[Grades] Grades v. Rockets 04/08/12

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Sorry, took a call from my brother at halftime and missed most of the second half. Just got done watching it now.

So, anyway...le suckoid. Bad enough it demands more Girls, although I will say if we string together a third blowout I will, in respect of the women of the board, have to go to a different theme. Anyway, while the backups made several run type things to get the lead down to 10 or so, they never threatened to take the lead themselves, and you could almost argue that the last 18 minutes of this one after we gave up on Reke/Cousins/JT etc. were essentially garbage time. Possible guys are going on summer vacation early?

Other questions: Why is Isaiah Thomas playing 44 minutes in this one? The ROY nonsense? He was 2-11 until late too, so not as if he was hot. Is there anyone Jimmer can guard? Has Boogie's mo been permanetly broken by that first Clipper debacle? Is this Whiteside's breakout game? What did Donte do this time to lsoe minnutes? Has Reke quit, or is this just an example of how impotent you can make him if you take the ball out of his hands? TWill gets 9 assists last game...0 this. 5 TOs both. Note something -- with IT Reke's assists/playmaking shoot down. Tonight TWill played the whole game with IT, and similar effect. Lots of questions in a mess like this. Always more than there are answers.

Boxscore

Evans ( F ) -- found himself bounced back up to SF...so we could start the worst defensive backcourt in NBA history. Jimmer and IT, together at last. Woot! (more seriously, well it IS the worst starting defensive backcourt in NBA history and showed it, but I am sure that the move was made because with Thornton/Salmons and Cisco out, Jimmer was basically the very last of our shooters and Smart is likely convinced you need 1 of those next to IT and Reke (also why he won't play IT/Reke/TWill)). In any case, completely frozen out in the early going as we ran out all three of our PGs together, and the most talented of the bunch, and the one who is the worst shooter, was the one who had to play off the ball. Makes sense to me. Had a little push late in the quarter when he started getting out on the break, which is about the only place he gets opportunities anymore. Bricked a pair of FTs early and was having some ballhandling misadentures and was barely avoiding TOs. And then...nothing. Returned, continued to be compeltely uninvolved in the offense, and aside from one nice cut where Cuz hit him for the layup, was never heard from again. After a quiet start to the 3rd where he missed a jumper, was subbed out 4 minutes into the quarter and never returned. Have to hope this was toe related (he injured it the other night), because if not this is one of those games that just carries the mark of doom on it. If this organization loses Tyreke Evans, and if Tyreke Evans goes elsewhere and blows up, I'm not going to stand behind the idiots in charge on that one as they mess up our future again, and the stage is being set for just that scenario.
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Roxanne Pallett

Thompson ( C ) -- couple of good offensive boards early, one of which he immediately kicked to Jimmer for a jumper, but never really led to anything, and not able to stop Scola anymore than he was Blake the other night. Pulled in this one eventually not for anything he was doing so much as for just having a lack of impact. Makes grading it hard actually. Did nothing wrong but not much right.
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Kate Bosworth

Cousins ( D ) -- sloppy early -- always a warning sign of fatigue. But worked his way into a good first quarter. Was using the attention he drew to set up several Kings for baskets late in the half. But same team he pummeled for 38 a couple of weeks ago, had them on our home floor, and he just never at any point had that eye of the tiger about him. Didn't feel focused, nor did the team, maybe still with a Clippers hangover. And never at any point felt like he was out ther to kick butt and take names and drop another 30 on them. In fact much more back to the normal way his games on the second night of a back to back have gone -- especially after he played over 40 min agains the Clips. There was some activity and an attempt to get him gong in the third, but after hitting an opening jumper, it all just got ugly. The stitch that has been lurking around his FT stroke for weeks suddenly popped up aggressively, as he missed 5 of 6 in the first 6 minutes of the quarter. He missed a dunk. The lead swelled to over 20, and we just pulled him in favor of Whiteside and that was his night.
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Melanie Iglesias

