[Grades] Grades v. Warriors 11/28/2015

When will you become a Warriors fan?

  • A few more losses like this...

    Votes: 2 3.6%
  • When they win another title

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • When the pain becomes too much

    Votes: 2 3.6%
  • When they trade for DeMarcus

    Votes: 8 14.5%
  • Already am

    Votes: 4 7.3%
  • When pigs fly

    Votes: 7 12.7%
  • They can bite me

    Votes: 18 32.7%
  • Screw that, I hope the whole damn place sinks into the ocean

    Votes: 14 25.5%

  • Total voters
    55
  • Poll closed .

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#1


So...yeah.

No need to get too upset about this. This was a scheduled loss from the moment the NBA released its schedule. There were no actual Kings games scheduled this weekend. Just Pretty Girls.

So now we are officially 1 game behind my hit .500 by Jan 7 pace because of the damn Minny loss. I have us beating Dallas, and then I forgot whether I called the pick 'em down in Mexico City. Either way, 6-12 now. 1-7 without Cuz. We need the big guy back on Monday, and he has to stay back this time. Then we'll see if we can work back into things by Christmas.


Boxscore

Stats: 27min 20pts (7-20, 0-1, 6-6) 7reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Gay ( C- ) -- this will be lumped into his struggles from the previous night, but it was not at all the same beast -- to give you an idea, when I copy/pasted over the previous night's statline to use as a template, I was able to simply add a 0 to his pints total in the same number of minutes. This was about as scruffy as scrappy as you are ever going to see Mr. Smoove, and that was the good part of it. He was not hot, missed some more relative bunnies, but he was also facing a pretty decent punk....er....I mean defender in Draymond Green. And the thing was, Rudy fought it. He was visibly frustrated, and it was an unusual game for him in that he was making some flat out hustle assaults on the hoop, throwing up a crap shot he knew had no chance, and then charging in and scrapping for the follow rebound and finish. We hustled and busted our butts hard to stay in the game for the first 18 minutes. You knew it wouldn't last, and by halftime Rudy has already thrown up 17 shots, and only made 5. But there was fight there, and believe it or not Rudy's 5-17 at halftime was BETTER than any of our other scoring options aside from Koufos. The rest of the perimeter scorers were a combined 6-30 at halftime.

Diona Baird

Stats: 29min 11pts (3-10, 3-5, 2-2) 7reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Casspi ( C- ) -- George just doesn't seem able to help himself with the lineup tinkering, and this time it was making good on his Gay/Casspi threats of earlier this week, taking Omri out of the bench role he has been thriving in, and dumping him into the starting lineup against a 17-0 team. It didn't pay off. The statline above looks like a fairly poor game for Omri, but in reality it was even worse as he was only 1-6 at halftime for 5 pts, all of which had come in the first 6 minutes of the game when we ran around like maniacs trying to spook the Ws. The other two threes did not come until after the game was decided, and the Warriors forwards dominated the matchup after half, and really were what provided the separating burst.

Kyra Santoro

Stats: 23min 14pts (7-13, 0-0, 0-0) 7reb 0ast 2stl 1blk 1TO
Koufos ( B ) -- was really working hard underneath early, and was quite possibly our most solidly productive guy, although it was still just modest Kosta Koufos production. It was 8pts 3rebs at halftime, but it was an efficient 4-7 shooting half, and with literally every other one of scorers struggling, out of the early 3rd quarter timeout we did the only reasonable thing we could -- we went to the All Kosta All The Time offense, Rondo pointedly forcing the ball in there, and our next 4 shots all came out of our own austerity version of the Greek Freak. He hit two of them, banged around for a little longer, but unsurprisingly when the Warriors' run eventually came and the threes started raining, Kosta's plodding little hook and half hook game could not keep pace. Karl pulled him to go smaller and smaller yet once things got out of hand because everybody knows that the way everybody has been beating the Warriors this year is to try to out-smallball them. Pretty sure he never returned as the lead floated out from between 20-30pts the rest of the way, because what would the point have been?

