Well, another game another dollar (for the NBA anyway). Who knows how the Cuz drama plays out because there is going to be drama one way or the other with this asshole kid for the rest of days. That's what the Kings signed up for. If you don't like that interpretation, oh well. That's your problem.

There are other things going on, but since the only things that matter are the dramatic renditions of a tall drama queen, I'm not sure anyone cares. I surely don't, well, except for being fairly intrigued to see how the rest of the roster performs tonight regardless of how many minutes Cousins' receives. But hey, Cousin's drama is the only thing that's important because it holds the fate of Sacramento in the balance if Cousins' dramatic loopy ass doesn't get minutes.

Zach Randolph (a one time major problem child with major talent) might not play Tuesday which is good news.

As far as the Kings ORtg & DRtg watch, the ORtg is now 101.9 (18th of 30) and the Def Rtg is 108.3 (26th of 30). The pace of the Kings through 5 games is 91.3 (16th of 30). Memphis is at 94.3 ORtg (29th of 30) and the Def Rtg is 103.9 (16th of 30) . Their pace is at 93.8 (9th of 30).

Required Reading

3 Shades of Blue has a game preview of the game tonight already up.

Straight Outta Vancouver talks a bit about what type of players they would like the Grizzlies to acquire. Jason Thompson is one of them.

Apparently Hamed Haddadi is back with the Grizzlies. (The holdup is a work permit.) Haddadi is the fellow who took a picture with Omri Casspi that caused an uproar because Haddadi is Iranian and Casspi is Israeli.

Final Stathead Thoughts of the day

Last season, the Kings were 26th in the NBA in TOV% with 14.4%. The Kings were also 26th in eFG% at 48%. This season, the Kings are 6th in the NBA at 13.1% in TOV%. In eFG%, the Kings are 25th at 44.5%. (It's still early remember.) Just something to chew on when thinking about who is valuable and who isn't. At the end of the day, it's not the style of play that really matters but whether the ball goes in the basket more often for you than the other guy.

Yes, you've come to read life philosophy in two and half minutes. Game is at 5pm PST if you're unemployed, retired, or don't give a shit about your job. It's on some outlet that may or may not be available in the Sahara desert depending on how many sunspots are flashing at the moment. Peace in the Middle East?

Since I was a bit busy earlier talking about the Big Twat, how about a game recap and some thoughts. I don't think there are some things that should be overlooked. But, this will be short. Here is the boxscore from B-Ref. From Hoopdata.  

I thought about deleting the title, but I think it works better as it illustrates I think a lot of the problems regarding DeMarcus Cousins exist. Boogie to put it kindly is a rather divisive subject that tends to get people worked up one way or the other. Some love him; others do not. I love DeMarcus Cousins' strong points, and don't care for his weak points. But let's be honest here: He's one package where all the pieces exist and work together simultaneously.

Today, you've read a bunch of things about Cousins already. Cowbell Kingdom with player reaction, a CK podcast with Sam Amick, a number of opinion pieces at Sactown Royalty, JA Adande did a piece on Cousins at the Daily Dime on ESPN, Yahoo with Marc Spears and Adrian Wojnarowskiand Sam Amick on NBA.com.

What isn't clear to me why Paul Westphal matters here. One way or the other, he'll get his due. DeMarcus Cousins did something that went above and beyond the level of "oh shit what are we gonna do with this asshole now" type of deal. It was an odd as a statement or discipline as you will ever find dealing with a player. There is no questioning that. There is also no questioning that disciplining Cousins for the little stuff isn't going to go over well. Anything short of "well Cousins is well and wonderful" and fans will react poorly to this. Bad news is not welcome despite the fact that we are all well aware of such a possibility. Whether anyone cares to admit that is another story.

And really, it's not like Westphal called Cousins out for not boxing out or a silly mental mistake that Marcus Thornton made in the Bulls game. (Things that both Cousins and Thornton should know how to do. I think one of the great mistakes coaches make is incessantly harping on those type of mistakes.) We are talking about a player that, to quote Sam Amick from the CK podcast,"someone who can suck the life out of the room."

