Opposing Small Forwards Feasting on Kings

nice breakdown, Z.

for not realzing this was another freakin’ Donte promo before I read most of it.
Alright you guys win. PW is so freaking stoopid that he doesn’t realize the all league defender can shut down everybody in the league. Its a wonder Paul finds his way to the Arena each day.

There is one thing I would like to add. Last night I set out with the intent of tracking every point Beasley scored. My son decided to become a handful, so I wasn’t able to complete much of it, and I probably won’t try to finish the endeavor.

In the first quarter in particular, Beasley was simply playing very, very well. Casspi was on him most of the time, and was generally in his face, Beasley was just hitting his jumpers. The only big defensive lapse I saw was when Tyreke was on Beasley. Evans went for a steal, almost got it, but then failed to recover and get back on defense.

to detect unless I was missing something. He was on fire. They probably gambled that he would – as is frequently the case — cool off.

6-16 isn’t lighting it up and Klieza played 34 minutes in that game, well above his average of 26. The other game game he played 35 plus minutes was against GS, he added 7 rebounds and 4 assists to his 20 points in that one.
He did go 3-8 from 3 pt range, much better than his average.

Beasley’s big game was an abberation (I think) that we could have dismissed by just scoring 100 points to win the game, it would have been a sidenote.

Rudy Gay (to my surprise) looks to be developing into a Star and has scored 30 + in two other games. Once again (not dismissing the post however) scoring more than 100 would have won the game.

I don’t know what he did to fall into Westphal’s doghouse, but both need to put it aside for the better of the team. Donté might not be THE answer, but dudé derserves a rotation spot. You know, if Paul Westphal believed in rotations or situational basketball

A player in a trade is. I submit Tayshaun Prince. (But I wouldn’t mind Marvin Williams either.) Yet, we’ve gone over this before.

Players iz what they iz. Kings don’t got that player at the SF spot for what they need. They’ll have to find that answer elsewhere, and it’s quite possible that answer doesn’t come at all this year.

Hence a 35-40 win team.

If you looked at this team before the season I don’t think you thought we were going to win games at the SF spot. I’m not convinced we’ve lost more than one game there.

We were supposed to dominate the paint, beat opponents down and have Tyreke overpower other guards. So the question is not I think ‘are we getting beat at the 3 spot’ but rather ‘why are we not winning more games in the paint’.

Most of the problem is I think Landry (especially) and JT at the PF’s and paint play in general. The bigs scoring is waaay down from what we expected and the rebounding isn’t great either. I know the recent lineup changes and JT supposedly at the 3 confuse that but . . . . Seriously, Isn’t that where we thought we’d be winning those extra 10 games?

He has quickness and length and desire and he can get through picks. He can play passing lanes. He tends to get muscled in the paint and needs to play stronger there.

But the problem I see is that Omri tries to shut down his man all on his own. Can’t do that. Omri needs to know where his help defense is on the floor and funnel players that way. He concedes too many perimeter shots when he would be better off pressuring player into drive and into help defense, i.e. Dalembert or into the middle of the floor. He needs to be worry less about getting beat off the dribble and instead force guys to make plays.

The other issue is slacking off his man to offer help. He sometimes gets caught rotating when he shouldn’t. He should stick to his own assignment more, especially when it is player like Gay or Beasley. But this is just normal learning curve for young player. I expect Omri to become a good defender with consistent playing time. All the tools are there.

That is clear. He still has a lot to lear, although I think he is a bit stronger and faster than last season. In some instances, he played decent D, but his opponent scored with Omri’s hand in his face.

He has two big problems, IMO:
- the pick & roll, which is also partly a team problem, but he has to do a better job to fight through screens;
- knowing when to sag off his man for help defense and when not to.

Maybe a change will not be a bad idea.

Antoinne Wright. I was all for giving Donte & Omri minutes but losing to the T-Pups sucks. FREE WRIGHT!!!

but what about starting Cisco at the 2 with Casspi at the 3, and have Cisco defend the better wing player? Maybe Casspi would get eaten alive by some opposing SGs, but I’d say it’s worth a shot. Honestly, right now it doesn’t seem like any minutes given to Cisco are wasted minutes.