[GRADES] Preseason Kings @ Lakers (in Vegas), 10/8/17 - 6PM PT

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
#1
Hey! It's (preseason) basketball!

Sharpshooting! Defense! Slick passing! I'm told these are among some of the traits attributed to the sport that is known as NBA basketball. None of these (well, okay, maybe there was some defense being played) was on display in Las Vegas Sunday night.

But, hey, it's (preseason) basketball! And Z-Bo is apparently a stretch forward now!

Garrett Temple (C+) -- 34 minutes, 12 pts, 4 rbs, 1 ast, 3 stl, 1 blk,
Normally, coaches tend to play their rotation players less minutes in preseason than they do in the regular season. Dave Joerger apparently didn't get the memo as Garrett Temple somehow wound up playing 34 minutes (even featuring a stint as point guard after Fox went down), which is probably more than he'll likely see in most games this season. Temple for his part was his usual solid role-player self. He played his typical hardnosed defense and was generally savvy on the offensive end, though his shot was largely off the mark all night. While he's probably too small to play small forward full time, GT is probably the two guard on our roster I'm most comfortable with seeing SF time down the stretch because he's so good on defense. Also, Brandon Ingram still sorta sucks at basketball.

Zach Randolph (B-) --28 mins, 16 pts, 6 rbs, 3 ast, 0 stl, 0 blk
When Vlade signed Z-Bo in the offseason, they must have obviously included some sort of clause in his contract that required him to shoot several dozen three pointers a game. While he's still certainly capable in the paint, Randolph also spent way more time out on the perimeter than I could remember him doing the last time he was on a Dave Joerger squad. While he'll never blow you away, I thought Z-Bo played solid defense as the game devolved into an even uglier version of good old grit-n-grind.

Willie Caulie-Stein (C-) -- 25 mins, 4 pts, 4 rbs, 0 ast, 0 stl, 0 blk
While it doesn't show up in the box score, WCS had an encouraging game if you're a member of the Willie should be a defensive role player and nothing more crowd. With Z-Bo doing his thing on offense, Willie, while still taking a couple of ill-advised forces, generally stayed out of the way and contributed on defense, helping making life difficult inside for the Lakers as we "came back" from a double digit deficit.

Bogdan Bogdanovic (C-) -- 31 mins, 7 pts, 0 rbs, 3 ast, 0 stl, 0 blk
No one (okay, everyone) said that Bogdan's transition to the NBA would be easy. Considering he's been on a year-round basketball schedule for an approximate eight straight years or so, the Serbian's main problem may be that he's too in practice than him being out of it. Bogdan largely plays completely in the flow of the game, occasionally playing Point Bogie and setting up teammates for scores. At this point, Bogdan's shot just seems to be a little off but while the rules and lines on the floor may be different in Europe, the hoops are still the same size. He should be fine when big boy time comes.

George Hill (C) -- 34 mins, 7 pts, 8 rbs, 3 ast, 1 stl, 0 blk
This is a bit of a tough one. Thanks to Fox screwing up his back in a hard fall pretty early into the night, Hill would up playing 34 minutes tonight and not doing all that much in that time. On defense, Hill is as advertised: a smart veteran on the perimeter who isn't prone to the sorts of errors and mental lapses that most of our guards have been since the days of Ron Ron and Bonzi. I thought the Bogdan/Hill pairing might wind up being a looks we see a lot in the coming season as Hill isn't exactly the purest of point guards and Bogdan has great court vision for his position. Not an inspiring night, but a lot of this might be attributed to tired legs being forced to play regular season minutes a week into preseason. Also good/bad: He was our best rebounder on the night.

Vince Carter (B) -- 19 mins, 9 pts, 2 rbs, 0 ast, 1 stl, 0 blk
Half old man, half Larry David-esque meh. In terms of performances by 40-year old veteran bench depth swingmen, this was a good one. Provided energy the second he came in, helping the team work off its Vegas hangover before halftime. Being the NBA equivalent of the godfather, was in the ear of the refs, coaches, younger dudes all night, pretty much doing what you hoped he would do when you signed him in the offseason. Most nights, this performance would go unnoticed. It's just that tonight, almost everybody else was in peak preseason form.

