Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
ANNOUNCEMENT: In an effort to diversify, involve the board members, and save me a bunch of bleary eyed time, once the regular season hits I want to open up the Grades Themes to outside contributions. The Rules: If you have a theme idea, put together a list (not just the idea for a theme, but the actual list of items) of 8-12 items, and send it to me via PM. At the very least gimme labels/names, but if you want to gimme descriptive text to go with it, have at it. Especially on more obscure categories where you are more likely to have superior knowledge. And pictures. Pictures can be a biggee given our medium. Find me a picture to go with each item on your list and my chances of using it definitely go up. Themes can be almost anything, so long as we stay away from politics, and probably favorite sexual positions. Got your own list of pretty girls? Send it. Some sort of animals, best hotels, types of shoes, knitting techniques, smartest people, weirdest astronomical facts, classic cars, the history of great moments in animal husbandry, your Top 10 D&D moments, whatever. Send whatever you are passionate about/have some specialized knowledge in and educate the board with it. I am quite sure that as a board full of 1000s of people your range of experiences/knowledge is far more diverse than mine alone. I will of course hold final say on when, whether and how to use the theme or not. So don't make it boring. But send me an interesting fully realized list with descriptions and picture links, and chances are it will be used.
Greene ( C- ) -- not a good outing, and part of the starting crew who came out absolutely as flat as can be. It can be tough to do the roleplayer thing without becoming passive, and early on Donte was just invisible. Woke up after we got down 19 and began to use the live body inside, and running the court with Tyreke. Started the 4th pressing offensively at the PF spot with Jackson at center, which is a lineup I hope to never see again. Only lasted a minute until Westphal agreed and replaced him with Landry. Pinned to the bench in the 4th by Omri's strong play and Landry's...well, being more of a PF. Was decent on the glass this time out, using that 6'11" to help on the defensive glass even while Landry and Cousins were getting whipped.
Landry ( D ) -- Guess the preseason slump is not over yet, and just not giving us much. Bad bad bad, and I have real questions whether Cousins/Landry is going to work defensively. Of course this time they did not even work offensively, and they are our two best offensive bigs. Got whipped by the immortal Craig Smith in the early going, on both sides of the ball. Stands eye to eye wiht Smith, but could not match his energy and physicality on defense, and unable to get anything going on offense, instead watching the ball get repeatedly slapped away. At one point had put up the rather remarkable statline 5pts 1reb 5TO 5fls. As it was a few games ago got a hoop from Reke at the rim just before the halftime buzzer. But this time rather than leading to a revival, he began the 3rd quickly picking up a 4th foul, missed a shot, then was slow on closing vs. Kaman and watched him hit a long jumper. Came in for Greene in the early 4th, made a couple of nice post moves, and missed both. Then got crossed over badly by Foye. Able to at least grab some boards in the 4th as he went most of the way in that quarter despite accomplishing little. When he finally fouled out down the stretch it was not exactly a huge loss. Outplayed by all of our other bigs.
Cousins ( C- ) -- wild to start, taking bad shots, Got worked by Kaman inside both with offense and on the glass. Again troublingly had trouble on the glass against a big center. Still showed flashes of brilliance, and came up with a big drive and power slam through Kaman in the early third. But as a rule had a hard time finishing up through the big man on his way to an inefficient 4-12 night. Could see him noticeably pick up the enrgy and aggressiveness in the 4th as we tried to win it. Of course Kaman was largely out of the game by then, which helped. Final couple of minutes were more interesting defensively than offensively, and served as kind of a nutshell for what we know about DeMarcus at this point. At the 2:01 mark slid over and finally drew the charge on Aminu flying down the lane. He spends a disporportionate amount of time trying to do that as a center, bringing up shuddersome memories of Mikki. But this time he got it right, at a critical juncture of the game, and saved us a possession (and denied the Clippers points). Then inside the 30 second mark was unable to effectively play the anchor to our zone defense and watched Randy Foye swoop right at him and finish over him down the right side. Just again not a shotblocker. But then on our last defensive possession somehow got switched onto Foye out on the perimeter, and did a very nice job on two of Foye's probing forays at using those quick feet and staying in front of the guard. Of course that led to Foye kicking the ball wildly out to the top of the circle for a 26 foot lucky banked in three by Aminu to tie the game and set up Reke's game winner, but it was still good defense as a big to avoid being beaten to the hoop in that circumstance. withotu the rebounding, can't hold this grade any higher. Looked overmatched in there against Kaman. The talented kid, with the emphasis on kid, vs. the All Star showing him what was what.
