Ryle said:
Agree, I sometimes laugh when someone gets an easy bucket off a screen and role or some other Junior High School play and everyone on the Kings stands around looking at each other like they don't know what happened.
Does not work as an explanation -- same offense led the league in defense three years ago.
Personnel. Personnel. Personnel.
There is no shotblocking, no defensive leader, no stoppers, few hustle guys. Our best rebounder is a guard. Three of our 5 positions are slowfooted. Both our forwards were notorious softies even before this year began.
If I went down position by position comparing defense/rebounding/hustle/shotblocking/size to the 2003 team, I could make an argument that EVERY single roster spot that has changed since that time (everybody except Bibby & Peja, who may actually be worse themselves) is worse in those areas. EVERY one. That's not easy to accomplish.
Vlade > Brad (saavy, length, steals, blocks)
Webb > SAR (rebounds, steals, blocks, presence)
Doug > Bonzi (Bonzi's rebounding is huge, but Doug was All-Defense and our leader)
Bobby > Hart (Hart can be a good denfeder, but nowhere near the hustle/rebounding/energetic impact)
Pollard > KT (much bigger, more physical, shotblocking, banging)
Hedo > Kevin (bigger, more versatile, more physical)
JJ > Garcia (tough, strong, experienced, huge boarder for us that year)
Keon > Skinner (Keon was a MAJOR impact shotblocker at 2+ a game in limited minutes)
Wallace > Corliss (the uberathlete and shotblocker/stealer/rebounder as 11th man)
I've mentioend this many times before because it is so obvious -- the coach hasn;t changed. The system hasn't changed. The players have changed. And not for the better.