[Grades] Grades. v. Mighty Sixers 12/30/2015

[pshn80]

Oh god no. GOD NO. Absolutely cannot do that. That is the end of Cousins in Sac, and then end of any chance at a winning team for five more years. WE HAVE THE PLAYERS!!!! WE NEED THE COACH!!

This team on paper is a top ten team in the NBA. There is absolutely no reason, with adequate to good coaching, this team can't get there.

Share your view about not moving to a rebuild. A coaching change may be what we need but, first, let's try juggling our roster. How much worse would our team play if we deep-benched Ben and started Koufos nstead of Cuz? Who would replace Ben in the rotation since he would not play much? Let the coaching staff figure that out - they have Mardos, Anderson, Curry, Collison. Starting Koufos wouldn't bother me at all but having
Cuz sitting there on the bench be disruptive but I would try it. Another shake-up option would be to start Koufos, Cuz, Casspi, Gay and Rondo keeping either Cuz or Koufos in the game at all times. Let Rondo play he first half where he plays his best and let Collison play the whole second half. Another alternative. Try some of this stuff and see if it shakes these guys out of the doldrums. There's time after that to fire Karl or Cuz or some other combo.

In response to Brick's question- all the options offered are reasonable in face of team performance, where we are in the season and the upcoming move to the new arena. I have no idea what will happen. There are things like Ranadive, the ownership group, Divak, Karl, the NBA that are likely to be influential in the coming days- forces that want something to change for better or worse. Everyone has been keeping relatively calm. That will change.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

First off I want to fire the mods

Well, why don't you start by just cutting our salaries in half?

 

[pshn80]

That's what they said when they named Corbin IHC.

And it's still true.

 

[Dime Dropper]

Trade Cousins and Rondo first, you can get value for them. Get young players that play hard, are team players, coachable and professional. Consider a Rudy trade as well but I likely see it reasonable to keep him, let his stock increase without Cousins and Rondo in the picture and try to trade him at the draft or just off season. Im indifferent on Karl, I dont love his schemes on defense, but I also feel he is a victim of your best players not buying in and it permeating down the roster. Remove the bad eggs and we will see a better effort from everyone else.

Keep WCS, who is actually the perfect C for how the league is playing these days. I would say keep Ben because you see flashes of his potential as a two way player. Keep Omri, DC, Koufos, Bellinelli as your pro vets that have value but are useful to any team. Keep Acy and Curry both are showing signs of being good role players, Curry I feel is showing much more than I expected. Just give me a group of players I can be proud to watch night in and out. Guys that play hard, together, that goes much further than fantasy stats.

If we're lucky, maybe we could trade Cuz/Rondo and future firsts for IT. Not sure if they would do that though. Should we throw in our new stadium?

Your opinions are kneejerk and laughable, to put it extremely nicely. Some things never change.

 

[Dime Dropper]

Well, why don't you start by just cutting our salaries in half?

You're the math guy here.

What's half of nothing? Cause I'll take that all day.

 

[SacKings384]

Honestly I think if we can get a commitment from Rondo (doubtful) we need to move Collison for a competent 2 guard.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

And it's still true.

Still? It wasn't even true the first time.

 

[ESP47]

The Sixers were hitting him pretty hard, and repeatedly.

I wish Cousins enjoyed that more, but this odd narrative about last night's game that somehow Cuz spun out of control is just bizarre. He chugged along all game long, with Sixers swarming him and fouling him hard, with teammates flat not showing up, and Cuz chugged along. He had 11pts 4reb in the first half, blocked some shots, he had 10pts 7rebs after half, took some charges. Yet the way people talk about the game you'd think he flipped out or checked out, he did neither. He and Bels were the only two players still functional and making plays for us down the stretch, he just ran out of fouls.

The narrative about this game is about as badly distorted as I've seen around here.

Last night wasn't Cousins fault but he got outplayed by Noel who had one less point and two less rebounds in 8 less minutes. Noel looked like a scrawny midget out there next to Cousins. He should have carved him up for lunch inside. Noel has absolutely nothing physically for Cousins at this stage in his career. Cousins started the game by planting himself right underneath the basket and slamming them home on the Sixers. As the game went on he played more and more outside because by time he got to the paint, there was only 14 seconds left on the shot clock. At that point he started putting the ball on the floor to drive to the paint and we all know what happens when he puts the ball on the floor.

