[Grades] Grades v. Nuggets 02/23/2014

Game ball goes to?

  • Gay

    Votes: 21 40.4%
  • Cousins

    Votes: 7 13.5%
  • Thomas

    Votes: 17 32.7%
  • Evans

    Votes: 7 13.5%

  • Total voters
    52
  • Poll closed .

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#1


32pts (12-23FG) 11reb 3ast 3stl 1blk 1TO
27pts (8-16FG) 9reb 5ast 1stl 5blk 4TO
33pts (12-16FG) 3reb 6ast 3stl 0blk 6TO

Big Three: 92
Nuggets Team: 95

The 92 combined points from our Big Three was, according to my basketball-reference search, the most any 3 Kings have combined to score in the entire Sacramento era. The closet challenge was 20 years ago on April 6, 1994, before I even arrived at Penn, when Mitch, Spud and Wayman combined for 91 pts in an overtime loss to the Lakers. There was also another 91pt trio in a ridiculous, and I do mean ridiculous, 155-143 shootout vs. the Warriors in 1989, when Danny Ainge had 45, and Kenny Smith and Harold Pressley chipped in with 26 and 20 respectively. But this game trumps both of those, and I do believe anything we've seen in Sacto.

How ya like them apples?

We also got a glimpse of Reggie Evans, and he was just what the doctor ordered. Could have told you that, having him play just down t he road for me for years. But he gave us a first half boost, then promptly got forgotten about as we blew them out after half.

Your Consoritum Graders tonight:
Bricklayer
Uncia03
Bajaden
Capt. Factorial
MassachusettsKingsFan


Boxscore

Stats: 38min 32pts (12-23, 0-2, 8-9) 11reb 3ast 3stl 1blk 1TO
Gay ( A ) -- What to say about Rudy tonight? He had a great game. In the first half, he was kind of inefficient, getting 10 points on 11 shots, though he had a highlight dunk on a drive where he used those go-go-gadget arms to flush the ball seemingly from the free-throw line. Toward the end of the second quarter, Rudy was a part of our surge that closed the half and set the tone for the rest of the game, scoring with a killer spin move in the lane and following that up with an easy dunk on a feed from Cousins on a broken defensive play by the Nuggets (not the last - Rudy got an almost identical uncontested dunk on Cuz feed in the fourth quarter as well). But in the third quarter Gay went off from the right block, shooting 4-5 and getting to the line 6 times as he was a huge part of the Kings going +21 in the quarter and turning what looked like a probable loss into a sure win. Not only that, but Gay was a monster on the boards tonight, pulling down 11 to lead the team. Defensively, Rudy had one of his best nights as a King. He played good help, he made two stops in fast break situations, once stealing the ball from useless former King J.J. Hickson (three steals overall), and he kept his man from scoring. Wilson Chandler didn't score at all until midway through the fourth when the game was all but decided. It was an all-around game and marked Rudy's return to Kings-level efficiency following a recent Raptors-style reversion.--Capt.

Stats: 16min 4pts (0-0, 0-0, 0-0) 3reb 0ast 0stl 1blk 3TO
Thompson ( D ) -- Jason was very active in this one (as usual), and while he had a few good moments, most of his game tonight was sloppy and somewhat careless. The Kings actually tried going to JT in the post a few times in the first quarter, and it worked once, but was just kind of a mess for all of the other attempts. There was an offensive foul, a clean steal, and a forced fadaway jumper that never had a chance. He had his fair share of classic Thompson hustle plays that included a great putback dunk in transition, and a big time block on Mozgov inside. His defense outside of that block was really hit or miss. Faried got the best of him a few times, but it wasn’t a major issue. Most of Faried’s points would come in transition where I can’t really put that blame solely on Thompson. There just wasn’t enough here for me to give him a grade higher than a D. Malone only played him for 16 minutes, and he never got his offense, defense, or rebounding going, but I didn’t think he was hurting the team with his play, either.--Mass

