Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Well...jeesh. This is going to be a tough set of grades. The team played better...well enough in fact to potentially damage our rebuilding efforts, which are the only efforts that matter at this point. To say that that puts this grader of two minds is an understatment. Actually there is no two minds about it -- I told Cisco exactly where he could put that boo booed finger when he hit the clinching shot in the final minutes. But I will try to keep that out of the grades as best I can. Our boys are fools to the end, but they played much better basketball (with an assist from an incredibly lazy Nuggets team). So I will just attempt to grade them as if I were a Washington Wizards fan at home pumping my fist right now at the Kings boxscore.
Alright, here we go: theme will be er...Dying/Dead Institutions -- The Things That Having Knowledge Of Will Mark You As Old To Your Kids/Grandkids...or something like that. Anyway...
Nocioni ( A ) -- interesting sub given the articles about replacing guys for not hustling. Was that really aimed at Cisco? Or was it becuase of his hand? Or just matchups with the power player in Melo coming into town and Noc being built for the inside wars much more than Cisco? In any case, obviously paid major dividends on its test run. Noc amusingly came out just scorching, lighting up Melo in the early going to the tune of 9 points before the first timeout. After some forced shots, helped key a push to hold off a Nuggets run in the late second quarter. Took him a long time to get on the baords after half, finally breaking through with a reverse layup against the "defense" of Linas, I'm better than Ron Artest, Kleiza. Mixed in a few more over aggressive heat check forces before knocking down a monster three to push the lead back out to 10 with 4 mintues to go after it loked lie we were maybe setting up for another late game choke. The numbers in this one look good, but still may be deceptive -- the numbers will tell you Melo maybe got the better of things out there. He did not. This isn't quite the best that Noc can play -- I have seen him have a few truly ridiculous games over his career. But it was a big performance, and a tone setting one for the team. Winning this game was stupid, but as long as you are handing out grades for how it was accomplished, Noc knocking the Nuggets back on their heels from the opening tip and largely getting the better of it against their best player has to move right to the front of the line.
General Motors, and really the American car industry in general. Things like GM aren't ever supposed to die. They have just always been there through the lifetimes of everyone on this board. But they got big, they got dumb, costs rose too high, they embraced and became reliant on bigger and bigger gas guzzlers, leveraged themselves to death, and then the world changed. My dad was a Chevy man -- for that brand to disappear would have been a complete shock to him. But even if the magic money fairies find a way to save the Big Three, its hard to see how they will ever be what they once were. By December of last year BMW was worth more than all three of the American companies...combined.
Thompson ( F ) -- look, I have held off on dropping an F on Jason even during games he has struggled partially in the theory he is a rook, partially because he was normally getting just a little somerthing done in some aspect. But he got his butt kicked tonight by a player (Nene) who is simply better than he is right now, and added to the shakiness of a win that could hurt come draft day by being the worst King on the floor. If the ideal situation down the stretch is for the young kids to come up big and us to find ways to lose, tonight Jason came up small and a bunch of guys in their mid to late careers carried the load. JT actually held his own defensively against Nene for a bit in the early going, but got the worst of it in the second quarter, not only being rendered ineffective himself, but taking a physical beating, including one knockout blow to the jaw, Meanwhile Nene started aggressively attacking him and took over inside, and Jason could not finish, clanked a jumper, and got outrebounded by both our guards and our SF. Rookie wall? Who knows, but he's got to be better if he wants to make the argument that we should not draft Blake Griffin in a few months.
Newspapers -- as the world continues to change, the newspaper appears to be headed toward the same sort of quaint retirement as the typewriter. Just as the iconic click clapping of the typewriter is now a surefire sign of a period piece of some sort, the iconic image of a man leaning back in his chair, feet up on his desk, with a paper open in front of his face, will be a sure sign that something is set in the past. There might be a few major papers that hang on for a bit -- the Times here in New York has a shot, maybe the Wall Street Journal, but the internet has delivered the mortal wound, and the changing demographics of a whole generation who gets its news from yahoo will finish the job sooner rather than later. Otherwise it looks like a niche market half a step up from newsletters.
