Alright, and there it is. And while its been a long time since we could say this, now might be when the real fun of this season kicks off as we have a front office theoretically on a mission to finally build us a winner again. We lost, but upon hearing that Detroit had lost earlier, really in the end that was probably for the best. And while it was loosey goosey and clearly two teams just scrimmaging on out, it was a good show for the fans and a bit of a party despite everything, so good show. And Congrats to Ben on easily his career game. It would be miserly to point out that Kings from Vinny Del Negro to Ike Diogu have gone big in the final game without it meaning anything. Let's instead remember that DeMarcus Cousins did once too, and he's now the best center in the NBA.
Tonight we're going to keep it light and do a closing theme on The Graders who've given their time all season long. In upcoming days and weeks there is a lot of stuff planned and in the works, season wrapup grades, a wiki project I am looking for volunteers on, the Kingsfans Scouting Department's annual scouting reports, and then something a little special I've been cooking up for a couple of months. Eventually during the darkest days of TDOS, I imagine we'll kick off another set of Tropical Island Draft threads.
Should be an interesting summer, and gerbil wiling, maybe the last one in a long time that we begin this early. Thanks for reading and sticking with it through another long season. Don't be strangers in the upcoming months. We've kept the lights on around here for years holding out until the worm finally turned, and with a franchise center, a new arena, and an aggressive mandate to win, the long wait may finally be over. We'll be seeing you.
Your Consoritum Graders tonight:
Bricklayer
Uncia03
Rainmaker
Capt. Factorial
Bajaden
MassacheusettsKingsFan
Boxscore
Stats: 16min 6pts (3-8, 0-1, 0-0) 6reb 2ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Gay ( C ) -- Tonight Rudy Gay played what could be his final game in a Kings uniform, pending his decision on a ludicrously lucrative player option this summer. I doubt this was exactly the game that Rudy would want to go out on. Hampered by his back injury (and moving like it), he played only 16 minutes and seemed to pick his spots. He picked one outstanding spot - flying to an open basket in the third quarter, he jumped higher than any man with a bad back has right to and found a perfect lob pass from Isaiah for the one hand receipt and an iconic throwdown. He only made two other baskets, one a somewhat reluctant jumper out of baseline post position where it looked to me like he just didn't trust in having the agility to make the drive he normally would have opted for. I assume that Rudy's back also forced a bit of a change in game plan, where instead of quickly getting down court on offense Rudy was charged with being the primary man to bring the ball up court. This resulted in Rudy crashing the boards to great effect - his long arms pulled down six rebounds in his two brief stints, five of those defensive. On the defensive end, the Suns didn't really attack Rudy, missing all four shots they took. P.J. Tucker took advantage of him a couple of times, once losing him on a cut and the other time driving right around him baseline but both times Rudy was bailed out, once on an unforced dribble error and the other by a block at the rim from Ben. Suffice it to say, this game is not how we're going to remember the season we got out of our first real SF in who knows how long. I want him back next year, and I hope the feeling is mutual, but the summer will tell. Until then...Long Live The Kings! --Capt.
Capt. Factorial -- the Consortium's own human calculator, Capt. is actually probably better with numbers than any of us and I have long suspected him of being a closet metrichead, but he has the endearing good taste not to call me on it when I take liberties. He was also been the Consortiuum's most serious grader of defense, a difficult position to stake out for this franchise, and one that sometimes resulted in eyebrow raising grades based on a personal play play log that should have made the Synergy Sports beancounters blush.
Stats: 31min 7pts (3-8, 0-2, 1-2) 3reb 1ast 1stl 1blk 0TO
Williams ( D+ ) -- Williams’ last game went with a whimper and will leave all of us fans curious as to what his future holds in regards to the Sacramento Kings. He got the start playing PF which made sense as he was matched up against a cupcake in Channing Frye. With Rudy being hampered and Cousins out this would have been the time for him to really step it up especially since Frye has no hope to stay with him on the defensive end. Unfortunately, as has been a season-long trend, he simply wasn’t aggressive enough in this one. He had a few very nice plays in the open court for finishes at the rim on the fast break, but his jumper was off, and other than 1 nice play where he slipped a pick and Rudy found him at the rim, he received only two other passes on his rim cuts which seriously limited his scoring opportunities. On defense he sort of had the same problem he had against Brewer as he spent most of his time guarding the perimeter-oriented Frye which limited his rebounding opportunities. But he still only managed to grab 3 in 30 minutes which just isn’t great production. He played all of the 1st and 3rd quarters but didn’t get into the game in the 4th as Malone decided to ride that 4th quarter unit all the way to the finish line. It’s been clear since the Rudy trade that he just doesn’t seem to be aggressive coming off the bench, so his future as King could very well depend on what Rudy decides to do in the off-season. The one thing that it is important to remember is that he’s still incredibly young and so there is time for him to continue to develop both the mental and physical aspects of the game. What I do know is that his performance tonight didn’t shed any light as to what to project for him going forward. --Uncia
Uncia03 -- the Consortiuum's International Man of Mystery, Uncia is a mysterious figure from the southern reaches of California, and hence my completely random choice of avatar. One of the Consortiuum's most reliable graders, he was a welcome addition to the Consortiuum despite suspected underworld ties to certain dubious individuals south of the border.
