The Kings Herald Show returns with Jerry Reynolds, Will Griffith, and Tony Xypteras talking about some early 2021 NBA Draft crushes, potential trades for the 9th overall pick, and how/if the Kings can acquire seemingly available Philadelphia 76ers star Ben Simmons.
- (2:15) Who do you like for the Kings at 9th overall in the 2021 NBA Draft?
- (9:45) Do the Kings need to hit a home run in the draft?
- (14:50) Should the Kings trade their 2021 pick for a win-now veteran?
- (16:30) The prospects of trading for Ben Simmons.
- (26:10) The latest Marvin Bagley social media drama, and if it’s time for the Kings to move on.
- (36:50) Breaking down all the recent NBA coaching hires.
- (50:30) Patreon Question of the Week.
Apologies in advance for the later post than usual and some less-than-ideal audio quality at times. We ran into some technical difficulties for this recording, but should be back to normal next episode.
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In addition to our bi-weekly podcast with Jerry Reynolds, we also record a Patreon exclusive Q+A once a month where Patrons at any level can Ask Jerry Anything. We posted our latest Patreon exclusive Q+A with Jerry right here.
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Thanks for listening!
I have not listened yet, but thank you for getting Jason Kidd off the lead story!
The overvaluation of Bogdan Bogdanovic continues unabated. Atlanta has a younger, faster, longer, and more durable player in Kevin Huerter, and he actually plays defense. The Hawks would piss themselves with glee if someone was willing to absorb Bobo’s remaining $54 million for a top ten pick.
BREAKING: Kings trade for Bogdan Bogdanovic.
It could actually happen, that’d be so Kangz.
I agree. Bogi seems superfluous for that squad at this point. Especially considering they have to pay Collins this offseason.
Having said that, I’d take Bogi back on that contract if we didn’t have to give up anything, or for Buddy straight up, which ATL obviously wouldn’t do.
Yeah that contract is ugly, worse than Buddy’s imo
Bogi was better on a lower deal, so how is it worse than Buddy’s contract again?
Just because Bogi is average doesn’t mean Buddy isn’t worse.
Buddy plays
better? all 50ish% of the games he played this season?
Give me the dude that actually plays all day…better, jeez
I mean, he missed a total of 26 games in his first three years in the league, and certainly more this season, but you want the worse player for more games? Okie dokie.
Who is playing now ? Jeez !
I wouldn’t let Kevin Huerter leave for nothing, either. And I’m not gonna complain if I have two wings that can both create and shoot.
Huerter is all of those things you mentioned over Bogi, but he’s missing the most important one: better
Bogi just shot .438 on 7.6 3PA last season as he enters his prime years. Huerter is only 22, so maybe he gets there. I like him a lot, but he’s not better yet, and $18 million for what Bogi gave the Hawks last season is extremely fair.
I’m looking at who was on the bench when Atlanta had it’s big comebacks against Philly. It was the guy who’s making fewer than three of ten of his 3PA. The team has been carrying him in the postseason.
It’s an interesting hill to die on. Bogi was 4th on the team in mpg during the regular season and is 3rd on the team in the playoffs. /Shrugs
Any disagreement with you is not necessarily a hill, let alone one to die on.
But if we’re going to do this, let’s point out that he was 11th in games played.
Right. And the injury bugaboo may have been a big reason why the Kings went with the ultra-durable Hield over Bogi.
I don’t fault the Kings for cutting ties with Bogi. Getting nothing in return for him was a travesty of Alex Oriakhi proportions.
And let’s be honest – any defending of the Kings organization for its transactions over the past decade and a half has almost overwhelmingly been a hill to die on, over and over and over again. And that’s more than an opinion – all you need to do is look at a recap of the transactions and the results of them.
Are you accounting for all the missed games? Asking for a friend
Fun fact, over 4 seasons, Bogi missed only 10 more games than De’Aaron Fox. That’s 2.5 games per season.
