should pass first and think later, IT/Jimmer know that their first job is to set up Marcus, and only look for their offense if that's not there etc. TRob/Jimmer/IT all had the absolutel green light wihtin the last two years in college. JJ is just dumb that way. And all have been encouraged by Smart to be dumb.

 

[mac]

I think what you're missing there is that IS a lineup full of chuckers, or at least overdribblers, stickyfingered guys, out of control young players. basically every one of those guys except Hayes is very used to, and thinks, that he has dribbling/scoring rights, and at any time can decide to charge in lookign for his shot. Now, that doesn't make them any differnet from Marcus except that Marcus has proven far more than those four guys, but it does make it very hard to run an organized offense where TRob knows he's jsut a roleplayer and should pass first, think later, JJ knows he's a roleplayer who should pass first and think later, IT/Jimmer know that their first job is to set up Marcus, and only look for their offense if that's not there etc. TRob/Jimmer/IT all had the absolutel green light wihtin the last two years in college. JJ is just dumb that way. And all have been encouraged by Smart to be dumb.

The funny thing is Redick is probably a better scorer than half the guys he was playing with, but he still looked to set them up for easy open shots far more than getting his own. I mean Andrew Nicholson, seriously?

 

[mac]

I'll give up a Christmas gift under the tree if Cousins can have one more game were he plays within himself like he has the last two games. Just keep it up, Cuz. You may form a habit.

I think this game was Cousins' very best at starting a fast break. Great outlet passes. Didn't take a lot of time to get the ball up the floor. He mostly stopped his old bad habit of putting the ball down on the floor for a couple of dribbles before he gave up the ball. And IT was great pushing the pace, running the ball, getting easy shots. For the most part, that's what this team needs to do to win - run the ball. Otherwise, it's just asking too much of them at their early stage of development. And they looked a lot happier when they were running the ball, which is not insignificant. They probably don't like pulling teeth, just like we don't like seeing it.

Problem is you're not going to get to run against good teams. It just doesn't work that way - countless years of playoffs have proved that. The only reason why we got to run is because of all of Orlando's turnovers and missed shots, a lot of times their guys just driving into traffic and not getting a foul called while we got the ball and ran the other way. But hey, you're clearly all for winning now and screwing the future, so lets go with that.

Early stage of development?? IT played how many years in college? Jimmer? Evans and Cousins have been in the league for how long? Brooks/Hayes? Salmons? But they're too young to run a halfcourt offense ROFLMAO. That's the kind of thinking that will keep us out of the playoffs until Cousins is a 10 year vet. Or maybe he'd still be too young then.

I was watching the Hornets Grizzlies game, and the announcers said something that made sense for once. They were talking about how the league is really turning into a development league because a lot of the players are drafted after only one year in college. They emphasized the need for coaching and teaching to turn these young talented players into good team basketball players. Coaching and teaching, something our team clearly lacks.

 

[mac]

I agree they are a far better half court team and actually passed poorly for once and yeah JJ Redick missed stuff he normally hits in his sleep, but I just think even without Tyreke we are a more talented team than them and we won based off talent and hustle which is not a bad sign. I think with Tyreke there that would have been a 10+ point win on top of that Cousins all around game was excellent but he just was not posting enough like he did vs Toronto for my taste.

This I agree with. We won by sheer talent and also being fortunate that they weren't hitting their open shots.

 

[MassachusettsKingsFan]

Salmons has 19 pts 11ast on 6-10 shooting. Man.

 

[VF21]

Salmons has 19 pts 11ast on 6-10 shooting. Man.

I think you meant this to go in the Trailblazers game thread.

 

[slugking50]

Am I crazy or did T-Rob have atleast 4 blocks in this game?....