Reports of UConn Players game performance in the NBA

[Gurleyman]

Looks like Brooks is refusing to go to Lamb down the stretch yet again. I know he made a couple mistakes at the end of the 3rd quarter, but you have to develop him for crunch time at some point. Right?

They decided not tonight after those two turnovers. He was playing well - but had a couple rookie moments. They just put him in with 15 seconds left - Durant tried to find him with a skip pass and it deflected to Ibaka. Then Joe Johnson wins it on a total garbage shot. But kudos to him.

Lamb may get some blame for the loss - he gave the Nets five points at the end of the first and third quarters (first quarter by shooting too soon, third quarter by throwing it to them). A little unfair since he still left with the Thunder up 10, but the play at the of the third was a momentum swing.

Kemba has fallen off a cliff. Can't watch him right now.

 

[huskyharry]

4 points, 4 boards, a block, a steal, and an assist in 7 minutes for Hilton Armstrong against the Suns.

At least he had a run for a while...looks like he is no longer on the GS roster, a 7 footer named Kuzmic was reactivated.
http://espn.go.com/nba/team/roster/_/name/gs/golden-state-warriors

 

[BoatShow]

Get it together, Kemba.

 

[caw]

Rudy has played very well for Sac. Of course he's getting crapped on by every analyst because Toronto has suddenly won 7/10 or so. Maybe it was just a bad fit. Shooting almost 50% in his first 11 games. Unfortunately Sac has zero bench.

 

[boog204]

Rudy has played very well for Sac. Of course he's getting crapped on by every analyst because Toronto has suddenly won 7/10 or so. Maybe it was just a bad fit. Shooting almost 50% in his first 11 games. Unfortunately Sac has zero bench.

It's telling that thus far both teams Rudy has left has improved upon his departure...

 

[joober jones]

At least he had a run for a while...looks like he is no longer on the GS roster, a 7 footer named Kuzmic was reactivated.
http://espn.go.com/nba/team/roster/_/name/gs/golden-state-warriors

Yeah unfortunately he was waived. I'm not sure what he's up to now. I was disappointed that he didn't get more playing time in GS because aside from poor free throw shooting, he was very effective in playing excellent defense and rebounding at an extremely efficient rate. I still think he has the ability to carve out a spot in the league... possibly the Nets would be a good fit as they expressed interest in him earlier and they've lost Brook Lopez for the season so they'll need another big on the roster to back things up.

 

[James]

Walker had a nice 30 point game and W @ SAC.

 

[Gurleyman]

Suddenly our best NBA player is Rudy Gay. He's been real good in Sac - including phenomenal tonight. Has 32 with 6 minutes left on 10-15 shooting against Portland.

Edit: he fouled out right after this post on just a breathtakingly dreadful foul call. Stayed on 32.

 

[James]

There were alot of uconn fans who considered rudy completely washed and terrible . Right here on the yard. Joins shaq as the only other player to get 30 on 60% shooting playing for three seperate teams

 

[Dogdeacon]

There were alot of uconn fans who considered rudy completely washed and terrible . Right here on the yard. Joins shaq as the only other player to get 30 on 60% shooting playing for three seperate teams

Rudy was playing terribly in Toronto, Rudy is overpaid (13th highest in league & makes same $17.8M per as Kevin Durant). I think analysts or UConn fans acknowledging that is a tad different than 'completely washed and terrible'. For most of his career he's been a very good NBA player but on the cusp of all-star or superstardom and not able to fully get there. Some UConn fans are disappointed and bummed or I'd say realistic that Rudy is a good but not great NBA player. So UConn fans expected more, that's it. He is an analyst whipping boy due to the poor shooting/advance stats and the contract. If you think my analysis is vastly unfair you simply need to look at the players Rudy was traded for in 3 transactions to get a 'market' opinion of his value. I hope he exceeds that and does well in Sacto, but the team is still terrible and I'd much rather it worked out in Memphis.

