[Game] Kings @ Pelicans - Thursday, March 28 - 5:00PT/8:00ET
- Thread starter jcassio
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Better question is why if you are down 3 do you not stack the deck with 3 point shooting? Why is Buddy the only realistic target to make that basket at the end of the game? Dave Joerger was always really good about situational subbing in fact maybe he overthought it at times. I wonder if someone told him to cut it out or something. They might want to see certain players out there in crunch time for learning experience. Strange.
If people didn't see this team's flaw the last game, then I'm not sure what to tell you about tonight's lost. People labeled me as a debbie downer, but we barely beat a lottery Mavs team without 4 of their original starters on the back of a Fox run.
I think they just don't bring enough effort every night. We are too talented to lose games like these. Look at the Utah Jazz. They're 5th seed in the NBA on a team being led by a 2nd year player in Donovan Mitchell. Their 2nd best player is Rudy Gobert... but look at their 3rd best player... Ricky Rubio.
I'm not going to say Joeger isn't getting enough out of these guys because we've seen rapid improvements from last year... but jeez. There's less talented teams out there with better records than us and I don't know how.
I think they just don't bring enough effort every night. We are too talented to lose games like these. Look at the Utah Jazz. They're 5th seed in the NBA on a team being led by a 2nd year player in Donovan Mitchell. Their 2nd best player is Rudy Gobert... but look at their 3rd best player... Ricky Rubio.
I'm not going to say Joeger isn't getting enough out of these guys because we've seen rapid improvements from last year... but jeez. There's less talented teams out there with better records than us and I don't know how.
Hahaha.
When you think about it though how young is this team really? Bogdan is 26, Buddy 26, Barnes is 26 with championship experience, Willie is going to be 26, Yogi is near 26, Bjelica is 30, Kosta 30, Brewer is 32. Outside of Fox, Giles, and Bagley any age excuse can't really fly. And those 3 don't exactly play like typical young players. They all come from top notch programs and we're clearly ready from day 1 types.
When you think about it though how young is this team really? Bogdan is 26, Buddy 26, Barnes is 26 with championship experience, Willie is going to be 26, Yogi is near 26, Bjelica is 30, Kosta 30, Brewer is 32. Outside of Fox, Giles, and Bagley any age excuse can't really fly. And those 3 don't exactly play like typical young players. They all come from top notch programs and we're clearly ready from day 1 types.
Not to derail but Okafor does deserve some credit. When he gets a chance to be the man down low he responds. Tough luck for him that the league isn't into post up play right now but both now and when he was in Brooklyn had his team given him the keys he'd be taking a bunch of lunch money from game to game.
Barnes and Buddy are at the age where they should be starting to play their best basketball, and they are. Overall, I don't think anyone can point to them as being why this team can't get over the hump. Bogdan's regression is well-noted. Bjelica and WCS aren't starting caliber bigs. Yogi's an average backup. Fox, Bagley, and Giles are ahead of the curve, but they still have a ton of experience, skill, and/or strength left to gain.
There's a lot of room to grow, but I don't really agree with the concept that all these players are good, that we shouldn't tinker with it and just let them grow. No, there's a good 5-6 man core here but this team is far from complete. They're not going to just waltz into the playoffs just by Fox, Bagley, and Giles' natural progression.
There's a lot of room to grow, but I don't really agree with the concept that all these players are good, that we shouldn't tinker with it and just let them grow. No, there's a good 5-6 man core here but this team is far from complete. They're not going to just waltz into the playoffs just by Fox, Bagley, and Giles' natural progression.
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I think In a lot of ways the Kings have played under their heads. Kings never played much better than .500 all season. They have been consistently the same type of constantly inconsistent all season. so the “way over their heads” is pretty dramatic. Over expectations yes but it was safe to say they were way underestimated back in
December. The frustration has been all season their inability to make the next step. They get a clearing and they trip over their own feet. They have blown an obscene amount of games. Obscene amount! Usually coming down to a couple of minutes of unspeakably nonsensical basketball which is combination of youth, poor defense(which is tied to the teams youth and lack of strength up front), lack of identity outside of pace pace pace,and in a lot of cases questionable coaching.
The question isnt talent or roster. It’s working out the kinks that prevented the Kings from winning atleast 8 games off the top off my head that they should’ve won but didn’t which can only to a certain point be chalked up to youth...
I wanted a winning season. I’ll have to settle for a “would’ve been a playoff team if they played in the East” and atleast we have a young core we can truly build on. Kings may win 40 games on raw talent alone and we all know they should’ve won more. We can easily point to the areas of weakness for this offseason and I have no doubt we have two budding stars and the luxury of the teams best players outside of Buddy being 21 and 20 respectively. They aren’t even in the intermediate phases of entering their prime yet but they are already high impact players for a team that was competing out west. We’ll see if Coach is the guy
December. The frustration has been all season their inability to make the next step. They get a clearing and they trip over their own feet. They have blown an obscene amount of games. Obscene amount! Usually coming down to a couple of minutes of unspeakably nonsensical basketball which is combination of youth, poor defense(which is tied to the teams youth and lack of strength up front), lack of identity outside of pace pace pace,and in a lot of cases questionable coaching.
The question isnt talent or roster. It’s working out the kinks that prevented the Kings from winning atleast 8 games off the top off my head that they should’ve won but didn’t which can only to a certain point be chalked up to youth...
