NBA Midseason Report Card: Anthony Davis, the Angry Thunder, and the League’s Flunkies

[Chubbs]

Another F grade for the franchise at the Midseason mark, this time from Grantland. That includes hiring Karl.

Big section on Boogie as well, who got a C.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/n...s-the-angry-thunder-and-the-leagues-flunkies/

F: Total F’ing Failure
The Kings. We had a great three weeks when the Kings were the biggest surprise in the NBA, Boogie was new and improved and mature after Team USA, and everything was lovely. Then: Boogie got meningitis. Then: They fired the coach who everyone liked, promoted the assistant who nobody respected, watched the season fall apart, and hired an aging coach who the franchise player reportedly doesn’t want. Now: FREE STAUSKAS

C: Could Be Worse … Could Be Better

DeMarcus Cousins. 23.8 ppg, 12.5 rebounds, 24.27 PER … best season of his career … first All-Star appearance … but it’s not that simple. After that virus hospitalized him in December, he’s had a couple of pretty bad moments — Vineable defense is almost never good. Likewise, the Kings have fallen back to earth since that hot start, and this postgame interview last week was just weird.

If you want to criticize Cousins, you could point out that he’s gotten along with only one of four coaches and he’s never made the playoffs with any of them. He operates with this strange persecution complex (see: interview above), but it seems like the main reason he’s ever persecuted is because he’s not very much fun to deal with. It’s tough to blame people if that indignant attitude rubs them the wrong way. Some of those probably include Kings fans at this point. Boogie causes problems as often as he provides solutions.

But I don’t want to criticize Boogie Cousins. It’s better to live in a world in which Boogie is winning gold medals and nearly starting a war with Lithuania. I want to see game-winning 3s, and bullying people down low, and everything in between. I want to see Boogie and The Brow dominating the league for the next decade.

I just don’t know if it’ll happen on the Kings. Now they’ve added George Karl to the mix, a move that Boogie reportedly opposed, and it seems like things may get worse before they get better. Watching Cousins win with the Kings at the start of the year was as much fun as we’ve had all season. They were the Lost Boys, and Boogie was their Peter Pan. Now it’s starting to look like Boogie may need to go somewhere else to really take off.

One question: Would any of this have happened if he hadn’t been hospitalized with meningitis in December? In that case, the Kings probably would have kept winning, the front office wouldn’t have possibly been able to justify firing Mike Malone, and Boogie would have stayed happy and productive during the best season of his career. Maybe things would have broken bad regardless. I don’t know. But if Karl doesn’t click and the DeMarcus Cousins era falls apart in Sacramento, I already know I will be wondering about the meningitis forever.

 

[swisshh]

Letting Sharp know that I'm tired of people repeating the false report that Cousins was blocking or against the Karl hire. (And perhaps that's why he has a complex.)

 

[Dime Dropper]

The part about Boogie is typical national media nonsense. Not bothering to do any research, just perpetuating lies. Honestly not surprised Boogie feels pissed at the media. It's beyond a joke.

95% of Kings fans love Big Cuz because they know not only how awesome he is on the court, but how awesome he is off of it. The other 5% are f**king idiots who don't know what they have.

 

[Chubbs]

Letting Sharp know that I'm tired of people repeating the false report that Cousins was blocking or against the Karl hire. (And perhaps that's why he has a complex.)

Unfortunately, the first story that breaks sticks. Especially when it fits an already existing narrative that just needed to be kickstarted again.

Winning cures all. Start doing that again, the story flips back to Boogie as Peter Pan.

I thought this author clearly likes Boogie. But when the team loses, it's hard to ignore the ejection, the God's plan interview. Those moments, while not necessarily red flags, certainly are note worthy.

 

[LPKingsFan]

I know Simmons loves boogie, and Lowe has come around, but I don't know about Sharp. I don't expect all of Grantland to have the same opinion on everything, but repeating the "boogie didn't want Karl" trope is lazy at best.

 

[IfAt1st]

Unfortunately, the first story that breaks sticks. Especially when it fits an already existing narrative that just needed to be kickstarted again.

It's a story/narrative that never made any sense though.
Why would Demarcus have any problems playing for Karl?
There was never one actual reason or justification for DMC not to want Karl. And every report was firmly "DMC's camp", not DMC himself (I know, hazy distinction, but it's irresponsible to project that to Boogie himself without a reason why.)
Once his camp made perfect sense and came out and clarified WHY they had an issue with the franchise going after Karl now at this late juncture (after the FO told them personally that Karl probably wouldn't be good for them/DMC), repeating the previous narrative is simply not keeping up with current events and perpetuating an outdated, biased agenda.

Further, I don't believe Demarcus has ever had any problems with a coach until AFTER he showed up, proved he didn't know crap, or treated Boogie badly (at least in his mind). I don't believe Boogie is known for pre-judging anyone, much less coaches.

Winning cures all. Start doing that again, the story flips back to Boogie as Peter Pan.

That doesn't make it right - or responsible reporting.
Just because sports nowadays is absurdly dominated by Winning At All Costs, doesn't give excuses to people ignoring what really is going on, or perpetuating false narratives, just because the guy involved happens to be on the team that scores less at the end of the game.

 

[pdizo916]

This article is a joke. Look at their list of PG's. They didn't have Lawson ranked in the top 15, even though his A/TO is the second best in the league as he is getting over 10 assists per game. He is also shooting a decent percentage from 3 and on the field. LOL, they have Rubio listed ahead of him even though he has only played in 10 games.

 

[hrdboild]

When you're citing two plays over the course of a season as a legit criticism of a player's defense, it's clear that you have no intention of partaking in actual basketball analysis. That's the type of argument you'd expect a 10 year old to make. Meaning this is just click bait. Moving on.

 

[Chubbs]

I notice no one wants to defend the F (Total F'ing Failure) the franchise got.

I thought an F was kind and that the Kings deserved a separate designation, but if F is the worst, then F it is. It was also noteworthy in that they include the Karl hire. And it changes nothing.

Hey, I didn't write the article, and didn't read the whole thing to be honest. No need to argue with me. I posted strictly for the Kings content.

I'll say this, a helluva lot more people read this Grantland article than read Boogie's denials. I just like to get the national perception out there to combat the insane thank you threads going on.

This season has been a trainwreck. And worse, Boogie's rehabilitated image has taken a big hit nationally. This article, case in point. I don't agree, but it's out there.

An F You PDA thread, or F you Ty Corbin, that I can get behind.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

I notice no one wants to defend the F (Total F'ing Failure) the franchise got.

No way to defend the franchise. They brought me to the highest high I've had in over 10 years to lower than I felt when I thought the team was headed to Anaheim. If Z was a grade they would receive it from me.