Tetsujin
The Game Thread Dude
Alrighty, since doing both game threads and grades was turning out to be an impossibility, let's try things like this...
So we're now 20 games into the 2020-2021 season (would have been 22 games had the Grizzlies not had major COVID-19 issues that cancelled most of their games over the last couple of weeks and your Sacramento Kings now stand at 9-11, which in all honesty is a bit better than I thought they would be. I may or may not have been adamant in my calls for the Kings to sorta tank during the offseason but if the Kings are winning games like this because De'Aaron and Tyrese are being awesome and showing off ridiculous upside, I am completely okay with things turning out like this.
So let's get on with the grades, shall we?
Richaun Holmes (B-) 19 gp, 30.5 mpg, 12.9 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 2 apg, .8 spg, 1.8 bpg, 1.4 tov, 4.2 fpg
After starting the season off rough, Richaun has settled down into a role as the chief big on guard-centric Kings team. On defense, Homes hustles hard though not necessarily always to a good end result. On offense, Holmes's primary function remains being a roll threat on the pick-and-roll but not necessarily just at the rim as he's gotten so ridiculously efficient at that push shot out to around ten feet or so that teams can't just wall off the hoop when he sets a pick for his guards like the could for Willie Cauley-Stein or some of the lesser rim-attacking big men in the league. A byproduct of Luke running an adjusted Princeton offense for some of his base sets despite not having the right personnel for it is that Richaun has actually improved quite a bit as a passer, which has led to our starting lineup becoming one of the more efficient ones in the league. That three point shot that he kept talking about having added in the offseason has thus far been a nonfactor but with Marvin having turned into a pretty damn efficient three point shooter, that's become less of an issue that I thought it would be.
Marvin Bagley III (C+) 20 gp, 25.8 mpg, 13.1 ppg, 7.7 rpg, 1 apg, .5 spg, .6 bpg, 1.7 tov, 2.8 fpg
Ignoring the first several weeks of the season, it's been an encouraging third year in the league for Marvin. Almost immediately after his father sparked drama with a series of increasing obnoxious tweets, Marvin has become a smooth cog of our offense, picking his spots on offense, settling into a key floor spacing role for the team with a .357 3p% on almost three attempts a game, which is a large enough sample size to convince me that this range is for real. He's still missing way moree free throws than you'd like him to but with all those bad iso post ups out of his system, he's been encouraging on offense. Defensively, Bagley's started to get it together of late, using his athleticism to stay in front of quicker forwards. It's always been more of a fundamentals issue than an effort issue for Marvin on that end of the court and he's started to figure some things out. While he'll likely never be Draymond out there, a big who can shoot the three and pull down rebounds and not completely get destroyed on that end is still good enough to be a key piece of the core going forward, even if Luke forgets he exists after the end of the 3rd quarter.
Harrison Barnes (A) 20 gp, 35.5 mpg, 16.9 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 3.5 apg, .8 spg, .2 bpg, 1.6 tov, 1.1 fpg
Black Falcon has low-key been our best player this year, solid in just about every single aspect of the game. Offensively, he's been far more aggressive than he was last season while also not being a huge blackhole like he was for a lot of his time in Dallas. On defense, Harrison is at his best guarding 4s but has proven to be alright on most wings, even if he's as athletic as he once was (the dude has packed on like 10 pounds of muscle since coming to the Kings). Aside from De'Aaron or Tyrese, Harrison is probably the guy who'd get the most assets in return in a trade but with how he's playing, I'm not sure I don't want him as part of our core going forward.
Buddy Hield (C) 20 gp, 34.4 mpg, 16.2 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 3 apg, 1.1 spg, .4 bpg, 1.9 tov, 2.9 fpg
Aside from the buzzer beater to start the season, Buddy's season started rough on the offensive end of the court. As time has gone on though, Buddy has seemingly stared to get hotter and hotter and while he now is apparently refusing to take all but the most open of two point attempts, he's also shooting around 40% from three on ten attempts per game. On defense, Buddy is putting an effort into not getting beat all on his own but is still prone to the occasional lapse/brain fart. Not quite sure what his long term role winds up being for the Kings but he's not been a negative for the team while he's here.
