[Game] Kings vs Rockets, 1/2/2021, 2PM PST, 5PM EST

Where were you the night Tony Delk scored 53 points on the Kings?


  • Total voters
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I've felt that Holmes is a square peg, round hole since preseason. He still is, but is playing because he knows the defense (unlike Bags) and has the feet to play the defense (unlike Whiteside).
I don't disagree with that notion. He might not bring a lot of different tools, but the one he has are really good when used properly. Look at his floaters that had largely been consistent throughout his career. He's limited but that doesn't mean he's useless.
 
In fairness I still think the Kings are better than we all thought they’d be. I just wanted to use this loss as an opportunity to switch up coaches
In some ways. Mainly against the one big team so far. Against the small ballers they are now 1-3. And tonight they ran up against John Wall and a good portion of the G-league. Thing is the Rockets get the modern game thing no doubt and have tough versatile wings to pull it off.
 
Trade Holmes and watch the same basic product. At this point trading Whiteside, Bjelica, and Holmes would probably fix the rotation issues in an overcorrection the other way but the gameplan, holdover bad taste in your mouth, need a fresh start issues remain. What do you think of the switching they're doing? I'm seeing the same basic flaws no matter who is in there.
Kings don't have the personnel to switch. If they really wanted to play that way, they would have James and Woodard playing. Trade all of the role playing vets plus Buddy.
 
I don't disagree with that notion. He might not bring a lot of different tools, but the one he has are really good when used properly. Look at his floaters that had largely been consistent throughout his career. He's limited but that doesn't mean he's useless.
Holmes has put up numbers and his play has been good relative to what should be expected of him. But I still think he should be traded. He simply doesn't fit what they want on offense (a faciliating big) and he doesn't have the length to be a true switching interior presence.
 
It's a huge problem. Tack that on to lame duck holdover status and him not at all putting out the product the new GM was selling at the very least from a rotational standpoint, yeah that falls into the you gave it the old college try category, a few more games of this and you're just wasting time. The way he's playing them there is a chance they might be a decent mid lotto half court big team. That's all most likely unless Fox grows wings.

what kind of offense we can play anyway?

we cannot play pick n' rolls with fox because he is a bad 3pt shooter, so everybody will defend him below the pick.
cannot play them with buddy because he's a crappy ball-handler and TO machine.

we cannot exploit buddy's spot up shooting, especially when the opponent is determined to play defence because there's nobody to pass him the ball. drive and kick from the fox, not so likely... for a true point guard, he's a bad passer. so he needs to be utilized in some other way.

i don't hate fox or hield, and probably this is mostly a waltons fault, they need different schemes and settings in offense.
leaving them to create alone for themselves or, god forbid, others will not work.


this is simply awful to me. i just want something that at some point, looks like a smart b-ball.
 
what kind of offense we can play anyway?

we cannot play pick n' rolls with fox because he is a bad 3pt shooter, so everybody will defend him below the pick.
cannot play them with buddy because he's a crappy ball-handler and TO machine.

we cannot exploit buddy's spot up shooting, especially when the opponent is determined to play defence because there's nobody to pass him the ball. drive and kick from the fox, not so likely... for a true point guard, he's a bad passer. so he needs to be utilized in some other way.

i don't hate fox or hield, and probably this is mostly a waltons fault, they need different schemes and settings in offense.
leaving them to create alone for themselves or, god forbid, others will not work.


this is simply awful to me. i just want something that at some point, looks like a smart b-ball.
Well....I have faith McNair will get us there, but this was likely never the year that it was supposed to happen. I still think Walton is dead man walking but won’t happen until the off-season
 
Did anyone mention that it was James Ham who brought up a tweet done midgame possibly during frustration to a real life NBA post game conference with the head coach? Not saying Bagley Sr was right to tweet but who did we become now when our sports writer use this kind of tactics? Are we really going to put substantial time on even entertaining a tweet by a player's parents midgame in frustration?
 
