[Game] Kings @ Pistons 1-19 4PT/7ET

Great game by Buddy. Scored 35 and led the team in rebounds. His defense was great.

The Kings' defense won this game for them. They held the Pistons to 15 points? in the 4th quarter. The 82 game season is long and grinding. Sometimes the shots don't fall except for Buddy. Then you stay in the game with defense, rebounding and pounding the ball inside. Bagley stood up to Griffin. He got schooled a few times but he will learn a lot in games like this. Griffin is a skilled player and very strong, but has the emotional development of a middle school player.

The Kings got outrebounded a again. Their offense was stagnant a lot of the time. But they won on the road????!!!!!!.

There has been a change in the Kings' character in the last few weeks. The high flying Kings that scored 140 in the beginning of the season while giving up 130 have learned to play much better defense. The fourth quarter was especially good. Even on nights when the shots don't fall the Kings are right there at the end. They have been holding opponents to around 100 points lately. The defense is there. Next comes better rebounding. Then we can maybe start talking about playoffs. They are getting close.
 
Marvin MUST quicken his decision making/passing ability
I hear this often but he has to read the defense when he catches. He is setting up his man to drive or shoot the midrange go baseline or middle. Actually going too fast can get him in trouble because he is not identifying his advantage. As an aside, Blake is a good comp for Bagley maybe even better than Bosh. They are the same size explosive and agile with power game around the hoop and face up game away. Griffin sizes up the defense in similar way before making his move and they both have that quick first step. Bagley is not the passer that Griffin is but he can get there.
 
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Giles lack of play time shows on defense where he struggles with team defense positioning and angles. You often hear Doug say should have come from side X. Some of this leads to fouls as he fails to get into the right position in time.

That being said, I have seen a couple instances of Harry switching onto a guard and stopping dribble penetration. So I think his defense will come.
 
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I hear this often but he has to read the defense when he catches. He is setting up his man to drive or shoot the midrange go baseline or middle. Actually going too fast can get him in trouble because he is not identifying his advantage. As an aside, Blake is a good comp for Bagley maybe even better than Bosh. There are the same size explosive and agile with power game around the hoop and face up game away. Griffin sizes up the defense in similar way before making his move and they both have that quick first step. Bagley is not the passer that Griffin is but he can get there.
Marvin played on an AAU team coached by his father (an ex-football player) where he was the main player. At Duke he reclassified and entered school in September so he missed an entire summer of Skill development. Remember he also only played 2 years of high school ball.

I expect this coming summer to be huge for Marvin. The team culture appears set to move the ball (thanks to Fox’s growth and development) and Marvin will fit in.
 
We laughed at the time. But it's actually not going to be too far off. IMO he's the second best shooter in the league that is a full player.
The stats support this. You don't have even have to qualify it with an IMO. Buddy is up to 61% TS% (career best) and leads NBA in three % with over 250 attempts and 4th overall one place ahead of Curry. He's so awesome. I noticed there are times when he gets set his feet close together. It is a slight tweak to his mechanics. Normally on a catch shot your feet are about shoulder width apart. But he will move his feet even closer than this. By my unofficial tally his shot goes in more with his feet close together, something about his motion being even more compact perhaps.
 
The stats support this. You don't have even have to qualify it with an IMO. Buddy is up to 61% TS% (career best) and leads NBA in three % with over 250 attempts and 4th overall one place ahead of Curry. He's so awesome. I noticed there are times when he gets set his feet close together. It is a slight tweak to his mechanics. Normally on a catch shot your feet are about shoulder width apart. But he will move his feet even closer than this. By my unofficial tally his shot goes in more with his feet close together, something about his motion being even more compact perhaps.
In retrospect how disastrous was the Cousins trade for the Pelicans? Imagine the Pels with AD and Buddy on one side of the floor. Plus the 10th pick of so from 2017.
 
Great defense in last 6 mins and we finally ran plays for Buddy. I don’t think he scored a single basket in the 3rd and he must have had 15-17 pts in the last 5 mins.