 

[James]

Rudy was playing terribly in Toronto, Rudy is overpaid (13th highest in league & makes same $17.8M per as Kevin Durant). I think analysts or UConn fans acknowledging that is a tad different than 'completely washed and terrible'. For most of his career he's been a very good NBA player but on the cusp of all-star or superstardom and not able to fully get there. Some UConn fans are disappointed and bummed or I'd say realistic that Rudy is a good but not great NBA player. So UConn fans expected more, that's it. He is an analyst whipping boy due to the poor shooting/advance stats and the contract. If you think my analysis is vastly unfair you simply need to look at the players Rudy was traded for in 3 transactions to get a 'market' opinion of his value. I hope he exceeds that and does well in Sacto, but the team is still terrible and I'd much rather it worked out in Memphis.

Well just take a wait and see approach on this. He's currently playing like a top 5 small forward in the league. posters here deemed him UNWATCHABLE . Kings games are highly entertaining.

 

[Gurleyman]

Well just take a wait and see approach on this. He's currently playing like a top 5 small forward in the league. posters here deemed him UNWATCHABLE . Kings games are highly entertaining.

He was. He was just playing iso ball and shooting 40 percent on bad shots. Whatever went wrong in Toronto it was less than one full season, so hopefully it'll wash away if he keeps playing well. He's been really good in Sacto. Now 20 ppg on 50 percent shooting -over a month's worth of sample size. Plus he has killed Miami and Portand.

 

[BoatShow]

I used Kemba's stats as the baseline for this so that's why they're kind of odd.
HOWEVER, (eligible) NBA players averaging at least 18.4 pts 4.7 asts and 4.3 rebs: Durant, Lebron, Curry, Wall, Paul, Kemba. I say eligible because Westbrook would qualify but he has missed chunks of play thus far. Not bad company.

 

[BoatShow]

Well just take a wait and see approach on this. He's currently playing like a top 5 small forward in the league. posters here deemed him UNWATCHABLE . Kings games are highly entertaining.

I'd love to get more Kings games on TV. Isiah Thomas, Rudy, Boogie Cousins fun team to watch for sure.

 

[Gurleyman]

Really rough stretch for our guys. Lamb 1-12, Ray 2-14, Kemba and Cats lose by 30.

But Rudy comes through again. Puts up 22-10-5 on 8-13 shooting as Kings beat Orlando. Took a couple bad "heat check" shots, but otherwise pretty solid effort. Now averaging 20.6 ppg on 51 percent shooting in Sacto. He's like a whole new player.

Drummond also had an 11-12-6 night (6 blocks), but didn't look all that great. Missed a couple bunnies and couldn't score when he posted up MCW on the break. But Pistons won.

 

[champs99and04]

Great games for Lamb and Kemba tonight:

Kemba - 29 points, 5 assists, 6 rebounds, 10-20/2-5/7-8

Lamb - 16 points, 2 assists, 3 rebounds, 6-10/3-5/2-2

Drummond went for 13 and 13 and 5.

 

[Gurleyman]

Rudy killing it again. Has 20 in the 3rd quarter on 8-12 shooting. Kings up 24 on the Cavs.

On edit: Kings pushed lead up near 40, so Rudy called it a night when he came out with 3 mins left in the third quarter. Stayed on 20 on 8-12, with 5 Rebs, 3 assists, 3 blocks. Cavs may stink, but they had Deng and CJ Miles to play the 3, so wasn't like he went up against scrubs.

 

[Gurleyman]

Another nice night for Kemba. Finished with 25-7-5 on 9-15 shooting in a win over the Knicks. I think he made his final 6 shots after being 3-9 - some big ones in he second half to give the Cats separation. Al Jeff had 35 on 14-20, but continues to be an assist killer as he takes a good post feed and then takes 10 seconds to shoot a fadeaway on the other side of the paint after five ball fakes, but that's his game.

 

[Gurleyman]

Lamb having a rough night - way off on wide open looks. He's officially in a slump. Three bad shooting days around one good one against Milwaukee when they didn't need it. The Westbrook injury seems to have hurt him - either by putting more pressure on him or by putting Jackson in the starting lineup and upsetting his chemistry with the second unit. They play Durant longer minutes without Westbrook and Lamb just sorta stands in the corner and watches when Durant plays, as opposed to being active with and without the ball when Durant's on the bench. Can't fault OKC for doing that - up to Lamb to adjust and make his knock down shots when he's not guarded.

 

[Mike Honcho]

Another nice night for Kemba. Finished with 25-7-5 on 9-15 shooting in a win over the Knicks. I think he made his final 6 shots after being 3-9 - some big ones in he second half to give the Cats separation. Al Jeff had 35 on 14-20, but continues to be an assist killer as he takes a good post feed and then takes 10 seconds to shoot a fadeaway on the other side of the paint after five ball fakes, but that's his game.