I wanted a winning season. I’ll have to settle for a “would’ve been a playoff team if they played in the East” and atleast we have a young core we can truly build on. Kings may win 40 games on raw talent alone and we all know they should’ve won more. We can easily point to the areas of weakness for this offseason and I have no doubt we have two budding stars and the luxury of the teams best players outside of Buddy being 21 and 20 respectively. They aren’t even in the intermediate phases of entering their prime yet but they are already high impact players for a team that was competing out west. We’ll see if Coach is the guy
For sure, but the good 5-6 man core is the bulk of the teams talent so they should be better than this IMO. Playoffs I'm not sure we're possible this year with the way the 6-8 spot balanced back out to around being a 50 win threshold. Again, I can't see age being an excuse for the failures of this year. This isn't a team full of 20 year olds. I know expectations were low coming in but I think the only thing that proves is how disastrously bad that 30th in pace team was being used last year. If used properly they should have a shot with Fox, Buddy, Barnes, and Bagley as your talent core. In fact, if used properly and they don't break into the middle of the pack at least of the playoff race within the next 2 years then that should be a disappointed regardless of who is playing next to them.
Yes, since the away Nuggets game, the Kings have been sub-standard. There is an air of ambivalence about - almost like the same old S$^% is happening. Really the Barnes trade has not paid off this season, especially at his salary he will collect next year. He's being paid close to All-Star money for average play so far. He is singled out as he will likely be the highest paid player on the team next year and the 33rd highest paid player in the league. They'll have a short leash if they try to coast like they have recently next season. But no way there's marked improvement unless there's a doubling of efforts to defense. There has to be full-buy-in - the team is pretty ugly on defense - constantly trying to outscore first.
Next year has me worried. It's not just that they could be overachieving, there are many things that could go wrong.
What if they fail to upgrade in the offseason?
What if they resign WCS to a bad contract and he mails it in?
What if the Williams/Joerger drama reaches a boiling point?
What if Joerger experiments again and it backfires (His experiment this year sucked and he tried it at the worst possible time.)
What if they fail to upgrade in the offseason?
What if they resign WCS to a bad contract and he mails it in?
What if the Williams/Joerger drama reaches a boiling point?
What if Joerger experiments again and it backfires (His experiment this year sucked and he tried it at the worst possible time.)
Joerger kept Buddy out of the game in crunch time during that terrible loss to Minnesota and got killed for it. Buddy was having a significantly worse game that night then he had tonight(he scored 27 points on 11-21 shooting tonight) but it usually doesn’t matter how many threes he’s missed before. You don’t want to explain why the leading scorer is out of the game in crunch time in a loss. Especially a guy like Buddy who has often turned a 1 for 7 into a 4-10 or 5-11 in a matter of minutes. Can’t believe he’s missing so many open threes though. It started in that Denver game. Anyway, I’m sure his three pointer will be as reliable as just about anybody’s in the big picture despite this stretch.
This teams defensive lapses worry me. They just don’t guard well for any consistent length of time. There were so many times tonight they’d be in position to go on a run to forge a decent lead and they just couldn’t get that run because they’d surrender 6-8 straight points.
I get that, statistically, New Orleans is among the higher scoring teams. But let’s be real. They also don’t have AD or Holiday in the lineup. The KINGS allowed a non-established player named Wood to basically play the role of AD offensively. Ridiculous.
This team plays hard a lot of the time, especially with the urgency of trailing. But they don’t play well with a lead or when they feel they are the superior team. Like many young teams before them, they appear to play the game as if they foolishly believe they can flip the proverbial switch when they need to. Tonight was yet another example of why that’s a very bad habit.
The KINGS fielded a more talented team than what NO fielded tonight. There’s no excuse for the loss except lack of focus and poor defense.
They played the same way against Dallas the other night but were fortunate that Buddy Hield made a couple big shots in the last 2 minutes to get the cushion they needed. But for most the game they couldn’t create any separation due to their defense.
I get that, statistically, New Orleans is among the higher scoring teams. But let’s be real. They also don’t have AD or Holiday in the lineup. The KINGS allowed a non-established player named Wood to basically play the role of AD offensively. Ridiculous.
This team plays hard a lot of the time, especially with the urgency of trailing. But they don’t play well with a lead or when they feel they are the superior team. Like many young teams before them, they appear to play the game as if they foolishly believe they can flip the proverbial switch when they need to. Tonight was yet another example of why that’s a very bad habit.
The KINGS fielded a more talented team than what NO fielded tonight. There’s no excuse for the loss except lack of focus and poor defense.
They played the same way against Dallas the other night but were fortunate that Buddy Hield made a couple big shots in the last 2 minutes to get the cushion they needed. But for most the game they couldn’t create any separation due to their defense.
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The Kings simply played down to the level of their competition tonight. Way, way, waaaaaay down. The only guy who truly played very good defense was Fox.
The best thing I saw all night was at the beginning of the game when Fox dribbled to the right side of the basket and made a nice 10-footer with his right hand. He's going to destroy all those tendencies that the opposition has in their scouting book on him. Then he's going to obliterate them.
The best thing I saw all night was at the beginning of the game when Fox dribbled to the right side of the basket and made a nice 10-footer with his right hand. He's going to destroy all those tendencies that the opposition has in their scouting book on him. Then he's going to obliterate them.
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