[Game] Kings @ Warriors 10:30 PM EST 7:30 PM PST

[Blob]

Spot on. One of the more strange narratives i've heard is that Vlade somehow has his hands clean of the Karl hire. Just not true. He had every opportunity this summer to go get "his guy", especially with all the Karl-Cousins rumors swirling around. But he didn't and he backed Karl as his coach.

I think some roster construction questions need to be asked as well. Yes, we got more talent this summer, but we're just as helpless as we've always been without Cousins on the floor. Why? With him on the floor, the roster is working as intended and we're playing .500 ball and basically had a chance to win every game he was on the floor. But that's the danger of having the highest USG player in the league; when he's not playing, where do the shots go? The other top USG guys in the league (Westy, Bron, Steph, Harden, etc.) all haven't missed time this season, but even if they did, those teams have #2 guys who can step up and fill that role in Love, Durant, Klay, Howard/Lawson. We don't. Koufos, WCS, Ben, Casspi and Beli need help from others to be effective. Rondo is probably the worst scoring PG in the league. Darren and Rudy are the only guys left who are able to create their own shot, but both aren't capable of filling that massive 35% USG hole that Cousins leaves when he's not playing.

That's not even touching on Cousins being our best rebounder and defensive anchor, both of which take a massive hit when he's on the sidelines.

This isn't me blaming Vlade or Karl either, just showing the reality of our roster construction. We're a team of role guys designed to fit around a high USG player. When he's not in, that game-plan goes out the window.

One of my concerns this summer with the acquisition of Rondo was effect on Boogie's usage. We didn't need to see his usage go up, which was already the highest in the league. We needed efficiency to go up.

There is a better argument to be made that the injuries to Boogie are result of usage more than pace and system. In other words because of limitations of teammates as scorers (namely Ben, Rondo and Willie) the ball is in Boogie's hands more than ever to put up points.

The good news is that Rondo is better than optimistic prognostication, reclaiming old form and a lot of his outside touch. Ben has been worse. Darren has been worse. Willie has been non-existent as scoring threat. The sum of these factors is an imbalance that you reference that needs to be remedied (with or without Boogie).

If his teammates were more capable and efficient, the burden on Boogie would be lessened, his trust and reliance on others would increase, and his exposure to injury would decrease given his aggressive style of play.

Darren has excuse of injury and new role. Willie has excuse of rookie-itis. Rudy has excuse of new baby. What excuse does Ben have? If I am objectively critical of this roster I come back to him as the weak link exacerbated by injury to Boogie.

For fans of Ben, I invite you to watch guys like Rodney Hood (Jazz), CJ McCallum (Blazers), Covington (76ers), Johnson (Heat), Clarkson (Lakers) and even Mohammed (Wolves). These are scoring wings with moves and juke ability and natural touch or combination thereof. They are doing their thing without the best passing PG in league to set them up.

Ben is a robot by comparison. Mechanical and rote. He is stuck in his head not immersed in moment. He is playing on ice skates not sneakers. I hate to say it but I just don't think he has what it takes in terms of mindset or skill set.

If there is a decent trade offer for Ben we need to be all over it like leftover turkey and pumpkin pie with whip like I was this weekend.

I have seen enough and think Karl is near breaking point too, contemplating giving minutes to Seth for at least 5 games. His inability to command the role of 2nd and 3rd scorer in 15-20 PPG has domino effect when Boogie is out and when Boogie plays, shifting more of scoring burden and exposure to injury.

Of course if he used his athleticism to become a lockdown defender then we have a new variable to the mix. But his defense has been barf as advanced stats and eyeballs attest. He doesn't close out well or defend with physicality to throw opponents off rhythm. It takes more than getting into defensive stance to be a plus defender. It takes feistiness and anticipation and bit of mean streak.

Ultimately I don't think it is fair to point finger at one player for collective performance and thats not my intention. But if I am going to assign blame for the disappoint of season thus far, I assign more to Ben than any individual, including the coach.

