[Grades] Grades v. Nuggets 1/4/12

Who was our King of suck tonight?

  • Salmons

    Votes: 13 31.0%
  • Hickson

    Votes: 1 2.4%
  • Thompson

    Votes: 2 4.8%
  • Fredette

    Votes: 21 50.0%
  • Thomas

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Outlaw

    Votes: 5 11.9%

  • Total voters
    42
  • Poll closed .

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
The Good: hold this close to your hearts Kings fans, this is the sort of performance that forces change

The Bad: the last time change was forced for us we ended up with Kenny Natt


Also, congratulations to Kenneth Fareid, who in the closest thing you have to pressure shots in a Kings game anymore and with the crowd screaming, buried 2 FTs with 14 seconds to go to get his fans free tacos. Lot of guys would've choked in that situation.

ok, even in these times of distress I hate to compeltely flood the board in girls. Ok wait. I take that back. I would not mind at all completely flooding the board in girls. But alas its a multi-gender multi-generational board, so that is not really appropriate. So instead of random pretty girls, theme tonight will be something Kings related.

So, Theme = Meet the New Kings Dance Team! :)


Salmons ( F ) -- John's on a roll now as our SF position has completely collapsed. Missed all his first half shots, and was even playing PF in wacky Westphal's latest lineup experiment (alongside Reke, Thornton and Thomas -- Nellie would be proud). Finaly did somethng in the mid 3rd with an open court steal and +1 finish. That's not enough to keep me from hitting the F button on another dreadul night.
Carly_Uniform_2.jpg

Carly -- meet Carly, who says she has a birthmark on her tongue btw.

Hickson ( D ) -- Turnovers and bad post defense defined his first half. Started to score a little in the early 3rd with a turnaround and getting some foul calls on the block but it didn't go anywhere. Got basically doubled up statistically by Kosta Koufos, career average 3.3ppg. Lack of physicality alarming especially when you see him next to Cousins who is all body all the time.
049_andreacabrera_bik_lg_02.jpg

Amanda -- I thought I'd noticed some unusally pretty SKDT members on the early telecasts.

Hayes ( C ) -- his highlight came early, with a nice pass from up top to a rolling Reke for the layup. Unfortunately that was about it and he just wasn't that effective again. Guys were shooting right over him again and he later threw two turnovers from up top trying to duplicate the Reke pass. Just loose low percentage plays liek those plaguing everybody else. Side note btw: everyone is upset about the offense. But the offense is fine comparatively. Great even when you once again compare it to our defense: We are 29th in the league in Opp PPG and Opp FG%. I want last year's team back.
Anabelle_costume400.jpg

Anabelle -- this is Anabelle in her Halloween costume (apparently the SKD was more optimisic than the rest of us the season would start on time). Don't offer her anything with lettuce BTW, she hates it (lettuce??).
 
Last edited:
Thornton ( B ) -- night and day from Memphis and why? Unless maybe there is some 24 hr thing going around explaining Marcus's disappearance yesterday and Reke's halftime cookie tossing today. In any case, it was back to being Marcus and then some, has he had much better energy on both sides of the ball. Not only offensively aggressive, but with some good defensive effort in the early going staying in front of Afflalo. There was a brief moment late in the 2nd quarter when he and Reke started to really work together and it was starting to feel like maybe a repeat of the Hornets game, but it never ignited and Reke's illness killed any chance after half. In the third saddled with overmatched rookies around him he wasn't particularly hot but kept on fighting offensively to keep us within barely striking range longer than we should have been.
Heather_Uniform_2.jpg