Buddy Hield (C-) -- 24 min, 7 pts, 2 rbs, 2 ast, 2 stl, 0 blk
Wearing the number 24 against the LA Lakers, Buddy kindly decided to pay tribute to the greatest #24 in Lakers franchise history and play like Kobe Bryant, only the crappy zombie version of him in the twilight of his career and not the doom bringer Kings fans are unfortunately familiar with. Buddy has seemingly never seen a shot he doesn't like. This can be acceptable when he's hitting them at a nice clip but when he's throwing up vase-smashers like he's been doing most preseason, it can be nigh-unbearable. To his credit, Buddy tries on defense but he's got the least court awareness of all of the two guards on the roster.

De'Aaron Fox (inc.) -- 9 min, 3 pts, 0 rbs, 2 ast, 1 stl, 0 blk
Get well soon, De'Aaron. With Lonzo once again a "DNP (scared)", De'Aaron did his best to try to live up to the hype for both guys involved, possibly trying too hard in his 9 minute stint. Playing fast and athletic can be beneficial but it can also result in unfortunate aches and pains (see Gerald Wallace). It can also result in absolutely insane feats of athleticism.

Kosta Koufos (B) -- 18 min, 4 pts, 7 rbs, 1 ast, 0 stl, 0 blk
Kosta was his usual Kosta self. I'm not quite an expert on Newton's Laws but I'm pretty sure one of them said something like "If you give Kosta at least 15 minutes, he will give you like 5 pts, and 7 boards no matter what." As a solid veteran/trade bait throughout the season, there's something to be said about being able to pencil in 15 minutes of rebounding/team defense/non-annoying offense a night, especially on a team with a bunch of young dudes who play bipolar ball.

Skal Labissiere (D) -- 14 min, 0 pts, 4 rbs, 0 stl, 1 blk
Let's get this out of the way: It wasn't a good night for Skal. Was just completely passive all night, and seemed to get pushed around by any Lakers big man/ dude over 6'5". The Haitian did, to his credit, make an effort on the boards and he had a nice help block only achievable when you have stretchable arms. Maybe he was just saving himself for the game against the Blazers.


And there we have it, first (preseason) grade thread of the post-Brick grade thread era in the books. I'm going to go drain a bottle of scotch and pass out. We do it all again against the Blazers in 24 hours. Don't be late.
 
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#2
Hill & WCS had zero chemistry together. Was a horrible combo.

Hill F the offense was just stagnate way too much with him tonight. Bad communication, bad offensive locations for others during the offense. Had 8 boards it looks like at least.

Gonna give Carter a B for being able to knock down some shots and a couple pesky defensive plays.

Randolph B-, he scored pretty well, but Lopez destroying him early was not fun at all.
 

kingsboi

Hall of Famer
#4
terrible game to watch in general...some of the sets they ran out there was putrid and it hurt my eyes. What's with giving no burn to Jackson or Mason? It's preseason. Too much Zach chucking. That's a sneak preview of whats to come :eek:
 
#5
terrible game to watch in general...some of the sets they ran out there was putrid and it hurt my eyes. What's with giving no burn to Jackson or Mason? It's preseason. Too much Zach chucking. That's a sneak preview of whats to come :eek:
Joerger really seemed like he wanted to win this game for some reason. He fell back on vets and while they were marginally better than the young players, I hope this isn't indicative of what's to come. He can't run our resident 36 and 40 year olds into the ground. If Zbo gets this many minutes on the regular, he's going to break down fast.
 
#6

Full Highlights for those wanting to watch.

I gotta say Vince has me believing what those say about him. Contageous energy. Fox knows how to lead. Zbo is chucky but eh he's makin em?
 

Kingster

Hall of Famer
#7
The biggest plus that I saw was WCS's defense. He saw that he wasn't scoring, and then it seemed like he put his mind to the defensive end, which helped the Kings get back in the game. He really looks like he's totally out of sorts though on the offensive end.

It's going to be interesting to see the pace that Joerger employs with this team. You have a guys like Fox and WCS who are very fast; then you have Zach and Carter that just can't run like they used to, or at least certainly not for the length of time they used to. Something has got to give. If Fox and WCS play with Carter and Zach either Fox and WCS get hurt by the slower pace, or Zach and Carter get hurt by the faster pace. Maybe Joerger ends up playing two separate teams that sub for each other - a youngin run and gun team, and an older set-up-the-offense type team. I look forward to see how Joerger handles it.
 
