Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Johnson ( B ) -- there was enough slop here I could have gone a half grade lower, but I don't wanna. Yeah, he forced some things etc. etc. (some of them quite brainless 1 on 4 type drives) But what the numbers here disguise is that he played a very ice all around game and we stumbled without him. He helps on the glass, on switches, he takes the ball and can lead the break, he's comfortable swinging through the post on offenae and setting picks etc. The numbers particularly disguise the defense, where he harassed everyone from Kobe to Pau (his length on Kobe was particulalry impressive). The biggest problem with him on that end is that we only have one of him. Forced a back in post move and cleaned up his own offensive rebound in the final two mintues to help us ice it.
Robinson ( B )(-)) -- now if JJ was a B, then TRob should be a B-, as he just wasn't an impact player like that and was more solid than really strong. But it was a good outing for the rookie, and obviously the best since his first, and hopefully I am not setting the bar too low calling this a B. Part of that was that we simplified the offense for him. As in other than one early badly bricked jumper we told him not to shoot and just play off the ball. His best plays came as a garbageman, flying in to convert on Cousins' misses, although he did get one surprise drive in there. Defensively he was not an impact guy, but neither was he taken advantage of as we played games swithces Cuz, TRob and Johnson around on various offenders, and on one play he got to flash his perimeter defense staying in front of Metta while he fooled around trying to impress with some fancy dribbling. Nothing huge here, but a solid positive outing, and importantly showed that we could put him out there next to Cousins and have him fit in by dialing back the offense.
Cousins ( B+ ) -- not much point in describing all the plays here, but suffice it to say that if Boogie did not come to play last time out, this time he obviously did, and he was active throughout. Sloppy at times, but active on both ends. On offense we had his normal inside/outisde mix, frequently into heavy traffic, and dropping his field goal percentage with several of his tip tip finish plays. On defense he was not always great, but he was involved, showing up top to excellent effect, even bothering Nash, and using his body inside and getting those hands on a lot of balls to knock them away. Had a particularly strong stretch after returning in the second quarter hihglighted by a steal up above the circle and gallop to the hoop for a dunk, and marred only by several of his 5 trying to do too much turnovers. Looked like he was tiring a bit late in the third after playing most of the game up until that point. Would not be surprised if that was on purpose by Smart, but it also must be said that when Boogie isn't on the court our offense collapsed with no interior game at all until Reke finally stole the ball from Jimmer and started controlling play in the final minutes of the 4th.
Thornton ( A- ) -- active from the beginning of this one and all game long was a one man fast break guy always releasing. Obviously not able to do much on Kobe on the other end when matched, but his points were offsetting Kobe's and they began to get into it jawing in the 3rd. Efficiency here was because there were only one or two forced shots, (including one of those insane just suddenly decide to rock bakc and randomly chuck a three with a man right in your face things that would soon have me coachign a team full of eunuchs -- I'd have the wood block and machete right by seat just for the occasions). Probably fewer than half were even agianst a set defense, as Thronton was constantly pushing hte pace and scoring before the Lakers had a chance to set up. Hit a big three late in the third as things started to get fesity. And with only one or two of his selfish moments, and only a couple of the sloppy/gambly moments on defense, not much to take away from the A here.
Thomas ( B ) -- not an amazing game by IT, but the right style of game for this team as he dialed back his offense and delivered one of his best assist making games, notching 10 in 25 min (he only hit double figures 3 times last year, and only had 9 in the first three games combined this preseason). Had a few defensive misadventures early, leaving Nash wide open in the corner for a three, and getting iso'd on Kobe several times, but wasn't taken advantage of consistently. Aside from one good take immeidately greeting the much too slow Andrew Goudelock with a jumper, most of his takes were random and not terribly smart 1 on 4 forces sort of things (although he did close his night wiht a drive for the final bucket of the 3rd for his second basket). Fortunately there were not many of them, he did a nice job of keeping Cousins and Thornton happy,and he added a nice athletic play hurdling over JT in the open court after Jason tumbled to the floor right in front of him, and not losing control of the dribble in the process. We did not play Brooks here for whatever reason, so the downshift in the offense when we went from IT to Jimmer jumped out.
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Bench
Evans ( C ) -- in as 6th man at SF(!) to start, and it was a struggle. Had some defensive moments, especially as a help defender, but was in the stuck in the corner and not involved mode on offense, and then when he did try to make something happen it had the feel of well I'd better do something, so let's force up a shot this time down. Did not improve in that half after shifting back to SG next to Jimmer, who, since Smart told him to gun it like it was BYU, barely crosses halfcourt before gunning up a shot anymore. There were two or three pretty takes, but Reke just looked extremely uncomfortable, either too passive or too agressive, and even committing several easy dribbling errors that you just don't see out of a guy with his handle. Fourth quarter started as more of the same, but then something happened, by his choice or the coaches' he took the ball back, and all of a sudden he was back again, and I so so wish someone on our coaching staff would catch on. He needs the ball. Down the stretch dominated play isolating his man and beating him to the hoop for layups or dump off passes to other Kings and saving this grade. Even stroked a good looking three (after an earlier miss where he leg kicked for no reason).
