Welcome Back Boogie Monster?

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Funny what competent coaching can do:

Boogie numbers in November of this year (Malone):
TS% .606
AST/TO: 2.6/3.6

Boogie numbers in January of this year (Corbin):
TS% .501
AST/TO: 4.0/5.2

Boogie numbers thus far in March (Karl):
TS% .617
AST/TO: 2.0/3.5


Karl said he wanted him to get back to efficient play. Could the big guy be resetting? Just write off the intervening 3 months of front office stupidity?
 
Nah not really atm and here's why

#1. During the month of November we were winning games
#2. During the month of March he's gone up again Lou Amudson/Jason Smith/Bargs/Dedmon/Chris Anderson in games he played well in (while avoiding Vuc/Bosh/Hassen due to injury) and struggled against the one team that had 2 decent big's in the Spurs.

I need more evidence but yeah him dominating journeymen and bench players is not really surprising.
I
 
I have no doubt that Boogie will be more efficient with Karl than he was with Corbin. Having said that, I wish we would post him up more now. He is unguardable in the low post.
 
I have no doubt that Boogie will be more efficient with Karl than he was with Corbin. Having said that, I wish we would post him up more now. He is unguardable in the low post.

Is he unguardable in the post? He was posting up versus the Heat in the 4th and they ran us out of the building. The Spurs handled Cousins posting up well too. Teams might have figured out ways to defend Cousins in the post, mostly by doubling him on the catch and taking advantage of his inability to use his hookshot with greater efficiency.
In my opinion Karl has to find a balanced approach for Cousins on offense. Cousins is versatile enough to give the defense a lot of different looks to handle.
After all I have to agree with some of the posters here - it all starts with our PG's.
If we really want to deploy Cousins in the post most of the time, we better find a PF, who needs to be guarded on offense and is able to catch most of the passes Cousins fires out of the double teams. We can't resemble Gasol+Randolph without a player like Randolph.
 
For those that need to see more from Cuz....haha....here's the real question, how many guys do each team run at him in the post? I know it's more than 2 but less than 6. Has no room to maneuver until his teammates can actually hit from long range consistently. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to come up with a plan to stop Cuz. Pack the paint.
 
TS%? Assist to Turnover Ratio? wow, these stats are getting a little "advanced" for me. I fear and distrust division!

Shorthand. I am generally not a fan either, but they are useful to quickly encapsulate this particular point. Cuz never quit scoring, he never quit rebounding, but what did fall off badly under Corbin was efficiency. And a lot of that was how we used him. Trying to face him up, force him to play PG. More jumpers, more assists, more TOs.
 

And yes I know what Karl has been saying. Its both heartening and terrifying because it was a direct cause of the huge TO spike. Its still entirely possible Karl is not an appropriate coach for Cousins. Every old coach has that jumped the shark moment, maybe it comes when they grow inflexible and just keep on trying to coach their new personnel the way they coached their old personnel.

This however is simply old coach stuff, if you trust your players' brains:
“If the game says pass it, we should pass it, and if the game says shoot it, we should shoot it,” Karl said. “It’s not that complicated.”

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/sports/nba/sacramento-kings/kings-blog/article13051646.html#storylink=cpy

On the other hand, I chose to focus in this thread on the tangible results we've gotten thus far. I remember back before the season Malone talked about Boogie averaging 5 assists as well. Its just so tempting when you have a unique talent like his to try to make something special out of it. But then the actual games started, and both Malone and thus far Karl were getting more reasonable punishing games out of Cuz, with just flashes of the special ballhandling/passing (have definitely been more ballhandling under Karl, but seems to be controlled, the "dribble drive and kick by the center").
 
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I've repeatedly said that he needs to finish better in the post, no question rather than strictly seek for talent. Considering only eight days have passed in March, let's play the whole March out and revisit this thread again.
 
