OK, I'll add my two cents. I haven't read all the posts, so if I'm redundit, I apologize. Cousins, who is far from being in NBA shape, just played 6 games in 7 days. Two, 3 game back to backs. I'm going to put this bluntly. Anyone that doesn't think he was totally exhausted and out of gas is an idiot. I was behind the Kings bench. I saw him begging to come off the floor. And I saw Ellie making him gut it up and stay out there.
This is a 19 year old kid thats still about 15 pounds overweight and not nearly in NBA condition, playing more games in 7 days than he ever will in the NBA. He averaged 23 minutes a game in college, and Ellie had him up to around 30 minutes a game for the last few games.
Cousins was angry and frustrated. But with himself. He's going through a learning experience, and to be honest, I wasn't surprised by his diminished performance. How many times have you seen the Kings or any team flat on the second half of a back to back, much less three games in a row twice. Once again, if you don't understand that, then your an idiot.
Now for the details. Ellie constantly emplored the the guards and whomever was at SF to spread the floor. It seldom happened. They were trying to post up Cousins on a regular basis, but the spacing was absolutely terrible. As a result it wasn't that hard for the opposition to double and many times triple team Cousins. Yes, he could have made better decisions. He probably should have passed the ball out of the double. His problem is that he wanted to score. He wanted to dominate. It just wasn't there to be had a lot of the times. Also after the first three games, Cousins was the talk of Las Vegas. He and Wall were the two main attractions. Make no mistake, the opposing team knew who he was now and they planned their defense accordingly. To stop Cousins.
With only a couple of players on the Kings that were able to hit shots from the outside, (Greene and Casspi) and the poor spacing, the opposing team was able to sag down on Cousins and make his life miserable. Did he react as well as we would have liked? No! But he is only 19 years old, and he was out of gas. To say he wasn't able to back down anyone is ridiculous. Most of the time he was trying to back down two players, if not three. You have to pay attention to the details folks.
I was sitting talking to a friend about how gassed Cousins looked. JT's father, who was sitting directly in front of us with JT's mom turned and said, do you know how hard centers and PF's have to work out there while the guard are just running around and patting each other on the butt. He said it doesn't matter which end of the floor your on, its like two 290 pound sumo wrestlers constantly battling with each other, fighting for position. It wears you out.
Now some will say I'm just making excuses. Nope, I'm just giving you the facts. Cousins will be fine. He has a lot of work to do. He's a very talented guy, and far from being a project. Whiteside on the other hand, despite the wishful thinking of some, is still a long way from being ready to be a full time contributer. But I'm very high on him. He really worked on getting position for rebounding, and realized that he can't block every shot. He has a nice 15 foot jumper, and a decent, but still unrealible hook shot. He just needs to learn the game. Ellie was constantly yelling instructions on where to be on the floor. Greene also had to help him with positioning. At times he got lost in help defense. And lastly he needs to get stronger. He has a very difficult time with the physicality of the game. Especially in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th games. He was simply being pushed around, and many times Ellie took him out of the game, because he looked like a beaten pup.
He came back nicely in the 5th and 6th games, and played much smarter. At the small forward position I give the edge, just slightly to Casspi, who I thought played with a little more aggression and control. But in truth its still too close to call overall. The only guard to impress me, and I'm using that word loosely, was Christmas. I thought he busted his butt every minute he was out there and without a doubt was the best defensive guard of the group. Sloan showed me nothing, as did Downy and Rice. I like some of what I saw from both Landesberg and Thompson. I'd give a slight edge to Landesberg. But both were inconsistant and I don't see either of them being what the Kings are looking for.
All in all it was a fun, but very hot time. I recommend it for the the basketball junkie. If you love basketball and being around the who's, who of basketball you can't beat it. You never know who you'll be sitting next to, or who you'll run into out at the beer stand. More later...
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