[Grades] Grades v. Timberwolves 11/27/2015

What exactly do you want? Another 3 or 4 coaches? A new one every month? Well guess what it ain't happening and we aren't turning our lousy roster overnight. Not sure if you noticed but we have one good player and a bunch of spare parts. And when our one player is out it's horrific. Players win in this league not coaches. And that outstanding coach is 6-10 this year

Howbout one good coach?

And this roster is probably as good as any we've had in years. Yes, there are holes (most glaringly at SG), but we have talent on this squad. And depth.

We were beating better teams with a lesser roster last season, due to coaching. We are losing games this season, due to coaching.

Pace and small ball is killing us. That's on George.

Yes, I want a new coach every month. That's exactly what myself and others have argued for.

Or, how about doing it the old fashioned way, having the GM hire the coach and hire a coach who understands this roster and makes defense a priority.

What we have is the most talented team this city has seen in close to a decade led by two All Star level players and a well above average 3rd wheel if used correctly.

Not sure if you watch this team.

Go Kings
I think you forgot to put a smiley face after this comment so everyone would know that you were making an attempt at humor.

That outstanding coach is doing more with less than our current coach.

I can sure see the talent when cuz is out. I'm not sure if you have watched this team. Perhaps you have an overinflated view of the rest of the team?

6-11 now and his team scored a record low 5 points in the 3rd quarter against the Mavericks

Well Cousins puts up pretty good stats this season, so we might take into consideration, that the offense we are running does fit his strengths to a certain point. Koufos is a very good hustling and rim running big, who makes quick decisions, so he fits Karls vision of how to play a game very well.

I already said that I don't like the Rondo+Collison lineup. So we agree on this point.

Willie is limited on offense not inept. We don't find him for lobs and when he rolls to the basket. This is why I said, that I don't know, if Willies poor offensive performances are because of coaching or lacking confidence.
But Willie is a rookie and right now it looks like we see the same old thing, that happened to all Kings rookies outside of Cuz - lack of development. Willie had a full training camp. He shouldn't be this lost on offense, he should have learned how to fight for position for rebounds. We are not talking about rookie mistakes like leaving the floor on pumpfakes. He looks like he lacks basketball fundamentals like boxing out your man. And this is worrying. I don't blame the player, but our coaching staff for this. That's their job - improve the talent we have on this roster.

Did you really miss Willie during the first quarter of tonights game versus the Warriors, when we actually defended them well until Steph got ticky tack calls and hit a couple of contested jumpshots?
Did Willie help us to slow them down in the second half?
Like Ben Willie has to earn his minutes and to do that, he has to be a defensive stopper and a force on the glass. Once I have the impression, that he is just that and still gets pulled out of the game by Karl I will happily join the majority of users here and complain about our stupid old man coaching this team the wrong way.
But I won't complain just because some kind of basketball ideology like "go big all the time", when your bigs seem to be unable to play big (in Willies case) or are both unable to guard the perimeter (like KK and Cuz) and we get crushed from the outside because of it and all of our advantage in the paint gets negated by it.
You have Duncan and Aldridge with West as a backup? Of course you play big, because every big man is able to space the floor, punish smaller guys in the post and take advantage at the glass.
You have KK, Willie and Cuz? Well now Cuz turns into a floor spacer, because KK and Willie have no jumpshot. And still people are complaining, that Cuz is misused by the coach, because he is not planted in the already overcrowded post.
And what's even worse - Willie is unable to abuse his smaller opponent on the glass.

No offense and I actually like big man, smashmouth basketball, but I have a hard time understanding how we should play this way in todays NBA with the roster we got right now.
Teach Willie how to hit a 15 foot jumper and suddenly things look way different. But instead we are teaching him to completely stay out of the way on offense and to be afraid to even touch the ball.
That's beyond me.

Perhaps, since you referred to the NBA's assist leader and triple double leader and the NBA's 5th highest scoring SF who's putting up 18/7 as "spare parts" and a 27/11 center as just "a good player", whatever it is you use to calibrate talent is broken.

Other teams are doing more with less. Plain and simple.

