Fair point, but still largely irrelevant. Teams will have days where they get shown up by lesser teams, including when they are missing their best player(s). Good teams (or those aspiring to be good) find ways to persevere and grind out many of these tough ones.
This is but a small step to legitimacy. I don't mind such challenges by lesser teams, if we can win most of them at the end.
Fair point, but still largely irrelevant. Teams will have days where they get shown up by lesser teams, including when they are missing their best player(s). Good teams (or those aspiring to be good) find ways to persevere and grind out many of these tough ones.
This is but a small step to legitimacy. I don't mind such challenges by lesser teams, if we can win most of them at the end.
this is where culture and competitiveness comes into play. There is a reason the Grizz were like 20 and 7 (or something like that) without Ja last year. They still had plenty of talent but the machine keeps moving even without the main piece.
At the same time, I wonder what our record is vs "teams we should beat" over the last 16 years? These sort of games where we play bad vs a bad team historically have almost always ended in a loss.
Kings probably played well for like 8 minutes of this game and still walked away with the win. That's still progress imo. If the Kings are going to be a 40+ win team, they have to start flipping games like this into wins.
For those who were disappointed the Kings hired Mike Brown over Darvin Ham, I think the Kings made the right decision.
Watching the Lakers post-game press conference, Ham made a lot of Luke Walton-esq comments of we will "watch some tape" and get better comments, like Luke loved to say.
I like the in-game adjustments that Mike Brown makes, not watching film and then brain farting during the game!
For those who were disappointed the Kings hired Mike Brown over Darvin Ham, I think the Kings made the right decision.
Watching the Lakers post-game press conference, Ham made a lot of Luke Walton-esq comments of we will "watch some tape" and get better comments, like Luke loved to say.
I like the in-game adjustments that Mike Brown makes, not watching film and then brain farting during the game!
Possible, but a bit early to say. There isn't much a coach can say when the team is losing.
Everyone expected the Lakers to be bad this season, but perhaps not this bad, with Davis and Bron still on the team. He has had limited success in moving Russ to the bench, and getting solid play out of him (so far). Russ's performance as a starter certainly made it easier to do so.
Well, we played down to our competition again which is always a struggle. Other team turns it over? Free pass to go up the court and do something stupid too, according to us.
At least we came away with a win, progress I guess. Fox was great, but we can't rely on him to be heroic against every bad team. We need to start playing smarter.
I don't think I'd mind giving Boogie a call either. He doesn't fix the defensive problems (obviously), but he fixes your size issue, you can run very similar Sabonis sets on offense and he'll give this team so "nasty" that we could use an infusion of.
Despite not being a prolific shot blocker, Cousins has been an underrated rim protector for most of his career, even post-injuries. His biggest problems continue to be that he can't guard out to the perimeter and he's a liability on pick and roll. If all you need him to do on defense is protect the rim, he can do that. And the Kings perimeter defense has gotten much better since he was last there, so who knows?
He wouldn't be my first call, though; Kings should be looking for someone who can protect the rim and guard pick and roll.
Watching Monk ball continues to be an unexpected pleasure. I knew he could shoot and finish above the rim but I had no idea he was this talented as a playmaker.
Yeah, the rim protection is a real problem. Or at least a physical low-post wing (in the vein of a PJ Tucker, Crowder) that can be an enforcer and not just make it a free ride to the rim as it is now. They go through stretches of absolutely elite defense, but it's almost all on the perimeter (Fox, Davion, Monk, Huerter have all had streches where they lock down) and a bit of Keegan here or there.
I wanted to give Metu a ton of praise tonight and he was really good for like 13 of his 16 minutes, but man he just let the Wenyen Gabriel torch him for like 3 straight possessions in the post before we went back to Sabonis. He's been a nice find with Holmes struggling, but I'm not sure he's the long-term answer at back-up 5 either. Len just doesn't have the footspeed to play anymore. Maybe time to give Queta a look? Give Moneke a look? Get KZ back in there?
Well we drafted one of the best rim protectors from the 2021 Draft, and so far the only real test we gave him was against Cleveland last year, on any other team Queta would have gotten alot more runs, and probably developed more too. Thats the problem with this organization, we draft players and wait for them to fade. And these are facts, since Fox 12 players have been drafted, 2 2nd rounders were traded and developed into solid players, only Halliburton grew into a proper NBA player, no big growth from Davion this year it seems, and the rest is either gone or never had a chance... Hopefully Keegan goes against this trend.
Monk is a much better passer then I thought. I know he was a combo guard at Kentucky and had some play making skills, however, his passing has exceeded expectations. I thought the Kings were getting a spot up 3 pt shooter when they signed Monk...they got much more than that. I like the energy on the team and it starts with Brown. High energy coach that is always talking to his players. And they seem to be listening. They are making eye contact with him and nodding when he speaks. No rolling of the eyes or causal disregard for what the coach says. I also like the energy on the bench starting with Dellavadova. He is almost like an assistant coach. The team is definitely on the right track.
Is it just me or are the Kings getting called more fairly by the refs since the botched GSW call and the subsequent bad press. I think Adam Silver must have sent a league wide memo to all the refs to not F' up on the Kings games.
It sure is easier to win and change the narrative when it is not 5-on-8 most nights! I sure hope this fair reffing continues from now on!
Monk is a much better passer then I thought. I know he was a combo guard at Kentucky and had some play making skills, however, his passing has exceeded expectations. I thought the Kings were getting a spot up 3 pt shooter when they signed Monk...they got much more than that. I like the energy on the team and it starts with Brown. High energy coach that is always talking to his players. And they seem to be listening. They are making eye contact with him and nodding when he speaks. No rolling of the eyes or causal disregard for what the coach says. I also like the energy on the bench starting with Dellavadova. He is almost like an assistant coach. The team is definitely on the right track.
Well we drafted one of the best rim protectors from the 2021 Draft, and so far the only real test we gave him was against Cleveland last year, on any other team Queta would have gotten alot more runs, and probably developed more too. Thats the problem with this organization, we draft players and wait for them to fade. And these are facts, since Fox 12 players have been drafted, 2 2nd rounders were traded and developed into solid players, only Halliburton grew into a proper NBA player, no big growth from Davion this year it seems, and the rest is either gone or never had a chance... Hopefully Keegan goes against this trend.