Stats: 34min 27pts (8-16, 0-0, 11-12) 9reb 5ast 1stl 5blk 4TO
Cousins ( A- ) -- started this one off encouragingly, on our first play immediately going down into the post and hitting that little half hook over the undersized Hickson. First time we've seen that thing used in seemingly a month, and whatever the malaise was from the Boston game immediately seemed to have lifted. Slashed in for a +1 finsish, and was off to the early scoring races. Was hitting the jumper all night too without much hesitation, after a night earlier largely refusing to take it. The biggest threat to a dominant game emerging were two shaky and late whsitles against him in the first 4 minutes of the game that threatened to immediately send him to the bench and scuttle his night before it began. But Malone did a smart thing, let him stay out there and play through it, and Boogie rewarded the confidence by avoiding that 3rd foul (albeit by having to back off on some defensive challenges because of the situation). This time we kept going to him though, and nether Hickson (strength) no Mozgov (speed) was a match, sending him to the line again and again as they got beat. Not much on the glass until later in the game though, and while he and Evans dominated the boards while they were paired, it was mostly Reggie's domination this time. After a quiet start to the third rattled in two straight top of the key jumpers, and threw one of several nifty passes to Gay beating a double with it. He and Gay spent much of the night setting each other up, and there were some sharp passes in the bunch (much better communication than he had with IT, as those two guys had at least 3-4 passes where IT threw the ball to where Cousins wasn't, or vice versa,. expecting something that was not there). As the rebounding picked up, he started notching blocks, this turned into a very well rounded game, and only a night like tonight would this somehow make you a third amigo. --Brick

Stats: 36min 6pts (2-10, 1-4, 1-1) 4reb 1ast 3stl 1blk 2TO
McLemore ( C- ) -- Yeah yeah, I know! He went 2 for 10 from the floor and only scored 6 points in 36 minutes of playing time. But we won, and I doubt anyone is going to get anything lower than a C-, and, he hustled his butt all night long. And there were a few plays where he should have gotten an assist and didn't. Like how he started the game, grabbing a rebound, going the length of the court and missing a layup so JT could get the putback and a basket. That should be an assist, shouldn't it? Seriously he did make a few passes on which the shot was missed. In the first quarter he made a nice pass to Cousins out of a pick and roll, but Cousins missed and was fouled. In the 3rd he made a pass to Williams right under the basket, and you guessed it, Williams missed a chippy. Where he did make an impact was defensively. He wasn't perfect, but he did a very nice job on Fournier. His only big mistake came in the second quarter when he had just came back into the game after only getting a couple of minutes on the bench because Fournier was roasting Outlaw. For some reason, he completely left Fournier wide open in the left corner for a three pointer. But really, that was it. Yes, Fournier did score a jumper over Ben, but it was highly contested. In the third quarter Fournier didn't take a shot with Ben guarding him. Fournier was very impressive by the way. Very talented player. Offensively McLemore is still a work in progress, but I do see some progress. It would be nice to see his number called a bit more. There are periods of the game where he'll go 2 or more minutes without even touching the ball on offense. I like that he's being more aggressive in attacking the basket. Now all he has to do is figure out how to finish. Tiny steps, tiny steps! --Baja

Stats: 42min 33pts (12-16, 4-5, 5-6) 3reb 6ast 3stl 0blk 6TO
Thomas ( A- ) -- First things first. For the 1st 3 quarters of this game + 1st minute of the 4th, this was an absolutely brilliant shooting display from IT. He was 10-11 from the field and 5-6 from the line for 29 points. You probably will only see shooting this good a couple of times a year. His entire grade is elevated several levels due to spectacular shooting in the 1st 3 quarters, and it will be the incredible shooting efficiency that most people will remember and take away from this game. However, when you look at this game in its entirety, and especially when you break down the game into various sections, some of the shine from the brilliant shooting dims a little bit, which prevents me from going too high with the overall grade.

