Hawks @ Kings

[rpa]

I don't understand why Smart thinks it's ok to leave Reke on the bench for the final 7 minutes of the game. Just because you carelessly ran him down to the ground and decide not to play him for the rest of the game? haha

3 reasons I'd assume:
a) The bench was playing pretty well
b) The Kings were in a hole (specifically late) and needed to hit 3s to come back. Evans and 3s are like oil & water
c) (Especially late in the 4th) the Kings needed to score quickly--not pound the ball for 15 seconds a possession.

[KF10]

I don't understand why Smart thinks it's ok to leave Reke on the bench for the final 7 minutes of the game. Just because you carelessly ran him down to the ground and decide not to play him for the rest of the game? haha

3 reasons I'd assume:
a) The bench was playing pretty well
b) The Kings were in a hole (specifically late) and needed to hit 3s to come back. Evans and 3s are like oil & water
c) (Especially late in the 4th) the Kings needed to score quickly--not pound the ball for 15 seconds a possession.

Those are acceptable assumptions. But in any (good) coach would have played their best players in the last stretch of the game nonetheless! Smart hasn't done this consistently for the Kings so far. You can't possibly expect your reserves to finish the game out. In this instance, Reke was left out the final 7 minutes because he was too exhausted to finish the game. Guess whose fault is that?

Look at the game flow for the Kings tonight:

http://popcornmachine.net/cgi-bin/gamef ... ame=ATLSAC

He plays his starters majority of the first quarter (Reke & Cuz play all of 1st quarter and the early the parts of the 2nd quarter before subbing them out). Then, subs out the ENTIRE starting lineup and brings in the reserve to play, basically, the whole 2nd quarter. Then subs them out and plays the starters for the WHOLE 3rd quarter (Smart subs out JT in the middle of the quarter for Greene). In the 4th quarter, the lack of balance in minutes forces Smart to play Cuz & Reke a combined 11 minutes in the 4th quarter.

I really wanted to stay quiet about this and chalk this up as a "growing experience" for Smart. But he has been doing this ever since he got the coaching gig! We keep hearing that he will have a set rotation blah blah blah (which to be fair, he has done to some extent) but we haven't seen it on a consistent basis.

Words of advice for Smart: When in doubt, always always always have at least ONE starter on the floor regardless of situation.

This should be how Smart manages the minute distributions for his main guys:

- Play the key guys (Cuz, Reke & Thornton) up to the 2-3 minute mark of the first quarter before subbing them out.
- Keep them on the bench until the ~8 minute mark of the second quarter.
- Half time.
- Play them for the majority of the third quarter until the 2-3 minute mark of the quarter.
- Sub them out. Bring them in the final 8-9 minute of the game.

Is that really that hard?

[bjax24]

We are not going to have a set rotation, under any coach, at any time, until we start winning. Don't get me wrong, Westphal's CONSTANT changes in the starting lineups got annoying, but Smart, other than the said playing guys too long at stretches, is seeing what groups work and what groups don't. I think our guys own decision making is being far more detrimental than anything Smart is doing.

[bjax24]

I also maintain, for all the woes he started with in shooting, and all the questioning on his playmaking, I would much rather have Jimmer with the ball in his hands in close games than thornton or Evans. He actually has had a good eye for the right play this year, and even when he wasn't shooting well, is good with his hsot selection.

[RIPskaterdude]

We are not going to have a set rotation, under any coach, at any time, until we start winning. Don't get me wrong, Westphal's CONSTANT changes in the starting lineups got annoying, but Smart, other than the said playing guys too long at stretches, is seeing what groups work and what groups don't. I think our guys own decision making is being far more detrimental than anything Smart is doing.

He's not seeing what groups work and what groups don't because he's playing the same groups together every game until the final minutes. The last week or two has been exactly the same. Unless there's foul trouble, it's always "play starters for entire first Q, then bench until a few minutes left, then starters, and repeat." There's no mix and match of bench and starters until the very end of the game.

[SacKingZZZ]

:roll: There's that award-winning Chuck Hayes defense, getting taken 1-on-1 by a driving Kirk Hinrich.

Heard he cut one on the bench too....that son of a b*tch. So much for that award winning passing.

[pillwenney]

We are not going to have a set rotation, under any coach, at any time, until we start winning. Don't get me wrong, Westphal's CONSTANT changes in the starting lineups got annoying, but Smart, other than the said playing guys too long at stretches, is seeing what groups work and what groups don't. I think our guys own decision making is being far more detrimental than anything Smart is doing.

I kind of agree with this. There's no point in setting a rotation until we find something that works semi-consistently. We've definitely seen some things though. Salmons and Tyreke should basically be rotating out for each other. They do the same thing when out there, and clearly this is the situation that works best for John.

Otherwise, I'm not really that sure. I think I'm coming back to the idea of starting Chuck over JT though. I'm on the fence though. Chuck and Demarcus don't really fit with each other offensively at all (Chuck is like Demarcus without any scoring ability), but A) We often really lack size when we go to our bench, so JT would be nice there, and B) when you have a guy who's best asset is his individual D, bringing him off the bench to guard stretch 4's and offensively inept, hustling 5s is just kinda dumb. It's a waste of resources.

[KF10]

Otherwise, I'm not really that sure. I think I'm coming back to the idea of starting Chuck over JT though. I'm on the fence though. Chuck and Demarcus don't really fit with each other offensively at all (Chuck is like Demarcus without any scoring ability), but A) We often really lack size when we go to our bench, so JT would be nice there, and B) when you have a guy who's best asset is his individual D, bringing him off the bench to guard stretch 4's and offensively inept, hustling 5s is just kinda dumb. It's a waste of resources.

I don't think they fit offensively either (logically, a stretch 4 is a perfect match for Cousins). But what Chuck brings to the table:

- Another high post passer
- A player that does not require touches offensively

I think these attributes are more than adequate for Chuck to be with Cousins on the floor together. But Chuck's real worth is his defense. He is out there to guard the best offensive front court player (PF or C), while Cousins guards the lesser talented one. I think that's important. Cousins is prone to foul against players who are skilled around the basket. Like you said, why waste his defense on the opposing team's second unit? He should be out there guarding the best of the best.

I see Thompson more as the 3rd big type of player. The first big off the bench. You can get away of starting Thompson from time to time but I don't think that will work in the long run.

[pillwenney]

There's kind of an issue with having two passing hub bigs in at once. It worked with Chris and Vlade because both can do other things, but pretty much the only thing Chuck can do offensively is set screens. If things aren't running through Chuck, he's basically a liability. So when they're both in, it doesn't really make sense to run things through Demarcus.

And the thing is, JT doesn't really require touches either. He's mostly a finisher and mid range shooter. He does get some post touches, but not enough to where you're like "GOD IS CUZ EVER GONNA GET THE BALL?!" Offensively he's basically a decent fit with Cuz. The problem there is on D.

So I don't know. I can see both sides of it.

[KF10]

Yeah, there's definitely two sides of the issue.

But you have to remember that the Kings gives up the most points per game than any other team in the league. Logically, that should elect Hayes into the starting lineup. His post defense and defense on the PnR should help alleviate some of that.

[SacKingZZZ]

They do fit offensively together as evidenced by the fact that when they do play together, the offense changes in almost no way. JT isn't being used for his offense at all really anyway and he's really more of a garbage man. They aren't using JT to spread the floor at all and when he does get the ball it's usually in the post.