#8
I do like that Koufos, while a scrub in my eyes, is at least consistent....so if WCS shows no improvement we have at least a body who can do a little bit in there and Zbo can obviously score. I just wish WCS improved more selfishly..
 
#9
Bad all around game for nearly everyone.

The good:

WCS, Koufos, Temple and Bogdan played good defense. Hield's defense was really good as well up until those last two buckets by Clarkson that came at a bad time. Zach's buckets were nice since he was the only one that was able to score throughout the game. Vince was also a nice spark plug off the bench.

The bad:

Nearly everyone's offense. Hield will bounce back. He just missed a bunch of makeable shots. That one underhanded layup he made was beautiful. Temple got put into too many end of shot clock shots and that's not his game at all.

The ugly:

Skal...basically everything. Was looking forward to seeing his matchup with Kuzma but that was one sided. Hill was terrible in initiating the offense. Fox's injury. Hopefully he's ok. Oh and Joerger not playing Malachi, Mason, Papa and Jackson. The team needed an offensive spark and Mason would have been nice after Fox was out for the second half with the back injury. Also the rebounding continues to be atrocious. That's going to be a problem this year.
 

bajaden

Hall of Famer
#10
The biggest plus that I saw was WCS's defense. He saw that he wasn't scoring, and then it seemed like he put his mind to the defensive end, which helped the Kings get back in the game. He really looks like he's totally out of sorts though on the offensive end.

It's going to be interesting to see the pace that Joerger employs with this team. You have a guys like Fox and WCS who are very fast; then you have Zach and Carter that just can't run like they used to, or at least certainly not for the length of time they used to. Something has got to give. If Fox and WCS play with Carter and Zach either Fox and WCS get hurt by the slower pace, or Zach and Carter get hurt by the faster pace. Maybe Joerger ends up playing two separate teams that sub for each other - a youngin run and gun team, and an older set-up-the-offense type team. I look forward to see how Joerger handles it.
Yeah, I thought Willie played very good defense, especially in the 3rd quarter. As for offense, I thought everyone looked like the keystone cops. Terrible spacing all night long. It was hard to run anything through the high post because it was constantly congested. The only player that ran the pick and roll decently was Bogdanovic, but once again, with the terrible spacing it was near impossible with the congestion in the lane. They have lots of work to do on the offensive side. Defensively they weren't bad and at times they were very good. I didn't like it when they had Randolph guarding Lopez in the 1st quarter. Terrible matchup for Zach.

All in all it's just a preseason game. I hope Fox's injury is nothing but a bruise. He's definitely going to be sore tomorrow. It was fun to actually watch a game again. I guess we could call it a game. Sort of looked like one. At times!!
 

bajaden

Hall of Famer
#11
I do like that Koufos, while a scrub in my eyes, is at least consistent....so if WCS shows no improvement we have at least a body who can do a little bit in there and Zbo can obviously score. I just wish WCS improved more selfishly..
I had no problem with Willie tonight. Yeah, I would have liked him to be more aggressive on the offensive side, but it looked like he was sticking with a game plan. The player I wanted to be more aggressive was Skal. I counted six times that he got the ball, was open for a shot, and he passed up the shot all six times. Since the Kings had a hard time getting open shots tonight, it was probably a good idea to take the one's you got. The only clean looks that Randolph got were from the three, where they seemed to be daring him to shoot. So he did, and made a couple of them. But I don't think either Randolph or Willie got a clean look in the lane or the high post all night.
 
#12
Bad all around game for nearly everyone.

The good:

WCS, Koufos, Temple and Bogdan played good defense. Hield's defense was really good as well up until those last two buckets by Clarkson that came at a bad time. Zach's buckets were nice since he was the only one that was able to score throughout the game. Vince was also a nice spark plug off the bench.

The bad:

Nearly everyone's offense. Hield will bounce back. He just missed a bunch of makeable shots. That one underhanded layup he made was beautiful. Temple got put into too many end of shot clock shots and that's not his game at all.

