That was ugly so in old Bricklayer-started traditional fashion, today's game thread now with 100% more chicks and babes!
AWARDS TIME:
Tony Delk Memorial Award- Xavier Tillman. By the classic "former King torches the current Kings out of nowhere" definition of the award, Tillman takes the cake after being selected by the Kings with the 35th pick in the draft before immediately being traded for the pick that would be Robert Woodard II and stuff. Tillman showed out, contributing to a Grizzlies blowout win while the Kings meanwhile struggled to fill their bigman minutes without Bagley playing and randomly playing Nemanja Bjelica 27 minutes instead.
Cory Joseph Award - Nemanja Bjelica. So much for boosting Bjeli's trade value. In a rather disastrous stint, everything that got Bjelica benched for the greater part fo the season was on full display. Bad defensive reads, bad on the ball defense, and, perhaps more troublingly, inconsistency on the offensive end of the court. If Bjelica really does want out as is being rumored, he's going to have to work with us a bit by not sucking when we play him to boost his trade value.
Luke Walton Vacuum Cleaner Award- Luke Walton. It's nights like this game that make me glad that I saved all my love for my actual loved ones and not Luke Walton, who has gone from awful to surprisingly competent but still occasionally awful to just as awful as before but for no good reason over the last month. Having your star player sit around offball while your center and small forward randomly try to run an oddball motion set is inefficient and best and absolutely moronic otherwise. I thought we learned this lesson when Paul Westphal kept having Tyreke stand in the corner to watch Marcus Thornton and John Salmons do whatever the hell they were doing instead of running two-man games with him and Boogie. I guess we haven't. Giving your star players the ball is generally a tried and true method for winning a game of basketball.
WTF Moment of the Game- Jonas Valanciunas decides to wrestle while everyone else plays basketball.
The Kings didn't really put in the effort for the game so I don't really feel like putting in the effort for a full game preview.
Kevin Durant is out, which is helpful, but that still leaves the Nets with their two other stars available in James Harden and Kyrie Irving. If there is any good news about having to face these two high scoring star guards, it's that they are both godawful defenders and most of the guys playing with them are in the same boat (KD is a former All-Defensive team guy but also out and only one man against a raging torrent of water). The Kings aren't exactly the 2004 Pistons out there either so expect plenty of points to be scored.
Aside from the two guards, the Nets feature shooter extraordinaire Joe Harris, who is shooting nearly 50% on threes despite taken almost seven shots from range a game. DeAndre Jordan and Jeff Green round out the superfriends portion of the team as two relatively burnt out old dudes just sorta playing for the Nets because KD and Kyrie wanted them to.
Landry Shamet and TLC sorta round out their group of guys who will actually see a lot of playing time though the Nets also have Noah Vonleh and Shump signed as extra depth.
Also of note is Mike D'Antoni is currently an assistant coach for the Nets as is Ime Udoka. Either guy would be a welcome next coach of the Kings.
A win tonight would probably be too much to ask for the Kings but I would at least like to see them not poop themselves like they have over the last two games. Even in a loss, that would be nice.
AWARDS TIME:
Tony Delk Memorial Award- Xavier Tillman. By the classic "former King torches the current Kings out of nowhere" definition of the award, Tillman takes the cake after being selected by the Kings with the 35th pick in the draft before immediately being traded for the pick that would be Robert Woodard II and stuff. Tillman showed out, contributing to a Grizzlies blowout win while the Kings meanwhile struggled to fill their bigman minutes without Bagley playing and randomly playing Nemanja Bjelica 27 minutes instead.
Cory Joseph Award - Nemanja Bjelica. So much for boosting Bjeli's trade value. In a rather disastrous stint, everything that got Bjelica benched for the greater part fo the season was on full display. Bad defensive reads, bad on the ball defense, and, perhaps more troublingly, inconsistency on the offensive end of the court. If Bjelica really does want out as is being rumored, he's going to have to work with us a bit by not sucking when we play him to boost his trade value.
Luke Walton Vacuum Cleaner Award- Luke Walton. It's nights like this game that make me glad that I saved all my love for my actual loved ones and not Luke Walton, who has gone from awful to surprisingly competent but still occasionally awful to just as awful as before but for no good reason over the last month. Having your star player sit around offball while your center and small forward randomly try to run an oddball motion set is inefficient and best and absolutely moronic otherwise. I thought we learned this lesson when Paul Westphal kept having Tyreke stand in the corner to watch Marcus Thornton and John Salmons do whatever the hell they were doing instead of running two-man games with him and Boogie. I guess we haven't. Giving your star players the ball is generally a tried and true method for winning a game of basketball.
WTF Moment of the Game- Jonas Valanciunas decides to wrestle while everyone else plays basketball.
The Kings didn't really put in the effort for the game so I don't really feel like putting in the effort for a full game preview.
Kevin Durant is out, which is helpful, but that still leaves the Nets with their two other stars available in James Harden and Kyrie Irving. If there is any good news about having to face these two high scoring star guards, it's that they are both godawful defenders and most of the guys playing with them are in the same boat (KD is a former All-Defensive team guy but also out and only one man against a raging torrent of water). The Kings aren't exactly the 2004 Pistons out there either so expect plenty of points to be scored.
Aside from the two guards, the Nets feature shooter extraordinaire Joe Harris, who is shooting nearly 50% on threes despite taken almost seven shots from range a game. DeAndre Jordan and Jeff Green round out the superfriends portion of the team as two relatively burnt out old dudes just sorta playing for the Nets because KD and Kyrie wanted them to.
Landry Shamet and TLC sorta round out their group of guys who will actually see a lot of playing time though the Nets also have Noah Vonleh and Shump signed as extra depth.
Also of note is Mike D'Antoni is currently an assistant coach for the Nets as is Ime Udoka. Either guy would be a welcome next coach of the Kings.
A win tonight would probably be too much to ask for the Kings but I would at least like to see them not poop themselves like they have over the last two games. Even in a loss, that would be nice.
