Glenn
Hall of Famer
Makes no sense.
[Game] Kings @ Hornets - 4/11/12
- Thread starter VF21
- Start date
Makes no sense.
So when do people admit that small ball can't consistently win? I guess it's too late for this year. I honestly would have liked to have seen how progress with the Evans/Thornton backcourt would have turned out given consistent practice and mentoring as was done earlier, with Evans showing improvement. He awesomely is a better distributor than people give him credit for. IT off the bench also gave the reserves some offensive punch..
C'est la vie, I suppose.
C'est la vie, I suppose.
TheWileyVet
Starter
Lining!
rainmaker
Hall of Famer
I've thought about that many a time, and it never leaves me in a good mood. We have the players for that system to. We'd have Cuz operating at the elbow extended, both high and low cutters coming off him, another from the weakside while MT/IT/Jimmer spot up, just so many options. Just imagine something simple like Cuz at the elbow, Reke curling low while TWill curls up top or fades for a jumper, while MT is getting a screen set on the weakside to free him up. Just one scenario of many with Rick, which would lead to multiple easier scoring opportunities. Even running a shooter off Cuz where he either hands it off, the shooter back doors, or the defense overplays leaving a lane for Cuz. Saw those two-man handoffs with Vlade/Webb and Christie/Bibby/Peja all the time. Never with Cuz. And not fast breaking all the time in itself would improve our defense some.
Kings Faithful
Starter
There is no way to avoid playing small ball when we have no good small forwards on the team and our back up center is Chuck Hayes.
Glenn
Hall of Famer
The last sentence is the key to a well well written note. If the play of Cousins recently is indicative of his attitude towards this team, we are in trouble. He is on and off and perhaps even when he seems motivated, it may be simply a selfish desire on his part to pile up stats. The problem needs solving and I don't think the leadership of this team is either in the mood to swallow the bullet and actually hire an NBA coach or simply can't. It might even be as simple as a coach not wanting to come here much like free agents.
TheWileyVet
Starter
Listening to Smart's post game interviews only confirms my suspicions that he has no clue what he's doing
rainmaker
Hall of Famer
Care to summarize it for us without access currently? Please.
Padrino
All-Star
most people are. but keith smart was tutored by the last sanctuary for small ball: don nelson. and smart hasn't gotten the memo yet, unfortunately...
mike d'antoni may, indeed, be the last active vestige of this all too played-out fad, but his failure in new york, and the knicks' recent success under defense-first head coach mike woodson, spells the end of the demand for d'antoni's style of play. he won't be sought after like he was upon leaving the phoenix suns. as for keith smart, well, after his tenure with the kings comes to end, whenever it does, he'll likely go the way of so many other interim coaches: back to assistant status on some other team's bench...
rainmaker
Hall of Famer
fyp
Glenn
Hall of Famer
Same old, same old. He is great to point out what is wrong and quick to point out what should be done but has no ability to insert the "how it should be done" into the babbling. All of this is done at machine gun speed as if what he says is on tape and he isn't even thinking about what he is saying. The fact he doesn't sound like he is thinking is what causes me to tune out. I'd rather have a poor speaker like Adelman who actually honed on to a specific problem and then left you hanging with a comment like "we have a few thing we can work on." I always had faith that he really knew what was wrong and would try to change it. I had faith that he understood subtleties.
'Course at this second, I am so damn angry that we can't even put up a reasonable battle against a true bottom feeder may be skewing my thoughts. I am tired of listening to him go on and on.