As it pertains to the Hawks, I don’t think that there is any denying that Bogi (a) missed a lot of games and (b) was instrumental in Atlanta’s success this season.
As it pertains to the decision not to retain him, I think that his injury history (especially compared to Hield’s durability) played a role in the ultimate decision of the front office.
And he was doing a lot of the carrying in their regular season run.
I get the feeling it’s important to the collective psyche here that the Bogdan contract is a failure, but I personally think ATL is likely extremely happy with it and have no probably with the amount remaining on it.
Between the team that let him go and the team that signed him, one is still playing this year.
It’ll be kind of satisfying if Atlanta is pushed out by the team where he could have gone, had he and his agent no reneged on the sign & trade.
If you’re into that kind of thing. Doesn’t change that the Kings let him get away for nothing and were (for whatever reason) badly outmaneuvered.
I’m guessing you’re not feeling super satisfied at the moment. Bogi is maddeningly inconsistent, but the Hawks don’t weather the loss of Trae Young without him.
They won’t weather it with him
You’d do better sticking with the “he’s hurt too much” argument. Turns out his knee is why he’s been off the court at times recently.
Additionally, there’s no reason to pit Huerter against Bogdanovic. Pretty sure Atlanta will be playing those guys together quite a bit over the next few seasons.
Plus one…Atlanta has played these two together 254 minutes in the postseason, and are a +2.8 in NetRating (they are a minus 2.1 overall in the playoffs.)
Plus two…they were on the floor together for 626 minutes during the regular season, and were a +3.8 (Atlanta was a +2.2 overall).
Plus three…the Hawks were 30-14 when Bogie was on the floor during the regular season, 11-17 when he wasn’t.
I mean, I’m sure I could go on. Bogi isn’t perfect, but when healthy he’s a high-end rotational player on a conference championship contending team.
My god take a break who cares. 24/7 blogging is a big problem. It’s 87 here in Incline Village and a beautiful day at the mountain course. Get out and get some fresh air. I’m now off to play Pickleball, I hope you can experience the good old outdoors. It will do you some good.
Everyone there hates you.
For what it’s worth, I don’t hate you, WtbGM.
I think you could probably benefit from a little social emotional development, but couldn’t we all?
I was talking about his pickleball buddies. Sometimes we have to have the tough conversations, BHE.
The person that is playing golf, pickleball and expounding on the virtues of the outdoors and the evils of 24/7 bloggers, while concurrently deciding to engage in a personal online beef while doing said outdoor activities…really doesn’t have a leg to stand on.
Had to be strong…Those high school state championship trophies are pretty heavy. Have some respect Otis
Does that mean the Kayte_Hunter_fan_club is also on vacation, or do you leave sock puppet accounts at home and only invite the GM handle?
Enjoy! I hope the lake treats you better than it did us. We just got back from a week up there and the two days we went to the Lake we were run off of Kings Beach by a lightning/sand storm and battled plumes of pollen coming off of Crystal Bay when we went to Burnt Cedar. Between that and the pool being renovated, we didn’t stay as long as we planned in Incline. Because of that we ended up spending most of our lake time on Donner and on relatively sheltered hikes like Shirley Canyon. If you’re looking for a chance to get off the manicured lawns and courts of golf and pickleball. I recommend Shirley. The access is easy, but it’s beautiful with plenty of shady spots and swimming holes to cool down in, short enough to do in a half/three-quarter day, and challenging enough to feel like you earned all the adult beverages and snacks you were going to have that evening anyway. That said, if Marty drops in he likely has all kinds of better options.
Whoa you pulled that memory out of your butt, thanks for the reference. ð
Yea I solo thru hiked the Tahoe Rim Trail in ten days last year, I could talk about it and the PCT for days, I’ve put in 25 years in that backcountry. I know a lot of tricks for sure.
Tip #1: weekdays only.
LOL, pickleball, sounds fun.