Oksana Andersson

Stats: 27min 10pts (3-7, 2-3, 2-3) 3reb 5ast 3stl 1blk 2TO
McLemore ( C- ) -- as with Omri's line, the above statline is tempered by most of it not taking place while the game was still on. Heading into the final 8 minutes Ben was sitting on a 3pt, and hadn't scored in over two quarters. Some of it was just a lack of shots, but of course some of that was a lack of aggression. When he did finally take a few little midrangers in the third, they looked tentative, searching. Fortunately it was not a total wipeout as he made a few defensive hustle plays, and notched back to back assists on two scorers in the first quarter (he would later on add 3 more in garbagetime, and 5 has to be up around his career high). Still, the statline is deceiving. Ben was less awful than he was completely invisible while the game was on, sitting on a 3pts on 1-4 shooting night as our starting SG as the game headed into the deep garbagetime. Its hard to accurately weight garbagetime numbers vs. real numbers, but here I'm going to say that Ben's overall statline -- 10pts 4reb 5ast 3stl -- which you would cheerfully take from him every night, was borderline useless to us as far as winning or losing. Let's say B or B+ garbagetime work, and D real time work.

Ciara

Stats: 25min 7pts (3-10, 1-2, 0-0) 4reb 7ast 0stl 0blk 3TO
Rondo ( C ) -- was out there really, and pointedly, directing traffic while the game was still on, at times just yelling at guys and motioning them into position like you do on the playground. But he was a general without any effective troops to lead. Meanwhile the Warriors were perfectly content to turn him into a shooter, and he couldn't consistently hit them. Had no effect whatsoever on Curry in the early going, and Curry was actually the only reason the Warriors never lost contact with us with 17 first quarter points. That Curry would only score 2 more in the game felt less like any lockdowning by Rondo, and more like a this is too easy, let's fart around and spread the wealth thing by the Warriors. Game was far too out of hand for any triple doubling this night, so we saved some wear on him, and he sat on the sidelines in the 4th quarter with giant icebags on his knees.

Mabelynn Capeluj
 
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Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#2
Bench

Stats: 22min 5pts (2-10, 0-7, 1-1) 1reb 2ast 0stl 0blk 3TO
Belinelli ( F ) -- there was just nothing here to argue for any other grade. I don't think he was intimidated. He just sucked. Missed every shot we are paying him to it (although note, in a more fortunate and better coached world those threes he is taking would be coming on kickouts from the post as Boogie drew extra attention). Did not effectively challenge anything on the perimeter, getting caught out of position and chucked off by picks and physicality. And late in the game found himself I guess playing power forward or something ridiculous, and got overwhelmed inside too. Hey, remember all those decades when the Warriors were complete crap? Yeah, they had the same ideology that has been imported to our franchise now. Its a virulent disease crying out for some basketball penicillin.

Emily Didonato

Stats: 27min 11pts (5-13, 0-3, 1-1) 4reb 3ast 3stl 0blk 2TO
Collison ( C- ) -- there's probably a tendency here to start downgrading DC for no longer being DC. Whether it be the moment we signed Rondo in to be the starter, or the moment Karl started rasping out "run! run! run!' the middling but in control floor general of last year went AWOL, and instead we have this messy inefficient scamper back in his place. But like most scatbacks, he's prone to making a handful of spectacular plays every game in between the losses, and tonight was no different. He had a spectacular take in the open court, and some tough finishes in between the tough non-finishes as he forced and forced hard. There was a little more gambling on defense, and in the 3rd he picked Curry to trigger the break and finihsed it off himself on a return pass from Acy. But it was messy, forced acton, inefficient shooting, and we went backward at almost a point a minute with him "guiding" us.

Leila Lopez

Stats: 15min 9pt (4-7, 1-1, 0-0) 7reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Acy ( B+ ) -- the Acy thing grows tired, but tonight legitimately probably did the best of any player who played any rotation minutes, and then padded it up in the garbagetime. While the game was still on hit a couple of long jumpers, including a 3. Not able to handle Speights in the post after Karl started having Acy play CENTER, which also oddly left the rim unprotected. In the garbagetime added some dunks and boards. His failings this time were more due to his coach than his own effort.