Today, the next authoritative loss for the Kings will be to the Eric Gordon-less Hornets. (Eric Gordon is the Hornets best player in case you didn't know.) Because that seems to be the only things the Kings are interested in these days.

I'm interested to see how the two former Houston Rockets Chuck Hayes and Carl Landry battle though. Other than that, I'll skip the pleasantries here. I don't feel like it, and I imagine you don't either.

The Kings ORtg meter is at 100.8 (20th) and DRtg meter is 113.1 (29th). Here is the Hornets roster at Basketball-Reference assuming you care to look at it.

The title says it all. It was a pathetic effort. Really, I wasn't happy. The Kings didn't look happy. Paul Westphal can't be happy. And, you know what? Good. This team has a lot of work to do. The good news? Perhaps some of these young players (aka Tyreke and DeMarcus) stop fighting the coaching staff and the world while they are at it.

I'll let DeMarcus Cousins go for now. Tyreke?

Tyreke: You can't keep shying away from the free throw line because you're missing FT's. Whether you want to admit it, you simply have to make your FT's by using good mechanics to be able to do so. It's really that simple. Your passing was fine tonight except in transition, and that needs to improve. Well, at least that's nothing new with you.

I'm going to lay off DeMarcus tonight. It's the same-o same-o with him.

Jimmer struggled. He's a rookie and it's his 4th game. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will Jimmer's NBA career if it ends up being a quality one. Patience is required.

I liked Chuck Hayes game and the way he played, but he's not capable of making up for poor performances by Tyreke Evans and DeMarcus Cousins. Nobody on this team is.

Jason Thompson had a good performance tonight. Which is something I suppose except for the fact that JT was 3-8 from the FT line.

The FT performances are starting to add up and take it's toll. Good. I'm not sure what will get this young group's attention at this point.

The Kings shot 34.9% from the floor and 63% from the FT line. A bright spot was that the Kings only committed 12 turnover's tonight.

Isaiah Thomas had a nice performance in the sense that he was energetic and effective in a blowout wasteful performance. Thomas was 7-10 from the FT line though.

We received our first look at Tyler Honeycutt and learned nothing other than what we already knew based on his body of work from UCLA. I expect Honeycutt's minutes to be very little for most if not all of the season.

In summation, the way this team is performing, blaming each other and trying to do too much is the main source for these struggles. They simply don't get how to play together yet, and whether time is the answer I don't know. As much as anything, part of the problem is that the pieces aren't perfect fits and that Tyreke Evans and DeMarcus Cousins haven't fully bought into the system that is in place. You can't win if your 2 best players (and exceptionally immature) don't buy in. It's really that simple. Is it Paul Westphal's fault? Is it Evans/Cousins' fault? These are all good questions, and really unless players buy into what the coach is selling (which is the coaches job) it's difficult to understand what change can be made to get this team into the right position.

I expected a rough start and some issue's, but these are chemistry and player specific issue's that don't seem capable of working themselves out anytime soon. It's clear that Tyreke Evans is not ready to lead a team that desperately needs him to for whatever reason. And that's the searing indictment of the first 4 games: Tyreke Evans is not ready to be a franchise player. And since Evans isn't ready to be a franchise player, and it's clear noone else is even close to that status at all, it's a bit of a problem where players expect more from Tyreke. DeMarcus Cousins, again, is his own problem, but I'm going to let that one go here.

This isn't about whether they care or not. This is about whether the players on this team, starting with Tyreke Evans, are willing to do what it takes to win games at the NBA level. So far through 4 games, this group has not shown that willingness. Which, naturally, will lead to pathetic performances such as tonight.

Until tomorrow where another pathetic performance awaits us. I can't wait.

Well it's the Knicks and the Kings at PBP. (Calling it Arco seems strange cuz it ain't going back to that.)

Okay, so that's that. The Knicks are this. The Kings are that.

Oh, and Kings DRTg and ORtg track? The ORtg is 100.7 (for 20th) and 109.1 (24th) for the DRtg.

According to Howard Beck Amare Stoudemire won't suit up tonight. Game starts at 5.

