[Grades] Grades v. Rockets 1/22/2014

The aftermath to this one:

  • Disaster

    Votes: 6 12.8%
  • Tank! Tank! Tank!

    Votes: 6 12.8%
  • a chance for IT to show his quality

    Votes: 1 2.1%
  • a chance for Jimmer to show his quality

    Votes: 2 4.3%
  • a chance for Williams to show his quality

    Votes: 9 19.1%
  • a chance for Outlaw to show his quality

    Votes: 2 4.3%
  • just a bump in a long season

    Votes: 8 17.0%
  • there goes Boogie's All Star bid

    Votes: 5 10.6%
  • waaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

    Votes: 3 6.4%
  • meh

    Votes: 5 10.6%

  • Total voters
    47
  • Poll closed .

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
KF_GradingConsortium201314600x378_zps660e18ea.jpg


crying-baby.jpg


Mommy.

So hey? You didn't watch this one tonight? 1) Bad fan! Bad bad fan! Shame on you! 2) You saved yourself a lot of pain. Because pain was the theme of the night for the Kings. And again I suppose hey, we can hardly complain in a season when so many major players have been lost for big chunks of the season while we're been healthy. But really now. In the space of about 5 minutes we lost Rudy Gay...to an Achilles problem (you never like to hear that word unless you are discussing classical literature), and then DeMarcus to a pretty bad looking ankle sprain )x-rays were negative). Boom, not just two injuries, but two injuries consecutively to your two best players. So the rest was just academic. Mommy hold me.

Looking for a bright spot? Reports coming out indicate neither injury may be of the out for a month variety. Given our continuing brutal schedule that might still sink us for the next week or two, but maybe we dodged the bullet that's been taking down so many teams. And Derrick Williams stepped up and took advantage of the opportunity to remind everybody he still can play given the opportunities.

Oh, and in the 4th we got to see our scrubs out there who you thought should have been out there last night in New Orleans. Now getting a better look at where Landry is at physically, seeing McCallum try to run things etc., maybe you understand why we didn't go there in a game we were still trying to win.

This could be Girls of course. I like Girls. But those games have been starting to mount, so I thought I might bring back the non-Girl themes instead Of course now having gone down that path, and with our graders all turning in their grades super-quick so as not to have to deal with this game anymore, I need something just as quick for a theme. Here, perk up to some Fun 80's Tunes.

Your Consoritum Graders tonight:
Bricklayer
Uncia03
Henkel
Capt. Factorial
MassachusettsKingsFan


Boxscore

Stats: 6min 4pts (2-5, 0-0, 0-0) 0reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Gay ( INC ) -- Well this was certainly not the way that Rudy wanted to follow up matching his career high in a fabulous performance the previous night. Gay was playing pretty well and then had to leave the game with an Achilles injury which prevented him from returning. Hopefully he won’t be out too long. I will mention that he had a +3 in this game, so it shows that with the full starting compliment the Kings were beating the Rockets head-to-head. Once Rudy left things started to fall apart, and once Cousins left it was all over. --Uncia
Always thought the original German version was better than the English version

Stats: 22min 12pts (6-8, 0-0, 0-0) 8reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
Thompson ( B ) -- Had another solid game despite a tough match up that became hopeless as he was the lone legit big for most of the night. Looks more comfortable and composed then he did early in the season. Was active in the early going. Fighting for rebounds while managing to hold his ground in the low post against Howard early. Typical good offensive game from JT, just running the floor hard and hitting the offensive glass. After Cousins went out he was forced into a tough spot on the defensive end. Without Cousins wasn't getting much help with Howard and with all the dribble penetration was forced to help off Howard with predictable results. Despite all that just kept doing what he does. Had a couple of nice follow ups after the half along with a much better looking jumper. Even worked his way to the basket against Howard on a decent drive and followup. Did what he could but this one was long over by the end of the third. Was on the bench for all of the fourth. On a really bad and potentially disastrous night it was at least nice to see Jason looking like the solid role player that he's been for most of his career. --Henkel

