[Grades] Kings v. Raptors 1/11/12

[Rockmeister]

Nice win for the Kings, especially on the road!!

Way to go Isiah Thomas.

 

[Kingster]

Jimmer makes me sad. For a supposedly smart player he's taking a very long time learning not to leave his feet to pass the ball. I think at this moment he's still not comfortable out there, leading to indecision. Doesn't help that Salmons is CLEARLY ignoring him. Then again, Salmons kinda ignores everyone. Jimmer tends to look like he doesn't know whether to shoot or to pass. That's the only reason I can think of to explain why he keeps taking these little fade away shot things that usually barely get over the defender's arms.

DMC played a really good game, but still needs to get better at finishing around the rim. For such a talented player it's strange that he doesn't seem to have a baby hook that most big players have. Tyreke needs to take those 3s when the defense gives him that much space, and realise that if they are giving him that much space they're probably not going to bite on his pump fakes. He can shoot them when he gets his legs into them.

Sad, but true on Salmons.

Jimmer is obviously not close to being a point guard right now. He's just got to do what he does best - shoot the rock. The best thing he did all night was bury an open 3 pointer as he came down the court on a fast break. It's shooting the ball in those open court fluid fast break situations that he should be able to make his bones on this year. Maybe next year he can refine his pg skills.

 

[mac]

A win on the road is sooo nice, even against Toronto.

Some of the things I liked in this game:

I loved it when Tyreke got the ball on the wing and took two quick and powerful steps to the basket and made a little jump shot about 5 feet from the basket. No dribble, dribble, dribble, just two steps and he's there. I also loved it when he had an open 3 pointer, took his time, and with no leg kick whatsoever went straight up with near perfect form and swished it.

Isaiah was fantastic in this game. If you're grading on the curve, he should get an A+ in this game. He's dealing with all the same challenges as Jimmer - rookie, little practice, two new coaches - and he was key in this game.

The other key - Cousins. 19 rebs, 'nuff said.

Lastly, Donte Greene. He gets mention because he ran the best fast break of the whole night. Bringing the ball up court, full speed, making the other team commit, and then passing near the free throw line, resulting in a nice layup. Donte, you might want to give some classes to your teamates on this approach.

It was a Tyreke dunk IIRC. I was surprised that Donte brought the ball up as well and as fast as he did. I had to rewind to see that it was Donte who was leading the break.

 

[Kingster]

People are going to say that was ugly or whatever, but what I saw was a thing of beauty. I saw our two young stars play huge minutes, struggle through different adversities, and find ways to pull this out. I saw us find a little sparkplug to replace Thronton for a night, and maybe give us something to look forward to off the bench in the future. I saw us play tough team defense that held us in it, and saw us maintain that defense as we fought for this win. I saw spurts of offensive structure, and a defensive theory that got major value out of Reke, Salmons, Donte and Cousins. In short I saw a team. Not great shooting, not pretty passing, but a real life team with first options, second options, roleplayers, and a coach actually coaching. Thing of beauty I tell you.

Stats in 4 game since Smart took over:
Cousins: 30.0min 18.3pts (.519 .000 .731) 13.5reb 0.3ast 0.8stl 1.8blk 4.5TO
Tyreke:- 38.0min 24.5pts (.449 .182 .919)_-6.3reb 4.5ast 2.0stl 0.5blk 3.0TO

If that continues that's flat out one of the toughest duos in the league.

Boxscore

Salmons ( C ) -- he, and we, got off to a Keystone Cops start to this one. Threw a pass to Tyreke just as Reke was crossing the halfcourt line for an over and back. Then next possession was very very late delivering the ball to an open Jimmer, almsot seemed to be ignoring him on purpose. Looked a little more lively atheltically and was able to get places off the dribble. Finally got himself a guy his own size, which is to say a SG, to show his man defense against. Looked better than he has on that end too and combined with Reke and Cousins board dominance to stiffen our defensive backbone considerably. Stopped the ball to start the third, but scored on a nice take. But with Cousins just itching to tear up the Raptors' interior defense really seemed almost a concerted effort by our perimeter people to play keep away and keep chucking themselves. Think Salmons lost his late game minutes for that very reason, as we swapped in Cisco, Donte and Thomas for Salmons, Fredette and Hickson (all it should be noted gunners in another life) and got much smarter about where our bread was buttered as a result, and so rode them through the 4th. Still Salmons did look better on both sides of the ball this time, he didn't try to singlehandedly shoot us out of the game, and so baby steps and all that.