Required Reading

In case you didn't read my monstrosity of an irritating post yesterday, please do. Also Jon Santiago of Cowbell Kingdom (and KFBK) was kind enough to ask me to answer a few questions for the 3 on 3 series that CK occasionally runs. I don't suggest reading this unless you want to find out how big of an idiot I am.

Okay onto the Knicks stuff....

A great set of links from Knickerblogger is available to you on their morning post. Which is handy for 2 reasons: I get to find another quality pieces from elsewhere and all the Knicks reading you can stand is already linked into the post. Yay?

A must read conversation from Jimmer Fredette via Seth Rosenthal's looney imagination of at Posting and Toasting. (By looney imagination, I mean fucking A hilariously brilliant.)

Here is an excellent interview of James Ham (Cowbell Kingdom) and Bryan (A Royal Pain) at Knicks Fanatics.

Okay that's all the linkage I got for today. Maybe tonight is a better result huh?

Here is the B-Ref boxscore, the Hoopdata Boxscore but I imagine you're pretty nauseous from all the poor decision making the Kings showed. Rather than just do the typical game comments, I'm going to relay what I noticed from re-watching the game. (This is a laborious process and took me about 3 hours. Please keep that in mind if you choose to comment about the length.) Bullet form commence!

1st Quarter

• With 11:06 remaining, Cousins makes a nice steal and outlet pass to Thornton. Thornton misses a layup, Salmons gets an offensive rebound and goes to the line where he eventually makes both FT's. (It will be the only FT's Salmons will attempt all game.)
• Tyreke Evans with about 10:20 remaining does one of his many patented ill-fated twisting passes or shot attempts. The ball glances off Cousins who isn't expecting that kind of stupidity (to be fair I'm not either) and Evans ends up taking a badly off balance 3 pt attempt. Chuck Hayes ends up with a loose ball foul.
• What will be the first transition points of the night for the Bulls, Rose passes the ball to Deng for a layup during a 3 on 2 break. (That was effective transition defense in comparison to the rest of the night.)
• By the way, at the 9:20 mark the Kings are up 5-4 on a John Salmons layup. Enjoy this lead because it's the last one the Kings will have all night.
• At 8:45 remaining, DeMarcus Cousins has a shot rejected by Joakim Noah.
• At 8:17 remaining, after a miss on a John Salmons drive, Joakim Noah grabs the rebound. At this point Noah takes off with the ball and neither Evans or Thornton stops the ball. Noah gets an easy layup. Salmons, Cousins and Hayes were all behind Noah (Salmons by about 2 steps) had either Thornton or Evans stops the ball.
• With 7:27 remaining, Tyreke Evans exhibits another one of his patented behind the back moves that results in a silly transition attempt for the Bulls. By the time the Bulls run a 3 on 1, only John Salmons has crossed halfcourt.
• One note by Chuck Hayes from Jason Jones Bee story that I think is incredibly pertinent:

"It's just effort and communication," said forward Chuck Hayes. "Not a commitment to get back. We're thinking they're going to walk it up and they're not … we act surprised if they try to get the easy points."

