[Grades] Grades v. Warriors 12/1/2013

[ShastaKingsFan]

My step-sister's 26 year-old son claims to be a diehard Heat fan.

Me: "How long have you been a Heat fan?"
Him: "Since they got LeBron."
Me:

In his mind, he probably thought that was going to gain him some credit as an intelligent fan

 

[pshn80]

Two players who scored a total of 43 points for us in a very close loss were also two who contributed most to our losing effort - one played very,very well but played way too little and the other who played too poorly and for too long. The first should at least lose a full grade for that. In saying this I seem to be going against the over-whelming opinion expressed on here so far. What would the outcome have been if he had played at least 30 minutes?

 

[ShastaKingsFan]

Two players who scored a total of 43 points for us in a very close loss were also two who contributed most to our losing effort - one played very,very well but played way too little and the other who played too poorly and for too long. The first should at least lose a full grade for that. In saying this I seem to be going against the over-whelming opinion expressed on here so far. What would the outcome have been if he had played at least 30 minutes?

On another note, why would we not play Williams at all in the 4th? And why is John Salmons getting all of Travis Outlaw's playing time that he earned with solid play?

 

[Fear the Putin]

Thornton's game resembles a Jekyll and Hyde character in a sense. One day I want him gone for a bag of chips and the next game he reminds us why he was signed to a fat contract in the first place. When the man gets hot, you can't stop him. The great thing is that he raises his defensive intensity as well.

If only he can do that on a regular basis and not pout on the way, maybe we wouldn't attempt to trade him. But, then again, maybe this breakout game actually helps PDA field some calls for Thornton in order to ship him out.

On the other hand, I feel real sorry for Cousins. His reputation will not escape him for the rest of his career and its painfully obvious now. Granted Bogut is a punk and he does that to everybody, but a lot of it had to do with them seeing #15, Cousins on his jersey.

 

[King Baller]

I have really enjoyed these last few games. Cousins does deserve the All Star game appearance since the other teams are really starting to "scheme" to take him out of his game. I was impressed with Cousins demeanor tonight. Andrew really hit him hard with that cheapshot elbow. When the Kings quit crying (and it appears to be headed that way) the Refs will call the games closer to square.

Derrick Williams changes the feel of the starting unit in a good way. You can just sense the things that are possible when he grabs a board and looks up court Fun times

I do expect we are going to see Ray McCallum get minutes very soon and I hope his game transfers and he can help defend the likes of ROY runner-up Curry Seriously the Kings need to find a player who can defend Curry. Last year the Kings could run a stud defensive back court of Evans and Douglas. Malone currently has no back court defender to speak of.

Are we all expecting another trade by the deadline? Can D swing a deal that allows Morey to save face and move Asik? Is Asik the guy the Kings need? How about Rondo? How would a starting squad of Rondo, Ben, D Will, Cousins and Asik look to you? What would you give up to get it?

KB

 

[KingMilz]

Houston wants two first round draft picks for Asik lol so I would say no we don't need Asik

 

[Agent23]

I have really enjoyed these last few games. Cousins does deserve the All Star game appearance since the other teams are really starting to "scheme" to take him out of his game. I was impressed with Cousins demeanor tonight. Andrew really hit him hard with that cheapshot elbow. When the Kings quit crying (and it appears to be headed that way) the Refs will call the games closer to square.

Derrick Williams changes the feel of the starting unit in a good way. You can just sense the things that are possible when he grabs a board and looks up court Fun times

I do expect we are going to see Ray McCallum get minutes very soon and I hope his game transfers and he can help defend the likes of ROY runner-up Curry Seriously the Kings need to find a player who can defend Curry. Last year the Kings could run a stud defensive back court of Evans and Douglas. Malone currently has no back court defender to speak of.

Are we all expecting another trade by the deadline? Can D swing a deal that allows Morey to save face and move Asik? Is Asik the guy the Kings need? How about Rondo? How would a starting squad of Rondo, Ben, D Will, Cousins and Asik look to you? What would you give up to get it?

KB

We don't have the assests to make that happen, lol. To get Rondo would require at least Demarcus Cousins and of course we'd say no. Houston would probably ask for at least a first round pick this year which is a big no.

 

[KingMilz]

Two players who scored a total of 43 points for us in a very close loss were also two who contributed most to our losing effort - one played very,very well but played way too little and the other who played too poorly and for too long. The first should at least lose a full grade for that. In saying this I seem to be going against the over-whelming opinion expressed on here so far. What would the outcome have been if he had played at least 30 minutes?

The ref's hurt Cousins playing time with 2 rubbish calls that Curry flop was embarrasing he has no control over that you can't mark a guy down for something he has no control over.

