The Kings are in about as bad of a position as they have been since Doug Christie has taken over, with four straight losses and five in their last six games. Each of the Kings last three games have basically been blowout losses, with two of them being by nearly 30 points. There’s only 16 games left, so the time for a course correction is quickly running out, but if there’s any time to do it, it starts tonight as the Kings host a season-long seven game homestand.
Let’s talk Kings basketball!
When: Monday, March 17th, 7:00 PM PT
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
TV: NBC Sports California
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140 AM
For Your Consideration
As homestands go, this is a pretty brutal one. The Kings are at home for seven straight games but five of their seven opponents, including tonight’s, are in the top four of their conference, including the teams with the two best records in basketball. This is a terrible time to be playing some of your worst basketball of the season, but that’s exactly what the Kings have been doing of late.
Sacramento’s defense in particular has fallen off a cliff, especially on the perimeter. In their last three games, their opponents have shot 68 of 122 from distance. That’s 55.7%. Do you know how hard it is to shoot 55.7% from three in a game? It’s only happened 22 times across the NBA this season, and the Kings account for three such opponent performances in their last three games. On the other end of the spectrum, the Kings have also gone back to barely making any threes of their own like we saw at the beginning of the season. Over that same three game stretch, the Kings made just 22 threes of their own. So over three games, they made as many threes as their opponents averaged. It’s almost a surprise the losses weren’t even worse.
Memphis doesn’t shoot an absurd amount of threes as a team, but they do hit a decent percentage (36.6%) and they play at the fastest pace of any team in the NBA. If the Kings let a team like Memphis, who can also step it up defensively, get it going from three, it’s going to be a long night. Ja Morant is questionable, but even without Morant the Grizzlies have players that can give the Kings problem. Desmond Bane, Jaren Jackson Jr. and even hometown rookie (Go Bulldogs) Jaylen Wells can all put up big numbers. Wells actually scored a career-high 30 points on 8-9 from distance the last time he was in Sacramento.
The Kings really need to figure out a way to get off to better starts, and I really don’t see how they can continue beating their head in with this same starting lineup. In my personal opinion, they’re letting egos get in the way of winning basketball. The Monk-LaVine-DeRozan lineup has been an absolute stinker each and every time it’s played at -5.3 points per 100 possessions in 252 minutes. At this point in the season though, it’s probably too late to make any sweeping changes. This team has more depth than it used to, but the overall pieces just don’t seem to mesh very well, and learning together on the fly hasn’t been going very well. Domantas Sabonis in particular has seen a steady downtick in effectiveness since the trade. Some of that may be due to injury (he wasn’t looking too healthy even before the hamstring injury), but it feels more like he’s being frozen out of the offense.
We’ve seen this team right the ship before, but at some point the ship just has too many leaks to keep bailing water. Hopefully that’s not the case with the Kings, but I have a bad feeling about this homestand based off what we’ve been seeing lately.
Prediction
There is a basketball game played in Sacramento.
Kings 115, Grizzlies 109
For a moment we thought things had changed
Then found the deck chairs rearranged.
Amid our loss streak,
‘Gainst the Griz, looking bleak.
To expect a Kings win is deranged!
+1 How could the Kings get a win on St. Patrick’s day?
&ct=g
I fear that the remedy for this game, and the rest of the season, is some form of anesthetic
I’ll be once again sitting with my old Irish friend
Paddy O’Furniture.
I’m slightly angry at how good this poem is…
The season’s highlight? Your All Star limerick stylings. Another banger!
Best thing for the franchise is probably for the team to implode, miss the play-in, keep our pick, have Domas ask to be traded, fire the entire front office and coaching staff, blow up as much as possible for youth and picks. Build it from the ground up.
What’s likely to happen: Stumble in with the 9th or 10th seed, lose to PHX or DAL with it’s bigs back. Lose our pick. Sign DC to a contract. Make 1 or 2 small changes in the off season and then back ourselves into a corner and “have to” move Domas at next year’s deadline.
