[Grades] Doh! Grades v. Jazz 12/11/2013

Who's D sucked the worst?

  • Williams

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Thompson

    Votes: 1 3.0%
  • McLemore

    Votes: 13 39.4%
  • Thomas

    Votes: 6 18.2%
  • Thornton

    Votes: 7 21.2%
  • Outlaw

    Votes: 1 3.0%
  • Fredette

    Votes: 5 15.2%

  • Total voters
    33
  • Poll closed .

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#1


Its appropriate we included a Consortium member with Homer Simpson as his avatar for this one, because this was a major doh! effort, resetting enthusiasm and reminding everybody of just where we are. And where we were was in the land of the suck. Not only did we not get to see the new guys make their debuts, but we looked lackluster and out of sorts from the very beginning of the game, the Jazz compounded things by playing brilliantly at times (35ast 8TO really? Really??), and even the crowd got in on the suck. The offense was ragged, the defense was just, as Coach Malone said, embarrassing, and I don't think we made a single real run at making it respectable after the first quarter.

The good news is that I am shallow and always willing to take advantage of Kings misfortune to post more pics of Pretty Girls. Have to take your silver linings where you can find them.

Your Consoritum Graders tonight:
Bricklayer
Uncia03
Spudfan
Capt. Factorial
Henkel


Boxscore

Stats: 32min 13pts (6-11, 0-2, 1-2) 7reb 1ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Williams ( B ) -- Williams followed up his career night by having a solid, but not great, game. He didn’t make any perimeter shots in this one but managed to get double-digit points by using his athleticism. Most of his points came in transition when he either hustled down the court for an alley-oop slam, or grabbed the defensive rebound and took it coast-to-coast. The only half-court score he had was when he made a nice baseline cut under the basket and Cousins found him from the high post. Williams had to make an athletic move at the rim but got it to drop. He played quite a bit of PF in this one as he moved to PF when Cousins went out in the 1st quarter with foul trouble, and again when he slid over to replace JT in the 3rd quarter. He did a fairly good job guarding Jefferson though he did go under a screen and let Jefferson have space to knock down a 3pt shot and on another possession the ball got swung to Jefferson and Williams hurriedly jumped too close to him to close out and Jefferson was able to get by him. He was our 2nd best rebounder on the night pulling down 7 and shot above 50% on 6-11 shooting. So a decent night but though his transition dunks were really impressive, his overall game was solid but not spectacular.--Uncia

Rachel Bilson

Stats: 34min 11pts (3-8, 0-0, 5-5) 6reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Thompson ( C- ) -- my only grade of the night turned out to be a scruffy one. Of course on this night it would have been pretty much impossible to avoid a scruffy one. With JT it was just...it looked kind of like him. But it was as if everything was just off. The shots just missed, balls were fumbled, the rotations were just a second late, or the way the Jazz were passing they found the man he had just left time after time and he was not able to recover. He always seemed to run out of the rebound's way tonight rather than into it, and was often caught standing out in space while the Jazz finished up the play behind him. Spent a lot of time at center on the short night by Boogie, and may have fared a little better there. Got several finishes to the hoop at least, and some aggression there got him to the foul line. He made some good passes to guys on the perimeter for open jumpers, but passing the ball to Ben right now might as well just count as a TO. The numbers look semi in his normal range here, but the game wasn't. Kind of a microcosm of the whole team I guess. --Brick