Stats: 9min 2pts (1-2, 0-0, 0-2) 4reb 3ast 1stl 2blk 0TO
Cousins ( INC ) -- so I was going along compiling my normal list of play by play notes, and then all of a sudden they just end, because, uh oh. In any case in the early going I was a bit frustrated with Malone actually, because 2nd night of a back to back or not, I am pretty sure that Cousins guarded Howard in the last two matchups, and gave him hell because he's just too big for Dwight to push around. And so instead Malone comes out, has Jason on Howard, and I think it may have actually gotten Cousins in MORE foul trouble because instead of just standing behind Dwight, now he was having to rotate to cover him when Jason got beat, and having to semi-follow his man on the perimeter too. Anyway, Cuz started off energetic, notably on both ends, got a big block, and was again passing more than shooting, which I think is cute and all, but I'm getting a little comfortable at the mix shifting away from Cousins inside. And then of course It happened, and the only good news about It is that maybe It wasn't as serious as It looked initially as he had to be half carried off the floor. We'll see here. In years past Cuz was not always the best at playing through fatigue, so if the ankle is bothering I'm hoping he's learned now not to let it seriously degrade his game. --Brick

Stats: 22min 4pts (2-8, 0-1, 0-0) 0reb 2ast 0stl 1blk 1TO
Thornton ( ) -- --Capt.

Stats: 39min 20pts (6-16, 2-9, 6-10) 3reb 6ast 2stl 1blk 4TO
Thomas ( C ) -- Before Rudy Gay and DeMarcus Cousins got hurt I thought Isaiah Thomas was playing a very good facilitating point guard game. He didn’t even attempt a shot until about halfway through the 1st quarter. We all know what happened next. Gay hurt his Achilles, Cousins sprained his ankle, and Thomas was left out there without any reliable scoring options. He started gunning, and I was mostly ok with that strategy. Don’t get me wrong, there were bad shots taken that I hated, but if the Kings had any shot at making this one competitive it would have been the result of Thomas catching fire. As you could tell by taking one look at the final score, he never caught fire. There was a lot of standing around on offense after Gay and Cousins went down, and a lot of Thomas dribbling around trying to make something happen with limited success. It felt like he was losing the ball, or dribbling himself into trouble a lot. He only registered 4 turnovers on the night, but it felt like more. He definitely fell in love with the 3-pointer trying to get this team back within reach, and that really tanked his field goal percentage. He went to the line a lot and that was a huge contributor to his point total. His defense on either Beverly or Lin was decent as both guys shot well below their season average FG%. Thomas didn’t do anything spectacular on that end, but he stayed in front of them well enough and contested most shots as best as he could. I just don’t know what else he could have done on a night like tonight. He wasn’t great by any means, but I thought he started the night with the right mindset and did what he could the rest of the way (considering his running mates) to earn a C.--Mass

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Bench

Stats: 40min 22pts (7-15, 3-6, 5-8) 11reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Williams ( B+ ) -- I’m going with a B+ in this game though it certainly didn’t feel like a B+ performance, mostly because the majority of the game felt like garbage time with the loss of Gay and Cousins. Williams was the leading scorer in this game and ended up taking the 2nd most shots with both Gay and Cousins out of the line-up. He was 7-15, which is good shooting, and one of those misses was a heave at the end of the quarter and another was an attempt to make an alley-oop slam off a really bad alley-oop pass. He hit the long ball and was aggressive going to the rim which allowed him to get to the free throw line 8 times. For the most part he didn’t look to pass the ball. When he got it he was looking to score which accounts for only having a single assist. But in the 4th quarter when true garbage time was abounding he did make a number of nice passes which just weren’t converted. He also led the team in rebounding, securing 11 boards, but 3 of those were defensive rebounds in the last 4 minutes when he was the biggest, most athletic King out there, playing PF along with the hobbled Landry as the other big. So he led the team in scoring, while shooting efficiently, and he led the team in rebounding giving the team the lift you’d want with the increased minutes. So a good 22 and 11 game from Williams, and he certainly stepped it up, but it’s hard to actual get the grade into the A range when the team was getting blown out and it felt like 30 minutes of garbage time. Let’s hope we see the same sort of effort and effectiveness from Williams in the next game when the game really matters and he knows he has to step up. --Uncia
I remember this video being so cool when I was a kid