It is not only his lack of assertiveness that hurts it is the results of his assertiveness that is underwhelming. I am waiting for him to prove me wrong and hope he does. Being only 22 years old give me some hope but he's an old 22 relative to minutes played. His progress is imperceptible when it should be obvious.

 

[The_Jamal]

Well your right, but your just stating the obvious. Were not as good without Cousins on the floor. There was an implication that Vlade was at fault. Or that Karl, indirectly, was his hire, by his abdication of firing him. The question is, did Vlade have any influence on the hiring of Karl. Did Vivek give him a call and ask him who he would hire, and Vlade said I'd hire Karl, or did Vivek give Vlade a call and say I'm thinking of hiring Karl, what do you think of him? And Vlade said, well, he's certainly better than what you have now. Thing is, we have no idea what actually happened, or how it happened, or when it happened. I don't have an agenda here so I don't care. The question is, what do we do now if this continues?

I find it hard to put much blame on Vlade. When he took over, there were leaks coming from everywhere. Cousins agent was running a campaign to get rid of Karl. PDA was spreading lies all over the place to pull the rug out from under Vlade. Then you had the trade Cousins rumors, which Karl denied starting. If your Vlade, you don't know who to trust or believe. So, in my humble opinion, the last thing he needed to do was to create another issue by firing Karl. Vlade has always believed in bringing people to together. Why would he suddenly change? Not saying he made all the right choices, but his choices didn't surprise me.

It's more than us just being better without Cousins on the floor. It's a matter of this team being designed solely around Cousins to function properly. There's no plan B. Which is fine, especially when we don't have a big time #2 to turn to like the other superstars in the game. As I said, we're playing .500 ball with him on the floor and could very easily be 7-3 or 8-2 if we take care of business in the 4th quarter of a couple of those games. That means the roster construction is working as intended. But I don't expect Karl or any coach really to find a way to replace the best defensive anchor, rebounder and distribute 35% of your team possessions to other players effectively. We have more tied up into one player than any team in the league and it shows when he's not playing.

 

[Livinthedream]

One of my concerns this summer with the acquisition of Rondo was effect on Boogie's usage. We didn't need to see his usage go up, which was already the highest in the league. We needed efficiency to go up.

There is a better argument to be made that the injuries to Boogie are result of usage more than pace and system. In other words because of limitations of teammates as scorers (namely Ben, Rondo and Willie) the ball is in Boogie's hands more than ever to put up points.

The good news is that Rondo is better than optimistic prognostication, reclaiming old form and a lot of his outside touch. Ben has been worse. Darren has been worse. Willie has been non-existent as scoring threat. The sum of these factors is an imbalance that you reference that needs to be remedied (with or without Boogie).

If his teammates were more capable and efficient, the burden on Boogie would be lessened, his trust and reliance on others would increase, and his exposure to injury would decrease given his aggressive style of play.

Darren has excuse of injury and new role. Willie has excuse of rookie-itis. Rudy has excuse of new baby. What excuse does Ben have? If I am objectively critical of this roster I come back to him as the weak link exacerbated by injury to Boogie.

For fans of Ben, I invite you to watch guys like Rodney Hood (Jazz), CJ McCallum (Blazers), Covington (76ers), Johnson (Heat), Clarkson (Lakers) and even Mohammed (Wolves). These are scoring wings with moves and juke ability and natural touch or combination thereof. They are doing their thing without the best passing PG in league to set them up.

Ben is a robot by comparison. Mechanical and rote. He is stuck in his head not immersed in moment. He is playing on ice skates not sneakers. I hate to say it but I just don't think he has what it takes in terms of mindset or skill set.

If there is a decent trade offer for Ben we need to be all over it like leftover turkey and pumpkin pie with whip like I was this weekend.