I’ve heard it’s great fun for when you age out of physical activities.
i tore my trapezius in December from playing too much pickelball at Rio del Oro. Of the four serious shoulder injuries I’ve had, it was the worst. I’m STILL not strong enough to return to swim team.
Pickelball is awesome.
Dang it Marty, that wasn’t for you.
He is playing hurt and it shows but he is playing ! Check his stats prior to injury and read comments from Coach McMillian about his value !
I doubt Atlanta has any issue with Bogdan’s 3/54 remaining.
Hotly pursued by the teams that finished 3rd and tied for 4th in the East this season. Scoreboard and all that.
As well as being the two teams still left in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Watching Andy try to jump on this again is like that guy that bangs on Joerger anytime a coaching vacancy is filled.
The only reason Bogi even had a chance to perform last night, 20 points on 19 shots, is because Huerter was the hero in Game 7 vs PHI while Bogi went 2 for 8 in the biggest game of his career.
If Bogi was not bailed out, by Young, Huerter, Capella and Collins, we would not even be having this conversation.
Bogi does not have to wear the “goat tag” all summer, fortunately for his sake, because his teammates came to his rescue and filled the role he could not.
You are a king of small-sample-size analysis.
BTW, the Hawks outscored the Bucks by 36.3 points per 100 when Bogie was on the floor last night.
I know all about what Bogi does well and does not do well.
I acknowledge Bogi has poise, savvy, and can be a versatile 1-3 defender.
Do you acknowledge he is shooting 37% in the playoffs and 30% on 3s including many wide open looks because of the attention Trae receives?
Under other circumstances, namely being surrounded by a less talented cast, hypothetically still on a Kings team had we retained him, Bogi would just be another part of a lottery team, a guy not good enough to be a secondary scorer or defensive stallwart.
And any objective observer can also acknowledge there are about 4-5 other Hawks before Bogi to account for their glorious post-season run.
Survey says: Maybe that’s why Atlanta signed him in the first place. And the Hawks have been very very good with Bogi on the floor in the playoffs – with our without Trae.
I dispute your premise.
Spot on, my dude, until last night. Last night was the biggest game of Bogi’s NBA career. I am happy for him, bc I want ATL to go to the Finals and win the Chip (or LAC). The Hawks are more likeable and have a better team if you subtract the respective superstars. And Trae has been more dominant than Giannis.
The Hawks are the darlings of the NBA and have a perfectly constructed roster. To absorb the loss of Hunter and Trae, and have the next man up attitude, with Cam Reddish, and even Okongwu flexing, is incredible.
Since I called out Bogi for his puke play after Game 6 vs PHI, he continued his McGenius Vindication Tour, aka Cory Joseph level performance, aka noise signaling nothing, i.e. cover the eyes of the women and children.
Here is his game log since then:
Game 7 vs PHI: 2 for 8 FGs ; 4 points in 21 minutes , benched in crunch time. If not for the brilliance of Huerter, and the choking and cowering of fake All-Star Ben Simmons (deer in the headlights), the Hawks would have been eliminated and Bogi would not have had the chance to redeem himself.
Game 1 vs MIL: 1 for 6 in 27 minutes. Trash performance as Trae goes for 48 in a stunning road win. You would think for 72M you could get a little offensive punch?
And I do not want to hear about the injury. If you are healthy to play you are healthy enough to perform. Everyone is dinged this time of year. And the injury bugaboo that followed Bogi is part of the reason a big payday was not a foregone conclusion.
Game 2 vs MIL: 3 for 6 FGs in 18 minutes. With Trae likely to cool off, Bogi is unable to provide accessory scoring and the Hawks get thrashed by 30.
Game 3 vs MIL: 3 for 16 FGs, 2 for 10 on 3s. This was a highly winnable game, fans in a frenzy and other role players stepping up, and Bogi choked it away with his bricklaying. No string music for 72M ?
