[Highlight] Darius Acuff falls to the floor on defense and stays there until the ball comes his way… jogs away when he doesn’t get it
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No offense to Kings fans but watching them yesterday and it was just bleak… felt like there was a competition between everyone to see who could take the most contested long range shot every possession (outside of Sabonis).
Sabonis plays his ass off.
I want to see him off that bum ass team. I think he could really still be a big part of a winning team in the right circumstance.
Sabonis has his own problems with how hard it is to play non-rim protecting centers, especially if they don’t stretch the defense on the other end. He is a good player but man in the 00s he would have feasted.
Agreed this sub always hypes players like Sabonis but there’s a reason he hasn’t been on a winning team lol.
If the Jazz got him they’d solve each other’s problems pretty well I think. He’d improve rebounding significantly and JJJ would be the rim protector
It’s extremely hard. He’s an undersized non defending big. He’s a broke man’s Jokic and even the real Jokic has been exploited in the post season the last couple years.
He played 37min yday on a blow out. The kings are letting everyone know he’s still worth some picks
Kinda like seeing walker kessler off the jazz. wtf utah
Lakers fans hate Kessler now though. Can’t grab a rebound, plays soft inside, can’t hit free throws.
Mind you I haven’t watched full games but in the stretches of games I’ve watched (for fantasy basketball research) it seems like the best play Acuff can make at any time is to pass the ball to Sabonis and let him run the offense
I have issues with Sabonis as a key piece to a team but dude always plays his ass off
Yes he might not be a good defender but you could never call sabonis lazy, dude is a workhorse
That replay where Castle stole the ball leading to a fast break and Sean pointed out how bad the body language was of the kings was kinda sad. Like it’s only 4 games into the season. LaVine and Sabonis both played well on offense at least
There were multiple plays last night where the spurs were playing 4v5 on offence and still got a wide open look under the rim.
How did Lavine look? Miami sub desperately wants him, but I hate his game so much. He had like the second worst plus minus in the league last year if you account for his per game stats given he was out a lot.
He’s definitely a good scorer and shooter and can pass out of drives some but that’s all he does
It really depends on your view of Jamal Crawford and Louis Williams. LaVine isn’t a good defender and doesn’t read the floor well-enough to be a reliable on-ball facilitator, but he’s a threat to put up a fairly efficient 30-point night anytime he’s out there.
In my personal opinion, he’d make for an incredible 6th man for a contender.
Great isolation scorer. That’s about it
Retired Lavine truther here lol. I think he surely would help you guys with the horrible perimeter scoring, he is capable of getting 30 while making it look easy. Not a great closer though, that’s where his low IQ is in full display.
No clue why he stank so bad for the Kings(other than Demar Derozan, dude just saps Lavine’s energy).
His salary isn’t worth it, let’s see what offers he gets next year… but you might be trading for a rental.
The Kings badly needed defense. among other things. Getting a pure scorer that can’t play defense, then putting him on the floor with one of the worst defensive big men in the league (Domantas Sabonis) was a recipe for disaster. Add in the fact that they brought in Dennis Schroeder and it didn’t work out. They drafted Devin Carter to be their point guard of the future. That didn’t work out. There was no one in the backcourt to offset Lavine’s weaknesses.
Lavine just doesn’t have ths skillset to help a team like the Kings that have so many deficiencies.
Zach gives you scoring and shooting, nothing else, i know that well.
He also prefers to be involved than to be in the corner, he’s not a ballhog and is capable of being pretty efficient, but not really an off ball guy, he tunes out when that happens.
He was pretty invisible the first half and then racked up points in the 2nd half when it was already a 30 point lead for the spurs.
He sucks.
That would be a bad look in a pickup game man, that’s crazy to see.
It’s the start of the third too he should be rested.
Draymond was right when the camera caught him talking to Acuff.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xnWDDPiJgDU
Is this what his podcast is like when he’s not trying to be a shock jock? This was actually cool to listen to for a change
This guy landed on the worst possible team because they will do nothing to fix these sorts of habits.
