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So uh....game?

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Re: So uh....game? 

Post#21 » by SacKingZZZ » Wed Oct 9, 2013 4:30 am

Wolfay wrote:
SacKingZZZ wrote:
Wolfay wrote:I'm so relieved to hear that Cousins' .200 shooting, 5 fouls, and 5 turnovers were 100% the fault of his teammates and the coach.



Eagerly awaiting your points to the contrary. :droop:


I really don't feel like it. You're just going to pull more excuses out of your butt. I'm sure you'll somehow find a way to blame Jason Thompson or the coach for Cousins' whining at a ref after a no call and didn't get back on defense while a Warrior scores under the basket. It's beyond frustrating and exhausting trying to have a discussion with someone who would go to such lengths to apologize for someone who has done very little to deserve it.



So disappointing, was really looking forward to having a solid debate based on facts. Much easier to just talk out of ones "butt" apparently. :lol:
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Re: So uh....game? 

Post#22 » by SacKingZZZ » Wed Oct 9, 2013 4:36 am

KF10 wrote:
SacKingZZZ wrote:But this game is a perfect example of what's happened with Cousins in the post almost since day 1. He's NOT Shaq, he's a player that is more comfortable in a faceup position and if you look at the majority of his post up opportunities it ends with him facing the basket. Jerry Reynolds thinks it's as simple as him adding a jump hook, it will help to a degree, but there are much bigger issues at play here. For instance, when they went pure iso, just like almost always Cousins is maneuvering his way towards the basket, he's not just purely backing guys down (and if he gets any skinnier he won't be able to at all. :wink:) With that said, he is going to most likely attempt to out maneuver his defender and as such he has to use a greater portion of the floor to do it and as a result more dribbles. Very hard to ask a guy to dribble his way around the basket when you have a pesky guard coming in and threatening Cousins' dribble. Every dribble pretty much comes up to the guards head so he has the entire length of his own body to get a hand on the ball. As I posted above the simple fix is to give Cousins 2-3 passing options on the other side of the floor so when he does make his move and switches from posting up to facing up at that last moment he has wide open shooters waiting to take and make a quick 2 or 3. A few of those drop and then watch the space Cousins has as the game goes on.

Cousins hovers around the middle section of the floor because that's usually the only unoccupied space on the floor. He is a faceup big who likes to drive to the rim, give him space to work for crying out loud. And now it's certainly not a question of personnel anymore no excuses for Cousins to not have room to operate. Re-watch this game and pretty much every time Cousins is posting up, take note of where Jason Thompson is.

And yes, somebody needs to check Salmons for a pulse.


I'm not asking Cousins to be Shaq but he has a HUGE body that he can bust some guys down low. But he choose not to for whatever reason.

Cousins' post game isn't all that great but how hard is it for a 280 pounds individual get decent post position and drop a couple of baby hooks?

Cousins' main strength on offense is facing up and attacking the basket but that in itself is pretty reckless. I don't like my big man driving into congestion, especially, if he is a "under-the-rim" player.

Cousins' problem is that his jumper isn't all that great. His jumper should be really close to "KG-level" if he wants to continue his "elbow area" play.



He needs to use the hook shot more, but any offensive set should have more than one option available and most importantly an out available. They literally ran the same iso set that Smart did last year. Literally no passing options. Any post player has to have options to pass back out. And it can be very hard when you have a guard popping in at you looking to swipe the ball every time you make a move.

It's exactly my point that there shouldn't be "congestion". Most of the congestion is his own teammates doing! hahaha. Last year at the start you could say this team didn't have enough spacing because of a lack of shooters and that it was part of the problem, but that shouldn't be a problem at all anymore depending on what lineups you use.

Looks like a Malone is ditching the run and garbage, but if he does, spacing is the most key element for a half court team. Even more important than passing.
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Re: So uh....game? 

Post#23 » by SacKingZZZ » Wed Oct 9, 2013 4:39 am

enderwilson wrote:
SacKingZZZ wrote:Yeah, it's called ditching that silly run and gun garbage. Half court teams look much more composed in the halfcourt, who would have thought. :lol:


I couldn't help but have a nasty flashback to Westphal's half-court game plan. That offense was as composed as a corpse. Part of it is team execution. Ideally, being the first preseason game, Malone will be able to figure out what the players respond best to on the court.



The sad thing is right at the end Westphal said all the right things and was going to start using the Triangle. It was just too late however, the players already had enough of him. If you want Cousins in the post the triangle is a great way to go about it. Let him use his that passing, give him some space, and some cutters. We've seen enough of him to know that's when he's at his best.
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Re: So uh....game? 