Hawes ( B ) -- well, first off, career high 20pts for Spencer tonight. So yay! At least one of the kids played well. The how of the story is where it gets a little different. You see, Spencer started off the game playing shooting guard. The Nuggets were without Kenyon Martin (and who would have thought that would have made that much difference) and so tried to start the game with two bogs, Nene and Johan Petro, out there. Except Johan is a very limited interior player, and Spencer responded to his presence by simply jogging out to the three point line and bombing wide open three after wide open three -- he hit 3 of them in the space of about 5 minutes to start the game as the Nuggets made him prove it, and then added a 2 off a scramble play. Not much on the glass in the first half, and after the Nuggets decided to scrap the Petro experiment and go small with Balkman instead, he was often outhustled for boards. But he was still able to alter a number of Nuggets shots as they just forced and forced drive after drive in there. Most fo the scoring came early, but did take advantage of the Nuggets smallball to just walk inide for finishes and dunks in the third. Not truly a career night (other than the scoring) and not exactly the way I would prefer it to have happened, but he was effective and caused the Nuggets matchup problems all night.
Investment Banks -- oh, there will be still be investment banks, but the era when names like Lehman Brothers, Merril Lynch etc. meant financial gold is over. Those that aren't bankrupt or bought out are teetering.
Martin ( A- ) -- not at all a typical Kevin game, and that is a good thing. Maybe he heard whispers of all the criticism. Started off the game content to move the ball around. The shot was way off, but contributed assists and while it was never anything breathtaking, helped out on the glass on another of our pathetic rebounding nights. Chipped in a bit in the late 2nd with some offense, but was just part of the party as the Nuggets defended nobody. Stepped forward a bit in the third and hit three threes to help stave off one of the only gasps of effort the Nuggets gave all night and push the lead out. But it was an odd night offensively -- from inside the arc his struggles continued. He still had his failed flop miss, struggled to finish, and missed several short looks that were wide open. From inside the arc he was only 1-8. But from three point land he shot a near automatic 5-7, and that was actually 5-6 before he threw up a heat check chuck. Did little late in the game (other than get posterized by Nene on a monster slam where he went right through Kevin), but did pad the points up with 4 FTs on a flop and then a Nuggets intentional foul. One of those games like the one he had a few weeks back, where he shot only 6-15, where the precious offense did not come easy enough to send Jerry into squeals of pleasure, but where he played a much better all around game and actually helped the team. 7rebs and 8ast from one of the most one dimensional players in the game more than makes up for the shooting struggles.
Phones w/cords -- I was flipping back and forth between phones with cords, land lines etc., but thought I'd just stay small. These..are near dead already. Land lines...be a decade or two probably as all the younger generations brought up on cell phones largely abandon them. In any case, the traditional phone is on the way out and will make another nice anachronistic element when looking back on pop culture of the day.
Alright, here we go: theme will be er...Dying/Dead Institutions -- The Things That Having Knowledge Of Will Mark You As Old To Your Kids/Grandkids...or something like that. Anyway...
Nocioni ( A ) -- interesting sub given the articles about replacing guys for not hustling. Was that really aimed at Cisco? Or was it becuase of his hand? Or just matchups with the power player in Melo coming into town and Noc being built for the inside wars much more than Cisco? In any case, obviously paid major dividends on its test run. Noc amusingly came out just scorching, lighting up Melo in the early going to the tune of 9 points before the first timeout. After some forced shots, helped key a push to hold off a Nuggets run in the late second quarter. Took him a long time to get on the baords after half, finally breaking through with a reverse layup against the "defense" of Linas, I'm better than Ron Artest, Kleiza. Mixed in a few more over aggressive heat check forces before knocking down a monster three to push the lead back out to 10 with 4 mintues to go after it loked lie we were maybe setting up for another late game choke. The numbers in this one look good, but still may be deceptive -- the numbers will tell you Melo maybe got the better of things out there. He did not. This isn't quite the best that Noc can play -- I have seen him have a few truly ridiculous games over his career. But it was a big performance, and a tone setting one for the team. Winning this game was stupid, but as long as you are handing out grades for how it was accomplished, Noc knocking the Nuggets back on their heels from the opening tip and largely getting the better of it against their best player has to move right to the front of the line.
General Motors, and really the American car industry in general. Things like GM aren't ever supposed to die. They have just always been there through the lifetimes of everyone on this board. But they got big, they got dumb, costs rose too high, they embraced and became reliant on bigger and bigger gas guzzlers, leveraged themselves to death, and then the world changed. My dad was a Chevy man -- for that brand to disappear would have been a complete shock to him. But even if the magic money fairies find a way to save the Big Three, its hard to see how they will ever be what they once were. By December of last year BMW was worth more than all three of the American companies...combined.
