Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Are we having fun yet? We remain tied with the 89-90 and 90-91 Kings squads for the worst 30 game start in franchise history (7-23). The 89-90 team however won its 31st game to go 8-23, which is lets say just not happening for us with Boston coming into town. So it looks like the all time suckoff race is between this crew and the 90-91 bunch -- you remember that team. That was the year we traded everything that wasn't nailed down except Tizzy and Carr so we could get 4 #1 picks, and wasted them on Lionel Simmons, Anthony Bonner, Duane Causewell and Travis Mays. We started Rory Sparrow at PG. Had a three headed monster at center of Bill Wennington, Causewell, and Eric Leckner. Went 1-40 on the road that year. And this squad is challenging their futility mark (the 90-91 team won their 8th game in their 33rd game to go 8-25, this team has a chance to do it in its 32nd game against the Clippers to finish the year at a lovely 8-24).
And for a pickmeup the #1 pick in the IPod Tropical Island Draft this summer:
[yt=Don't Worry Be Happy - Bobby McFerrin]yjnvSQuv-H4[/yt]
Cisco ( C- ) -- hit a pair of first quarter threes on his way to a solid if not spectacular first half and then...just disappeared. Really disappeard. Think he had 7 pts after 1 quarter, 9 at half, 9 to end the game. Nor did he do anything else to make up for it. Bobby Jackson was stealing his minutes by the end as a 6'1" OG. I'm really not sure what happened either. Just a power outage and rarely involved.
Hawes ( C- ) -- still slumping, and how. Unable to get anything going from anywhere in the early going on his way to a miserable 1-8 shooting first half. But did at least provide some solid post defense on Bosh, keeping his feet moving and using his length to force tough shots and passes. Started off the third quarter in unfortunate fashion, knocking down a three courtesy of a Cisco assist. Would come into play late in the game, when after returning to his struggling ways, he suddenly decided to chuck up a crunchtime bricked three to help finish us off. Just not smart. The defense on Bosh was good and made a contribution to Bosh's crappy night (as well as Spencer's grade), and the rebounding numbers look good...until you realize how many of them were offensive boards off of various bricks. But he's still nto going good at all and is way out of rhythm out there. Anybody actually go to these games anymore? How does he look in warmups?
Miller ( B ) -- a little early scrap and boardwork, provided some resistance on defense, but Jermaine was still scoring over and through him with consistency. Did the Brad counter however, scoring back with a variety of jumpers and lumbers through the paint. But Brad quit scoring while Jermaine did not in the third and what had been a fairly close statistical battle (emphasis on fairly) became a oen sided affair. Came back with some good offensive play down the stretch, not that he ever gained any control of the O'Neal express this time out. One of his better offensive outings in some time,but a defensive lashing, so...B I guess.
Salmons ( C+ ) -- solid start and had his first half numbers again, albeit maybe more through exertion than brilliance. The hits all looked good, but there were a lot of clanks in between them. Continued on in similar fashion through a relatively quiet third quarter before emerging in unfortunate fashion down the stretch. Forced junk again and again when he tried, and failed, to hero it, including a 1 on 3 forced brick, a missed three, and a 1 on 4 bad pass turnover. Padded his stats with the meaningless junk layup at the buzzer coutesy of Natt apparently drawing up a play for him (our dear coach appears to have made the dubious decision to hitch his wagon to John Salmons' rear end -- was bad enough when Reggie first kissed Ron's butt then blew smoke up Kevin's. But Natt is now playing that game with John Salmons?).
Udrih ( C+ ) -- did little enough out there, but did not hurt us, and given recent history maybe that was enough. Hit a three, which is somehting else that has been missing form the game, and every onc ein awhile would jsut randomly ocme up with a nice move. Was solid with the ball, avoiding the turnover problems again, but especially when we walked it up was not terribly creative, and so may have been saved from bad decisionmaking just by Natt taking the power to make those decisions away from him. Feels a bit like after the struggles and the heat, we are starting over from scratch with Beno. Keep it simple. First do no harm. then maybe later we'll get bakc to letting him actually try to run the team.
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Bjax ( A- ) -- hit a tough three to get us back within 4 to close the first quarter and continued the hot shooting into the early 2nd as he pretty much singlehandedly brought us back into the lead. Was effective again in the second half, when he actually ended up stealing many of Cisco's late minutes as the mini-OG again (the Raptors have noboidy to really hurt you for some a gambit). Provided some tough little man boardwork in the 4th quarter, and that three point shot has been just dramatrically different ever since whichever of the coaches it was told him to give the old legs some rest rather than shoot before every game. Would have been interesting to see if he could have hit one more big shot at the end of the game to maybe save us, but we were too busy placating Salmons' ego to actually try to ride the hot hand. This likely would have been a straight A with more late game contributions, or if we had won. About as good as you are going to get out of what's left of Bobby Jackson at this point.