De'Aaron Fox (B) 20 gp, 32.3 mpg, 22.1 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 6.4 apg, 1.3 spg, .6 bpg, 3.4 tov, 2.7 fpg
Here's your superstar, Sacramento! Recency bias out of the way, it's been a good, encouraging year from Swipa. After shooting awfully during preseason, De'Aaron has shown an expanded range from behind the arc to start the season, even adding the increasingly popular stepback three pointer that pretty much every single star on-ball player seems to have in this day in age. On defense, De'Aaron has been solid, even as an expanded role on offense has made it difficult for him to devote himself fully to that end of the floor. As a playmaker, De'Aaron has been solid and done everything you'd hope an attacking point guard would do. You want your point guard to get his team to score the easiest points possible and when Fox is involved, that more often than not is more likely to be De'Aaron scoring himself rather than dishing the ball to a teammate for a jumper. The two blemishes in his game remain the free throw shooting and the turnovers but the turnovers are mostly of the De'Aaron throws a pass that's too hard for an open teammate to handle variety than of the "DEAR LORD WHO WAS THAT TO?" variety and nothing about his free throw stroke is broken to the point that you'd think he'd never be able to become a plus shooter there as well. All in all, this team only goes as far as De'Aaron can take it and, as he has started to show, he is increasingly able to put his guys on his back and win things on his own.
***
Tyrese Haliburton (A) 18 gp, 28.8 mpg, 10.7 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 5.4 apg, 1.1 spg, .7 bpg, 1.6 tov, 1.3 fpg
If there's been a brightside to the season, this would be it. Tyrese has been as good as, or, scratch that, way better than advertised for the Kings. Whatever the hell BBIQ actually is, the Cyclone has it in spades. Sure the shooting stroke looks funky but it works more than it doesn't and the court vision is real as hell. On defense, Tyrese's awareness is ridiculous. Be it steals from out of nowhere or random nights where he blocks guys, he fills the boxscore on that end as well. One issue that has come up of late is Tyrese's ability or even willingness to create scoring opportunities for himself. He's shown that he's got a couple of nice moves in his arsenal so this almost seems to be more of a Rese-wanting-to-get-guys-involved issue than a Tyrese-sorta-sucks-at-this issue. The dude's only 20 years old and already an elite role player in the league so it's hard to be too upset about it.
Hassan Whiteside (B-) 13 gp, 14.1 mpg, 7.5 ppg, 4.8 rpg, .5 apg, .3 spg, 1 bpg, 1.1 tov, 1.6 fpg
The Hassan Whiteside Experience has been interesting to say the least. Aside from the span where a couple of injury issues forced him to miss some time, Hassan has slotted into the third big role almost seamlessly. The man changes the game defensively simply by being a 7'1" behemoth with the longest arms I've ever seen. I don't think Hassan has even jumped or run faster than a slow pleasant trot this season but it has stopped him forgetting blocks and super easy lay-ins and dunks at a high clip. The customary WTF Hassan moments do remain a thing but they're no more responsible for the Kings losing than Cory Joseph taking bad isos or us forgetting how pick-and-rolls work. Also we've been a historically inept defense in the games that Hassan hasn't played so that should count for something.
Cory Joseph (D-) 20 gp, 19.3 mpg, 6.3 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 2.2 apg, .7 spg, .3 bpg, 1.1 tov, 2.3 fpg
Without being too mean about it, Cory Joseph has just plain sucked for the entire season with the exception of two games in which he randomly hit everything he threw at the rim. I don't know if it's age or bad technique but on defense, the man has seemingly lost his ability to stay in front of his guy, which is less than ideal for the guy you're paying 10 million dollars a year to serve as your defensive vet role player. He's also had a whole bevy of bad rotation brainfarts on that end. Amazingly, he's been even worse on offense, where now teams are simply leaving him uncovered at the three point line in the hope that he either takes a three that he will inevitably miss because he's a bad shooter or an awful awful bulldog iso that will normally end in him clanking a bad fadeaway pull-up off the front of the rim. Walton makes a big deal about Cojo's vet leadership being good but at a certain point that vet leadership might be better heard from the end of the bench.