Stats: 12min 0pts (0-3, 0-0, 0-2) 2reb 1ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Gray ( F ) -- Just no. Not even porting over my notes on this one. With Cuz going down, we turned To Gray to try to give us a big body in the middle to match with Howard, and he just got destroyed on both ends. Howard took advantage of the curiously low release point on his inside shots for such a huge man, and sent them right back in his face. On the other end Aaron was effective neither stopping Harden's constant gallops to the hoop, nor playing any kind of pick and roll or help defense. As usual our guards kept on getting beat, and again and again and again Gray would stop up to help/stop their man, and Howard would go straight to the rim for alley oop after alley oop. Even if that is mostly on the guard, or partially on somebody else for not rotating behind him, it can only happen so many times before you get a clue and say ok guard, whatever you are going to do is lower percentage than an alley oop. But Gray never did, didn't adjust at halftime, got skunked again after starting the third quarter, and was appropriately banished for the rest of the game.--Brick
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajp0Uaw4rqo

Stats: 35min 11pts (3-10, 3-7, 2-2) 1reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
McLemore ( ) -- --Capt.

Stats: 11min 0pts (0-0, 0-0, 0-0) 3reb 0ast 0stl 1blk 0TO
Acy ( C- ) -- in as a PF late in the first, got a big block in the early 2nd but the lineups with him just did not work as the Rockets pulled away. Back in in the mid 3rd of the blowout and immediately went beard to beard with Harden as they got double T's pver something. Would almost call that his best moment of the game, but for some reason it seemed like Harden started it. Didn't do anything matched up against Howard of course, and could not rebound with him at all, but we as a team began to fight more while he was out there and got the game under 15. --Brick
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK3uf5V0pDA

Stats: 18min 14pts (4-6, 4-6, 2-2) 2reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
Fredette ( B- ) -- Considering the amount of injuries and quasi-garbage time in this one it’s surprising that Jimmer only played 18 minutes. The truth is that during his first run in the second quarter (when the minutes really mattered) he wasn’t very good. He managed to knock down one 3 in that stint, but it didn’t take Malone very long to yank him and let Thomas run the show again. Then the 4th quarter happened, and he caught fire from the perimeter and would finish the game with 14 points. He was the recipient of a few nice Ray McCallum passes, and I don’t mean nice as if to say that they were tricky, or difficult, because they were not. But they were just smart, flow-of-the-offense type passes, and I think Jimmer benefitted from having another ball handler like McCallum out there. It’s tough when he plays off the bench with McLemore because neither guy is a great ball handler, so maybe this is something Malone will consider and use in the future.--Mass
Ok,...think this one might actually be 1990ish, but close enough.

Stats: 6min 1pts (0-2, 0-1, 1-2) 1reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Outlaw ( INC ) -- I could go in all sorts of directions with Outlaw’s grade, but ultimately, I think that the incomplete is the most appropriate. With Rudy and Cousins out, you would think it would be prime time to see Outlaw get extended minutes. However he didn’t get in until 6 minutes left in the 3rd quarter and he only got 6 minutes of playing time, and never got back into the game in the 4th, all the while Williams played the entire 2nd half. Unfortunately he did very little while he was out there, but one could spin it in a positive direction and say that in those 7 minutes he had the best +/- on the team with +7, as he was out there during the stretch when the Kings were hitting their 3pt shots. Outlaw was playing well to start the season, but the arrival of Williams and then Gay have buried Outlaw, and the few times we’ve seen Malone play him, he’s not produced at all in those limited minutes. I feel a bit bad for him, mostly because he had been playing pretty productive basketball prior to all the trades. Anyway, he clearly didn’t hurt us while he was on the court, but he didn’t really do much to impact the game. The dearth of minutes allows me to go INC and feel comfortable with the decision. --Uncia

Stats: 12min 6pts (2-8, 0-0, 2-2) 6reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
Landry ( INC ) -- Had enough minute for a grade but clearly nowhere near 100%. Who knows how much the injury is still bothering him but he's clearly out of shape and doesn't have the speed or lift he would typically. Despite all the rust he wasn't shy. Forced a few and generally out of sync, which is typical for a player in his situation. After tonight it would be nice to have Landry back, unfortunately it looks like he's at least a couple weeks away from getting back to a level where he can help this team. --Henkel