Valerie Garcia

Stats: 23min 21pts (7-14, 0-0, 7-11) 11reb 2ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
Cousins ( C+ ) -- I'm a little split on where exactly Cuz's grade should fall given his limited impact in the first half. He had two quick fouls in this one and went to the bench with just under five minutes remaining in the 1st, not to be seen again until the 3rd quarter. While those two early fouls hurt us, where does the fault lie for him not having any more first half contributions? Do you lay it on Cuz for picking up those two early fouls and putting Malone in a position to sit him the rest of the half and protect Cuz from picking up a third foul before the end of the 2nd, or is it more on Malone for resisting putting his only star player back in a game which Utah was starting to run away with and should have subbed him back in despite the two fouls? Either way, DMC was largely invisible in the first half and had little impact as he finished the half with 4 pts/4 rebs. In the 3rd Cuz came out looking much more like himself and immediately started attacking the paint. Not once, not twice, not three times but scored four times at the rim in succession and it looked as if he was going to put the team on his back and get us right back into the game. Tonight however it was not meant to be as the Jazz loaded up on him, his teammates offered little in the way of support and a few questionable calls put this game out of reach by the end of the 3rd as well as visibly frustrated Cuz. After his regular 2nd half rest, came back and padded his stats a bit but the game was largely out of reach at that point. So he picked up two early fouls, sat out the rest of the half, likely for protection against a third foul, came out and had a very good start to the 2nd half while his teammates offered minimal support and within two minutes of being subbed out at the end of the 3rd the game was pretty much out of reach and garbage time had already kicked off. Add to that the shortened game-day roster due to the Vasquez visa complications and delayed physical along with the letdown the players likely felt, just as we fans did when we heard the new guys weren't going to play tonight and I'll chalk this up to "just being one of those nights". 21 points and 11 rebounds is a damn good night for most in this league. In fact there's only two other players league-wide averaging better than 21/10. This is yet another example of the talent this guy has as on a largely off-night where he spent most of the 1st half on the bench and received little help from his teammates he still put up 21/10 in only 23 minutes of action. --Rain

Miranda Kerr

Stats: 33min 4pts (1-8, 1-2, 1-2) 2reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
McLemore ( F ) -- Ben's game tonight can be summed up pretty easily: In the third quarter he went for one of his patented Doesn't-Work-Throw-Downs, and lo and behold! it didn't work. Then he came in in the fourth and immediately did it again. Ben did very little right tonight. To be kind, I'll point out that when a high skip pass on the perimeter took away his three-point shot, he drove into the lane for a nice drop-off to JT, who was fouled for free throws. Outside of that? Terrible offense, terrible defense, a game-low -34 on the +/-, I'm not wasting any more time writing it up. It sucked that bad. --Capt.

Heidi Klum

Stats: 36min 20pts (7-13, 1-3, 5-5) 3reb 7ast 1stl 0blk 5TO
Thomas ( C ) -- Played worse then his stats while the opposite could be said for Burke. A sloppy start which didn't help a starting group that came out flat. Didn't do a good job running the offense in the half court all game but particularly sub par early, which isn't out of step with what we've seen over the last few years. On top of all that wasn't hitting until late in the quarter as he helped incite a little run. And on top of that wasn't able to slow down Burke's penetration, which isn't all on him. Watching the Kings defend the pick and roll and rotations tonight, and despite the rhetoric like most nights, was painful. Alright in the second with a nice burst near the end of the quarter. Was still having a rough night defensively this time at the hands of Garret. Wasn't involved much early third as we fed a well rest Cousins. Sloppy overall again and as the Jazz heated up was part of a group that laid down defensively. Burke is going to be really good and he's already fun to watch but that was just too easy. Didn't take a shot in the fourth and his play was pretty passive, not that it mattered as the game was already decided. Still a tough cover but got a little bit exposed or at least his weaknesses as a starter showed up tonight.--Henkel

Mary Elizabeth Winstead
 
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Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#2
Bench

Stats: 34min 11pts (4-11, 1-3, 2-2) 4reb 0ast 1stl 1blk 0TO
Thornton ( D- ) -- Can you say "trade showcase"? Is there any other reason for Thornton to get 34 minutes while basically stinking up the court? Sure, we were shorthanded, but we spent seemingly most of the game playing McLemore at the SF so he could play side-by-side with his non-defender in crime Marcus. Like the time Marcus got switched off on Kanter and when the post pass came in, he just rolled out of the way and let Kanter go straight to the rim. By the time Thornton had given up 18 points on 13 shots, I stopped counting. It was clearly a girls thread night, and I didn't care anymore. That's how bad Thornton played. He played the care right out of me. --Capt.