Glenn Robinson III (C) 15 gp, 16.7 mpg, 6.12 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 1 apg, .1 spg, .1 bpg, .4 tov, .9 fpg
Little Big Dog has been the last guy in Luke's short rotation for most of the year and has been modestly okay in that role. He's a bit of a tweeter in the sense that while he's got passably good size for a wing, nothing about his game suggests he's capable of really manning the small forward position. To his credit, GlennRob is one of the harder runners in transition and Tyrese has done a good job of finding him for easy buckets when the opportunity presents itself. While Robinson doesn't really force the issue on offense, he's not really much more than a solid three point threat and lob guy. On defense, he tries but he's not exactly Tony Allen out there. You could do better for a third wing but you could also do much worse.
Nemanja Bjelica (C- if you're a Kings fan, A+++ if you're a GM looking to acquire Bjeli) 10 gp, 15 mpg, 6.6 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 1.9 apg, 0 spg, .2 bpg, 1.2 tov, 2 fpg
After starting the season as the first or second guy off the bench, Bjeli has now vanished off the face of the earth and from Luke's depth charts. While he was playing, Bjeli remained as heady on offense as he ever was despite absolutely sucking eggs as a shooter but looked absolutely dreadful on defense. Bjelica remains an absolutely useful player in the right situation and role. If I'm Donnie Nelson and still somehow convinced that my team can be a contender this season despite everything pointing to the Mavs not really having their crap together, this is the exact sort of role player I'd look into to help my offense not look like a total disaster. Boston, the Sixers, and Memphis are a couple of other teams that could really use Bjelica as a guy who can slide into their rotation and provide spacing and the occasional bit of savvy playmaking. Either way, **** it, Bjelica deserves to play minutes somewhere, man.
Chimezie Metu (B) 9 gp, 6.9 mpg, 3.7 ppg, 2.6 rpg, .4 apg, .3 spg, .7 bpg, .6 tov, 1.1 fpg
Cut by the Spurs in the offseason for some reason, Metu has been a welcome surprise as our second two-way player. With Hassan missing a handful of games due to injury, Metu saw some extended run and flashed a nice set of tools during it. With an okay shooting stroke and rim protecting mindset, Metu could eventually develop into an nice modern NBA big man. Not sure why the Spurs decided not to keep him but I'm glad they didn't.
Kyle Guy (C+) 6 gp, 9 mpg, 3.3 ppg, 1.5 rpg, 1.7 apg, .5 spg, 0 bpg, 0 tov, .7 fpg
Just passing over the threshold of getting an incomplete grade, Kyle has seen rotation minutes over the last couple of games after pretty much riding the bench since he hit that game winner in preseason. While his stroke has been as inconsistent as his playing time, I trust him to settle into being a plus shooter once/if his role gets set in stone. Guy gives good effort on defense but is mostly a minus on the end just due to his small size. As a playmaker, he's not a pure point guard but as a secondary passer, he's shown good vision and probably deserves at least some of Cojo's minutes going forward.
Justin James (C-) 7 gp, 6.9 ppg, 1 rpg, .4 apg, .1 spg, .1 bpg, 0 tov, .1 fpg
While he seems hopelessly incapable of making a basket, newish JJ remains solid on defense and usually hustle and give you good effort in his time on the floor, which is pretty much all you can ask for from your 12th/13th man.
Robert Woodard II (inc.) 6 gp, 2.8 min, 2.2 ppg, 1.3 rpg, 0 apg, 0 spg, 0 bpg, .2 tov, 0 pf
Headed to the G-League bubble after getting buried on the bench by Walton's super tight rotations, Woodard has shown himself to be a useful 3/4 stretch defender type with plus potential in the short stints we've seen him. Considering that was one of the positions that we really had issues defending until Marvin started turning a corner over the last couple of weeks, it probably would have been nice to see him out there more but that's Luke for you. He's headed to the Spurs system for the bubble, which is pretty much the most ideal landing spot for him, seeing as how the Pop system has churned out wings like Keldon Johnson and some dude named Kawhi with similar initial toolkits as him.
Jahmi'us Ramsey (inc.) 4 gp, 4 min, 1.3 ppg, 1 rpg, .3 apg, 0 spg, .3 bpg, .3 tov, 0 pf
Jahmi'us is another dude getting sent to the G-League bubble for playing time. Pretty much the youngest dude in last year's draft, he's shown a couple of flashes in his few moments of playing time but is very clearly still incredibly raw and these G-League minutes should do wonders for his development. Considering we need another scoring bench guard like a guy stranded in the Sahara needs water, I hope he makes the most of them. I still believe in his potential.
