[Grades] Grades v. Nuggets 1/3/2017

Most Important Season High Tonight?

  • Koufos

    Votes: 1 2.2%
  • Collison

    Votes: 30 65.2%
  • Afflalo

    Votes: 15 32.6%

  • Total voters
    46
  • Poll closed .
#31
I mean, you're not going to give a rookie 20mins/game out of the blue, after not playing him at all. Richardson was really raw at college, and I just don't think giving him 20mpg would be the best choice...especially if you're talking about winning. Matt Barnes is easily our 2nd best SF despite how much I dislike him for his off-court shenanigans. He's not going to get DNPd..this means you'll have to move Afflalo to SG minutes. This is why I don't think Richardson gets anywhere near 20mpg. We have better options. At the most, he takes Ben's minutes...which is 12mpg?

Tolliver's floor spacing is good, but I just can't over-look defensive deficiencies and rebounding. In the last 5 games, he's played 27mins, but averaged only 3.8rebs....

I think we'd be poor defensively because C0llison can't contain his man. Once he gets passed him, we'll force Tolliver to contest. Tolliver isn't a shotblocker. He actually has one of the lowest block rates of any PF...
I think Temple would be a huge upgrade for our starters, but taking him out of the bench unit makes the bench worse.

At best, Lawson is a pesky defender...IT-style. Richardson is an unknown, but he was about average on defense in the DL. Afflalo is a defensive liability. Unless he's motivated, he's not very good. Casspi is just ok. Koufos is good.

With our starting lineup, we lack a lot of rebounding and rim protection. With our bench unit, we'd be a poor perimeter defending team. I don't think Koufos alone would be able to clean up the mess.

With your addition of floor spacing in the starting lineup, as well as more scoring-oriented players in our bench, it definitely seems like moves centered an offensive minded team. Not very much defense..especially for a team that's probably bottom 10 in defense as it already is.
You keep acting as if Tolliver is a poor defender. He's not a liability on that side of the floor.

Why would Tolliver be the one having to contest? I'm not saying he won't from time to time, but it sounds like you're trying to manipulate situations to fit your arguments. Cousins was one of the best rim protectors last year (combining charges & blocks), and the majority of Cousins impact has been on the DEFENSIVE side of the ball up until this season. Among Cs who had at least 20 mpg, he was 6th in DRAPM and 5th in DRPM. In fact, DeAndre Jordan was the only C above him that logged more than 25 mpg (meaning that a lot of these other Cs could exert themselves harder defensively for shorter amounts of time). The year before (2014-15), Cousins was 2nd in DRPM among Cs (Bogut was #1 with only 23 mpg). This year, he's dropped a lot.

So what's changed? A new coach/system? Well he's had that the past 2 seasons and still has been an elite defensive player. He's being asked to guard PFs which is taking him away from what he does best defensively. One of our best frontcourt pairings last year was Gay, Casspi, & Cousins. Was the fact that Casspi wasn't a good rim protector hurting us? No, it wasn't.

Of course taking Temple away from the bench will make them worse, but it will also make our starters better. However, I don't think it'll make the team worse overall. From a mathematical perspective, I see it like this: Afflalo was a 2 in our starting lineup & Temple was a 4 in our bench unit. I think Temple would be a 4 in our starting lineup and Afflalo would be a 3 in our bench unit. Yes, the bench gets worse, but the team gets better because you are maximizing our players skillsets to make sure we're getting the most out of each player.

Again, I don't see an issue with the defense. Collison can be a pesky defender although he is inconsistent at times, Temple is our best defender at SG, Gay has been our best SF defender this year, Tolliver is an average defender who has the lateral quickness, size (240 lbs), & length (7'3" wingspan/9'0" standing reach) to match up with most PFs in this league (doesn't mean he's going to be shutting people down. It just means there shouldn't be a physical mismatch), & Cousins is an excellent defender at C. Then you have Lawson who I would say has played better defense than Collison this season, Richardson who projects to be at least average defensively, Afflalo who is a minus defender, Casspi who has played better defense than Barnes this year, & Koufos who is a solid defender as your bench unit.

I'm not afraid to admit that the rebounding would be worse with Koufos out of the lineup because it would be (47.5 rebounds per 100 possessions w/ Cousins & Koufos on the floor vs. 40.3 rebounds per 100 possessions w/ Cousins on the floor & Koufos off the floor). Having said that, I really don't care. The game is not about who gets the most rebounds. The game is about WINNING, and the fact of the matter is that our team does much better when we aren't rolling out a double C lineup whether that's Cousins/Koufos or Cousins/Cauley-Stein. Below is what the stats show:

On the Floor: Cousins & Koufos
Off the Floor: Tolliver & Cauley-Stein
Per100 On/Off = -0.4 pts
Per100 Rebounds = 47.5

On the Floor: Cousins & Cauley-Stein
Off the Floor: Tolliver & Koufos
Per100 On/Off = -3.7 pts
Per100 Rebounds = 39.4

