Hey coach....are we watching the same game?

[king125]

PW is starting to bug me. I dont know what he thinks he sees in practice or games that makes him come up with his rotations but I dont think he uses players to their strengths and weakness'. He also doesnt use lineups that compliment each other. Examples:

Tyreke was supposedly drafted to be a PG. He obviously can handle the ball, and his courth vision is also pretty good. I think this year he has proven to get players more involved even though they cant make shots and his assist numbers are less then they should be. In that case, why not start Cisco at the SG and Tyreke at PG. Beno is horrible defensivly and it makes Tyreke have to spend too much time worring about guarding the bigger better guards. Cisco is good defensivly and could take a lot of pressure off Tyreke. He also is more of a pure shooter which compliments Tyreke more then a poor shooting ball handler like Beno. If a team has a speedy PG like Nash, Paul, etc, run more of a zone defense that forces teams to shoot outside, which most teams struggle with early in games. Cisco is a better defending/ slightly worst scoring version of KMart. Evans and Cisco have proven to work great together on both ends of the floor.

Secondly, in the post we need a better mix of offense and defense. Sometimes you see Dally and Jackson on the floor together. That puts so much pressure on our guards to score becasue there is almost zero offense coming from our bigs. Dally should start for sure because his defense is needed in the post. But they need to start Cousins at the 4 and force him to play more in the low block (more like Zach Randolph). He is a beast down low and decent outside but he is way mroe effective overpowering players down low. He is pretty solid with the pick and roll as well which compliments a back court of Evans and Cisco, and a rebounding clean up man like Dally. Landry is too small to be starter, sorry but its true. Defensivly teams know to focus there attention on him when he is matched up with Dally. He is better suited as a sixth man who can do work on other teams beanch players or other teams starters when they are tired. On defense Dally can take the other teams better offensive player to keep Cousins out of trouble.

Donte must have done something pretty bad for PW to toss him out of the lineup. Last year we matched Donte up with Lebron and Kobe in closing moments of the games because he is actually a really good defender. Sorry for the Casspi fans but Donte should be starting. He cant even get a minute a game when he should be starting and finishing games. He is by far a better defender and just as potent scorer. He is not as good of a shooter as he thinks he is but he can still be used bette on offense.

Also, JT can be used as a Center where he thrived last year. He is better on offense then Dally and fits well with Landry on both ends. He is better then Jackson and althoug he has struggled a bit this year, most of that has todo with low playing time and playing out of position. He will find his groove if he gets the chance.

If I was coach I would run this lineup and rotation minutes

Dally 30 / JT 18
Cousins 24 / Landry 24
Greene 24 / Casspi 24
Garcia 30 / Beno 18
Tyreke 35 / Beno 13

[ADoaN17]

I agree that DG should get more minutes but he hasn't proved anything to start over Casspi.

[king125]

the starting spot doesnt have anything to do with minutes. It has to do with fit and chemistry and how you start the game. We get killed on defense in the first quarter. Beno, Landry, and Omri are mostly to blame for that. Your bench needs to score and that is why those three guys need to be our core bench and still receive big minutes. But we need to start games slower and a lineup of Dally, DMC, Donte, Cisco and Tyreke will be a way better defensive unit to start. And its not like they wont be able to score. It is by far the best overall lineup if used correctly. My rant above is about lineups and rotation, but they still need to have a better strategy for any lineup to be used effectivly. I think PW needs to work on this teams style of play as well and using players to there strengths, which i have not seen this season at all.

[twoolfork1]

I agree with DG being a better defender than Casspi and a much better defensive matchup most nights. Im not trying to bash on Casspi but sometimes his D is awful specifically his transition D. A few games this year I have watched Omri literally walk back on D while his man flew down the court for an uncontested dunk/layup. I wonder what DG did to get behind Jackson, Head and Antione freaking Wright on the depth chart. I don't think any of us predicted that happening in the summer.

[Little Digger]

The kings need a leader or 2 or 3 on the court..Until they find one, it makes no difference who the head coach is.

[Nicky Nix Nook]

I agree the Kings need a leader.