Bar Rafaeli

Stats: 23min 6pts (2-6, 0-2, 2-2) 2reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Outlaw ( C- ) -- Outlaw had a fairly invisible game out there tonight. He wasn’t terrible, but he wasn’t very impactful at all. He came in and started the game playing SF while Williams moved over to PF and Malone had him guarding Hayward which he did a good job of doing. He played pretty decent defense against Evans when he moved to the stretch-four, though he did let Evans twice get behind him for easy conversions at the rim off the pick-n-roll. He only took 6 shots, but half of them were in the last few minutes of garbage time where he converted 1 of 3 while also having his only assist on a nice dribble-penetration and dish to Ndiaye who slammed it home for his only 2 points. But when the game was still being played he didn’t add much rebounding or much from the offensive end. His defense was pretty solid but all-in-all he was just out there. --Uncia

Grace Park

Stats: 9min 2pts (1-1, 0-0, 0-0) 2reb 0ast 0stl 2blk 0TO
Ndiaye ( C- ) -- Played only 9 minutes tonight and didn't have much of an impact. At the same time, he's not expected to have much of an impact. Contest shots, grab a few rebounds and stay out of the way on offense. Still, after his 5 minute first half stint he didn't have anything but zeros across his stat line. No points, rebounds, blocks, assists, steals, fouls, FGA's, just nothing. Returned late in garbage time and had an impact, dunk inside, 2 blocks, 2 rebounds, but as mentioned, it was late in garbage time. Does he have a role going forward? We'll see. Not sure he did enough or has done enough to prevent Gray from getting the nod over him. --Rain

Olivia Wilde

Stats: 12min 11pts (4-6, 1-1, 4-4) 2reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Fredette ( C ) -- It was easy to ignore how fugly the bench was monday, but tonight we needed them and again they were a mess. Not a surprise, still ugly. Best of a bad lot as he was hitting his shots and that's about it. That ain't nothing I suppose but when you have little impact on a game it's hard to get carried away, that's not a challenge Jimmer fans. Played well in garbage times for what it's worth.--Henkel

Hannah Davis

Stats: 3min 0pts (0-0, 0-0, 0-0) 1reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
McCallum ( INC ) -- fell through the grading cracks here as he was mysteriously held out f the game until the dying minutes despite us being down 20 pts for most of the 2nd half. Again did nothing while in there to suggest he's about to blow up into a major role. --Brick

For ppine
 
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#3
I don't know who sucked most on D. Whoever was guarding Jefferson I suppose (DWill?) but Kings team D was horrible in first half - non-existent in 2nd half. McLemore looked like silly chicken with his head cut off for most of night running around. Maybe Rudy Gay at 2 is worth a shot for awhile to see if possible - I believe it's doable. I think BMac needs to sit, observe NBA game sitting next to assistant coaches who can coach him up in real time - he needs it before hits some big rookie wall.
 
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K

KingMilz

Guest
#4
Starting Rudy Gay @SG is becoming a viable option,

IT
Rudy
Williams
JT
Cousins

Sub two of our big 3 out and always keep at least one in there, I don't want to see Thornton he's had enough chances imo, that line up it should be nearly impossible to get a offensive rebound unless it's a lucky bounce and we got crazy length and Gay is a better defender than the rook.

JT has done enough to stay at PF for me and Mclemore is looking like the SG version of t-Rob he still seems so nervous out there, easy him into it now that we got Gay.
 
#5
That is a 'crazy' lineup, that I would be interested in seeing out of curiousity. Take tonight for example, Gay could have locked down Hayward and Williams on Jefferson without having to help all the time
 
#6
i dont know why malone keeps playing ben at the 3 (or mt at all while im at it). i used to hate the it/mt/salmons/outlaw/hayes lineup, but this jimmer/mt/ben/outlaw/ndiaye is pretty bad. i know we're short handed but cmon. even if you put IT in there at pg for scoring we are severely undersized. i heard the coach say in the second quarter we kept dmc out because utah was playing small. why dont you take advantage of that and put dmc in and pound the crap outta them? some of you are thinking of putting gay in at the 2? based on the past games, my bet is we are gonna play small. that means alot of gay and williams at the 3 and 4 when they are in together
 