Hickson ( C+ ) -- was some effort here, but eventually got benched for dumbness as much as anything. Was all over the offensive boards from the opening tip, but missed tip after tip in there. Bargnani had a real down night before leaving with an injury at the end of the 3rd, but it would be hard to attribute that to JJ who kept on leaving him alone on the perimeter and getting lucky when he missed. Nonetheless, Bargnani did not whip him, so win to us. Started making mental erros in the third, 3 second calls, shuffing his feet etc. But maybe the biggest problem which was part him and part Jimmer, is that he just wouldn't quit shooting/taking postup opportunities. There is a big dog inside on this team. And its not JJ. But while the big dog starved there was Jimmer repeatedly setting up JJ, and JJ taking shot after shot. Its maybe a tribute to DeMarcus's improving maturity that he didn't come out and strangle both thier scrawny necks. In any case, near the end of the third Coach Smart had seen enough, and repalced everybody but Reke with personnel a little more willing to get with the program.

You let 'em know big guy
Cousins ( A ) -- part of the reason I think DeMarcus Cousins has a chance to not just be an All Star -- as if that was even a question ESPN boobs -- but quite possibly a superstar is that he is almost a basketball savant. I'm not sure I've ever seen a player at this level pick things up so quickly. A problem is identified -- has to be by him obviously -- and then all of a sudden he changes something and its not a problem anymore within a space of just a few games. That's not the way it works for normal people. Its supposed to take you months, years of work. You don't just say "oh, I am fouling too much" and then wake up the next morning and quit fouling too much. Who does that? Well Cousins does. And lo and behold you know what you get when DeMarcus Cousins quits fouling and plays 39 minutes? You get a monster Dwight Howard type 21pt 19reb statline is what you get. After a brief interlude where he was ignored while we played a few minutes of Jimmer ball, DeMarcus opened up the toolbox on the Raptors frontline in the first quarter. Hit them with jumpers, post moves, drives, just toying with them. Finally old Jamaal Magloire who was a tough physical player in his youth and is just cheap anymore, had had enough and just blatantly thugged him with a flagrant (a real one, not that touch foul nonsense). It wouldn't be the last time DeMarcus took some real punishment in there this game, but he never remotely lost his cool. Made it through the 1st quarter with only 1 foul, and sat for most of the 2nd, in what I can only imagine was a scheme to keep him out of foul trouble. We went right to him to start the third, but he traveled. Then Salmons started dominating the ball, and wasn't about to waste the opportunity with any passes to his big man. Spent most of the third being frozen out, both by the Raptors who wre running doubles at him with and without the ball, and his teammates, who put on a good display of why big grunt workers in every sport hate the little pretty boy gloryhound ballhandlers on their teams. Was doing the work, and never lost his cool. Used the lack of foul trouble to play aggressively on defense and just pummel the Raptor's on the glass, but until Smart finally swapped out 3/5 of the starting lineup he was just simply being ignored on offense despite th fact the Raptors had nobody to contend with him. Finally at the end of the third got on the board with a pair of huge offensive rebound follows, the first of which is above and earned him a T for scream on top of it. But you know what? Did not bother me at all. The NBA has castrated itself to such a degree that a scream is a T? Pfft. Let 'em have it big guy. Was let out of teammate jail when we brought in Cisco, Donte, and especially little Isiah Thomas, who darted aroudn and found seasm to get the ball to Cousins that nobody else had. Cousins responded with a big 4th and was the real separating factor in this one. Just nobody could handle his physicality. Got a feeling many more of these will be coming.

