GT #26 Kings @Wizards 12/21 7:00PM EST (CSN)

[nate33]

Why does garbage Rudy Gay always kill the Wizards?

by the end, he was closer to garbage Gay than any kind of difference maker.
Another guy with apparent(?) great talent but little impact towards winning basketball.

Gay really looked a lot bigger and taller out there. He looked like a real PF, not a SF playing up. I was pretty impressed with him in the 1st quarter. But, as you mentioned, he was invisible the rest of the game.

[dobrojim]

Give Garrett Temple Beal's max money.

Too funny. I was joking the same thing at the game. B2B career highs for
GT.

How likely is it that he becomes our D Green (Dray or Danny)?
A player that wasn't very good (putting it mildly) but who worked
hard, stuck and eventually got decent (or better).

[nate33]

How likely is it that he becomes our D Green (Dray or Danny)?
A player that wasn't very good (putting it mildly) but who worked
hard, stuck and eventually got decent (or better).

Wow. I never thought of it that way. But you may have a point.

I wonder how much money he will command in free agency? Is it possible that he can get paid $6-8M a year? In hindsight, EG's decision 2 years ago to sign him to a 2-year vet minimum deal instead of a 1-year deal looks prescient. Too bad it wasn't a 3-year deal.

[dobrojim]

Why does garbage Rudy Gay always kill the Wizards?

by the end, he was closer to garbage Gay than any kind of difference maker.
Another guy with apparent(?) great talent but little impact towards winning basketball.

Gay really looked a lot bigger and taller out there. He looked like a real PF, not a SF playing up. I was pretty impressed with him in the 1st quarter. But, as you mentioned, he was invisible the rest of the game.

You're right. In person it's so clear Gay has great size. Really should be a better
or at least more impactful player than he is.

[TheSecretWeapon]

Give Garrett Temple Beal's max money.

Too funny. I was joking the same thing at the game. B2B career highs for
GT.

How likely is it that he becomes our D Green (Dray or Danny)?
A player that wasn't very good (putting it mildly) but who worked
hard, stuck and eventually got decent (or better).

Minor quibble: Danny Green was a good player before he got to the Spurs. In my stat analysis, his senior year production was that of a top 5 pick in the draft. Everyone missed with him, including the Spurs, who released him and then brought him back.

Mostly agree on Draymond Green, who I had rated as pick in the 20-25 range. He was terrible as a rookie, but got a ton better damn fast.

As for Temple becoming a guy like one of those -- I don't see it. Temple is in his 6th season and he's 29 years old. Also, even with a couple good games in a row, his numbers for the season are still within his established career norms. He might be this year's version of DeShawn Stevenson -- a not-very-good player at multiple stops before managing to be average for a year with the Wizards.

[dobrojim]

I didn't realize GT was that old and had been around that long. 6 seasons. Wouldn't have believed it
if you hadn't told me. Still, when he shoots it at a reasonable rate, he's okay. I guess you could
say that about pretty much every player. I've been critical of him mostly because he couldn't hit the
shots Wall was spoon-feeding him.

[dobrojim]

Can you imagine if Dudley had Gay's athletic gifts but his own shooting and BBIQ/motor?
He'd be LBJ.

[Ruzious]

I'm not sure it's completely fair to label Cousins lazy - even though he looked the part last night. Remember, players are going to be tired on the back end of consecutive games on the road, and everything negative about Cousins gets magnified.

Gay has definitely added some muscle mass. Whether that's helped him or not as a player - seems debatable.

[TheSecretWeapon]

I didn't realize GT was that old and had been around that long. 6 seasons. Wouldn't have believed it
if you hadn't told me. Still, when he shoots it at a reasonable rate, he's okay. I guess you could
say that about pretty much every player. I've been critical of him mostly because he couldn't hit the
shots Wall was spoon-feeding him.

Heh. Yeah, guys do look really good when their shots are falling. Regarding Temple's shooting -- he's 7-13 from 3pt range the last two games. On his preceding 13-shot grouping, he made 3. For the season, he's shooting .308, which is only slightly down from his career average: .321.

[AFM]

Garrett Max Money Temple

[dobrojim]

If he shot > 45% from 3 he might get it in this climate

[queridiculo]

I'm not sure it's completely fair to label Cousins lazy - even though he looked the part last night. Remember, players are going to be tired on the back end of consecutive games on the road, and everything negative about Cousins gets magnified.