Stats: 21min 8pts (4-9, 0-0, 0-0) 11reb 0ast 1stl 1blk 2TO
Thompson ( ) -- First off, JT probably doesn't deserve this high a score, but tonight may be the last time we see JT in a Kings uniform, and he did pull down 11 boards in just 21 minutes of play. Those are Reggie Evans numbers. JT only took 9 shots making 4, and I believe all of his made baskets except for a 16 footer in the second half were at the basket. He just couldn't get his jumper going tonight. He made a nice steal defending out on the perimeter which led to a three by McLemore. His scoring came from a reverse spin to the baseline and and a kiss off the glass. He also had a dunk from a nice pass by McLemore. He had a couple of bad moments, like driving into the lane and losing the ball. But on the whole, he was solid but not spectacular. Typical JT. I'd like to add that this was a fun game to watch. Very little isolation for the most part, and more creative ball movement than I've seen in a while. It was nice to see unselfish play, and it was also nice to see them feeding McLemore when he got hot in the first half. It would have been nice to get a win, but if you can't win, at least be entertaining. And tonight they were.. --Baja
Bajaden -- one of the two original Consortiuum members (with Capt. Fact. last year), it was Bajaden's consistent availability and enthusiasm that first made me alive to the advantages of assigning work to the less employed. Aside from several unfortunate incidents where he naively dabbled with the idea of having "friends" (including the Man of Mystery above) rather than doing unpaid work for the Consortiuum, Baja's reliability was one of the basics making the Consortiuum possible. Since making his avatar I have since learned that he does in fact have hair (who knew?), but the beer is accurate.
Stats: 42min 31pts (9-20, 3-9, 10-15) 5reb 5ast 1stl 0blk 2TO
McLemore ( A ) -- So apparently Ben had the wool pulled over our collective eyes all year and decided to show us what he's really about as we head into the off season, by posting a statline that Ray Allen in his prime would have been proud of. Well, maybe not, to both Ben pulling the wool over our eyes or Allen being proud of this statline(5 missed FT's would be unacceptable to him) but this was quite a send off game for Ben going into the summer. Couldn't have been much better based on his body of work we've witnessed this year. Came out and hands down had his best half of the season. Given how well he played in the 1st half, I thought I'd list most of his highlights/positives since it's a rare occurrence thus far in his career and for anyone who didn't watch or get to see it.
-hit a left wing 3 as the defender played off him
-next possession attacked the rim off the dribble, finished and got fouled
-received a hand-off from IT and drove hard down the lane with his left, getting fouled and FT's. Great to see him attack the paint like that with his off hand
-had a great block at the rim in a help situation where he read the play and rotated quickly. Has shown this might be more common going forward as he's had a few nice blocks rotating from the weak-side
-off arguably the best passing sequence of the night, drilled a corner 3
-after Ray made a terrible pass, broke up Phoenix attack, stole the ball and got fouled
-on following possession set JT up with a beauty of a pass for the dunk
-checked back in in the 2nd and hit a pullup baseline 15 footer
-couple possessions later, came off an elbow screen and hit a jumper
-then came down, obviously feeling it and hit a pullup transition 3 off the dribble
-set up Acy with another nice pass
Ben basically carried us through the 1st half. Finished the half with 18 points(6-11). Came out in the 2nd half and immediately hit another pullup transition 3 off the bounce. Also finished a reverse off a feed in transition but definitely cooled off in the 2nd half. Was able to get to the FT and did draw some fouls off the bounce which was another positive to see but didn't shoot well from the line going 10-15. FT's might have been his only real blemish tonight aside from a horrible pass in the 1st half. Archie Goodwin went 11-13 for 29 pts which obviously is a problem and Ben deserves some real blame there, but it's the last game of the year, Ben had a breakout offensive game, not just scoring but all-around play as well(5rebs/5asts) and showed markedly improved decision making, and for tonight I'd prefer focusing on the positives with him as this kind of a game was unexpected. Great for Ben. Hopefully great for us and a sign of things to come. Now take three weeks off and get back to work.--Rain
Rainmaker -- a late addition to the roster (his avatar means nothing, it was late, I needed to quickly add him into the masthead, I did not know what he looked like and didn't want his pic to be the boring one, so I took the first funny pic I could find on my harddrive and threw a raincloud over it), some detestable thing called "work" as well as mounting dismay at the franchise's continued incompetence contributed to a late season swoon, but he finished with a bang, drawing the two Mac's tonight and catching Ben's career game.
Stats: 17min 4pts (2-5, 0-3, 0-0) 0reb 4ast 0stl 1blk 2TO
Thomas ( C- ) -- This was a fairly tough game to grade for Thomas. His minutes were way below his season average, he only played in two quarters, and I don’t know how healthy he is. I don’t even know why he played, really, but he was OK for the time he was out there. His defense on Bledsoe, whose minutes were also limited, was acceptable. He had one jumper and one layup for his four points, but his highlights, as few as there were, was his passing. And it wasn’t outstanding or anything, but he threw some nice alley-oop lobs that got the crowd, bench, and momentum on the Kings side. Certainly not one of Thomas’ best performances, but I don’t know if he could of, or should of had a great game tonight because of the circumstances. Thomas deserves a lot of credit for turning himself into a legitimate asset this season, and if this was his last game as a King I know I’ll personally have more good memories than bad. Despite how much Grant and Jerry shoves his ‘toughness’ down our throats, he’s become a much better pro than he had any business being. What the Kings ultimately decide to do with Thomas is anyone’s guess. I think it’s a real 50/50 situation here that could go either way, but I do think Thomas will (and should) follow the money after being one of the leagues best bargains for two straight seasons. It’s time to cash in. --Mass
MassachusettsKingsFan -- the man with the most trying name on the site to have to type out, Mass was the Consortiuum's early game specialist this season as your 4:30 is his 7:30. He was a gamer though, and chipped in with many late game grades which are tough to deal with unless you have a fascinating night owl/insomniac combination going for you. I had no idea what he looked like and so just made his avatar look like a chubby little Kennedy.
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