[Grades] Grades v. Raptors 10/20/2015

[Blob]

No-look from Magic Casspi for the win! And Darren with the corner dagger! Darren is turning his season around like I expected he would. He is too fast and too pure not to make an impact. Don't look now critics but DC is shooting 51% and 14 PPG in December!!!(8 games; 4-4)

Rondo seems to take PG match-ups against the leagues best personally, and he was all up in Lowry before he lost his cool. Make no mistake the Kings dominated most of this game because Rondo was shredding the Raptors defense.

And sorry Boogie was not dominating defensively. He cannot move on the pick and roll. He left Patterson open on the perimeter repeatedly. He did a great job swiping the ball away but his position defense was horrible. All Boogie's baskets were pin downs and lobs and sweet entry passes from Rondo. His post game included weak stuff.

Boogie did more of what I have been asking of him all year which is play with patience and be a decoy to set up others and he did that beautifully 3-4 times but something is just not right with him. I suspect it is the tendonitis. This was a C+ game for Boogie based on limited mobility against a Raptors team without Vallacinas.

One thing I do want to justly give credit to Boogie for is the defense tilts so much to him it was opening driving lanes for Rondo out of the pick and roll. They were overplaying and Rondo had nice lanes to the hoop. But don't be fooled fans. If we are going to make our playoff run Boogie has to be better.

Lastly Ben looks to be playing with a new level of confidence and its great to see.

 

[Larry89]

I'd be shocked if Casspi didn't win most improved player

 

[Chupacabra]

Is there some reason why everyone was able to watch this game except for me even though im using league pass mobile/broadband? The Twolves game was the same result for me as well. They both say that i have to tr and watch it through xfinity go. Is comcast/xfinity sticking it to me now that im on vacation in northern california?

 

[Blob]

Rondo is pure playmaking PG that can't shoot.

You are clinging to an old narrative. Rondo is 45% FGs and 37% on 3s before making 8-13 FGs tonight. He has also made 12 out of this last 15 FTS!!!! (That's 80%)

You know who can't shoot? The guy we signed to shoot!!! Marco is 39% FGs and 33% on 2s and 3s both inferior to Rondo.

 

[206Fan]

You are clinging to an old narrative. Rondo is 45% FGs and 37% on 3s before making 8-13 FGs tonight. He has also made 12 out of this last 15 FTS!!!! (That's 80%)

You know who can't shoot? The guy we signed to shoot!!! Marco is 39% FGs and 33% on 2s and 3s both inferior to Rondo.

I meant before this season lol. He's been a crap 3pt shooter until Karl came along.

That's why I said there aren't that many NBA coaches who can get the best out of their players like Karl.

 

[206Fan]

I'd be shocked if Casspi didn't win most improved player

I think CJ McCollum or Reggie Jackson wins it. A lot of good candidates this year

 

[jcwkings]

The thing about Rondo's 3's this year is that most of them are from the corners or he likes a spot from the top of the key. All of his looks are generally wide open. Collison and Rondo are both very good at the corner three. Casspi has transformed into a deadly 3 pt shooter and Ben has be,n solid all season with the three point shot. Bellinelli is our best shooter but most of his looks are really contested or end up being those leaning fadeaways that look bad. When he is wide open and set shooting he is pretty automatic, teams are just giving him the Korver treatment.

 

[Tetsujin]

The thing about Rondo's 3's this year is that most of them are from the corners or he likes a spot from the top of the key. All of his looks are generally wide open. Collison and Rondo are both very good at the corner three. Casspi has transformed into a deadly 3 pt shooter and Ben has be,n solid all season with the three point shot. Bellinelli is our best shooter but most of his looks are really contested or end up being those leaning fadeaways that look bad. When he is wide open and set shooting he is pretty automatic, teams are just giving him the Korver treatment.

I wouldn't go as far as saying that. I'd say that teams are doing a fairly good job of taking away Marco's open shots but Marco's been doing a good job of spazzing out whenever he feels even remote pressure and immediately does his best Reggie Miller buzzerbeater impression and jacks up a fall-away leg-kick jumper regardless of the situation.