Fredette ( B- ) -- got the start, and it was just carnage in the early going as our little guards got LIT UP by the Rockets backcourt. Courtney Lee, who came into the game averaging 14ppg as a starter in place of KMart, had those points by the end of Jimmer's first stint with 2 minutes still to go in the first quarter. Jimmer wasn't entirely impotent back the other way, scoring 5pts of his own including a three on a kick from Reke. But he was red meat to the Rockets on defense. When he returned was on Dragic instead, who just ran circles around him. Began the second half quiet as well until all the senior personnel were cleared out to the bench. Then stepped forward and worked with IT for the rest of the game, eventually racking up good offensive numbers, and hit several big momentum shots that did not matter in the least in this lost cause, but might have turned a more competitive game. Given the way Jimmer's rookie season has gone a solid looking 17pt 4ast start for him just has to clock in as a pretty good grade, but realistically the defensive issues and fact he only had 5 of those points at the point we waved the white flag make the B a bit deceptive. He was not better than our other starters. He just played on into the garbage/backup minutes and did well then.
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Skyler Samuels -- this is absolutely as young as I will go on these things, as she is just 18 (I actually held off putting on one of these lists until she was of age (well of age in U.S.), but she's obviously growing into a beautiful young woman.
 
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Thomas ( C ) -- got off to a bit of a ragged start not hitting and defensively ineffective. Tried to get cute early against Camby and got swatted. But began to get solid PG draw and kicks going as the half wore on. Got his only basket of the half on a tough runner to close the 2nd quarter. Interesting and kinda mysterious turnaround vs. Dragic this time. Two weeks ago IT almost chased Dragic, or at least made Houston uncomfotable using him because of the quickness gap. This time out, not only was IT ineffective offensively (2-11 until the final few minutes of grabagetime when he padded things up with a pair of threes), but Dragic himself was just able to go where he wanted and pass over him. Maybve part of that was the strange way we just rode IT right into the ground tonight. He played 44 minutes in a game that was barely competitive at half, and probably over by the mid third. Nor was he playing well himself. Am guessing that wa personnel driven, although why you couldn't jsut turn it over to TWill and Jimmer, play Donte more than 5 min etc. I do not know.
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Izabella Scorupco

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Bench

Williams ( B+ ) -- well, big game for Terrence as he was basically just given the run of the place after we shut down our main guys early in the third. Didn't actually play a terribly strong first half while the game was on. Was initially unable to slow Lee after entering. Missed a pair of Fts in the early 2nd. Some aggressive takes, but was missing his finishes. And passing game not in evidence one night after notching 9 assists. The turnovers were back again however as whenever he did try to make a pass, it ended up in the wrong hands. On the other hand had a nice save of a rebound running to the sideline and throwing in back in behind his head, and hit what seemed like it might be an important three from Cousins in the late 2nd. After things got out of control was really our main guy out there, and aquitted himself well with athletic finishes and rebounds. Never did get truly efficient however, missed a bunch of FTs, and kept on racking up TOs, several at unfortunate times if we really had any plans to make an eventual game of it. 21pts 8rebs is still a nice strong game from a waiver wire pickup, but not an efficient game.
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Gianna Jun

Greene ( INC ) -- scored quickly on a little baseline jumper, and then hit some FTs. Apparently that was too much concentraed competence for Smart, or possibly it was just then that he found the pictures of his wife and Donte on his cellphone. In any case, guy comes in, racks up 6pts and 2rebs in 5 min, and is promptly banished to the bench for the rest of a game that was a blowout. If you're Donte, why would you want to come back to this?
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Rihanna -- sure she's a mess who seems poised at any second to fall off the Whitney cliff. She's still damn fine.