Stats: 8min 2pts (1-3, 0-0, 0-0) 1reb 4ast 0stl 1blk 0TO
McCallum ( B ) -- I don’t know if 8 minutes is enough to grade a guy on, and if it is it should certainly have a ‘small sample size’ tag next to it. Anyway, I thought this was the best McCallum has looked as a pro. He had 4 assists in just 8 minutes, and none of them were flashy. He was hitting his shooters when they were open (Jimmer and Ben) and found Landry on a nice little pick-and-pop towards the end of the shot clock. His only two points came off of a smooth looking pullup jumper as he was coming around a ball screen. I also thought his defense looked closer to the kind of defense we saw out of him during the summer league, which is to say it looked good. For whatever reason he hasn’t been taking his ‘end of the game minutes’ seriously, until now. I thought this was a good effort from Ray. --Mass
The fun of this song has only recently been returning for me after it was heavily associated with a great night of a bad relationship once upon a time.

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Alexandra Daddario... Alexandra Daddario... Alexandra Daddario... Alexandra Daddario... Alexandra Daddario... Alexandra Daddario...
 
I can't think of a game where a teams 2 best players went down with injuries, we were playing well to start too, sort of picking up where we left off with the Rockets. It just sucked the life out of the fans and the rest of the team. If girls, Arianny Celeste.
 
Sitting in that arena actually made me feel super excited to see what our new arena will look like when it opens!!! Not because the Toyota Center (which is what it's called, btw) is really nice (which it actually is). But because the Toyota Center makes STA look like a dump....
 
The Suns are killing the Pacers, which means they will eat us alive on Friday, most likely without our stars. Sigh, I was hoping we would be riding high from a 3-3 road trip and playing a gritty competitive game vs the Pacers. Sucks man.
 
I am glad no one selected tank. It is not a tank when you lose your two best players and can't compete. That may be only a few games but we'll see about Rudy.
 
While you never want to see Gay or Cousins hurt it certainly gives Derrick a chance to show what he's made off and imo it never hurts to develop a guy who after Cousins/Gay was the most upside on the team.

I must say but without Cousins/Gay the team is pretty unwatchable. Seeing what Derrick Williams can do is probably the only thing keeping me watching that game.
 
I wouldn't say just Derrick: looking at McCallum for more than 78 seconds was interesting too...and significant change in Ben's confidence, when Ray got on floor, was encouraging.
 
It was very nice to get a decent look at McCallum. He definitely needs some time to learn the NBA game, but he can already handle the ball very well and the defensive tools are there. i really don't see what Jimmer brings to the table over McCallum besides 3pt shooting.
 
Stats: 8min 2pts (1-3, 0-0, 0-0) 1reb 4ast 0stl 1blk 0TO
McCallum ( B ) -- I don’t know if 8 minutes is enough to grade a guy on, and if it is it should certainly have a ‘small sample size’ tag next to it. Anyway, I thought this was the best McCallum has looked as a pro. He had 4 assists in just 8 minutes, and none of them were flashy. He was hitting his shooters when they were open (Jimmer and Ben) and found Landry on a nice little pick-and-pop towards the end of the shot clock. His only two points came off of a smooth looking pullup jumper as he was coming around a ball screen. I also thought his defense looked closer to the kind of defense we saw out of him during the summer league, which is to say it looked good. For whatever reason he hasn’t been taking his ‘end of the game minutes’ seriously, until now. I thought this was a good effort from Ray. --Mass

A good spot-on review that followed his recent second half at BigHorn game monday: coming out aggressive, finding mates, controlling the ball and hitting good shots he mostly creates including 3's. I think he needs more minutes NOW to find out what he brings.
 
It was very nice to get a decent look at McCallum. He definitely needs some time to learn the NBA game, but he can already handle the ball very well and the defensive tools are there. i really don't see what Jimmer brings to the table over McCallum besides 3pt shooting.

Keep in mind - this was deep garbage time, and both McCallum and Jimmer benefited from that.
 
Very true but even during garbage time Jimmer seems to prove that he can't really provide much more than 3pt shooting

Eh. I'm not going to complain much about 14 points on 6 shots.

In any case, nice to see McCallum get some run and look not awful. Gotta take whatever positives you can from the game.

Wife: How is my husband?

Doctor: I'm sorry, ma'am. Your husband died, but the operation was otherwise successful.
 