On the Floor: Cousins & Tolliver
Off the Floor: Koufos & Cauley-Stein

Per100 On/Off = +5.3 pts
Per100 Rebounds = 39.0

On the Floor: Cousins & any SF playing the 4
Off the Floor: Tolliver, Koufos, & Cauley-Stein

Per100 On/Off = +4.2 pts
Per100 Rebounds = 40.9



So if we had it YOUR WAY, we'd be losing more games. But hey! At least we'd grab more rebounds! :rolleyes:
 
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#33
When was the last time every player on the Kings was a + in the +/- .................... except for Demarcus??!?!? (and Ben, but that's a given :D)

I actually don't agree with Boogie's A- grade. I think he really stunk the majority of the 3rd, and if the Nuggets could have made some of their open shots in the 4th, his non-dominance would have been painful.
Also, it's interesting how Boogie doesn;t give a **** about his 3-pt %.
He calls for that ball every last-second possession of quarters.
He obviously wants to get on a highlight making a halfcourt shot.
Bet you anything he's been practicing them quite a bit.

IMO, he should be practicing getting his butt in the paint and trying for some rebounds more. :cool:
 
#34
When was the last time every player on the Kings was a + in the +/- .................... except for Demarcus??!?!? (and Ben, but that's a given :D)

I actually don't agree with Boogie's A- grade. I think he really stunk the majority of the 3rd, and if the Nuggets could have made some of their open shots in the 4th, his non-dominance would have been painful.
Also, it's interesting how Boogie doesn;t give a **** about his 3-pt %.
He calls for that ball every last-second possession of quarters.
He obviously wants to get on a highlight making a halfcourt shot.
Bet you anything he's been practicing them quite a bit.

IMO, he should be practicing getting his butt in the paint and trying for some rebounds more. :cool:
You will be hard pressed to find a star player (especially a superstar) that doesn't want the ball in his hands for the final shot.
 
#35
If you want to split hairs, the Kings defense efficiency is 107.5. Last year it was 106.3. Defensive efficiency is points per 100 possessions and is considered the most accurate measure of team defense since it accounts for pace. In this regard, the Kings defense is worse than last year.
I place a lot of the blame on WCS for this. All the guy does these days is foul and let his man score while rarely ever logging any blocks. No idea what happened to the guy from last year to this year but he's gone from solid to useless.
 
#36
Glad we got the win. What we do with rudy is everything right now.
Play him off the bench or DNP .... if they do fine without him on the floor, little pressure on the coach. It might motivate Gay if his minutes get cut to improve and focus. Likely he'll just reinsert to start when healthier.
 
#37
Kings no longer stand around on offense. That is new. They get back in transition better. That is new. They contest on defense. They are not good at it. All of this effort is paying off in more wins.

Special note on The Hammer's post. I Thomas scored 50 points this week. Last night he had 28 points and 15 assists. He has made 37 straight free throws. I wish the Kings still had him.
 
#38
Stats don't always tell the whole story. The teams we face are different this year too . Look at Houston and the scoring machine they've become. They were not like that last year. They've been torching almost everybody and this affects their opponents defensive rating too. This year I feel like we can come up with stops when we need to. A lot of it has to do with Temple. Last year , we were getting torched by guards left and right .
You are entitled to feel however you want. But the fact is we are giving up more points per 100 possessions than last year. Playing Barnes is a fiasco defensively. He's about as bad as Marco was last year.
 

gunks

Hall of Famer
#39
Not to poo poo Cuz's night....

But it always irks me when a big has more 3pt attempts than rebounds.

It doubly irks me when that big is a bruiser like Cuz.
 
#41
Kings no longer stand around on offense. That is new. They get back in transition better. That is new. They contest on defense. They are not good at it. All of this effort is paying off in more wins.

Special note on The Hammer's post. I Thomas scored 50 points this week. Last night he had 28 points and 15 assists. He has made 37 straight free throws. I wish the Kings still had him.
Me too. The people who bashed him the most and they know who they are really should come clean about their opinion on him. He at times frustrated me as well I think it was a Minnesota game where he single handedly almost gave the game to them if it weren't for some huge rudy buckets. Fact is he's now a legit all star who's carrying his team.
 

gunks

Hall of Famer
#43
Me too. The people who bashed him the most and they know who they are really should come clean about their opinion on him. He at times frustrated me as well I think it was a Minnesota game where he single handedly almost gave the game to them if it weren't for some huge rudy buckets. Fact is he's now a legit all star who's carrying his team.
I was always a bit of a gray area IT critic. I didn't think he meshed well with Cuz and Rudy, but would have loved to keep him as a 6th man. His offense was definitely electrifying.

Never knew he'd continue to improve like this. Shoulda ditched Rudy, not IT.

Ah well....
 
K

KingsFan80

Guest
#44
We should win tonight, the Heat are down big time with injuries. Hope we get to see Richardson