Kekgeek G19 grades vs Hornets

[kekgeek]

Conley: C (his grade was from the last 2 minutes)
Brown: B
Naw: C-
Kat: A-
Gobert: A+
Naz: A
Slow Mo: D+
Shake: D

Finch: C+

[Q-is-here]

The SloMo one is a head-scratcher Kek. I'd probably give him a B or B-. What'd you see that you didn't like? His free throws were big in this game.

(I do think that he could be problematic come playoff time. Why ever bite on his pump fakes from beyond the arc or even bother closing out? Opposing players should know he wants to drive every single time. Just dare him to shoot it. He has zero confidence and that's going to get exposed in April).

[FNG]

Kek's being too tough on SloMo and Conley...their 14-15 on free throws was a key contributor to this win. And Conley went 14-10-5 with only 1 TO, and was stellar in his defensive help and closing out at the line...he's playing like a 25 year old! I give him a B+, upgrade SloMo to a C+ (he really stepped up on D against Scary Terry, and downgrade Naz to a C (he seemed to be lost on defense all night).

Oh, and I'll give the Wolves an overall A+...nobody had them 15-4 at this stage of the season!

[Lipoli390]

Conley: C (his grade was from the last 2 minutes)
Brown: B
Naw: C-
Kat: A-
Gobert: A+
Naz: A
Slow Mo: D+
Shake: D

Finch: C+

I agree with Q that your grade for Conley is way too low. He struggled with his shot, but he had 5 rebounds and 10 assists with only 1 turnover running an offense that scored over 120 points. And though his shots weren’t falling, he hit 7 of 8 free throw attempts and came up big in crunch time with a huge rebound, and a big three-pointer. I’d give him a B-.

I also agree with Q that Slo Mo deserves a higher grade. He had 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals to go with his 11 points and he was 7 for 7 from the foul line.

I’d also increase KAT from an A to an A+. I initially gave Rudy and KAT the grades you gave them. But thinking about it some more, KAT has to get an A+ as well. He was the Wolves main offensive force last night. He was our leading scorer with 28 points and that included hitting 50%+ from the field and from behind the arc. He also continued to play well defensively. All that gets him an A. But his passing is what bumps him up to an A+ in my view. He had five assists and all of them were impressive. He was a big reason for Rudy’s scoring success. Rudy and KAT were absolutely fantastic last night - almost making me a believer in TC’s two-big experiment.

I’m bump NAW from a C- to a C+. He was pretty ineffective offensively, but his stellar defense was still there. He didn’t shoot well, but he was important to the win. I’d give him a C+.

[Lipoli390]

Kek's being too tough on SloMo and Conley...their 14-15 on free throws was a key contributor to this win. And Conley went 14-10-5 with only 1 TO, and was stellar in his defensive help and closing out at the line...he's playing like a 25 year old! I give him a B+, upgrade SloMo to a C+ (he really stepped up on D against Scary Terry, and downgrade Naz to a C (he seemed to be lost on defense all night).

Oh, and I'll give the Wolves an overall A+...nobody had them 15-4 at this stage of the season!

FNG - I agree with you on everything except Naz. I don’t think his defense was nearly as bad as you suggest. Moreover, his offensive contribution was substantial and absolutely critical. He had 23 points and we needed all of them. His scoring was highly efficient - 9-14 from the field, 3-6 from behind the arc and 2-2 from the foul line. I’d stick with Kek’s A-.

[FNG]

Conley: C (his grade was from the last 2 minutes)
Brown: B
Naw: C-
Kat: A-
Gobert: A+
Naz: A
Slow Mo: D+
Shake: D

Finch: C+

I agree with Q that your grade for Conley is way too low. He struggled with his shot, but he had 5 rebounds and 10 assists with only 1 turnover running an offense that scored over 120 points. And though his shots weren’t falling, he hit 7 of 8 free throw attempts and came up big in crunch time with a huge rebound, and a big three-pointer. I’d give him a B-.

I also agree with Q that Slo Mo deserves a higher grade. He had 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals to go with his 11 points and he was 7 for 7 from the foul line.