DaQuan Jeffries (injured)
Hurt his back in preseason and then badly sprained his ankle right when he was about to return from that injury. It's a shame because we've got a gaping wind defender bench wing position that has his name on it. Hopefully he's back in action in time to make an impact for us this season. Plus he's a young role player who we want to continue to develop to play along with our core.
Jabari Parker (???)
I'm not even sure if the dude is still alive or not.
Coach Luke Walton (C-)
Luke gets a passing grade but just barely and this is all mostly just on the back of this recent stretch of games where the team has actually been daily passable on defense and very potent on offense due to a couple of schematic shifts that may or may not have been strongly suggested to him by Monte Morris and the front office. Rotations-wise, Luke's kept things pretty tight with a consistent 8-9 man rotation where G-Rob sees time on some nights when the matchups dictate it. Schematically, the high elbow big sets that Walton loves to run are still present and as ugly as hell although they occasionally turn into high pick and rolls when Tyrese is on the floor. Defensively, we've stopped switching on literally every single screen like we did to start the season, which has sort of helped eliminate some of the bad confused defensive miscues that led to the Kings boasting the worst defense in NBA history for a time.
Monte Morris and the Front Office (B+)
Pretty much all of Monte's moves during the offseason have payed off here in the early going. Tyrese looks like the steal of the draft and is absolutely a core piece for the team going forward. Hassan has been effective in his minutes of action and has even provided a bit of veteran leadership that I absolutely was not expecting. Glenn Robinson hasn't been awesome but has also not been useless in his minutes, which is all you can really ask of a vet on a cheap contract like he is. Even letting Bogi go for nothing has worked out well enough as it gave Luke no other option than to play Tyrese enough minutes to shine and develop, although the fact that Dontte DiVincenzo has been killing it for the Bucks this year makes me sad and angry at Bogi's agent. Even Monte's suggestions to the coaching staff have played out pretty well over the last week. All in all an encouraging start to the Monte McNair tenure.
Now we just have to wait and see whether Monte decides to make a play for the playoffs this year or to start shelving guys and selling vets for assets.
So we're now 20 games into the 2020-2021 season (would have been 22 games had the Grizzlies not had major COVID-19 issues that cancelled most of their games over the last couple of weeks and your Sacramento Kings now stand at 9-11, which in all honesty is a bit better than I thought they would be. I may or may not have been adamant in my calls for the Kings to sorta tank during the offseason but if the Kings are winning games like this because De'Aaron and Tyrese are being awesome and showing off ridiculous upside, I am completely okay with things turning out like this.
So let's get on with the grades, shall we?
Richaun Holmes (B-) 19 gp, 30.5 mpg, 12.9 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 2 apg, .8 spg, 1.8 bpg, 1.4 tov, 4.2 fpg
After starting the season off rough, Richaun has settled down into a role as the chief big on guard-centric Kings team. On defense, Homes hustles hard though not necessarily always to a good end result. On offense, Holmes's primary function remains being a roll threat on the pick-and-roll but not necessarily just at the rim as he's gotten so ridiculously efficient at that push shot out to around ten feet or so that teams can't just wall off the hoop when he sets a pick for his guards like the could for Willie Cauley-Stein or some of the lesser rim-attacking big men in the league. A byproduct of Luke running an adjusted Princeton offense for some of his base sets despite not having the right personnel for it is that Richaun has actually improved quite a bit as a passer, which has led to our starting lineup becoming one of the more efficient ones in the league. That three point shot that he kept talking about having added in the offseason has thus far been a nonfactor but with Marvin having turned into a pretty damn efficient three point shooter, that's become less of an issue that I thought it would be.