Post#24 » by KF10 » Wed Oct 9, 2013 5:35 am

SacKingZZZ wrote:He needs to use the hook shot more, but any offensive set should have more than one option available and most importantly an out available. They literally ran the same iso set that Smart did last year. Literally no passing options. Any post player has to have options to pass back out. And it can be very hard when you have a guard popping in at you looking to swipe the ball every time you make a move.

It's exactly my point that there shouldn't be "congestion". Most of the congestion is his own teammates doing! hahaha. Last year at the start you could say this team didn't have enough spacing because of a lack of shooters and that it was part of the problem, but that shouldn't be a problem at all anymore depending on what lineups you use.

Looks like a Malone is ditching the run and garbage, but if he does, spacing is the most key element for a half court team. Even more important than passing.


The team's offense is still a work in progress because Malone employed "defense-first and offense-second" tactics throughout training camp. So, in that regard, I can forgive some of Cousins' mistakes and chalk it up as not his fault.

The thing is though, once Cousins' mind is set to score, he will not pass the ball. Passing options to hell said Cousins!

He attempted multiple turnaround jumpers against Bogut (good luck with that) once he couldn't budge him any further. He should have pass the ball back once he was in no man's land. A product of poor shot selection. He settled for "Brad Miller" range Js instead of moving the ball or getting into post position. Hmm..

Cousins' post game isn't refined but he has showed in the past that he can do damage down low. Cousins' versatility on offense e.g. face up, dribbling -- may draw the "oohs & ahhs" but what's the use of all of that if he only shoots 45%-47% from the floor?? With his size and talent, he should be scoring at a 50% clip at a minimum.
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Re: So uh....game? 

Post#25 » by KF10 » Wed Oct 9, 2013 5:39 am

Last thing.

I don't hate Cousins and will pull for him because he is a Sacramento Kings and I understand some of his poor FG% is due to horrible coaching and skewed talented around him. To me, this year with the given roster and coaching staff, he should be heading to his best year of his career to date.

If everything falls into place e.g. appropriate-level of passing/floor spacing/coaching, Cousins should have a beast year this season.

But if it is more or less the same with Cousins as in the previous years e.g. low FG% & attitude issues, I would be very worried.
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Re: So uh....game? 

Post#26 » by boogie-reke » Wed Oct 9, 2013 1:05 pm

I expect Malone to kick DeMarcus's behind, and order him to stop killing our offense floating in and around the 3pt line all the time.

You either go position yourself for an offensive rebound (which he did 2 years ago, was the best in the league at it, and for some reason just stopped) - or you read the situation and go to the block not to kill the spacing and be a passing option down low trying to move off the ball to get an easy bucket.

There were so many situations where it was so clear DeMarcus had no idea where he needed to stand, ruined our floor spacing, and killed the flow of the offense - resulting in a forced ISO bail out, or a situation where both our bigs are near the 3pt line and no one even goes for a rebound with a chance to get us an extra possession.

DeMarcus's low IQ offensively is starting to be more and more evident as time goes by. He really has no idea where to move to accommodate the team, and forces himself on everyone.
His off the ball work is just flat out horrible, and almost nonexistent on offense - and the combination of both his low IQ and understanding with his extreme reluctance to move off the ball to make his and the teams life easier - makes for a very annoying and very selfish player on offense, in my opinion.
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Re: So uh....game? 

Post#27 » by ICMTM » Wed Oct 9, 2013 7:51 pm

Baseball Postseason, Week 6 NFL...I'm not in basketball mode yet.
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Re: So uh....game? 

Post#28 » by SacKingZZZ » Thu Oct 10, 2013 1:57 am

KF10 wrote:
SacKingZZZ wrote:He needs to use the hook shot more, but any offensive set should have more than one option available and most importantly an out available. They literally ran the same iso set that Smart did last year. Literally no passing options. Any post player has to have options to pass back out. And it can be very hard when you have a guard popping in at you looking to swipe the ball every time you make a move.

It's exactly my point that there shouldn't be "congestion". Most of the congestion is his own teammates doing! hahaha. Last year at the start you could say this team didn't have enough spacing because of a lack of shooters and that it was part of the problem, but that shouldn't be a problem at all anymore depending on what lineups you use.

Looks like a Malone is ditching the run and garbage, but if he does, spacing is the most key element for a half court team. Even more important than passing.


The team's offense is still a work in progress because Malone employed "defense-first and offense-second" tactics throughout training camp. So, in that regard, I can forgive some of Cousins' mistakes and chalk it up as not his fault.

The thing is though, once Cousins' mind is set to score, he will not pass the ball. Passing options to hell said Cousins!

He attempted multiple turnaround jumpers against Bogut (good luck with that) once he couldn't budge him any further. He should have pass the ball back once he was in no man's land. A product of poor shot selection. He settled for "Brad Miller" range Js instead of moving the ball or getting into post position. Hmm..