He played 10 minutes in the first quarter and was almost invisible. It’s almost as if someone put a bug in his ear telling him that he should let his teammates do the work. He only took 3 shots (making 2 of them and having his only miss in the first 3 quarters) and only had 1 assist in that first quarter and by and large he was just dribbling the ball past the half-court line then passing it off, then not getting involved in the offense there-after. The good news is that he was letting Cousins and Gay work, but he was just a bit too invisible out there. He also had 1 possession that could have earned him an assist when he played the PnR will Cousins, but Cousins got fouled and couldn’t convert.

I’m guessing the Malone didn’t like the energy and he pulled IT with 2 minutes to go, which is something that doesn’t normally happen. Things changed when he got back in with 9 minutes to go in the 2nd quarter and he would essentially play the rest of the game. He started getting more aggressive, using screens to free himself up to either drive into the lane or pull-up for the jump shot. Unfortunately the play-making wasn’t present in the 2nd quarter either as he zero assists, 1 possession that could have been an assist which wasn’t converted, and a couple of turn-overs.

So going into the 2nd half he was sitting on 1 assist and 2 missed assists in 19 minutes of play along with 4 turn-overs, which is pretty terrible if you’re relying on your PG to make plays.

The 3rd quarter was where IT really shined, however. In that quarter he was both aggressive with his shot as well as finding his teammates for scoring opportunities. He scored 14 points on 4-4 shooting along with 3 assists and 2 assist opportunities which weren’t converted.

He started and played pretty much the entire 4th quarter, and really Malone should probably have given him a breather towards the end of the game. He knocked down a shot 30 seconds into the 4th. From that point on he went 2-5. So his last 10 minutes of play the 4th quarter he had 4 points (2-5), 0 assists, and 2 missed assist opportunities, which wasn’t the best of production and could have been a result of not getting any rest in the 2nd half.

So he had an invisible 1st quarter, an aggressive shooting but poor playing making 2nd quarter, an utterly fantastic, couldn’t do it any better, shooting and play-making 3rd quarter, and an average shooting, but poor playing making 4th quarter.

As to the defense, it wasn’t really very good at all. Both Brooks and Foye were able to get into the lane at will against him. Luckily for us Brooks was horrible and wasn’t able to do much of anything even after getting free from IT. Foye wasn’t fantastic, but he was much better, and IT, like Ben, cheated too much on the weak-side giving Foye too much room to shoot from the 3pt line when the ball got swung.

Another thing I also mark down while grading IT is how many ‘selfish’ plays he has. These are plays where he basically is the only guy to touch the ball before putting up a shot. I will count things such as when he goes 1-3 on the fast-break, but won’t count it if he is running up the court and Cousins outlets to him and he has a good scoring opportunity either alone or against a single defender.

In the first quarter I mentioned that he lacked energy and was pretty invisible. Well he only had one ‘selfish’ play in that quarter, which goes along with his invisibility act. In the 2nd quarter he came out very aggressive, and in the span of 4 minutes (6 minute mark to 2:10 minute mark) he had 4 selfish plays. Now, the good news is that he made all 4 of them, but the bad news is that even if a guy pulls up in transition and makes a 3pt shot when there are 4 Denver players back and only Ben under the rim, it’s not really a shot you want someone to take. This 3pt shot in particular was one where he sparked a 5pt run and Grant and Jerry were happy to see it, but had he missed it would have been deemed an ill-advised shot. (In fact later in the game IT passed it to Rudy in the corner and Rudy missed, and they said it wasn’t a good shot. So though some people look at the results, a bad shot is a bad shot whether it goes in or not)

The 3rd quarter, where he was really brilliant, he only had 1 selfish play. If he could harness that 3rd quarter play and give that constantly it would really help the Kings in winning games. In the 4th quarter he also only had 1 selfish play.