Udrih ( C ) -- for 3/4 of this game looked very much the rusty vet out there playing in his second preseason game. Had no flow offensively, and got beat repeatedly on defense by various opponents. Went wandering on in this way through most of the game, contribnuting so little that you barely noticed if he was in the game or not. But stepped up in the 4th, and looked like the leader Beno we saw for much of last year as we closed the game out (although again it should be noted on some of these revivals that they came in the 4th after the clippers had started shutting down their main guys). Came up with the nice 3pt play to finally give us the lead, and was getting his stop and pop game going. Was doing a better job of helping run the team, but came up with a bad pass turnover at the 3:30 mark out of a timeout. Then missed an open three at the 2:50 mark. In fact passed up several other threes earlier int eh game making you wonder if he is not confident in that shot right now. Missed a late technical FT, and also split a pair at the 32 second mark to keep the door open for the Clippers by leaving the lead at three. Far from a banner night, and just looking at my own notes above obviously made anumber of mistakes even in his strong quarter. But at least he came to pay when it mattered most.
Evans ( C ) -- curiously uninvolved early as we got scorched. Took only 1 early shot, and we were down 27-8 with him largely just bringing the ball up and dumping it off to slumbering teammates. Made a few effort plays and seems to be moving decently, but just quiet and not terribly effective. Started pushing it a little harder in the late second and began to notch some assists on drive and kicks. Nice drive and dish to Landry in the early third. Started the third attacking, added a nice drive and dish to Landry, and knocked down a jumper, but that led him to get jumper happy for a stretch, which seems to be a problem right now. He's hitting more of them wiht the improved J. Hits one here, one there, but when he hits one, he seems to forget the to the hoop game and want to try a second and a third to see if he's hot, which so far I have only seen him be in the intrasquad scrimmage. If he does that in the regular season could lead to lower FG% and these dead patches like he had last night before he settled back in and started attacking again. Began to reengage and attack again as the quarter went on and began racking up assists. Should have had more too as again you became painfully aware of all the drive and kicks resulting in missed jumpers. Hit a three against the clock as well late in the quarter. Generally kept this style of play up into the 4th. Not horribly effective, and missed a number of finishes in close (in fact finished with 3 made jumpers to only 2 made layups, including the game winner) to go with the missed jumpers, but generally attacking, drawing attention, and dishing it around. Got to the line, but did not always convert. The of course gets the healthy bump here by stepping up ont he final play, and again reminding why he may ahve the superstar stuff. What do you do wiht a superstar? Give him the ball on the final play, isolate him up top, and watch him blow by not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR Clippers defenders and squeeze through them for a brillaint up and under finish to win the game. Would have been a main Sportscenter highlight if this were regular season. As it was, it was just a reminder of what he can do. Most of the game looked unsettled and out of rhythm though.
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Thompson ( B- ) -- brought more energy than Landry, but not terribly effective energy. A few boards, but wasn't able to stop Kaman either, and offensively was silent. Got his dunk blocked by Kaman at the rim after Reke found him slashing to the rim, and it just one of several point blank attempts that he missed or were denied. Was racking up fouls along the way again, and minutes were sharply limited because of it. Finally came back off the bench in the final two minutes of the game and hit his first shot on a critical angle jumper in the final 40 seconds.
Jackson ( B+ ) -- first guy to show defensive life stopping Gordon at the rim. Missed his early shots, but was notceably more aggressive than Landry had been. Had a long stretch of effective play in the 3rd/4th. Even hit a three in the 3rd on the swing and against the clock. Good hustle tip in in early 4th. Just gave us solid and aggressive bign man minutes that I wish our top guys would learn. Gets a little half tick here just for this being Darnell Jackson doing this.
Garcia ( B ) -- hit a three in the late first and landed on a courtside hottie's lap on an attempted hustle play, staying long enough to make sure she was alright, and perhaps get her number so he could make absolutely double sure after the game. Helped us in the early second get back into the game with some energy on both ends, althoguh he would never hit another shot. No factor after half, with Reke and Beno paired almost the whole way, and head getting some minutes for whatever reason.