People keep saying how the Kings are just “letting him do whatever out there” like it’s a good thing…
People said that the bad habits he displayed at Arkansas would change once he got into the NBA
He landed in a place that virtually guarantees they don’t
“Welcome to basketball hell.”
-Rudy Gay, to George Karl
TBF if there’s one person that actually deserves to be in (basketball) hell it’s that racist snake George Karl but I digress
If hes genueinly trying to win and making mistakes its fine to learn by consequence but i think its pretty clear that Darius’ main goal isn’t winning
Such a shame because he is so talented if he put everything into the game. He could become an iverson lite with CP3 mentality. If he didn’t apply a good attitude and work ethic then he may end up like a shorter jordan Pool.
These days you simply need to put up enough PPG to get a maximum rookie extension, and then you’re set for life. And it’s not even that hard when you’re that talented and teams are so dumb.
Not exactly. Look at Cam Thomas.
That’s pretty clear to you after 4 games? Some of you guys treat Acuff like he’s why Rome fell.
Bro is jacking shots at an unprecedented rate. No one in the league has gotten better just chucking it whenever all the time.
He is the best pure scorer in the class drafted to the least competitive team in the league, he should absolutely be dominating usage.
Also, you know all those amazing scorers who have figured out the exact angles, and footwork, and techniques and timing to pull off hard degree of difficulty shots consistently…guess how you get to that level? Thousands and thousands and thousands of reps, even better if they are in game reps.
If their focus is fully on his development this year, then actually letting him experience as many reps, as many matchups, as many shot opportunities and offensive sets etc as possible is absolutely the best way to fast track him mastering his elite skillset.
Wilt Chamberlain put up more shots than Acuff has as a rookie.
I don’t know man, Hali looked pretty good on the kings. But it could also be that he’s just a natural born winner
you’re right. i’ve said this before elsewhere and i’ll say it again: any decent talent that has come from the Kings in the last decade or so became decent despite them being on the Kings. Boogie, Isaiah Thomas, Haliburton, and Fox succeeded despite the Kings coaching staff, not because of them
You’ve had Mike Malone, Mike Brown, and Dave Joerger, don’t put it all on the coaching.
It’s so funny how everyone said the trade needed to happen because you can’t play 2 guards together meanwhile Dame and Morant are killing. Dame and CJ were good too. Hali is literally playing with a PG on Indy and how ironic that “Fox can’t play with Hali” but apparently he can play with Castle and Harper at the same time 😂
Kings were also on the ascendancy and that bleeds into a winning culture
What bad habits of Hali’s did they fix?
Guy used to pick his nose
Hali is the best player in the world and has never had a bad habit.
This is factual and shall not be debated.
That was like three coaching staffs ago lol
Letting him do whatever is the only value he has, he will never be playable on a winning team with his defensive limitations. At least on a tanking team he can be entertaining.
There are some awful defenders on good teams. Usually they are more of a 6th man microwave scorer spot, not really what you want to hear about your lotto pick rookie…
Plenty of stars play shit defence. See: Damian Lillard, Steph curry (first 3 titles), James harden, Donovan Mitchell, Nikola Jokic.
Difference between bad defense and straight up not trying
All of those players tried on defense at their best (Harden’s iffy he’s had times of not trying but peak Harden did)
The Lakers show us that you can have 2 of the worst defenders in the NBA as your starters and it’ll work out if they just don’t miss.
Luka isn’t remotely one of the worst defenders in the NBA. Lazy and annoyingly whiny, yes, but not one of the worst. His size and hands are good enough that he’s just “not good”.
lol writing off 19 year olds a week into their nba careers…never change Reddit
And based on what exactly? He led Arkansas to a great season despite them having without exaggeration a literal 7 man rotation with like 6 SEC level players lol
People talk about him like he’s Cam Thomas despite him being the 2nd player ever to lead the SEC in PPG and assists per game and doing it on 60% TS
Thank you for saying this. I think he is a special offensive talent. He did what even guys like Shai couldn’t do in college. Also Steph was thought to have defensive limitations and improved in that area, as did many players throughout their careers. He is missing shots early but he is a brilliant shotmaker and has an IQ you can’t teach.