All-in-all it was a good performance from IT, but mostly because he was knocking down his shots and he really shined in the 3rd. He had a couple of turn-overs due to mis-cues with Cousins which is something that we actually don’t see a lot of. He had as many assists as turn-overs, and pretty much all of his play making took place in the 3rd quarter when the Kings were able to come from behind then break open the game. Hopefully the coaching staff with focus on all the things he and the rest of the team did right in that 3rd quarter, so we’ll see more of it in the future, because if he can more consistently play the way he did in the 3rd the Kings are going to win a lot more ball-games.
I]--Uncia[/I]
 
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Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#2
Bench

Stats: 4min 0pts (0-0, 0-0, 0-0) 0reb 0ast 0stl 1blk 0TO
Gray ( INC ) -- got in by the end of the first quarter but it didn't last long. Good pick freed up Gay
for a big dunk down the lane, but the Nuggets went got out in the open court and on a run and so Acy
replaced him, presumably for more speed/mobility. Was back in for the final minutes of garbage time and got a block on Mozgov when he tried to throw in a cheap little bit of padding with 10 sec to go in the game. --Brick

Stats: 11min 3pts (1-2, 0-0, 1-2) 1reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Landry ( D ) -- Like Thompson, Landry was never able to get any steady production going in his limited minutes tonight. He hit one jumper off of a McCallum pick and roll, which is a shot he’s been hitting with regularity for a bout a week now. He was only able to register one rebound, and finished the game as a -17, but it really wasn’t as bad as that sounds. He got caught as an innocent bystander in the lineup that Evan Fournier went off against. Obviously, the Kings would like more production out of Landry than what he gave in this game, but his performance didn’t hurt them tonight.--Mass

Stats: 21min 2pts (0-4, 0-2, 2-4) 2reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Williams ( C- ) -- Williams went out there and had just about the least productive 21 minutes you can imagine. He missed all four of his shots (including one more-open-than-shooting-practice three) and was almost completely invisible on offense. Defensively he actually did a decent job - nobody got off on him, and outside of overrunning Randy Foye on a break to allow a three, he didn't allow any points. Chandler was able to launch two missed long balls against him and Quincy Miller one, but none connected. He did have a few nice help defense plays, and my notes indicated three steals, which is odd because the box score has zero. You know, he didn't do anything on the offensive end, but the more I think about his defense the more I talk myself into giving him a higher grade. OK Derrick, you locked your assignments down, so you get to pass. --Capt.

Stats: 2min 0pts (0-0, 0-0, 0-0) 0reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Outlaw ( INC ) -- Travis only played 2 minutes, and in that two minutes he got torched by Fournier, and then retired to the bench to never see the floor again. --Baja

Stats: 11min 0pts (0-0, 0-0, 0-0) 4reb 0ast 1stl 1blk 3TO
Acy ( C- ) -- not much of a followup in this one, and Reggie's successful stint throws some question on his future minutes. Got in as the third center late in the first quarter, but was able to do nothing with his minutes, and with the Nuggets running and our guards not guarding anybody (you will note where their two big scorers were, we just had an extra) the lead quickly ballooned and we turned to the more experienced masher Evans to change the physical tone of the game and get us back in it. After coming in as he first big off the bench again after half had his best minutes as he got involved in some scrums and added a good help block. But he was doing nothing on offense, or I should say less than nothing on offense as he was trying to do too much and turning the ball over. Replaced as we went small/skilled again, and then we went back to Cuz and that was it for Acy's night. Not much here. --Brick