• With 6:34 remaining, Cousins misses a layup attempt and the Bulls go out running. Only Salmons and Thornton are back by the time Derrick Rose crosses halfcourt. There are 3 guys running with him at this point. Hayes is getting back into the play and Cousins is complaining at the ref because he thinks he should have been fouled. Additionally Tyreke Evans makes a lazy swipe at the ball that effectively takes him out of getting back into the play. Because Hayes is only a few steps behind Rose (and Hayes is not beating Rose in a foot race), all it would take either Evans or Cousins to get back into the play. I'm not pointing fingers here; it's not just one player. It's a slew of them at this point. Oh, and this is play where Deng fumbles the pass from Rose and is a turnover on the Bulls. (2nd unforced TO by the Bulls.)
• With 6:10 remaining DeMarcus Cousins misses a tip in off a Chuck Hayes layup and then an easy half hook. Frankly, it's hard to imagine other teammates being responsible for Cousins missing layup's or blaming them for a low assist rate when Cousins has such a difficult time consistently converting point blank attempts at the rim. Luol Deng gets an easy layup at the rim because of poor defense mainly by Cousins and the Kings are down 16-5 at this point.
• With 5:46 remaining Tyreke Evans attempts a wide open 3 that badly misses and the Bulls run a break again. At this point both Hayes and Salmons are at the 3 point line and get back on the break easily. Thornton is about 3 steps away from Salmons and gets back into the play. Tyreke Evans attempts to steal the ball from Rose (lazy) taking him out of the play. Additionally Cousins never gets into the play after not even running a few steps. Rip Hamilton gets a layup and a foul. Rinse Wash Repeat. Just as importantly was how hard Hamilton ran that play. Kings are down 19-5 now.
• JJ Hickson comes in with 5:17 remaining. The Lineup is now Evans, Thornton, Salmons, Hickson and Hayes.
• Carlos Boozer gets an offensive rebound and gets a layin. This really wasn't a major problem from last night, but Boozer was standing at the Free Throw line and the ball just came to him. That missed rebound was on Tyreke Evans who was closer to grabbing it than Hickson. Also, Hickson was dealing with Noah who also saw the ball fly over his head. I'm more pissed that Tyreke watched it sail over his head than anything. Effort plays yanno?
• The Lineup is now Jimmer Fredette, Marcus Thornton, John Salmons, JJ Hickson and Jason Thompson
• With 1:40 or so remaining, JJ Hickson throws a lazy inbounds pass to Ronnie Brewer. The Bulls end up scoring on a Carlos Boozer layin.
• At 1:13, Jimmer makes the beautiful cross court bounce pass to Marcus Thornton for 3. The score is now 30-15 Bulls.
• At 53 seconds remaining, Jason Thompson fumbles a pass from Marcus Thornton that would be an easy layup. The Kings get lucky and the ref's say the ball is off the Bulls. At 44 seconds Jimmer hits his Stop n Pop hoop.
• The Kings finish the quarter well with Isaiah Thomas pushing the ball and getting the assist on Donte Greene's layup. The Kings are down 30-24 after the end of the 1st quarter.

The Kings play the Bulls tomorrow. This is the Bulls team that won 62 games last season, but this is also the Bulls team that lost to the Warriors on Monday.

“When you’re on the road, you have to understand how difficult it is to win on the road. You prepare yourself by being ready at the start of the game and you have to play defense. And you can’t make it easy on them. You’ve got to take care of the ball. You’ve got to eliminate all the ways in which you beat yourself first. And then you have to establish your defensive game first, you’ve got to know who you are. Defend, rebound, inside-out, share the ball, low turnovers.”

This is Tom Thibodeau talking about a 62 game winner of a year ago, and a team that played really poorly against the Warriors on Monday night. Now listen to Paul Westphal talk about what the Kings did up in Portland Tuesday night.

Here's a bottom line: The Kings shot a 52.7 eFG% against the Lakers, and 39.6% vs the Blazers. Want to beat the Bulls? You'll have to make more shots consistently. The Bulls shot a 44.4 eFG% vs the Lakers on Christmas Day, and against the Warriors on Monday the Bulls shot a 46.3 eFG%. The Bulls turned it over quite a bit vs the Warriors, but not against the Lakers. Against the Lakers, the Bulls had a 100 even ORtg. Against the Warriors, the Bulls had a 98 ORtg. The Kings had a 113.2 ORtg vs the Lakers and a 87.9 ORtg vs the Blazers.

Rather than drone on any further, I'd like to just simply throw out what I'd like to see this team do tomorrow.