 

[Chubbs]

Bogut is a cheap shot artist. He does it all the time. It's up to opposing teams to ignore his antics.

Centers decline at 29? I thought that's right in their prime. See Garnett and Duncan? I don't see any decline. If anything he's jumping higher and running faster than years past. *shrugs*.

i agree with you. Bogut looks as good as he has in years. Whether he looks 29 and is playing age appropriate, I'll let you guys decide. But if the warriors are healthy, they are a contender. They were dominant before iggy went down.

But cousins seemed to figure out how to beat him this last game. I think cousins is turning the corner to being unguardable 1-1. Physically imposing centers just get taken outside and cousins agility is more than they can handle.

 

[Chubbs]

Was anyone else irrationally angry with IT after the game? How many turnovers overall? 7? 4 last game? A stellar 9 assist to 11 to ratio the last two games. He's looking very much like the guy who lost his starting spot to a guy also playing terrible that seems to wear lead boots. 8 assists look a lot worse next to 7 turnovers. Nevermind curry can shoot over him whenever he wants, and did. Yes, he got a couple steals.

19 and 8 in about the least efficient way possible. 5-16 shooting, 7 turnovers. At least he got to the line.

There was about a 1 in a million chance he was passing on that last play. The warriors knew it, his teammates knew it, and the result was predictable.

I'm rooting both GV and IT get let go at the end of the season, or traded ASAP if anyone will take guys without a contract next season. Unless you have great ball handling wings, you can't make the playoffs with that duo. And we do not have great ball handling wings (sg and SF). Quite the opposite. So Malone HAS to play one of them. Choose your poison. Please no long term contracts for either!

To be fair to IT, Williams and mclemore were even worse.

They have to try out mccallum sooner rather than later. The guys we have aren't (rather shouldn't be) part of the future. Might as well see if ray is.

When's that draft again?

Anyone else getting a lump in their stomach over mclemore? Kid just isn't ready. Looking like everything is moving too fast for him. He didn't grab a board or assist. This might be a 3-4 year project, like Evan turner. Will we stick it out or not?

 

[Hadlowe]

Was anyone else irrationally angry with IT after the game? How many turnovers overall? 7? 4 last game? A stellar 9 assist to 11 to ratio the last two games. He's looking very much like the guy who lost his starting spot to a guy also playing terrible that seems to wear lead boots. 8 assists look a lot worse next to 7 turnovers. Nevermind curry can shoot over him whenever he wants, and did. Yes, he got a couple steals.

19 and 8 in about the least efficient way possible. 5-16 shooting, 7 turnovers. At least he got to the line.

There was about a 1 in a million chance he was passing on that last play. The warriors knew it, his teammates knew it, and the result was predictable.

I'm rooting both GV and IT get let go at the end of the season, or traded ASAP if anyone will take guys without a contract next season. Unless you have great ball handling wings, you can't make the playoffs with that duo. And we do not have great ball handling wings (sg and SF). Quite the opposite. So Malone HAS to play one of them. Choose your poison. Please no long term contracts for either!

To be fair to IT, Williams and mclemore were even worse.

They have to try out mccallum sooner rather than later. The guys we have aren't (rather shouldn't be) part of the future. Might as well see if ray is.

When's that draft again?

Anyone else getting a lump in their stomach over mclemore? Kid just isn't ready. Looking like everything is moving too fast for him. He didn't grab a board or assist. This might be a 3-4 year project, like Evan turner. Will we stick it out or not?

Overreacting a bit? Thomas is still the best guard on the team. He has had a couple of bad games, but his career in Sacramento has been very good so far. Yes, he plays the hero too often. Yes, he misses easy passes to teammates in favor of tougher shots for himself, but the Kings wouldn't have won the few games they have without IT playing like he has this year. He had a bad game against a top team in the west (record notwithstanding.) He was killed by Steph Curry, but that's kind of what Steph Curry does. IT generally does more good than bad, so he's earned a little leeway in the "trade him now" sweepstakes.

McLemore is a raw, 20 year old rookie. His shooting touch hasn't shown up yet, but that's not shocking. Even great shooters can take some time to adjust to the NBA game. What McLemore is missing is a second weapon on the team to draw defense away from him to let him take shots in rhythm. The team is 15 games into a mini-rebuild and with a likely objective of tanking for a star in the draft. I'm saving my evaluation of the team until December 2014.