Thompson ( C ) -- highly mediocre effort grabbing some barely noticed boards, and not much else. Had a nice give and go to Reke for an assist, but our atttempts to solve the Hayes/TRob midget connundrum by having JT work as the backup center didn't improve things much for us. Our attempts to throw it to JT 1 on 1 in the post were futile and only highlighted the vast gulf in talent between he and Cuz.
Fredette ( B- ) -- we benched Brooks for he night, and so Jimmer was the bakcup "PG" on the night. With the message from the coaching staff to be aggressive like its BYU, that meant 0 assists in 22+ min and a badly sputtering offense. On the other hand, the jumper was largely on, and while shooting over the two Steves (Nash and Blake) isn't the hardest thing in the world, Jimmer was bombing. And on the other end it wasn't bad. Again, staying in front of Steve Blake isn't a huge challenge, but he did, and after being immediately attacked by the Lakers as soon as he entered, his defense was solid enough, even against Nash. If he made no great plays, neither did he ignite any Lakers rallies. We need to get him off the ball though.
Garcia ( C- ) -- well, focused on his role at least, which is to say that every single shot he took was a three, and he only took one of them dumbly/selfishly when he abruptly got excited and pulled up for a quick shot three in semi-transition with nobody underneath for the board (a minute later he drained one off the catch and shoot). The rest were on kickouts and swings as he seems to be the only one of our SFs capable of executing the simple three from the corner. But that was about the limit of his positive contributions. Was beaten on defense repeatedly. Still cannot board. Did get a little feisty in repsonse to Lakers yabbering in the second half, but again mostly stayed out of the way wqhiel reke and Jimmer fought over the ball and Chuck and JT *ahem* posted up.
Hayes ( D ) -- worst outing of Chuck's preseason as he really didn't get much done. The system did him no favors as it features Chuck standing around in the post clogging the lane for Reke (now that they were both backups off the bench), because obviosuly we are going to get a lot of points out of Chuck. Offense was impotent as ever, but also not much on the baords or anywhere else to an empty 0pts 2reb night. I wondered if a D was too harsh here, but I couldn't think of any reason not to give it really. Just nothing got accomplished.
Reed ( INC ) -- just the final minute
Ndiaye ( INC ) -- just the final minute. Hey, Fesenko just got released if we aren't serious about the guys we have in camp.
Robinson ( B )(-)) -- now if JJ was a B, then TRob should be a B-, as he just wasn't an impact player like that and was more solid than really strong. But it was a good outing for the rookie, and obviously the best since his first, and hopefully I am not setting the bar too low calling this a B. Part of that was that we simplified the offense for him. As in other than one early badly bricked jumper we told him not to shoot and just play off the ball. His best plays came as a garbageman, flying in to convert on Cousins' misses, although he did get one surprise drive in there. Defensively he was not an impact guy, but neither was he taken advantage of as we played games swithces Cuz, TRob and Johnson around on various offenders, and on one play he got to flash his perimeter defense staying in front of Metta while he fooled around trying to impress with some fancy dribbling. Nothing huge here, but a solid positive outing, and importantly showed that we could put him out there next to Cousins and have him fit in by dialing back the offense.
Cousins ( B+ ) -- not much point in describing all the plays here, but suffice it to say that if Boogie did not come to play last time out, this time he obviously did, and he was active throughout. Sloppy at times, but active on both ends. On offense we had his normal inside/outisde mix, frequently into heavy traffic, and dropping his field goal percentage with several of his tip tip finish plays. On defense he was not always great, but he was involved, showing up top to excellent effect, even bothering Nash, and using his body inside and getting those hands on a lot of balls to knock them away. Had a particularly strong stretch after returning in the second quarter hihglighted by a steal up above the circle and gallop to the hoop for a dunk, and marred only by several of his 5 trying to do too much turnovers. Looked like he was tiring a bit late in the third after playing most of the game up until that point. Would not be surprised if that was on purpose by Smart, but it also must be said that when Boogie isn't on the court our offense collapsed with no interior game at all until Reke finally stole the ball from Jimmer and started controlling play in the final minutes of the 4th.