Cousins' post game isn't refined but he has showed in the past that he can do damage down low. Cousins' versatility on offense e.g. face up, dribbling -- may draw the "oohs & ahhs" but what's the use of all of that if he only shoots 45%-47% from the floor?? With his size and talent, he should be scoring at a 50% clip at a minimum.


If that's the case then Demarcus deserves the ire, but that wasn't the case in this game, just like most of last season. There were literally no passing options in most of his attempts in the post. That just asking for failure or a tough shot. It's some of the same things they did to Tyreke when he was here, no room to work.

There are going to be some good and bad things coming from Cousins being so trim. The bad is now he doesn't have that 300 pounds to lean on people, the good is that his already advantageous level of mobility will be even greater. That's why spacing is going to be even more critical than ever, he's going to have to rely on that horizontal movement to get to the rim. When he was baseline the Warriors just left a guard right on top of him in the space he was trying to move to, there will be very little room to work in that instance.

Give Cousins the space I'm talking about and that along with him getting more calls his way and all of his efficiency stats will go up dramatically. Last year is a perfect example, it took them all year to finally get some spacing for him, helped out a great deal by that trade BTW, and he was up around 50% post all star. This isn't butt talk, we saw the same thing last year. That's why I'm a little annoyed with some of what's going on, first game though, I know, I know. Although I'm not a big fan of a different starting lineup every game this preseason but I guess the staff gets somewhat of a pass. The only problem I have is if they have questions about this squad, watch the ample amount of tape you have at your disposal. I question if they have because they ran the exact iso set Smart did. :lol:
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Re: So uh....game? 

Post#29 » by SacKingZZZ » Thu Oct 10, 2013 2:02 am

boogie-reke wrote:I expect Malone to kick DeMarcus's behind, and order him to stop killing our offense floating in and around the 3pt line all the time.

You either go position yourself for an offensive rebound (which he did 2 years ago, was the best in the league at it, and for some reason just stopped) - or you read the situation and go to the block not to kill the spacing and be a passing option down low trying to move off the ball to get an easy bucket.

There were so many situations where it was so clear DeMarcus had no idea where he needed to stand, ruined our floor spacing, and killed the flow of the offense - resulting in a forced ISO bail out, or a situation where both our bigs are near the 3pt line and no one even goes for a rebound with a chance to get us an extra possession.

DeMarcus's low IQ offensively is starting to be more and more evident as time goes by. He really has no idea where to move to accommodate the team, and forces himself on everyone.
His off the ball work is just flat out horrible, and almost nonexistent on offense - and the combination of both his low IQ and understanding with his extreme reluctance to move off the ball to make his and the teams life easier - makes for a very annoying and very selfish player on offense, in my opinion.


I like Malones style, he is the first coach this team has had that reminds me of Adelman. Very calm, stays seated for the most part, didn't seem to get too hot. Overall it didn't look like he was micro managing. The only player I saw him get on, and not really badly I don't think was JT. JT was just letting his guard get creamed on the screen and roll all the while he just stayed flat footed and let them take a wide open jumper.
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Re: So uh....game? 

Post#30 » by KF10 » Thu Oct 10, 2013 2:15 am

SacKingZZZ wrote:If that's the case then Demarcus deserves the ire, but that wasn't the case in this game, just like most of last season. There were literally no passing options in most of his attempts in the post. That just asking for failure or a tough shot. It's some of the same things they did to Tyreke when he was here, no room to work.

There are going to be some good and bad things coming from Cousins being so trim. The bad is now he doesn't have that 300 pounds to lean on people, the good is that his already advantageous level of mobility will be even greater. That's why spacing is going to be even more critical than ever, he's going to have to rely on that horizontal movement to get to the rim. When he was baseline the Warriors just left a guard right on top of him in the space he was trying to move to, there will be very little room to work in that instance.

Give Cousins the space I'm talking about and that along with him getting more calls his way and all of his efficiency stats will go up dramatically. Last year is a perfect example, it took them all year to finally get some spacing for him, helped out a great deal by that trade BTW, and he was up around 50% post all star. This isn't butt talk, we saw the same thing last year. That's why I'm a little annoyed with some of what's going on, first game though, I know, I know. Although I'm not a big fan of a different starting lineup every game this preseason but I guess the staff gets somewhat of a pass. The only problem I have is if they have questions about this squad, watch the ample amount of tape you have at your disposal. I question if they have because they ran the exact iso set Smart did. :lol:


I don't know man.

I don't think I can handle another season of "face-up, dribble, dribble, force up a difficult shot" from Cousins again. Like I said before, his jumper is simply not good enough to justify his presence in the perimeter. Dude needs to make an effort to make his game more interior-based if his jumper is not at the appropriate level.