 

[Cold]

Cousins is not a superstar, will never be one. He's a scoring center who does little else. His stats don't translate to wins. What superstar can't even lead his team to a .500 record? Superstar centers thoughout history dominated both ends of the floor or at least dominated the defensive end because that where centers can make their biggest impact (see Bill Russell, Hakeem, Duncan, Ewing, Shaq... all first team all-nba defense selections). Score-first centers who don't impact defensively will never win anything in this league. Cousins will never be a player that leads his team to playoff success because of his non-impact defense. While hes good in the post, he's a very poor mid-range shooter (3rd worst among all NBA starters 10-15 feet last season), and he takes a lot of them. The Warriors' game plan (and other teams as well I suppose) is to let Cousins shoot his jumpers. 8 of his first 12 points last night were on midrange jumpers. 1 was a reversed dunk where he had 2 different pivot feet and took 5 steps and Bogut backed off expecting a whistle. I will give him credit for the last 2 postups late in the game. Bogut defended him as well as any big man could. He made the shots.

However, I have said this before. Cousins shooting jumpers is a recipe for a lot of Kings losses. He has shown no intention of taking less jumpers. Cousins shooting jumpers doesn't do anything but hurt floor spacing for his shooters and when he (or they) miss, it's a long rebound that heads the other way for a fast break. He's very good in the post against most NBA centers, but several top teams in the league have a lockdown defensive 5 that will make things hard when the game slows down to a half court game in the playoffs and teams pack the lane.

My opinion on Cousins is unpopular on this board becuz you guys love Cousins. I don't care. I don't see him with any superstar potential. Hes a good scoring center and that's it. Until he proves me wrong and puts this team on his back and do some damage in the playoffs. He's no superstar. The guy still acts like a mental midget everytime someone messes with his head. He can be having a good night and suddenly goes full tard taking himself off the floor and costs his team the game. I can copy and paste that last line 2, 3 years from now and I bet it will still apply.

The Kings need a true leader before they start winning consistently. Call me a hater or whatever you want. The results don't lie.

 

[King Baller]

Cousins is not a superstar, will never be one. He's a scoring center who does little else. His stats don't translate to wins. What superstar can't even lead his team to a .500 record? Superstar centers thoughout history dominated both ends of the floor or at least dominated the defensive end because that where centers can make their biggest impact (see Bill Russell, Hakeem, Duncan, Ewing, Shaq... all first team all-nba defense selections). Score-first centers who don't impact defensively will never win anything in this league. Cousins will never be a player that leads his team to playoff success because of his non-impact defense. While hes good in the post, he's a very poor mid-range shooter (3rd worst among all NBA starters 10-15 feet last season), and he takes a lot of them. The Warriors' game plan (and other teams as well I suppose) is to let Cousins shoot his jumpers. 8 of his first 12 points last night were on midrange jumpers. 1 was a reversed dunk where he had 2 different pivot feet and took 5 steps and Bogut backed off expecting a whistle. I will give him credit for the last 2 postups late in the game. Bogut defended him as well as any big man could. He made the shots.

However, I have said this before. Cousins shooting jumpers is a recipe for a lot of Kings losses. He has shown no intention of taking less jumpers. He's very good in the post against most NBA centers, but several top teams in the league have a lockdown defensive 5 that will make things hard when the game slows down to a half court game in the playoffs and teams pack the lane.

My opinion on Cousins is unpopular on this board becuz you guys love Cousins. I don't care. I don't see him with any superstar potential. Hes a good scoring center and that's it. Until he proves me wrong and puts this team on his back and do some damage in the playoffs. He's no superstar. The guy still acts like a mental midget everytime someone messes with his head. He can be having a good night and suddenly goes full tard taking himself off the floor and costs his team the game. I can copy and paste that last line 2, 3 years from now and I bet it will still apply.

The Kings need a true leader before they start winning consistently. Call me a hater or whatever you want. The results don't lie.

Cousins being very emotional is no secret. Just as Bogut being a sneaky cheap shot artist is no secret. The difference is that Cousins is 23 years old and Bogut is 38 years old.

KB

 

[Chubbs]

Overreacting a bit? Thomas is still the best guard on the team. He has had a couple of bad games, but his career in Sacramento has been very good so far. Yes, he plays the hero too often. Yes, he misses easy passes to teammates in favor of tougher shots for himself, but the Kings wouldn't have won the few games they have without IT playing like he has this year. He had a bad game against a top team in the west (record notwithstanding.) He was killed by Steph Curry, but that's kind of what Steph Curry does. IT generally does more good than bad, so he's earned a little leeway in the "trade him now" sweepstakes.

McLemore is a raw, 20 year old rookie. His shooting touch hasn't shown up yet, but that's not shocking. Even great shooters can take some time to adjust to the NBA game. What McLemore is missing is a second weapon on the team to draw defense away from him to let him take shots in rhythm. The team is 15 games into a mini-rebuild and with a likely objective of tanking for a star in the draft. I'm saving my evaluation of the team until December 2014.