Love the highlights on SportsCenter... "Oh my. That's his UConn crossover move there"

 

[Gurleyman]

Kemba just had a GIF-worthy ankle-breaking move on MCW for a 3 at the end of the half. Left MCW 10 feet away.

Both of them had good first halves (MCW has scored over Kemba on drives a couple times and hasn't looked as bad with his man to man defense as I hoped going in). Kemba has 13 on 4-8 shooting, MCW 12 on 5-12.

 

[champs99and04]

Kemba finishes up with 26 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds on 9-21/2-7/6-6. Hit a jumper with fifteen seconds left to tie the score and then missed a tough three at the buzzer.

Jeff played nine minutes and grabbed five boards, which is always good to see.

 

[Gurleyman]

Kemba finishes up with 26 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds on 9-21/2-7/6-6. Hit a jumper with fifteen seconds left to tie the score and then missed a tough three at the buzzer.

Jeff played nine minutes and grabbed five boards, which is always good to see.

Last 3 was just desperation. Damn near made it. He might have made that if he didn't play the whole second half back to back nights and get beaten up pretty good. The shot was on line and just a smidge short. Only flaw in his effort was missing a couple of open elbow jumpers, which led to 9-21 instead of maybe 11-21 or 12-21, which is forgiveable on the second of two back to back heavy minutes nights (plus he missed a frantic end to end buzzer beater from 3 at the end of the half, and the desperation shot at the end). He also totally broke Thaddeus Young's ankles on a switch (worse than MCW earlier), but missed the stand still 20 footer. He had 8 assists and 1 turnover, and made a few hustle plays keeping rebounds alive late.

I don't like this team for him. He gets no help at all defending screen and rolls and no rim protection whatsoever if he gets beat, yet when he's off the ball, he's constantly giving help. They ask a ton of him defensively, and then he doesn't have good places to go for assists on the other end (Jefferson doesn't shoot off the catch on deep post feeds). But if he was on a better team, he might not have found his way into the starting lineup.

Rudy had 20 in the first half today and has 26 through 3 (10-16 shooting - had two of his shots blocked by Pekovic somehow instead of just jumping over him).

 

[Gurleyman]

Rudy finishes with 33 on 12-19 shooting including a huge 3 with 19 seconds left to push lead to five. Kings win at Minnesota.

 

[champs99and04]

Last 3 was just desperation. Damn near made it. He might have made that if he didn't play the whole second half back to back nights and get beaten up pretty good. The shot was on line and just a smidge short. Only flaw in his effort was missing a couple of open elbow jumpers, which led to 9-21 instead of maybe 11-21 or 12-21, which is forgiveable on the second of two back to back heavy minutes nights (plus he missed a frantic end to end buzzer beater from 3 at the end of the half, and the desperation shot at the end). He also totally broke Thaddeus Young's ankles on a switch (worse than MCW earlier), but missed the stand still 20 footer. He had 8 assists and 1 turnover, and made a few hustle plays keeping rebounds alive late.

I don't like this team for him. He gets no help at all defending screen and rolls and no rim protection whatsoever if he gets beat, yet when he's off the ball, he's constantly giving help. They ask a ton of him defensively, and then he doesn't have good places to go for assists on the other end (Jefferson doesn't shoot off the catch on deep post feeds). But if he was on a better team, he might not have found his way into the starting lineup.

Rudy had 20 in the first half today and has 26 through 3 (10-16 shooting - had two of his shots blocked by Pekovic somehow instead of just jumping over him).

I'm glad you were able to provide some context to that last shot, since I was only following along on gamecast and couldn't gauge the degree of difficulty. On one hand, I agree with you that the Bobcats aren't a great team for him because of what you mentioned. On the other, it's good that he has free reign to shoot a lot. I doubt he'd have this much rope to work his way out of slumps (though on a contender, he may not work his way into slumps as often because he could do other things when his jumper was off) on other teams.

Rudy finishes up with 33 points, 6 assists, and 5 rebounds on 12-19/3-3/6-6. He's on an absolute tear - I don't think he's ever played better basketball. (Edit: looks like you beat me to it)