Hayes ( C ) -- some pretty good defense in the second quarter, but unfortunately for him and us was essentially matched up on the ngith 1 on 1 with the man who he swaped places with -- Smauel Dalmebert. Adn the comparison did him no favors. Half the size, and so we got half the production out of him (3pts and 5rebs in 25min to Daly's 8pts 10rebs in 27min), and yes the lack of heigth absolutely was a problem as guys were playing over him. Came up with a saavy play in the early 4th that again could have been a momentum changer in a more competiive game. We were down 14, Houston was on the break looking to really put us in a hole, and Chuck jumped a pass and we wnet down the other way and cut the lead to 11 as Chuck found Isaiah in the corner for his first hoop of the second half. Still would have liked to have made a quick sneaky uniform swap just as Daly was getting ready to board the Rockets' bus. I think everyone would be happier.
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Katherine McPhee
 
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Outlaw ( INC ) -- somehow not able to handle Parsons' saavy in the 2nd quarter. Should be glad he's down near my mercy INC level for grades
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Selena Gomez

Whiteside ( A- ) -- here was a real brightside to this thing: by FAR Hassan's most impressive, and professional, outing as a pro. One of his disturbing traits as a pro has been how inconsistently he reacts to the ball coming off the glass for rebounds. But in this one he was using that great length and coming out and packs of Rockets with the ball. He got hsi hands on quite a few balls on defense, and on his best sequence in the early 4th, got a nice offensive board and hook to finish, and then went down the other way and got the block.
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Lucia Dvorska who is rumored to have had battles with eating disorders, and shows you how bizarre a phenomenon those disorders are, since she would probably still be gorgeous as a BBW

Honeycutt ( INC ) -- in a game where we were missign 3 SG/SFs, and which was over by the mid 3rd, he could only get 1:00 of garbagetime while our starting PG got 44. Best argument against us tanking/using this one for development -- I think Smart thoguht the backups were actually going to win this one or some such. Or just the normal riding every single hot hand thing he does along wihthis positional confusion. In any case, Jimmer/Williams/Honeycutt just made too much sense to try.
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Krystal Vee
 
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...if we string together a third blowout I will, in respect fo the women of the board, have to go to a different theme.

If you dare post that picture of shirtless Peja again, I'm going to do something drastic. I swear.
 
these lineups are killing me. Ineffective tyreke/weird rotations dont bode well for us. were ment to be building a strong base here
 
we dont have no new ROY. If you refering to IT then whilst im a fan of his game our inclinations towards small ball are not helping
 
Other questions: Why is Isaiah Thomas playing 44 minutes in this one? the ROY nonsense? He was 2-11 until late too, so not as if he was hot. Is there anyone Jimmer can guard? Has Boogie's mo been permanetly broken by that first Clipper debacle? Is this Whiteside's breakout game? What did Donte do this time? Has Reke quit, or is this just an example of how impotent you can make him if you take the ball out of his hands? TWill gets 9 assists last game...0 this. 5 TOs both. Note something -- with IT Reke's assists/playmaking shoot down. Tonight TWill played the whole game with IT, and similar effect. Lots of questions in a mess like this. Always more than there are answers.


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I was hoping Honeycutt got in about 5 mins sooner for IT. Think Smart was just trying to see how far that line up would go. We were elimated from the playoffs last night.

Cuz was just flat out tired, no legs. Whiteside had a nice run, still needs lots of work. Donte was a spark when he first came in. Evans did have the ball, he missed layups as normal, but I think he was more limited by his toe.
 
I was hoping Honeycutt got in about 5 mins sooner for IT.

I didn't get to see the game. Obviously, I didn't miss much. But when I looked at the Box, there were 2 things that I looked for. I looked at Reke's stats (Because I read the game forum) and secondly, I looked at Honeycutt. I was very, very disappointed that Honeycutt didn't see more action tonight. No Salmons, Cisco OR Thornton and he still can't get minutes? Absolutely ridiculous.
 
I didn't get to see the game. Obviously, I didn't miss much. But when I looked at the Box, there were 2 things that I looked for. I looked at Reke's stats (Because I read the game forum) and secondly, I looked at Honeycutt. I was very, very disappointed that Honeycutt didn't see more action tonight. No Salmons, Cisco OR Thornton and he still can't get minutes? Absolutely ridiculous.