 

[Livinthedream]

The thing about Rondo's 3's this year is that most of them are from the corners or he likes a spot from the top of the key. All of his looks are generally wide open. Collison and Rondo are both very good at the corner three. Casspi has transformed into a deadly 3 pt shooter and Ben has be,n solid all season with the three point shot. Bellinelli is our best shooter but most of his looks are really contested or end up being those leaning fadeaways that look bad. When he is wide open and set shooting he is pretty automatic, teams are just giving him the Korver treatment.

Then Belli should take less contested shots and wait for those wide open set shots. If he's not doing that, it's on him. Collison, Casspi, Rondo and Ben are waiting until they're open to shoot.

 

[Blob]

After 3-4 on three balls, Omri increased his 3% to 45.3% tied for 4th in the NBA with Steph Curry! Only difference being Curry has made over 3X as many

 

[Im Still Ballin]

Then Belli should take less contested shots and wait for those wide open set shots. If he's not doing that, it's on him. Collison, Casspi, Rondo and Ben are waiting until they're open to shoot.

Yep

When they run those belli pindown plays, they need to get similar action simultaneously on the weak side of the court too. It would give more value to Belli, which could make for fake action... Teams anticipate the pin down, so it should be used.... Like a pindown for Belli on the strong side, then a quick cousins post up on the weak side high-mid-low post with quick ball movement. Whole lot of potential there. It's like how the Spurs used to do those Tony Parker weaving plays, and it would attract so much attention, they could use it as a fake action and get easy looks for Duncan or even further depth and off-ball screens for cutters. We really need to find a bit more depth in those Belli plays

 

[KingMilz]

If we dont choke the games vs Charlotte, OKC and and Wolves, we would be 14-13 right now and thats despite the 1-7 start.

Every single team in the nba could say the exact same thing, if the Twolves played there vets in crunch time instead of developing players and playing them out of position they would be over 500. as well. I don't buy the whole if we didn't choke we lost those games for a reason .

Glad we won but the Kings are impossible to figure out to me its very much effort based that determines the teams success. Omri and Rondo have been the two most consistant this year and Casspi is playing like a legit starter rather than a bench guy starting.

 

[KingMilz]

We badly need a defensive wing with athletic ability tonight it was James Johnson getting by anyone despite not being able to shoot with just quickness.

 

[The_Jamal]

It's weird seeing some be so critical of the team, as if they forgot how truly awful we've been the last 10 years and acting like we should be killing a great team like the Raptors on the road. There's basically been 3 games this season where we truly just got beat down and didn't have a chance to win.

This is a quality win. We looked great at times and incredibly sloppy in others. But I'm never going to complain about a 10 point win on the road to one of the better teams in the east. Who by the way just got done beating another really good team on the road with that same cast of players.

It's obvious this team is starting to learn how to play together. And when the focus and energy is there, the only team who's truly outclassed us this season has been the Warriors.

 

[KingsFanGER]

We badly need a defensive wing with athletic ability tonight it was James Johnson getting by anyone despite not being able to shoot with just quickness.

And there are a few low quality options out there to fix this.
Bullock was assigned to the D-League by the Pistons. Hill is the odd man out in Indiana. Those kind of guys are no world beaters, but would at least give us another full sized option on the wing.

We looked great in the first quarter mainly due to our effort on the defensive end. And it's frustrating for me to see, how well this team is able to play and to swallow those low energy games like the Wolve's game.

 

[sono]

The thing about Rondo's 3's this year is that most of them are from the corners or he likes a spot from the top of the key. All of his looks are generally wide open. Collison and Rondo are both very good at the corner three. Casspi has transformed into a deadly 3 pt shooter and Ben has be,n solid all season with the three point shot. Bellinelli is our best shooter but most of his looks are really contested or end up being those leaning fadeaways that look bad. When he is wide open and set shooting he is pretty automatic, teams are just giving him the Korver treatment.

Yep, Bellinelli is the most feared sniper from the bunch, so is the proper treatment. Had he more open looks, his FG% would look more respectable.

 

[sono]

Then Belli should take less contested shots and wait for those wide open set shots. If he's not doing that, it's on him. Collison, Casspi, Rondo and Ben are waiting until they're open to shoot.

He's been trying his best to have open looks, but most of his timely made 3s are still contested shots. Dude just doesn't have that luxury the rest gets on the perimeter.

Meantime, as Blob noted Casspi is turning into more deadly shooter.

