DeMarcus Cousins Starts Rough, and the Kings Fall

Indeed things are looking up. Whiteside does look good but also looks lost alot, plus he can shot when not rushed. He needs to learn to speed it up.

about DeMarcus’ ability to deal with adversity within the NBA game due primarily to his young age and inexperience. Undoubtedly, there will be a big target on his back, placed there by those who will want to “welcome” the rookie into the league. It started with the “hazing” instituted by Laimbeer a couple of days ago. He passed that test quite well, I thought, first time out. Now with this game against the Raptors, he had a miserable 1st half. The question was how would he come back and finish. He came back strong, and even though fouling out, resisted becoming petulant and displayed great sportmanship at the end. Still early, but good signs nonetheless.

I’ve been searching in sort of a half-assed way for VSL box scores, but don’t seem to be able to find them. My normally infallible Google skills have failed me. Any leads?

Thank you in advance, handsome.

Interesting guy… I think he has been the most effective PG on the Summer League team. He is able to get something going. I can’t see that the other guys are as good at getting the offense going.

I also like him because he is the fastest guy out there. He can over take anybody on the floor. Damn, that dude moves!

was that Cousins was able to forget about the first half, and have a really good second half. I like that, the 10 fouls however, I don’t really like (granted it looked like the refs were calling it super tight, and the commentators mentioned they were being too tight, but he’s a King now so he better learn to play with poor officiating)

Consistency is the most ellusive of skills for any young player. It was/is Tyreke’s most impressive stat (IMO). DMV has, in 4 exhibition games, been remarkably similiar.

Omri is the more consistent in “3 spot” Wars. But once pre-season starts Cisco may be more reliable and therefore the starter. By that same token, it depends on where DMC ends up on the rotatation; I would be surprised if he starts over Dally and Landry. When he comes in there should be vets out there to assist young Cuz and this may be a better place to use Cisco.

Which leads to Hassan Upside. I expect him to follow in the footsteps of Donte – slow erratic progession. When (not if) Brockman signs, we are looking at a 3 min per game rookie average for the young Marshall product.

The Kings might actually have found a way to win if he hadn’t fouled out. He needs to learn to pick his spots on fouls, though he wasn’t helped by the refs. He drew at least two charges where he was called for blocking fouls.

Also a little confused why Whiteside was sitting so much in the second half – the team really missed him when he wasn’t on the floor. I don’t want to get too ahead of myself, but I feel like his offense is beyond where JT’s was at the same age, and assuming Whiteside can learn positioning and when/when not to go for blocks, he’s going to be a really solid contributor on both ends sooner rather than later. Although his hands aren’t perfect and balls will occasionally slip through his hands, he’s a better rebounder than I expected as well.

I’m similarly surprised at how sentiment around here seems to have swung so thoroughly in Donte’s favor over Omri even as he puts together a solid summer league and after a night when Donte nearly ended up with as bad of shooting numbers as DMC (Donte was 6-18, DMC 5-18). I’m definitely encouraged that Donte looks a lot more comfortable with the ball and is developing some Hedo-esque go-to moves hitting elbow jump shots off the dribble, but Omri is also looking a bit more comfortable slashing and on the break. Flip a coin.

Still think it’s Landesberg who has the inside track to make the team. Thompson is scrappy, but I think Landesberg’s ballhandling ability gives him the edge. He even played point guard for a stretch.

King Boogie bounced back in the second half, which is what great players do. He was still able to help his team with rebounds and passing. King Boogie would’ve had at least 3 more assist if his teammates made their shots.

Hated Kamla’s criticism of King Boogie but I guess that’s his job. I liked how Dennis Scott reiterated that he wanted to wait until the second half to make a judgment call on King Boogie’s performance.

This was a great game to watch and I look forward to seeing how these young Kings respond today after a tough loss. Whiteside’s blocking is the truth and I think he’s going to contribute as much as Brocktimus Prime did in his rookie year (in a shotblocking way of course).

Extremely talented, conditioning and durability is a question mark, as is his temperament. It’s going to be interesting to see how good he can be if he gets into NBA shape.

if DMC’s bad game is getting 16 and 12, were doing pretty well. I’m most impressed with the fact that he knows when he is struggling, he gets his teammates involved

we will never see him play that much in the regular season. If we do he will hit the rookie wall before Christmas. This is a test or a statement by the coaching staff to Cousins that he’s going to have to work extremely hard on his conditioning to make it thru a complete NBA season.

So far he’s shown some nice moves and some decent outside shooting, but the doubles he’s going to see during the season will be much harder to beat. The lack of good guard play is making him have to get the ball too far from the rim most of the time. He needs to get the ball on the blocks or in the paint, and not along the sideline 12 ft from the rim. The Forwards need to get the ball in the 12-15 ft area, not the Center.

He’s shown some great moves offensively, but there are some voids on the defensive end. Guards are still getting to the rim too easily and Cuz’s 1 blk per game isn’t that impressive. Also, the turnovers are way out of control, although during the regular season I don’t expect the offense to run thru him as much as it is in SL.

He’s an enormously talented rookie, and like most rookies his offense is ahead of his defense. And, with Westphal defense is more important than offense, so don’t expect Paul to hand over the starting job to Cuz until he shows that he can be as good as Dalembert on that end of the court.

It was clear that Omri and Donte both couldn’t guard either of the Raptors 2’s in DeRozan and Weems. They were not fast enough, and seemed like they were on their heels most of the time on defense afraid of getting blown by. It allowed DeRozan and Weems to get open jumpers most of the game.

I don’t know where we will get our athletic or defensive SG (Whether that ends up being Garcia or not), but it is clear that we need one or Tyreke could end up having to guard the opponents best backcourt player most of the time.

Overall I am encouraged by what I am seeing

Landry is best off the bench and Jt plays better at C; what is PW planning on doing with that situation?

plays great d-size gets in way… both ends-looking good playing against kings oN LA…

2 – DJ StrawberryMaryland
Birthday: 6/15/85NBA Position: Shooting GuardClass: SeniorHt: 6-5Wt: 201Hometown: Corona, CAHigh School: Mater DeiTeam Site Profile2006 Statistics

Overall

89
NBA Comparison: Kendall Gill (less scoring ability)