Thornton ( A- ) -- active from the beginning of this one and all game long was a one man fast break guy always releasing. Obviously not able to do much on Kobe on the other end when matched, but his points were offsetting Kobe's and they began to get into it jawing in the 3rd. Efficiency here was because there were only one or two forced shots, (including one of those insane just suddenly decide to rock bakc and randomly chuck a three with a man right in your face things that would soon have me coachign a team full of eunuchs -- I'd have the wood block and machete right by seat just for the occasions). Probably fewer than half were even agianst a set defense, as Thronton was constantly pushing hte pace and scoring before the Lakers had a chance to set up. Hit a big three late in the third as things started to get fesity. And with only one or two of his selfish moments, and only a couple of the sloppy/gambly moments on defense, not much to take away from the A here.
Thomas ( B ) -- not an amazing game by IT, but the right style of game for this team as he dialed back his offense and delivered one of his best assist making games, notching 10 in 25 min (he only hit double figures 3 times last year, and only had 9 in the first three games combined this preseason). Had a few defensive misadventures early, leaving Nash wide open in the corner for a three, and getting iso'd on Kobe several times, but wasn't taken advantage of consistently. Aside from one good take immeidately greeting the much too slow Andrew Goudelock with a jumper, most of his takes were random and not terribly smart 1 on 4 forces sort of things (although he did close his night wiht a drive for the final bucket of the 3rd for his second basket). Fortunately there were not many of them, he did a nice job of keeping Cousins and Thornton happy,and he added a nice athletic play hurdling over JT in the open court after Jason tumbled to the floor right in front of him, and not losing control of the dribble in the process. We did not play Brooks here for whatever reason, so the downshift in the offense when we went from IT to Jimmer jumped out.
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Bench
Evans ( C ) -- in as 6th man at SF(!) to start, and it was a struggle. Had some defensive moments, especially as a help defender, but was in the stuck in the corner and not involved mode on offense, and then when he did try to make something happen it had the feel of well I'd better do something, so let's force up a shot this time down. Did not improve in that half after shifting back to SG next to Jimmer, who, since Smart told him to gun it like it was BYU, barely crosses halfcourt before gunning up a shot anymore. There were two or three pretty takes, but Reke just looked extremely uncomfortable, either too passive or too agressive, and even committing several easy dribbling errors that you just don't see out of a guy with his handle. Fourth quarter started as more of the same, but then something happened, by his choice or the coaches' he took the ball back, and all of a sudden he was back again, and I so so wish someone on our coaching staff would catch on. He needs the ball. Down the stretch dominated play isolating his man and beating him to the hoop for layups or dump off passes to other Kings and saving this grade. Even stroked a good looking three (after an earlier miss where he leg kicked for no reason).
Thompson ( C ) -- highly mediocre effort grabbing some barely noticed boards, and not much else. Had a nice give and go to Reke for an assist, but our atttempts to solve the Hayes/TRob midget connundrum by having JT work as the backup center didn't improve things much for us. Our attempts to throw it to JT 1 on 1 in the post were futile and only highlighted the vast gulf in talent between he and Cuz.
Fredette ( B- ) -- we benched Brooks for he night, and so Jimmer was the bakcup "PG" on the night. With the message from the coaching staff to be aggressive like its BYU, that meant 0 assists in 22+ min and a badly sputtering offense. On the other hand, the jumper was largely on, and while shooting over the two Steves (Nash and Blake) isn't the hardest thing in the world, Jimmer was bombing. And on the other end it wasn't bad. Again, staying in front of Steve Blake isn't a huge challenge, but he did, and after being immediately attacked by the Lakers as soon as he entered, his defense was solid enough, even against Nash. If he made no great plays, neither did he ignite any Lakers rallies. We need to get him off the ball though.
Garcia ( C- ) -- well, focused on his role at least, which is to say that every single shot he took was a three, and he only took one of them dumbly/selfishly when he abruptly got excited and pulled up for a quick shot three in semi-transition with nobody underneath for the board (a minute later he drained one off the catch and shoot). The rest were on kickouts and swings as he seems to be the only one of our SFs capable of executing the simple three from the corner. But that was about the limit of his positive contributions. Was beaten on defense repeatedly. Still cannot board. Did get a little feisty in repsonse to Lakers yabbering in the second half, but again mostly stayed out of the way wqhiel reke and Jimmer fought over the ball and Chuck and JT *ahem* posted up.
Hayes ( D ) -- worst outing of Chuck's preseason as he really didn't get much done. The system did him no favors as it features Chuck standing around in the post clogging the lane for Reke (now that they were both backups off the bench), because obviosuly we are going to get a lot of points out of Chuck. Offense was impotent as ever, but also not much on the baords or anywhere else to an empty 0pts 2reb night. I wondered if a D was too harsh here, but I couldn't think of any reason not to give it really. Just nothing got accomplished.
Reed ( INC ) -- just the final minute
Ndiaye ( INC ) -- just the final minute. Hey, Fesenko just got released if we aren't serious about the guys we have in camp.
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