[Game] Kings @ Lakers - Tuesday, Jan. 9 - 7:30 PT

[John Galt]

It's a classic case of the sins of the father falling upon the son. The criticism of Ball, such as there is, ought to be focused on his funky shot which isn't falling as well in the NBA as it was in college. The idea that he's a punk, or that he needs to keep his mouth shut doesn't appear to have any basis in reality. On the court, and in interviews, he is respectful, quiet, even socially awkward. His answers to questions tend to be laconic. He is, if anything, the polar opposite of his father. Hey, LaVar is a real pain in the neck, but it's completely unfair to put that on Lonzo.

I get that.. and absent the drama I'd like to have Lonzo Ball on my team you can tell he is going to be a triple double machine.

But I think he really really blew it in that quick interview about Luke. Very passive aggressive and wasted an opportunity to show he is bought in and a team guy. I think he needs to find a way to clean that up.

He said (paraphrasing because I don't want to google it): "I'm not the one who decides who the coach will be". "I'll play for anybody". "It's not up to me who coaches the team". Stuff like that. He didn't say anything to counter his dad's noise that Luke has lost the locker room.

If I were them I would ship him out if he can't/won't do better than that. Surely he would command a great return on the trade market. Anthony Davis?

He fanned the flames when he should have been snuffing them out. It makes it seem that possibly, he is a selfish guy even as he racks up assists.

 

[Tetsujin]

Kings fans two games ago: WILLIE IS A BEAST AND WE SHOULD RE-SIGN HIM NOW!!!!1!!!1

Kings fans now after one ho-hum performance: WILLIE IS A BUST AND WE SHOULD BUS HIM OUT OF HERE AND ALSO Z-BO AND STUFF

 

[SacTownKid]

Either that or they are creatively tanking.
;-)

As a card carrying member of the LIN crowd, Dave is doing a great job of not letting the league know what our true starting line up truly is. Hard to say playing X guy is clearly tanking.

That's true and something I've thought myself multiple times.

 

[ESP47]

There has been a lot of talk lately about playing both Randolph & Fox at the same time so I thought I would add some stats to the discussion:

View attachment 7147
*PPP = points per possession

So far this year, our team wins more with Fox off the court. It also shows that our team is more competitive with both Fox & Randolph on the floor than when it is just Fox on the floor.

However, Fox's stat line and INDIVIDUAL performance improves when Fox is on the court without Randolph:
View attachment 7148

So although Fox doesn't seem as effective or aggressive with Randolph on the court, the TEAM is still doing better with both of them on the floor (rather than just Fox). Given our current situation which should be focused on developing our young guys (especially the player we took 5th this year), we should be putting them in positions to succeed even if it results in more losses in the short term.

That's about what I suspected. Fox is rated as one of the worst players in the league at the moment but I'm more concerned with him being rated as one of the better players in the league in a few years, rather than what lineups work better for wins and losses this year.

 

[SacTownKid]

Grant or Jerry made the comment a while back that when Willie plays good, the Kings play good. but, I think it is just the opposite, that when the Kings play good, Willie plays good. Defense is a team effort, Willie is active, switching, playing all over the floor, but when the team defense collapses, when defensive rotations are missed, when people miss assignments, it also affects Willie's defensive play. It is said that Willie can guard all 5 positions, even if that is true, he cannot guard them all at once. When the team defense is bad, Willie spends a lot of more time guarding on the perimeter away from the basket making it harder to gather a rebound and also limiting his rim protection. When the team defense is bad, when our guards and wings get lost on defense, I see a lot of more times that Willie is the one closing out on the wide open perimeter shooter, having to leave his man in the paint, who, if the defense does not rotate quickly enough, is open for an easy basket. Also, this takes his momentum away from the basket making it harder to get a rebound. Offensively, when the team is sluggish and does not move the ball well, it limits his offensive effectiveness. Against the Lakers, it looked like the offense was just out of synch. I saw several times where Willie was open for the lob or had inside post position, but they were slow to react and did not get him the ball. He tried to make his own offensive plays several times, but that is not a major part of his game. None of Willie's 3 baskets were assisted.

Exactly. Willie, as a function of the offense he can help but he's just not the type of player to be the function of the offense. Fox can make your offense run, Bogdan can do a bit of everything, and Buddy is a new age style SG who can get rolling like no tomorrow. Players like Buddy can change the game for you offensively when they do. The game is so dependent on making 3's these days that beating them back with nothing but mid paint 2's is going to put you in too much of a hole if you don't defend the high percentage 3's well. It's a bit frustrating that they seemingly do very little to make a Buddy Hield explosion happen every night. If you pay attention to Buddy offensively when he gets going a little bit the entire defenses scheme changes to focus on him. Willie, not so much. Unless they decide to switch pick and roll or pack the paint which teams are starting to do. Teams are scouting for Buddy by the looks of their defense and the Kings aren't making teams pay for that enough.

 

[sactowndog]

Grant or Jerry made the comment a while back that when Willie plays good, the Kings play good. but, I think it is just the opposite, that when the Kings play good, Willie plays good. Defense is a team effort, Willie is active, switching, playing all over the floor, but when the team defense collapses, when defensive rotations are missed, when people miss assignments, it also affects Willie's defensive play. It is said that Willie can guard all 5 positions, even if that is true, he cannot guard them all at once. When the team defense is bad, Willie spends a lot of more time guarding on the perimeter away from the basket making it harder to gather a rebound and also limiting his rim protection. When the team defense is bad, when our guards and wings get lost on defense, I see a lot of more times that Willie is the one closing out on the wide open perimeter shooter, having to leave his man in the paint, who, if the defense does not rotate quickly enough, is open for an easy basket. Also, this takes his momentum away from the basket making it harder to get a rebound. Offensively, when the team is sluggish and does not move the ball well, it limits his offensive effectiveness. Against the Lakers, it looked like the offense was just out of synch. I saw several times where Willie was open for the lob or had inside post position, but they were slow to react and did not get him the ball. He tried to make his own offensive plays several times, but that is not a major part of his game. None of Willie's 3 baskets were assisted.

Just because my wife bitches at me about this topic all the time and my son lost a job offer due to poor writing.... plays well (well=adverb) versus using plays good (good=adjective). So the good doctor is correct and plays well is correct. Plays good is incorrect.

Sorry for being a pain in the ass.

 

[JCTNKINGFAN]

Just because my wife bitches at me about this topic all the time and my son lost a job offer due to poor writing.... plays well (well=adverb) versus using plays good (good=adjective). So the good doctor is correct and plays well is correct. Plays good is incorrect.

Sorry for being a pain in the ass.

Well, it was kind of in keeping with the quote from Jerry or Grant, they said "good", not "well", but if you feel the need to police grammar on this forum, have at it. I also put a period after "but" instead of the intended comma and messed up the structure of the intended run on sentence.

 

[gunks]

Kings fans two games ago: WILLIE IS A BEAST AND WE SHOULD RE-SIGN HIM NOW!!!!1!!!1

Kings fans now after one ho-hum performance: WILLIE IS A BUST AND WE SHOULD BUS HIM OUT OF HERE AND ALSO Z-BO AND STUFF

To be fair, WCS either plays like a stud or complete garbage, so I get where all the bi-polar posts are coming from.

Hopefully he has one of his "on" games tonight, so we can get back to talking about maxing him out.

Anything less? Well, I just hope we can at least get a 2nd round pick for him.

 

[Hoovtrain]

Hill should take more shots to the plums