Entity

Hall of Famer
#7
Well
i dont know why malone keeps playing ben at the 3 (or mt at all while im at it). i used to hate the it/mt/salmons/outlaw/hayes lineup, but this jimmer/mt/ben/outlaw/ndiaye is pretty bad. i know we're short handed but cmon. even if you put IT in there at pg for scoring we are severely undersized. i heard the coach say in the second quarter we kept dmc out because utah was playing small. why dont you take advantage of that and put dmc in and pound the crap outta them? some of you are thinking of putting gay in at the 2? based on the past games, my bet is we are gonna play small. that means alot of gay and williams at the 3 and 4 when they are in together
it's really been just these last two games. Mostly because we only have outlaw and ndaiye off the bench in the frontcourt. And ndaiye pretty much sucks.
 
#8
Well

it's really been just these last two games. Mostly because we only have outlaw and ndaiye off the bench in the frontcourt. And ndaiye pretty much sucks.
not really an excuse. we can have outlaw play the 3 instead of ben. we should have kept the 3/4/5 rotation

williams/outlaw
jt/williams/outlaw
dmc/jt/ndiaye

ben should be kept at the 2 where he belongs.
 
#9
Starting Rudy Gay @SG is becoming a viable option,

IT
Rudy
Williams
JT
Cousins

Sub two of our big 3 out and always keep at least one in there, I don't want to see Thornton he's had enough chances imo, that line up it should be nearly impossible to get a offensive rebound unless it's a lucky bounce and we got crazy length and Gay is a better defender than the rook.

JT has done enough to stay at PF for me and Mclemore is looking like the SG version of t-Rob he still seems so nervous out there, easy him into it now that we got Gay.
Pulling him now will kill whatever cofudence he has. Ben is having the kud of year you expect from somebody whos game is based off potential, just gotta let him learn atleast he is trying hard out there he will get it sooner than later
 

dude12

Hall of Famer
#10
Playing Jimmer right now is clearly a showcase attempt but playing him at PG doesn't help but you got to showcase MT. MT just is killing his value which is negative already. Really need to play Ray now to see if he's part of your future.

In a flat game like this, Acy would have come in and brought it....he would have been perfect tonight....at least laid someone out.
 
#11
A couple quotes from PDA from a couple days ago kinda sum up where the kings are and what expectations should be. That is, low. These particular quotes seem as honest as we've seen from him.

“I think we have a lot of nice pieces,” D’Alessandro said. “I don’t necessarily know that we have a team yet though. And that’s just being really honest. I feel like we have a lot of really nice individual pieces now. And you know what? That’s a really good start.”

“You’re a four or five win team, you’re always saying, ‘how do we get better’,” D’Alessandro said. “And it’s not going to happen today or tomorrow, even by the end of the season, but it’s going to happen. I’ve got the mandate from my owner to make it happen and that’s tremendous to have an owner who’s that committed.”

“We’re not there,” D’Alessandro said. “It’s not a get rich quick scheme. It’s not a quick fix. We’re saying hey, lets bring in talent and let’s see where this thing takes us. We’ve got a long way to go. We’re here in Sacramento, but we’re going to keep fighting to make it happen.”

This has been my interpretation of events as well as the picture has become more fully developed. Don't go expecting miracles. This is still very much a work in progress. Things may get very grim, especially since gay has raised expectations. The talent is better. Whether it fits together wasn't part of the design. Yet. First it's find a guy that really meshes with cousins. Maybe it's rudy, more likely it's not. But I don't think that's the point now. There's still a draft coming up, if you'll recall.

The only thing we know is that cousins starts, gay starts, likely until rudy's contract expires or he's moved again. I know some view him as un moveable, and they may be correct, but as long as he is on the roster, he starts. I think everything else is in flux. Those who thought IT would be the savior and stop the slow starts saw otherwise. He's a 6th man. We need to get him back there ASAP by making another move soon, for any pg with any idea how to run an offense and play D. He doesn't run the offense well enough to start. His numbers were fine. 7 assists even seems ok, except when coupled with 5 TOs and a massacre at the hands of the Utah jazz.