Exactly…he has a special skillset, let him develop it and not limit it. These are the same people who said Wemby should only work on traditional big man as a rookie.
I bet there were similar takes about Steph lol. Acuff’s defense is abysmal, lets maybe give him a few years to develop and get better before we start saying what a guys skillset is for the rest of his career. He’s 19 years old, he’ll be able to drink legally in 13 months, he’s comparatively a child. Not everyone is cooper Flagg
Not to mention he’s in the worst defensive infrastructure in the nba. Lavine can’t guard, they have no rim protection, Hunter dropped off a cliff with his defense and Keegan is just ok. They have 4 very negative defenders and 1 ok one in the starting lineup
Acuff has a better estimated defensive impact than Jared McCain does. What did you guys do with McCain anyways?
acuff’s ddpm is third worst in the league.
Bum behavior for a rookie
Kings are the worst team for him because this will only enable Acuff’s worst habits.
rip, this situation sounds like demarcus cousins and the kings tbh.
Difference is that Boogie was a bum who’s overrated by people who watch highlights. The best thing Boogie did was get one of our local talking heads fired by baiting him on Twitter.
boogie was far from a bum lmao
You’re getting down votes but you’re totally correct here. Cousins is really the most over rated player since the year 2000. Perennial loser and the definition of an “empty stats” player
Sac is where you go to learn to become a young socialite
100% this. At this point “kings culture” should just be used as the opposite of heat culture. It’s takes a special athlete to still work their butt off when they play for such a disfunctional and hopeless team.
He was a bum on defense in college too and Arkansas fans insisted he was told he couldn’t play hard defense because they couldn’t afford him being in foul trouble.
Nonsense. Dude is just selfish and lazy. Doesn’t care about winning. Just his own stat line.
Minus field goal percentage apparently.
For anyone. Unless you’re injured there should always be more effort than this
Him and Lavine together lol
Truly the most talented yet frustrating back court since like Steve Francis and Stephon Marbury lol
I’ll always love Lavine. Good dude, good player, terrible contract.
Kinda doing a Cam Thomas impersonation shooting like crazy doing fuck all otherwise
It took cam thomas almost 3 seasons to have a game with 7 assists. Acuff already had a game with 7 assists in 4 games.
Nice already picking up terrible habits
he did not go 4 and was never going 1 in any universe lol
Didn’t he go 7?
Him jogging the other direction after the ball hits his head and gets away is terrible body language. HOpefully he can clean that up.
No wonder this guy wanted to go the Kings, he’s a court jester!
yeah this is rough. bad habits being learned with this team
lmaooo thats pretty crazy
Was he hurt? Or just being lazy? 2 entirely different things tbf
Looked like he was probably tired, got sandwiched on a blatantly illegal screening, took an extra second to get up (not blaming him since he went down awkwardly) then when he saw a loose ball got up and went for it, ball gets tipped into his face (ouch) and he trips on Harper’s foot. Kinda just a rough sequence for the guy, now if sitting around every time he hits the deck becomes the norm it’s a problem, but this sequence doesn’t deserve the scrutiny it’s getting lol.
looked like he was probably tired
This was 30 seconds into the second half
A rookie in their 4th nba game that has the ball in their hands a shit ton and is expected to be the entire offense. Not unheard of
He just got to rest for 20 minutes during half time and had played 17 minutes in the first half. If he’s tired 30 seconds into the second half, that’s a problem
Yeah moving screen by Wemby took him out, this is stupid
He had energy for the fast break
He’s just being a King player
The latter. Acuff was arguably the best offensive engine in this past draft, but ended up falling outside of the top of the lottery explicitly because his defense was comically, bafflingly terrible. This is particularly egregious, but not totally out of line with his standard defensive behavior. Guy truly does not give the slightest shit when the other team has the ball.
