SB Nation User Blog: lietothegirls

This weeks Asinine Trade Thread: Dec 14

lietothegirls — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:08:42 -0000

This is the place for your well thought out trade idea!

This is also the place for all your pipe dreams, or for some wacky ill-advised nonsense just because the numbers match up in that Trade Machine Thingy.

Trade for players you love, trade away players you hate. Just trade to make the team better without regard to emotion - or make it all about emotion.

HINT: Think big man, young and developing, big time Stud - or short term enough so that you won't be crushed by "that kills our future flexibility!" comments.

But actually - do whatever you want!

Thats what this is here for, to keep other posts from wandering into 'I think we could get LaBron!'.

Out-think Geoff Petrie!

Please out-think Mike Dunleavy and anyone ever associated with the Clippers.

You never know, you may gain wide acclaim and Fame for your brilliant move!

Surgeon General Warning: Only abstinance provides full protection.

Your choice - let 'er rip!

ESPN trade machine link is below

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine

Is Bosh a Max Player? An argument for yes.

lietothegirls — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:16:07 -0000

Is Bosh a Max Player? An argument for yes.

There's been some discussion that of all the big FA available, maybe Chris Bosh has a slight possibility of coming to SAC.
Read here:
In which Raptor Republic makes a pretty convincing argument that Chris Bosh IS a MAX salary player, something I've never (and may not still) been convinced of.
Thanks to Mayfieldcol for the article link on the Asinine thread.

This Weeks Asinine Trade Thread: Dec. 7th

lietothegirls — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:53:00 -0000

This is the place for your well thought out trade idea.

This is also the place for all your pipe dreams, or for some wacky ill-advised nonsense just because the numbers match up in that Trade Machine Thingy. But beware anyway -

Surgeon General Warning: Only abstinance provides full protection.

Trade for players you love, trade away players you hate. Just trade to make the team better without regard to emotion - or make it all about emotion.

HINT: Think big man, young and developing, big time Stud - or short term enough so that you won't be crushed by "that kills our future flexibility!" comments.

But actually, do whatever you want, thats what this is here for. You never know, you may gain wide acclaim and Fame for your brilliant move!

Your choice - let 'er rip!

ESPN trade machine link is below

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine

(This is a FanPost from a member

LTTGs view, Kings vs Hornets

lietothegirls — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:55:23 -0000

Another game, another set of heroes.

It’s starting to become expected for this great young team. Who will take the lead tonight? Who will be the Hero?

Well, you saw it, it was Sergio Rodriguez and Jason Thompson. JT, who’s been a bit quiet lately, had a solid interior game on both ends that anchored this team to victory. There was a lot of help from many players, Omri Casspi and Beno again (though he faded a bit after cracking his head on the floor trying to take a charge from West) and of course John Brockman, who contributed 8 rebounds, 5 points in 16 minutes. It took Songalia exactly one play against Brockman to turn and complain to the refs about the physicality – one play, and he justs gets to every ball.

But Sergio was clearly the Player of the game with 24 / 5 / 2 in just 24 minutes. It suddenly looks like Sergio can shoot!? I thought players were supposed to Leave the Kings and become good other places – not the other way around. He was aggressive yet calm and controlled. He’s been just excellent on offense and has usually been, well, adequate on defense (as of late).

The energy and enthusiasm this group brings from the bench is just remarkable, everyone who rolls out seems to contribute in a positive way.

Casspi was excellent and his energy is unstoppable and I think disheartening to opponents, though when he got his wish to guard West he was forced right back to the basket. On that note, it’s so strange to me that West is such an excellent low post player on offense yet contributes very little on the boards. 7.4/ a game isn’t bad, but he just doesn’t gather anything that doesn’t come to him, and very few (2) did tonight. He was bailed out on some foul calls by the officials on several occasions. ‘I’m trying to draw a foul – do you see me? Here I go – [whistle]’

The rest of the Hornets with the exception of Collison and Okafor looked extremely ordinary. They unlike us have little or no fire off the bench, ignore Bobby B’s late game numbers, he was handed some of them as the Kings were methodically pacing and closing the game out. (wow)

Let me say that after seeing him in person again, if you run a few plays for Okafor (just a few), he can score with ease. New Orl made an effort to get him a few shots and he finished strong on all of them that I remember. His free throw is – wretched, but his defense was excellent all night, very All-Star caliber in that respect.

Astnishing to me that last year we moaned about not having a point guard - and this year we seem to have Three who can control the game in various ways. Strangely, when they were all on the court together for a sequence - that seemed to work very well. I'll have to check the tape/match-ups on that one.

Thanks to BTE for riding shotgun with me at this game, we had a good time - and it was great to see what was essentially another wire-to-wire victory.

7-2 protecting the home court baby! Pacers are goin' DOWN!

This weeks Asinine trade thread Nov 23

lietothegirls — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:19:35 -0000

This is the place for every well thought out idea, pipe dreams, or of wacky ill-advised nonsense. Trade for players you love, trade away players you hate. Just trade to make the team better without regard to emotion - or make it all about emotion. Complete the 10 trades or the massive 6 team trade that leaves us a roster of DHoward, Garnet, C Anthony, Dwade and CP3. (make that one work and you get a prize!)

Your choice - let 'er rip!

ESPN trade machine link is below

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine

Westphal follows LttGs advice!

lietothegirls — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:04:22 -0000

Westphal follows LttGs advice!

"We go through drills," Westphal said in characterizing how the team worked on the aforementioned aspects of the offense. "We try to run our offense with no dribbles and emphasizing passing and spacing, and they did a good job picking that up."
Post Bulls game Lttg: "PW needs to have a practice session called:"

‘What to do when you’re double teamed: The Art of not dribbling the ball away.’