Fredette ( C- ) -- after a shaky early possession where he was unaware of the shotclock and did not get the ball back from Stickyfingers Salmons with enough time to do anything, he briefly, very briefly, gave us a taste of the Jimmermania shooting. Hit his first two shots, first a two then a long three for I think our first 5 ponts of the contest, and I was settling back thinking hey, maybe finally a breakout game. He was being guarded by Ivan Cal_eron, we needed the shooting, it was all set up and he was off to a good start...and then it just fizzled again. Gunned up two more quick shots, missed both, and promptly disappeared (he was 1-8 for the rest of the game after those first 3-4 min). Somewhat troublingly, it appeared to me that while we were messing around playing Jimmerball we ignored big DeMarcus inside entirely. Not sure if that was Jimmer's fault or the team's/scheme's, but obviously one can't come at the expense of the other. Didn't do anything else for the rest of the quarter, but we competed well as a team, and unlike the Philly game Jimmer was not an open wound for us. Unfortunately there was still more game to be played, and he was not as solid the rest of the way. After returning late in the half committed another jump in the air and throw a bad pass error, and then threw another terrible pass to cost us a possession just before half. Started to get some open spot shooting threes, but again missed them before hitting one off the pullup. Could he just be so used to having the ball that he is more comfrotable shooting them off his dribble rather than spotting up? Beno was that way too. Began to frustrate in the third as he seemed overconcerned with getting his own shots up, and developed an unhealthy fascination with feeding JJ Hickson for post attempts rather than Cousins -- again reminscient of the odd behavior of Beno who was always insisting on giving it to Dalembert rather than Cousins. Most telling moment fo the game for him may have been the immediate shot in the arm the team got when he swapped out and Isiah Thomas swapped in. A little better than his recent games, and had a couple of good minutes early, but in the end no impact again.

Evans ( B- ) -- Largely laid back in the first, but came up with a beautiful one on one take to close the first quarter. Very aggressive in the open court again but missing layups all night long, many of them of the tough variety. Got suckered into taking wide open threes in what looked like an intentional part of our offensive scheme, but could not hit those either and missed inside and out while trying to carry the team alone with Cousins out. May in fact have looked better on defense than offense, although every few minutes he would come up with a spectacular take to the rim. Played the first 20 min straight of the game as Smart was playing minutes games designed to absolutely ride Reke and Cousins as long and far as we could. Finsihed with 45 min, and was busting his butt on defense the whole time too. Surprised me given that only a week or two ago I was assured that Reke was fat and lazy. Unnecessary 1 on 1 jumper to start the third, but eventually stopped settling for jumpers and started scoring with the physical stuff drawing fouls in the third. Was taking too many shots, but its pretty obvious that's the gameplan. Reke and Cousins, Cousins and Reke. And Thornton when he's around. Picked a good time to finally hit a 3 in the early 4th to retie the game and continued hitting tough shots and playing D in the 4th as it was a surprisingly hard fought and tough minded battle right to the end given these two teams' also ran status. Drew fouls and kept the points coming late in the game at the line. And down the stretch just absolutely refused to miss a FT as the Raptors resorted to intentionally fouling us and we had to ice the game from the FT line. Finished 14-14 as the guy who's own fans booed him at home a couple of weeks ago for missing FTs has now turned into Rick Barry from the line. This was far from Reke's best game, and minus the intentional fouling he is closer to 22 than 29 pts on the night. But it was a real tough minded game, one where Reke had a role to play and kept at it even when things weren't falling. He played long minutes, was one of our core defensive guys who kept scrapping the whole game, and late in the game bumped the grade up into the Bs by draining clutch FT after clutch FT to seal it.

Whoever was guarding Barbosa can't get any higher than a C.

 

[Kingster]

It was a Tyreke dunk IIRC. I was surprised that Donte brought the ball up as well and as fast as he did. I had to rewind to see that it was Donte who was leading the break.

Yeah, I couldn't remember the finisher, but when you're in the desert for days (poorly run fast breaks) and you drink a tablespoon of water, it sure tastes nice.

 

[Kingster]

actually, that trade never looked good

It might be interesting at various times to compare Jimmer with the two draft prospects that we could have drafted if there was no trade:

FG% 3P% FT% Reb Ast TO Steals Pts

Jimmer .354 .311 .909 1.6 2.3 1.8 0.5 8.5
Knight .427 .391 .667 3.5 2.7 3.2 0.7 11.4
Walker .361 .350 .684 2.6 2.9 1.7 0.7 10.0

 

[Hadlowe]

It might be interesting at various times to compare Jimmer with the two draft prospects that we could have drafted if there was no trade:

Of course, that would mean that we would now have 3 point guards competing for playing time with Knight or Walker getting minutes after Tyreke and Beno. It also probably means that IT goes undrafted, and that would just be a damned shame.