Heather -- meet Heather, who wishes she had Go-Go Gadget arms for some reason

Evans ( C ) -- smartest guy in the building tonight as the mere thought of coming out for the 2nd half debacle left him puking his guts out in the lockerroom. Got off to a pretty good start both moving without the ball and passing. But was being held back by once again missing his layups. In the early 2nd was the only giuy doing anything there until Thornton came back. Hit a jumper, some assists, and for one brief moment there I thought he and Thronton were going to get it going and make a game of things no matter how badly the third member fo the perimeter trio (whether it be Salmons or Fredette this time) was playing. But just kept leaving the layups short and it kept him, and us, from gaining any real momentum. Maybe we found out why after halftime as he did not return to the court because he was busy being violently ill back in the lockerroom. Eventually came back out in the middle of the quarter and gave it a brief go, but had nothing. Final act was a bad overdribble and falling down jumper for the play to close the 3rd, and that was it. Wasn't sure what to do here, as he was out long enough to get mroe than an incomplete, but I typically take illness/injury into account. So largely just going by the first half which I think looked worse aesthetically because of the blown layups than it realy was in fact. Put another way, he was on pace for a 16p 10reb 6ast night, which isn't terrible.
067_ariellemangabay_bus_lg_01.jpg

Arielle

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bench

Thompson ( D ) -- see? it wasn't jsut the starters who scucked. Entered the game and was immediately posted and scored over by Koufos. Upon retuning in the late 3rd immediatley fumbled a pass leading to a Nuggests breakout. On the ngith was back to the spastic fumbly can't finish guy aain.
Isela_SKD_Personal3.jpg

Isela

Cousins ( B+ ) -- and just like that the big post monster named DeMarcus made his first showing of the season. Dominated action in his minutes in all ways except 1 -- the league's 2nd leading per minute rebouner came up with only 3 in his 26 minutes this time. Otherwise he really took it to the overmatched Nuggets frontline, and really was doing a lot on both ends. Came in and immediately with a nice steal, although he did look lazy runnign back as he was twice beat down the floor by Mozgov on the break. Back in the game and immediately broke up a pass over the top. Also a nice block just taking the ball away. And the started rolling in the psot with some good post moves as the half wore down, and was jsut banging bodies and too powerful for the Nuggets to stop. And after half it rapidly became the Marcus and Cousins show as the SFs were awful, the rookie guards terrible, and the other bigs irrelevant. Racked up 26 points in 25 minutes of action on 9-12 shooting before his customary foulout, alhough this time that was more colorful a she first fouled a 3pt shooter and then gave the fans tacos by fouling Kenneth Faried with 14 seconds to go, letting him core points 109+110 at the FT line. Oh, and just in case you thought any corner was turned or anything had been resolved, during a late timeout whiel Cousins was dominantin, Westphal met him a little way away form the bench and said something to him that I would have thought was "good job", but could just as easily have been "that was selfish" or whatever. DeMarcus's response was short and sharp and likely profane and he went to the bench and sat down scowling and muttering. I really don't understand how its gotten that bad within a week and a half, nro do I see how that relationship can be salvaged.
Megan_costume400.jpg

Megan -- or rather Eve?
 
Last edited:
Fredette ( D- ) -- rushed his shots early for misses, made a mistake not knowing the shotbclockjand causing a 24 sec violastion, threw a terrible pass for a turnover, and jsut in general looked the struggling rookie out there. But Westphal wouldn't take him out. Just refused to as he put on a terrible shooting display in the 2nd quarter, I think at one point missing 8 straight, many of them reasonably open. Missed another contested look in the late 3rd after returning. Finally finally hit a jumper in the mid 4th and made a ncie pass to set up a Cousins dunk. Gorgeous up and under with Demarcus in the late garbagetime finsihed saving him from an F, which I don't like to hit rookies with anyway since their norm is both less than bets, and yet to be fully seen. Suffice it to say Jimmer was bad, and already getting a full taste of NBA action, including shot competition, petulant teammates, and coach firings.
Maya_Uniform_2.jpg

Maya

Garcia ( INC ) -- well this one is easy. Got some early minutes. Did nothing with them. Did not return.
Brittney_Uniform_2.jpg

Brittney -- I'll make this my last dance team member this time around, as therer are 18 of them and this was the 9th. Do the other half next time we have a blowout...or hopefully just after some random game in a few weeks after we start kicking everybody's behind after the coaching change

Thomas ( D ) -- in and immediately split a double and scored on the layup. Torched the other way by Lawson in return but competing. Got really clobbered jumping in front of Afflalo and taking a big charge. Turned it over on ther final possission of the half leading to a Nuggets basket again -- in this early season he keeps getting those opportunities an I think only once has come up with something at the end of a quarter. Got the start after half with Reke out and found out starting in the NBA is different than coming off the bench as a sparkplug. Pretty much got his lunch handed to him. Blown by on the break, forcing, and missing threes, turnovers, just completely overmatched and looking the rookie 2nd round pick starting his first game (even if it was just a half).