1. Tyreke Evans come out and show why he's such an important player the Kings have faith in. The Bulls are beatable, but not if Evans doesn't come out roaring and setting the table for this team all night. When the Bulls make a run, it would be nice if Evans could answer it with some greatness of his own. This is a home game, and while the Bulls have had 2 days off, it's also true that defending your homecourt is one of the most important steps in becoming a better team. Tyreke Evans needs to be in attack mode and play at his best on 2 ends of the court for the Kings to win. There is an opportunity here; Tyreke needs to take it. (Cue "theme of the season" with violins in the background.)
2. The continued shot selection of DeMarcus Cousins progressing. Last year I thought one of the problems (and I think it's a problem this year) is that Cousins doesn't shoot too many perimeter shots, but that when he catches the ball on the perimeter he's too worried about getting somewhere else on the floor after catching the ball. Once Cuz puts the ball on the floor you can bet that the best thing possible for the Kings in that scenario is that Cuz gets fouled. Typically it's a turnover or a bad off balanced shot.
3. What I would like to see DeMarcus Cousins do as the season progresses starting tomorrow night is shooting in rhythm on the perimeter and not rushing to get inside all the time. When on the block, and I'm not suggesting that Cuz can't play on the block necessarily, make your move decisively as possible. My biggest issue with DeMarcus Cousins' post play is that he isn't very aggressive in getting his shots in the most efficient way possible. I don't think Cousins will ever be Zach Randolph on the block good, but there is no reason quality shots can't happen more consistently. On the other hand, against a team like Chicago it may be an advantage for Cousins to take 5 or 6 of those perimeter shots to keep the paint less packed. (It is a shot he can hit consistently if he's balanced and in rhythm. The key is those 2 things though, and Cousins doesn't do that every possession.) If Cousins doesn't move faster to get a high quality shot on the block, it won't matter how many shots he gets there in my estimation.
4. I would like to see Jimmer Fredette be more aggressive in looking for his shot. There were too many times against Portland and LA when Jimmer looked far too tentative in getting his shot. Part of that is adjusting to the speed of the NBA game (which Jimmer is certainly adjusting to), and part of that is Jimmer is trying too hard to get other guys shots first at times. If Jimmer just goes out and hits a couple in a row, it should help him relax just a little. Relaxing and finding a comfort level certainly can't hurt anyway.

What I really want to see is a competitive 48 minute basketball game. If the Bulls come out like gangbusters (and they might), they will probably win. But the Kings can hang in there in part because it's their home court and in part because when their cylinders are operating properly this Kings team can play with anyone. They just have that kind of talent. The only thing that would be exceptionally disappointing is if the Kings are as lethargic and slow as they were in Portland for long stretches of the 2nd half. 

Here is the Box Score in case you care about that sort of thing.

These are games that are always tough to write about because of the complicated nature of the struggles. I suppose I'll start with Tyreke Evans: He flat out stunk tonight. He should be ashamed of his performance and go at Chicago Thursday night with the intensity of a Hindu Penitent to make up for tonight's stinker. Tyreke probably won't though so there is that. Whatever he was, Tyreke was not engaged and getting after it tonight. I don't care what the reasons are; Tyreke needs to be the driving force behind this team night in and night out. Tonight Tyreke did not exhibit such.

Marcus Thornton was off tonight and never really had it going all night. But Thornton wasn't really to blame. It's not like he was the only one who was out of rhythm, sync, or even that effective. He had lots of company tonight.

Jimmer Fredette frustrated me all night with his shot selection, but it's his 2nd game. Patience is very much needed. What illustrated to me that Jimmer hasn't really figured it out quite yet is when he passed up a wide open 3 (especially for him) to give it up to Travis Outlaw. Outlaw had literally just passed the ball to Jimmer for a wide open 3. Once Jimmer learns these things, I suspect we will see a more consistent performer. Jimmer was beat repeatedly in transition defense, and that's to be expected. Jimmer is like the rest of this roster: A work in progress.

John Salmons had one of those games that happens. If he wasn't a veteran, I'd be concerned. But bigger SF's like Gerald Wallace will give the current 10 man rotation problems unless Evans or Salmons can defend them. That's really the lesson you should be taking away from tonight.

Isaiah Thomas didn't have a great game, but let's be honest: He wasn't likely going to have to a special moment every night out. The Kings, though, turned the ball over 20 times, and Thomas wasn't one of them. (He got a bit lucky as a few potential turnover's ended up not happening.) Nonetheless, LSG took fairly reasonable care of the ball. The Blazers just figured out the Kings number tonight and smashed the Kings for the last 2 1/2 quarters.

Travis Outlaw grabbed 7 boards. If there is one thing I do not understand, it's the fixation on Travis Outlaw by Westphal and the coaching staff. But, if at some point, Outlaw emerges as an effective contributor off the bench I suppose the early struggles are worth it.