It’s hard to see the Kings missing the play-in, even if the end of the season is a disaster. They’d need to be passed by Dallas and Phoenix. Dallas in particular is in terrible shape, they’ve got so many injuries and they are completely locked in cap-wise, so they can’t sign anyone for help. They could end up being forced to forfeit games because they don’t have enough players (or they’ll suit up injured players as “active” and play 6 or 7 man rotations the whole game).
I think the Kings will probably still make the play-in, but it would certainly be better for this team overall if they didn’t.
I can actually see the team finishing below .500 and still making the play-in because the teams around them are just that bad. Even if they somehow pull a rabbit out of their butts and win in the play-in, it doesn’t mean they’ve earned the playoffs. It will just reaffirm my opinion that the play-in is a farce. A sub .500 #10 seed that gets lucky for a game or two has no business being in a 7 game series with the #1 seed, especially when that #10 seed is far better taking their luck to the lottery.
The play-in is the ultimate trophy celebrating mediocrity!
Cheering mediocrity is wishing one of the many playoff teams the Heat vanquished on their way to the Finals, had been there instead.
The Play-In has always been a stupid idea. Trying to prevent teams from tanking, or drumming some fake interest from fanbases, or both. The next terrible idea was the In-Season Tournament. What a silly cash grab that thing is. Just raise the minimum salary contracts a bit. If the highest contracts can be in the $70m annually, pretty sure $500k boost for minimum guys is doable.
It’s all so Fucking stupid. Shoulda just gone rebuild. No Levine but picks nf young. Tank and have a shot at Flagg.
It’s all right there for this moronic franchise. I hate this owner.
Hope the brakes are cut and they plummet into oblivion. Force a change.
More likely is this bullshit. I’m which case, I may be out until Vivek is gone
The play-in is a farce, but an effective farce. The number of teams tanking is down most seasons, far more teams refuse to go all in as sellers at the deadline, and the games themselves are usually pretty fun. Kings whooping Golden State’s ass last year was awesome, even if it was ultimately meaningless.
I think it’s shortsighted and dumb to chase being a play-in team, but I think the play-in has been very successful in what it was meant to accomplish.
#8 seeds rarely beat #1 seeds and it usually takes significant injures to the #1 do so, and now fans are supposed to believe a #9 or #10 seed has shot at it? It’s fool’s gold for the #9 and #10.
I’m not sure what it is supposed to accomplish other than make additional money, much like the in-season tourney.
Tell that to Pat Riley. The play-in has only existed for a few years, and we’ve already seen a play-in team make the finals.
They went in as the #7 seed.
My bad. That’s totally different!
2021 Memphis got in and was the 9 seed
2022 New Orleans got in and was the 9 seed
2022 Atlanta got in and was the 9 seed
2023, both the 7 seed Lakers (West Conf finals) and 7 seed Miami (NBA Finals)
Yeah..7 is different from 9 and 10. Glad you are clear on that. Do get back to me when an 9 or 10 beats a #1…as was my point above.
No thanks. I give up. You win.
Yep, that’s what’s likely to happen. Stumble in with the 9th or 10th seed.
Will we finish over .500 for the 3rd consecutive year, 3rd time in the Vivek era, 3rd time since the end of the glory years(8 years in a row) and 11th time in the 40 years in Sac?
I feel your pain, brother. Despite the prospect of AD coming back from injury, the Kings will likely still back into the Play-in, and I still believe they can earn a series against the Thunder. Maybe with the right kind of luck, we will relish a glorious victory against those terrible Okies! Fuck the draft pick. If MM, or his replacement plays the right cards the right way, Sacramento will be just fine. If not, no amount of draft capital can save us from them. Pray that the BB gods grant them wisdom!
Even if they got that far, what would an ass whooping by OKC in the first round accomplish? My fear is the powers at be would call it a success and roll it back next season.
Accomplish? Really? Strange choice of words. What would winning a series against OKC “accomplish?” Apparently making the actual Playoffs isn’t an “accomplishment'” in your view. And I meant to say “glorious series victory” against them. As for your “fear of the powers at be,” are you ok? Am I a villain for hoping for the best?