Game 4 vs MIL: Bogi rises from the ashes! 6 three pointers in the biggest game of his career, the goat temporarily transfigures into the GOAT before the midnight hour.
Albeit 20 points on 19 shots is his version of an explosion, though his playmaking and defense and veteran poise was nice, something that separates him from Buddy, FWIW.
Just like Cousins redeemed after he failed to defend the lob and cost LAC a win 0.9 seconds away, and then fired a FT off the top off the backcourt, another sad mental lapse, Cousins redeemed himself in injury absence of Zubac. He was instrumental in a must-win, 15 points in 11 minutes.
Two former Kings strutting their stuff for one game a piece. Outlier or harbinger?
I know Cousins is an unapologetic jerk, but I am happy to see him have a glimpse of success. 7 years w/o the playoffs, sidelined with GSW and LAL during their playoffs, franchise deal with SAC rescinded, generational wealth eluded, devastating injuries and toxic reputation subjects him to minimum deals, yet he still shows he is not a DOA.
When the Suns take Ayton off the floor, that is when Cousins can go to work and abuse Suric and hope he does not get too abused himself in PnR vs. Paul and Booker.
It is nice little strategy by Tyrone Lue, who outcoached the alleged best coach, Quinn Snyder, after his team lost Kawhi, won in Utah and closed out the Jazz in six, a thrilling and shocking turn. This provides perspective just bc you have a medicore dude calling the shots, previously fired, all hope is not lost. This is where I diverge from Kings fans who say the coach we have precludes us from going anywhere.
LAC vs ATL finals, lets do it!
I like Cousins to have an impact tonight more than Bogi to put back to back games. If Young returns and Giannis is out, which I think is probable, then the Hawks will not need Bogi to score to take a 3-2 lead then close it out in ATL in six games. And that is good because if you are counting on Bogi to score effeciently, you are going to lose the series.
That is the beauty of a complete team, where guys like Lou Williams, Gallinari, Cam Reddish and Huerter can step up and supplement; vs a shallow imbalanced roster like the Kings would have had they retained Bogi, along with a restrictive cap situation and gaping holes up and down their frontline.
With Capella and Collins challenging everything, ATL can absorb Bogi foibles and spotiness and still take the playoffs by storm. The Kings could NOT absorb the foibles and spotiness of Buddy and get any whiff of the playoffs besides a desperate run at the play-in. Sad! And we certainly could NOT have absorbed the foibles of both and expect to be anywhere near where the Hawks are.
Memo to French Lick Legend and Caucasian Comet Jerry Reynolds, these be the facts!
Unfortunately we did not get see DeVincenzo vs Bogi in this series, the guy McGenius targeted and would’ve added had the Bucks not reached out to Bogi (through his agent) before the rules allowed and got caught. I think we would have seen DeVincenzo having more positive effect for fraction of the cost. After all, until last night, it would not have been hard.
And TD, Delon and Ty could have easily outperformed Bogi given same opportunity. And last time I checked their price tag was nowhere near 72M. This is the proper evaluation of a flawed fragile player with a resilient spirit and team first mindset. No one being intellectaully objective can say Bogi is the difference maker. That tag falls on his teammates, Collins Capella in particular, with Bogi along for the ride. For one game at least he did freeload.
Will he do it again, probably not, but stay tuned! Since we have not been to the playoffs in a decade plus, the best taste we can get is indirectly through former Kings players. Sad but true but must watch viewing for moi.
Kings did not make top ten or improve even with a good rookie ! Hawks improved 21 games and Bogi a big part of it and a asset for Hawks and lost one for Kings ! Spin that ,
I’m sure Andy is excited to have you in his corner. ðð
CondolencesCongratulations, Tony! Many blessings for your new life.Also, Tony, watch out for that Greg dude. Escape the country and go on a honeymoon before Greg wrecks things for ya.
Whew, I was beginning to have withdrawals with no new TKH articles!