Kings don't have the personnel to switch. If they really wanted to play that way, they would have James and Woodard playing. Trade all of the role playing vets plus Buddy.
Again, this is a better result? Why not try and find out first? If not play them then. The small units he's played so far this year with Barnes at PF have looked pretty decent regardless. You know, like 2 of the games they won after the bigs startled to struggle? Maybe try that out a little more earlier and see if you don't have to continuously claw back? Remember that? Honestly, the one surprise, and it's not totally surprising is that Holmes and Bagley have looked OK when finally allowed to pressure and the helpers don't come over to help. We've seen too much of a willingness to switch and then hang back. This is what teams are also capitalizing on. If you switch you do so to make it tough on the perimeter not as a fall back for help at the rim. Seriously, what the heck. Ideally you do want more size on the perimeter and not having DaQuan sucks for sure but a holdover coach trying to justify things by saying he didn't have his 2nd year player and rookie won't cut it with the tough situation he's in right now. At least historically it doesn't.
 
Did anyone mention that it was James Ham who brought up a tweet done midgame possibly during frustration to a real life NBA post game conference with the head coach? Not saying Bagley Sr was right to tweet but who did we become now when our sports writer use this kind of tactics? Are we really going to put substantial time on even entertaining a tweet by a player's parents midgame in frustration?
Ham has sometimes been a company man, also he mistreated a few people in the past.

But that sells, and after our disgusting performance I want more of this.

People should be getting angry, even if they are wrong.
 
I don't like Robinson's game, i don't know why Luke play him at all. He think he's superstar or something taking ill advice shot. I rather have Kyle Guy out there instead of this dude. Guy is a more active player. These two games look like playground basketball games and it can go either way. It's too bad Kings can't take advantage while Harden is out. Kings have two many one way players like Belica and Hield....these players aren't great defenders. And Bagley ain't doing anything as far as being a great anchor interior defense.
 
On a side note, Bagley III needs to put his dad on check. He running his mouth is going to hurt his son eventually, wherever his son lands if he gets his wishes.
 
Ham has sometimes been a company man, also he mistreated a few people in the past.

But that sells, and after our disgusting performance I want more of this.

People should be getting angry, even if they are wrong.
C'mon now, man... I thought we are better than this. This is low even for sports media. I agree with your sentiment but this is not how it should be done.

Either that, or maybe I am too old now.
 
what kind of offense we can play anyway?

we cannot play pick n' rolls with fox because he is a bad 3pt shooter, so everybody will defend him below the pick.
cannot play them with buddy because he's a crappy ball-handler and TO machine.

we cannot exploit buddy's spot up shooting, especially when the opponent is determined to play defence because there's nobody to pass him the ball. drive and kick from the fox, not so likely... for a true point guard, he's a bad passer. so he needs to be utilized in some other way.

i don't hate fox or hield, and probably this is mostly a waltons fault, they need different schemes and settings in offense.
leaving them to create alone for themselves or, god forbid, others will not work.


this is simply awful to me. i just want something that at some point, looks like a smart b-ball.
Wrong question. The question is whether what you are doing is working now. Against small teams it's not and on defense it never has. They're currently 23rd in defense efficiency coming into tonight. The high middle pnr is working. Pretty well in fact. Especially when he has Holmes, Bagely, or Bjelica out there at center. Is it ideal? Doesn't matter, Walton needs to be in survival mode at this point before he loses his team. To his credit he's had them playing their butts off to start but that will eventually fade and we've already seen games where they've literally got worn out and slumped. When your gameplan relies almost solely on effort those road bumps eventually become insurmountable because effort can't make up for the scheme issues you bring up long term.
 
Again, this is a better result? Why not try and find out first? If not play them then. The small units he's played so far this year with Barnes at PF have looked pretty decent regardless. You know, like 2 of the games they won after the bigs startled to struggle? Maybe try that out a little more earlier and see if you don't have to continuously claw back? Remember that? Honestly, the one surprise, and it's not totally surprising is that Holmes and Bagley have looked OK when finally allowed to pressure and the helpers don't come over to help. We've seen too much of a willingness to switch and then hang back. This is what teams are also capitalizing on. If you switch you do so to make it tough on the perimeter not as a fall back for help at the rim. Seriously, what the heck. Ideally you do want more size on the perimeter and not having DaQuan sucks for sure but a holdover coach trying to justify things by saying he didn't have his 2nd year player and rookie won't cut it with the tough situation he's in right now. At least historically it doesn't.
Outside of Presti and OKC, I just don't think any NBA team (FO and coach) is going to be playing unproven rookies over vets. I don't think Gentry would do it, so not really sure why folks are yearning for him. Gentry has a rep for being a players coach in the NBA. You don't get that kind of rep by playing rookies over vets.