 

[Section 101]

Of course, that would mean that we would now have 3 point guards competing for playing time with Knight or Walker getting minutes after Tyreke and Beno. It also probably means that IT goes undrafted, and that would just be a damned shame.

Think the point is Tyreke wouldn't be the PG. Knight would be backing up Beno. Thornton behind Tyreke.

 

[Hadlowe]

Be that as it may, the Kings still would have been better served by going after a good SF or PF. Kawhi Leonard would have been their best option, and while he will likely be a solid player, I don't see him as a world-beater.

Fredette had the hype to help keep the Kings in Sacramento by putting butts in seats, and was drafted on the marketing potential more than the playoff potential. There's still time for that to pay off, but priority one should be wins. Hopefully, Jimmer and wins are not mutually exclusive concepts. The franchise needs a marketable star as much as it needs a playoff appearance.

The bottom line is that Knight and Walker were probably better options out of the gate, but, had the Kings drafted them, they would have been the fourth best players on the third best team in L.A.

 

[KingBen]

It might be interesting at various times to compare Jimmer with the two draft prospects that we could have drafted if there was no trade:

FG% 3P% FT% Reb Ast TO Steals Pts

Jimmer .354 .311 .909 1.6 2.3 1.8 0.5 8.5
Knight .427 .391 .667 3.5 2.7 3.2 0.7 11.4
Walker .361 .350 .684 2.6 2.9 1.7 0.7 10.0

So it looks like a huge difference. Why not try to trade Jimmer now and at least get some value out of him. I know there are teams that would take him.

 

[Larry89]

It might be time for Greene to start over salmons or get the bulk of the minutes, Donte can stand in the corner and shoot the three but actually make it, he has the size and rebounding ability, ability to finish on the break also, ive also seen numerous hustle plays by donte that salmons would not have made (running down on fastbreak to get the block).

He wont need to iso and take shots from anyone else and he fits in pretty well

 

[pshn80]

Very encouraging game. The win on the road was great but a second win under Smart at this point and in this manner is great. It's a positive for Tyreke, Cousins, Thomas of course but I don't feel it's a negative for any of the rest. Salmons, Fredette, Greene, Garcia, etc. may not of had great games but we got the win. A team thing and upbeat.

 

[CruzDude]

Cuz: A
Reke: B
IT: A-
Hickson: B
Salmons: C-
Donte: B
JT: INC
Jimmer: C
Garcia: C
All else: Mateen

Good call as well. The Cuz-Reke-IT show is really fun to watch especially the Cuz-IT pick&roll stuff.

 

[Circa_1985_Fan]

Good call as well. The Cuz-Reke-IT show is really fun to watch especially the Cuz-IT pick&roll stuff.

Yeah, that NEEDS to happen everynight! IT and Cuz used pick and roll and the cut and roll incredibly last night...IT was feeding him bounce passes perfectly in the paint off the pick...and THAT is truely what needs to continue! They weren't getting that at ALL before that...thats why we were falling into standing around and chucking in the 1 on 1 game. IT breaks that up and brings movement with crisp passing. In other words...he's a TRUE PG which is exactly what we needed.

 

[IfAt1st]

It was so revelatory to see IT and DMC actually run pick and rolls. Just so great to watch, and it was exactly what I've been begging the Kings to do for a looong time.

It really makes me further convinced that Paul Westphal was an absolute utter ****ing disaster for this team.
If they obviously CAN run pick and rolls successfully (a rookie PG, no less!), after 1 or 2 days of practices, than what the **** was he doing with these Kings the last 2+ seasons?

 

[Section 101]

It was so revelatory to see IT and DMC actually run pick and rolls. Just so great to watch, and it was exactly what I've been begging the Kings to do for a looong time.

It really makes me further convinced that Paul Westphal was an absolute utter ****ing disaster for this team.
If they obviously CAN run pick and rolls successfully (a rookie PG, no less!), after 1 or 2 days of practices, than what the **** was he doing with these Kings the last 2+ seasons?

