[Game] Kings @ Hornets - 11/23/15 - 4 pm PST, 7 pm EST

Karl has to stop it with these small-ball line-ups. I know that Rondo and Collison are both good players, but we need size, length, and muscle. Give Rondo less minutes, he's playing to exhaustion. We can't be small on both the guard side (two PGs) and small on the forward side (Rudy Gay at PF) at the same time.

Playing "small" at PF is great if you are going to run the kind of defensive scheme they are. The problem is when you play small there and at SG/SF. You end up creating mismatches that work against you rather than for you.
 

funkykingston

Super Moderator
Staff member
There are two problems with this point of view: the first is that some people appear to act like they think that, as long as they're not using slurs, it's not "hate." Which is axiomatically wrong.

The second problem is that Gay did not, in fact, have a bad night. It's just that, some people have their chosen targets and, in a bad loss, all those people can see are what their chosen target didn't do. Gay had 28/10, on 62 percent shooting, and it seems like he's getting a disproportionate amount of blame for the loss.
Rudy has his flaws (soft on D, boneheaded turnovers at times, tunnel vision isos too often etc) but he was a bright spot tonight and continued to be efficient even after Cuz left, something that often is not the case.

The most disappointing part of this game is also my most disappointing aspect of the season so far - George Karl's constant lineup experiments and seeming inability to make in game adjustments.

It's almost as if he decides in advance which lineup will close out games and then doesn't deviate even when it clearly isn't working.
 

dude12

Hall of Famer
I usually support most coaches....hate to play the fire coach game. Karl knows basketball.....sure the hell knows more about it than me and will be a HOFer........but he's got to be better than this. 22 point lead? Damn, I'd rather him sub more defense in Anderson or Ben or WCS than go small like he does...if they come back its because they beat our best defense and not us giving them an opportunity to,score easily.

Did we really not have WCS or Koufos in on the last possession? So hard to believe.
 
Can someone explain to me why WCS isn't playing? Seriously, I have no clue why we are going small all the time. Why is Karl doing this?
He's said and "implyed" in a couple interviews, in so many words, he doesn't seem to trust "the young player". Any mistake that is made, seems to be "highlighted" in Karl's mind. If it's a veteran, he's much more inclined to forget it and move on
 

Larry89

Disgruntled Kings Fan
Bellinelli is always playing in the 4th and making stupid jump passes that get picked off, two pg lineup, A slow footed KK trying to defend pick and roll because our "sg" and "sf" get hung up on screens. Just an all around awful game. Cousins is hurt as well now.
 
Play by play is quite an interesting read from this point on in the 3rd quarter:

"Casspi Substitution replaced by Collison 02:47"

The Kings were up 89 to 69 at that exact point. The Kings would give up 5 points in the next 2:30 or so after only giving up 8 points up to that point. From that substitution and playing small with Rondo and Collison the Kings gave up 43 points in the next 14 minutes of game time.
Disgusting

Not sure what game Karl was watching
 
I am answering the wrong comment but I absolutely despise having Rondo and Collison on the court at the same time. It's not necessary for any reason that I can see. But, just as I think it is wrong to tell a player to play against his strength, what would anyone expect with Karl? It should be expected and that's not my fault, your fault, or Karl's fault. It's the front office's fault.
Well, I can't speak on the front office as I don't know what was said behind closed doors (not sure I would want to even if I could), but I can comment on what I see on the court.

What we have is Cousin's continued brilliance, Rondo's leadership, and Rudy's relatively consistent scoring (when used properly). On the other hand, we have a coach who seems dead set on using particular players, no matter what the situation, matchup, or who is hot/cold. 15 games in, it is obvious to all of us Collison/Rondo don't work. They just don't. There is literally no chemistry there as both require the ball to be effective and in essence take away from each other. We also have a rookie center that specializes in defense sitting on the bench when we need defensive stops like we need air to breathe. Maybe he can stare them down from the bench and cause a turnover with his fierce glare?

Karl also seems to completely disregard the players that give us leads, continually switching players in and out regardless of what they have accomplished. My lineup at the end of the game would have been: Rondo, Ben, Rudy, WCS (possibly Casspi), and Cousins. We needed defense and size. But instead we had Rondo, Collison, Marco, Rudy, Cousins (and KK when Cousins left).

To answer your question, the coach's responsibility is to ensure as many wins as possible and not to play to HIS strengths, but play to the TEAM's strength. A coach shouldn't let personal goals/an agenda/dead set way to play get in the way of coaching a particular team to their strengths.

It is painfully obvious we are not a run and gun team. We can have spurts, sure, but this continued running makes Rondo have a ton of turnovers (6 tonight), makes Rudy play like Toronto Rudy, and makes Cousins take far too many threes (6 tonight). Collison also sucks in the open court. Our personnel is not suited to smallball Run n Gun. We just aren't.

No matter which you spin it, this is on Mr. George Karl, doing his best to play his way, or not at all.
 
There are two problems with this point of view: the first is that some people appear to act like they think that, as long as they're not using slurs, it's not "hate." Which is axiomatically wrong.
Well where do you draw the line between criticism and hating?

"Rudy sucks", probably hating.

"I hate Karl running out Rondo/DC together", not hating.

That said, I just skimmed thru a number of pages before the "hating" came up and see maybe 1-2 posts which might qualify as hating on an individual. The reaction here suggests it was much more than that. So I stand by my comment that "criticism" is getting confused with hate.
 
