[Grades] Grades v. Timberwolves 12/18/15

[KingsFanGER]

Second time this season Wiggins has beasted on us. I don't know if he plays this well against other teams but he looks like a pretty darn good young player to me. KAT also looked very impressive. Tough loss for us - poor rebounding from our lineup but I'm not going to blame Karl as I don't see it as a "small ball" problem. Omri and Rudy have the size, they just don't have the mentality of boxing guys out and crashing the boards (in Omri's case it's more of boxing out). We had Cousins in the post more than most of what I've seen this season, which I believe is a good sign. I still think Cousins needs to rethink his strategy of looking for contact in favor of using more crafty post moves, particularly when the refs aren't giving him calls. Nonetheless, if Collison and Marco play a little better we win this game.

Everytime I watched the Wolves Wiggins and Muhammed were extremely aggressive and went after it on the offensive glass. Wiggins is just too big for most SG's and too quick for most SF's. Shabazz plays more like a PF than a wing.
But as a coach I know, what's coming. I have to figure out a way to at least contain it.

 

[chief bromden]

Well, losses like this lead to seeing all the warts on the face. I can't resist piling on. Rudy Gay, pass the ball. 0 assists ? That's generous considering that your D on Wiggins should count as something negative toward that stat. How about when we need a basket, you do not ball stop after an offensive rebound?

This defensive strategy I'm seeing is such a lazy zone. It looks like guys are asked to play an area and react, only leading to confusion and no structured assignments. Most games I'm reminded that when Billups was traded to Denver when Karl was the coach, they had no inbound plays. Structure, plays, and sets... How boring! This bebop jazz where everyone improvises is way better. Hell, if you aren't going to play defense, why not do some synchronized acrobatics for entertainment?

On a positive note, big ups to Shabazz for continuing his Gary Trentness against the Kings. That guy just has solid games against us.

This team keeps roping me back in by winning a couple games, then the winning allergy pops back up. I will keep watching, wondering if my time should be better spent...but alas it seems I'm a sucker for all Westphalian basketball.

 

[mac]

Everytime I watched the Wolves Wiggins and Muhammed were extremely aggressive and went after it on the offensive glass. Wiggins is just too big for most SG's and too quick for most SF's. Shabazz plays more like a PF than a wing.
But as a coach I know, what's coming. I have to figure out a way to at least contain it.

And arguably Omri and Rudy are your best chances, given those guys' quickness and length (since WCS is out). The players have to recognize that they need to pay special attention to boxing out when playing against these sort of athletic players.

 

[mac]

Well, losses like this lead to seeing all the warts on the face. I can't resist piling on. Rudy Gay, pass the ball. 0 assists ? That's generous considering that your D on Wiggins should count as something negative toward that stat. How about when we need a basket, you do not ball stop after an offensive rebound?

This defensive strategy I'm seeing is such a lazy zone. It looks like guys are asked to play an area and react, only leading to confusion and no structured assignments. Most games I'm reminded that when Billups was traded to Denver when Karl was the coach, they had no inbound plays. Structure, plays, and sets... How boring! This bebop jazz where everyone improvises is way better. Hell, if you aren't going to play defense, why not do some synchronized acrobatics for entertainment?

On a positive note, big ups to Shabazz for continuing his Gary Trentness against the Kings. That guy just has solid games against us.

This team keeps roping me back in by winning a couple games, then the winning allergy pops back up. I will keep watching, wondering if my time should be better spent...but alas it seems I'm a sucker for all Westphalian basketball.

Well you can't have it both ways. Rondo is a player who likes freedom to orchestrate the offense. It's not like Karl doesn't draw up any good plays - we saw a good one in the closing seconds that got Cousins a dunk off the PnR with Rondo. I do think given the way our team moves the ball and sets screens (or doesn't, rather) having a non-scoring threat like Rondo as your PG is a disadvantage. Same goes for Rudy who is far more effective in iso ball from the post. It's precisely because our second and third options are as such that we end up having Cousins on the perimeter far more than is best. IMO if we're talking dream scenarios in terms of skillset Chris Paul would be the best PG to pair up with Cousins.

 

[dude12]

In crunch time, George went with DC at SG which cause Rondo to have to guard Muhammed and he stuck Casspi or Gay on Wiggins. That was a self inflicted mistake that caused mismatches and we couldn't rebound either. Should have had Ben in there to guard Wiggins allowing Casspi or Gay on Shabazz. Better defensively and rebounding the ball. Maybe even would have won the game.