Perhaps he was tired, who knows, but here's the thing, was he tired after missing his first shot, because I recall him arguing with the ref then slowly jogging back while Gortat converted an easy layup on the other end.

There wasn't any point in the game where Cousins showed any interest in running hard or playing defense, so I find it hard to give him a pass for having played a game the night before.

[Illmatic12]

steve, I see some Kawhi also, on the defensive end.

Gotta be honest - I don't see Otto being significantly ahead of Oubre, tbh. KO can hit his threes, John constantly sets Otto up for the same shots and he bricks them. KO drives to the hole, whereas Otto settles for a lot of midrange shots because he can't explode all the way to the rim. And defensively, Oubre's athleticism and build is ahead of Otto's already - he was able to stick with guys like Kawhi whereas Otto got cooked mercilessly, lol.

If Otto keeps bricking threes when he gets back, it'd be hard to make a case to not give KO those minutes so he can develop- because it's beginning to look like Oubre could be our starting 3 next season.

I think benching players for missing good shots is one of the most counterproductive things a coach can do. Usually all that accomplishes is making your players timid and inducing slumps throughout the team. Otto's shot will come around eventually anyway.

Otto shoots a lot of mid range shots because he's got a fully formed mid range game. It's actually one of the most unique and valuable parts of his offensive arsenal--the part that gives him the potential to be a lot more than a standard three and D wing. But Otto is also a better and more skillful inside finisher than Oubre too. Oubre can not finish with his right hand and Otto is an excellent inside finisher.

Otto is much more well rounded than Kelly. Better defender, smarter off ball player, better finisher at the rack, far better passer. Probably a little better rebounder too, although Oubre looks like a fantastic rebounder for his size. Comparing their rebounding, I would say Otto is better on the offensive glass and Oubre is better on the defensive. Oubre is learning, and I would say he's thriving despite being thrust into a big role the past few games. But he's got a ways to go before he's as reliable as Otto. And the more he plays a role he's not yet ready for, the more we're going to see some of those weaknesses in his game get exposed--the lack of the right hand, the sketchy range from deep, the tunnel vision when he's got the ball, the shaky team defense, etc.

I really like Oubre. Liked the pick on draft day and I love his potential. I'm definitely a fan. But if we allow ourselves to get carried away with him we're setting ourselves up for disappointment and then you'll get this harsh negative overreaction when he doesn't live up to unrealistic expectations. It's happened with every single one of our young players during the bumpy course of their development. Of course he's not ready to start for a playoff team. Otto barely is.

I agree with a lot of your points here. But I don't think the Wiz have to 'bench' Otto per se to give Oubre more PT, but I'll put it like this - the only player who is guaranteed to finish every game is John. He's the only guy who's earned it.

Everyone else on the team, including Porter, has had instances this season where they were on the bench to finish out a game because of matchups or performance. It's not like Porter has solidified the right to finish games with his play. Otto can retain his starting spot, sure. But imo, if Oubre continues to knock down his threes at a high clip and further shows that he can defend, I would prefer him to be closing games over Porter.

You say Oubre has sketchy range from deep, then what would you say about Porter? KO has hit two 3P in four consecutive games, Porter hasn't done that all season. Otto is shooting a disappointing 27.4% on threes. It's a huge drag on the offense when we have an elite shot creating PG who is playing with guys who cannot consistently knock down wide open shots. I don't know how you can quite call Porter 'reliable', for much of the season he's been a letdown in a lot of games where we needed some aggression or at least a few open threes from him.

On top of that, I have to say that Otto has been disappointing defensively. Other than Derozan, what good scorer has he slowed down this year? Whenever he was tasked with defending Kawhi, Melo, Harden, Wade, George, if you remember, these guys all scored on him waay too easily due to his lack of footspeed and strength. And he's given up far too many open threes by falling asleep on the weakside. Otto has definitely been complicit in our awful perimeter defense this year.

I think what you said about "setting ourselves up for disappointment" is exactly what myself and a lot of others may have done with Porter. We thought he would come in and solidify himself as an above average two-way starter, but he has hardly run away with that role. I don't have a problem with him continuing to start, but in Oubre I'm seeing a more physically elite, talented, and aggressive wing player - who may soon be a better option to close out games with than Porter.

