[Grades] Grades v. Magic 3/11/2016

[Bricklayer]

Ah yes, where the familiar Cousins is holding us back tripe runs into harsh reality once again.

A special thanks to Rudy and Darren, freed from that harsh egomaniac Boogie to go wild and show their scoring chops. So we were left with noted scorers Rajon Rondo, Marco Belinelli (accused on many nights of being Brickinelli) and Kosta Koufos to try to carry us home. They collectively gave it a shot, but along with the missing 27pts we were also missing our best rebounder, presence etc., and we got worked inside by a Magic team scared of precisely none of our guys.

Any putative playoff run has now been reduced to Cuz coming back pissed off and running off a 15-0 March. because hey, if its all on him that we lose, then obviously it must be all on him when we win. Think I've got that right.



Boxscore

Stats: 29min 12pts (2-9, 0-0, 8-10) 7reb 0ast 1stl 1blk 6TO
Summary:and again this season, did not step up with Cuz out, smothered and unable to get shots off cleanly, turned it over
Gay ( ) --

Stats: 14min 3pts (1-2, 0-0, 1-1) 4reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Summary:without Cuz to play off of, ineffective, carried a -15 +/- in only 14min
Acy ( ) --

Stats: 21min 12pts (4-9, 0-0, 4-4) 6reb 1ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Summary:had his moments as a rim runner and a few spectacular plays, but outworked on the glass and lost minutes again
Cauley-Stein ( ) --

Stats: 37min 8pts (3-14, 0-6, 2-3) 2reb 6ast 3stl 0blk 0TO
Summary:struggled again, missed open shots and Oladipo dominated him, with Rudy failed to take up the offensive slack, at least no TOs
Collison ( ) --

Stats: 39min 16pts (7-14, 2-5, 0-0) 5reb 14ast 2stl 0blk 4TO
Summary: only one of our major pieces to bring a game with a strong double double
Rondo ( ) --


Bench

Stats: 28min 10pts (3-13, 1-4, 3-3) 2reb 0ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Summary:has tried to rah rah this team to save it, but game not matching words as he struggled badly again
Casspi( ) --

Stats: 28min 17pt (6-11, 4-7, 1-1) 4reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 4TO
Summary:really brought us back to life with a 2nd quarter explosion, but I think only one hoop therafter
Belinelli ( ) --

Stats: 24min 19pts (8-10, 0-0, 3-3) 4reb 0ast 1stl 2blk 0TO
Summary:played one of his best offensive games in a while with his meat and potatoes, but outquicked on the boards
Koufos ( ) --

Stats: 18min 3pts (1-6, 1-3, 0-0) 3reb 0ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Summary:came in and hit a three and looked like he could give us a boost, but that was it, and missed everything else
Curry ( ) --

Stats: 1min 0pts (0-0, 0-0, 0-0) 0reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Summary:just a cameo late in the first half
Butler ( ) --

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[KingMilz]

Had we not fired Malone we would not have to hang a 9-6 banner and we would have been a elite NBA championship team on the way to a dynasty and crushing the Warriors/Spurs/Cavailers in the process. His 37% winning record would have at least doubled running the offense through Reggie Evans and now Quincy Acy instead.

 

[randymoss1881]

Had we not fired Malone we would not have to hang a 9-6 banner and we would have been a elite NBA championship team on the way to a dynasty and crushing the Warriors/Spurs/Cavailers in the process. His 37% winning record would have at least doubled running the offense through Reggie Evans and now Quincy Acy instead.

Malone is so bad that Denver squad is terrible with him. Oh wait!!

And anyone who votes that we'd be firing malone now if he stayed has 0 credibility left 0.

 

[KingMilz]

Malone is so bad that Denver squad is terrible with him. Oh wait!!

And anyone who votes that we'd be firing malone now if he stayed has 0 credibility left 0.

I wanted Malone to stay if you look at the threads but to make him out as some saviour and legend which he has been is pretty silly imo the majority of the guys tenure here was sub par. In Denver he's got a bunch of hunger guys who play hard and he's done a very decent job.

 

[biltalent]

Please make sure to watch this game (especially the first half of the first quarter) before trying to argue that we are better without Cousins and that George Karl is not the worst coach in the NBA at the moment. Wow.

 

[sactownfan]

Malone was better than Karl no question better and he should have coached this year: but....

Malone is not a great coach. He's ok... And we did Malone dirty but.....

He's just better than trash can fire George Karl, and all the coaches since Rick. That's it... Nothing special... not great...good... But definitely hands down better than all those other horrible coaches we had before... Malone was not the long term answer either

 

[randymoss1881]

I wanted Malone to stay if you look at the threads but to make him out as some saviour and legend which he has been is pretty silly imo the majority of the guys tenure here was sub par. In Denver he's got a bunch of hunger guys who play hard and he's done a very decent job.

So is that why some guys here hate him cause some of us say he's a savior?
The thing is with Malone we'd have a good coach who'd be getting better by the season. More importantly he had a bond with all our core players he wanted IT back. We possibly could have had the sane coach for 10 years to go with DMC/IT/Gay.

 

[KingMilz]

So is that why some guys here hate him cause some of us say he's a savior?
The thing is with Malone we'd have a good coach who'd be getting better by the season. More importantly he had a bond with all our core players he wanted IT back. We possibly could have had the sane coach for 10 years to go with DMC/IT/Gay.

