[Grades] Kings v. Jazz (#1) 10/17/2018
- Thread starter Tetsujin
- Start date
Good opener, all things considered.
Fox is dripping with potential and had a strong game. I expect he'll put up around 16/6/3/1 this season.
Bjelica was very good and showed he probably should have had a bigger role last year. He knows how to play and is skilled.
I don't think Justin Jackson is ever going to be more than a meh bench player. He doesn't contribute anything is his shot isn't falling. Like nothing. You can't be a good player in the league if you're that way inclined unless you're a true scorer, and he's not that either. I didn't like the pick at the time and like it even less now. He's a good kid though, hopefully he proves me wrong.
Harry and Marvin both need to get much better defensively. The potential is there but they missed multiple assignments.
WCS had an excellent game and could have a big year. I don't get the hate for him on this forum. I especially don't like that some people have a problem with him having interests outside of basketball, as if that means he doesn't care. Dude is a human, he's allowed to have multiple interests. It's his life, he's not just part of a video game. If he has a good year we have to pay him, we cannot continue to let talent walk.
Shump had the same problem he's always had, which is he thinks he's better offensively than he is. Solid defense but very poor shot selection. I'm not really a fan.
Yogi was good off the bench. Like his tenacity.
I think that's about it. Some stuff to like, but some avoidable mistakes which is always going to be a problem for a young team. Overall I think we're in for a long season, I will be surprised if we win more than 25 games, but there will be some fun along the way. Hopefully we see a lot of growth in our young guys by the end of the season, to give us more hope for next year.
Fox is dripping with potential and had a strong game. I expect he'll put up around 16/6/3/1 this season.
Bjelica was very good and showed he probably should have had a bigger role last year. He knows how to play and is skilled.
I don't think Justin Jackson is ever going to be more than a meh bench player. He doesn't contribute anything is his shot isn't falling. Like nothing. You can't be a good player in the league if you're that way inclined unless you're a true scorer, and he's not that either. I didn't like the pick at the time and like it even less now. He's a good kid though, hopefully he proves me wrong.
Harry and Marvin both need to get much better defensively. The potential is there but they missed multiple assignments.
WCS had an excellent game and could have a big year. I don't get the hate for him on this forum. I especially don't like that some people have a problem with him having interests outside of basketball, as if that means he doesn't care. Dude is a human, he's allowed to have multiple interests. It's his life, he's not just part of a video game. If he has a good year we have to pay him, we cannot continue to let talent walk.
Shump had the same problem he's always had, which is he thinks he's better offensively than he is. Solid defense but very poor shot selection. I'm not really a fan.
Yogi was good off the bench. Like his tenacity.
I think that's about it. Some stuff to like, but some avoidable mistakes which is always going to be a problem for a young team. Overall I think we're in for a long season, I will be surprised if we win more than 25 games, but there will be some fun along the way. Hopefully we see a lot of growth in our young guys by the end of the season, to give us more hope for next year.
I have to agree with you here. Utah represents everything right in sports, still recon you don't have to like them. Small market, solid fans, draft extremely well and build their team honestly. Even Stockton and Malone, two players many people hated, were not picked early in their drafts but damn was it fun watching our upcoming late 90's team battle it out with them.
Shumpert is essentially Temple if Temple was twice the black hole. And I think Temple's pretty trigger happy as is.
Unless it comes with All-Defense level defense (which Shumpert is not) I just don't care about offense-less wings. Playing defense and hustling and doing nothing else is something you hear about a D-league guy on a two-way, but at least that D-league guy isn't going to chuck up trash every time he touches the ball on O.
Unless it comes with All-Defense level defense (which Shumpert is not) I just don't care about offense-less wings. Playing defense and hustling and doing nothing else is something you hear about a D-league guy on a two-way, but at least that D-league guy isn't going to chuck up trash every time he touches the ball on O.
I'd like to see a rotation like the one below when Bogdan is back.
PG - Fox (34 min) / Ferrell (14 min)
SG - Hield (30 min) / Ferrell (12 min) / Bogdan (6 min)
SF - Bogdan (24 min) / Jackson (12 min) / Bjelica (12 min)
PF - Bjelica (14 min) / Giles (26 min) / Bagley (8 min)
C - Cauley-Stein (30 min) / Bagley (18 min)
Fox - 34 min
Hield - 30 min
Bogdanovic - 30 min
Cauley-Stein - 30 min
Ferrell - 26 min
Bjelica - 26 min
Giles - 26 min
Bagley - 26 min
Jackson - 12 min
I think that makes for a really high energy, active bench (Ferrell, Giles, & Bagley) who will be outworking their opponents on a routine basis.
Then in the starting unit, you have three 40% three point shooters on the floor in Hield, Bogdan, & Bjelica to help open up the floor for Fox. You also have guys 1-5 who can make a good pass and find the open man.