Moore ( C ) -- after he continued his newfound defensive rebouding ways in his first half stint I was pondering a new nickname for him, maybe "Mr. Glass" or "Mr. Clean" or some such since he is clearly Dwight Howard's long lost twin brother. But fortunately he came back in the third quarter to restore my ill opinion of him. Got the long third quarter minutes, because Kenny Natt is my hero, and got lit up by both Jeramine and Bargnani. Also quit boarding, and it goes without saying that he was bumped up in the rotation ahead of JT again. In fact I was mildy surprised when Natt finally went back to Hawes at PF for the stretch run. When you are building your loss around 33yr old Brad Miller, 29yr old John Salmons and 35 yr old Bobby Jackson, seems only fair that you let Mikki have his moment in the sun too.
Thompson ( C- ) -- in the first half was again displaying his inexperience on defense, and against the unitimidating likes of Andrea Bargnani this time to boot. Also continued the Spence/JT post schooling by trying to go in there against Jermaine O'Neal, and failing of course, along with the awkward turnovers. Seems to be regressing. Played better in the third, once he finally got in there because Natt had no choice wiht Brad in foul trouble. Never did get the boardwork going, but was more effectively aggressive on offense.
Brown ( B ) -- played the first half a little faster than he had to, but I thought legitimately looked like a PG out there (one selfish drive for a turnover aside). Contributed a couple of nice assists, but it was more in the way he was moving and keeping his head up. Less one on one playground crap. Kept up the nice passing in the third, and added a three pointer for good measure. Even looked the part on defense....with emphasis on looked the part. Got down in a defensive stance, but was only of limited effectiveness and still goes splat on screens up top far too often. Nonetheless while this was far from perfect, I thought maybe was better than the numbers hshowed just because he seemed to be trying to approach it right.
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Greene ( DNP ) -- hang in there kid. Maybe get yourself some Just for Old Men and rub some grey into your hair.
Candace ( A ) -- looking very nice indeed for the holidays sitting courtside. I am just embarrassed at what she has to watch, and that as we stink it up hubby can't touch the floor because he's not old enough to have shaken Ike's hand.
Natt ( ) -- not a full grade, just a note: Theus (6-18 .250); Natt (1-5 .167).
Minutes
Hawes -- Season: 29.0min; Natt: 27.0min
Thompson -- Season: 24.0min; Natt: 21.7min
Greene -- Season: 14.0min; Natt: 9.4min + 1 DNP
Brown -- Season: 15.4min; Natt: 15.8min
Natt = just not doing the things we need done (aside from setting us up for a nice pick of course).
And for a pickmeup the #1 pick in the IPod Tropical Island Draft this summer:
[yt=Don't Worry Be Happy - Bobby McFerrin]yjnvSQuv-H4[/yt]
Cisco ( C- ) -- hit a pair of first quarter threes on his way to a solid if not spectacular first half and then...just disappeared. Really disappeard. Think he had 7 pts after 1 quarter, 9 at half, 9 to end the game. Nor did he do anything else to make up for it. Bobby Jackson was stealing his minutes by the end as a 6'1" OG. I'm really not sure what happened either. Just a power outage and rarely involved.
Hawes ( C- ) -- still slumping, and how. Unable to get anything going from anywhere in the early going on his way to a miserable 1-8 shooting first half. But did at least provide some solid post defense on Bosh, keeping his feet moving and using his length to force tough shots and passes. Started off the third quarter in unfortunate fashion, knocking down a three courtesy of a Cisco assist. Would come into play late in the game, when after returning to his struggling ways, he suddenly decided to chuck up a crunchtime bricked three to help finish us off. Just not smart. The defense on Bosh was good and made a contribution to Bosh's crappy night (as well as Spencer's grade), and the rebounding numbers look good...until you realize how many of them were offensive boards off of various bricks. But he's still nto going good at all and is way out of rhythm out there. Anybody actually go to these games anymore? How does he look in warmups?
Miller ( B ) -- a little early scrap and boardwork, provided some resistance on defense, but Jermaine was still scoring over and through him with consistency. Did the Brad counter however, scoring back with a variety of jumpers and lumbers through the paint. But Brad quit scoring while Jermaine did not in the third and what had been a fairly close statistical battle (emphasis on fairly) became a oen sided affair. Came back with some good offensive play down the stretch, not that he ever gained any control of the O'Neal express this time out. One of his better offensive outings in some time,but a defensive lashing, so...B I guess.