Stats: 17min 2pts (0-4, 0-0, 2-2) 3reb 2ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
McCallum ( C ) -- True to their word they are getting Ray more minutes and he logged 17 minutes which is a career high for him and a significant 5 minutes more than his previous high. However, don’t let the minute total fool you. He played the entire 4th quarter, but pretty much all those minutes were shared with IT, which means that he played the designated SG role. And we all know that the SG role is greatly diminished when IT, Cousins, and Rudy are in the ball-game. So unfortunately that entire 4th quarter stint was pretty much a waste, when it comes to valuable minutes to assess his ability to play the PG position, as he spent the majority of his time never touching the ball. He did, however, get 5 minutes of pure PG duties during the end of the 1st quarter and opening minutes of the 2nd quarter. In the 5 minutes he got in the 1st half he had 2 assists and 1 missed assist opportunity with 0 turn-overs, which was far better than IT’s 19 minutes of play in the 1st half where he assembled 1 assist, 2 missed assist opportunities and 4 turn-overs. We’re starting to see Ray play a little bit more, and here is what I’ve seen of him thus far. He has a good enough handle to be able to bring the ball up and initiate the offense. He also plays hard on defense and is our best defender at the guard spot at this time. He does not, however, do much to create scoring opportunities for his teammates. He does a great job keeping his head up, watching for players to get open coming off of screens or cutting into the lane, and is also a very willing passer on the PnRoll or PnPop which is how he gets his assists, but he doesn’t do much to break into a defense and force the defense to move to create scoring opportunities for his teammates. He is also, as was seen in this game, not a great scorer. He has problems finishing at the rim and the shots that he takes off his own dribble don’t seem to have a high rate of conversion. He ended up going to the foul line and making both of those, but those were his only 2 points as he went 0-4 from the field. I think that in time he might get better at scoring, and his time in the D-League seem to indicate that he can score, so I don’t know if it’s a confidence thing, but so far he’s lacked the ability to score and also lacked the ability to create openings for his teammates. He’s been very good at his entry passes, finding players who are working hard to get their own scoring opportunity, and finding guy after the pick, but I’m not certain this is going to be enough for him to lay claim as our back-up PG long-term. We’ll see if he can get more pure PG minutes, while letting IT have a breather, and how he develops as those minutes come to him. --Uncia

Stats: 8min 0pts (0-0, 0-0, 0-0) 5reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Evans ( C+ ) -- I still can’t figure out what made Malone play Reggie Evans for one 8-minute stretch at the end of the second quarter, but it sort of worked. I think Kings fans got the entire Reggie Evans experience in those 8 minutes. We saw the incredible rebound rate (5 in 8 minutes), we saw lack of offensive skill, and we saw a little bit of that physical play when he nailed Aaron Brooks with what was called an illegal screen. I didn’t think it looked that illegal, but Brooks sure went down hard. The only thing that really shocked me with Evans’ game tonight was how Malone used him. He didn’t get any burn in the second half after playing more reserve big man minutes than any other King in the first half. At this moment, I don’t know if he’ll be in the rotation moving forward or if this was a one-night thing, but I thought it was a solid debut for Reggie. --Mass


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VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#7
I've got to agree with Slim about JT's grade. Mass, what do you use as a baseline? If you start the players at a C, which would be what I'd assume you're doing, then I don't see how JT could drop to a D. And why would you start people at a C? My thought is that a C represents a "meh" outing, one that doesn't really help the team but doesn't hurt them either. Pretty much how you summarized JT's play tonight.
 
#8
When all three IT/Gay/DFC are on then they team is very hard to beat.

If we were to get some bench guys that could pick up the slack when one of the three aren't playing well then this could be a good team.
 
#10
Does anyone know our record when Cousins, Gay and IT all play? It must be halfway decent. After the Gay trade there was an adjusment period where we played poor, then we hit a nice groove, then all the injuries took the wheels off, then trade deadline looming/distracted players and more injuries over the past few weeks. I'd like to see is really buckle down and finish the season strong, 32 wins is more than do-able imo.
 
#11
Does anyone know our record when Cousins, Gay and IT all play? It must be halfway decent.
last i heard it was something like 10-11. it might be .500 or better now with these last 2 games.

EDIT: Yea 13-13 if you don't count the Houston game

Akis Yerocostas ‏@Aykis16 8m
Kings are now 13-14 with healthy Thomas/Gay/Cousins in lineup (that doesn't include Houston game in which Cousins/Gay were injured early)
 
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#13
a starting SG that could do that would help too
last i heard it was something like 10-11. it might be .500 or better now with these last 2 games.

EDIT: Yea 13-13 if you don't count the Houston game

Akis Yerocostas ‏@Aykis16 8m
Kings are now 13-14 with healthy Thomas/Gay/Cousins in lineup (that doesn't include Houston game in which Cousins/Gay were injured early)
It'd be interesting to see the splits of the role guys in the wins and losses. It-Gay-Cuz can outplay pretty much anyone on any given night.
 