George's situational lineups are non-existant. He doesn't use his roster because he doesn't trust the young guys enough. He needs to do a better job of this. For me, he's still costing us opportunities to win winnable games.

 

[Kingster]

Gay was extremely lethargic in this game. When you have 100 year old Kevin Garnett beating you to loose balls you're just not doing your job.

 

[bajaden]

And arguably Omri and Rudy are your best chances, given those guys' quickness and length (since WCS is out). The players have to recognize that they need to pay special attention to boxing out when playing against these sort of athletic players.

First they have to box out! Which Gay didn't most of the time.

 

[bajaden]

In crunch time, George went with DC at SG which cause Rondo to have to guard Muhammed and he stuck Casspi or Gay on Wiggins. That was a self inflicted mistake that caused mismatches and we couldn't rebound either. Should have had Ben in there to guard Wiggins allowing Casspi or Gay on Shabazz. Better defensively and rebounding the ball. Maybe even would have won the game.

George's situational lineups are non-existant. He doesn't use his roster because he doesn't trust the young guys enough. He needs to do a better job of this. For me, he's still costing us opportunities to win winnable games.

The way to neutralize Wiggins, is to keep him on the perimeter. Make him shoot three pointers all game. He's a terrible three point shooter. So you put your best athlete on him, and you don't play off of him. That's basically what we did when Ben was in the game. He did a good job on Wiggins. There is no way on god's earth that either Gay or Casspi can guard Wiggins. Especially when you treat him as an afterthought like Gay did. The idea of either Rondo or Collison trying to guard Shabazz has to be a joke. He's 6 inches taller, and outweighs either of them by at least 30 pounds if not more.

The one part of the game I enjoyed was the battle of the giants. Cuz against Towns. Although I'm rooting for the Kings, I was disappointed when Towns got into foul trouble which took him off the floor. In a couple of years Towns will be battling Cuz for best big man in the West honors. The kid is going to be a superstar.

 

[pshn80]

Hmm...okay. "it was close" is the best we as fans tend to cling on I suppose. What are you going to say after the next loss?

Whatever is appropriate. We clearly had an out-of-it start, not nearly enough energy and effort. Because of that, coming close was an accomplishment. Our wonderful dingbats lost, beat themselves, should be kicked in the ### and shoved out on the court again. As regards th learning curve, our guys are still n the third grade. When they complete severa more grade levels they become eligible to take NBA 1a. Come on guys.

 

[Larry89]

You could clearly see the "Big Ticket Effect" on these young Timberwolves, they played with intensity and hustled their asses off

 

[ESP47]

Surprised no one mentioned Karl's call to go for 2 at the end of the game that pretty much cost us any shot at winning on the last play when they fouled rondo.

 

[Henkel]

Surprised no one mentioned Karl's call to go for 2 at the end of the game that pretty much cost us any shot at winning on the last play when they fouled rondo.

Totally unacceptable, and it makes you wonder just how far behind the times Karl is when you see something like that. I know some around here have made ignoring analytics a virtue, but this has been broken down and the math doesn't lie. If they're not going to foul you shooting a three simply gives you a better shot to tie the game.

 

[Bricklayer]

Totally unacceptable, and it makes you wonder just how far behind the times Karl is when you see something like that. I know some around here have made ignoring analytics a virtue, but this has been broken down and the math doesn't lie. If they're not going to foul you shooting a three there simply gives you a better shot to tie the game.

the first one was standard playing the foul game, the second one was borderline. I didn't take into account the intentional foul myself.

 

[Henkel]

the first one was standard playing the foul game, the second one was borderline. I didn't take into account the intentional foul myself.

The second being when Boogie drove to the basket with like 10 seconds left down by three? That's not borderline if I understand the data. Maybe one of the stats folks from around here will correct me, but I believe you give yourself a significantly worse chance to tie a game down three going for the quick two in that situation. If they don't intentionally foul you there you have to try and get a three. I have my issues with using analytics for player evaluation but when looking at what strategies pay off in crunch time I find it hard to argue with.

 

[Bricklayer]

The quotes from the players postgame are why I continue to think we may turn this. Everybody seems to get it, even when they are not executing:

http://www.csnbayarea.com/kings/rew...ity-after-sluggish-start?p=ya5nbcs&ocid=yahoo

 

[kingsboi]

Depends on the loss. I generally assume that there should be 20-25 or so of them coming even under optimistic conditions.

