Are we going to acknowledge how bad Huerter has been?

gunks

Hall of Famer
#65
Didn't he have a really awesome playoff run in Atlanta?

I still like him, and would prefer moving on from Barnes, who's had long stretches of being passive as hell every season in Sac, if we're looking to upgrade somebody in the starting 5.

He's certainly been a bummer against the Warriors thus far, but I'll take the regular season sample size over 5 games against the defending champs.
 

hrdboild

Moloch in whom I dream Angels!
Staff member
#66
Klay Thompson is a really tough assignment for any SG in the league defensively. The guy makes crazy shots look easy. And Kevin did hit a couple of big threes for us last night. He's probably the one player on the Kings (other than Sabonis) who has been hurt the most by Golden State's defensive focus on stopping the DHO. And one series shouldn't negate the impact he had all season which is a big reason we even have post-season games to watch this year.
 
#67
What's missing is the Keegan production. We see Keegan making an impact during the regular season (or even Game 4). That'd at least drag the defense toward Keegan, thus giving everyone else more space; and at most forcing Kerr to put Klay on Keegan and giving the slightly more favorable match-up (Wiggins) to Huerter, which means Wiggins instead would have to keep up with Huerter's off-ball movement where Klay excels.

Not saying all these to blame Keegan, but rather making a point on how nuanced it is and that you just cannot blame a single player for his/her lack of performance.
 

hrdboild

Moloch in whom I dream Angels!
Staff member
#68
What's missing is the Keegan production. We see Keegan making an impact during the regular season (or even Game 4). That'd at least drag the defense toward Keegan, thus giving everyone else more space; and at most forcing Kerr to put Klay on Keegan and giving the slightly more favorable match-up (Wiggins) to Huerter, which means Wiggins instead would have to keep up with Huerter's off-ball movement where Klay excels.

Not saying all these to blame Keegan, but rather making a point on how nuanced it is and that you just cannot blame a single player for his/her lack of performance.
Right. We also had Klay in foul trouble early in the fourth and no one even tried to attack him and foul him out. There's a lot of little things we could be doing better but it's easy for us to say that sitting back watching the action from afar. These guys have been battling hard but they're just missing shots they normally make.
 
#71
Huerter is an ok help defender and has active hands. He doesnt do too well with screens and power players. He's had a lot of very close misses on 3.....his passing could be better. Unfortunately he has only had 1 standout game (uncoincidentally their best game). They missed his shooting that might've tightened with these last 2 games.

Getting outworked Wed was very disappointing ...almost more so than the blowout game 3.. the kings did not dig enough collectively on their home floor, but it was better than average, certainly better than regular season. Hard because we've seen the championship defense needed for a game, and the highest level effort defensively wasnt there consitently. Huerter is one of the players who didnt step up enough, similar to Barnes and Lyles. A few extra shots made from different players is a big deal in 6 or 7 pt losses.

I've divested a bit from the series. Has been disappointing losing in different ways. As been in all games but 2, the kings sink with their offense sinking. Game 3 was ice water in their collective faces. Perhaps they force 7, who knows
 
#72
As strange as it may sound, I think Kevin is the best matchup when defending Klay. He ran Klay off the three point line quite a few times earlier in the series. He just needs to be more aggressive on offense. He has enough range that he doesn't need to hug the three point line when coming off screens.
 
#73
As strange as it may sound, I think Kevin is the best matchup when defending Klay. He ran Klay off the three point line quite a few times earlier in the series. He just needs to be more aggressive on offense. He has enough range that he doesn't need to hug the three point line when coming off screens.
Murray matches up well with Thompson and did some good things in that matchup in game 4. This is why Mitchell in the starting lineup could work
 
#74
Murray is slower than Kevin and not as aggressive in fighting over screens when tailing Klay. If Kevin is playing scared on offense, it's better to roll with Murray as the next best matchup against Klay.
 
#75
I've said from the beginning of the playoffs that it's my opinion Huerter is going to win us a game. I'm running out of time, so I'm betting on a big game from him tonight. IT'S GOING TO HAPPEN.
 
#76
I'm not totally putting blame on hueter, but he's our starting SG. He needs to be able to hit 3s in big moments, not just season games. Not sure what he did in atl, but from the ASB and these playoff games, it seems like he shrinks under pressure. Or maybe he gets too amped up. Whatever it is. Maybe he needs to get the ball at the perfect spot and D on Domas is breaking his rhythm just enough.

Right now he's on my available for trade list
 
#81
He was actually quite bad for most of the game.

However, he hit two HUGE threes to put the Warriors out of reach. Awesome job by him to stay with it and knock down shots when we really needed them. Hopefully it gives him a confidence boost going into Game 7, because we will really need him.
I think those were a turning point. I think he comes out on fire in game 7. K-Von unleashed.
 

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
#85
If he is on tomorrow I don't see how it is any closer than Game 6 because for whatever reason Huerter didn't really get hot until Domas basically took himself out of the game with the 5th foul. Kevin has been the missing ingredient up until now. If all three of our shooters are on they're going to need 3 or 4 guys to step us as well.
 
#86
He was actually quite bad for most of the game.

However, he hit two HUGE threes to put the Warriors out of reach. Awesome job by him to stay with it and knock down shots when we really needed them. Hopefully it gives him a confidence boost going into Game 7, because we will really need him.
He made a few defensive plays with Domas down the stretch too. Domas was foul happy, but I think he actually had by far his best defensive game of the series. The plan for him to really hedge out on the ball-handler was working well and we got them out of their rhythm.
 
#90
The only shot I've seen KH make through 2 games was a catch and release. This shot was the only one that went in and the only one he didn't add that hitch to the shot.