Dear Sacramento Kings,
Long time listener, first time caller. I’ll take your response offline, or in the comments.
Please note that the following is solely my opinion and does not necessarily reflect the thoughts and opinions of The Kings Herald, its staff, or its members (though it may resonate with the “haters” in the crowd. /Rolls eyes)
Please release your hostage Domantas Sabonis at your earliest convenience.
As a longsufferingtime Kings fan, I have seen this show before. “Franchise” player is castigated for the shortcomings of the organization, and eventually fire sold, local reputation somewhat in tatters.
We need not look any further back than less than one year ago, when the perception was out there that De’Aaron Fox wanted Mike Brown fired. And none of it was fundamentally true. He did want out when shit hit the fan because he had told the team he didn’t want to play for another coach. Fox was dispatched to greener pasture for a handful of tragic beans, granted release as a hostage and off to play with perhaps the best player of this next generation, for an organization that knows how to cultivate small market success.
And now the rumblings have begun about Domantas Sabonis.
Now it seems that Domas is not happy with how he is being featured on the offensive end. Now it is Domas that is mailing it in.
Sure.
Even if he was frustrated with his role on the offense, it would be warranted. It’s not about how many shots he gets, in my opinion. It would be about the touches and possessions. No one other than Keon Ellis is really finding open spots, no one is really running the pick and roll with him consistently and once he passes it to the ISO troops he won’t see it again.
What’s next with the rumblings? That he is not a playoff performer, based on one series in which he played one-handed due to a fractured thumb that he had nursed through the whole season? Hey, if he’s not a playoff performer, he’s with the right organization!
Or that he is not fully invested this year, even though he is playing with damaged ribs that would put most players (especially established players) in street clothes?
Is Sabonis the face of a franchise? Probably not. He is not Nikola Jokic. His game has limits, and he is neither the rangy wing or lightning guard that propels teams forward in today’s NBA. He should probably be no better than your third offensive shooting option, especially given his reluctance to shoot in high volume, and you better have someone else that can close out games on the offensive end (I hear that De’Aaron Fox kid was pretty good at that). He needs length up front with him, defensive help at the rim. None of this was unknown when you traded for him, yet you have done nothing to fill those cracks.
Domantas Sabonis deserves better, as did Fox. This is the conundrum of having talented players under the umbrella of an absolute shitshow of an organization. First you devalue them, then you blame them for your failures, then you sell them off for pennies on the dollar.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
So before you besmirch the reputation of this man any further, please relocate him to a better NBA organization. It should be easy – there are 29 of them to choose from. And after that is done, I am sure you will let Keegan Murray know that he is next on the block (it won’t be Zach LaVine, he gets the Vivek boy-crush pass).
Nice arena, though. It looks really spacious with all those empty seats!
-Rob Hessing
Yeah, I hope he can move to greener pastures.
Somehow it feels to me like most Sacramento media outlets are either mouthpieces of the franchise, or their trial baloon launching pad.
They are no different than our politicians.
Next they’ll accuse Domas of being a “winer”!
It’ll be interesting to see if Domas is actually traded. Very few teams make sense, but as has been reported, there’s a few teams interested. A Domas trade benefits both Domas and the Kangz. So just greenlight it Vivek.
Saw this trade proposal online:
Domas seems tailor made to be a Piston.
I would be thrilled with this return. Tobias is an expiring. You get a look at Ivey before he’s up for a contract. You get a first. And you get off Domas’ contract.
IMO not quite enough. I would trade Sabonis for Duren, Holland, and Harris and a first. Duren takes Sabonis’s place at center.
Another Pistons trade I like is LaVine for Harris, Ivey and Holland. LaVine and Cade together along with Sabonis would be a killer.
Pistons wouldn’t do either of those trades IMO. They’re not going to trade three good young players for Domas, or two for LaVine.
I want them to trade all the old guys and also Domas, who’s not really all that old. Not because I have a lot of sympathy for millionaire athletes, I don’t. It’s because this franchise needs to choose a different direction and stick to it.
The sad thing is I have no faith in this organization’s ability to rebuild and actually stick to it. I’m also tired of all the rumors of trades and moves that never materialize. Until I see them make a few major moves to clear out this insane logjam of old guys and guards this team is not much fun to follow.
I may be in the small minority that think Domas had a hand in the Mike Brown firing which became a rolling ball of shit. He had a hand in the chaos
I think Brown was fired because he didn’t want to do Viveks bidding.
And shit owner blamed it on Fox.
Your Kangz! You can check in anytime you want, but you can never leave!
