The regular season is fast approaching, and it has been a Kangzy preseason so far. The Kings played the Trail Blazers on Tuesday and lost with nearly the entire core of the team not playing.
Sacramento seems to either be super confident about how things are going to click once the regular season begins, or tanking already. They did not play Zach LaVine, Domantas Sabonis, Malik Monk, Ben Simmons, Darius Acuff Jr., and De’Andre Hunter in the loss against the Blazers. The Kings started Leaky Black, Keegan Murray, Precious Achiuwa, Nique Clifford and Elfrid Payton.
Murray played 19 minutes, finishing with 10 points and 3 rebounds. Achiuwa finished with 12 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 1 block in 25 minutes. Jonathan Mogbo was an impressive +15 for the game, including 15 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists. Mogbo seems to impress every time he is on the floor.
Clifford was 0-11 in 30 minutes, finishing with 2 points. Payton had 2 turnovers in 8 minutes. That’s it.
Following the game, Doug Christie really didn’t provide any clear reasons as to why so many players were held out. He mentioned “health, soreness, and workload.” Keep in mind, Damian Lillard, who is coming back from a left Achilles, played 23 minutes in the game.
Anyway, the last preseason game is Friday against the Spurs. We’ll see if the Kings can manage to put their team on the floor then.
Dylan Cardwell out two weeks
The Kings announced Tuesday that Dylan Cardwell has a left calf strain. He is expected to miss around two weeks.
The front court rotation just got even shorter with Maxime Raynaud already sidelined for a good amount of time.
Get well soon, Dylan.
Precious Achiuwa Hurt
To add to the list of injuries, Precious Achiuwa left Tuesday’s game with a right ankle injury, leaving the front court even more depleted. Achiuwa serves as a good comfort blanket at times for the Kings, settling things down with both solid defense and surprising offense. Let’s hope that injury isn’t too serious.
Draymond Green and Darius Acuff Jr.
In Saturday’s Sacramento Kings game against the Golden State Warriors, the camera panned to the sideline where Draymond Green was having a discussion with Darius Acuff Jr. Green shared what he was talking about recently. The talk was related to a possession in which Acuff was the only player on the Kings to touch the ball.
“I saw something in that game that he had the ball the entire possession. … My advice to him was just, ‘Hey man, you remember that possession? … Who else touched the ball that possession?’ He’s like ‘nobody’ and I was like don’t have many of those because you can end up having a bunch of those with the Sacramento Kings this year and a few things can happen, you can get guys start plotting against you, guys that don’t really wanna see you do well, guys that start bickering on the side to other guys… you can get guys that get upset like ‘ah man they wanna give this rookie this, they wanna do that, f*ck that!’ … And so, for me when I saw that, I just wanted to give him a little game about that.”
Following the game, Acuff was asked about the exchange and he said he agreed with Green.
“He was telling me read the game a little more. … He’s playing against, but he’s also watching the game, trying to teach me. I was listening to him. … I agreed with him.” He would later say: “It was good advice from him”
Interesting tidbit early in the rookie’s career. Acuff of course, has looked really good on offense, including his passing abilities, but Draymond, love him or hate him, brings up a fair point about dribbling too much and what that might do to a team if it happens too much. How Acuff operates on the floor is largely dictated, or at least should be dictated, by the coaching staff so it probably matters what Doug Christie has been saying to him in this regard and what sort of leash he is being given, and what learning experiences they are trying to instill.
The Kings need a legit franchise player though and so far the rookie is looking like that. He has plenty of time to learn how to operate on an NBA team and he seems like a good student so there is no reason to think he won’t be able to take lessons and implement them.
Coaching is vital here though, and let’s hope Christie is up for the task.
Kings sign Vikto Lakhin
On Wednesday, it was reported Sacramento has signed Viktor Lakhin to a non-guaranteed camp contract. The Kings had previously cut him, but with so many injuries piling up they are bringing him back for a stint.
I was at the game in person last night, and boy, w/out their main players, this rag-tag group is quite lousy. Precious is always good but everyone else is a marginal NBA player. Clifford may never be more than a 10th man on the bench. But, the bigger question is: What is Christie (and Perry) doing by not playing their starters more in preseason? Looking at box scores, all the other teams are. What is the secret plan? Looking down the road, tanking is no longer as profitable. This may be the year the fans turn against them and especially the egotistical owner. I wish he had to pay LaVine out of his own pocket – I mean not reimbursement from team revenues.
2 minutes ahead 12 years behind
I’ve seen more than enough of the Scott and Doug clown show, to know neither one has the ability to veer this franchise into competitiveness. Unfortunately, with the hiring decisions laying in the hands of the dismissive little chap, the next dynamic duo likely won’t be much better. However, the sooner they both hit unemployment the better….at least for the sake of Acuff’s development.
Glad the Kings decided to just continue with the magic and chemistry from last year’s team. Why are LeBron Jaylen Brown and Embid playing in the preseason. They should be like the Kings
Nique is gonna be 25 in 4 months. I know we usually gotta give rookies going into year two more time, but given that he’s a college senior going into his second year, I’m not optimistic about him going forward.
Me neither. Hate his shot- from the jump.
this is part of Scott Perry’s issue. Rather than getting guys who can shoot first, he tries to get athletes. If you can’t shoot, you’re pretty much useless in the NBA.
Or at the very least, you can only have a couple of guys on your team that can’t shoot. And if they can’t, they have to be extra extraordinary at something else.
A FIVE year college senior who likely doesn’t get minutes on 2/3 of NBA squads. I don’t get the hype about him much either, other than he’s a Kings and we automatically love him for it.
He’s older and doesn’t do anything exceptionally well, which likely means he’s not long for this league or an end of the bench journeyman. I’d love to be wrong, but I don’t see how he’s difference maker on a good team. I’ve mentioned a few times that maybe he can notch out a Francisco Garcia type career, but he’s gonna have to be a much better shooter to get there.
Oh, and remember, Perry traded up to get him but giving up a free and unconditional first round pick from the Spurs in 2027. That pick is likely to become nothing now, unless the Spurs miss the playoffs.
Essentially, Acuff is screwed.
I just hope the players I like watching (Keegan, Domas, Malik) are able to get the hell away from Sacramento sooner than later. Their careers are on the line. Prime years being wasted with Doug, Scott, and Vivek.
If Domas is used as he was the past 2 seasons, then yeah, what a waste a a very good talent. He needs to be on a team with shooters, cutters, and defenders where he can help facilitate the offense.
Not gonna lie, he’d be pretty good for Toronto.
Recapping, the best coach that the Kings have is (checks notes) Draymond Green.
Yep. That tracks.
I do get a kick of out Doug not being all preachy about picking up 94′ and building a defensive identity. This year he’s all….”yeah, I got nothing.”
We are almost a year from this…
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