Just kidding, glad to listen to a new episode of the podcast! 🙂
We need to start talking more about Bouknight. He’s redundant on this roster, but if we’re drafting BPA I’d be thrilled to get him. He’s #6 on my big board. Could be a 25 ppg guy and those people arent coming to Sacramento in free agency, folks. He could be the No. 1 scoring option on this team, taking the offensive pressure off Fox to allow him to focus more on defense and facilitation, and allow Hali to become a true do-it-all glue guy like he’s destined to be. Fox-Hali-Bouknight-Barnes-Holmes would be a legitimate terror on offense.
And an equal terror on defense.
There’s no getting worse!
But really, Bouknight is a skinny 6’4.75 with a 6’8 wingspan. He’s going to struggle to defend NBA SGs, much less SFs. IMO that offense isn’t nearly good enough to make up for the defense.
We ran Hield at the 3 last season in what was one of the best lineups in the NBA. I have confidence Bouknight will be a far more dynamic offensive player than Hield, and I can’t fathom him being a worse defender. But to each their own!
We’ll see. Bouknight is obviously a very different offensive player than Hield. He isn’t nearly the ballhandler that Fox or Haliburton are, so he’s going to have to play off the ball. As such he’s going to have to improve his shooting quite a bit. More likely, if the Kings were to draft him, he’d play more of a 6th man role.
I’d rather have Moody than Bouknight.
In regards to Sengun, I see why people like him, but I really don’t want to draft a guy whose just too small to play his position.
My Kings-specific favorites in our tier (#9): (1)S.Barnes/(2)K. Johnson/(3)M.Moody
I’m wary of Keon. His athleticism is truly not of this world but…..is he a ballplayer? Athleticism can often be an indicator of a player’s ceiling because if the most skilled guy is also the best athlete he’s probably the best player, but honestly I always just prefer a dude who has clearly translatable skills because that is the indicator of a player’s floor imo. Moody may never be an all-star, but I’m pretty confident he’ll be a solid 3&D guy for a long time. Barnes looks like a DPOY in waiting to me. Keon though…….eh?
I agree completely, but IMO Keon is the one with the potential to be a star if he develops a consistent shot (highest ceiling of the 3) so he makes my list as the biggest risk vs reward. If the Kings want to a shot on a potential star with the 9th pick, I think Keon is the best option.
Bouknight got that Zach Lavine vibes. I have him going mid to late teens. If we trade down then I’m fine with picking him but not at #9.
If Zach Lavine was sitting at #9 I wouldn’t fuss too much over if I could’ve gotten him 3-6 picks later. You pick the guys you like when you get the chance and don’t look back imo.
Agreed. I’m just not as high as Bouknight as you are. Great potential on offense no doubt, but its the other side of the basketball that I’m having concerns with. If I’m looking at scoring, there’s a bunch of guys you can get in the 20’s to early 2nd round that can provide you just that (Cameron Thomas, BJ Boston, Josh Christopher, Tre Mann).
Lavine fits as a decent ceiling outcome for Bouknight. A merely optimistic outcome is probably something Norman Powell-ish.
Real teams take the best player and do not worry about his position. If the best player is a guard he creates competition for a job. Eventually the drafted player is a trade asset or a less expensive replacement for a guard that gets hurt or is part of a deal to better the team.
The Kangz need to grow up and do what every other team in the NBA does.
Unless they take the ball out of Fox’s hands!
I was not going to mention that perfect example of Kangz stupidity. But yeah, some Euro guy who can play I hear.
While I agree with BPA strategy, there are still differences in scouting abilities and unfortunately, the Kings have historically put no investment into the scouting department. Only bring it up to point that out BPA is basically useless without a deep understanding of every player available.
The Kings need to revamp the scouting department in order to be able to succeed at building a contending team through the draft.
I agree that they cannot identify talent. I think that if they simply use Google they can come up with a pretty accurate consensus of who the top ten available players are. They are picking at nine. Take one of the ten that is still available.
