post home open downer

Padrino

Padrino

All-Star
#91
#91
Kingster said:
The first minute of the game tells the tale where you see Rudy Gay, without even looking to pass (or see other guys move or not move) put down his head, dribble several times toward the basket from the 3 point line, stop and turn and shoot (and miss). That's on him. Nobody else. And if the motion or lack thereof was an issue, Gay is not a rookie anymore. He's got a voice. He's a vet that people respect. He can yell for guys to move if in fact they aren't moving. Heck, he can call a TO and yell at them for not moving. What is he, a victim now?

NOTE: Malone didn't say one word after the game that guys just stood around like statues or that they they weren't moving. He focused on the "UNWILLINGNESS TO PASS THE BALL", and on "POUNDING THE ROCK" and "SELFISHNESS." Are we reduced to believing that Michael Malone does not realize that the motion offense does in fact include motion in it and that's the real source of the problem? That's a good one. To argue that Rudy Gay was the poor victim of the poor perfomance of others is a canard.
Click to expand...
well, it's clear what "Kingster's Canned Talking Points for the 2014-2015 Season" are going to be...

rudy played poorly last night. so did demarcus. if either plays an average game, the kings have a good shot to win their home opener against a warriors team that was playing well below their ability. personally, i'm rather annoyed by all the talk of "motion offense" around these parts. i get it; it's trendy for teams to hop on the "motion offense" bandwagon after the spurs turned in back-to-back finals appearances, but let's not pretend like their success is easily immitated. let's also not pretend like these kings are adequately prepared to run such a system...

the kings of yore boasted perhaps the greatest passing big men combination ever in chris webber and vlade divac, one of the greatest three-point shooters of his generation in peja stojakovic, one of the winningest coaches of all time in rick adelman, oh... and they also employed the guru behind the princeton offense that so many teams around the nba (including the spurs) have used as a staple of their respective playbooks. that's a recipe for success. ya wanna know what isn't a recipe for success? a second-year owner, a second-year gm, and a second-year head coach with a defensive-minded reputation and little in the way of proven offensive acumen (and no sideline yoda to lean on) talking up a "motion offense" despite the fact that the roster is full of mismatched and mediocre personnel who are largely incapable of sustainably executing a "motion offense"...

the kings have a dominant low-post threat in demarcus cousins, a quality post-up SF in rudy gay, and a sophomore/rookie combo who are meant to constitute the bulk of the team's three-point shooting, though mclemore can't actually shoot and stauskas will have plenty of growing pains as he acclimates to the speed of the nba. darren collison appears to have a solid nose for the game plan, and demarcus has been known to make the smart pass from time to time, but there's not nearly enough veteran basketball IQ on this roster for a successful "motion offense" to take hold. it's not even close. there's no chris webber on this roster; there is jason thompson. there's no peja stojakovic on this roster; there is ben mclemore. etc. etc. etc.

that said, there's also no one individual to blame for the kings' lack of preparedness heading into this season. the owner is partially to blame for setting unreasonable expectations in year two (http://www.sacbee.com/sports/nba/sacramento-kings/article3378841.html) when this team is arguably less talented than it was last season. the gm is partially to blame for failing to improve the starting unit since his arrival. the coach is partially to blame for overhauling his approach to offense without recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of his players (what the ever-living-F*** was with that lineup of sessions/stauskas/casspi/williams/landry?!?!??!!?!). and the players are partially to blame for... well, some of them just aren't good enough. it's that simple. every one of them should work harder to embrace the team concept, but if i'm pointing fingers, they first go in the direction of ownership/management/coaching. beyond that, it's game 1, and this team just isn't very good...
 
hrdboild

hrdboild

Moloch in whom I dream Angels!
Staff member
#92
#92
At the time we picked McLemore we still had Tyreke and Ben looked like a perfect compliment in the backcourt -- a designated shooter/athlete who could make up for Tyreke's lack of outside shooting. A low usage player who nevertheless impacted the game in a huge way at Kansas by shooting the lights out from everywhere. Pretty much everyone agreed he was a top 5 talent in the draft and we got him at #7. After Oladipo and Noel and possibly Otto Porter, Ben had the best combination of long-term talent and current production of anyone in the draft. I liked Carter-Williams, but I don't know that he's been a significantly better pick than McLemore. He's a primary ballhandler on a team that gives him free reign. The bigger miss was not picking up an extra pick and nabbing Giannis in the middle of the first round. Of course the way things turned out, Ben never played alongside Tyreke. He instead played most of his rookie season next to a defensively challenged chucker who idolizes Kobe Bryant. There are a hundred factors which go into determining whether a player is going to be successful in the NBA or not. I guarantee you if Ben falls to the Spurs -- a team with established talent which will give him a clear role to play in the offense which fits his skillset -- every team in the league is kicking themselves right now for passing on him.
 
rainmaker

rainmaker

Hall of Famer
#94
#94
Kingster said:
NOTE: Malone didn't say one word after the game that guys just stood around like statues or that they they weren't moving. He focused on the "UNWILLINGNESS TO PASS THE BALL", and on "POUNDING THE ROCK" and "SELFISHNESS." Are we reduced to believing that Michael Malone does not realize that the motion offense does in fact include motion in it and that's the real source of the problem? That's a good one. To argue that Rudy Gay was the poor victim of the poor perfomance of others is a canard.
Click to expand...
No one is acting like Rudy was the poor victim. What a few have acknowledged however is that the issue with our ball movement and the motion within our offense runs far, far deeper than foolishly attempting to boil it down to Rudy being selfish. Anyone think if we replaced Rudy with more ball moving SF's like a Batum or Ariza that the outcome would have been that different, that just replacing Rudy with a more willing passer will solve our issues?