By the way, I am curious why the last play is not a double dribble. My quick take was he bobbled the ball but as soon as he got it he took a dribble which then means possession, right? He then picks up the ball and dribbles again to go between the 2 defenders. After watching the replay again, I do think it was a double dribble and I think he froze the Detroit defenders when he took that dribble to step through. Please correct me if I’m not understanding the rule.
It is not a double dribble. He did not have possession when he first touched it. So he is able to catch the ball (gain possession) then dribble it and this is what he did. We see this every game. This has been a point of contention in the league and I think what happened is that the competition committee grants leniency because it makes for more action and high scoring. If a chest pass is thrown to a player for example and he doesn't catch it cleanly with both hands and the ball bounces he then secures it. Then he is allowed to dribble the ball. The key is whether he had clear possession on the first attempted catch. Buddy didn't and so there is no violation. I didn't hear them but Kayte and Koz should know better.
 
In retrospect how disastrous was the Cousins trade for the Pelicans? Imagine the Pels with AD and Buddy on one side of the floor. Plus the 10th pick of so from 2017.
Perhaps but the trade was ultimately disastrous for the Pels not because of the components of the trade but because of the Achilles. By the way Boogie looked pretty good in his first game. He's going to win a title. He's going to set picks for shooters and play the role Draymond does as a high post facilitator. I may be differ from other Kings fans but I think Boogie on the Warriors is must-watch TV. It is not all roses for them however and this makes it intriguing. The rules have changed since his injury where the refs are allowing less contact. You think Boogie had problems with the officials before? Just wait! With his decreased mobility and physical style Boogie is going to get whistled up so much. He's going to lose his mind which I find endlessly entertaining. :p. He fouled on in 15 minutes against the Clips. I expect him to super foul prone with refs hypersensitivity to player contact and as opponents challenge his mobility in the pick and roll.
 
In retrospect how disastrous was the Cousins trade for the Pelicans? Imagine the Pels with AD and Buddy on one side of the floor. Plus the 10th pick of so from 2017.
I wouldn't call it disastrous. Everyone assumed the Pelicans would latch the 8th seed after trading for Cousins, but they still sucked. In the following year, they were playing ok with Cousins dominating, but he went down with his injury....and turns out, they're better without him.
If Cousins never got injured, I think you would've saw the Pelicans easily retain him. It was their own decision to move on imo.

If we're being honest, their bigger flop was drafting Buddy instead of Murray.. Buddy is older than AD.
 
Just watched the postgame show again. I must say I’m greatly annoyed with Koz. He just has nothing to add except what a boring game it was and the refs missed the double dribble and GAVE the game to the Kings. Nothing about other missed calls, including Zaza’s flagrant. Nothing about how the Kings stayed close even when their shots weren’t falling and made their move when the game was on the line. If you’re that bored, Koz, go find another job.
 

kingsboi

Hall of Famer
I hear this often but he has to read the defense when he catches. He is setting up his man to drive or shoot the midrange go baseline or middle. Actually going too fast can get him in trouble because he is not identifying his advantage. As an aside, Blake is a good comp for Bagley maybe even better than Bosh. They are the same size explosive and agile with power game around the hoop and face up game away. Griffin sizes up the defense in similar way before making his move and they both have that quick first step. Bagley is not the passer that Griffin is but he can get there.
if Bagley develops into a Bosh or Blake I'd consider this pick a success
 
if Bagley develops into a Bosh or Blake I'd consider this pick a success
Bagley is adjusting faster to the league and more productive than D-Fox over the first 40 games of their respective careers. To be fair it is easier to adjust with the position Bagley plays than PG. The thing to look for on the horizon with Bagley is whether Joerger adds him to the starting lineup over Bjelica. I think this is a move the coach is pondering if Bjelica continues to struggle and MB3 continues to excel. In fact I predict this move happens in the next 10 games.
 