There's no reason Head and Wright should be playing ahead of Donte. Wright should almost never see playing time unless there's an injury. He does NOTHING that Donte, Cisco, or Casspi can't do. It's like PW's love affair with Desmond Mason last year, except this year, he has stuck with it. I used to love Head (haha) when he played with the Rox, but he really looks terrible running a team. I don't know why we haven't given Pooh a chance. He looked like our best pure PG in SL and preseason. I agree Landry is NOT a starting PF in this league. Starting PF's murder him. This team is so dysfunctional right now it's depressing. No fluid offense, no defense (our zone sucks), awful rotations, but then again this is nothing we haven't heard. These problems aren't simply "growing pains." There are so many more problems than simply "inexperience." This BS was starting to get old last season, but I thought in his second year, he'd have a better grasp of what to do, but as we have seen, he doesn't.

It's just all bad right now.

[stock01234]

can't agree more..

however one thing I am still not sure about is whether Donte should start over Omri.. that is up for debate..

don't know why westphal is behaving like a rookie immature coach.. he keeps on changing the lineups so frequently.. it is hurting the team.. players won't develop.. if each night you play different positions, different playing time and different players on the floor..

i think tyreke, cousins, casspi and greene have great potential.. but westphal is not able to develop these players and use their strenghts.. look how good of a season, stephen curry is having.. warriors look a much better team eventhough they just added Lee in summer.. whereas we added Cousins, Whiteside, Dalembert, got rid of Hawes.. inspite of all these we are still where we were..

[SacKingZZZ]

Glad to see more and more people are starting to jump on the bandwagon.

Actually what happens with Reke and Beno is Reke has to guard the quicker player since Beno struggles there, makes it really hard on him.

Use an inside/out oriented offense based around the driving abilities of Tyreke, the post up ability of Cousins (and Tyreke too, Westphal did go to him in the post last game and Evans crushed his puny defender!), and the high post/low post passing ability of both Cousins and Dalembert. You have to know where you're going to go for that play before you get across the half court line though. I'm seeing far too much of Tyreke driving into clogged lanes where Daly, Jackson, or Cousins are already posted up.

Also NO MORE QUICK SHOTS CISCO AND BENO!!! ARGH!

[rpa]

I personally think that the schemes that Westphal is running are nearly as bad as his rotations.

1) On offense the spacing of this team is truly dreadful. Remember how in the T'Wolves game the Wolves would put 3 guys at the FT line to stop penetration from Evans. Somehow, despite them having 3 guys in a ~10 feet long line) we weren't able to capitalize. Why? No spacing.

2) Westphal's entire argument for playing Cousins & Landry at different times was because their post scoring conflicted with one another's. Yet, here Landry is shooting jumpshot after jumpshot. I know people want to blame Landry for this but there's gotta be a reason that a guy who's done nothing but attack the basket for the last 2 years is suddenly content shooting jump shots--and I have a feeling Westphal has something to do with it.

3) Running pick and rolls with Tyreke and Cousins is beyond stupid. First off, Evans isn't straight line or turn-the-corner quick--he's change of direction quick. Thus, on pick and rolls, you can always have the guard go under (dare Evans to shoot) and have the big pop out and show. Evans isn't quick enough to go around. Then you have Cousins who isn't the fastest guy trying to roll off but not putting much space in between him and his man. What does this end up doing? Nothing. It either takes 5-10 seconds off the shot clock (and then Evans is forced to double back after he's cut off at the corner) or results in a contests shot from Evans.

4) On defense I don't understand how Westphal has the wings sagging on big men. Dalembert, Thompson, & Cousins are all decent defenders. Why exactly are we sagging to give them help when it inevitably leads to an open 3-pointer or penetration?


In my mind Westphal hasn't been putting the players in a position to succeed. He's putting them into an arbitrary offense (and defensive) system that doesn't take advantage of their skill sets and, in essence, sets them up for failure. Things that NEED to be changed:

1) Landry is a bench player. It's not a knock on his ability but he's just too undersized, too poor a defender, and too poor a rebounder to be matching up night in and night out with starting caliber PFs. Sure he'll put up some "OK" numbers (like 15/7 or something) but a) So did Kenny Thomas at one point & b) His opponent is likely putting up 24/12 every night). Conversely, if you bring Landry off the bench you know you have a consistent source of energy & scoring off the bench. Plus he's going to be playing against lesser talented guys (players that won't be as able to take advantage of Landry's deficiencies as starts can).

2) Start Cousins at the 4. Is he too slow to guard most 4s? Sure...but you have Dalembert to guard them (and let Cousins D-up the weaker offensive player). Might he get into quick foul trouble? Sure .... but that's why we were so excited to have 4 quality bigs heading into the year--because when one of them gets into foul trouble we've got 2 more (and Jackson has been a decent spot big as well) that can fill in.