The ugly:

Skal...basically everything. Was looking forward to seeing his matchup with Kuzma but that was one sided. Hill was terrible in initiating the offense. Fox's injury. Hopefully he's ok. Oh and Joerger not playing Malachi, Mason, Papa and Jackson. The team needed an offensive spark and Mason would have been nice after Fox was out for the second half with the back injury. Also the rebounding continues to be atrocious. That's going to be a problem this year.
Nice to see Bogdan defense looked good I want him to start between his defense and playmaking he should get the nod over Buddy.
 
#13
The first half the team looked like a team that had never played together and/or was playing the last of 4 in 5 nights. They were completely out of sync and lethargic. The 2nd half, they looked better but still not good enough. Per usual, they made several of the oppositions players that really aren't all that good look like they have a very bright future.

For once, it would be nice to field a team that can actually shoot the damn ball.
 
#14
Aside from Z-BO in the starting line up everyone else was super hesitant to shoot the ball or do anything other than pass. Would really like to see Hield starting once the regular season is upon us and really hopeful George Hill is just rusty atm and can get back to his Utah Jazz/Pacers form.
 
#16
Hey! It's (preseason) basketball!

Sharpshooting! Defense! Slick passing! I'm told these are among some of the traits attributed to the sport that is known as NBA basketball. None of these (well, okay, maybe there was some defense being played) was on display in Las Vegas Sunday night.

But, hey, it's (preseason) basketball! And Z-Bo is apparently a stretch forward now!

Garrett Temple (C+) -- 34 minutes, 12 pts, 4 rbs, 1 ast, 3 stl, 1 blk,
Normally, coaches tend to play their rotation players less minutes in preseason than they do in the regular season. Dave Joerger apparently didn't get the memo as Garrett Temple somehow wound up playing 34 minutes (even featuring a stint as point guard after Fox went down), which is probably more than he'll likely see in most games this season. Temple for his part was his usual solid role-player self. He played his typical hardnosed defense and was generally savvy on the offensive end, though his shot was largely off the mark all night. While he's probably too small to play small forward full time, GT is probably the two guard on our roster I'm most comfortable with seeing SF time down the stretch because he's so good on defense. Also, Brandon Ingram still sorta sucks at basketball.

Zach Randolph (B-) --28 mins, 16 pts, 6 rbs, 3 ast, 0 stl, 0 blk
When Vlade signed Z-Bo in the offseason, they must have obviously included some sort of clause in his contract that required him to shoot several dozen three pointers a game. While he's still certainly capable in the paint, Randolph also spent way more time out on the perimeter than I could remember him doing the last time he was on a Dave Joerger squad. While he'll never blow you away, I thought Z-Bo played solid defense as the game devolved into an even uglier version of good old grit-n-grind.

Willie Caulie-Stein (C-) -- 25 mins, 4 pts, 4 rbs, 0 ast, 0 stl, 0 blk
While it doesn't show up in the box score, WCS had an encouraging game if you're a member of the Willie should be a defensive role player and nothing more crowd. With Z-Bo doing his thing on offense, Willie, while still taking a couple of ill-advised forces, generally stayed out of the way and contributed on defense, helping making life difficult inside for the Lakers as we "came back" from a double digit deficit.

Bogdan Bogdanovic (C-) -- 31 mins, 7 pts, 0 rbs, 3 ast, 0 stl, 0 blk
No one (okay, everyone) said that Bogdan's transition to the NBA would be easy. Considering he's been on a year-round basketball schedule for an approximate eight straight years or so, the Serbian's main problem may be that he's too in practice than him being out of it. Bogdan largely plays completely in the flow of the game, occasionally playing Point Bogie and setting up teammates for scores. At this point, Bogdan's shot just seems to be a little off but while the rules and lines on the floor may be different in Europe, the hoops are still the same size. He should be fine when big boy time comes.

George Hill (C) -- 34 mins, 7 pts, 8 rbs, 3 ast, 1 stl, 0 blk
This is a bit of a tough one. Thanks to Fox screwing up his back in a hard fall pretty early into the night, Hill would up playing 34 minutes tonight and not doing all that much in that time. On defense, Hill is as advertised: a smart veteran on the perimeter who isn't prone to the sorts of errors and mental lapses that most of our guards have been since the days of Ron Ron and Bonzi. I thought the Bogdan/Hill pairing might wind up being a looks we see a lot in the coming season as Hill isn't exactly the purest of point guards and Bogdan has great court vision for his position. Not an inspiring night, but a lot of this might be attributed to tired legs being forced to play regular season minutes a week into preseason. Also good/bad: He was our best rebounder on the night.