I do agree on one thing you said. That post all star break stretch (more specifically, beginning of January and onward), Cousins shot around 50% from the floor, he looked real solid. More than solid, really. A real threat anywhere on the floor. That said, I want him to start taking 100% advantage of his body. Even at his slimmer state, he's 'bigger' than majority opposing bigs. That is why I'm advocating Patterson to start next to Cousins to get dat floor spacer.
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Re: So uh....game? 

Post#31 » by SacKingZZZ » Thu Oct 10, 2013 9:52 am

KF10 wrote:
SacKingZZZ wrote:If that's the case then Demarcus deserves the ire, but that wasn't the case in this game, just like most of last season. There were literally no passing options in most of his attempts in the post. That just asking for failure or a tough shot. It's some of the same things they did to Tyreke when he was here, no room to work.

There are going to be some good and bad things coming from Cousins being so trim. The bad is now he doesn't have that 300 pounds to lean on people, the good is that his already advantageous level of mobility will be even greater. That's why spacing is going to be even more critical than ever, he's going to have to rely on that horizontal movement to get to the rim. When he was baseline the Warriors just left a guard right on top of him in the space he was trying to move to, there will be very little room to work in that instance.

Give Cousins the space I'm talking about and that along with him getting more calls his way and all of his efficiency stats will go up dramatically. Last year is a perfect example, it took them all year to finally get some spacing for him, helped out a great deal by that trade BTW, and he was up around 50% post all star. This isn't butt talk, we saw the same thing last year. That's why I'm a little annoyed with some of what's going on, first game though, I know, I know. Although I'm not a big fan of a different starting lineup every game this preseason but I guess the staff gets somewhat of a pass. The only problem I have is if they have questions about this squad, watch the ample amount of tape you have at your disposal. I question if they have because they ran the exact iso set Smart did. :lol:


I don't know man.

I don't think I can handle another season of "face-up, dribble, dribble, force up a difficult shot" from Cousins again. Like I said before, his jumper is simply not good enough to justify his presence in the perimeter. Dude needs to make an effort to make his game more interior-based if his jumper is not at the appropriate level.

I do agree on one thing you said. That post all star break stretch (more specifically, beginning of January and onward), Cousins shot around 50% from the floor, he looked real solid. More than solid, really. A real threat anywhere on the floor. That said, I want him to start taking 100% advantage of his body. Even at his slimmer state, he's 'bigger' than majority opposing bigs. That is why I'm advocating Patterson to start next to Cousins to get dat floor spacer.


I don't want to see dribble dribble shoot out of Cousins either, I wouldn't mind some set shot pick and pop though. If he's in the mid-range they need to spread the floor and run some back cuts so he can use his passing or open driving lanes for him. If they play way off of him then he needs to shoot the set shot that's available. I only know of one big in the last decade that was elite off of the dribble dribble shoot and that's Dirk Nowitzki so yes, the probability that Cousins is going to be in the same range is way unlikely. The fact is though that Cousins isn't a prototypical C. He's unlike any other C I've seen to be honest. He could be the first real triple threat C who's best asset is his ability to take other bigs off the dribble. Hey, it works well for a lot of superstars at other positions so if they can spread the floor like they do for other superstars the sky is the limit IMO.

Cousins doing so well later in the season had almost everything to do with the fact that they started to spread the floor better and started to use more of the play sets that were successful. I'll be interested to see what they fine tune in terms of lineups and play calls as the preseason continues.
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Re: So uh....game? 

Post#32 » by Inigo_Montoya » Thu Oct 10, 2013 6:20 pm

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3Z0h4tL8w0[/youtube]
^This is basically what I want from Demarcus this year. Not necessarily the triple double but the willingness to pass out of doubles all night long. Some post moves would be nice but the passing is a skill he already has, he just needs cooperation from the guards and the right mentality.
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Re: So uh....game? 

Post#33 » by boogie-reke » Thu Oct 10, 2013 6:26 pm

I had the exact game in mind whenever I think of what I want from DeMarcus.

Willingness and trust in the team. Will make his life A LOT easier, and our viewing experience A LOT more fun.
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Re: So uh....game? 

Post#34 » by SacKingZZZ » Thu Oct 10, 2013 9:26 pm

OK, in looking that video, how many times did you count Cousins backing his man down in an iso set? Another thing, look at his team mates, where are they on the floor? Now, how many times did you see Cousins faced up and attacking the rim? Look at his passing as well, notice how he has options back to the outside once he makes a move to the rim.

Now, get what I was saying and why I was annoyed in the first preseason game and why I get a little annoyed when people harp on him being a back his man down post up big or just adding a hook shot? It almost has everything to do with the play set called, his team mates, and spacing. Those options were not there the other night. Somebody send that clip to Malone please, just in case. Cuz is excellent at what he does and can dominate from that mid post area. Put that man in the triple threat!

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