Paul Westphal Leaned On New Toys In Kings Opener

…after JJ took a jumper from the top of the key early in the shot clock on a possession sometime in the 2nd quarter, I believe it was. PW called JT up off the bench immediately, but a timeout happened before the substitution, which allowed PW to let JJ know these aren’t the droids he’s looking for instead.

We shall see if it continues.

that Westphal finally had guys out there who would play consistently well. Every body gets on him for the lineups, but he kept changing them because whoever he put out there just could not play consistently, whether it was quarter to quarter or game to game. We finally have a little bit of the consistency and depth.

Cisco will get minutes, its just a matter of when and who gets injured first(which will likely be cisco in practice).

His shove of Blake Griffin in that second preseason game was appalling. He is a classless scumbag.

Even the MT23 play where he elbow’d him in the face going for the lose ball. I mean, come on. He freaking flexed his arm to hit him in the face.

And you are starting to look an awful lot like Rick Fox.

Beware.

which is Chuck’s obvious strength on D. It will be interesting to see the matchups.

If you get LMA or Wallace in any foul trouble at all – Portland is in trouble.

A couple were finished a couple weren’t. His defense was passable, not anything spectacular, but what was to be expected. His shot looks effortless. I think nerves contributed to being short in the 2nd half on a couple very makeable jumpers he took(although one led to that NASTY putback by Cousins). He made a couple errors with the ball – both times can be attributed to leaving his feet without having made a decision(the first play and the charge in the 2nd half vs. Flopper).

Other than that, he played a very intelligent game and really didn’t force much. I expect a better outing tonight as he got that first game under his belt.

for Hickson, Jimmer and Cousins, who were all under a lot of pressure in front of the home crowd to meet or change expectations. Most of that should be off tonight.

For Kings leftovers you get a starter? Not likely

You’ve got to wonder what the hell our rotations are gonna look like if we pick him up. Either he or salmons is going to come off the bench and you’ve also got to wonder a little bit about paying either of those guys 8 million plus a year to come off the bench. Not to mention the inevitable grousing/sulking. Those guys haven’t reacted well to coming off the bench in the past.

athletic ability his whole career and is not a very smart player.

Loved how he was encouraging Jimmer to draw the offense to him so he could take the charge.

I had an idea that Hayes was maybe a better defender than Sammy. I knew he was better on ball, but I thought Slammy’s shot blocking might have cancelled it out. But watching Chuck play last night, and really thinking about how Sam played for us on defense last year, there is no question in my mind that Hayes is a better defender than Samuel Dalembert. By a lot.