Entity

Hall of Famer
#14
When all three IT/Gay/DFC are on then they team is very hard to beat.

If we were to get some bench guys that could pick up the slack when one of the three aren't playing well then this could be a good team.
Well we had 4 guys go 3-20 Ben, ray, Landry, and Williams. They prob wont do that every night as the big three wont do what they did every night. With our bench being used the way it is 20 pts isn't far fetched nor to much to ask. Most of it should come from Landry/Williams with the occasional acy and ray a few here and there. We still got some min going to guys that should be emergency use only in gray and outlaw. I would like to see Terrance Williams with this team. A good defender with skills much like tyreke had with better jumper. Maybe head is on straight.
 
#15
last i heard it was something like 10-11. it might be .500 or better now with these last 2 games.

EDIT: Yea 13-13 if you don't count the Houston game

Akis Yerocostas ‏@Aykis16 8m
Kings are now 13-14 with healthy Thomas/Gay/Cousins in lineup (that doesn't include Houston game in which Cousins/Gay were injured early)

And if you remember the Kings the year we got Webber/Divac we were under .500 for a lot of the 50 game season until pretty much the end. Also the following year we were the #8 seed.

Had we had a full camp with Rudy/IT/DC and the home heavy schedule we had this year I bet we would have got out to a fantastic start.
 
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S

sactownfan

Guest
#16
WoW! If Ben McL could hit a shot/ guard a traffic cone... and if we had a starting shot blocker....and a actual back up PG we would be in the playoffs.
 
#18
We've won two in a row with McCallum backing up IT. Not bad!

Great win tonight no matter what. And two in a row we don't do very often. Evans sure soaked up the rebounds in the short time he was in the game. And Downton Abbey season two is in the books.
 
S

sactownfan

Guest
#20
We've won two in a row with McCallum backing up IT. Not bad!

Great win tonight no matter what. And two in a row we don't do very often. Evans sure soaked up the rebounds in the short time he was in the game. And Downton Abbey season two is in the books.
Ray's made 10 baskets all year. He also has 1 steal.... all year... along with 7 total ast's..this year.... umm Ray has nothing to do with anything yet. In fact as far as tonights game anyone not named Gay,Cousin, and Thomas were almost totally worthless.
 
K

KingMilz

Guest
#21
While it's a good sign we beat two bad teams the real test comes against Houston imo, both the teams we beat we missing at least there two best players. I'm glad we handeled business but I want to see how we go against the big boys again.

Also Cousins 5 blocks is that a career high? Like The_Jamal said I don't think we can understate how important Reggie Evans was for that 8minute stretch. Really disapointed in Derrick 2night he's just the "hollow man" sometimes.
 
#22
Isaiah is really showing me something. Either he was forcing things cause of injuries, cause of the trade deadline, cause his wrist was hurt, or he just had an incessant need to prove himself, but the last two games he's been what we need. Not sure if someone gave him a quiet vote of confidence, but he's really not forcing things at the rate he had been. It's like a light bulb went off in his head. Just two games, but maybe this really can work. I'm cautiously optimistic. Way too many turnovers tonight, but all in all, 12-16 for 33 is legit in any universe. The times he came down the court predetermined to shoot no matter what seems to have dropped lately.

That's as optimistic as I get. :). Pizza guy might be here awhile. Might as well start getting used to it.

13-13 with Cousins, Rudy and Isaiah. They could be much better if injuries, trade distractions, all star snub, etc hadn't disrupted the flow earlier when things were coming together.

It looked like the team was mailing it in going into the all star break/trade deadline. Just ugly uninspired basketball. Now it looks like momentum going into next season might even be possible.

The supporting cast was kinda awful tonight. But they rarely tilt the scale in either direction. Defense was good as a team. Supporting cast's offense is mostly irrelevant to the outcome of games.

Jimmer-only fans, it was nice knowing you. The kings have moved on, so should you. It's going to get old watching you guys bash the organization, and bash Ben and Ray night after night (during wins the last two games) and mock the idea of development of young guys late in a season as if the kings recently invented the idea. Trying to start stuff with kings fans here isn't going to change anything.
 