If you've been following, I've always been one of ITs biggest detractors. Hardly a knee jerk reaction. He's not my kind of player, all flash, little substance. I don't think on the whole he does more good than bad. I really truly do not. That he has a career is surprising, I'll give you that. Not too many franchises would put up with, or need to put up with, a hero ball playing 5'9 PG. His defense will never be effective cause of his size. And he will age terribly. Without extreme quickness, what are you left with?

I'm not saying trade him based on yesterday alone by any means. I've seen him enough to know what he's about.

For the record, this is 3 straight bad games for IT. I think he had a nice career high hot streak to start the year, but he's returning to normal now. Normal may not even be 6th man good, more 7-9th man. Both our pgs are in that range. And that's a major problem.

The point this season was, I thought, to,learn to play the right way, not earn a couple wins by IT running around like a maniac trying to win a game on his own. That serves no purpose short term or long term. Except in the IT show and his desire for a big contract and a starting gig somewhere.

Being the best guard on this team is saying very very little. I hope you understand that. A decision needs to be made on him. If we can get him for 2-3 million for a season, fine. Anything more or longer, it's a waste of money and detrimental to the franchise. I expect him to chase the money and leave. Everything about him is selfish, there won't be any home town discount. If they want any return on his years here, a trade may be the way to do it. Anyone looking for a hero ball playing 5'9 pg?

We really have no other choice but to let Ben take his lumps now. We very soon have to choose whether to keep IT. I've made mine.

 

[mac]

Cousins is not a superstar, will never be one. He's a scoring center who does little else. His stats don't translate to wins. What superstar can't even lead his team to a .500 record? Superstar centers thoughout history dominated both ends of the floor or at least dominated the defensive end because that where centers can make their biggest impact (see Bill Russell, Hakeem, Duncan, Ewing, Shaq... all first team all-nba defense selections). Score-first centers who don't impact defensively will never win anything in this league. Cousins will never be a player that leads his team to playoff success because of his non-impact defense. While hes good in the post, he's a very poor mid-range shooter (3rd worst among all NBA starters 10-15 feet last season), and he takes a lot of them. The Warriors' game plan (and other teams as well I suppose) is to let Cousins shoot his jumpers. 8 of his first 12 points last night were on midrange jumpers. 1 was a reversed dunk where he had 2 different pivot feet and took 5 steps and Bogut backed off expecting a whistle. I will give him credit for the last 2 postups late in the game. Bogut defended him as well as any big man could. He made the shots.

However, I have said this before. Cousins shooting jumpers is a recipe for a lot of Kings losses. He has shown no intention of taking less jumpers. Cousins shooting jumpers doesn't do anything but hurt floor spacing for his shooters and when he (or they) miss, it's a long rebound that heads the other way for a fast break. He's very good in the post against most NBA centers, but several top teams in the league have a lockdown defensive 5 that will make things hard when the game slows down to a half court game in the playoffs and teams pack the lane.

My opinion on Cousins is unpopular on this board becuz you guys love Cousins. I don't care. I don't see him with any superstar potential. Hes a good scoring center and that's it. Until he proves me wrong and puts this team on his back and do some damage in the playoffs. He's no superstar. The guy still acts like a mental midget everytime someone messes with his head. He can be having a good night and suddenly goes full tard taking himself off the floor and costs his team the game. I can copy and paste that last line 2, 3 years from now and I bet it will still apply.

The Kings need a true leader before they start winning consistently. Call me a hater or whatever you want. The results don't lie.

You have got to be the most arrogant poster this board has seen in a long time... Aside from Brick of course

 

[chief bromden]

Cousins is not a superstar, will never be one. He's a scoring center who does little else. His stats don't translate to wins. What superstar can't even lead his team to a .500 record? Superstar centers thoughout history dominated both ends of the floor or at least dominated the defensive end because that where centers can make their biggest impact (see Bill Russell, Hakeem, Duncan, Ewing, Shaq... all first team all-nba defense selections). Score-first centers who don't impact defensively will never win anything in this league. Cousins will never be a player that leads his team to playoff success because of his non-impact defense. While hes good in the post, he's a very poor mid-range shooter (3rd worst among all NBA starters 10-15 feet last season), and he takes a lot of them. The Warriors' game plan (and other teams as well I suppose) is to let Cousins shoot his jumpers. 8 of his first 12 points last night were on midrange jumpers. 1 was a reversed dunk where he had 2 different pivot feet and took 5 steps and Bogut backed off expecting a whistle. I will give him credit for the last 2 postups late in the game. Bogut defended him as well as any big man could. He made the shots.