Yes, that's a good one.

But I see just as a few years ago, 80% of your posts were about Reke being the problem, we're now seeing 80% of your posts suggesting Rudy is the problem. Yet you continue to fail to see the larger context and our coach pointing out a lack of ball movement and ignoring the overall lack of player movement while failing to having even a halfway decent system in place is hardly a counter argument.

Our backup PG couldn't even set up the freakin offense last night. The same guys Rudy apparently isn't passing to enough are some of the worst shooters in the league. There's more collective movement when I boil a dozen eggs than when our team gets into its sets. We go undersized across the board, then wonder why our screens don't free anyone up. That Cuz barely has any options off movement to pass to shows this isn't just some Rudy Gay problem, it's our system and if our coach doesn't recognize that, that's a real issue.
 
jcwkings

jcwkings

All-Star
#95
#95
If IT, Dragic and Bledsoe can play on the same team, give me a reason why PDA felt Evans, IT and Cuz wasnt a solid core, Evans at 11 million and IT at 7 sounds mighty good compared to Gay at 19 and with one foot out the door. Those guys were Kings first and Gay is a merc who was traded here.

Collison, Evans, ?, JT, Cuz
with IT as 6th man sounds much better than what we have now. Face it folks PDA has set this franchise back, Malone is still up for debate.
 
hrdboild

hrdboild

Moloch in whom I dream Angels!
Staff member
#96
#96
Albatros said:
I honestly don't think Ben would contribute even on the Spurs (in his rookie year I mean)
Click to expand...
Probably not in his rookie year. But by year 3, after honing the 2 or 3 things he needs to do consistently to be successful within their system, he'd be torching everyone. The role of the coach is to put their players in the best possible position to succeed. Every time I see Ben trying to navigate a pick and roll and create his own mid-range shot I want to scream at somebody on the Kings sideline for wasting their time trying to turn a spot up shooter into a play maker. Every hour of practice he wastes trying to hone his "overall skillset" is an hour he could have been working on directly applicable skills instead. If you want a James Harden type of SG on your team, draft James Harden. Or heck, just keep Tyreke Evans. If you draft a guy who spent his college career coming off of screens and taking set jumpers, maybe you should let him focus on coming off of screens and shooting set jumpers.
 
rainmaker

rainmaker

Hall of Famer
#98
#98
Padrino said:
that said, there's also no one individual to blame for the kings' lack of preparedness heading into this season. the owner is partially to blame for setting unreasonable expectations in year two (http://www.sacbee.com/sports/nba/sacramento-kings/article3378841.html) when this team is arguably less talented than it was last season. the gm is partially to blame for failing to improve the starting unit since his arrival. the coach is partially to blame for overhauling his approach to offense without recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of his players (what the ever-living-F*** was with that lineup of sessions/stauskas/casspi/williams/landry?!?!??!!?!). and the players are partially to blame for... well, some of them just aren't good enough. it's that simple. every one of them should work harder to embrace the team concept, but if i'm pointing fingers, they first go in the direction of ownership/management/coaching. beyond that, it's game 1, and this team just isn't very good...
Click to expand...
Yes indeed.

We've got a number of issues, all intertwined. There is no single scapegoat for this and if someone was going to attempt to argue there is, it would be higher up the ranks than our SF. Leadership and having a clear vision everyone will buy into starts at the top. Most worrying factor isn't that our players/roster don't mesh, it's the growing evidence that our owner/GM/FO/coach don't mesh.
 
Padrino

Padrino

All-Star
#99
#99
jcwkings said:
If IT, Dragic and Bledsoe can play on the same team, give me a reason why PDA felt Evans, IT and Cuz wasnt a solid core, Evans at 11 million and IT at 7 sounds mighty good compared to Gay at 19 and with one foot out the door. Those guys were Kings first and Gay is a merc who was traded here.

Collison, Evans, ?, JT, Cuz
with IT as 6th man sounds much better than what we have now. Face it folks PDA has set this franchise back, Malone is still up for debate.
Click to expand...
this i can agree with. i would have preferred to see the kings lock up evans in a starting SG role and IT in a sixth man role rather than let them both walk just to roll the dice on rudy gay. i was largely complimentary of the gay trade when it occurred because PDA was able to buy low on an asset after letting one walk out the door. but i long held the opinion that, if the kings had no intention of retaining IT's services, they absolutely needed to trade him before the deadline last season, or they needed to replace his talent level in the offseason. neither situation occurred. instead, the kings' got peanuts in a sign-and-trade for thomas, and while i'm fine with a platoon of collison/sessions at PG, the overall talent bleed remains an issue. starting PF and starting SG are still question marks, and now PDA is going to have to pull off another magic trick of some kind before this season's deadline in order to improve the talent level of this team. otherwise i see rudy walking and the kings reduced to demarcus cousins + scrubs...
 
HereWeBoogie

HereWeBoogie

Hall of Famer
#100
#100
Kingster said:
Napier just ripping Cousins for the 6 TOs and the stupid move of trying to steal the ball in the backcourt. "Enough already with trying to steal the ball in the backcourt!!!!" (LOL). Also ripped Gay for "forcing it every time."
Click to expand...
Cousins definitely needs to stop with the stupid reach ins, in the back court and also when his man is posting him up and then goes for the shot.
also please stop with the Point Cousins fast break stuff
 
Chupacabra

Chupacabra

Starter
#104
#104
I understand where the pessimism comes from but I think it's pretty easy to find positives in this one. You can chalk up us getting our butts kicked to 26 to's and 30% shooting as a team. What pleased me was the defense. If this is the brand of defense that we see for the rest of the year we will be in good shape.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.