Re: Kings @ Bobcats
Targus can you please do the next few game threads? I'm gonna be kinda busy.
Anyway this team is just hilarious. We managed to get blown out by the Cavs without Lebron and lost to the Bobcats without Okafor(and they were also without Gerald for a lot of the game due to foul trouble/injury). I'm beginning to think that Ron REALLY hurts this team. He kills their ball movement, their chemistry, and he takes it upon himself to do things way too much. I would get rid of him ASAP in the offseason.
btw another thing that seperates this team from their talent level is effort. Tonight I was watching Suns/Mavs(game of the year) on ESPN and even though those teams are absolutely STACKED, they both give 100%. This team isn't going to be as good as those teams even if they played up to their talent level but they could be decent. But not only do they not play up to their talent level, they just don't try that hard. They're lackadaisical(spelled wrong probably but oh well) and they just don't seem to care too much. If they gave as much effort as the Mavs/Suns did tonight they could be a pretty damn good team. But it seems like they've kinda given up.
Part of the feeling they've given up falls on Musselhead. He's just failed to inspire the players with his power point presentations. He's lost a lot of guys.
The other thing is we've got a lot of guys who are falling off. Reef and Thomas have both really fallen off. Kenny's effort has fallen off and Reef has gotten a lot slower. He's nearly slower than Brad now. I've started to notice that and IMO that's why instead of the fancy foot work we saw last season we're seeing him travel and commit fouls. He's not quick enough anymore to drive like he used to or even last year. Guys have a lot of time to slide in front of him and take a charge. He also doesn't try hard enough on D, he'd rather complain to the ref than get back on D. But he is a good guy, unfortunately it seems like NJ was right when they said he had a bad knee and wouldn't sign him. Now we're stuck with a bad contract.
Obviously Mike hasn't played like he should this year, partially because of injury, the coaching change, and maybe he's also affected by feuds with other guys on the team. I dunno. Brad's fallen off too but he's atleast been useful sometimes. Artest's D isn't quite as good and even though his FG% is a bit better I like his offense last year better. He didn't freeze teammates out last year. This year you can usually tell when he wants to chuck a shot up. He'll start dribbling and get out of control with it. Usually ends up with a bricked J/bad shot, bad pass out of a double team, or offensive foul. Guys aren't playing as well as they did last year.
Really I don't think this was Charlotte winning the game. They played well in the last minute but the Kings really choked. The Kings just did a better job of losing than the bobcats did. Then Charlotte started playing well while Ron choked. This game was ugly.
I really just wish Muss would play the young guys. It's obvious this roster isn't taking us anywhere and management needs to tell him to play the young players. He probably won't be coach next year though(you didn't hear this from me... even though you actually did) so I dunno if he'd actually do it. Give Price/Douby/Williams some PT. Let Williams get used to shooting free throws in the NBA. Let Price get used to playing PG against NBA players. Let Douby get used to being a spark plug. We'll probably lose a lot if we did that, but we'd just lose by more points than we do now instead of actually losing more games. Probably won't be done though.
Damn I got so much more to say about this team/game but I'm not sure how to word it right now.
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Kings @ Bobcats