- Really hoping Jimmer can start seeing some time at the two with Ray. Liked what I saw from the two and at this point it really is obvious Jimmer is not going to improve to be a very good PG. Quite a shame because his BBIQ is very, very high. His speed just and dribble moves are just too poor to be bringing the ball up court against the the fasted players in the league. Bring him off screens and give him fewer dribbles, and you simply have a much better, much more effective player who doesn't need to look for the pass as much, and quite frankly I don't want Jimmer looking for passes. He's a shooter, and I believe he can be a consistently elite one who can be valuable to us or another team if he's doing what matches his skillset and that's as a two coming off screens with limited ball handling. Jimmer has never taken a shot (outside the key) that I had a problem with. Simply a supreme shooter from anywhere. Jimmer has a place in this league, just not as a PG or a starter. Put him in the right position with a PG more willing to pass (ala Ray) and you could very well have one of the best role players in the game. He's been shaken around constantly and given absolutely no time to consistently prove himself prior to this year. Finally is getting some more playing time and being forced into a position his simply can't play well. Really do hope to see Jimmer be cemented as a SG and see some good bench minutes, us or another team.

(Note: New poster and had a bit to say regarding Jimmer. No major preference one way on him one way or the other.)

- Speaking of screens, we need a player or two who (well, a player who should get consistent minutes...not Chris Kaman's non-albino, much less talented cave brother) who sets good screens. Very overlooked part of our struggles, IMO. Would love to have a legit player who set hard screens without always being so anxious to slip and is lazy with them.

- No reason Ray shouldn't be backup PG. He might struggle shooting and might struggle with vision at first, but his defense would immediately be the best as far as our backcourt players go and he shows very good handles, someone you need to worry about finding his own space for his shot or to make plays as opposed to Jimmer who typically has his defender glued to him or requires screens. His stroke is very smooth too so any big shooting slump he has when he does get more minutes would be, in my eyes, something that'll improve and improve quick with time.

- For a chucker who can't pass at all, Rudy Gay sure can pass. And not the "I'm conceding the ball cause I can't find anything" type. He makes high BBIQ passes in the rhythm of the offense. This has been the biggest bright spot of the trade IMO. I've watched plenty of Rudy before and truthfully didn't know he had the kind of vision he is displaying. Been a real, pleasant surprise. The fact that he can drop 30 points anytime or make a 41 point game look routine is pretty cool too. Hoping the injury doesn't keep him out too long. As awesome and great as Cousins is, having Rudy Gay out there just makes everything more fluid and fun to watch. Kind of like how I imagine Heat fans feel when they watch LeBron or Lakers fans feel when they watch a healthy Kobe (no skill comparison, just watching players who you know can take over at anytime). This, of course, is not to say I really care how fun the Kings are to watch...I'd watch a Kings game if Brian Skinner and Kenny Thomas were our starters today. But damn it has been a while since we put a team that was fun and competitive on the court.

- Get well soon Cuz and Gay. Don't want too many interruptions with the growth of our future, championship winning tandem;)

- Our bench is gonna be a lot better with Landry coming back and HOPEFULLY Ray getting backup PG time and Jimmer going to SG. Really need to move Thornton for a big who simple can move their feet. Gray isn't good but he's even worse when he has to be mobile because of our matador guards. I refuse to believe we can't get a better backup big than Gray for very little value.
 
- Really hoping Jimmer can start seeing some time at the two with Ray. Liked what I saw from the two and at this point it really is obvious Jimmer is not going to improve to be a very good PG. Quite a shame because his BBIQ is very, very high. His speed just and dribble moves are just too poor to be bringing the ball up court against the the fasted players in the league. Bring him off screens and give him fewer dribbles, and you simply have a much better, much more effective player who doesn't need to look for the pass as much, and quite frankly I don't want Jimmer looking for passes. He's a shooter, and I believe he can be a consistently elite one who can be valuable to us or another team if he's doing what matches his skillset and that's as a two coming off screens with limited ball handling. Jimmer has never taken a shot (outside the key) that I had a problem with. Simply a supreme shooter from anywhere. Jimmer has a place in this league, just not as a PG or a starter. Put him in the right position with a PG more willing to pass (ala Ray) and you could very well have one of the best role players in the game. He's been shaken around constantly and given absolutely no time to consistently prove himself prior to this year. Finally is getting some more playing time and being forced into a position his simply can't play well. Really do hope to see Jimmer be cemented as a SG and see some good bench minutes, us or another team.