Why use a small forward when you can trot out a Jimmer/IT backcourt and move your SGs to SF instead?
 
At the beginning of the game when Grant was interviewing Outlaw, I think Outlaw said Smart doesnt have set rotations.
 
At the beginning of the game when Grant was interviewing Outlaw, I think Outlaw said Smart doesnt have set rotations.

Nothing ground breaking there. This has been evident from the start. This team is in desperate need of structure and veteran coach who knows how to run and develop a young team.

Smart does not meet a single requirement of what this team needs. But hey, he is cheap so he will do! Sacramento Kings, where legend of Donald Sterling lives on in body of the Maloofs.
 
Nothing ground breaking there. This has been evident from the start. This team is in desperate need of structure and veteran coach who knows how to run and develop a young team.

Smart does not meet a single requirement of what this team needs. But hey, he is cheap so he will do! Sacramento Kings, where legend of Donald Sterling lives on in body of the Maloofs.

agree with this, especially the last part
 
To me it's pretty clear we're in full tank mode and with a lot of teams battling for some of the worst records in the league I'm okay with it. It gives us a better chance at Anthony Davis. We are really beat up right now with injuries so that's an easy excuse for why we are playing poorly down the stretch. So continue to tank, draft Anthony Davis, replace the scrub vets that we have now in the offseason with decent ones and we're a 45-50 win team next year. Easy game!
 
To me it's pretty clear we're in full tank mode and with a lot of teams battling for some of the worst records in the league I'm okay with it. It gives us a better chance at Anthony Davis. We are really beat up right now with injuries so that's an easy excuse for why we are playing poorly down the stretch. So continue to tank, draft Anthony Davis, replace the scrub vets that we have now in the offseason with decent ones and we're a 45-50 win team next year. Easy game!

And yet we can't guarantee any of that is going to happen. We can't even guarantee that we will resign our own free agents that we need but its more important to figure on winning the draft then to fit the pieces we already have into a cohesive unit. Last off season we were also in this exact, or even better, situation and couldn't miss, yet here we are.....

Its ok 5% chance the draft saves us right? :)

sarcasm directed at the team not you of course.
 
This orginazation needs to show me some real effort. They're just dangling in the wind. We're going to lose our top talents if this keeps up. This is what I don't understand about the Maloofs. We all know they're money situation is tight. We know the team is in rebuild mode with lots of young talented players. So obviously we don't need to spend on players while these guys are developing. But by not hiring a legit coach we are not developing these guys. How they don't see what an investment in a good coach can do for not only our players but them is beyond me. A great coach would easily make this team a .500 team and that would fill the stadium and it would put money in their pockets.

/end rant.
 
Playing back to back games late in the season, after being mentally beat up by close losses is hard on people. Three guys are out. No legs is exactly right. When players are consistently short on their shots that is a clue. Hands on hips, leaning over, etc.

The Kings will always have trouble with decent teams that are better rested.
 
This orginazation needs to show me some real effort. They're just dangling in the wind. We're going to lose our top talents if this keeps up. This is what I don't understand about the Maloofs. We all know they're money situation is tight. We know the team is in rebuild mode with lots of young talented players. So obviously we don't need to spend on players while these guys are developing. But by not hiring a legit coach we are not developing these guys. How they don't see what an investment in a good coach can do for not only our players but them is beyond me. A great coach would easily make this team a .500 team and that would fill the stadium and it would put money in their pockets.

/end rant.

+1. GP is trash too, just like the mess of a roster he built. We're going to suck until we have new ownership and a new GM. Farm team.
 
And yet we can't guarantee any of that is going to happen. We can't even guarantee that we will resign our own free agents that we need but its more important to figure on winning the draft then to fit the pieces we already have into a cohesive unit. Last off season we were also in this exact, or even better, situation and couldn't miss, yet here we are.....

Its ok 5% chance the draft saves us right? :)

sarcasm directed at the team not you of course.

you never know. Right now we have 10.3 % chance of winning the lottery thats why we need to stay tanking.
 