Casspi ( A- ) -- hit a three in the 2nd as we made a move, and gave us a spark of energy as we finally began playing like ourselves. Came on strong with his play in the 4th, seeming to finally figure out how to be aggressive without being selfish. Knocked down 3 threes, although also missed several open ones on kickout passes, and continues to show his focus on the boards, giving us a real lift on a ngiht when our starting power guys grabbed all of 9 between them. Had a nfity swooping drive across the middle down the stretch of the game that made the highlight reels. Strong game that he needs to take down to Kinko's asap.
Head ( INC ) -- came in and immediately airballed a wide open three on the kick from JT. Played good defense staying in front of Gordon and drawing the charge.
Greene ( C- ) -- not a good outing, and part of the starting crew who came out absolutely as flat as can be. It can be tough to do the roleplayer thing without becoming passive, and early on Donte was just invisible. Woke up after we got down 19 and began to use the live body inside, and running the court with Tyreke. Started the 4th pressing offensively at the PF spot with Jackson at center, which is a lineup I hope to never see again. Only lasted a minute until Westphal agreed and replaced him with Landry. Pinned to the bench in the 4th by Omri's strong play and Landry's...well, being more of a PF. Was decent on the glass this time out, using that 6'11" to help on the defensive glass even while Landry and Cousins were getting whipped.
Landry ( D ) -- Guess the preseason slump is not over yet, and just not giving us much. Bad bad bad, and I have real questions whether Cousins/Landry is going to work defensively. Of course this time they did not even work offensively, and they are our two best offensive bigs. Got whipped by the immortal Craig Smith in the early going, on both sides of the ball. Stands eye to eye wiht Smith, but could not match his energy and physicality on defense, and unable to get anything going on offense, instead watching the ball get repeatedly slapped away. At one point had put up the rather remarkable statline 5pts 1reb 5TO 5fls. As it was a few games ago got a hoop from Reke at the rim just before the halftime buzzer. But this time rather than leading to a revival, he began the 3rd quickly picking up a 4th foul, missed a shot, then was slow on closing vs. Kaman and watched him hit a long jumper. Came in for Greene in the early 4th, made a couple of nice post moves, and missed both. Then got crossed over badly by Foye. Able to at least grab some boards in the 4th as he went most of the way in that quarter despite accomplishing little. When he finally fouled out down the stretch it was not exactly a huge loss. Outplayed by all of our other bigs.
Cousins ( C- ) -- wild to start, taking bad shots, Got worked by Kaman inside both with offense and on the glass. Again troublingly had trouble on the glass against a big center. Still showed flashes of brilliance, and came up with a big drive and power slam through Kaman in the early third. But as a rule had a hard time finishing up through the big man on his way to an inefficient 4-12 night. Could see him noticeably pick up the enrgy and aggressiveness in the 4th as we tried to win it. Of course Kaman was largely out of the game by then, which helped. Final couple of minutes were more interesting defensively than offensively, and served as kind of a nutshell for what we know about DeMarcus at this point. At the 2:01 mark slid over and finally drew the charge on Aminu flying down the lane. He spends a disporportionate amount of time trying to do that as a center, bringing up shuddersome memories of Mikki. But this time he got it right, at a critical juncture of the game, and saved us a possession (and denied the Clippers points). Then inside the 30 second mark was unable to effectively play the anchor to our zone defense and watched Randy Foye swoop right at him and finish over him down the right side. Just again not a shotblocker. But then on our last defensive possession somehow got switched onto Foye out on the perimeter, and did a very nice job on two of Foye's probing forays at using those quick feet and staying in front of the guard. Of course that led to Foye kicking the ball wildly out to the top of the circle for a 26 foot lucky banked in three by Aminu to tie the game and set up Reke's game winner, but it was still good defense as a big to avoid being beaten to the hoop in that circumstance. withotu the rebounding, can't hold this grade any higher. Looked overmatched in there against Kaman. The talented kid, with the emphasis on kid, vs. the All Star showing him what was what.