[dobrojim]

I'm not sure it's completely fair to label Cousins lazy - even though he looked the part last night. Remember, players are going to be tired on the back end of consecutive games on the road, and everything negative about Cousins gets magnified.

Perhaps he was tired, who knows, but here's the thing, was he tired after missing his first shot, because I recall him arguing with the ref then slowly jogging back while Gortat converted an easy layup on the other end.

There wasn't any point in the game where Cousins showed any interest in running hard or playing defense, so I find it hard to give him a pass for having played a game the night before.

Plus while SAC did play the night before, we played 7 guys plus Blair < 1 min.

Cousins had a couple of monster dunks but mediocre to bad shooting and got out-hustled and
out-worked all night long.

[Ruzious]

I'm not sure it's completely fair to label Cousins lazy - even though he looked the part last night. Remember, players are going to be tired on the back end of consecutive games on the road, and everything negative about Cousins gets magnified.

Perhaps he was tired, who knows, but here's the thing, was he tired after missing his first shot, because I recall him arguing with the ref then slowly jogging back while Gortat converted an easy layup on the other end.

There wasn't any point in the game where Cousins showed any interest in running hard or playing defense, so I find it hard to give him a pass for having played a game the night before.

Plus while SAC did play the night before, we played 7 guys plus Blair < 1 min.

Cousins had a couple of monster dunks but mediocre to bad shooting and got out-hustled and
out-worked all night long.

Guys, I already pointed out that he played the part of a lazy player - so I'm not arguing that point. What I am arguing is that he played the night before IN TORONTO (not to mention 3 nights before IN MINNESOTA), and that is definitely going to wear a player out. You have to recognize that Sac - being a West Coast team - was going to be sluggish - no matter how many healthy players Warshington had. If people (including me) weren't so focused on picking apart Cousins, they'd probably notice that the entire Sac team was just as bad at hustling as Cousins was.

[J-Ves]

I'm quite happy about our core of Wall, Otto, and Oubre. Otto is a 3 pt shot away from being a special player on offense and Oubre seems to have a Ariza type game with more athleticism. If we could get a rotation quality big under the age of 26 for Beal (doesn't have to be a starter) I would pull the trigger.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Perhaps he was tired, who knows, but here's the thing, was he tired after missing his first shot, because I recall him arguing with the ref then slowly jogging back while Gortat converted an easy layup on the other end.

There wasn't any point in the game where Cousins showed any interest in running hard or playing defense, so I find it hard to give him a pass for having played a game the night before.

Plus while SAC did play the night before, we played 7 guys plus Blair < 1 min.

Cousins had a couple of monster dunks but mediocre to bad shooting and got out-hustled and
out-worked all night long.

Guys, I already pointed out that he played the part of a lazy player - so I'm not arguing that point. What I am arguing is that he played the night before IN TORONTO (not to mention 3 nights before IN MINNESOTA), and that is definitely going to wear a player out. You have to recognize that Sac - being a West Coast team - was going to be sluggish - no matter how many healthy players Warshington had. If people (including me) weren't so focused on picking apart Cousins, they'd probably notice that the entire Sac team was just as bad at hustling as Cousins was.

#Kings #Pacers #ys
https://sports.yahoo.com/news/sacramento-hangs-108-106-victory-indiana-023733289--nba.html

Demarcus Cousins followed the loss to Washington with 25 points, 16 rebounds, 3 blocks in a win at Indiana.

[dobrojim]

And we thank him for that.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

And we thank him for that.

Maybe he's already a team player!

Honestly, I'd trade Nene and two firsts for Boogie Cousins.

I'd include Beal for McLemore.

I'd play Boogie as a stretch four when Gortat is C and I would play him in the post otherwise. I'd try and spread minutes where only one was one the floor for 12 each and for 24 or so both would play together.

Forget small ball trending teams. Three lights out perimeter scorers and two true bigs will still win big.

[SizzlinSimms]

Does Boogie have an outside shot? I'll admit I missed this game, and haven't seen the Kings in a long time. He seems so dominant in the post from the highlights I've seen and from what I've read. Does he want to play PF? He seems like a true C but slightly shorter?