I’d also increase KAT from an A to an A+. I initially gave Rudy and KAT the grades you gave them. But thinking about it some more, KAT has to get an A+ as well. He was the Wolves main offensive force last night. He was our leading scorer with 28 points and that included hitting 50%+ from the field and from behind the arc. He also continued to play well defensively. All that gets him an A. But his passing is what bumps him up to an A+ in my view. He had five assists and all of them were impressive. He was a big reason for Rudy’s scoring success. Rudy and KAT were absolutely fantastic last night - almost making me a believer in TC’s two-big experiment.

I’m bump NAW from a C- to a C+. He was pretty ineffective offensively, but his stellar defense was still there. He didn’t shoot well, but he was important to the win. I’d give him a C+.

NAW's ability to slip through screens is absurdly effective...Rozier still got 23, but it has to be enormously frustrating to have NAW on you. He'll still come off the bench when Jaden returns, but what a blessing to have two true wing stoppers.

[kekgeek]

Just responding to some of you. Love the discussion.

For slow mo I was probably a little too harsh, I just thought he was so bad in the first half, his turnovers led to fast break points, thought his defense was not as good, him being afraid to shoot is becoming a small issue, also even when he got a steal he would miss it at the other end. With all that said D+ was too harsh, his FTs and defense at the end of the game were crucial to the win. I’m self aware to know i sometimes see negatives early in the game and fixate on them and fail to see the positives. I’ve been doing that with shake a lot lately (even though he deserves it at the moment)

Conley: I’m keeping my grade. Didn’t think he played well until the last 2 minutes where he was fantastic. C is not a bad grade either. The wolves need Conley to score with Ant out and he failed to do that the majority of the game.

Naz: strongly disagree with FNG. This is where single game +\- can be rough. Shake was getting torched on D, Kat was bad on defense especially in the first half (first time this year), Slow Mo and Naw had 4 turnovers that lead to fast break buckets with Naz on the floor. I didn’t think Naz defense was bad at all last night outside when he got lost twice in the three big lineup. Wolves needed scoring and Naz provided that

Kat: first time this year I thought he looked slow on D. He was not garbage but that is why I couldn’t give him a A

Good talk. Haha

[Monster]

Anderson was a bit of a mixed bag but ultimately helped especially down the stretch in this game so probably deserves at least a C which isn’t bad especially for his role. I think Kyle Anderson has been a bit disappointing this season mostly because he has had way too many careless or head scratching turnovers. He has still been an effective player and it does feel like he is rounding into something closer to what he was last year the last few games. His defense on Rozier was eye opening. If he can defend perimeter players like that even for short stretches that’s gonna he pretty big.

As for Anderson’s 3 point shooting…eh I’m not that worried about it. Why? First of all teams basically dared him to shoot those 3’s he took last year. Anderson took 105 regular season 3’s last year. I’d bet there was no less than 25 of his 3 point attempts nobody even attempted to guard him. Spacing isn’t going to be much more adversely affected. I get that he is playing more as a wing this season as opposed to PF last year but that’s offset by Towns and Naz playing more as PFs.

Second last year Anderson ended up playing over 28mpg and took like 1.5 3’s per game. There wasn’t much volume there. Anderson simply isn’t a volume scorer in any way. There is only once in his career he averaged over 13ppg per 36 minutes in his career and that was as a full time starter for Memphis in 2020-2021. His value comes from doing all the things and also being able to slither in here and there and get a bucket when you need it. The Wolves have been playing well this season and Anderson hasn’t been his best most nights.

I think the bigger concern for the Wolves is that they could really use a guard that can get a bucket. Naz Reid helps fill that need but they need Shake or someone to be able to help there at times. Even having McLaughlin back would probably help because even though he isn’t a scorer he can do some things to help drive more offense. It’s not like the Wolves are a big 3 point shooting team either in terms of volume. It feels like Brown might be more capable and willing to let it fly if he got more minutes than Shake but getting McDaniels back would help some too. McDaniels being hurt makes it harder to see if he can take on a larger offensive role which I think he might be capable of but we need to see more of it.

[BloopOracle]

I feel like Rudy should have received the coveted S grade!

[Lipoli390]

Kek - I can’t overstate how much I like your post-game grade threads. Lots of fun and your grades always align generally with my takes. Glad you’re upping Slo MO’s grade and I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment of Naz. I get where you’re coming from on Conley so we’ll just agree to disagree on that.