3) Omri's a bench player. Yes, we know, everyone loves his hustle and grit; they love how he has no fear. But people need to face facts: right now, on this team, he needs to come off the bench. First, he's far too trigger happy to be playing against starters--who will be more able to take advantage of his [sometimes poor] decisions. Second, as someone else mentioned, we're getting killed on defense (specifically by opposing SFs) at the start of the game. Put Greene in there and tell him to D them up. Hustle/energy is best off the bench. Period.

4) Start running an offense that caters to our players. There are many different ways of accomplishing this:
a) Spread the floor and give Evans the ball. When he's surveying the defense take time to set-up motion with the other 4 guys so that you can have some combination of guys running off screens, moving to open space, or trailing the penetration.
b) Run motion plays where Evans can work off screens. Get him the ball closer to the basket (it seems like the only time Evans ever gets the ball is when he's behind the 3pt line) and already in motion--allowing him to make a quick move to the basket.
c) Pound the ball into the post. Evans & Cousins are both solid passers AND will have a size advantage over whoever is guarding them (almost). Put them in the post and force the defense to double. Combine this with outside motion or just simple spacing and ball rotation.

5) Defensively I think this team really needs to have a funneling strategy. We have a shotblocker back there in Dalembert who'll be playing 30-35 minutes a game (most likely) and should be using him more often.

[ICMTM]

I can say it this way and nobody can dispute this. The minute distribution as constructed now isn't working. I'm not really pro anything/anyone at this point EXCEPT They need to make Reke workout as a PG.

[jumpboi92]

my lineup:

Cousins 25/Dally 20/Jackson 3
JT 27/Landry 22
Donte 25/Casspi 23
Garcia 30/Beno 12/Head 5
Reke 35/Beno 13

I think Landry is a better fit alongside Dally and coming off the bench. Let Tyreke overpower smaller PGs. Let Wright wear a suit every single game from now on!!!

And if PW wants to have a guy that can play both forward positions, he should try and trade for Jeff Green or Josh Smith, not mess up JT's development

[SacKingZZZ]

The problem with that lineup is we lack any and all shotblocking still, so I can see why Westphal is deadset on playing Daly. The problem with Daly is the other player has to carry the load offensively, Landry can do it, JT can't, and Cousins most certainly can IMO and in more ways than either Landry or Thompson.

Been saying it since day 1. Evans, Cisco, Casspi, Cousins, and Dalembert. That's the best lineup we can put on the floor. Then use Landry as that 6th man off the bench as everyone seems to want so badly.

Bottom line, we need a system that isn't run and gun shoot with 20 seconds left on the shot clock or the other alternative where when that doesn't work throw the ball down low with 6 seconds left on the clock which is what this team has been doing lately. We need to be in that 18-12 second pocket where you've already good a good look with that much time left. More than a few of Cousins' bad shots or turnovers come when he's got like 3-5 seconds to make a move because either Landry, Beno, or Evans played ball stopper for the majority of the clock.

[king125]

RPA, i agree with you about 99.9%. We should head down to Arco and put in job applications for head coach. haha

Seriously, something needs to change because I can barely watch these games. And I have probably watched every game for the past 3 seasons and I have never been this annoyed.

[dozencousins]

My 3 issues are

1. PW rotations are terrible
2. D.Green should be playing he should get at leat 12 minutes per game easily
3. Cousins needs mor playing time as well he needs at least an additional 6-8 minutes more per game

I think PW is being monitored very closely as I think the organization is losing confidence in him if he keeps his job for a while it is only likely due to the fact the organization is not even close to filling out the arena when i went there twice this year so far the arena was 40% full & 35% full at best .
If the team was making more money by selling alot more tickets their would be more pressure on the organization to go after a much better caliber of a coach with greater expectations.

I was one of the few who never really like us getting PW in the 1st place we should have targeted A.Johnson or waited another year for B.Scott

[RIPskaterdude]

I actually think that Mario Elie would be a great coach for this team.

[SacKingZZZ]

And I would assume he's next in line if Westphal goes. His names been knocked around the potential coaches circle for a long time. Depends on what happens and/or how bad it gets though. He would most likely be nothing more than a stop gap until seasons end if Westphal were to get the axe (way too early to talk about that right now IMO). Remember Musselman's crap fest basically screwed us out of hiring Scott Brooks since his name got tainted by proxy. He would have been awesome and I called it!! Not to gloat or anything, hehehe.