Now let’s ask the question lol. Did you actually watch this game and see this sequence live?
This sequence is the second play of the half. What are you actually trying to ask
So you see him get knocked for a loop on the illegal screen, then him trying to get up and the ball hitting him square in the head right? How is that evidence of him being lazy and his “comically, bafflingly terrible” defense?
The hate in the sub has gotten to nuclear levels of toxic.
Even if it’s a bad play (and not even counting the possibility that he got kneed and then tripped), are we really declaring a rookie 4 fucking games in will never be a winning player? Give him time man, he has all the tools and the time to learn the game
Also feeling like people are using Acuff (and anything negative he may do) as proxy chance to kick Kings and Kings fans while they’re down, just weird man
Saying he’ll never be a winnign player based off body language is bush league.
Saying he’ll never be a winning player because he’s an undersized shoot-first point guard who profiles as awful on defense and has these bad habits, is somewhat more defensible. Still premature, but I would see the logic.
He’s extremely talented but that won’t matter unless his decision-making improves drastically. From what I’ve seen, players with his playstyle and mentality don’t usually change
Give him time man, he has all the tools and the time to learn the game
Not if he does shit like this on a consistent basis
I thinks its more concerning he’s averaging 24 shots per game. That’s fuck ridiculous.b
Almost 10 3’s a game at 20%.
Ok it’s 4 games in. Let’s see if it’s a consistent pattern first. Again, not even counting the fact that he could have been hit in this sequence
i like Acuff a lot but i’m pretty sure these were some concerns in college. But i’m not too sure don’t quote me on that
There were unfortunately, which is why a lot of people are watching for signs of this. But there were definitely guys who had effort concerns in college who were able to turn it around in the NBA. Harden is one of em
Hence the IF part of my statement
An undersized point guard putting up 20+ shots a game with a low shooting percentage and bad defense is never going to work. That’s not the formula to winning basketball games
Being the Sacramento Kings, coincidentally, is also not the formula to winning basketball games
The sub has always been toxic don’t think it’s changed over the recent years. These casual Main Subs have always brought up the worst in people.
I largely don’t disagree with the point you’re making but aren’t you giving too much of the benefit of the doubt. It’s a bad play. It looks bad you can criticize the player without going nuclear or saying he will never change but you could still realize it looks bad and not make excuses for why potentially looks bad. And I still don’t think you can excuse the jogging away while you don’t have the ball.
Kings fans deserve all of this btw
It looks like he got hurt. Tried to make a play on the ball while still hurt to give his team the possession.
You can view that as a selfless act
He got illegally screened, probably knee’d by Wemby’s skinny bones, fell awkwardly, then saw the ball coming his way, went for the ball, got smacked by the ball, then tripped over Harper’s foot.
Am i watching a whole different clip? Are my eyes deceiving me?
Anyone can find a sequence in a game that can make someone look bad. Swear people just love to hate
The illegal screening in the NBA has been so bad for so long, I just don’t understand how a ref can see this play and think “that should be allowed”, wemby is shuffling the whole time and pushes him down with both hands. No wonder offensive numbers have been inflated when you can essentially just walk around the court taking out defenders like you are blocking for a running back lol. It happens across the league and everyone gets away with it most of the time
This is what I’m saying, people love dog piling, shit is weird. Confirmation bias at its finest in this thread.
Technically, Acuff fans were the toxic ones first
Yeah this isn’t a great look but the slow motion is doing him really dirty here, falling awkwardly on a screen and taking 2.5s to get up isn’t the end of the world.
Mental gymnastics and a disregard for coherence can help make sense of any situation
There are a lot of people who are determined Acuff is bad because of one specific reason or another. Just need to let it play out. I would venture Sacramento kills Acuff more than Acuff could ever kill Sacramento.
Yup. And they glaze over the fact that in 4 games he had 1 stinker 2 20+ point games and 1 30+.
Plus you see players lime Dame talking about him in post game interviews saying he is seriously special.
Just pure hatred and lowlight farming due to being on the Kings.