But the whole thing is still mismatched parts, too small to compete every night, too little talent top to bottom. You can't have a bench this bad and compete. It was bad before, but take IT out, it's hopeless.

Now to find a taker for Mr. Thornton.

- See more at: http://cowbellkingdom.com/2013/12/1...set-of-sacramento-kings/#sthash.tirn2i3j.dpuf
 
#12
A couple quotes from PDA from a couple days ago kinda sum up where the kings are and what expectations should be. That is, low. These particular quotes seem as honest as we've seen from him.

“I think we have a lot of nice pieces,” D’Alessandro said. “I don’t necessarily know that we have a team yet though. And that’s just being really honest. I feel like we have a lot of really nice individual pieces now. And you know what? That’s a really good start.”

“You’re a four or five win team, you’re always saying, ‘how do we get better’,” D’Alessandro said. “And it’s not going to happen today or tomorrow, even by the end of the season, but it’s going to happen. I’ve got the mandate from my owner to make it happen and that’s tremendous to have an owner who’s that committed.”

“We’re not there,” D’Alessandro said. “It’s not a get rich quick scheme. It’s not a quick fix. We’re saying hey, lets bring in talent and let’s see where this thing takes us. We’ve got a long way to go. We’re here in Sacramento, but we’re going to keep fighting to make it happen.”

This has been my interpretation of events as well as the picture has become more fully developed. Don't go expecting miracles. This is still very much a work in progress. Things may get very grim, especially since gay has raised expectations. The talent is better. Whether it fits together wasn't part of the design. Yet. First it's find a guy that really meshes with cousins. Maybe it's rudy, more likely it's not. But I don't think that's the point now. There's still a draft coming up, if you'll recall.

The only thing we know is that cousins starts, gay starts, likely until rudy's contract expires or he's moved again. I know some view him as un moveable, and they may be correct, but as long as he is on the roster, he starts. I think everything else is in flux. Those who thought IT would be the savior and stop the slow starts saw otherwise. He's a 6th man. We need to get him back there ASAP by making another move soon, for any pg with any idea how to run an offense and play D. He doesn't run the offense well enough to start. His numbers were fine. 7 assists even seems ok, except when coupled with 5 TOs and a massacre at the hands of the Utah jazz.

But the whole thing is still mismatched parts, too small to compete every night, too little talent top to bottom. You can't have a bench this bad and compete. It was bad before, but take IT out, it's hopeless.

Now to find a taker for Mr. Thornton.

- See more at: http://cowbellkingdom.com/2013/12/1...set-of-sacramento-kings/#sthash.tirn2i3j.dpuf
He ran it fine in Dallas? Far too early to make sweeping statements about IT's starting PG career, especially considering we've been short-handed for 2 games and Cousins mysteriously sat for 16 straight minutes last night.
 

Kingster

Hall of Famer
#13
No way does Williams get a B in his report card in this game. His D leaves a lot to be desired. He's not exactly a lively body out there on D; it's more like he's flat footed much of the time. I see him just standing around a lot of the time instead of putting his body on a guy or going to the board like he means it. From a purely defensive point of view I can understand why Minni wanted Luc in exchange for Williams. Now it's up to Malone to see if he can turn the key on this guy's engine. That said, nobody in this game had a sterling defensive effort. I'm looking forward to Friday.
 
#14
The Kings' gave up 122 points to one of the worst teams in the league. I would have them running the arena steps this morning.

Defense is all about effort and there wasn't any. They won two so they could take the night off?

When you have a team full of quick athletic guys, which the Kings' really do have in their starting rotation, getting beat consistently is really sad. It might be time to sit a few guys and let them watch for awhile.

Nice girl pictures, but where are the women? I am an old fart. They all look to me like someone's grand daughter.
 