Thompson ( F ) -- look, I have held off on dropping an F on Jason even during games he has struggled partially in the theory he is a rook, partially because he was normally getting just a little somerthing done in some aspect. But he got his butt kicked tonight by a player (Nene) who is simply better than he is right now, and added to the shakiness of a win that could hurt come draft day by being the worst King on the floor. If the ideal situation down the stretch is for the young kids to come up big and us to find ways to lose, tonight Jason came up small and a bunch of guys in their mid to late careers carried the load. JT actually held his own defensively against Nene for a bit in the early going, but got the worst of it in the second quarter, not only being rendered ineffective himself, but taking a physical beating, including one knockout blow to the jaw, Meanwhile Nene started aggressively attacking him and took over inside, and Jason could not finish, clanked a jumper, and got outrebounded by both our guards and our SF. Rookie wall? Who knows, but he's got to be better if he wants to make the argument that we should not draft Blake Griffin in a few months.
Newspapers -- as the world continues to change, the newspaper appears to be headed toward the same sort of quaint retirement as the typewriter. Just as the iconic click clapping of the typewriter is now a surefire sign of a period piece of some sort, the iconic image of a man leaning back in his chair, feet up on his desk, with a paper open in front of his face, will be a sure sign that something is set in the past. There might be a few major papers that hang on for a bit -- the Times here in New York has a shot, maybe the Wall Street Journal, but the internet has delivered the mortal wound, and the changing demographics of a whole generation who gets its news from yahoo will finish the job sooner rather than later. Otherwise it looks like a niche market half a step up from newsletters.
Hawes ( B ) -- well, first off, career high 20pts for Spencer tonight. So yay! At least one of the kids played well. The how of the story is where it gets a little different. You see, Spencer started off the game playing shooting guard. The Nuggets were without Kenyon Martin (and who would have thought that would have made that much difference) and so tried to start the game with two bogs, Nene and Johan Petro, out there. Except Johan is a very limited interior player, and Spencer responded to his presence by simply jogging out to the three point line and bombing wide open three after wide open three -- he hit 3 of them in the space of about 5 minutes to start the game as the Nuggets made him prove it, and then added a 2 off a scramble play. Not much on the glass in the first half, and after the Nuggets decided to scrap the Petro experiment and go small with Balkman instead, he was often outhustled for boards. But he was still able to alter a number of Nuggets shots as they just forced and forced drive after drive in there. Most fo the scoring came early, but did take advantage of the Nuggets smallball to just walk inide for finishes and dunks in the third. Not truly a career night (other than the scoring) and not exactly the way I would prefer it to have happened, but he was effective and caused the Nuggets matchup problems all night.
Investment Banks -- oh, there will be still be investment banks, but the era when names like Lehman Brothers, Merril Lynch etc. meant financial gold is over. Those that aren't bankrupt or bought out are teetering.
Martin ( A- ) -- not at all a typical Kevin game, and that is a good thing. Maybe he heard whispers of all the criticism. Started off the game content to move the ball around. The shot was way off, but contributed assists and while it was never anything breathtaking, helped out on the glass on another of our pathetic rebounding nights. Chipped in a bit in the late 2nd with some offense, but was just part of the party as the Nuggets defended nobody. Stepped forward a bit in the third and hit three threes to help stave off one of the only gasps of effort the Nuggets gave all night and push the lead out. But it was an odd night offensively -- from inside the arc his struggles continued. He still had his failed flop miss, struggled to finish, and missed several short looks that were wide open. From inside the arc he was only 1-8. But from three point land he shot a near automatic 5-7, and that was actually 5-6 before he threw up a heat check chuck. Did little late in the game (other than get posterized by Nene on a monster slam where he went right through Kevin), but did pad the points up with 4 FTs on a flop and then a Nuggets intentional foul. One of those games like the one he had a few weeks back, where he shot only 6-15, where the precious offense did not come easy enough to send Jerry into squeals of pleasure, but where he played a much better all around game and actually helped the team. 7rebs and 8ast from one of the most one dimensional players in the game more than makes up for the shooting struggles.
Phones w/cords -- I was flipping back and forth between phones with cords, land lines etc., but thought I'd just stay small. These..are near dead already. Land lines...be a decade or two probably as all the younger generations brought up on cell phones largely abandon them. In any case, the traditional phone is on the way out and will make another nice anachronistic element when looking back on pop culture of the day.
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