You know what? I agree. Cousins is that talented, that it doesn't really matter which offense we run. He will get his numbers. He can play inside. He can play outside. He can post. He can dribble and he can shoot. That some posters here would prefer him to work inside is just that - a prefered playstyle of some fans, that think going inside-outside and going big is what wins. I'm just tired of this debate. If you want to read my opinion on this, feel free to read my reply to Bajaden.
And I didn't say, that Koufos is quick. I did say, he fits Karls vision.

Yet with all of that with all those 3 healthy we are at BEST a 500. team so far, I would think having the best big man in the NBA the assist leader and a supposed "'top 5'' SF (which he's not) the Kings would be a much better team. All those things you outlined are great for fantasy basketball but in real life it's not transferring.

Rondo/Cousins/Gay as trio is worse so far than Rubio/Wiggins/KAT when everyone is healthy in regards to wins and losses.

You misunderstand, those guys have those stats INDEPENDENT of Karl's system! But when we lose, it's because of Karl's system! In other words, everything is Karl's fault! And if not, everything is Viveks fault!

For years it''s everyone else s fault, first it was Isaiah Thomas (I was guilty of blaming IT) yet we were roughly a 500. team with IT/Rudy/Cuz healthy than it was every coach (including the one we have now that's NEVER MISSED THE PLAYOFFS WITH A FULL SEASON), it's always everyone other than our two main guys in Rudy/Cuz/Reke.

P.S : I have indeed not been happy with GK's coaching this year but the effort of some of our better players (Rudy/DC/Ben) this year has been embarrassing.

With Cousins we are somewhere between 5-3 and 5-5 (since Cousins missed half the Clippers game, and the final minute and OT of the Hornets game (after hobbling through the 4th). That trio has looked just fine given the chaos elsewhere. 5-3 is .625, 5-4 is .555 and 5-5 is .500.

.625 Win% would have us seeded 4th in the Conference, behind only Golden State, San Antonio and Oklahoma City
.555 Win% would have us tied with the Grizzlies for 5th/6th
.500 Win& would have us seeded 8th

Two of those wins are against 2 of the 3 worst teams in the NBA in the Lakers/Nets (who we only beat by 2), we should have beaten the Hornets in regulation so that's a loss with Cousins despite him not playing in OT and we lost to the Clippers with Cousins so if I were a betting person we would have most likely lost to them again even if Cousins played since they have owned us for years despite Cousins having godly games against them.

Transitioning that talent into the win/loss column is a different topic and much more drawn out conversation. There's a lot which goes into that.

Of course, nothing you said supports the idea Rondo/Rudy are "spare parts", which is a ludicrous claim. Reminds of the Reke situation where if you think Rondo/Rudy are spare parts, Reke likely would have qualified as one as well. And that spare part went on to be the key piece next to Davis as NO made the playoffs. If talent isn't transferring to more wins, look at the coach. That's essentially the job of a coach, taking the talent on hand and molding it into a team which can win. The problem here isn't Cuz is "only good" and Rondo/Rudy are spare parts. The problem is Karl's inability to fit our talent together and maximize the talent on this roster.

I don''t think Rondo or Cousins are spare parts, the other guy I would not even classify even that highly.

I understand your position, so we'll just have to agree to disagree in some areas. I know what Willie brings defensively. I watched him play for three years at Kentucky. He's a terrific help defender and pick and roll defender. In other words, put him on the floor with a Karl Towns, or a Cousins, or a Koufos, and his defensive value goes up. Put him at the center position by himself, and his value becomes much less. Now in the future when he gets stronger, that will change. Right now, he doesn't have the strength to hold position at the basket against some of the NBA centers. Someone mentioned that he was foul prone, and that's ridiculous. He's only averaging 2.4 fouls per game. If anything, he needs to be more aggressive around the basket. His offensive rebounding is terrible, and there's no excuse for it except lack of aggression.

My point is, he can be a valuable asset on defense if used properly. When they move him away from the basket on offense to get him out of the way and help spread the floor, they hurt his ability to rebound. Not a total excuse though. He needs to find a way to grab at least 3 or 4 a game.