Nicola Peltz

Stats: 20min 3pts (1-5, 0-0, 1-2) 4reb 1ast 1stl 2blk 0TO
Cauley Stein ( C- ) -- gave us nothing in the first half in relief of Koufos. Much more active after half, at least trying, although largely failing. Had one big block, several hard falls to the floor while efforting. Willie obviously wasn't any real part of why we lost this game, but neither did he make any real push to turn the tide for us.

Daisy Ridley

Stats: 9min 9pts (3-4, 3-3, 0-0) 1reb 2ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
Curry ( INC ) -- missed his first shot, then gave the Warriors fans a familiar show with bang-bang-bang three pointers in the dying minutes. Apropos of nothing I think, but still a good moment for him I am sure.

Bella Hadid

Stats: 9min 2pts (1-1, 0-0, 0-0) 1reb 0ast 0stl 3blk 0TO
Moreland ( INC ) -- perhaps just as impressive asa Curry's 3 three pointers in garbagetime was Moreland 3 blocks, including 1 from behind. It was almost all he did, but still demonstrates a skill we could use again. Of course since Karl refuses to be convinced to play the shotblocker already in the rotation, even with Cuz out, I don't know what the odds are of Moreland ever getting a look.

Tammin Sursok

Stats: 6min 0pts (0-0, 0-0, 0-0) 2reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Anderson ( INC ) -- the only one of the deep bench to do nothing of note, even in the garbagetime, which seems to be something of a skill of his.
 
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#3
All I know is the Warriors and their fans better pray Curry stays healthy. He goes down and that squad will come crashing right back down to earth.
 
#4
All I know is the Warriors and their fans better pray Curry stays healthy. He goes down and that squad will come crashing right back down to earth.
I'm not sure Curry even though reining league MVP is quite as valuable to them as Cousins is to us. Very solid 6'7" PG Livingston is logical replacement if Curry went down and Ws have barely missed a beat when he started in place of Curry on few occasions when was out. Even Green has expanded role in such times - after all he leads Ws in assists. I think Ws can survive without Curry for awhile, while the Kings totally collapse without Cuz - obviously.
 
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#5
I'm not sure Curry even though reining league MVP is quite as valuable to them as Cousins is to us. Very solid 6'7" PG Livingston is logical replacement if Curry went down and Ws have barely missed a beat when he started in place of Curry on few occasions when was out. Even Green has expanded role in such times - after all he leads Ws in assists. I think Ws can survive without Curry for awhile, while the Kings totally collapse without Cuz - obviously.
Which is sort of why I don't think trading Cousins is that asinine in today's NBA. You design a system around him (well...assuming you do), but when he's out it's very hard to have someone fill in for him effectively. Far easier to just build a small-ball jumpshooting team based on the sorts of skills players are working on, what casual fans and owners want, what coaches are pushing for etc (PACE!). Now which has more potential in the long run? Debatable. I do agree that it has to be Karl or Cousins though - they are just not built for each other.

Darren Collison. Wth happened to him? Spirit of Ramon Sessions? I can see why Karl is reluctant to play WCS. Playing good D won't help much if you can't get a rebound to save your life. Omri apparently isn't able to stay in front of Brandon frikin Rush.

ON TO THE NEXT GAME
 
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K

KingMilz

Guest
#7
Kosta/Quincy were the only ones that played decent today. It's amazing how badly Marco/Rudy hurt us when they are not lighting it up and I'm wondering if Collison even wants to be in Sacramento anymore his effort and execution have been poor as you can get

End of the day NBA is loaded this year with interesting teams and hopefully all these losses bring about in changes in roster/coaching that can result in us putting out a competitive team later or build towards something.
I'm not sure Curry even though reining league MVP is quite as valuable to them as Cousins is to us. Very solid 6'7" PG Livingston is logical replacement if Curry went down and Ws have barely missed a beat when he started in place of Curry on few occasions when was out. Even Green has expanded role in such times - after all he leads Ws in assists. I think Ws can survive without Curry for awhile, while the Kings totally collapse without Cuz - obviously.
Curry is the currently the best player in basketball and the Warriors would not be anything without him. You think they would get all those open looks/dunks without Curry cause I don't, he's the only guy on the Warriors roster you have to double team. Without Curry the Warriors go from best team in the NBA to a playoff team, without Cousins we got from lottery team.....to lottery team.
 