Bagley is adjusting faster to the league and more productive than D-Fox over the first 40 games of their respective careers. To be fair it is easier to adjust with the position Bagley plays than PG. The thing to look for on the horizon with Bagley is whether Joerger adds him to the starting lineup over Bjelica. I think this is a move the coach is pondering if Bjelica continues to struggle and MB3 continues to excel. In fact I predict this move happens in the next 10 games.
I hope not. Beli does a lot of things in terms of moving the ball that Bagley doesn’t do yet. WCS is too much the same player as Bagley for them to play together.
 

kingsboi

Hall of Famer
Bagley is adjusting faster to the league and more productive than D-Fox over the first 40 games of their respective careers. To be fair it is easier to adjust with the position Bagley plays than PG. The thing to look for on the horizon with Bagley is whether Joerger adds him to the starting lineup over Bjelica. I think this is a move the coach is pondering if Bjelica continues to struggle and MB3 continues to excel. In fact I predict this move happens in the next 10 games.
Bagley should of started a long time ago, why he hasn't yet is because he doesn't space the floor for Fox as much as Bjelica does. We saw how the Kings offense struggled yesterday versus Detroit when Willie & Bagley were playing together because neither can space the floor and if it wasn't for Hield's hot shooting, the Kings walk out with a L. With that said, Willie isn't going to get reduced to a bench role so it's pick your poison and do you give up offense for more size and defense or continue on the path they have been with Bjelica and hope he eventually gets his act right.
 
In retrospect how disastrous was the Cousins trade for the Pelicans? Imagine the Pels with AD and Buddy on one side of the floor. Plus the 10th pick of so from 2017.
They could have had a team like:

PG - Holiday / Moore / Jackson
SG - Mitchell / Hield / Clark
SF - Miller / Hill
PF - Mirotic / Randle / Diallo
C - Davis / Okafor

A guard rotation of Holiday, Mitchell, & Hield would have been pretty lethal. That team is an Otto Porter away from being an excellent team.
 
Just watched the postgame show again. I must say I’m greatly annoyed with Koz. He just has nothing to add except what a boring game it was and the refs missed the double dribble and GAVE the game to the Kings. Nothing about other missed calls, including Zaza’s flagrant. Nothing about how the Kings stayed close even when their shots weren’t falling and made their move when the game was on the line. If you’re that bored, Koz, go find another job.
Yeah I loved Koz back in the Skyline Lounge days at Arco Arena... but he's washed up.
 
The stats support this. You don't have even have to qualify it with an IMO. Buddy is up to 61% TS% (career best) and leads NBA in three % with over 250 attempts and 4th overall one place ahead of Curry. He's so awesome. I noticed there are times when he gets set his feet close together. It is a slight tweak to his mechanics. Normally on a catch shot your feet are about shoulder width apart. But he will move his feet even closer than this. By my unofficial tally his shot goes in more with his feet close together, something about his motion being even more compact perhaps.
His stats gave gone up since I posted that!! But yes! No qualifier even needed anymore.

When he gets his feet closer together, it appears he's primarily lifting off the right leg. I think this is both a speed and accuracy improvement for advanced shooters. Curry does a similar thing when he's getting shots off quickly. It seems to be a way to get comfortable shooting when you have to get your shot off quickly and can't get both feet around to square up, but if you can get your main leg under you and shoot off that, while the other foot if there for stability, it opens up a lot more shots for you. Basically a way of being more accurate in traffic.
 
Just watched the postgame show again. I must say I’m greatly annoyed with Koz. He just has nothing to add except what a boring game it was and the refs missed the double dribble and GAVE the game to the Kings. Nothing about other missed calls, including Zaza’s flagrant. Nothing about how the Kings stayed close even when their shots weren’t falling and made their move when the game was on the line. If you’re that bored, Koz, go find another job.
To be fair, Kayte was saying the same too. My wife and I both thought the post game coverage and their commentary was bad. How about actually breaking down the play instead of keep saying something that may or may not be true? If it involved whether the clock expired or not, you know they’d look at it a dozen times and analyze it. They could have easily done that here to finally see that it was NOT a double dribble thus stop questioning it and allow us to enjoy the W!

And I’ll say this again regarding Grant Napear’s never-ending rant on players complaining about foul calls — stop complaining about their complaining you freaking hypocrite! (Now I’m a hypocrite too!) While I agree the incessant complaining by players is tiresome, there’s no need to continually double down on it. We get it!
 
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