I don’t understand why anyone would think the Mavs or Suns couldn’t or wouldn’t pass us. Mavs are 1.5 gb and Suns are 3 gb.
Because their seasons are going about as well as ours is. Could they pass us? Yes. Is it likely both overtake us? I doubt it.
Doug Christie’s job will be a sure thing if they make the play-in, less likely if they do not.
I wouldn’t bet against him retaining the job today, talk to me in 30 days.
DC spent his first few weeks showing his strengths as a HC, and spent the last couple showing his weaknesses.
well said. Rec’d.
AD is playing a rehab game today on their G-League squad so maybe that helps them? I don’t know.
And they just recalled him so he may be available to play in their next game on Wednesday. I read earlier that some on the Mavs were considering shutting him down for the season, but AD really wants to return and play. They also only have like 8 dudes who are healthy so the league may frown on shutting him down.
Kings fans watching another rebuild coming:
I must have missed the last Kings rebuild. Maybe 2017/2018 but Vlade really screwed that up by missing on Justin Jackson, Harry Giles, and Bagley. But has the organization actually ever committed to a slow and steady rebuild?
Not really.
Maybe the 17 win season.
Or maybe the 29 of 40 seasons we’ve been below .500 since moving to Sac?
Or maybe the 19 of 40 seasons we’ve finished below .400 since moving to Sac?
No, a rebuild has never happened. There have been years where the team has been bad, but it was never with the intent to rebuild for the future.
Wait, selling off picks for cash is not the same as building for the future?
I understand the point you are trying to make, but losing intentionally makes only slightly more sense than speeding around a race track in the wrong direction, breaking out of the pack toward the wrong goal, or continuing to “rehab” an injury by repeating the same exercise over and over when it just gets more painful each time. The “process” myth is just that.
In other words putting negative on top of negative, upon negative does not eventually, suddenly, and mysteriously add-up to a positive. It’s just self-defeating, and ever more dysfunctional.
rebuild again? They haven’t done a rebuild and most fans would be excited to actually see a push to being good.
….starts a ten day road trip for Memphis.
Hopefully they’re already thinking about their weekend in L.A. 🙂
no more beams for the rest of the season, please. Just don’t lose embarrassingly
Please do lose embarrassingly. Fall completely apart. That is the only way this owner might change.
And this team has the look of falling apart. Of quitting because the foundation is chaos.
I don’t know if I want to piss Domas off anymore than he already is. Makes for a terrible future trade a la the Fox trade
I think Domas is already unhappy based off the Sam Amick article.
Yup. Can you blame him? The team is best when the ball runs through him and yet Monte and Doug have 3 high usage iso playing shooting guards on the floor with him most of the game.
I need more Neon Keon.
Too late. Domas ain’t happy already. Nobody on that team is happy I bet. The owners crap is over everything.
I look at the roster for Sacramento and can’t help but compare it to the teams above them.
The Memphis roster has been steadily winning, with the likes of Ja Morant, JJJ, and Desmond Bane. But they are more than that. They have picked well and developed well through the draft. Or have they?
This season, we can nod at the translatable talents of Jaylen Wells and Zach Edey. The notable other draft picks for Memphis are Trey Murphy, Walker Kessler, Brandon Boston and Marcus Sasser. None of those players have ever donned a Grizzlies jersey.
Would you trade rosters – Sacramento Kings and Memphis Grizzlies?
Taylor Jenkins has been Head Coach since 2019-2020. He’s 206-185 for a .527 coaching record which includes last season’s injury/Ja disaster (27-55). (if you remove that, he’s 179-130 or .579. Not bad, IMO).
Is it just coaching? or coaching and good GM? Is it stability?
Anyhoo – Memphis arrives tonight, in the 4th spot, 18 games over .500 at 43-25 and they’ve been in that upper bracket all season. This will be the 5th contest between the two squads, each winning their home outings, and the series is split 2-2. Which is immaterial as the last win (Kings 138-130) was at G1C on January 3rd. Monk had 31, DeRozan 29 and that was a roster change ago.