Jason Thompson had some really good moments that showed me he knew what was going on. In fact, all of them came when the Kings were building at one point (gasp!) a 14 point lead. As that lead evaporated the Kings simply and slowly devolved into a hot discombulated mess of a stinkpot offense. It cost them big time on both ends with all the repeated leak-outs by the Blazers (who exploited the godawful transition defense). But Jason Thompson showed that he could hit a shot in the lane, would play active if not effective defense, and looked like he was trying to play well. Whatever happpened during the 1st 2 preseason games are forgettable if JT can perform anything near his 5-6 floor (1-2 line too) performance for 11 points. He only grabbed 2 boards, but that was not entirely his fault. Not when JJ Hickson and Travis Outlaw each grab 7 boards apiece.

Speaking of Hickson, he was also effective offensively at times tonight. Unfortunately, that was all during the building of the 14 point lead. After that, I'm not sure the Kings ran any offensive sets that weren't offensive. Hickson used his athleticism and scoring ability to get some buckets that I think as the other guys around Hickson figure out he'll get the ball more in those spots whenever possible. But, as I said about Jimmer, there is growing pains. Figuring each other out is a part of the process.

Chuck Hayes was Chuck Hayes.

And then there was Cousins. He had a reasonably decent statistical game, and that was something in of itself. There was a couple of nice spin moves along with some excellent rebounding. There was also a few turnovers, a few fouls that shouldn't have been committed. Boogie, and this was the part that I thought really made me happy to see, managed to block 2 shots tonight. If he can manage to block a shot or even 1.5 shots most years that will help this team get better possessions offensively.

My biggest frustration with DeMarcus Cousins tonight was on a play, I think, in the late 3rd quarter where Cuz could have started the break if he could have found an outlet pass to Jimmer (I think) that might have resulted in an easy bucket that could have helped stem the tide. Other than that, he got a double-double and made a few stupid plays. No Kings fan should be upset if you could pencil Boogie in for 17 & 11 all year long.

Well game 2 is here. The Kings are 1-0, and getting to 2-0 is going to be harder than it was getting to 1-0. First off there is the fact that this is a road game. (Although the Kings will be back in Sac by about 1230 or 1am.) There is the emotional high from last night vs the Lakers to play against a Western Conference Playoff team from last season that is still out to show that it has a long shelf life in it's own way. It's not like Portland is full of scrubs.

After 1 game, the Kings are 6th in ORtg (this isn't going to last) at 112.6 Pts Per Game. (Last year the Kings were at 103.5 ORtg.) After last night the Kings were at a 102.5 DRtg. (Last year 109 DRtg.) Does 1 game mean much? No. But it sure will be fun to watch this change from night to night. The current ORtg is 6th in the NBA and the DRtg is 14th in the NBA. Last season, the Kings were 20th in DRtg and 25th in ORtg.

As far as the Offensive 4 factors go, the Kings are 5th in eFG%, 9th in TOV%, 17th in ORB%, and 8th in FT/FGA. Defensively, they are 6th (this is good) in eFG% allowed, 25th in TOV% (a low turnover game means you turn over the ball less and force less turnovers), the DRB% is 24th in the NBA (very much needs work), and give up the 7th least amount of FT/FGA (means that the opponents are going to the line less). Do know that the Hawks and Jazz have yet to play this season so these early numbers, because it is only one game, mean very little. It's going to be worth discussing after about 10 games though. Compare this with last season? Watch these trends as the Kings will need to be competitive to win games.

As far as the Blazers go? They are all about LaMarcus Aldridge, Gerald Wallace (G-Dub!!!), Nicolas Batum, Wesley Matthews (he had an exceptionally sneaky underrated season last year), Raymond Felton, Jamal Crawford and Marcus Camby assuming he's up to it.

Assuming you believe the Blazers play at a faster pace than the Kings, you might as well notice the Blazers are 2nd in pace (guffaw!) and the Kings are at 22nd in pace (guffaw deux!). Don't pay attention to it. The Lakers are a slow paced team and for the most part the Kings played a halfcourt game with the occasional up tempo moment. The Blazers played Philly in the Rose Garden out lasting them 107-103.