There is nothing to suggest we would get better every season, this team has showed time and time again they quit, this year they completely gave up after the Charlotte loss and I'm pretty sure during Malone's best run after the Memphis heartbreak they didn't do to well either. No one hates Malone here there's no reason to hate him he unlike the players showed passion and desire. The players we are building around are mentally soft and don't have high motor's and until that changes we will get the same results of one good 15 game run every year followed by a ton of crap.

 

[Sac.1989]

Summer vacation time. Where we going gang ?

 

[KingsFanGER]

There is nothing to suggest we would get better every season, this team has showed time and time again they quit, this year they completely gave up after the Charlotte loss and I'm pretty sure during Malone's best run after the Memphis heartbreak they didn't do to well either. No one hates Malone here there's no reason to hate him he unlike the players showed passion and desire. The players we are building around are mentally soft and don't have high motor's and until that changes we will get the same results of one good 15 game run every year followed by a ton of crap.

I know you are frustrated and we all have every right to be frustrated.
But does it really only come down to passion, desire and mentality?
I mean Cousins sure looks like a pretty passionate guy does he?

In recent years we never had a successful system, that was on par with todays way to play basketball.
All we had was Cousins and a bunch of ISO ballers like Rudy, IT, Reke and not one NOT ONE!!!! good perimeter defender.
And as soon as Cousins was out, everything fell apart.

Still this league has teams, that don't have players like Cousins and still play winning basketball.
But these teams all have bright coaches and a very analytical and systematic approach to basketball and value defense.
All we have is Cousins trying to create something out of nothing and the general gameplan that everybody has to play off of Cousins.
Not excactly the best gameplan and with our subpar defense it's a recipe for desaster.
We lean on Cousins's talent way too much.
I mean too often it's open jumpshots for opposing guards and wings versus Cousins rumbling down the lane 1vs3, leading to everyone complaning, that Cousins is a loser and not efficient enough.
But I highly doubt Cousins forces coaches to play that way. He wants to get his, I do believe that, but I think he wants to win more than anything else and if a coach would approach him and force him to play in a system, that doesn't have him do way too much, he would actually be more than willing to score only 20 points per game and spend more energy on defense, because he would know, that we won't crumble once he sits with foul trouble.
And our systematic weakness and incomplete roster is exposed as soon as Cousins is out, no matter if the coach is "defense first" Malone or "push,push,push" Karl.

 

[Letsgokings13]

Another stellar performance from Rudy.

 

[iowamcnabb]

Please make sure to watch this game (especially the first half of the first quarter) before trying to argue that we are better without Cousins and that George Karl is not the worst coach in the NBA at the moment. Wow.

What percentage of the board thinks we are currently better without Cousins?

Forums can be so extreme sometimes. If you are not a complete Boogie homer (wouldn't trade him for Lebron) you are labeled a boogie hater. It is possible to hold a player in high regard without worshipping the ground he walks on.

 

[FaStRmAn]

This team is a team full of quitters. They are just collecting checks and going thru the motions. Until you can clean out the bad attitudes and start fresh, this will continue to be a bad team. No one on this current roster should be untouchable. Trade them all. We could bring in a team of CBA players with a decent coach and get 28-29 wins.....

 

[fansinceday1]

This team is a team full of quitters. They are just collecting checks and going thru the motions. Until you can clean out the bad attitudes and start fresh, this will continue to be a bad team. No one on this current roster should be untouchable. Trade them all. We could bring in a team of CBA players with a decent coach and get 28-29 wins.....

Not with this current coaching staff.

 

[kupman]

Yes, I get it. We lose all the time when Boogie is out (and mostly lose when he is in). However, we could be better without Cousins. He is an elite big and as such represents a great trade assesst that could enable this franchise to go in very different direction.

In an effort to blow this thing to pieces, he is our biggest piece of dynamite.
Not saying we must, be it should be considered.

 

[pshn80]

Ah yes, where the familiar Cousins is holding us back tripe runs into harsh reality once again.

A special thanks to Rudy and Darren, freed from that harsh egomaniac Boogie to go wild and show their scoring chops. So we were left with noted scorers Rajon Rondo, Marco Belinelli (accused on many nights of being Brickinelli) and Kosta Koufos to try to carry us home. They collectively gave it a shot, but along with the missing 27pts we were also missing our best rebounder, presence etc., and we got worked inside by a Magic team scared of precisely none of our guys.

Any putative playoff run has now been reduced to Cuz coming back pissed off and running off a 15-0 March. because hey, if its all on him that we lose, then obviously it must be all on him when we win. Think I've got that right.

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On that subject it's hard for any of us to get that right. In or out we're losers. So now what do we do? Good luck, Vlade, it needs to be done and soon whatever it is. I want to feel good about what I see from my new seats at Golden 1. Enough of this misery.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Yes, I get it. We lose all the time when Boogie is out (and mostly lose when he is in). However, we could be better without Cousins. He is an elite big and as such represents a great trade assesst that could enable this franchise to go in very different direction.

We could be better; that doesn't mean that we would be better:

 

[FaStRmAn]

We could be better; that doesn't mean that we would be better:

What would worse look like? 20 wins ?

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Could be. Might be twenty wins, and even worse defense.