Padrino
All-Star
its enough to make a kings fan drool. it really is. smallball as a philosophy, and even the simple "uptempo" designation as a style of play, is a lazy man's offense. and the focus on running and gunning leads to a lazy man's defense, as well. if you can't poke away the ball in a key sequence, and are called for reaching fouls as the whistles rain down in fourth quarters, when can you get the stop you need? when do you reacquire possession while playing small and are unable to snag a key rebound? and offenses tuned to the fast break are tremendously limited in the scope of their creativity. this is precisely why the kings struggle so much at the end of quarters/halves/games. when the defense takes away your fast break, and slows you into a halfcourt set, what do you do? what kind of play will you draw up? the kings ppg totals have increased significantly since keith smart took over, but truth be told, they're just as suffocated by smart's style of play as they were by westphal's. a creative savant type of head coach like rick adelman or gregg popovich, or a pragmatic nuts-and-bolts type of head coach like jerry sloan or nate mcmillan, win games because they can draw up that play. it doesn't always have to be complicated, but it has to be thoughtful in a way that keith smart is not in his execution of schemes on both sides of the ball...
captain bill
All-Star
What was up with Cousins tonight? I only tuned in towards the end of the 4th, and seeing him on the bench in key minutes made me assume foul trouble, only to check the box score and see he finished with 3.
kingjatt
Starter
we're developing our young core by benching them at the end of games, its happened to reke, cuz, MT. I dont care if smart is plugging in and experimenting with other guys (IT, JT) but those three need to be on the court to gain valuable and limited in game experience. we have no rotations, terrible half court offense, zero defense, no accountability and a rambling coach with no set plan.
A Veteran hard nosed guy like sloan, hubie brown, JVG or heck even SVG who have had success in this league with young guys would demand defense and have respect from everyone in the locker room, when you have elite superstar players (heat) you can have an inexperienced young coach but with young guys you need someone they will respect and someone who has been there before.
But its all wishful thinking, the magoofs already extended him and are too broke to hire a top tier coach.
PurpleHaze
All-Star
See Bricks comment posted in his grades. That sums it up plus in postgame interview Smart said Cousins was having a bad game because it was back-to-back or something... I can't recall most of Smart's babble.
Would this be the appropriate time to make the comment that, as bad as it gets sometimes, we'd be lucky to have these same problems next year (and the one after that, and the one after that...) Even purgatory is better than one of the alternatives right?
rainmaker
Hall of Famer
This is where I disagree with some. They aren't too broke. They just choose to waste money elsewhere. Right they're paying Outlaw, Westy and Smart at the same time. Outlaw's 3M+ Westy's 1M + Smarts salary? is 4-5M we could instead throw at Sloan, JVG, McMillan. We offered Chuck 22M, plus picked up Outlaws 12M contract and we can't afford a good coach for 4M per? Can't pay one good coach but they're constantly paying two bad coaches at the same time?
Don't buy they're too broke, just terrible at allocating what they do have.
Yeah I agree. We need some role players and defenders who are friggin nails. Not more scoring.
jcwkings
All-Star
We need a system around Cousins and Tyreke surround them with shooters and defenders and some legit nba vets that know how to be a pro, dont surround them with half a dozen other shoot first isolation players. Find a traditional coach, tired of these gimmick coaches we always bring in. Is it that hard to find our Tom Thibadeau, Scott Brooks, Kevn McHale, Rick Adelman even Corbin from the Jazz runs a tight system with discipline and defense. Tired of the Maloofs hiring everyone's scraps or coaches that don't get hired anywhere else for a reason.
ParniValjak
All-Star
The problem is that this team needs a very good to great coach and those guys range in the $6-10 million per season and I honestly don't think they can or a willing to pay that much. Regardless of which one it is, the bottom line is still the same, we won't get a very good to great coach with Maloofs as owners.
kingjatt
Starter
correct me if im mistaken but they only picked up outlaw because they had in order to reach the salary floor due to the hayes heart situation at the time. Westy is only paid thru this season and so was smart so we would be clear to hire one of those guys next year. If your roster payroll is going to be the minimum your coach better be top notch. Not a veterans coach (PW) that everyone in the league knew couldnt coach except the maloofs. Or an unproven young guy who cant command the respect of players and runs a system that has proven time and time again to fail over the years. Smart is a fine assistant coach, but as a HC he is not a good fit for a young, inexperianced team.
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