(Note: New poster and had a bit to say regarding Jimmer. No major preference one way on him one way or the other.)

- Speaking of screens, we need a player or two who (well, a player who should get consistent minutes...not Chris Kaman's non-albino, much less talented cave brother) who sets good screens. Very overlooked part of our struggles, IMO. Would love to have a legit player who set hard screens without always being so anxious to slip and is lazy with them.

- No reason Ray shouldn't be backup PG. He might struggle shooting and might struggle with vision at first, but his defense would immediately be the best as far as our backcourt players go and he shows very good handles, someone you need to worry about finding his own space for his shot or to make plays as opposed to Jimmer who typically has his defender glued to him or requires screens. His stroke is very smooth too so any big shooting slump he has when he does get more minutes would be, in my eyes, something that'll improve and improve quick with time.

- For a chucker who can't pass at all, Rudy Gay sure can pass. And not the "I'm conceding the ball cause I can't find anything" type. He makes high BBIQ passes in the rhythm of the offense. This has been the biggest bright spot of the trade IMO. I've watched plenty of Rudy before and truthfully didn't know he had the kind of vision he is displaying. Been a real, pleasant surprise. The fact that he can drop 30 points anytime or make a 41 point game look routine is pretty cool too. Hoping the injury doesn't keep him out too long. As awesome and great as Cousins is, having Rudy Gay out there just makes everything more fluid and fun to watch. Kind of like how I imagine Heat fans feel when they watch LeBron or Lakers fans feel when they watch a healthy Kobe (no skill comparison, just watching players who you know can take over at anytime). This, of course, is not to say I really care how fun the Kings are to watch...I'd watch a Kings game if Brian Skinner and Kenny Thomas were our starters today. But damn it has been a while since we put a team that was fun and competitive on the court.

- Get well soon Cuz and Gay. Don't want too many interruptions with the growth of our future, championship winning tandem;)

- Our bench is gonna be a lot better with Landry coming back and HOPEFULLY Ray getting backup PG time and Jimmer going to SG. Really need to move Thornton for a big who simple can move their feet. Gray isn't good but he's even worse when he has to be mobile because of our matador guards. I refuse to believe we can't get a better backup big than Gray for very little value.

Welcome! Good post and I like your point about Jimmer being guarded closely. In some sense his ability to shoot magnifies his inability to dribble/penetrate because his defender is always going to be pressuring him. Unlike us, other teams know that you stay home on good shooters and don't leave guys like Kyle Korver and Ryan Andersen wide open. Also, once the word gets out that he can't dribble his dribbling will get attacked more as teams try to capitalize on his weakness. We've seen teams apply full court pressure when Jimmer's bringing the ball up. So .. Jimmer just needs to improve in that area and it'll open up his game a whole lot.
 
- Really hoping Jimmer can start seeing some time at the two with Ray. Liked what I saw from the two and at this point it really is obvious Jimmer is not going to improve to be a very good PG. Quite a shame because his BBIQ is very, very high. His speed just and dribble moves are just too poor to be bringing the ball up court against the the fasted players in the league. Bring him off screens and give him fewer dribbles, and you simply have a much better, much more effective player who doesn't need to look for the pass as much, and quite frankly I don't want Jimmer looking for passes. He's a shooter, and I believe he can be a consistently elite one who can be valuable to us or another team if he's doing what matches his skillset and that's as a two coming off screens with limited ball handling. Jimmer has never taken a shot (outside the key) that I had a problem with. Simply a supreme shooter from anywhere. Jimmer has a place in this league, just not as a PG or a starter. Put him in the right position with a PG more willing to pass (ala Ray) and you could very well have one of the best role players in the game. He's been shaken around constantly and given absolutely no time to consistently prove himself prior to this year. Finally is getting some more playing time and being forced into a position his simply can't play well. Really do hope to see Jimmer be cemented as a SG and see some good bench minutes, us or another team.

(Note: New poster and had a bit to say regarding Jimmer. No major preference one way on him one way or the other.)

- Speaking of screens, we need a player or two who (well, a player who should get consistent minutes...not Chris Kaman's non-albino, much less talented cave brother) who sets good screens. Very overlooked part of our struggles, IMO. Would love to have a legit player who set hard screens without always being so anxious to slip and is lazy with them.