Marvin Bagley III (C+) 20 gp, 25.8 mpg, 13.1 ppg, 7.7 rpg, 1 apg, .5 spg, .6 bpg, 1.7 tov, 2.8 fpg
Ignoring the first several weeks of the season, it's been an encouraging third year in the league for Marvin. Almost immediately after his father sparked drama with a series of increasing obnoxious tweets, Marvin has become a smooth cog of our offense, picking his spots on offense, settling into a key floor spacing role for the team with a .357 3p% on almost three attempts a game, which is a large enough sample size to convince me that this range is for real. He's still missing way moree free throws than you'd like him to but with all those bad iso post ups out of his system, he's been encouraging on offense. Defensively, Bagley's started to get it together of late, using his athleticism to stay in front of quicker forwards. It's always been more of a fundamentals issue than an effort issue for Marvin on that end of the court and he's started to figure some things out. While he'll likely never be Draymond out there, a big who can shoot the three and pull down rebounds and not completely get destroyed on that end is still good enough to be a key piece of the core going forward, even if Luke forgets he exists after the end of the 3rd quarter.
Harrison Barnes (A) 20 gp, 35.5 mpg, 16.9 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 3.5 apg, .8 spg, .2 bpg, 1.6 tov, 1.1 fpg
Black Falcon has low-key been our best player this year, solid in just about every single aspect of the game. Offensively, he's been far more aggressive than he was last season while also not being a huge blackhole like he was for a lot of his time in Dallas. On defense, Harrison is at his best guarding 4s but has proven to be alright on most wings, even if he's as athletic as he once was (the dude has packed on like 10 pounds of muscle since coming to the Kings). Aside from De'Aaron or Tyrese, Harrison is probably the guy who'd get the most assets in return in a trade but with how he's playing, I'm not sure I don't want him as part of our core going forward.
Buddy Hield (C) 20 gp, 34.4 mpg, 16.2 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 3 apg, 1.1 spg, .4 bpg, 1.9 tov, 2.9 fpg
Aside from the buzzer beater to start the season, Buddy's season started rough on the offensive end of the court. As time has gone on though, Buddy has seemingly stared to get hotter and hotter and while he now is apparently refusing to take all but the most open of two point attempts, he's also shooting around 40% from three on ten attempts per game. On defense, Buddy is putting an effort into not getting beat all on his own but is still prone to the occasional lapse/brain fart. Not quite sure what his long term role winds up being for the Kings but he's not been a negative for the team while he's here.
De'Aaron Fox (B) 20 gp, 32.3 mpg, 22.1 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 6.4 apg, 1.3 spg, .6 bpg, 3.4 tov, 2.7 fpg
Here's your superstar, Sacramento! Recency bias out of the way, it's been a good, encouraging year from Swipa. After shooting awfully during preseason, De'Aaron has shown an expanded range from behind the arc to start the season, even adding the increasingly popular stepback three pointer that pretty much every single star on-ball player seems to have in this day in age. On defense, De'Aaron has been solid, even as an expanded role on offense has made it difficult for him to devote himself fully to that end of the floor. As a playmaker, De'Aaron has been solid and done everything you'd hope an attacking point guard would do. You want your point guard to get his team to score the easiest points possible and when Fox is involved, that more often than not is more likely to be De'Aaron scoring himself rather than dishing the ball to a teammate for a jumper. The two blemishes in his game remain the free throw shooting and the turnovers but the turnovers are mostly of the De'Aaron throws a pass that's too hard for an open teammate to handle variety than of the "DEAR LORD WHO WAS THAT TO?" variety and nothing about his free throw stroke is broken to the point that you'd think he'd never be able to become a plus shooter there as well. All in all, this team only goes as far as De'Aaron can take it and, as he has started to show, he is increasingly able to put his guys on his back and win things on his own.
***
Tyrese Haliburton (A) 18 gp, 28.8 mpg, 10.7 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 5.4 apg, 1.1 spg, .7 bpg, 1.6 tov, 1.3 fpg
If there's been a brightside to the season, this would be it. Tyrese has been as good as, or, scratch that, way better than advertised for the Kings. Whatever the hell BBIQ actually is, the Cyclone has it in spades. Sure the shooting stroke looks funky but it works more than it doesn't and the court vision is real as hell. On defense, Tyrese's awareness is ridiculous. Be it steals from out of nowhere or random nights where he blocks guys, he fills the boxscore on that end as well. One issue that has come up of late is Tyrese's ability or even willingness to create scoring opportunities for himself. He's shown that he's got a couple of nice moves in his arsenal so this almost seems to be more of a Rese-wanting-to-get-guys-involved issue than a Tyrese-sorta-sucks-at-this issue. The dude's only 20 years old and already an elite role player in the league so it's hard to be too upset about it.