However, I have said this before. Cousins shooting jumpers is a recipe for a lot of Kings losses. He has shown no intention of taking less jumpers. Cousins shooting jumpers doesn't do anything but hurt floor spacing for his shooters and when he (or they) miss, it's a long rebound that heads the other way for a fast break. He's very good in the post against most NBA centers, but several top teams in the league have a lockdown defensive 5 that will make things hard when the game slows down to a half court game in the playoffs and teams pack the lane.

My opinion on Cousins is unpopular on this board becuz you guys love Cousins. I don't care. I don't see him with any superstar potential. Hes a good scoring center and that's it. Until he proves me wrong and puts this team on his back and do some damage in the playoffs. He's no superstar. The guy still acts like a mental midget everytime someone messes with his head. He can be having a good night and suddenly goes full tard taking himself off the floor and costs his team the game. I can copy and paste that last line 2, 3 years from now and I bet it will still apply.

The Kings need a true leader before they start winning consistently. Call me a hater or whatever you want. The results don't lie.

If you have hate in your heart, let it out. Cousins is 23 years old, and cares. Whatever he becomes, so be it. He might end up being a Zach Randolph type player, but we know he won't be a Derrick Coleman. I enjoy watching him play whether he becomes a superstar or not. Those last two post ups against Bogut were money, and it was exciting to watch.

 

[Cold]

If we can get him for 2-3 million for a season, fine. Anything more, it's a waste of money and detrimental to the franchise.

I share that same view. It seems like everytime I say something about a Kings player, I come off as a Kings hater.

It's all good. Truth is this team has several fatal flaws that need correction. I just look like a hater becuz I'm a Warriors fans first and Kings fan second.

The most obvious flaws to me are a lack of a defensive anchor inside (if Cousins stays long term, then JT needs to go ASAP), which is magnified by a lack of a couple lockdown perimeter defenders (zero), then throw in 1 very small guard and 1 very slow guard and winning games consistently is impossible. Just too many holes for opponents to exploit.

Forget raw offensive stats. Winning games isn't about how many guys on the team can put up stats. The blue print needs to change. IT can stay if he's dirt cheap but I honestly think he should go. GV is 100% gone this summer. Patterson and Landry look like solid backups that can help. Cousins can go too if someone is offering a 2-way star in return.

Priorities:
1) Parker/wiggins/randle/smart
2) stockpile young assets like derrick williams and picks to prepare for a blockbuster deal that may or may not involve Cousins. young players should make up the majority of the bench. houston does a good job with this and puts themselves in position to get involved in big trades.
3) do not sign veteran role players to any type of long term deals. if need to, give them more money on less years. higher $ on less years are much easier to trade and can be trade assets.

 

[MassachusettsKingsFan]

Cousins is not a superstar, will never be one. He's a scoring center who does little else. His stats don't translate to wins. What superstar can't even lead his team to a .500 record? Superstar centers thoughout history dominated both ends of the floor or at least dominated the defensive end because that where centers can make their biggest impact (see Bill Russell, Hakeem, Duncan, Ewing, Shaq... all first team all-nba defense selections). Score-first centers who don't impact defensively will never win anything in this league. Cousins will never be a player that leads his team to playoff success because of his non-impact defense. While hes good in the post, he's a very poor mid-range shooter (3rd worst among all NBA starters 10-15 feet last season), and he takes a lot of them. The Warriors' game plan (and other teams as well I suppose) is to let Cousins shoot his jumpers. 8 of his first 12 points last night were on midrange jumpers. 1 was a reversed dunk where he had 2 different pivot feet and took 5 steps and Bogut backed off expecting a whistle. I will give him credit for the last 2 postups late in the game. Bogut defended him as well as any big man could. He made the shots.

However, I have said this before. Cousins shooting jumpers is a recipe for a lot of Kings losses. He has shown no intention of taking less jumpers. Cousins shooting jumpers doesn't do anything but hurt floor spacing for his shooters and when he (or they) miss, it's a long rebound that heads the other way for a fast break. He's very good in the post against most NBA centers, but several top teams in the league have a lockdown defensive 5 that will make things hard when the game slows down to a half court game in the playoffs and teams pack the lane.

My opinion on Cousins is unpopular on this board becuz you guys love Cousins. I don't care. I don't see him with any superstar potential. Hes a good scoring center and that's it. Until he proves me wrong and puts this team on his back and do some damage in the playoffs. He's no superstar. The guy still acts like a mental midget everytime someone messes with his head. He can be having a good night and suddenly goes full tard taking himself off the floor and costs his team the game. I can copy and paste that last line 2, 3 years from now and I bet it will still apply.

The Kings need a true leader before they start winning consistently. Call me a hater or whatever you want. The results don't lie.