Sage advice¦I’m sure they have never thought of looking at other mocks for a consensus. To be fair they have done this numerous times. Robinson, McLemore, Willie were all pretty consensus top ten picks. Even Jimmer and Stauskas were lottery projections by most publications.
I think just googling or listening to the collective consensus of TKH is a pretty poor process and likely leads to the same results they have always had. Most of us don’t know shit beyond what we read in mocks or see in 10 min highlight clips. How could we? We have other jobs. We don’t conduct interviews or talk to real insiders, coaches etc. We get on here for fun and distraction. Sometimes we are right and sometimes wrong. The goal of a front office is to try get more right than wrong and which I bet most of us don’t really based on reading past draft night threads on STR. Many of us would have made similar type picks most of these years because we do look at the consensus of mocks.
While mind numbingly stupid, just thinking of the 1-2 times they reached (Bagley and Papa G) isn’t really the reason they have such a poor draft history. Not thinking beyond the traditional box has probably gotten them into more trouble than the opposite.
in no way do i ever pretend to even try to project talent.
I was being sarcastic in saying that Google is better than the King’s scouting of draft picks. But the reality is the NBA world is small. They talk to each other. Not too hard to read about what other teams are thinking and simply avoid trying to be “unique” and go in the opposite direction of common knowledge.
Sorry if I missed the sarcasm…I would just generally say that I don’t think there is a right or wrong way by going with “Conventional” thinking in the draft. Million examples to prove that either route can be beneficial depending on team and situation at any given point. Common knowledge is wrong all the time in the draft…it’s a crapshoot for all teams, but some are obviously better than others at it.
The Kings have been historically bad at the draft. I think that’s (butt pulled) 75% poor scouting and 25% poor luck that one of these consensus lottery talents didn’t pan out better. T-Rob, McLemore and Bagley especially.
cases of their being a clear BPA are few, far between and pretty much never happen beyond the top few picks
Huh, *there
Yeah, that is kind of my point, without good scouts, its very hard to come up with bpa beyond some vague tiers
Is this guy Jimmer 2.0?
Jerry just gave us all permission to be out of shape for 5 weeks. I’m going to play that bit for my wife.
What did he say about being out of shape for several decades?
I didn’t realize Huerter was in the 2018 draft. Obviously he wasn’t considered a top ten pick, but still funny to see yet another very good player from that draft while we’re stuck with Bagley.
If you look at that draft objectively, there’s at least 15 players better than Bagley. Crazy.
The 60 games a year that Bagley does not play anybody who owns a basketball is better than Bagley.
Pro tip: Don’t eat chips into a microphone while recording a podcast.
Or walk on snow near a microphone
Or crunch piles of squirrel skeletons on a hot mic
Lol, I was thinking the same thing, how dare these two knuckleheads eat chips while the great Jerry Reynolds is dropping knowledge.
Was someone compulsively eating chips in response to recently stressful life events? That you T-Zip?
“Technical difficulties” – someone was chowing down. ð
Damn Bogi. He’s a Hawk now…but, Huerter and Reddish look interesting. It goes without saying; they are Hawks too.
I thought Simmons would be superstar. He’s not. He’s actually one of the most overrated players in the NBA at this point. He’s not improved at all since coming into the league and almost seems like a worse scorer. I wouldn’t give up a lot, maybe something tangible but not Haliburton Fox or the draft pick. Maybe Holmes and 2nd rounder?Everything else is worthless on this team anyhow.
lolz
This is easily one of my all time favorite TKH posts.
Simmons is a flawed player but would make the Kings better !
Well that’s certainly an opinion.
I hope the Kings make an offer for Simmons. Even if they don’t get him, you got to at least try and participate in the market. Don’t be the “Ben Simmons of the off-season”.
Agreed. I’d say the same thing about Siakam if it turns out he’s actually available as well.
It’s nice that Jerry completely backed my takes on Barnes and Mitchell
Badge Legend