#16
No way does Williams get a B in his report card in this game. His D leaves a lot to be desired. He's not exactly a lively body out there on D; it's more like he's flat footed much of the time. I see him just standing around a lot of the time instead of putting his body on a guy or going to the board like he means it. From a purely defensive point of view I can understand why Minni wanted Luc in exchange for Williams. Now it's up to Malone to see if he can turn the key on this guy's engine. That said, nobody in this game had a sterling defensive effort. I'm looking forward to Friday.
I'm not certain why you think Williams D and rebounding was so atrocious. When Williams was guarding Jefferson in the half-court Jefferson only scored two buckets on him, which I mentioned in my grades. (One where the ball got swung to Jefferson and Williams closed out too quickly and too close to Jefferson which took his momentum into Jefferson and Jefferson was able to use that against him by going right around him (1st quarter), and one where Williams went under a top-of-the-key screen and Jefferson had space to knock down a 3. (3rd quarter)) So giving up 2 buckets in the half-court to the Jazz' leading scorer of the night isn't what I'd call terrible.

Jefferson also hit another 3 against Williams but that was in transition when Williams had to go to the rim to protect it and it got kicked out to Jefferson. (Mid 3rd quarter) So I don't blame Williams too much for that one. There was one segment (prior to Jefferson's transition 3) where they isolated Jefferson on the left elbow in the 3rd quarter and Jefferson tried to do something with it for 10 seconds and had to finally clear it out as he couldn't get past Williams and couldn't find a good look.

Also don't forget that that he got moved to the PF spot when Cousins went out in the 1st and again when JT went out in the 3rd and was therefore guarding Marvin Williams and all of Marvin's points (8) came when being defended by JT.

You also said that he didn't really put a body on people in regards to getting rebounds but that doesn't make sense to me at all when you consider he led our team in defensive rebounds in this one. He had less minutes than JT and had more rebounds and while JT played all 34 minutes at either PF or C, Williams played about 11 of his 32 minutes at SF which means he was out on the wing with less rebounding opportunities.

Yes it was a bad game, yes we got blown out and gave up 122 points, but Williams didn't have a bad game. He didn't have a great game, but he didn't have a bad one either. You said that it looks as if he's standing around a lot of the time, but if he's playing SF and guarding Jefferson who is standing in the corner, or playing PF and guarding Marvin Williams who as a stretch-4 is standing in the corner then it's his defensive job to stay close enough to Jefferson/Marvin so that they don't get a ton of wide-open looks so I'm not certain what more you expect him to do.
 
#17
He ran it fine in Dallas? Far too early to make sweeping statements about IT's starting PG career, especially considering we've been short-handed for 2 games and Cousins mysteriously sat for 16 straight minutes last night.
He started 62 games last year. And we were most definitely not IN Dallas.

By theory, IT should have excelled with cousins out of the game so long. For gods sake, this was the jazz out there.

I'm not drawing any conclusion on IT that hadn't been made a million times. Both these last two games were all kinds of flukey. I understand that. Drawing a conclusion based on either game is absurd. We havd a pretty solid sample size rof IT starting at this point though. Now on the bench, the offense was him. If you think him not running the offense well is going to have a positive effect when they throw another high volume shooter in there, I think you are mistaken.

Good news for you is that he's going to get his chances for the foreseeable future.
 
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#18
Nobody should get a B in a poor team game like that. Top grade a C.

The real responsibility and blame in a game like this goes to team leadership, namely Malone, Cousins and
Thomas. Someday in the future Cousins may learn to not take himself out of games with fouls. If he doesn't then will not get the All in All-star,
 

Kingster

Hall of Famer
#19
I'm not certain why you think Williams D and rebounding was so atrocious. When Williams was guarding Jefferson in the half-court Jefferson only scored two buckets on him, which I mentioned in my grades. (One where the ball got swung to Jefferson and Williams closed out too quickly and too close to Jefferson which took his momentum into Jefferson and Jefferson was able to use that against him by going right around him (1st quarter), and one where Williams went under a top-of-the-key screen and Jefferson had space to knock down a 3. (3rd quarter)) So giving up 2 buckets in the half-court to the Jazz' leading scorer of the night isn't what I'd call terrible.

Jefferson also hit another 3 against Williams but that was in transition when Williams had to go to the rim to protect it and it got kicked out to Jefferson. (Mid 3rd quarter) So I don't blame Williams too much for that one. There was one segment (prior to Jefferson's transition 3) where they isolated Jefferson on the left elbow in the 3rd quarter and Jefferson tried to do something with it for 10 seconds and had to finally clear it out as he couldn't get past Williams and couldn't find a good look.

