[Grades] Grades v. Wolves 1/1/2015

[Bricklayer]

So not playing any form of defense and refusing to share the ball with 2 backcourt players shooting insane % for a backcourt recently is taking more responsibility? For all the talk of how competitive these guys are would a competitive player not fight through the adversity rather than quit?

There is nothing stopping our starting 5 from being the 9-6 team again, it's a matter of wanting it like they did at the start of the year. It's got zero to do with play style Darren Collison is not pushing the ball much he's smart enough to know what to do I think he's done a great job controlling tempo and aside from a few rushed Nik rookie jumpers on the break we actually don't look different on offense aside from the increased hogging of our two main guys.

Should be noted the only reason those two backcourt guys shoot what they do is because all the attention is drawn elsewhere and they rarely have to take or make a shot that's not pretty easy (well that and pace artifically inflates shooting numbers for the leakout guys). Most of their misses in fact happen precisely when you throw them the ball and say go make it happen.

We aren't losing games now on offense.

 

[Boogie-havoc]

I remember watching that sequence and thinking, if he's that gassed Corbin should have yanked him and if he's not totally gassed then Boogie just totally gave up on those two possessions.

Either way it's a bad sign.

Here's what I don't think D'Alessandro and/or Ranadive get about this fiasco. Cousins has reverted. Gay has reverted. The team defense absolutely has reverted. ALL of the gains Malone made are apparently out the window. And when Tyrone Corbin is let go to make way for whatever new coach comes in the clock will be reset once again with any (if there are any?) of Corbin's gains thrown out.

Firing Malone was more than about this season and the full repercussions won't be known for quite some time.

If the team had finished the year under Malone and taken a big leap forward it would have been huge. Maybe they sneak in as the 8th seed or maybe they finish around .500 and just miss out. Either way it would have cemented in all the things he instilled as part of the formula for winning games. Then if you feel you need a new coach to take things to the next level at least you have a very strong foundation to work from and guys who have already bought into a lot of the things that will make them successful going forward.

Instead, we're back to me expecting the Kings to lose each game while just hoping they put up a decent fight and waiting for next season.

Couldn't have said it better. Bravo.

 

[KingMilz]

Should be noted the only reason those two backcourt guys shoot what they do is because all the attention is drawn elsewhere and they rarely have to take or make a shot that's not pretty easy (well that and pace artifically inflates shooting numbers for the leakout guys). Most of their misses in fact happen precisely when you throw them the ball and say go make it happen.

We aren't losing games now on offense.

Darren Collison can get into the lane at will and finish and does so.....he also creates for himself mid range jumpers which he makes at a high rate, Cousins and Gay will continue to draw attention but when they don't have it going they can always make a move to attack and pass it out. Let's not pretend like Cuz/Gay have not been super selfish lately and have been missing wide open teammates.

 

[flamecrow]

http://i.imgur.com/vN77zdX.gifv

(No idea how to embed these.)

Safe to say DeMarcus threw in the towel on the post-Malone era.

While I understand the circumstances, I must say I'm disappointed with the way he reverted almost instantly from the new improved DeMarcus we all saw while Malone was here.

Hope that changes, regardless of what coach or situation we have.

That was some awesome conducting of a jazz band by Corbin haha

Also in the highlight video:

At 1:42 we see cousins frustrated at either Rudy's defense or the Ref calling a foul.

At 1:56 you see why JT is benched, left a wing man for open three

 

[Swaze]

At 1:42 we see cousins frustrated at either Rudy's defense or the Ref calling a foul.

At 1:56 you see why JT is benched, left a wing man for open three

At 1:42 I think I'd lean towards Cousins questioning the refs call but either way Rudy's defense was pathetic there as it often is. At 1:56 Thompson's lack of rotation and lack of anticipation was also pathetic.

People can blame the turmoil and coaching all they want and it's certainly a factor in terms of overall defensive game-planning but some of these defensive lapses just come down to effort/pride on individual players. Being lazy and not putting effort forth on individual defensive plays has nothing to do with who the coach is. It comes down to personal pride and being a professional.

 

[Glenn]

At 1:42 I think I'd lean towards Cousins questioning the refs call but either way Rudy's defense was pathetic there as it often is. At 1:56 Thompson's lack of rotation and lack of anticipation was also pathetic.

People can blame the turmoil and coaching all they want and it's certainly a factor in terms of overall defensive game-planning but some of these defensive lapses just come down to effort/pride on individual players. Being lazy and not putting effort forth on individual defensive plays has nothing to do with who the coach is. It comes down to personal pride and being a professional.

I agree with your last paragraph to a certain extent. Also, I would bet a substantial amount of money that any team that got its defensive act together would have moments of laziness. That's what the coach is for. When he sees the team sluffing off, he calls a time out and reminds them of their defensive duties. I don't think defense comes naturally to many players and even a team coached by a defensive minded coach wouldn't have the defensive schemes down in 15 games. Now we have a team capable of very good defense with a coach who is indifferent to defense. Defense becomes an after thought and as easy as it is to blame the players, the team needs a coach. It is interesting to me that Cousins can play defense and it took a few coaches to bring that out of him.

Too bad we don't have a defensive minded coach, eh?

 

[Chubbs]

Funny thing is, well, read my quote. I was told by our owner we had the defensive end down now, culture was established, and now it was on to bigger and better things.

Whoops.

Guess the NBA doesn't work like a video game after all.

 

[ESP47]

At 1:56 you see why JT is benched, left a wing man for open three

I don't think JT is being benched for defense. He's being benched for lack of NBA 3.0 skills. He's not the highest IQ player in the world but he was shutting some of the best power forwards in the game down earlier in the year with Malone. Now that they sent Malone packing, there's obviously zero emphasis on defense and no one to hold the players accountable on defense.