 

[IfAt1st]

I am SO over Bellinelli.
I really wouldn't mind if he was benched full-time until he starts playing significantly better.
His (lack of) defense alone has been costing the Kings 8 to 10 points minimum per game, and his dumb-ass turnovers and horrible shooting % is costing them 8 to 10 points on offense every game.

McLemore is a fine replacement lately. He deserves more minutes than he's been getting, and Marco's getting worse by the game.

 

[King Baller]

I am SO over Bellinelli.
I really wouldn't mind if he was benched full-time until he starts playing significantly better.
His (lack of) defense alone has been costing the Kings 8 to 10 points minimum per game, and his dumb-ass turnovers and horrible shooting % is costing them 8 to 10 points on offense every game.

McLemore is a fine replacement lately. He deserves more minutes than he's been getting, and Marco's getting worse by the game.

Watch how other teams defend Bellinelli. There is almost always a good defender right up in his grill. That said I'm fine with McLemore getting more minutes as IMO his defense is really coming around.

 

[Chubbs]

Did someone actually say it's not too much to ask for 48 minutes of hustle every night?

Maybe regular season nba isn't your thing, cause there isn't a team in this league who does that.

Defense has arrived. Boogie carried the load in the first half, despite continuing to struggle with mobility.. I think he had 3 blocks and a steal (while box score watchers worried about his fg%, smh). Yes, I understand there's more to it than blocks and steals. So how about +/-? Boogie's +/- was pretty great. For the box score watchers, scroll over a bit before trying to blame Boogie for everything. He was +33! 4 blocks, 2 steals in the end, limited turnovers (1 was an iffy charge) ball over. Does anything else matter at that point? +33!

Give the guy some ****ing credit. The King's outscored the other team by a little more than a point a minute with Boogie on the floor.

 

[Flopi]

Month of december (8 games)

McLemore: 9.4 PTS 59.2 FG% 44.4 3P% 24.9 MIN
Belinelli: 7.8 PTS 38.1 FG% 25.0 3P% 22.3 MIN

 

[Tetsujin]

Month of december (8 games)

McLemore: 9.4 PTS 59.2 FG% 44.4 3P% 24.9 MIN
Belinelli: 7.8 PTS 38.1 FG% 25.0 3P% 22.3 MIN

Yeah but are Ben's misses as aggressive as Marco's?

 

[Livinthedream]

Yep

When they run those belli pindown plays, they need to get similar action simultaneously on the weak side of the court too. It would give more value to Belli, which could make for fake action... Teams anticipate the pin down, so it should be used.... Like a pindown for Belli on the strong side, then a quick cousins post up on the weak side high-mid-low post with quick ball movement. Whole lot of potential there. It's like how the Spurs used to do those Tony Parker weaving plays, and it would attract so much attention, they could use it as a fake action and get easy looks for Duncan or even further depth and off-ball screens for cutters. We really need to find a bit more depth in those Belli plays

There are two things going on with Belli. The first is that when you run a player off of screens, the opposition knows where the ball is going and they hustle to keep up. Most of the time when Belli gets the ball it's off of screens. Yes you could argue that the play sets could be better. But he's not being guarded tight in that situation because he's necessarily feared like Steph Curry. The play is being telegraphed. Mclemore has the same problem when they run him off screens. The difference is that Mclemore is poor at coming off those screens so he never gets ths ball and we don't notice.

The other issue with Belli is he's not a great threat to beat you off the dribble ( that's why we run so many screens for him). Rondo, Casspi and DC will go buy you if you play them tight. Ben will go by you if you run at him. That extra dimension makes it more difficult to play those guys so tight.

But again, there is no rule saying Belli has to shoot when he's not open.

 

[kingsboi]

There are two things going on with Belli. The first is that when you run a player off of screens, the opposition knows where the ball is going and they hustle to keep up. Most of the time when Belli gets the ball it's off of screens. Yes you could argue that the play sets could be better. But he's not being guarded tight in that situation because he's necessarily feared like Steph Curry. The play is being telegraphed. Mclemore has the same problem when they run him off screens. The difference is that Mclemore is poor at coming off those screens so he never gets ths ball and we don't notice.

The other issue with Belli is he's not a great threat to beat you off the dribble ( that's why we run so many screens for him). Rondo, Casspi and DC will go buy you if you play them tight. Ben will go by you if you run at him. That extra dimension makes it more difficult to play those guys so tight.