PG - Fox (34 min) / Ferrell (14 min)
SG - Hield (30 min) / Ferrell (12 min) / Bogdan (6 min)
SF - Bogdan (24 min) / Jackson (12 min) / Bjelica (12 min)
PF - Bjelica (14 min) / Giles (26 min) / Bagley (8 min)
C - Cauley-Stein (30 min) / Bagley (18 min)
Fox - 34 min
Hield - 30 min
Bogdanovic - 30 min
Cauley-Stein - 30 min
Ferrell - 26 min
Bjelica - 26 min
Giles - 26 min
Bagley - 26 min
Jackson - 12 min
I think that makes for a really high energy, active bench (Ferrell, Giles, & Bagley) who will be outworking their opponents on a routine basis.
Then in the starting unit, you have three 40% three point shooters on the floor in Hield, Bogdan, & Bjelica to help open up the floor for Fox. You also have guys 1-5 who can make a good pass and find the open man.
Couple observations from last night.
First off, I was at the game against the Jazz last week as well and will say this... what an incredible turn around! If Bogey is out there last night, we're winning that game. Loved the effort. Not only did we come out the gates fired up with a 9 to 0 start, we started the 2nd half competing as well.
Bjelica had a fantastic debut in a Kings uni. He plays surprisingly with some toughness. Might not be the best defender but he gets in there and is not afraid to disrupt a little bit in the paint. Smooth shot and has some very nice fundamentals. I think we're going to like this guy.
Jackson had a nice little start to the game, but man, will this guy ever knock down an open 3? His confidence from beyond the arc seems to be completely gone. Poor guy better start knocking those unguarded shots down or he'll find himself out of the league sooner rather than later.
Fox needs more ISO. Good things will happen when he attacks and puts his defender on skates. Great game by the kid.
Hield also looked very solid. Kept us in the game towards the end with those floaters. He's gotta cut back on the stupid turnovers though.
WCS had probably the most important performance of the night. Did he take that *** whoopin' from the other personal? Sure seemed that way to me. Hell of a game Willie.
Mason should have played 5 less minutes.
Shumpert brings some toughness and not much else. He needs about the same amount of minutes as Z-Bo.
Mason, Ferrell, Hield, Jackson and Shumpert had a combined THREE assists.
On the other side the ball. I'm sure people can't stand the guy but I love watching Joe Ingles play. He might be my favorite non King in the league right now. Dude competes.
All in all, if this team plays like this every night, I'll reconsider my position on renewing my tix for next year. Go Kings.
First off, I was at the game against the Jazz last week as well and will say this... what an incredible turn around! If Bogey is out there last night, we're winning that game. Loved the effort. Not only did we come out the gates fired up with a 9 to 0 start, we started the 2nd half competing as well.
Bjelica had a fantastic debut in a Kings uni. He plays surprisingly with some toughness. Might not be the best defender but he gets in there and is not afraid to disrupt a little bit in the paint. Smooth shot and has some very nice fundamentals. I think we're going to like this guy.
Jackson had a nice little start to the game, but man, will this guy ever knock down an open 3? His confidence from beyond the arc seems to be completely gone. Poor guy better start knocking those unguarded shots down or he'll find himself out of the league sooner rather than later.
Fox needs more ISO. Good things will happen when he attacks and puts his defender on skates. Great game by the kid.
Hield also looked very solid. Kept us in the game towards the end with those floaters. He's gotta cut back on the stupid turnovers though.
WCS had probably the most important performance of the night. Did he take that *** whoopin' from the other personal? Sure seemed that way to me. Hell of a game Willie.
Mason should have played 5 less minutes.
Shumpert brings some toughness and not much else. He needs about the same amount of minutes as Z-Bo.
Mason, Ferrell, Hield, Jackson and Shumpert had a combined THREE assists.
On the other side the ball. I'm sure people can't stand the guy but I love watching Joe Ingles play. He might be my favorite non King in the league right now. Dude competes.
All in all, if this team plays like this every night, I'll reconsider my position on renewing my tix for next year. Go Kings.
I was going to go back and edit that afterward and clarify it but I got lazy.
The Kings shot a really high percentage from 2 last night and we know that's not going to happen all that often. On the other hand, the Kings almost always shoot well from 3. Those attempts need to go up and the attempts from 2 in the mid range need to go down in order for this team to be successful in the long run. Last night they kept the game close by shooting abnormally well from inside the arc but that can't be counted on on a game by game basis because it won't support winning basketball in the future. But yeah you're right, the massive difference in free throws last night was the difference in the game.
I absolutely thought the officiating was pro Jazz. Remember Buddy's foul on Donovan Mitchell? The refs just react to players acting out there. If the ref doesn't see the foul, then don't blow the whistle when these guys flail all around because they aren't playing basketball, they're just pretending to get fouled any time they screw up or feel someone touch them. I really don't like where the NBA is headed with all these rules to call even more ticky tack fouls. They just keep giving the officials more and more power to sway the games the way they want them to be swayed. I'm not saying that was exactly what was happening last night but it does give the officials the chance to "2002 Western Conference Finals" a team in the playoffs that the NBA doesn't deem good for business.