Nothing ground breaking there. This has been evident from the start. This team is in desperate need of structure and veteran coach who knows how to run and develop a young team.

Smart does not meet a single requirement of what this team needs. But hey, he is cheap so he will do! Sacramento Kings, where legend of Donald Sterling lives on in body of the Maloofs.
Before worrying about Smart get some players. No rotation because he doesn't have players to work with or he has unqualified players to work with. No one has a rotation. If a handful of our best had a rotation to offer each would be different. There is no common intelligence amongst us.
 
I would have probably given a lower grade to IT. He hit some 3s, but thought he played very selfishly. Lot of times, he didn't move the ball at all, but tried to overpenetrate, to put up some contested shot.

And we really need to resolve the Reke situation. Moving him to 3 was bad enough, but the team seems to have frozen him out too. There are long periods where he doesn't even get to touch the ball. And he's the guy who should have the ball most in his hands.

I wouldn't be surprised if he asks for a trade soon. So far, he's been handling himself very professionally. But he's one of our two best players, and we're treating him like a scrub.
 
I would have probably given a lower grade to IT. He hit some 3s, but thought he played very selfishly. Lot of times, he didn't move the ball at all, but tried to overpenetrate, to put up some contested shot.

And we really need to resolve the Reke situation. Moving him to 3 was bad enough, but the team seems to have frozen him out too. There are long periods where he doesn't even get to touch the ball. And he's the guy who should have the ball most in his hands.

I wouldn't be surprised if he asks for a trade soon. So far, he's been handling himself very professionally. But he's one of our two best players, and we're treating him like a scrub.
I can understand if the Maloofs cannot see and realize what is going wrong with this team. Owners really seem not to understand much about basketball and this is one reason why owners hire a GM.

I wonder what Petrie thinks about this serious problem which is about to explode anytime in the near future. It seems like he does not care much about the players anymore.
 
I can understand if the Maloofs cannot see and realize what is going wrong with this team. Owners really seem not to understand much about basketball and this is one reason why owners hire a GM.

I wonder what Petrie thinks about this serious problem which is about to explode anytime in the near future. It seems like he does not care much about the players anymore.

What is pretty damn annoying is Petrie's silence. Have not heard a single comment or interview with him regarding the failure of last off season. He came into training camp almost giddy about having Salmons and signing Hayes, but now that it's clear keeping Westy around was a huge mistake, combined with the travesty of last summer, why is this guy do damn quite? I read other gm's involved in interviews all the time. Where the hell is ours?

You make mistakes, you completely change the direction of the team, and yet you don't come out and face the music? Combined with reports that Petrie doesn't even work as hard as most gm's, it's no wonder this is such a mess. He's far too comfortable at the wheel.

Yes the Maloofs and their cheapness is a part of the problem, but that doesn't excuse the cheap moves Petrie has made and in fact makes them look worse. If you have broke owners, then offering Hayes 22M is horrible. If you have broke owners, adding Salmons contract is horrible. If you have broke owners, picking up Outlaw and his 12M, 4yr contract is horrible. The poorer you are, the more careful you usually are with your money. Not the case here.

I'd also like to know his role in Smart's extension. Was it completely forced by the Maloofs and he was against it, and made that clear, or did he actually think extending Smart about 2-3 weeks into his tenure was smart? His comments about after the extension, regarding loving the direction Smart is taking this team just adds fuel to the fire.

But at the least, come out an face and fire as just about every other gm does.
 
1. This team was flat out tired from tip off. I don’t know if it has anything to do with the charge of energy that was built up (against the Clips). But there was no energy within the building last night.

2. The game was just selfish one-on-one play from the very beginning. There was one point in the game where they passed a few times. But the game wasn’t entertaining, fun and there really wasn’t any type of teamwork.