As for the Kings switching and hanging back, that's a product of the lack of length on this team. But you can't play zone exclusively. NBA players shoot too well for that. And we already know there are a bunch of liabilities as one on one defenders.
 

Warhawk

The cake is a lie.
Staff member
Did anyone mention that it was James Ham who brought up a tweet done midgame possibly during frustration to a real life NBA post game conference with the head coach? Not saying Bagley Sr was right to tweet but who did we become now when our sports writer use this kind of tactics? Are we really going to put substantial time on even entertaining a tweet by a player's parents midgame in frustration?
You answered your own question.
 
Dudes dad's frustrated tweet mid game is uncalled for, but to have the sports media using it as ammo? And we are dignifying this?
Bagley really needs to play better before his dad starts going nuclear. He's forgetting that his son is in his third year.

Edit: now, to be fair, Bagley had a good game. He should've gotten more mins in the 2H.
 
1000% this. Kudos to Draper and Kayte. They are quickly growing into something I'd love to get used to seeing. I don't know if he (Bagley Sr) realize he is hurting his son tremendously by doing this. He thought he was just voicing his frustration and dropping some attack on this organization, but if he is going to scream and yell everytime there is a decision his son's team make that he doesn't agree, he is driving his son out of the league.
 
Outside of Presti and OKC, I just don't think any NBA team (FO and coach) is going to be playing unproven rookies over vets. I don't think Gentry would do it, so not really sure why folks are yearning for him. Gentry has a rep for being a players coach in the NBA. You don't get that kind of rep by playing rookies over vets.

As for the Kings switching and hanging back, that's a product of the lack of length on this team. But you can't play zone exclusively. NBA players shoot too well for that. And we already know there are a bunch of liabilities as one on one defenders.
Maybe so, but there is a difference with the situation Walton is in so any other circumstances with someone else probably don't matter. His GM was just shown the door. They just hired his staff behind him. He could be that rare specimen that survives in the end but the inevitability is hanging overhead right now whether or not Gentry is the right guy. And whether he is or not will play itself out. And for sure nothing in his record indicates they have Red freaking Auerbach sitting behind Luke here, haha, but when you start off on a wave a change in the NBA usually that change doesn't just effect upper management.

So far, if you track what Walton is doing against modern teams it isn't working. Maybe it doesn't work the other way either, but why not at least exhaust all possibilities? I'm pretty sure "why not" after what we saw in the bubble from Walton. It's probably just not who he is. To his credit he doesn't panic when he sees the iceberg coming his way, problem is he also isn't swerving to avoid it. I could have some sliver of doubt that he's doing what they want from up top, but Monte was pretty clear prior to the season. 4 out, 5 out, pace, pace, pace, switching and here we sit.... still. Holmes and Bagley handling up high to pass. Buddy running offense. 2 and even 3 PG lineups, Which Haliburton did well until he found out size matters when it comes to contact. Length isn't the main issue. They have looked different when committing to the style on both ends Monte put out there. That's the problem. It would be better to find out now, rather then when attitudes sour because it will take awhile to get any of these guys to commit to anything likely.
 
Dudes dad's frustrated tweet mid game is uncalled for, but to have the sports media using it as ammo? And we are dignifying this?
Amen. Remember Vivek is building a very corporate environment and coporations have feelings too! haha. It's pretty obvious with some of his selections on camera. My fear is he is doing this to deflect. He knows how he's viewed. Either own in and fix it or F off. Twitter remarks like that shouldn't be dignified. I see that as passing the spotlight by an organization currently very deserving of it's status as one of the worst in sports operationally speaking.