The Kings, and primarily Vivek, have been consistently good at one thing and one thing only, and that is fucking up a good thing. I mean, it almost takes effort at this point and not just dumb luck or poor execution. It’s practically purposeful.
Ignoring Petrie on Giannis, Stauskas, The Philly trade, Trading of IT, firing Mike Malone, George Karl, drafting Bagley, Firing Monte, Brown ,and trading Fox within months of each other, etc.
This list of poor decisions is enough to warrant an intervention, but here we are about to fuck up another good thing. This team makes George Costanza seem heroic.
And not keeping Dave Joerger around. I thought he was a good fit in Sac.
I support this message
Beautiful.
The refrain from all the talk about the Kings for the past few years is “lousy roster construction.”
Why is Sabonis playing with an injury that clearly affects his game? No backup center.
Why are the Kings mortally wounded when Keegan goes down? No backup PF or SF, really.
There is a laundry list of weaknesses on this team that go back to an unbalanced roster.
The players have to suffer every game because of this imbalance.
The players get blamed for it.
Yet who picks the players, who makes the trade deals, who pays for the players?
Monte was too cautious and Vivek too cheap.
I’ll say it again: the Kings didn’t lose the Sabonis/Halliburton trade? I loved Halliburton. But the trade helped both teams.
The Kings lost the Siakam trade. Had Monte swung that and Vivek paid the contract, we’d be looking at a different team.
Right now, I don’t feel any better about Perry. He’s not done much more than Monte. He signed a small guard in the offseason.
Yes, they needed a PG, but they could have gotten a cheaper option and would have been better off trading for Porzingis to play alongside Sabonis.
I swear, Perry’s moves seemed designed to hinder the team, especially Sabonis.
My only joy is this has got to be hurting Vivek.
#SellTheTeam
Sadly, my pastime this season is to imagine trades of my favorite players from the Kings.
I don’t even care about the return for the Kings. I think, wouldn’t Sabonis look good next to Wemby or on Portland.
What team would be good for Keon?
As long as Vivek is the owner, I’m not sure I want the Kings to be good.
Well, I don’t think you’ll have to worry about the Kings being good as long as Vivek is the owner.
Honest question to the group aka all of us in here….
is there any truth in your mind that he did actually ask for Mike Brown to be let go and that he wasn’t happy with him in that role?
If you think that can be true or is true wouldn’t you feel that he is actually responsible for the current state of things?
Obviously he’s not the owner and didn’t make that call but let’s say the worst GM in the league, I mean owner just was looking for an excuse and he provided it? Wouldn’t that mean he actually holds some of the blame/ responsibility?
Vs Fox or any of the other “stars” they have blamed in the past.
My take –
First, the Domas angle of having Brown fired was not floated until the Fox angle was refuted, mostly via a photo of Brown and Fox dining together when the Kings were in Bkn after the firing.
Second, If Domas was demanding that Brown be fired while Fox was demanding that Brown not be fired, and the solution for the organization was to fire Brown and fire sale Fox, well, I don’t think that I can hold Sabonis responsible or accountable for that. That one is 100% on the organization and its handling of the situation.
Brown’s coaching and system got Sabonis the best numbers of his career which resulted in a fat contract extension. Monte assembled the Beam Team that maximized Sabonis’ game. The resulting effects was a coach of the year, a GM of the year and All-NBA honors for Domas. To allude that Domas wanted Brown gone, or anyone from the Beam Team seems like nonsense to me.
IMO, Fox, Sabonis, Brown and Monte all seemed to be on the same page. Shit went sideways when DDR was brought on board and that is when I feel Vivek got his meddling little hands into the picture. That S&T flew in the face of everything the four mentioned above were doing.
To all the people who want the Kings to pick a direction: They have. It’s just a terrible direction that they’ve been following for more than two decades now. I honestly don’t believe there is any reason to expect them to change that direction either.
They will keep deluding themselves, that they are one trade away from greatness, that they understand the draft better than anyone else, that the next inexperienced coach will be the one, and that their midround draft picks are just waiting to break out.
Enjoy.
Very well thought out and very well written as well Rob.
I also forgot to mention that as the season started I caught up on your summer essays about the “glory” years of the dismal yet optimistic early Sacramento Kings.
I was a season ticket holder then, and at 19-24 it was a humongous expense, but three of those five years I made it to all 41 games despite being a college student and working six days a week. Just to experience so many losses.
Those were just as ingloriously enjoyable as the NBA gets, and you did a marvelous job bringing it back to life. I actually went back and read them all again, just because so many memories popped up.
Very well done Rob. Appreciate the effort you went to.
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