Vince Carter (B) -- 19 mins, 9 pts, 2 rbs, 0 ast, 1 stl, 0 blk
Half old man, half Larry David-esque meh. In terms of performances by 40-year old veteran bench depth swingmen, this was a good one. Provided energy the second he came in, helping the team work off its Vegas hangover before halftime. Being the NBA equivalent of the godfather, was in the ear of the refs, coaches, younger dudes all night, pretty much doing what you hoped he would do when you signed him in the offseason. Most nights, this performance would go unnoticed. It's just that tonight, almost everybody else was in peak preseason form.

Buddy Hield (C-) -- 24 min, 7 pts, 2 rbs, 2 ast, 2 stl, 0 blk
Wearing the number 24 against the LA Lakers, Buddy kindly decided to pay tribute to the greatest #24 in Lakers franchise history and play like Kobe Bryant, only the crappy zombie version of him in the twilight of his career and not the doom bringer Kings fans are unfortunately familiar with. Buddy has seemingly never seen a shot he doesn't like. This can be acceptable when he's hitting them at a nice clip but when he's throwing up vase-smashers like he's been doing most preseason, it can be nigh-unbearable. To his credit, Buddy tries on defense but he's got the least court awareness of all of the two guards on the roster.

De'Aaron Fox (inc.) -- 9 min, 3 pts, 0 rbs, 2 ast, 1 stl, 0 blk
Get well soon, De'Aaron. With Lonzo once again a "DNP (scared)", De'Aaron did his best to try to live up to the hype for both guys involved, possibly trying too hard in his 9 minute stint. Playing fast and athletic can be also but it can also result in unfortunate aches and pains (see Gerald Wallace). It can also result in absolutely insane feats of athleticism.

Kosta Koufos (B) -- 18 min, 4 pts, 7 rbs, 1 ast, 0 stl, 0 blk
Kosta was his usual Kosta self. I'm not quite an expert on Newton's Laws but I'm pretty sure one of them said something like "If you give Kosta at least 15 minutes, he will give you like 5 pts, and 7 boards no matter what." As a solid veteran/trade bait throughout the season, there's something to be said about being able to pencil in 15 minutes of rebounding/team defense/non-annoying offense a night, especially on a team with a bunch of young dudes who play bipolar ball.

Skal Labissiere (D) -- 14 min, 0 pts, 4 rbs, 0 stl, 1 blk
Let's get this out of the way: It wasn't a good night for Skal. Was just completely passive all night, and seemed to get pushed around by any Lakers big man/ dude over 6'5". The Haitian did, to his credit, make an effort on the boards and he had a nice help block only achievable when you have stretchable arms. Maybe he was just saving himself for the game against the Blazers.


And there we have it, first (preseason) grade thread of the post-Brick grade thread era in the books. I'm going to go drain a bottle of scotch and pass out. We do it all again against the Blazers in 24 hours. Don't be late.
Nicely done! Thanks for stepping up (or stepping into it).
 
#20
A game like this can set confidence in the team back a few years

When two of your three prospects (Hield/Skal) look like they aren't on schedule

When the teams main prospect continues to show worrisome health issues on a game basis

When some of the other prospects are invisible or are not showing progress

When the vets look like their contracts aren't of value

When a Bogs has shot poorly throughout the preseason

This is a game, as an ardent Kings fan, that is soul drenching

But there is always tomorrow :)..
 
#21
I think Hield looks really good. His shot just wasn't falling last night. I wasn't sure if last year was a fluke but from what I've seen in preaseason so far, I think he's going to be a pretty dynamic scorer. Last year his offense mainly consisted of 3 point attempts, the turnaround shot at the free throw line and an occasional take to the basket. This year he has been better at getting open looks all over the court and despite his lack of athleticism, he's shown improvements in finishing at the basket. He's also turning the ball over about half as much so far as he did with us last year. Small sample size but so far he's passing the eye test. I think he should get the most minutes at SG.