Results DO lie. They do. It took Ewing a few losing seasons until he got Mark Jackson to start winning. Hakeem had Ralph Sampson right away. Duncan had Robinson. Who does Cousins have? Who has Cousins ever had? All of those guys, aside from O'Neal had a running mate right away, and O'Neal needed Kobe to start winning. Not to mention a lot of those 'elite' centers of years past were older than Cousins when they entered the NBA.

Can't disagree more with Cousins only being a scorer. He's first in the league for NBA centers at drawing fouls. 4th in rebounds. 4th in AST. And is slowly becoming more of a factor as a shot blocker.

He's also still stuck at about 30 MPG. All of those guys averaged in the high 30's for years. Cousins numbers would look even better if he could cut out the fouls.

He isn't perfect, and clearly has room to improve. That's the scary part. He's not even playing as well as he could, and he's already one of the top 5, maybe even top 2 centers in the NBA.

 

[pshn80]

The ref's hurt Cousins playing time with 2 rubbish calls that Curry flop was embarrasing he has no control over that you can't mark a guy down for something he has no control over.

Those kinds of fouls will always be there
He needs to manage it so he gets 50% more playing time - at least 30 minutes. If he doesn't we lose more games. He needs to control what he can.

 

[Padrino]

Cousins is not a superstar, will never be one. He's a scoring center who does little else. His stats don't translate to wins. What superstar can't even lead his team to a .500 record?

well, let's see: carmelo anthony has the knicks playing .118 ball in a terrible eastern conference. john wall has widely been considered a potential superstar for years, but hasn't done a thing in washington since being drafted. kevin love's timberwolves are a game under .500 this season, and setting aside the fact that the western conference is tougher than ever, love still hasn't made the playoffs since being drafted. the warriors are playing just a shade above .500 despite their hype and collection of undeniably talented players...

then there's tim duncan, who's had parker, ginonili, and popovich to count on for most of his career, and it's led to great success. in the contemporary nba, you need more than one star-level talent. you need good coaching. you need good management. you need good ownership. it's just that simple. ultimately, talent rules the day, and, outside of demarcus cousins, the kings don't have it. even the absolute best in the league, a once-in-a-generation talent, wasn't able to get it done on his own in cleveland. point is, writing off cousins as a loser fifteen games into the first season in which he's had a legitimate support structure owning, managing, and coaching this team is more than a bit shortsighted. it's some kinda bias you've got there, friend...

 

[Chubbs]

You have got to be the most arrogant poster this board has seen in a long time... Aside from Brick of course

I'll attack IT all day long before I consider saying how cousins sucks,

 

[Cold]

Results DO lie. They do. It took Ewing a few losing seasons until he got Mark Jackson to start winning. Hakeem had Ralph Sampson right away. Duncan had Robinson. Who does Cousins have? Who has Cousins ever had? All of those guys, aside from O'Neal had a running mate right away, and O'Neal needed Kobe to start winning. Not to mention a lot of those 'elite' centers of years past were older than Cousins when they entered the NBA.

The difference between every one of those guys and Cousins is they were all hall of famer defensive anchors.

 

[Chubbs]

The difference between every one of those guys and Cousins is they were all hall of famer defensive anchors.

He's getting better defensively. He doesn't have to be all world, just better. I think he'll get there.

 

[Cold]

well, let's see: carmelo anthony has the knicks playing .118 ball in a terrible eastern conference. john wall has widely been considered a potential superstar for years, but hasn't done a thing in washington since being drafted. kevin love's timberwolves are a game under .500 this season, and setting aside the fact that the western conference is tougher than ever, love still hasn't made the playoffs since being drafted. the warriors are playing just a shade above .500 despite their hype and collection of undeniably talented players...

then there's tim duncan, who's had parker, ginonili, and popovich to count on for most of his career, and it's led to great success. in the contemporary nba, you need more than one star-level talent. you need good coaching. you need good management. you need good ownership. it's just that simple. ultimately, talent rules the day, and, outside of demarcus cousins, the kings don't have it. even the absolute best in the league, a once-in-a-generation talent, wasn't able to get it done on his own in cleveland. point is, writing off cousins as a loser fifteen games into the first season in which he's had a legitimate support structure owning, managing, and coaching this team is more than a bit shortsighted. it's some kinda bias you've got there, friend...

Melo has never missed the playoffs in his NBA career.
John Wall is not close to a superstar. He's not even a top 7 PG.
Kevin Love is a rich man's David Lee. Stat padders who can't defend. Seems like defense keeps coming up.
Duncan had several dominant playoff series where he didn't score much. He's made all-nba defense 11 times starting with his rookie year I believe (but could be wrong). Cousins: none.