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#9
All I know is the Warriors and their fans better pray Curry stays healthy. He goes down and that squad will come crashing right back down to earth.
They are one of the best defenses in the league- and that fact won't change without Curry, and they would probably stay above average on offense even without him... so there is no doubt that Curry is crucial for this team to be great, but they will be pretty darn good without him.

And about their toughness: they got Bogut, Festus, Green, Iggy and great length all around (Klay, Barnes, Livingston...) this team is far from the soft small-ball team some are trying to label them as.
 
#11
Widespread team under performance like this is the result of POOR COACHING. Karl is effing mailing it in and at this point I have him on a short ass leash and he needs to be DONE. SIANARA SENIOR!!

I'm so over giving "coaches" a chance. We're on an extremely compressed time frame (with Cuz and other current talent) that I'm willing to shut this crap down asap. I'm sorry. I'm normally a lot more forgiving. But eff you Karl. Seriously. Effing eff you. You've been handed a top ten roster and this is what you turn in??? No, missing Cousins a few games is no excuse for this mess. We not only have a disgusting record, we LOOK LIKE CRAP!! I was at the TWolves game, and other than grabbing a free pizza and also snagging a free retro blue mini foam ball for my date, the game was effing disgusting, given our talent. Eff you Ranadive for firing Malone. I'M STILL NOT OVER IT AND DON'T THINK I WILL BE ANYTIME SOON!!

Considering giving up the NBA for a comedy career, only I can't.


Too long, didn't read: KARL IS DONE. FIRE HIS ASS.
 
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#13
On top of being the best passing and shooting team he has ever seen (Per Coach Karl), The Warriors were the more physical team. They started the game by having Draymond knock Rondo to the deck. The camera work was horrible but it was deliberate. When Rondo was down the camera zoomed in on ex-Laker Luke Walton and there it was, a smug look just saying, "Take that Kings". Once a Laker, always a Laker:mad: I was waiting for a Kings player to retaliate, but none did. Against Minny it was Andre Miller body checking Willie to the floor. Now Draymond knocks down Rondo. I was waiting for Draymond or Curry to be given a taste of the floor or at least be ran into a hard pick. But it never happened that I saw. The W's play a physical style of defense and outside of Curry they are a very big team. A team of hard veteran players.

Assessing the Warriors I count 12 guys that would start or be in Karl's 8 man rotation. They have the MVP and 5 others who have All Star potential. Their 12th man was the Kings starting PF the last couple of seasons:eek: The Warriors were bigger than the Kings all night. Their backup PG is 6' 7"! The leader of their bench is arguably the best player on their team! He defended Lebron James in the finals and many think he is the reason they won it all. I have watched some Warrior games this year and I grudgingly give them their due. So yes I give the GSW much respect. That said I want them to face fully healthy squads in this journey to another Larry O'brien trophy.

So being beaten by the Champs when your best player is sidelined carries no shame.

My take on the Kings is that if the team is not showing signs of improvement by January, Vlade will make a move. I'm not sure what he will do but a trade or a coaching change would not surprise me. Maybe even both.

GO KINGS, BEAT THE MAVS!!!!!
 

CruzDude

Senior Member sharing a brew with bajaden
#15
BIG reason for poor start is almost total lack of perimeter defense, I said almost as Bell gets out there all game as does Rondo most of game. But one of my fav guys, Omri, rarely if ever gets out into the face of perimeter shooter he is guarding. In first quarter alone he never got closer than 6-8 ft to his guy on perimeter. Ben too more than half the time. Hell, even Kosta went out face to face with Bogut when he went to perimeter. Warrior def at perimeter is the standard on how its done. Give Seth a backup try, he is not afraid to put a body on his man, which can be very disruptive. Something! Anything! Is it really Coach fault or cannot our guys defend out there?
 
#16
a trade or a coaching change would not surprise me. Maybe even both.
I can feel it in my bones. Once all the renewals are done for the new arena - all the tickets are sold - they gut this team - DMC, Karl, the whole works. I really hope I'm wrong because this is the best Kings team I've seen on the floor in a long long long time... but I feel like Vivek is just simmering and holding it together until the tickets are sold.
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#17
I'm very disheartened this year. I had high expectations at the start of the season.