Hassan Whiteside (B-) 13 gp, 14.1 mpg, 7.5 ppg, 4.8 rpg, .5 apg, .3 spg, 1 bpg, 1.1 tov, 1.6 fpg
The Hassan Whiteside Experience has been interesting to say the least. Aside from the span where a couple of injury issues forced him to miss some time, Hassan has slotted into the third big role almost seamlessly. The man changes the game defensively simply by being a 7'1" behemoth with the longest arms I've ever seen. I don't think Hassan has even jumped or run faster than a slow pleasant trot this season but it has stopped him forgetting blocks and super easy lay-ins and dunks at a high clip. The customary WTF Hassan moments do remain a thing but they're no more responsible for the Kings losing than Cory Joseph taking bad isos or us forgetting how pick-and-rolls work. Also we've been a historically inept defense in the games that Hassan hasn't played so that should count for something.
Cory Joseph (D-) 20 gp, 19.3 mpg, 6.3 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 2.2 apg, .7 spg, .3 bpg, 1.1 tov, 2.3 fpg
Without being too mean about it, Cory Joseph has just plain sucked for the entire season with the exception of two games in which he randomly hit everything he threw at the rim. I don't know if it's age or bad technique but on defense, the man has seemingly lost his ability to stay in front of his guy, which is less than ideal for the guy you're paying 10 million dollars a year to serve as your defensive vet role player. He's also had a whole bevy of bad rotation brainfarts on that end. Amazingly, he's been even worse on offense, where now teams are simply leaving him uncovered at the three point line in the hope that he either takes a three that he will inevitably miss because he's a bad shooter or an awful awful bulldog iso that will normally end in him clanking a bad fadeaway pull-up off the front of the rim. Walton makes a big deal about Cojo's vet leadership being good but at a certain point that vet leadership might be better heard from the end of the bench.
Glenn Robinson III (C) 15 gp, 16.7 mpg, 6.12 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 1 apg, .1 spg, .1 bpg, .4 tov, .9 fpg
Little Big Dog has been the last guy in Luke's short rotation for most of the year and has been modestly okay in that role. He's a bit of a tweeter in the sense that while he's got passably good size for a wing, nothing about his game suggests he's capable of really manning the small forward position. To his credit, GlennRob is one of the harder runners in transition and Tyrese has done a good job of finding him for easy buckets when the opportunity presents itself. While Robinson doesn't really force the issue on offense, he's not really much more than a solid three point threat and lob guy. On defense, he tries but he's not exactly Tony Allen out there. You could do better for a third wing but you could also do much worse.
Nemanja Bjelica (C- if you're a Kings fan, A+++ if you're a GM looking to acquire Bjeli) 10 gp, 15 mpg, 6.6 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 1.9 apg, 0 spg, .2 bpg, 1.2 tov, 2 fpg
After starting the season as the first or second guy off the bench, Bjeli has now vanished off the face of the earth and from Luke's depth charts. While he was playing, Bjeli remained as heady on offense as he ever was despite absolutely sucking eggs as a shooter but looked absolutely dreadful on defense. Bjelica remains an absolutely useful player in the right situation and role. If I'm Donnie Nelson and still somehow convinced that my team can be a contender this season despite everything pointing to the Mavs not really having their crap together, this is the exact sort of role player I'd look into to help my offense not look like a total disaster. Boston, the Sixers, and Memphis are a couple of other teams that could really use Bjelica as a guy who can slide into their rotation and provide spacing and the occasional bit of savvy playmaking. Either way, **** it, Bjelica deserves to play minutes somewhere, man.
Chimezie Metu (B) 9 gp, 6.9 mpg, 3.7 ppg, 2.6 rpg, .4 apg, .3 spg, .7 bpg, .6 tov, 1.1 fpg
Cut by the Spurs in the offseason for some reason, Metu has been a welcome surprise as our second two-way player. With Hassan missing a handful of games due to injury, Metu saw some extended run and flashed a nice set of tools during it. With an okay shooting stroke and rim protecting mindset, Metu could eventually develop into an nice modern NBA big man. Not sure why the Spurs decided not to keep him but I'm glad they didn't.