Cousins is playing less and less like a tough post up player who bullies his competitors and more and more like a finesse player who can't stand to get bullied. Long gone are the days when he was completely dislodging Duncan and dunking all over him.

 

[kupman]

The Sixers were hitting him pretty hard, and repeatedly.

I wish Cousins enjoyed that more, but this odd narrative about last night's game that somehow Cuz spun out of control is just bizarre. He chugged along all game long, with Sixers swarming him and fouling him hard, with teammates flat not showing up, and Cuz chugged along. He had 11pts 4reb in the first half, blocked some shots, he had 10pts 7rebs after half, took some charges. Yet the way people talk about the game you'd think he flipped out or checked out, he did neither. He and Bels were the only two players still functional and making plays for us down the stretch, he just ran out of fouls.

The narrative about this game is about as badly distorted as I've seen around here.

Cuz is not the reason we lost the game last night. However, going into the game I was very confident that we would win because I didn't think the sixers would have any answer for Cuz. I thought he would eat their lunch all night. But he didn't.

Also trying to draw charges with 5 fouls is not even smart when your team needs you in the final minute.

 

[Dime Dropper]

Cuz was getting fouled by three guys simultaneously last night. What is wrong with you people?

I acknowledge he wasn't great last night. Some bad TOs and missed FTs. But the lack of actually acknowledgment of what happened is alarming.

Cuz had very few 1-1 looks against Noel last night. Why are people acting like it was there for him? Apart from the first few mins where Cuz abused them, the 6ers adjusted. Noel may be a lot weaker than Cuz btw, but he's a very good defender. And Cuz was being double teamed, and failing that, absolutely hacked.

Picking the wrong guy. It's so obvious that it's almost funny.

 

[Bricklayer]

Last night wasn't Cousins fault but he got outplayed by Noel who had one less point and two less rebounds in 8 less minutes. Noel looked like a scrawny midget out there next to Cousins. He should have carved him up for lunch inside. Noel has absolutely nothing physically for Cousins at this stage in his career. Cousins started the game by planting himself right underneath the basket and slamming them home on the Sixers. As the game went on he played more and more outside because by time he got to the paint, there was only 14 seconds left on the shot clock. At that point he started putting the ball on the floor to drive to the paint and we all know what happens when he puts the ball on the floor.

Cousins is playing less and less like a tough post up player who bullies his competitors and more and more like a finesse player who can't stand to get bullied. Long gone are the days when he was completely dislodging Duncan and dunking all over him.

Except for the part of that not being true at all.

The season long problem has been Cousins outside too much. But actually he has been down in there MORE in recent weeks, i suspect as a result of negotiation with Karl. And in this particular game he spent the entire late game running down early, sealing his man, and trying to take entry passes for finishes inside. That's big man work. He went to the line 20 times, and I don't think one of those fouls took place outside the paint/post.

The problem, if you were watching, was that the Sixers were helping like mad, and quite determined not to let him get a clean look no matter how many people had to fly at him.

But you know, the thing is we are really, as usual around here, focusing on the wrong problem. We scored 105pts. For any reasonable franchise that's enough to win games. But we keep on losing them because we give up 110.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

What's half of nothing? Cause I'll take that all day.

Not only will you take it, but you already get it. The great thing with this site is that we pay ALL of our members the moderator salary. I don't know how we sustain it, but we do!

 

[SacTownKid]

There are a LOT of things wrong with this Kings team.

The defensive scheme just invites mismatches and doesn't leave players in a position to close out on three point shots

The defensive effort of the players is sub par, as is their effort and energy level in general

There's the coach demanding that the team play uptempo with one of the NBA's worst rosters for uptempo play

Inconsistent rotations and an insistence on pairing guys who obviously don't work well together - Collison and Rondo, Koufos and Cousins, Gay at the 4 etc etc

And so on and so on.