Salmons ( C+ ) -- solid start and had his first half numbers again, albeit maybe more through exertion than brilliance. The hits all looked good, but there were a lot of clanks in between them. Continued on in similar fashion through a relatively quiet third quarter before emerging in unfortunate fashion down the stretch. Forced junk again and again when he tried, and failed, to hero it, including a 1 on 3 forced brick, a missed three, and a 1 on 4 bad pass turnover. Padded his stats with the meaningless junk layup at the buzzer coutesy of Natt apparently drawing up a play for him (our dear coach appears to have made the dubious decision to hitch his wagon to John Salmons' rear end -- was bad enough when Reggie first kissed Ron's butt then blew smoke up Kevin's. But Natt is now playing that game with John Salmons?).
Udrih ( C+ ) -- did little enough out there, but did not hurt us, and given recent history maybe that was enough. Hit a three, which is somehting else that has been missing form the game, and every onc ein awhile would jsut randomly ocme up with a nice move. Was solid with the ball, avoiding the turnover problems again, but especially when we walked it up was not terribly creative, and so may have been saved from bad decisionmaking just by Natt taking the power to make those decisions away from him. Feels a bit like after the struggles and the heat, we are starting over from scratch with Beno. Keep it simple. First do no harm. then maybe later we'll get bakc to letting him actually try to run the team.
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Bjax ( A- ) -- hit a tough three to get us back within 4 to close the first quarter and continued the hot shooting into the early 2nd as he pretty much singlehandedly brought us back into the lead. Was effective again in the second half, when he actually ended up stealing many of Cisco's late minutes as the mini-OG again (the Raptors have noboidy to really hurt you for some a gambit). Provided some tough little man boardwork in the 4th quarter, and that three point shot has been just dramatrically different ever since whichever of the coaches it was told him to give the old legs some rest rather than shoot before every game. Would have been interesting to see if he could have hit one more big shot at the end of the game to maybe save us, but we were too busy placating Salmons' ego to actually try to ride the hot hand. This likely would have been a straight A with more late game contributions, or if we had won. About as good as you are going to get out of what's left of Bobby Jackson at this point.
Moore ( C ) -- after he continued his newfound defensive rebouding ways in his first half stint I was pondering a new nickname for him, maybe "Mr. Glass" or "Mr. Clean" or some such since he is clearly Dwight Howard's long lost twin brother. But fortunately he came back in the third quarter to restore my ill opinion of him. Got the long third quarter minutes, because Kenny Natt is my hero, and got lit up by both Jeramine and Bargnani. Also quit boarding, and it goes without saying that he was bumped up in the rotation ahead of JT again. In fact I was mildy surprised when Natt finally went back to Hawes at PF for the stretch run. When you are building your loss around 33yr old Brad Miller, 29yr old John Salmons and 35 yr old Bobby Jackson, seems only fair that you let Mikki have his moment in the sun too.
Thompson ( C- ) -- in the first half was again displaying his inexperience on defense, and against the unitimidating likes of Andrea Bargnani this time to boot. Also continued the Spence/JT post schooling by trying to go in there against Jermaine O'Neal, and failing of course, along with the awkward turnovers. Seems to be regressing. Played better in the third, once he finally got in there because Natt had no choice wiht Brad in foul trouble. Never did get the boardwork going, but was more effectively aggressive on offense.
Brown ( B ) -- played the first half a little faster than he had to, but I thought legitimately looked like a PG out there (one selfish drive for a turnover aside). Contributed a couple of nice assists, but it was more in the way he was moving and keeping his head up. Less one on one playground crap. Kept up the nice passing in the third, and added a three pointer for good measure. Even looked the part on defense....with emphasis on looked the part. Got down in a defensive stance, but was only of limited effectiveness and still goes splat on screens up top far too often. Nonetheless while this was far from perfect, I thought maybe was better than the numbers hshowed just because he seemed to be trying to approach it right.
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Greene ( DNP ) -- hang in there kid. Maybe get yourself some Just for Old Men and rub some grey into your hair.
Candace ( A ) -- looking very nice indeed for the holidays sitting courtside. I am just embarrassed at what she has to watch, and that as we stink it up hubby can't touch the floor because he's not old enough to have shaken Ike's hand.
Natt ( ) -- not a full grade, just a note: Theus (6-18 .250); Natt (1-5 .167).
Minutes
Hawes -- Season: 29.0min; Natt: 27.0min
Thompson -- Season: 24.0min; Natt: 21.7min
Greene -- Season: 14.0min; Natt: 9.4min + 1 DNP
Brown -- Season: 15.4min; Natt: 15.8min
Natt = just not doing the things we need done (aside from setting us up for a nice pick of course).
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I'll blame this one on Natt as it only seems fair.