S

SacKings2002NBAChampions

Guest
#23
Cousins is really turning into a defensive monster lately. Looking at his stats in those last few games he played at least 20 mins, he's gotten really good on defense. Respect to him for showing leadership on the defensive side. Hopefully he can muscle around Howard in the next game :)
 
#24
Just watched the replay. DMC/Rudy/IT all got an A in my book. I couldn't believe all the steals and blocked shots in the columns! wow

On a side note, I thought the comment by Jerry after the Rudy monster dunk in the 1st qtr was lame. He said.. RU-DICULOUS!! ugh
 
K

KingMilz

Guest
#25
Cousins is really turning into a defensive monster lately. Looking at his stats in those last few games he played at least 20 mins, he's gotten really good on defense. Respect to him for showing leadership on the defensive side. Hopefully he can muscle around Howard in the next game :)
This is the first game he actually played any form of defence in the last 5 so I would not really call him a defensive monster lately it's just like everything else with him he's capable if he put's his mind and energy into it. The guy has given up close to season highs on crazy FG% to Chandler, Sullinger, Humpries and Gortat lately cause he didnt bother defending them.

Also I could have sworn Cousins had more steals than blocks and they only credited him for 1 steal wtf?
 
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#27
Jimmer-only fans, it was nice knowing you. The kings have moved on, so should you. It's going to get old watching you guys bash the organization, and bash Ben and Ray night after night (during wins the last two games) and mock the idea of development of young guys late in a season as if the kings recently invented the idea. Trying to start stuff with kings fans here isn't going to change anything.
I know there are a couple of guys who do this, but this seems apropos of nothing in a grades thread where Jimmer hasn't been mentioned.
 
#28
I've got to agree with Slim about JT's grade. Mass, what do you use as a baseline? If you start the players at a C, which would be what I'd assume you're doing, then I don't see how JT could drop to a D. And why would you start people at a C? My thought is that a C represents a "meh" outing, one that doesn't really help the team but doesn't hurt them either. Pretty much how you summarized JT's play tonight.
I think a C game involves JT getting somewhere around his season averages, or a bit below, which he didn't do tonight, and obviously his minutes held him back some (which may, or may not be his fault, I didn't think he looked particularly good in his 16 minutes, maybe Malone agreed, maybe he didn't like a matchup, I don't know). But in this game, the Kings didn't NEED his normal production. However, just because JT didn't hurt the team, I still felt like I had to grade his individual performance, but note that while he wasn't at his best, it had no effect on the outcome.

That's sort of that statistical spin, but it's not all about that, either. He had a few nice plays which I mentioned, a few dumb plays that I mentioned, but 4 points, 3 rebounds, 3 turnovers, and limited impact on defense feels like a below average game to me. It didn't 'feel' like a baseline game from JT. Of course, JT can have a 'C' game with this stat line, because when that is the case he usually makes the best of his opportunities or finds other ways to make up that elsewhere, I just didn't see it.

But I have no problem disagreeing with someone, or explaining where I'm coming from. Everyone sort of has different expectations for each player.
 
#29
I know there are a couple of guys who do this, but this seems apropos of nothing in a grades thread where Jimmer hasn't been mentioned.
Referring to the game thread which had been fresh on my mind. And the jimmer thread, since shut down. Figured no one reads the game thread once the game is over. Or, consider it a hunch it'll happen soon enough in this thread. Of the last 40-50 posts in the game thread, 80% or so are arguments about jimmer.

Another thing pizza guy did that blew me away, 3 steals!
 
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#30
Referring to the game thread which had been fresh on my mind. And the jimmer thread, since shut down. Figured no one reads the game thread once the game is over. Or, consider it a hunch it'll happen soon enough in this thread. Of the last 40-50 posts in the game thread, 80% or so are arguments about jimmer.

Another thing pizza guy did that blew me away, 3 steals!
Gotcha. Didn't participate in the game thread, so I didn't see the connection.