Another: ‘When in doubt – pass, when passing doubt – just shoot the round leather thingy’

Stephen Jackson Traded to Bobcats

lietothegirls — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:26:34 -0000

Stephen Jackson Traded to Bobcats

For Raja Bell and Vlad Radmanovic. I think GS did alright here.

Help! I have delusions of Grandeur!

lietothegirls — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:37:14 -0000

I know, I know, just a rather sloppy win at home over a team that wasn't even close to playoff caliber last season - so why am I looking at the Kings schedule ahead under a new light? Why do I suddenly see Nov. ending with a winning record?

Two words: Determination and mental and physical toughness

(ok, that was like, five words)

Lets take the rest of this month, forget next month or January because who the hell knows what will be going on by then?

Start with Friday, a weekend night game that should attract a decent crowd against a modestly talented but scrappy team (sound familier?). I have moved the Rockets game into the 'This is a team we can beat' column. If the team plays the way they just did against Okl, that is tough, scappy - and more tough but execute our offense better - we will have matched what Houston brings and I think we just probably have more points at the end of the game.
5-4 and they start printing playoff tickets! (OK - no)

Then I think there's some losses that dim the lights a bit

Chicago here [We have a shot but call it a loss] 5-5

@ Dallas [forget it, it would be miraculous] 5-6

@ Houston [hopefully Houston will be looking for revenge, not confirmation - call it a good loss] 5-7

@Memphis [I'm calling this a win, they're a mess] 6-7

Then we have three HOME games, only one of those teams is any good and they are struggling.

NJ here: [better be a win baby] 7-7

NY here: [just stop the 3 ball and its a win] 8-7

NOrl here: [ we'll see, but I call a close defense of our homecourt] 9-7

Whats wrong with me? Am I just nuts? Should I seek clinical help? Should I get that haircut I've been putting off and shave more often?

YOU DECIDE!

Poll

What's wrong with Lttg?

He needs help - quick!

3 votes

A little over excited by a few wins

47 votes

He's being reasonably optimistic - but I don't know

75 votes

Nothing! Kings are gonna win some more games!

61 votes

He's pretty good lookin' - but not my type (not that there's anything wrong- )

13 votes

199 votes | Poll has closed

Kings jump up rankings

lietothegirls — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:49:54 -0000

Kings jump up rankings

Only to #24, which sounds about right to me when all is said and done this year.

LTTGs view Kings vs Hawks

lietothegirls — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:54:28 -0000

Well, it wasn’t a good effort in the 4th quarter. Most of the team seemed to have their heads down even though the game was still close until very late. It felt a little too much like last year to me. No one seemed to want the ball (or know what to do with it) at the end except Kevin Martin – who was mostly being doubled – and the rest of the team stood on their hands too much waiting for him to make a play. The derth of energy and confidence at times was upsetting. Even Casspi seemed to suffer from it. I think some it sprung from the lack of clearly executed plays, which was also strange as they seemed to be on the road to straightening that out against Memphis. It was a definite backslide team trust wise. That truth is that clean execution was missing most of the game, it was very clunky – the hawks just waited until the end to exploit it.

A theme through out the game was the constant lay-up drills the Hawks ran on just about everyone. I believe they scored 66 points in the paint. (cough cough) I’m all for JT and Hawes staying out of foul trouble – but maybe use a few hard ones at judicious times especially when you have a few available late. Noce and Brockman seemed to have no trouble with that and I was frankly surprised when the Brockness was quickly pulled after a nice hard foul which seemed to discourage (I believe it was) Josh Smith. I’m not removing the blame from the guards as many of those point paints came from Atlanta guards but our guys generally were (except for some fast breaks) right with them. It then becomes the big men’s responsibility to lay in a little pain.

The hawks do look like a team that has been playing together for a few years now and know how to execute very efficiently. They did the same thing to Portland last night - So there’s that. It did seem like the Kings were the more tired team at the end which was puzzling.

You saw it, in the end we just didn't get loose balls or make plays that were there for the making and taking.

A few specifics:

Kevin Martin (bad wrist) had an excellent game as you know, 11 rebounds from your 2, that’s admirable but you wonder what the total rebound numbers would have been without that. Kevin played very well, Beno played well and JT played pretty well.

I thought JTs final numbers were a little deceiving as at least half of his (8) offensive rebounds were off several of his own point blank misses. I’d have liked to see him dunk it a time or three rather than those soft lay-ups. He hit his FTs which was great to see.

Tyreke certainly had some good moments, but he also looked like a rookie-not-quite-sure-what-to-do on many possessions. They blocked his lay-ups four times and he waaay over dribbled on several possessions ala JSalmons mixed with some chucking late. He’s still finding his way, I hope its not That way.

Noce started strong then disappeared. That may be unfair; he stopped making any plays though, those rebounds he was getting early turned into off the fingertips to Hawks.

Hawes was pretty busy with Horford all night and they mostly cancelled each other out. A bit of a victory for Hawes I suppose though Horford came out ahead slightly. I’m not sure why he didn’t drag Horford out and hit a few jumpers – but perhaps Horford did to Hawes what Hawes did to him. Spence has got to take a few of those shots out there though, miss or make. Its his advantage and he’s got to try to exploit it.

As Tokyo just pointed out - I also thought the substitution patterns were pretty strange. Casspi makes a play and is pulled etc...

Jamal Crawford did whatever he wanted out there and we had no answer for him. Like last night against the Blazers he was the difference in the game. That final weapon a good team needs.