I see Cousins' only chance at high level success is if he has a Marc Gasol next to him so he can play a Zach Randolph role. He needs an all-nba level defensive anchor next to him. Or Lebron and Wade roaming the perimeter.

 

[Bricklayer]

Cousins is not a superstar, will never be one. He's a scoring center who does little else. His stats don't translate to wins. What superstar can't even lead his team to a .500 record? Superstar centers thoughout history dominated both ends of the floor or at least dominated the defensive end because that where centers can make their biggest impact (see Bill Russell, Hakeem, Duncan, Ewing, Shaq... all first team all-nba defense selections). Score-first centers who don't impact defensively will never win anything in this league. Cousins will never be a player that leads his team to playoff success because of his non-impact defense. While hes good in the post, he's a very poor mid-range shooter (3rd worst among all NBA starters 10-15 feet last season), and he takes a lot of them. The Warriors' game plan (and other teams as well I suppose) is to let Cousins shoot his jumpers. 8 of his first 12 points last night were on midrange jumpers. 1 was a reversed dunk where he had 2 different pivot feet and took 5 steps and Bogut backed off expecting a whistle. I will give him credit for the last 2 postups late in the game. Bogut defended him as well as any big man could. He made the shots.

However, I have said this before. Cousins shooting jumpers is a recipe for a lot of Kings losses. He has shown no intention of taking less jumpers. Cousins shooting jumpers doesn't do anything but hurt floor spacing for his shooters and when he (or they) miss, it's a long rebound that heads the other way for a fast break. He's very good in the post against most NBA centers, but several top teams in the league have a lockdown defensive 5 that will make things hard when the game slows down to a half court game in the playoffs and teams pack the lane.

My opinion on Cousins is unpopular on this board becuz you guys love Cousins. I don't care. I don't see him with any superstar potential. Hes a good scoring center and that's it. Until he proves me wrong and puts this team on his back and do some damage in the playoffs. He's no superstar. The guy still acts like a mental midget everytime someone messes with his head. He can be having a good night and suddenly goes full tard taking himself off the floor and costs his team the game. I can copy and paste that last line 2, 3 years from now and I bet it will still apply.

The Kings need a true leader before they start winning consistently. Call me a hater or whatever you want. The results don't lie.

No no no no, your timing is just all off. Trolling about on the Boogie ain't all that bus is so 2012. That bus ran into a ditch sometime this offseason. Its not cool anymore, in fact I've been gratified to start seeing a Boogie is a Boss narrative starting to replace the old narrative, as people have responded to his combativeness. I know the old B.S. still has some popularity in the Bay Area, but as with Minny and their draft blunder or Detroit and their Monroe hopes, that's always pretty obviously been Center envy when you are stuck relying on a glass ankled jumpshooting PG to get you home. Now THERE is a creature with no championship precedent.

Meanwhile Barkley, and Dirk and Webber et al. will all presumably merrily wave to you from the HOF without exactly being their team's defensive anchors. Unless of course conveniently only centers who actually led their team to a title as the man qualiify as superstars, in which case we're going to have to go back and revoke every center's superstar card of the last 30 years except Shaq and Hakeem.

The other MVP candidates (other than the eternal MVP himself) this year include such defensive stalwarts as Durant, Love, Paul etc. They might be annoyed at having their superstar cards yanked too. So would Magic and Bird in the day for that matter. Or Chris Mullin.

Luckily none of the superstars ever struggled with crap teams and inexperience as a young player. Except for well, just about all of them who didn't walk into a lockerroom and find Kareem or Admiral already sitting there of course. The Brow must be disappointed as all hell to learn he's never going to amount to much.

You should seriously consider dropping the schtick while you can still get out only mildly behind the times. Nobody wants to be the out of the loop guy trying to hang with his friends' sports chatter and throwing out lines mocking Lebron for not having what it takes to win a title.

Pick the non-superstar:

Per 36
Cousins 25.6pts (.485 .699) 11.8reb 3.1ast 1.9stl 1.4blk 3.3TO
Durant 26.0pts (.458 .874) 7.4reb 5.1ast 1.3stl 0.7blk 3.5TO
ChPaul 19.5pts (.453 .911) 5.0reb 12.4ast 2.4stl 0.1blk 2.8TO
KeLove 23.8pts (.439 .811) 13.7reb 4.1ast 0.8stl 0.3blk 2.6TO
George 23.7pts (.470 .828) 6.1reb 3.4ast 2.1stl 0.4blk 2.8TO
Harden 22.2pts (.450 .841) 4.4reb 5.2ast 1.5stl 0.7blk 3.8TO

Woohoo! jumps out to me.