Can someone explain to me why WCS isn't playing? Seriously, I have no clue why we are going small all the time. Why is Karl doing this?
It's about pace! Oops WCS is one of the fastest big guys in transition. It's about rookie nerves! WCS it no ordinary rook having played in pro-like college lineup for 3 years before joining Kings. It's about his defensive intensity. Oops that doesn't mesh with his slackers on defense teammates. The fact that WCS would have likely defended the paint against Lin and Kimba is mute point with Karl apparently.
 
It's about pace! Oops WCS is one of the fastest big guys in transition. It's about rookie nerves! WCS it no ordinary rook having played in pro-like college lineup for 3 years before joining Kings. It's about his defensive intensity. Oops that doesn't mesh with his slackers on defense teammates. The fact that WCS would have likely defended the paint against Lin and Kimba is mute point with Karl apparently.
I don't get the feeling this is going to change much for awhile, if it is true.

But I'm honestly baffled. Seems severely stubborn or oblivious.
 

hrdboild

Moloch in whom I dream Angels!
Staff member
If this game doesn't illustrate to George Karl that the defensive gameplan is not working than nothing will. Belinelli is a nice weapon to have off the bench but McLemore is our best defender at SG and needs to be on the floor more (at that position). I know he wants to find minutes for Collison but playing him at SG is not the answer. Especially if it means running Rondo into the ground. It's a long season, 44+ min per game is not sustainable. And please please stop sacrificing size inside for more shooting! It's really hard to beat NBA teams if you can't stop them from scoring on you. We can still win with less offense. We can't win playing defense like this.
 
Am I glad I didnt catch this. Box score looks disgusting, a veteran team should not be choking away 20 point leads. Hammer should come down on Karl after this. Schemes, rotations and subsitutions have been the main complaints this season. Rudy only player you can say has played bad this year.
 
I hope that this Karl's love affair to have Rondo-Collison is not because DC is asking more minutes because, you know, he was the first PG here before Rondo came.
Although history would tell, he played a lot of Lawson-Miller combo in his Denver days.

But please George, start being the HOF coach you were, who would adjust to strength of his roster and not force his play library into players that does fit in it.
I won't be calling for your head yet though.
 
112 points against in regulation tonight
It's about pace! Oops WCS is one of the fastest big guys in transition. It's about rookie nerves! WCS it no ordinary rook having played in pro-like college lineup for 3 years before joining Kings. It's about his defensive intensity. Oops that doesn't mesh with his slackers on defense teammates. The fact that WCS would have likely defended the paint against Lin and Kimba is mute point with Karl apparently.
It's about Karl being unwilling to have anyone on the floor who can't score. That's just my opinion, but you ran down why most of the other arguments really don't make a ton of sense (maybe the rook one but I don't really buy that one, there haven't been tons of rook mistakes).
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
Well where do you draw the line between criticism and hating?
If you're asking me, personally, I probably draw the line somewhere to the right of where you would draw it, somewhere to the left of some others.

It's like the comment that was made earlier about how it goes at other places, and the answer to that is, we really don't want to be like those other places. This message board was created, in part, because the founder(s) didn't like the other places. Now, granted, we fall short of the ideal, just about every day, but the ideal that this message board was founded on was that of being more dignified and, for lack of a better word, respectful than those other places. Like, I think that @VF21 is remembering things through a slightly more positive lens than it actually was: we've always been critical and contentious around here. But, it wasn't really until we lost in the WCF that Kings Fans became as impatient and demanding as we have, and it wasn't until the board took sides in the Webber/Stojakovic debates that it started to resemble what it has become now.
 
Am I glad I didnt catch this. Box score looks disgusting, a veteran team should not be choking away 20 point leads. Hammer should come down on Karl after this. Schemes, rotations and subsitutions have been the main complaints this season. Rudy only player you can say has played bad this year.
Other than letting Kemba get a layup at the end of the game for the lead (he redeemed himself later), Rudy actually played a great game, particularly in the 3rd. All of our stars did really well tonight, which begs the question of why we lost...
 
I don't get the feeling this is going to change much for awhile, if it is true.

But I'm honestly baffled. Seems severely stubborn or oblivious.
The part that bothers me, is the apparent refusal to use a "player weapon", when it's needed most at the end of the game. It's as if,...if a player didn't happen to have a big influence earlier in the game,...then they have no chance of being used, whenever their skill set is needed most.

It would be like not using Seth Curry, when your only chance is a 3 point shot....or in this case, not using Willie when you have to alter drives and shots to the rim. I don't get it?
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
LOL

Well I'm not totally convinced he'd play a big defensive guy much, but thanks for the minor Karl psychoanalysis.
Well, it's kind of tough to say unequivocally whether Karl would give more minutes to a veteran defensive big, because he's never really had one. He's probably had no small amount of input into that detail, too.
 
I share your pain but in my case with having watched NBA basketball for 50 years, I tend to roll with what's happening. We once won a game after being behind 35 pts. It comes and goes.
The problem is, for us, it's been gone for so long. It begins to feel like we may never get it back again. Im ultra pessimistic right now but i attribute that to all of my sports teams not just being bad but being record breaking bad. It really starts to wear on a guy.
I admit I'm probably wrong about rudy. I have Zero hatred for the guy let along any of our players. It just seems that 1. He tends to be a black hole once he gets the ball. 2. He makes some of the most bone headed turnovers at the worst times. 3. At least in this game, when he made a boneheaded play it resulted in a hornets fast break. This isn't the first game Ive seen this and I admit, maybe these glaring f ups are coloring my view of the guy.