But again, there is no rule saying Belli has to shoot when he's not open.

What I see is the Kings trying way too hard to set all these screens for Marco and the opponent is just waiting there for them without any other players moving around or cutting to the basket. This is predictable and when Marco does get the ball he must feel inclined on shooting the ball because that's what he's out there to do. He's a smart enough player to know a good and a bad shot, so I would hope. However, I'm just not seeing the shot selection and part of it is on Karl's ways to get him the ball and the other part is Marco just chucking up some ill advised shots, albeit he is not the only one. Stop trying to force feed Marco the ball and instead just continue to move the ball side to side and then inside out and take what is available.

 

[pshn80]

I wouldn't go as far as saying that. I'd say that teams are doing a fairly good job of taking away Marco's open shots but Marco's been doing a good job of spazzing out whenever he feels even remote pressure and immediately does his best Reggie Miller buzzerbeater impression and jacks up a fall-away leg-kick jumper regardless of the situation.

Yes and I think he is exactly what we need. He scores in surprising moments, he keeps an opponent on him all the time getting teammates more open shots. Good man shooting percentage and all.

 

[Im Still Ballin]

There are two things going on with Belli. The first is that when you run a player off of screens, the opposition knows where the ball is going and they hustle to keep up. Most of the time when Belli gets the ball it's off of screens. Yes you could argue that the play sets could be better. But he's not being guarded tight in that situation because he's necessarily feared like Steph Curry. The play is being telegraphed. Mclemore has the same problem when they run him off screens. The difference is that Mclemore is poor at coming off those screens so he never gets ths ball and we don't notice.

The other issue with Belli is he's not a great threat to beat you off the dribble ( that's why we run so many screens for him). Rondo, Casspi and DC will go buy you if you play them tight. Ben will go by you if you run at him. That extra dimension makes it more difficult to play those guys so tight.

But again, there is no rule saying Belli has to shoot when he's not open.

I just think they need to be more creative with the Belli pindown plays and use it as a fake action play/get the other side of the court doing something too

 

[pshn80]

Then Belli should take less contested shots and wait for those wide open set shots. If he's not doing that, it's on him. Collison, Casspi, Rondo and Ben are waiting until they're open to shoot.

And they are getting more open shots because Marco moves without the ball and takes a defender wherever he goes. He is a great asset to the rest f the team and their shot opportunities.

 

[Blob]

I am SO over Bellinelli.
I really wouldn't mind if he was benched full-time until he starts playing significantly better.
His (lack of) defense alone has been costing the Kings 8 to 10 points minimum per game, and his dumb-ass turnovers and horrible shooting % is costing them 8 to 10 points on offense every game.

McLemore is a fine replacement lately. He deserves more minutes than he's been getting, and Marco's getting worse by the game.

Spot on. Marco tried to make a jump swing pass last night that was mind boggling. It was a desperate and listless play and a dunk for them. He was double teaming a guy who they had trapped in corner. Then he stepped out of his way instead of sealing so he stepped through and made a shot. The Raptors threw the ball right to him in one possession but he was so unprepared to catch it the ball bounced off him and turned in 3 points for them.

At the start of the season Karl implied Ben would be losing minutes to Marco. Not only should the opposite occur Marco doesn't look worthy of being in the rotation. He has no foot speed and passes up shots and can't create a shot. If the system needs to adjust to him (more than it already does) for him to be effective then he's not that good of a player. If he doesn't turn it around we should give his minutes to Curry and either way Vlade should look to trade him before his value is nil.

 

[Livinthedream]

And they are getting more open shots because Marco moves without the ball and takes a defender wherever he goes. He is a great asset to the rest f the team and their shot opportunities.

Marco is very active and moves well without the ball. There is no doubt about that. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about Marco. I'm stating what I see. There is no player on our team that does everything well. I could pick apart every player for his shortcomings. SG is the hot topic these days though.

 

[pshn80]

Month of december (8 games)

McLemore: 9.4 PTS 59.2 FG% 44.4 3P% 24.9 MIN
Belinelli: 7.8 PTS 38.1 FG% 25.0 3P% 22.3 MIN

That's an example of stats not telling the whole story. Marco s the greater contributor right now. For the mment the present split of minutes between the two is best for the team.