Kyle Guy (C+) 6 gp, 9 mpg, 3.3 ppg, 1.5 rpg, 1.7 apg, .5 spg, 0 bpg, 0 tov, .7 fpg
Just passing over the threshold of getting an incomplete grade, Kyle has seen rotation minutes over the last couple of games after pretty much riding the bench since he hit that game winner in preseason. While his stroke has been as inconsistent as his playing time, I trust him to settle into being a plus shooter once/if his role gets set in stone. Guy gives good effort on defense but is mostly a minus on the end just due to his small size. As a playmaker, he's not a pure point guard but as a secondary passer, he's shown good vision and probably deserves at least some of Cojo's minutes going forward.
Justin James (C-) 7 gp, 6.9 ppg, 1 rpg, .4 apg, .1 spg, .1 bpg, 0 tov, .1 fpg
While he seems hopelessly incapable of making a basket, newish JJ remains solid on defense and usually hustle and give you good effort in his time on the floor, which is pretty much all you can ask for from your 12th/13th man.
Robert Woodard II (inc.) 6 gp, 2.8 min, 2.2 ppg, 1.3 rpg, 0 apg, 0 spg, 0 bpg, .2 tov, 0 pf
Headed to the G-League bubble after getting buried on the bench by Walton's super tight rotations, Woodard has shown himself to be a useful 3/4 stretch defender type with plus potential in the short stints we've seen him. Considering that was one of the positions that we really had issues defending until Marvin started turning a corner over the last couple of weeks, it probably would have been nice to see him out there more but that's Luke for you. He's headed to the Spurs system for the bubble, which is pretty much the most ideal landing spot for him, seeing as how the Pop system has churned out wings like Keldon Johnson and some dude named Kawhi with similar initial toolkits as him.
Jahmi'us Ramsey (inc.) 4 gp, 4 min, 1.3 ppg, 1 rpg, .3 apg, 0 spg, .3 bpg, .3 tov, 0 pf
Jahmi'us is another dude getting sent to the G-League bubble for playing time. Pretty much the youngest dude in last year's draft, he's shown a couple of flashes in his few moments of playing time but is very clearly still incredibly raw and these G-League minutes should do wonders for his development. Considering we need another scoring bench guard like a guy stranded in the Sahara needs water, I hope he makes the most of them. I still believe in his potential.
DaQuan Jeffries (injured)
Hurt his back in preseason and then badly sprained his ankle right when he was about to return from that injury. It's a shame because we've got a gaping wind defender bench wing position that has his name on it. Hopefully he's back in action in time to make an impact for us this season. Plus he's a young role player who we want to continue to develop to play along with our core.
Jabari Parker (???)
I'm not even sure if the dude is still alive or not.
Coach Luke Walton (C-)
Luke gets a passing grade but just barely and this is all mostly just on the back of this recent stretch of games where the team has actually been daily passable on defense and very potent on offense due to a couple of schematic shifts that may or may not have been strongly suggested to him by Monte Morris and the front office. Rotations-wise, Luke's kept things pretty tight with a consistent 8-9 man rotation where G-Rob sees time on some nights when the matchups dictate it. Schematically, the high elbow big sets that Walton loves to run are still present and as ugly as hell although they occasionally turn into high pick and rolls when Tyrese is on the floor. Defensively, we've stopped switching on literally every single screen like we did to start the season, which has sort of helped eliminate some of the bad confused defensive miscues that led to the Kings boasting the worst defense in NBA history for a time.
Monte Morris and the Front Office (B+)
Pretty much all of Monte's moves during the offseason have payed off here in the early going. Tyrese looks like the steal of the draft and is absolutely a core piece for the team going forward. Hassan has been effective in his minutes of action and has even provided a bit of veteran leadership that I absolutely was not expecting. Glenn Robinson hasn't been awesome but has also not been useless in his minutes, which is all you can really ask of a vet on a cheap contract like he is. Even letting Bogi go for nothing has worked out well enough as it gave Luke no other option than to play Tyrese enough minutes to shine and develop, although the fact that Dontte DiVincenzo has been killing it for the Bucks this year makes me sad and angry at Bogi's agent. Even Monte's suggestions to the coaching staff have played out pretty well over the last week. All in all an encouraging start to the Monte McNair tenure.
Now we just have to wait and see whether Monte decides to make a play for the playoffs this year or to start shelving guys and selling vets for assets.