Also don't forget that that he got moved to the PF spot when Cousins went out in the 1st and again when JT went out in the 3rd and was therefore guarding Marvin Williams and all of Marvin's points (8) came when being defended by JT.

You also said that he didn't really put a body on people in regards to getting rebounds but that doesn't make sense to me at all when you consider he led our team in defensive rebounds in this one. He had less minutes than JT and had more rebounds and while JT played all 34 minutes at either PF or C, Williams played about 11 of his 32 minutes at SF which means he was out on the wing with less rebounding opportunities.

Yes it was a bad game, yes we got blown out and gave up 122 points, but Williams didn't have a bad game. He didn't have a great game, but he didn't have a bad one either. You said that it looks as if he's standing around a lot of the time, but if he's playing SF and guarding Jefferson who is standing in the corner, or playing PF and guarding Marvin Williams who as a stretch-4 is standing in the corner then it's his defensive job to stay close enough to Jefferson/Marvin so that they don't get a ton of wide-open looks so I'm not certain what more you expect him to do.
I want to stop seeing him stand around as a spectator. On one play on defense he just stands there and starts to trot up the floor when the ball was shot by Utah from the opposite side of the floor. Jefferson, his man, goes after the defensive rebound, but is out of position. The ball litterally bounced on the floor where Williams had been. If Williams would have just done a half-a**ed attempt at an offensive board he would easily have gotten the ball. In a previous game he just stands there and watches a guy puts up a shot about 10 feet away. I don't think his motor is anywhere close to where it needs to be. Maybe my expectations are too high for Williams and he doesn't have it in him to take it to another level defensively, but I think with his athleticism he can and should be much better on the defensive end. I also believe that Malone is seeing the same thing that I am. After one of Williams' non-efforts Malone immediately called a TO.
 
#20
I want to stop seeing him stand around as a spectator. On one play on defense he just stands there and starts to trot up the floor when the ball was shot by Utah from the opposite side of the floor. Jefferson, his man, goes after the defensive rebound, but is out of position. The ball litterally bounced on the floor where Williams had been. If Williams would have just done a half-a**ed attempt at an offensive board he would easily have gotten the ball. In a previous game he just stands there and watches a guy puts up a shot about 10 feet away. I don't think his motor is anywhere close to where it needs to be. Maybe my expectations are too high for Williams and he doesn't have it in him to take it to another level defensively, but I think with his athleticism he can and should be much better on the defensive end. I also believe that Malone is seeing the same thing that I am. After one of Williams' non-efforts Malone immediately called a TO.
A lot of times, players, and especially wings and guards, have assignments to get back on defense. One of my biggest criticisms of Thornton is that he goes for offensive rebounds when he is clearly supposed to be covering the break off a shot. Sometimes he gets it (because his man is cherry picking and nobody boxes out the 6'4" guy) and gets an easy putback, but far more often, he misses his assignment and has to scramble to get back on defense. Even if the other team doesn't score on the break, they usually get somebody stuck on an island as a result and a much better offensive possession.

I would rather give up 3-4 offensive boards per game and consistently get back and cover the break. I'm not sure which play you are referring to here. Maybe the break was covered and Williams made a mistake, but not going for an offensive board in and of itself isn't a negative thing in my mind.
 
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#21
The Kings' gave up 122 points to one of the worst teams in the league. I would have them running the arena steps this morning.

Defense is all about effort and there wasn't any. They won two so they could take the night off?

When you have a team full of quick athletic guys, which the Kings' really do have in their starting rotation, getting beat consistently is really sad. It might be time to sit a few guys and let them watch for awhile.

Nice girl pictures, but where are the women? I am an old fart. They all look to me like someone's grand daughter.

Perhaps that last PIC was for you ??? Couldn't agree more with your post. It really did seem like they took the night off. That includes the coaching. Malone keeping Cousins on the bench while the game was still a contest is a quandary. So what if he fouls out, you are getting BLOWN OUT. At some point you have to throw everything you got at the problem and stem the tide. Never looked like the Kings had a stomach to compete. Perhaps the game against Dallas was to show the new teammates how good they can be and the game against Utah was to show them how bad they can be as well. Schizophrenia does not make a good competitor.... Ask Artest...
 