But if I were to try to encapsulate the failure of this season in just two pictures here's what I'd go with:

View attachment 5470 View attachment 5471

Wow, where did the mid-range go? Wonder why Cuz is so tired this year. Maybe if we add up the 3-4 extra steps he's taking every time he drives to the rim.

 

[Bricklayer]

Wow, where did the mid-range go? Wonder why Cuz is so tired this year. Maybe if we add up the 3-4 extra steps he's taking every time he drives to the rim.

the midrange is seriously anathema to a Morey-esque analytics driven dribble drive offense.

And BTW yes, that's the same problem Karl has created with Rudy. He's using both his best players wrong because of ideology. Collison too when you get down to it -- his game has always been elbow midrange jumpers. Insert dumbass stathead, and now its reckless racing to the hoop or 3pt chucking.

 

[pshn80]

What in the hell are people talking about with Cousins TONIGHT?

He certainly did not dominate the game, but then again he was being swarmed and had guys flying over his back every time down the floor.

I said this earlier, but you have to come in with a pretty strong agenda to pick one of two players on the squad doing ANYTHING, and then blame them for the loss. No wonder people are so confused about what is going on.

Ben was good for a half, disappeared and then forgotten about after half.
Sixers took away Casspi's threes, and he largely disappeared
Rudy really concerns me. You want somebody who is as a ghost right now, there's a man. Not sure why.
Rondo is schizophrenic as hell right now, and again this game set up almost every Marco shot, and then just made terrible terrible turnovers on flat bad passes that killed us all night long. I again don't understand why. And he's getting torched on defense.
Collison just plays wildly out of control at all times anymore, and I assume that's coaching since he didn't play like that last year.
Kosta was just a meh again. Always. He misses about as many plays as he makes, and missed every board.

And then you have Cuz chugging his way to 21pts 11reb while being really hammered to the line every time. And Marco finally bringing the shooting game, if not much else.

How the hell does Cuz get the blame in which he was one of only two players showing up? A little quick math tells me Cousins scored 21pts on a .558 TS%grabbed 11reb, added 3 blocks and at least two charges drawn. Possibly a third one, I forget. And his offense was hammering inside and being hammered in return, to the tune of 20 FTs.

You can't always double and triple Cuz and not leave Casspiand others open. This is supposed to be a tam. We all know the answer to double teams. Does it happen here? Quit giving Cuz a free pass.

 

[Big Cuz 15]

Wow, where did the mid-range go? Wonder why Cuz is so tired this year. Maybe if we add up the 3-4 extra steps he's taking every time he drives to the rim.

we're no longer destroying the other teams frontline and getting them in foul trouble. woo hoo cuz hits more 3s everybody!

... on another note, i wonder what karl would do w/ drummond. would he neuter another one of his advantages to prove another theory?

 

[Kingster]

It goes back to the birth of his child and I am not saying those are related. I wonder if the addition of Rondo squeezed out Rudy but that is just a guess. People who track such things would know if Rondo throws assists to Rudy. I doubt if it happens often.

Is Rondo "squeezing out" Rudy related to the birth of Rudy's child?

 

[Glenn]

Is Rondo "squeezing out" Rudy related to the birth of Rudy's child?

I think I just wet myself.

 

[kingsboi]

Once a loser, always a loser. I'll say this til I'm blue in the face....looks like Rudy, Rondo and Cousins are too buddy buddy with each other and just do not compliment each other well...I mean Rondo puts up nice numbers and sometimes the Kings will win, but even when he has assist games where he has 18 or 17 of them...they lose. Rondo is here to get paid, I said it from the beginning, I stand by it. He is a rental.

 

[Im Still Ballin]

Wow, where did the mid-range go? Wonder why Cuz is so tired this year. Maybe if we add up the 3-4 extra steps he's taking every time he drives to the rim.

Cousins is so tired this year because..... You know what I'm going to say. And it's 100% right.

 

[King Baller]

Cousins is so tired this year because..... You know what I'm going to say. And it's 100% right.

You are wrong The issue is injury and running too much, with the wrong coach calling the shots.

 

[Bballkingsrock]

Who is ready to be Warriors fans? Anybody with me??

 

[miltonap]

Who is ready to be Warriors fans? Anybody with me??

Lol **** that