Outlaw ( INC ) -- fpor some reason did not play untl the garbagetime despite playing pretty well the game before. And then came in and just got embarrassed, shooting 0-5, and getting blocked again and again inside byt he energetic and much stronger Fareid.
 
Last edited:
How about a theme of Disney characters that would make for a better coach than Westphal? At this point I'd take Goofy.
 
That was disgusting, and I didn't even watch the second half (thankfully). I mean, how is it possible for a team to be this bad? Just how?

So much one-on-one, no passing, terrible offense, even worse defensively. There genuinely isn't one thing we actually do well. I'm getting less and less comfortable with the ball being in Tyreke's hands so much. I love his talent, but I really worry about his basketball IQ. He makes so many unbelievably dumb decisions with the ball. Hopefully it's just a product of the pee-poor offense and coaching, but I'm not sure. Some of the stuff he does is nothing short of bizarre. I'm not blaming him, most of our players were terrible tonight. It's just frustrating because he can be so good.

Westphal needs to go. I couldn't care less if it looks like we're giving in to Cousins. He's part of the problem, how he's getting paid millions to do a job that Borat could beat is astounding.
 
Whole kings organization:F-

Any fan that watched this game to the end: A. Thats all heart right there.
 
How about a theme of Disney characters that would make for a better coach than Westphal? At this point I'd take Goofy.

I'm sure Pluto has better communication skills than Westphal. Maybe give him a try? His pay is probably within the Maloofs budget.
 
I wish Mike Single-brain-cell was coaching this team. At least he'd "watch the tape" and scream at somebody. Maybe pull his pants down. As dumb as he was at least you knew he was trying and had some positive influence on players. Westfail doesn't do jack s***!
 
Another ugly one. Cousins showing his stuff (B) + Jimmer (C), Thornton (B+). Hayes (D) looked lost amoung the 2 or 3 7-footers and Hickson (D) didn't do much either. *Outlaw (INC) an after thought.
Evans sick at half, flu I heard.

Here is more ugly:
Salmons, 28 min 3 pt, 3 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl
Hickson, 24 min 6 pt, 4 reb
Hayes, 23 min 6 pt, 5 reb, 2 ast, 3 TO
Evans 23 min 8 pt, 5 reb, 3 ast

Biggest uglies of all: 12 ast and 16 TO

Now can we please have a coach who will teach team basketball!!!
 
Last edited:
Jimmer our new gunner, just keep shooting away kid. The focus moved from setting up team mates to getting his own

F
 
Why isn't Westphal an option? This team looked lost from the get go. Add the consistent three guard (and sometimes 3.5/4 guard) lineup and his decision to not start the best post player (but hey! he got some "Recycle Time" minutes), and you have the makings of a disaster of Dicaprian proportions. The only thing that can save this is a nubile Kate Winslet, but that ship too, has sailed.
 
BTW, Outlaw is useless. He doesn't do anything but jack up threes. I didn't like it when we signed him, and I still don't.

The season is young, but it's looking like the trade for Salmons is as bad as we thought it would be. He's been terrible, and I think Knight would have been a better fit than Jimmer. He's a smart player, and plays defense.
 
watching this game for me was like watching a whole team of cloned Spencer Hawes playing on the floor together at the same time... 3's bricking all over, slow/ soft defense, no heart...haha... oh lord tonight was the worst i can remember
 
watching this game for me was like watching a whole team of cloned Spencer Hawes playing on the floor together at the same time... 3's bricking all over, slow/ soft defense, no heart...haha... oh lord tonight was the worst i can remember

lmao... it must have been torture for you remembering your old Hawes posts :D
 
You and me both. I was looking forward to this one, knowing I'd definitely get to see it on TV.
 
Surprised to see Jimmer getting the most votes. Thought he was one of our few players, others including but not limited to Cousins and Thornton, who were actually fighting for whatever chance they had at winning the game.
 
Back
Top