That lineup with IT/MT/Salmons has awful. Nobody was creating shots for anyone else. If IT is gonna be a scoring PG I really don't think we can pair him with MT (or Mclemore). If he's taking the 6th man scoring role as a. PG we should pair him with a defensive SG.
absolutely agreed. that lineup (unsurprisingly) looked a lot like last year's offense at its worst. as bad as IT looked last night, the fact that he shared quite a bit of his time with those two on the wings is somewhat of a mitigating factor. combine the uncreative and selfish offense of those three with their putrid defense and that might be the Kings' worst perimeter combo. really don't want to see them play together again.
other random things:
- Jimmer looked hella comfortable on offense against the Phoenix scrubs, would like to see him get an extended look against a defense actually applying pressure against him. this game, he basically could get to any spot on the floor he liked and made some really good passes. notably, he drove middle once and took a contested floater that didn't fall when he had PPat open in the corner. then, a few plays later, pretty much the same situation occurred only this time he passed the ball to the corner and Patrick nailed the shot. encouraging, if not for the team than definitely for his trade value. his defense was okayish. didn't have much of a challenge there either, once Dragic sprained his ankle, but was able to hide quite well. did give up one of his trademark trying to stop a fastbreak by his lonesome only to give up an and-1 things he has a penchant for (think Hadlowe noted that in the Clips game threads).
- JT, I thought, played a very solid second half, making mostly good plays on offense, cleaning up the boards and containing penetration quite well. him and PPat both played fairly well together on the defensive end, imo, although PPat still struggles having any sort of impact in the restricted area (allowing Miles Plumlee to score over you? really?). the well it was the Suns caveat applies here as well, of course, but looking to play those two together when Cuz rests seems like a good idea. especially once Landry comes back, if he and Cuz mesh against all odds.
- if Cuz decides to dominate games at the FT line that would be absolutely fine by me. Gortat did get him back once or twice in the second half, but in the beginning he just looked positively helpless, simply hacking at Cuz every time he got beat (he got beat a lot). clearly profits from a structured offense, especially if Greivis is running it. still gets a bit overenthusiastic at times as evidenced by his TOs, most notably that unnecessary charge running the break, but all those other negatives, lack of effort on defense, pouting and being overly concerned with the officials have improved a ton. especially his rapport with the refs looks a lot better. will be interesting to see if this holds up if things don't go his way, but thus far, it's been really encouraging.
- also encouraging: the fact that the team seems to be intent on winning the freethrow battle. my memory might be fuzzy on this, but IIRC, they kept the Suns off the line for the most part, until they started giving up a lot of Orebs late with Locket playing the four (for whatever reason). it's a very good sign for a defense, imo.