Was expecting 40-45 wins. 6-12 is not the start I wanted.
Despite all the rest, here is the best explanation for the disconnect:

With Cousins, whole game: 5-3
With Cousins, part game: 0-2
No Cousins at all: 1-7

The hope entirely lays with the big guy. With him, we are formidable, we are that .500 team that had a chance to break 40 wins. Without him, as always the season is lost. Everything depends on him returning, and staying healthy this time. If he does, we can still get back into things.
 
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#18
I can feel it in my bones. Once all the renewals are done for the new arena - all the tickets are sold - they gut this team - DMC, Karl, the whole works. I really hope I'm wrong because this is the best Kings team I've seen on the floor in a long long long time... but I feel like Vivek is just simmering and holding it together until the tickets are sold.
This organization is more committed to Boogie than ever. The way the team performs in his absence only reaffirms their commitment.
 

Kingster

Hall of Famer
#20
Despite all the rest, here is the best explanation for the disconnect:

With Cousins, whole game: 5-3
With Cousins, part game: 0-2
No Cousins at all: 1-7

The hope entirely lays with the big guy. With him, we are formidable, we are that .500 team that had a chance to break 40 wins. Without him, as always the season is lost. Everything depends on him returning, and staying healthy this time. If he does, we can still get back into things.
I agree. I'm too lazy to look up how many games you said Cousins needs to be healthy in order for Kings to get to the playoffs. I think it was around 70, which means Cousins can only be out four more games this entire season for that to happen. I just don't see Cousins being injured for four games or less the rest of the season. If anything, I would think the likelihood of him getting injured goes up in the dog days of Feb - April. The Kings play is the function of one player, and that's one very thin thread to base the success of your season.
 
#21
Too bad Boogie is just gonna get hurt again, getting run into the ground in Karl's asinine pace system.

Jazz!
I guess you are right, Cuz's lack f conditioning and injury suscetability is Karl's fault. Whover's faul it is it takes Cuz ou of even some gams he plays in. Vicious circle leading to losses.
 

gunks

Hall of Famer
#22
I guess you are right, Cuz's lack f conditioning and injury suscetability is Karl's fault. Whover's faul it is it takes Cuz ou of even some gams he plays in. Vicious circle leading to losses.
More like.... don't make a 6'11 270lb center play like a SF, just because he can.

Throw in that Karl has us running around like jerkarses at the fastest pace in the league (or are we #2 now?), which just amplifies the high impact nature of the sport, which takes a larger toll on larger players, despite the fact that our roster isn't built for pace, and pace is gimmicky and doesn't lead to wins anyways, and the wild play style increases the chance for injury, and.......

.....Eh, why am I doing this? Whatever dude, think what you want and I'll do the same.
 

kingsboi

Hall of Famer
#23
Despite all the rest, here is the best explanation for the disconnect:

With Cousins, whole game: 5-3
With Cousins, part game: 0-2
No Cousins at all: 1-7

The hope entirely lays with the big guy. With him, we are formidable, we are that .500 team that had a chance to break 40 wins. Without him, as always the season is lost. Everything depends on him returning, and staying healthy this time. If he does, we can still get back into things.
If you are going to rely on the health of Boogie then someone or multiple individuals need to understand that playing this fast pace is the reason he is getting injured as frequent as he has been. Name me all the injuries he's been out with so far in these 8 games.
 

kingsboi

Hall of Famer
#26
I get you guy's point but what I'm looking at is not Cuz playing run and gun. He goes at his own pace and gets there when he can. And also, how come most every other team we play is going faster than us on offense. Just thoughts and questions that come to mind.
The first reason that comes to mind is the players reaction time to the defensive end of the ball...it's always a step or two behind and therefore the opposition knows this team isn't willing to spend effort into defense when they would rather run themselves.
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
#27
I get you guy's point but what I'm looking at is not Cuz playing run and gun. He goes at his own pace and gets there when he can. And also, how come most every other team we play is going faster than us on offense. Just thoughts and questions that come to mind.
Nobody is going faster than us on offense.

We lead the entire league in Pace.

Woohoo! We #1! What basketball geniuses we have been inflicted with.