- No reason Ray shouldn't be backup PG. He might struggle shooting and might struggle with vision at first, but his defense would immediately be the best as far as our backcourt players go and he shows very good handles, someone you need to worry about finding his own space for his shot or to make plays as opposed to Jimmer who typically has his defender glued to him or requires screens. His stroke is very smooth too so any big shooting slump he has when he does get more minutes would be, in my eyes, something that'll improve and improve quick with time.

- For a chucker who can't pass at all, Rudy Gay sure can pass. And not the "I'm conceding the ball cause I can't find anything" type. He makes high BBIQ passes in the rhythm of the offense. This has been the biggest bright spot of the trade IMO. I've watched plenty of Rudy before and truthfully didn't know he had the kind of vision he is displaying. Been a real, pleasant surprise. The fact that he can drop 30 points anytime or make a 41 point game look routine is pretty cool too. Hoping the injury doesn't keep him out too long. As awesome and great as Cousins is, having Rudy Gay out there just makes everything more fluid and fun to watch. Kind of like how I imagine Heat fans feel when they watch LeBron or Lakers fans feel when they watch a healthy Kobe (no skill comparison, just watching players who you know can take over at anytime). This, of course, is not to say I really care how fun the Kings are to watch...I'd watch a Kings game if Brian Skinner and Kenny Thomas were our starters today. But damn it has been a while since we put a team that was fun and competitive on the court.

- Get well soon Cuz and Gay. Don't want too many interruptions with the growth of our future, championship winning tandem;)

- Our bench is gonna be a lot better with Landry coming back and HOPEFULLY Ray getting backup PG time and Jimmer going to SG. Really need to move Thornton for a big who simple can move their feet. Gray isn't good but he's even worse when he has to be mobile because of our matador guards. I refuse to believe we can't get a better backup big than Gray for very little value.

Welcome to KF! Nice takes. Always love to see another Kings fan join the fold. :)
 
Eh. I'm not going to complain much about 14 points on 6 shots.

In any case, nice to see McCallum get some run and look not awful. Gotta take whatever positives you can from the game.

Wife: How is my husband?

Doctor: I'm sorry, ma'am. Your husband died, but the operation was otherwise successful.

Newspaper reporter: But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?
 
Welcome! Good post and I like your point about Jimmer being guarded closely. In some sense his ability to shoot magnifies his inability to dribble/penetrate because his defender is always going to be pressuring him. Unlike us, other teams know that you stay home on good shooters and don't leave guys like Kyle Korver and Ryan Andersen wide open. Also, once the word gets out that he can't dribble his dribbling will get attacked more as teams try to capitalize on his weakness. We've seen teams apply full court pressure when Jimmer's bringing the ball up. So .. Jimmer just needs to improve in that area and it'll open up his game a whole lot.


The pressuring in the backcourt is a big problem and why I don't think the improvement will come. It's a struggle for him to get the ball up court which should be about as basic as you can get for a PG. Ray Mac comes in as a much more raw product and the difference is just night and day. And this is with Jimmer getting plenty of reps as a PG and handling the ball.

(And speaking of things that happen in the backcourt, could Isaiah Thomas please stop waiting til 16.5 seconds to pass halfcourt? Waste a third of the shotclock and making my blood pressure peak because I don't know think there would be a more stupid turnover than a non-pressure 8 second violation)

I really don't understand why they still force him as a PG. If their end goal here is to trade him, I feel like he could up his trade value a lot playing at SG. And if it's not, I have a hard time believing we wouldn't get more production from him than BMC or MT.

Welcome to KF! Nice takes. Always love to see another Kings fan join the fold. :)

Preciate it! Been consistently lurking here since the Seattle ordeal. Really the only place that kept my hopes of being a basketball fan still alive (love the NBA, but I simply couldn't take it watching my hometown team that I grew up with and watched get moved because of some crooked, miserable owners). The positive vibes, the constant updates regarding the situation. I'd wake up and go right on here before work in hopes that I could find any tiny bit of positive information that'd give hope. Needless to say, each passing day I looked forward more and more to read info of the significant progressions being made to the eventual best underdog story in sports.
A Vivek and PDA later, we are not only in Sacramento, but we are also fielding our most talented team since the golden years.
 
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