3. Flat out selfish

4. Something I’ve noticed during the course of where I.T controls the ball, Tyreke is basically non-existent. He’s not really moving, he’s not really aggressive. This concerns me. You see Tyreke’s game change when I.T is on the bench. He’s more dominate, more himself. I like that Tyreke, yeah, he needs to be a better passer on certain occasions (ex: 2/3 on 1 fast breaks) but he’s not as bad as some people here make him out to be. We need Tyreke, and having I.T in the starting line-up (I feel) is going to hurt (and is hurting) our team.

5. By the beginning of next year I want a set rotation. I am so tired of changing line-ups every other game. I.T, Jimmer and Tyreke isn’t going to work. Find a rhythm with our players and we need to stick with it.

6. And we really need to work on our rotations. I don’t like when our starters play for the 1st and half of the second quarter before being subbed out. I just don’t understand why we have a problem with this.

7. Jimmer, I like this kid. He’s got a lot of work to do this off-season but I think he’s going to help our team in the long run.

8. I like this team, I really do – I guess I shouldn’t say this after a pure selfish game. We have pieces that could work well together, once they figure out what their goal is, we could do great things. But we need to figure some things out – Do we really want to take the ball out of Tyreke’s hands? Is I.T’s so called chase for the Rookie of the Year award that important than the focus of our future team’s growth? Is each member of the team going to go into this off-season and improve in things that they need to get better at? Whether that’s defense, offense, ball handling, etc…The Maloofs need to stop messing with what they’re hyped at for the moment and just let our front office do their thing.

9. Someone please tell me that someone in the league wants Travis Outlaw?

10. I know we have a few games left but I want to also add…I hope this summer we figure out that this team can be a playoff team next year. This is our goal! I truly believed that we had a shot at it this year but we got off the wrong foot (hopefully this is our last learning year). Our goal, our focus and the drive this summer should be Playoffs.
 
1. This team was flat out tired from tip off. I don’t know if it has anything to do with the charge of energy that was built up (against the Clips). But there was no energy within the building last night.

2. The game was just selfish one-on-one play from the very beginning. There was one point in the game where they passed a few times. But the game wasn’t entertaining, fun and there really wasn’t any type of teamwork.

3. Flat out selfish

4. Something I’ve noticed during the course of where I.T controls the ball, Tyreke is basically non-existent. He’s not really moving, he’s not really aggressive. This concerns me. You see Tyreke’s game change when I.T is on the bench. He’s more dominate, more himself. I like that Tyreke, yeah, he needs to be a better passer on certain occasions (ex: 2/3 on 1 fast breaks) but he’s not as bad as some people here make him out to be. We need Tyreke, and having I.T in the starting line-up (I feel) is going to hurt (and is hurting) our team.

5. By the beginning of next year I want a set rotation. I am so tired of changing line-ups every other game. I.T, Jimmer and Tyreke isn’t going to work. Find a rhythm with our players and we need to stick with it.

6. And we really need to work on our rotations. I don’t like when our starters play for the 1st and half of the second quarter before being subbed out. I just don’t understand why we have a problem with this.

7. Jimmer, I like this kid. He’s got a lot of work to do this off-season but I think he’s going to help our team in the long run.

8. I like this team, I really do – I guess I shouldn’t say this after a pure selfish game. We have pieces that could work well together, once they figure out what their goal is, we could do great things. But we need to figure some things out – Do we really want to take the ball out of Tyreke’s hands? Is I.T’s so called chase for the Rookie of the Year award that important than the focus of our future team’s growth? Is each member of the team going to go into this off-season and improve in things that they need to get better at? Whether that’s defense, offense, ball handling, etc…The Maloofs need to stop messing with what they’re hyped at for the moment and just let our front office do their thing.

9. Someone please tell me that someone in the league wants Travis Outlaw?

10. I know we have a few games left but I want to also add…I hope this summer we figure out that this team can be a playoff team next year. This is our goal! I truly believed that we had a shot at it this year but we got off the wrong foot (hopefully this is our last learning year). Our goal, our focus and the drive this summer should be Playoffs.

Good points and ones that, for the most part, I agree with. At times it gets frustrating because there are glimpses of good things out there on the court but they get lost in the mind-boggling confusion.
 
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