Democracy in Action: The Gift of the Green Light

[Bricklayer]

Stumbled across this while putting together my Tyreke stats yesterday:

A large part of Smart's stupidity stems from an essential philosophical flaw that denies the existence of team hierarchy. Everybody is equal, everybody should be encouraged to maximize their own opportunities. He's like that incredibly annoying 2nd grade teacher holding your gifted child back so that the other children don't get their feelings hurt. Except these aren't children, they are paid professionals. This is how that well thoight out philosophy has fared for him:

Kings Team FG%: .439 (22nd in NBA)

Individual	FG%
Thompson	.512
Evans	.480
Brooks	.465
Cousins	.454
Thomas	.432
Robinson	.427
Johnson	.416
Fredette	.413
Salmons	.411
Hayes	.405
Thornton	.400
Garcia	.383
Outlaw	.380
Honeycutt	.273

With the entire team allowed/encouraged to shoot whenever they feel like it and "be all they can be" the end result has been...almost all of them have been less than they can be. Shocker. 3 guys are having good/passable seasons. There are reasons why Reke/Cousisn and JT are considered our best/steadiest players. But they have to fight for shots with an angry mob of low percentage chuckers, and that mob spends so much time shuffling in and out of the lineup stealing the ball from each other that only 4 players shoot better than the team averages. The other 10 guys all have struggled to various degrees and drag the numbers down. And of all of those guys, only Jimmer, due to rookie year awfulness, is shooting at or above his career numbers. 10 of 14 guys underperforming their careers (TRob will yet to be seen, but even if he is never much, I bet you he's better than .427 over his career).

[Hadlowe]

I'm very disappointed in Thornton's season so far. Much of the problem for him (and, to a lesser extent, Fredette) is that when he is in, defenses know he is there for offense and adjust to prevent his looks. That doesn't stop him from chucking up garbage. That is partially on Smart, but Thornton has been a chucker his whole career. He was just good enough at it before that you didn't mind him getting 18 attempts in 30 minutes.

For ideal team fit reasons, I don't like JT next to Cousins due to defensive crappiness, but he does seem to be the only player on the team who has accepted and excelled at his role without intruding into the offense. IT and Salmons are roleplayers who refuse to accept their roles.

[upinsmoke]

Don't scapegoat IT. This is what he does best you don't like it find someone else not 60th pick to run the show.

[UK_King]

I'm very disappointed in Thornton's season so far. Much of the problem for him (and, to a lesser extent, Fredette) is that when he is in, defenses know he is there for offense and adjust to prevent his looks. That doesn't stop him from chucking up garbage. That is partially on Smart, but Thornton has been a chucker his whole career. He was just good enough at it before that you didn't mind him getting 18 attempts in 30 minutes.

For ideal team fit reasons, I don't like JT next to Cousins due to defensive crappiness, but he does seem to be the only player on the team who has accepted and excelled at his role without intruding into the offense. IT and Salmons are roleplayers who refuse to accept their roles.

I took it from the thread that it was the fact they haven't been given a role thats causing us so many headaches.

Everyones role, it seems, is to go out there and "make plays" if you say that to everyone you end up with a lot of people trying to create for themselves or dribbling around in circles. So basically everyone has accepted their role.

couple that with absolutely zero offensive structure, it's just a disaster.

[Glenn]

I don't think IT belongs on the court with Tyreke and Cuz. We need a pass first pg to start. He very well could come off the bench and then perhaps we wouldn't have the horrible 2nd quarters we have. Or he could be traded. I would not ask him to become something he isn't. He has value and I like him. I just don't like him as a starter on this team.

[HereWeVivek]

Stumbled across this while putting together my Tyreke stats yesterday:

A large part of Smart's stupidity stems from an essential philosophical flaw that denies the existence of team hierarchy. Everybody is equal, everybody should be encouraged to maximize their own opportunities. He's like that incredibly annoying 2nd grade teacher holding your gifted child back so that the other children don't get their feelings hurt. Except these aren't children, they are paid professionals. This is how that well thoight out philosophy has fared for him:

Kings Team FG%: .439 (22nd in NBA)

Individual	FG%
Thompson	.512
Evans	.480
Brooks	.465
Cousins	.454
Thomas	.432
Robinson	.427
Johnson	.416
Fredette	.413
Salmons	.411
Hayes	.405
Thornton	.400
Garcia	.383
Outlaw	.380
Honeycutt	.273

With the entire team allowed/encouraged to shoot whenever they feel like it and "be all they can be" the end result has been...almost all of them have been less than they can be. Shocker. 3 guys are having good/passable seasons. There are reasons why Reke/Cousisn and JT are considered our best/steadiest players. But they have to fight for shots with an angry mob of low percentage chuckers, and that mob spends so much time shuffling in and out of the lineup stealing the ball from each other that only 4 players shoot better than the team averages. The other 10 guys all have struggled to various degrees and drag the numbers down. And of all of those guys, only Jimmer, due to rookie year awfulness, is shooting at or above his career numbers. 10 of 14 guys underperforming their careers (TRob will yet to be seen, but even if he is never much, I bet you he's better than .427 over his career).

its funny that DMC is often criticized for his FG%, and hes 4th in FG% on this sorry team lol

[Hadlowe]

Don't scapegoat IT. This is what he does best you don't like it find someone else not 60th pick to run the show.

Don't get me wrong. I like IT and want him to excel. I just don't want his success to come at the team's detriment.

I look at it like this. Pass first point guards are a necessity when you have shooters who have a hard time creating for themselves. We have a few of those on the team, but we also have an excellent, borderline all-star shooting guard who plays efficient basketball with the ball in his hands. IT is a creative, undersized point guard who tends to create for himself more than he does for his teammates. Those two roles don't really mesh together. Add in Cousins who can be a punishing presence down low, and that's three guys who need the ball in their hands to be effective. Only one ball on the court.

IT is a defensive liability. The guy is tough and won't back down off players, but the Lowry's and D-Will's post him up at will, and the Curry's of the world just shoot over him. Almost all of this team's woes are defensive. We put up enough offense to win games. We just can't get stops at the other end. Whatever we get out of IT on offense (and, to be fair, that is extremely unpredictable from game to game) we lose just as much in the defensive matchup.

Consider the Miami game where IT posted his career high. You know who else got a career high that game? Mario Chalmers. The guy IT was supposed to be checking.

The point of this thread is to show that the team is giving more looks to inefficient chuckers than it is to our better players. That is absolutely right on. IT is a big part of that and is only shooting .432 for the season. Unless he can get that number up closer to 50% and his 3pt% up closer to 40%, he should be a 10 shots per 36 guy.