hey, more fun:
At age 23 per 36:
CBarkley 23.0pts (.594 .761) 14.6reb 4.9ast 1.8stl 1.5blk 4.7TO
TDuncan 23.2pts (.490 .761) 12.4reb 3.2ast 0.9stl 2.2blk 3.3TO
PaEwing 20.0pts (.474 .739) 9.0reb 2.0ast 1.1stl 2.1blk 3.4TO
Cousins 25.6pts (.485 .699) 11.8reb 3.1ast 1.9stl 1.4blk 3.3TO
KMalone 21.7pts (.512 .598) 10.4reb 1.9ast 1.3stl 0.7blk 2.9TO
Nowitzki 23.4pts (.477 .853) 9.9reb 2.4ast 1.1stl 1.0blk 1.9TO
Olajuwon 23.5pts (.526 .645) 11.5reb 2.0ast 2.0stl 3.4blk 2.9TO
KGarnett 20.6pts (.497 .765) 10.6reb 4.5ast 1.3stl 1.4blk 3.0TO

once again look at that outlier! Wow!

Boogie's just going to figure out the foul issues here, and then he'll be by for the souls of your little team of scamper backs later. Like all players, no matter how great, how far he eventually goes will depend in large part on his franchise's ability to surround him with complimentary players.

 

[Cold]

lmao. keep listing power forwards. i was talking about superstar centers and defense. superstar centers need defense. get it?

i didn't even read the latter parts of ur post. too much gibberish. cousins cud average 30ppg and im not impressed. ur missing the point. his stats dont translate to wins cuz hes a one dimensional scoring center. u can be a one dimensional scoring forward/wing and win as long as u have a good defensive big man to cover ur back. u usually don't win anything if ur center cant cover his teammates. unless the kings draft a lebron.

keep listing raw offensive numbers *yawn*

 

[Bricklayer]

lmao. keep listing power forwards. i was talking about superstar centers and defense. superstar centers need defense. get it?

i didn't even read the latter parts of ur post. too much gibberish. cousins cud average 30ppg and im not impressed. ur missing the point. his stats dont translate to wins cuz hes a one dimensional center.

And he speaks to me of gibberish.

 

[ppine]

Last night's game, came from the Warriors network. It was interesting to hear the opposition's opinions for awhile, but then they started to really pee me off. Like when DMC made Bogut look really bad, and the announcer's laughed it off. I can't stand the California NBA teams except for the Kings of course.

At a time when it is hard to be optimistic, I see the Kings in every game now. Not in every quarter, but in every game. They used to lose by 15-20 points a lot.

DWil was disappointing against a good defender. He looks lost on offense. PG is more worrisome than the first 10 games. BMac gets flustered when his long ball is not falling. Cousins has come a long way mentally since last year. The refs still give him a hard time.

 

[Bricklayer]

Last night's game, came from the Warriors network. It was interesting to hear the opposition's opinions for awhile, but then they started to really pee me off. Like when DMC made Bogut look really bad, and the announcer's laughed it off. I can't stand the California NBA teams except for the Kings of course.

At a time when it is hard to be optimistic, I see the Kings in every game now. Not in every quarter, but in every game. They used to lose by 15-20 points a lot.

DWil was disappointing against a good defender. He looks lost on offense. PG is more worrisome than the first 10 games. BMac gets flustered when his long ball is not falling. Cousins has come a long way mentally since last year. The refs still give him a hard time.

Clippers announcers actually really like Cousins (or did until handshake gate ), as do the Lakers guys (who were blatantly stumping for the Lakers to steal him).

Golden State's announcers though are a different issue.

 

[Uncia03]

Clippers announcers actually really like Cousins (or did until handshake gate ), as do the Lakers guys (who were blatantly stumping for the Lakers to steal him).

Golden State's announcers though are a different issue.

Yep, this is Cold's issue right here.

It's sort of the same thing we have with Kings fans that just listen to the Kings broadcasts.
The Warrior's announcers bashed Cousins from the opening tip to the closing whistle in the last game and have been beating the same drum since he hit the league. If that's all you hear then of course you're going to be convinced that he won't amount to anything. In multiple games I've heard them mention that stat about last year and poor shooting from the outside, but it's sort of an irrelevant comment because it's no longer 'last year' and he's crushing you on 10-13 shooting. If our guards played even average defense we would have won that game and then what would their commentary have been like? My guess is that they would have ignored what Cousins did and continued with their continual bashing.
It's the same thing with Kings fans who have an unreasonable expectation that IT can be CP3 or John Stockton since Grant and Jerry drummed him up to that level consistently all year last year.

Does Cousins have his faults? Of course he does, but how many teams would turn down the opportunity to trade their starting Center for him right now?