I have seen enough and think Karl is near breaking point too, contemplating giving minutes to Seth for at least 5 games. His inability to command the role of 2nd and 3rd scorer in 15-20 PPG has domino effect when Boogie is out and when Boogie plays, shifting more of scoring burden and exposure to injury.

Of course if he used his athleticism to become a lockdown defender then we have a new variable to the mix. But his defense has been barf as advanced stats and eyeballs attest. He doesn't close out well or defend with physicality to throw opponents off rhythm. It takes more than getting into defensive stance to be a plus defender. It takes feistiness and anticipation and bit of mean streak.

Ultimately I don't think it is fair to point finger at one player for collective performance and thats not my intention. But if I am going to assign blame for the disappoint of season thus far, I assign more to Ben than any individual, including the coach.

It is not only his lack of assertiveness that hurts it is the results of his assertiveness that is underwhelming. I am waiting for him to prove me wrong and hope he does. Being only 22 years old give me some hope but he's an old 22 relative to minutes played. His progress is imperceptible when it should be obvious.

Why are we back to the blame it all on Ben crap? We have 3 all star potential level talent players on this team. If we can't win with that, then the issue lies somehwere outside of the roster itself.

We start losing and the best analysis this board has is Ben sucks.

Edit: There is some very good analysis on the board about the coaching fit with the roster and poor offensive and defensive schemes. But I really hope we don't resurrect this Ben thing again.

 

[jdbraver]

Why are we back to the blame it all on Ben crap? We have 3 all star potential level talent players on this team. If we can't win with that, then the issue lies somehwere outside of the roster itself.

We start losing and the best analysis this board has is Ben sucks.

Edit: There is some very good analysis on the board about the coaching fit with the roster and poor offensive and defensive schemes. But I really hope we don't resurrect this Ben thing again.

So all those winning teams Karl has coached were because....? Sorry the team as constructed just doesn't work. Blame the now or then GM. And the player lack of high bball iq. But to single Karl out is dumb. He is the only proven winner we have besides rondo whom loves Karl.

 

[bajaden]

It's more than us just being better without Cousins on the floor. It's a matter of this team being designed solely around Cousins to function properly. There's no plan B. Which is fine, especially when we don't have a big time #2 to turn to like the other superstars in the game. As I said, we're playing .500 ball with him on the floor and could very easily be 7-3 or 8-2 if we take care of business in the 4th quarter of a couple of those games. That means the roster construction is working as intended. But I don't expect Karl or any coach really to find a way to replace the best defensive anchor, rebounder and distribute 35% of your team possessions to other players effectively. We have more tied up into one player than any team in the league and it shows when he's not playing.

I'm sure Vlade would have liked to add another player of Cousins ilk to the team. Not sure how you do that though with the limited resources he had. I thought what he accomplished was fairly amazing. Truth is, we have one player on the team that's considered a superstar, and that player is the player we've chosen to lead us into the promised land. It's been, as Cousins goes, so goes the Kings for some time now, and that obviously hasn't worked up till now. So at that point, you have two choices. Move on from Cousins, or put better players around him and add a top tier coach. We chose the latter, and as much as I'm fed up with what's happened so far, it's hard to draw any conclusions with Cousins being injured for half the games.

As far as woulda, coulda, shoulda goes, I've kept track of games every year, that if this had happened, or that had happened, we would have won said amount of games. I've given up on that line of thought because it's for losers. Not calling you a loser, but saying that only losing teams fans think that way. It's a way of maintaining hope that a miracle will happen. The truth is, if our team is that fragile or that close to the edge of winning or losing on a regular basis, then something bigger is wrong. The Kings go into every game hoping that they win. The Warriors go into every game expecting to win. It's a mentality and once a losing mentality gets established, it's hard to root it out. Not impossible, but if there's a lack of unity on the team, then it is impossible. Not saying that's the case. I don't know. What I do know, is that we've only dominated one team this year, the Lakers, and they looked like they were drunk that night.