I’d like to see a win. Ugly, good, I don’t care – but hard played by the Kings. Intestinal fortitude check – play like you want it, even if you lose. Pretend if you need to. A Jake of LaRavia statement game would be nice.
I don’t want to see Monk try to get his game back on track by hoisting up shots with 15 or more seconds on the shot clock, and no more gaddammit alley-oops over, under or to the side of anyone, or with 1, 2 or more opponents on the recipient. Please. Pretty Please. Monk is 0-13 from 3 these last two games (O-fer). 3-21 the last 3 (14%)
Sacramento would have to almost win every game going forward to dislodge themselves out of the 9th spot as Golden State (14-2 since the Butler trade, 7 game win streak), Minnesota (8 game win streak), and LAC (3 game win streak and 8 games above .500). It ain’t going to happen. But Sac can still embarrass themselves further by lowering to the 10th spot. Suns are 6 games below .500, Dallas (my sympathies go out to those fans) are 3 games under. I am very disappointed, but not yet disgusted. Sigh.
I bet if I had told you back during training camp that with 16 games left in the season the team would be at .500 and in the 9th spot, Brown and Fox would be gone, and LaVine would be a King, you’d be disgusted.
It’s been a long slow decline of a season that we’ve become numb to over the years. The way this franchise operates is not like the other 29 teams. The Kings are not normal.
It’s entertainment! Are you not entertained?
I for one am disgusted. I’m disgusted with an owner who is like lLucy holding the ball for Charlie Brown and yanking it away at the last minute. I’m disgusted with our roster. I’m disgusted with our lack of self respect which results in our inability to play hard for 48 minutes. I’m disgusted with our lack of BBIQ. I’m disgusted with our GM who built this shit show. I’m disgusted with our lack of 3 pt defense. I’m disgusted with our brainless turnovers.
I’m disappointed with our coaching staff for not starting Keon Ellis. I’m just a normal unhappy Kings fan. Welcome to Basketball Hell.
This forum does feel like a therapy session at times, but whatever may be said, don’t try to analyze anyone else’s thinking. That’s the cardinal sin, of which, I am constantly guilty.
“Disappointed, but not disgusted,” well said. Me too., mostly. I was a bit disgusted by the last few games though, especially the lack of adjustments throughout. And most especially, the lack of adjustments to begin halves.
No thanks. Just lose baby
From NBA.com power rankings this week:
Plus-Minus Players of the Week
Also:
For the season, the Kings have outscored their opponents by 2.8 points per 100 possessions over quarters 2-4, but have been outscored by 4.8 per 100 in the first.
Yikes!
“They always be stealing me Lucky Charms.”
Dismissive little leprechaun!
Hey, at least the A’s home opener is in a couple weeks. Maybe we can take our minds off this Kings season.
Several voices here have been calling for the Kings to tank. Could it be that’s what we’re seeing now? Effortwise, sure looks like it.
No way. Tanking teams are shutting down their stars. Monk and Domas would not have returned if we were tanking.
Tanking is done by the front office, not the coaching staff and players.
Effortwise, the team is quitting.
Yup. 76ers just shut down Paul George. It’s capture the Flagg for the bottom third of the league right now.
Funny thing, the quality of our play is in the bottom third now. The FO just pretends like we’re actually competitive.
Bingo.
Of course Ja is out tonight… Well, still hoping for a loss. If we want any shot at missing the play-in we can only win 3-4 more games for the rest of the season.
Wow
I mean, losing a lottery pick feels like a poor team building strategy when the team has no top end talent.
I contend that the lack of defense, especially from three, is directly related to the lack of offense on the other end, especially from 3. Players feel very confident shooting when they almost know they’ll get the rebound if they miss, and even if Sac does get the rebound, they just keep turning the ball over anyway.
I read that Ellis isn’t eligible for any all-defensive teams because he didn’t hit the 20 minute mark in enough games. Thanks Mike Brown!
Badge Legend