The Kings shot a really high percentage from 2 last night and we know that's not going to happen all that often. On the other hand, the Kings almost always shoot well from 3. Those attempts need to go up and the attempts from 2 in the mid range need to go down in order for this team to be successful in the long run. Last night they kept the game close by shooting abnormally well from inside the arc but that can't be counted on on a game by game basis because it won't support winning basketball in the future. But yeah you're right, the massive difference in free throws last night was the difference in the game.
I absolutely thought the officiating was pro Jazz. Remember Buddy's foul on Donovan Mitchell? The refs just react to players acting out there. If the ref doesn't see the foul, then don't blow the whistle when these guys flail all around because they aren't playing basketball, they're just pretending to get fouled any time they screw up or feel someone touch them. I really don't like where the NBA is headed with all these rules to call even more ticky tack fouls. They just keep giving the officials more and more power to sway the games the way they want them to be swayed. I'm not saying that was exactly what was happening last night but it does give the officials the chance to "2002 Western Conference Finals" a team in the playoffs that the NBA doesn't deem good for business.
One good example off the top of my head was Willie’s 2 handed alley oop dunk. Gobert clearly hit him in the face, but no foul was called. Yet when Donovan Mitchell initiates contact with Willie by jumping into him, a foul is called once he didn’t convert.
I thought Doug Christie made a good point that when a player does what Mitchell did, they open themselves up for some contact. It should have been a no call, especially if they aren’t going to give Willie the call on the other end against Gobert (who hits people all the time).
BTW, I was so glad to see Willie expose Gobert with his quickness and speed. He should be able to do that every time they play.
I thought Doug Christie made a good point that when a player does what Mitchell did, they open themselves up for some contact. It should have been a no call, especially if they aren’t going to give Willie the call on the other end against Gobert (who hits people all the time).
BTW, I was so glad to see Willie expose Gobert with his quickness and speed. He should be able to do that every time they play.
Last edited:
This is becoming a massive problem. With young guys, you can excuse poor play if they're showing just about anything on the court. "Oh, he's bad on offense right now, but he brings it every night on the defensive end and crashes the glass." Something along those lines.
But with JJ, we're just getting an absolute nothing from him if he doesn't shoot 7-12. No energy, no rebounding, no defense, no playmaking. And he'd be usable if he were a lights out 40% 3pt shooter, but he isn't.
But with JJ, we're just getting an absolute nothing from him if he doesn't shoot 7-12. No energy, no rebounding, no defense, no playmaking. And he'd be usable if he were a lights out 40% 3pt shooter, but he isn't.
I see what you did there.
I was sitting in other seats with my wife. I could not find a Kings fan willing to pay even half price. at 10 minutes till tipoff they were unsold and available to any Kings fan with a computer to buy for under a hundred bucks each.
Somebody finally bought them on Seatgeek at 6:58PM for $92 bucks apiece. I think dynamic face value was about $275... I didn't know it was a Jazz fan. It took desperation to get them sold at all.
Kings tickets are grossly overpriced... some games I'm gonna have to take what I can get when I have double-sets. I'm sorry.
I was sitting in other seats with my wife. I could not find a Kings fan willing to pay even half price. at 10 minutes till tipoff they were unsold and available to any Kings fan with a computer to buy for under a hundred bucks each.
Somebody finally bought them on Seatgeek at 6:58PM for $92 bucks apiece. I think dynamic face value was about $275... I didn't know it was a Jazz fan. It took desperation to get them sold at all.
Kings tickets are grossly overpriced... some games I'm gonna have to take what I can get when I have double-sets. I'm sorry.
Cut Bmac or ZBo and sign Weyen full contract already. Brings so mych more positive impact than JJ or Shump. Ridiculous he is on a 2 way while we have Bmac and a forbidden to be played ZBo on the roster.
Vlade ad Co. that desperate for JJ to not be a bust that they want to hide away wenyen whose clearly played better?
Conspiracy?
Vlade ad Co. that desperate for JJ to not be a bust that they want to hide away wenyen whose clearly played better?
Conspiracy?
If Fox had been more agressive, he would have needed new shoes by the 4th quarter.
And Buddy wasn't hitting his 3's. Maybe if he had taken more of them, he would have made more of them. But he also could have put us down by 20 if he had taken and missed 4 3-pointers rather than making 2 of 4 mid-range shots (which kept us close).
And Buddy wasn't hitting his 3's. Maybe if he had taken more of them, he would have made more of them. But he also could have put us down by 20 if he had taken and missed 4 3-pointers rather than making 2 of 4 mid-range shots (which kept us close).