The problem I have with seeing more him face-up more, is that he is way more prone to injury when he's driving into the paint like a guard... I think we are seeing a case for that with his ankle problems.
 
I think that Cousins is a fantastic center, definitely one of the best, if not THE best big in the game today. One aspect of his game where I would love to see Cousins improve, and this may fall on the coaching staff putting him into the right positions, is being able to be the "go-to" scorer in crunch time. Other than the game-winner against Phoenix, which literally used every bit of that rim, we have seen Cousins struggle in late game situations. When the ball goes into DMC, the defense collapses and many times Cousins either takes a bad shot or turns it over. I'd like Cousins to be able go to work immediately upon receiving the ball and not allowing the defense to react. Attack upon receiving, 9 times out of ten he will either finish or get fouled. His jumpshot is easily blocked by tall defenders but defenders have to respect his range so he will have space to get off a quick shot in most situations as well. We haven't seen Cousins really on his jumper enough in late-game cases where the lane is clogged, and that's something I'd like to see utilized more often.
 
The problem I have with seeing more him face-up more, is that he is way more prone to injury when he's driving into the paint like a guard... I think we are seeing a case for that with his ankle problems.

Except his last sprained ankle occurred fighting for a rebound so that sorta deep sixes that idea.
 
I can see boogie retiring early, just like patrick willis did earlier, if the kings don't get their crap together.

j/k....kinda.
 
Except his last sprained ankle occurred fighting for a rebound so that sorta deep sixes that idea.

during the Memphis game? I'm probably wrong but I thought it was when he was driving the rim


Edit: I'm correct as I remember him getting up slowly to shoot the free throws. was at the game.
 
One aspect of his game where I would love to see Cousins improve, and this may fall on the coaching staff putting him into the right positions, is being able to be the "go-to" scorer in crunch time. Other than the game-winner against Phoenix, which literally used every bit of that rim, we have seen Cousins struggle in late game situations.

The problem with Cuz being a "go to" scorer in crunchtime, more specifically on a final possession, is that the NBA allows so much contact to go uncalled. That's why you typically don't see post players get the ball in game winning situations. Not only is it hard to get the ball to your post player with all the contact they have to endure, they often get fouled with nary a call if they do get possession. That's why you almost always see a wing player take the big shot because they begin their move in open space.

Go back through history and you won't find many post players that consistently got shots in the last 30 seconds or so. Magic usually took the shot over Kareem. Kobe took it over Shaq. Parker or Ginobili over Duncan, etc.
 
The problem with Cuz being a "go to" scorer in crunchtime, more specifically on a final possession, is that the NBA allows so much contact to go uncalled. That's why you typically don't see post players get the ball in game winning situations. Not only is it hard to get the ball to your post player with all the contact they have to endure, they often get fouled with nary a call if they do get possession. That's why you almost always see a wing player take the big shot because they begin their move in open space.

Go back through history and you won't find many post players that consistently got shots in the last 30 seconds or so. Magic usually took the shot over Kareem. Kobe took it over Shaq. Parker or Ginobili over Duncan, etc.

Yeah that's why I'd much rather see Cousins avoid banging down low to get a bucket in crunch time, I think that's where his jumper can come into play and allow him to be even more effective. Teams expect him to rumble and stumble to the basket, he needs to use that to his advantage.
 
Boogie looks more frustrated on the court lately than he did in December and January honestly (and getting Techs at a higher rate as well). And he hasn't really been playing that well. Numbers definitely down under Karl (besides FG%)

Also heard that he was interviewed by a member of Heat media after the Miami game and said "George Karl's system makes me easier to guard" :confused:
 
Boogie looks more frustrated on the court lately than he did in December and January honestly (and getting Techs at a higher rate as well). And he hasn't really been playing that well. Numbers definitely down under Karl (besides FG%)

Also heard that he was interviewed by a member of Heat media after the Miami game and said "George Karl's system makes me easier to guard" :confused:

Cite?
 
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