#22
this is why i cautioned against some of the overzealous hyping that occurred after the kings unlikely win against the mavericks monday night. with or without rudy gay, this team is still a mess on defense, from 1-5. oddly enough, when demarcus isn't piling up the fouls, he's one of the kings' few bright spots in terms of defensive growth. the effort is there, and his timing is improving...

but thomas/mclemore represents only the slightest of improvements over vasquez/mclemore, defensively speaking. and a small ball frontcourt of cousins/gay/williams or cousins/williams/gay is a defensive disaster waiting to happen. it puts tremendous pressure on demarcus to consistently dominate the glass, which isn't likely to happen on, say, the four games in five nights that the kings have to play next week, all on the road, all in the eastern conference. cousins/thompson/gay would likely fare a bit better on defense (and my suspicion is that malone will eventually move williams to the bench), but we're not exactly talking about ferocious rim protectors here...

i still see many, many losses in the kings' immediate future, particularly if coach continues to bench DMC for entire quarters, foul trouble notwithstanding (*cough*tanking strategy*cough*)...
 
#23
I need a more detailed breakdown on how Jimmer did. How was his defense? Did he play pointguard? Was he distributing the ball well? Did his handle look adequate?
 

Glenn

Hall of Famer
#24
this is why i cautioned against some of the overzealous hyping that occurred after the kings unlikely win against the mavericks monday night. with or without rudy gay, this team is still a mess on defense, from 1-5. oddly enough, when demarcus isn't piling up the fouls, he's one of the kings' few bright spots in terms of defensive growth. the effort is there, and his timing is improving...

but thomas/mclemore represents only the slightest of improvements over vasquez/mclemore, defensively speaking. and a small ball frontcourt of cousins/gay/williams or cousins/williams/gay is a defensive disaster waiting to happen. it puts tremendous pressure on demarcus to consistently dominate the glass, which isn't likely to happen on, say, the four games in five nights that the kings have to play next week, all on the road, all in the eastern conference. cousins/thompson/gay would likely fare a bit better on defense (and my suspicion is that malone will eventually move williams to the bench), but we're not exactly talking about ferocious rim protectors here...

i still see many, many losses in the kings' immediate future, particularly if coach continues to bench DMC for entire quarters, foul trouble notwithstanding (*cough*tanking strategy*cough*)...
I think most people would say that the coach would never coach in such a manner to lead to a loss but Malone did just that. Was Malone afraid that if he played Cuz he would get a third foul and we would lose? That's silly as this team will lose without Cuz on the floor. Cuz has to learn to play with fouls. He can't learn that sitting on the bench.
 
#26
How many points would Cousins be averaging if he wasn't constantly in foul trouble? At least 25 I think. I turned this one off in the third quarter (because I had to scrape the ice off of my driveway) and am blown away that he finished 7-14 for 21 points in 23 minutes after his bad start. That means he was crazy efficient at the end of this game.
 

Glenn

Hall of Famer
#27
How many points would Cousins be averaging if he wasn't constantly in foul trouble? At least 25 I think. I turned this one off in the third quarter (because I had to scrape the ice off of my driveway) and am blown away that he finished 7-14 for 21 points in 23 minutes after his bad start. That means he was crazy efficient at the end of this game.
Utah has no answer for him. I'm not sure other teams have an answer for him either but remember a game before where he absolutely abused Kanter. Kanter is a big guy but Cuz is almost all muscle.
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#28
How many points would Cousins be averaging if he wasn't constantly in foul trouble? At least 25 I think. I turned this one off in the third quarter (because I had to scrape the ice off of my driveway) and am blown away that he finished 7-14 for 21 points in 23 minutes after his bad start. That means he was crazy efficient at the end of this game.
Actually, given minutes he might lead the league in scoring. Right now he and Durant are tied for the lead in pts/48 min at 35.5 a piece.