He’s obviously super inefficient right now and not playing great, but he is also a Rookie getting insanely high usage from the start on a team of overpaid vets who have never been consistent winners. He needs a team of defensive wings and rebounders. Sabonas is averaging 18 rebounds a game or whatever because Acuff has been inefficient.
They like to refuse to believe what their eyes are showing them.
Brother he sat down for multiple seconds in the middle of a play, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that without a real injury.
Brother, sat down? You mean illegally screen and knee’d by a guy made of all bones? That shit hurts. Anyone that hoops and taken a knee to the thigh or body knows that shit hurts initially.
And you never seen a player get hurt/fall/tripped, and took their time getting up? Ok, exaggerate much?
People pretending like Acuff pulled a Carmelo laying on the floor for 20 seconds. Dude got knee’d and took an extra 2 seconds (or “multiple” seconds like you try to frame it) to get up 😂
I see now by your username you’re an Acuff stan so there’s no chance of me getting through to you, that’ll be all
Everything I’ve said is based on video evidence and common sense but ok, just blame it on a username 👍
He got screened, stayed down (okay he’s hurt) ball came his away and he started sprinting, lost the ball, he’s hurt again?
It’s a bad look to only give effort on offense. The expected thing to do is bust your ass on defense until your team secures the ball, then go down and sub yourself out if your hurt.
Oh and he stayed in the game after this, soooo
You saw that mild attempt at running as “sprinting?” Are you sure you’re not reaching a little?
That’s what you took issue with? Fine.
He went from squatting as if he was hurt to running after the ball when it came his way. Like straight out of a soccer match when a player dives looking for a penalty but his team keeps the ball.
Is it one isolated incident? Yeah, doesn’t mean he’s always like that. But he was doing that in the moment, a spade is a spade.
Looked like embarrassment to me. Fell down on defense. Got in his feeling a bit. Oh here comes the ball. Bonk in the head. Back in his feelings.
No one said he’s injured bro. He took a knee to the thigh. It hurts for a second. He obviously took a couple second to gingerly get up. Then “hustled” for the ball, got hit in the head by the ball, then got tripped by Harper. All of that is in the video, use your eyes and not your hate
I promise I don’t have an ounce of hate for the kid. A spade is a spade though, and this wasn’t a good moment. He was already head down jogging into the backcourt when he briefly stumbled over Harper’s foot. And he kept going into the backcourt.
I’m not blowing it out of proportion, it was a brief moment where he checked out.
I’m with you. This other guy trying to act like he’s the only one with eyes. I like Acuff. He looks promising. But that clip doesn’t look great.
Fucking body language expert here. Reading into every little body movement lol.
“Head down jogging” Dude just got smacked by the ball in the head
“Briefly stumbled” aka tripped over the foot
“He kept going into the backcourt” again, tripped over his foot and a thing called momentum
Sounds like you’re not calling a spade a spade. Reaching a little bit bub
Former Kings fan here. I can tolerate sucking, but I can’t tolerate hitching all of your hopes and handing the keys to an undersized, aloof, stoic player like Acuff. His facial expressions and body language are just miserable. He doesn’t cheer on teammates and looks only interested in making shots. Basically, the opposite of Haliburton.
Embarassing.
Well that’s just pathetic
And the coached instead of benching his ass dubs him up lol, he is gonna end up like Cam Thomas, he is not learning any winning habits
Holy cow lol I knew it would be bad. But this is actually insane
Next Cam Thomas
Y’all all need to chill out on Acuff. He’s actually just doing typical rookie shit while also getting to jack up 20 shots a game because that’s what’s he been told to do
It’s like putting Cam Thomas on the Kings
I ain’t never seen Cam Thomas make some of acuffs passes, but Acuff might actually give worse effort on D
Oh yeah he’s definitely not the playmaker that Darius is but Darius’ defense is genuinely atrocious and I’ve watched DeAndre Ayton
Sacramento kings basketball
The kings as an organization aren’t even smart or aware enough to manage this type of personality. This guy is doomed
Pop would send his ass to the g league