Setting the team back 4 years. 2 years wasted and 2 more to catch back up.

 

[Glenn]

IT may get playing time for the simple fact that he finds more ways for Cuz to score. That's a very specialized role, of course, but a very valuable role. He's an interesting guy.

 

[IfAt1st]

Did anyone catch Grant & Jerry talking about how during this game, they were seated right next to the Kings bench for the 1st time with Smart as the coach?

They remarked how much he was TEACHING the guys. How he took every second possible to impart lessons during the game - reminders of what he wanted from practice, even.

See, THAT's coaching - taking the game situations and constantly using them as opportunities to teach the players.
It's not just during practice.

The more I hear stuff like this, the more I want to strangle Westphal and Petrie for allowing this coaching ineptitude to continue as long as it did.
Don't tell me noone in the organization knew how bad of a coach PW was - when even the players were crying out and risking their necks with comments to the media, they should have stepped in a LONG time ago.
It shouldn't have taken a complete team (especially DMC and Tyreke) mutiny to get Westphal out of the coaching seat years ago.

 

[ElRey]

So it looks like a huge difference. Why not try to trade Jimmer now and at least get some value out of him. I know there are teams that would take him.

You want him traded? I thought you're a Jimmer fan...

 

[ElRey]

Did anyone catch Grant & Jerry talking about how during this game, they were seated right next to the Kings bench for the 1st time with Smart as the coach?

They remarked how much he was TEACHING the guys. How he took every second possible to impart lessons during the game - reminders of what he wanted from practice, even.

See, THAT's coaching - taking the game situations and constantly using them as opportunities to teach the players.
It's not just during practice.

The more I hear stuff like this, the more I want to strangle Westphal and Petrie for allowing this coaching ineptitude to continue as long as it did.
Don't tell me noone in the organization knew how bad of a coach PW was - when even the players were crying out and risking their necks with comments to the media, they should have stepped in a LONG time ago.
It shouldn't have taken a complete team (especially DMC and Tyreke) mutiny to get Westphal out of the coaching seat years ago.

yeah it's really refreshing to see Keith Smart doing some teaching out there. Love the clip of him talking to and high fiving Demarcus. Smart seems to get along much better with his players. Even when Tyreke got called for a travel, I saw Smart teaching Tyreke how to pivot his foot. It's really depressing when you think about where our young players could be now if we never hired Westpaul.

 

[gunks]

yeah it's really refreshing to see Keith Smart doing some teaching out there. Love the clip of him talking to and high fiving Demarcus. Smart seems to get along much better with his players. Even when Tyreke got called for a travel, I saw Smart teaching Tyreke how to pivot his foot. I've really depressing when you think about where our young players could be now if we never hired Westpaul.

I thought about that after every game while Westphal was here, but now that he's gone we can all move foward!!

Really digging that Smart actually TEACHES. My biggest gripe with Westphal is that I felt that his presence here set all our young players back a lot, and for a rebuilding team that was a major **** up of a HC hire. The only guy who didnt regress under Westphal was Cousins, but I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that Cousins pretty much teaches himself the game (as Bricklayer mentioned in his grade, he is a savant. A huge, banger/finesse hybrid savant).

We might have some more hiccups, like what happened against Philly (which is a great team this season), but I'm thinking that in a months time, Smart's team and the mess we had under Westphal will be like night and day.

Also...Really Brick, no A+ for Cousins? You must be waiting for his first 20/20 game or something. Dude WRECKED Toronto. Granted he wasnt really going up against anyone worthy, maybe thats why he just got the A?


As an aside, who else cant wait for the Bynum vs Cousins grudge match?

 

[IfAt1st]

As an aside, who else cant wait for the Bynum vs Cousins grudge match?

Me, BIG TIME.

Bynum is a punk-*** little man in a big body.
If he comes up against an on-his-game DMC, and the refs call it fair, and Demarcus doesn't make his dumb fouls to take him out of the game, Bynum could easily be exposed as a second-rate center.

I actually think it's more likely that Bynum gets injured before they get a matchup, than it is that Bynum gets the better of Demarcus if and when they do.