I have no worries when it comes to Skal's offense but his rebounding and defense are a huge liability at the moment. He showed a little bit of nastiness last year that I'm not really seeing so far. It's just preseason but it's very obvious when a guy has a motor like Randle or Kuzma vs. a guy that's passive like Skal. Those two were all over the place, playing with high energy and we have set to see that from Skal so far. He's still young, still learning and there's still plenty of time to correct things but usually energy and rebounding are something you either have or you don't.
 
#22
I think Skal is the definition of a "boom or bust" player. If he doesn't turn into a 16ppg scorer, then I just don't see anyway you could justify putting him on the floor. He's just too much of a liability elsewhere. His bball IQ is questionable. He can't pass. He can't defend the perimeter. He can't defend the post. He can't rebound. He can't block shots.

Good thing he's only 21. He has a ton of time to improve.
 

dude12

Hall of Famer
#23
A game like this can set confidence in the team back a few years

When two of your three prospects (Hield/Skal) look like they aren't on schedule

When the teams main prospect continues to show worrisome health issues on a game basis

When some of the other prospects are invisible or are not showing progress

When the vets look like their contracts aren't of value

When a Bogs has shot poorly throughout the preseason

This is a game, as an ardent Kings fan, that is soul drenching

But there is always tomorrow :)..
Geez....I just chalked it up to a bad game. They did just play about 6 good quarters against the Spurs.
 
#25
I think Hield looks really good. His shot just wasn't falling last night. I wasn't sure if last year was a fluke but from what I've seen in preaseason so far, I think he's going to be a pretty dynamic scorer. Last year his offense mainly consisted of 3 point attempts, the turnaround shot at the free throw line and an occasional take to the basket. This year he has been better at getting open looks all over the court and despite his lack of athleticism, he's shown improvements in finishing at the basket. He's also turning the ball over about half as much so far as he did with us last year. Small sample size but so far he's passing the eye test. I think he should get the most minutes at SG.

I have no worries when it comes to Skal's offense but his rebounding and defense are a huge liability at the moment. He showed a little bit of nastiness last year that I'm not really seeing so far. It's just preseason but it's very obvious when a guy has a motor like Randle or Kuzma vs. a guy that's passive like Skal. Those two were all over the place, playing with high energy and we have set to see that from Skal so far. He's still young, still learning and there's still plenty of time to correct things but usually energy and rebounding are something you either have or you don't.
I agree with Buddy's improvement in ball skills.. I think I have high expectations, possibly borderline all star expectations. I think he's on his way to being a solid starter pro though, at least to a Reddick level. Skal too. But I have expectations they may or may not be able to fill. Skal is 21 and has natural talent through the roof, but SL and preseason I've needed more from him
 

dude12

Hall of Famer
#26
Doris Burke said it best during the telecast that the Kings are going to be wildly inconsistent all year. So many new players on the roster, so many young guys, it's going to be hit and miss. Enjoy the games where they play well and have a chance to win, chalk up the clunkers as a growing experience. Those clunkers are going to be hard to watch at times for sure.
 

SacTownKid

Hall of Famer
#27
I agree with Buddy's improvement in ball skills.. I think I have high expectations, possibly borderline all star expectations. I think he's on his way to being a solid starter pro though, at least to a Reddick level. Skal too. But I have expectations they may or may not be able to fill. Skal is 21 and has natural talent through the roof, but SL and preseason I've needed more from him
I was really concentrating my attention on Buddy this game. His defensive hustle was there, when he did get beat it was because they ran back screens to create back door opportunities for his man. Skal or the big next to him didn't switch or help when needed. That's failed team defense execution for strategy more than anything. Also, if you watch him without the ball on offense he created a bunch of looks for his teammates by setting screens when running through on a cut. If plays with that kind of energy defensively and is willing to both move the ball and set screens like he has he'll really fit in well.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#28
A game like this can set confidence in the team back a few years

When two of your three prospects (Hield/Skal) look like they aren't on schedule

When the teams main prospect continues to show worrisome health issues on a game basis

When some of the other prospects are invisible or are not showing progress

When the vets look like their contracts aren't of value

When a Bogs has shot poorly throughout the preseason

This is a game, as an ardent Kings fan, that is soul drenching

But there is always tomorrow :)..
Soul drenching? It's the PRE-SEASON. If you don't pace yourself, you'll be dead by Halloween.