And yes, the type of loss matters tremendously. We still remain a team that has rarely been outclassed this year, including tonight. We can be beaten, but there are fewer than 10 teams in the league we don't belong on the court with, and the playoffs go 16 deep.

Just because the games are close does not mean they belong. Albeit this year after the first four teams in the West, the rest of the seedings are up for grabs. However, the Kings have shown they can compete more often than not..yet they will remain to lose games they are favored to win and should win quite frankly if they want to do anything of significance.

 

[kingsboi]

Yeah, man. We are 1.5 games from the 8th seed, coming together as a team, and we just played our 26th out of 82 games this year. Time to throw away the season.

Stop it. The optimism is getting old. The Kings fans are so blind that they are content with close losses and count them as moral losses....haven't we been hanging and clinging on to moral losses for almost ten years? I have every right to criticize the team as a fan because the same problem presents itself...incapable of putting together a good stretch of defense which will 9 out of 10 times be their down fall.

 

[kingsboi]

Whatever is appropriate. We clearly had an out-of-it start, not nearly enough energy and effort. Because of that, coming close was an accomplishment. Our wonderful dingbats lost, beat themselves, should be kicked in the ### and shoved out on the court again. As regards th learning curve, our guys are still n the third grade. When they complete severa more grade levels they become eligible to take NBA 1a. Come on guys.

so why wouldn't the team come out with energy and effort from the get go? they were on a three game win streak with some momentum in their favor...fighting for playoff positioning...every game should have effort and hustle. Fatigue plays a factor, I'm aware and shots won't fall at times...however, you can always play one side of the ball consistently. That's on the weak loser mentality the team still has hanging over their head.

 

[VF21]

Stop it. The optimism is getting old. The Kings fans are so blind that they are content with close losses and count them as moral losses....haven't we been hanging and clinging on to moral losses for almost ten years? I have every right to criticize the team as a fan because the same problem presents itself...incapable of putting together a good stretch of defense which will 9 out of 10 times be their down fall.

People can be optimistic if they wish, just as you can be pessimistic. Moral losses? I think the term you might be looking for is "moral victory" as the opposite makes no sense whatsoever.

 

[King Baller]

so why wouldn't the team come out with energy and effort from the get go? they were on a three game win streak with some momentum in their favor...fighting for playoff positioning...every game should have effort and hustle. Fatigue plays a factor, I'm aware and shots won't fall at times...however, you can always play one side of the ball consistently. That's on the weak loser mentality the team still has hanging over their head.

Sometimes you might consider giving the other teams players and coaching staff some credit. The Timberwolves came out and took control the first quarter. Wiggins and Towns are elite young talents. Cousins did a fair job on KAT but Wiggins went off. The Only player Karl has that can stay with Wiggins is Ben McLemore and I believe Karl limited his minutes to 20 while the Canadian Phenom played 36. I think if the only rotation change had been Ben on Wiggins like glue the Kings win. Ben was doing well on that other end of the floor. You know the end where the other teams gets the ball

 

[IfAt1st]

Boy, was I wrong in thinking this team could rip off 5 wins and get right into the thick of the playoff hunt.

I just deleted a detailed post expressing my distaste with this team and my reasons why I think this team isn;t going to make it anywhere but the 8th or 7th seed.
They simply lack the personalities to win in the NBA as currently constructed.
They are wasting SO MANY games where their team is healthy - this part of the season isn;t going to last long, where they can rely on good games by many of their players and still not win.

Seriously - why is it so damn hard for this team to win?!
Do they need above-average games from every single player to win a game, even against a team that only won 1 out of their last 9 games and had only won 3 games at home all year?
What the hell is it going to take for this team to win?

I really don't see how they are going to win enough games to make it to the playoffs, if they can't beat the lowly Wolves, when the Wolves were doing everything they could in the 4th quarter to let the Kings win.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Maybe the Timberwolves aren't as bad as their record indicates, and also present a matchup problem for us?


Nah, it can't be that!

 

[kingsboi]

Well their two best players are players that the Kings cannot defend so yeah...I'd say it's a match up problem. However, you can state that most of the NBA has a match up problem when it pertains to the Kings.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Not really. There aren't too many of our losses which can be accurately attributed to matchup fail.

 

[Bosnian Diehard]

Wow Cuz...

 

[Bosnian Diehard]

Lessgo!