Udrih ( C ) -- for 3/4 of this game looked very much the rusty vet out there playing in his second preseason game. Had no flow offensively, and got beat repeatedly on defense by various opponents. Went wandering on in this way through most of the game, contribnuting so little that you barely noticed if he was in the game or not. But stepped up in the 4th, and looked like the leader Beno we saw for much of last year as we closed the game out (although again it should be noted on some of these revivals that they came in the 4th after the clippers had started shutting down their main guys). Came up with the nice 3pt play to finally give us the lead, and was getting his stop and pop game going. Was doing a better job of helping run the team, but came up with a bad pass turnover at the 3:30 mark out of a timeout. Then missed an open three at the 2:50 mark. In fact passed up several other threes earlier int eh game making you wonder if he is not confident in that shot right now. Missed a late technical FT, and also split a pair at the 32 second mark to keep the door open for the Clippers by leaving the lead at three. Far from a banner night, and just looking at my own notes above obviously made anumber of mistakes even in his strong quarter. But at least he came to pay when it mattered most.
Evans ( C ) -- curiously uninvolved early as we got scorched. Took only 1 early shot, and we were down 27-8 with him largely just bringing the ball up and dumping it off to slumbering teammates. Made a few effort plays and seems to be moving decently, but just quiet and not terribly effective. Started pushing it a little harder in the late second and began to notch some assists on drive and kicks. Nice drive and dish to Landry in the early third. Started the third attacking, added a nice drive and dish to Landry, and knocked down a jumper, but that led him to get jumper happy for a stretch, which seems to be a problem right now. He's hitting more of them wiht the improved J. Hits one here, one there, but when he hits one, he seems to forget the to the hoop game and want to try a second and a third to see if he's hot, which so far I have only seen him be in the intrasquad scrimmage. If he does that in the regular season could lead to lower FG% and these dead patches like he had last night before he settled back in and started attacking again. Began to reengage and attack again as the quarter went on and began racking up assists. Should have had more too as again you became painfully aware of all the drive and kicks resulting in missed jumpers. Hit a three against the clock as well late in the quarter. Generally kept this style of play up into the 4th. Not horribly effective, and missed a number of finishes in close (in fact finished with 3 made jumpers to only 2 made layups, including the game winner) to go with the missed jumpers, but generally attacking, drawing attention, and dishing it around. Got to the line, but did not always convert. The of course gets the healthy bump here by stepping up ont he final play, and again reminding why he may ahve the superstar stuff. What do you do wiht a superstar? Give him the ball on the final play, isolate him up top, and watch him blow by not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR Clippers defenders and squeeze through them for a brillaint up and under finish to win the game. Would have been a main Sportscenter highlight if this were regular season. As it was, it was just a reminder of what he can do. Most of the game looked unsettled and out of rhythm though.
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Thompson ( B- ) -- brought more energy than Landry, but not terribly effective energy. A few boards, but wasn't able to stop Kaman either, and offensively was silent. Got his dunk blocked by Kaman at the rim after Reke found him slashing to the rim, and it just one of several point blank attempts that he missed or were denied. Was racking up fouls along the way again, and minutes were sharply limited because of it. Finally came back off the bench in the final two minutes of the game and hit his first shot on a critical angle jumper in the final 40 seconds.
Jackson ( B+ ) -- first guy to show defensive life stopping Gordon at the rim. Missed his early shots, but was notceably more aggressive than Landry had been. Had a long stretch of effective play in the 3rd/4th. Even hit a three in the 3rd on the swing and against the clock. Good hustle tip in in early 4th. Just gave us solid and aggressive bign man minutes that I wish our top guys would learn. Gets a little half tick here just for this being Darnell Jackson doing this.
Garcia ( B ) -- hit a three in the late first and landed on a courtside hottie's lap on an attempted hustle play, staying long enough to make sure she was alright, and perhaps get her number so he could make absolutely double sure after the game. Helped us in the early second get back into the game with some energy on both ends, althoguh he would never hit another shot. No factor after half, with Reke and Beno paired almost the whole way, and head getting some minutes for whatever reason.
Casspi ( A- ) -- hit a three in the 2nd as we made a move, and gave us a spark of energy as we finally began playing like ourselves. Came on strong with his play in the 4th, seeming to finally figure out how to be aggressive without being selfish. Knocked down 3 threes, although also missed several open ones on kickout passes, and continues to show his focus on the boards, giving us a real lift on a ngiht when our starting power guys grabbed all of 9 between them. Had a nfity swooping drive across the middle down the stretch of the game that made the highlight reels. Strong game that he needs to take down to Kinko's asap.
Head ( INC ) -- came in and immediately airballed a wide open three on the kick from JT. Played good defense staying in front of Gordon and drawing the charge.
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