After last night’s wild win in Denver, I’ve seen a common thought appear from a variety of Kings fans:
What if the Kings are good?
It feels silly and premature, and is typed with the air of hesitation, but it’s a thought that one can’t help but have after such a fun win.
We’re Kings fans, and we know better than to get our hopes up. We know this is Lucy baiting us into trying to kick the football. And yet, here we go.
So, with all the necessary grains of salt, let’s take a moment to appreciate the reasons we might believe the Kings could be sorta good this season, or at the very least good enough to be fun.
Pace: The Kings talked about pace in the preseason and backed that up on the court. This wasn’t your Dave Joerger Kings — there was still a sense that this team was running an actual offense — but the Kings moved the ball up the floor quickly, players moved off ball, and the ball didn’t stagnate.
De’Aaron Fox: Fox didn’t have his best night but still showed us why his teammates believe in him making a leap. Fox attacked Denver relentlessly, and made his presence felt on both ends of the floor.
Youth: For me this is the biggest reason I’m excited. It’s great that the Kings won, but how they won is key. The Kings got major minutes and major production from Fox, Marvin Bagley, and Tyrese Haliburton. Three of the Kings five youngest players accounted for 96 minutes of playing time and 46 points.
Marvin Bagley played 27 minutes and Luke Walton allowed him to take on big challenges. Bagley defended Jokic for multiple stretches, and although Bagley wasn’t going to put the clamps on an MVP-candidate like Jokic, it was nice to see Walton prioritize youth instead of falling back on Hassan Whiteside and blaming the matchup.
Similarly, Tyrese Haliburton played 30 minutes. We got to see Ty next to Fox and Cory Joseph, rather than being buried behind them. At one point Walton even went small with Fox, Haliburton and Buddy Hield all at the same time. Haliburton is full of potential, and Walton gave him the opportunity to play through mistakes.
Buddy Buckets is back: That’s the Buddy Hield Kings fans used to know. Sure, he still made some big mistakes (including a brutal turnover at the end of regulation that could have cost the Kings the game), but it was great seeing Buddy play loose and confident, hitting 5 of 11 threes, and coming up big when the game was on the line.
***
Are the Kings actually good? It still seems unlikely. But it does feel like the Kings won’t be a total doormat this season, and they’ll be fun to watch along the way. And as long as their wins continue to come on the backs of the young core, that’s all we can really hope for.
Are the Kings good?
No.
Are the kings good hell yeah they are baby!! Not sure is the irish mules are talking or not but my kings played with heart, my kings played with hustle, my kings made mistakes but they overcame, my kings rookie played 30 minutes and showed more IQ in those minutes then a decade of picks, buddy went back to buddy buckets buddy, fox went back to attack mode fox, and defense?????? Yes they played defense yes we have a defensive coach and an offensive coordinator, playoffs baby fuck this years draft lets go all in baby!!!! Yes Im drunk so what
If they can play similar to how they played last night, selfless team ball with major hustle, they will win more than people expect them to. I haven’t seen that kind of energy from the Kings in quite some time. That play, at the very least, keeps them in more games than the last couple years of 4th quarter hopelessness.
I’ll settle for fun.
Sums it up perfectly for me.
I did enjoy last night, regardless of efficacy, that there seemed like a plan, that the players had a role and a purpose. I think that is really going to help Bagley and Haliburton mature and grow.
Buddy
BucketsNuggets was hella fun on that last play!Can you imagine rooting for a fun basketball team? I’d be like experiencing your first love again.
The Macho King!
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRXszMfEQ4eGrLsQBPkTqNOcecj5nlwvffU3w&usqp=CAU
UNDEFEATED, BABY!
We are the champions, my friends
“Yes, your Purpleness. As you command.”
Nothing like a 1 game win streak.
It’s enjoyable that the dozen times I thought OK, here is where it goes to hell that it never did. More games like that than not and I’ll be happy with the season.
I registered just to say that was the best season opener I can remember in a long time. I’m not hopeful for the season due to one game but I am because the players we’ve added are better then the players we’ve lost. Prior to covid we were in a legit battle for 8
I mean, we got somewhat lucky last night (amazingly bad game from Jamal Murray), but overcame some adversity. Heck, we’re one corner 3 from Halliburton from winning in regulation.
Of course we could’ve lost like eighteen different ways too, but managed to eke out the win.
He was pretty-well defended, though. There will be nights where he still manages to kill you, despite good defensive effort, but the Kings made him work hard and take tough shots.
We can’t get caught up on who played bad for the Nugs as justification for the win. Buddy and Fox were amazingly bad in the first half. It happens.
They Kings are talented but they are not good yet.
All right, who spiked Greg’s eggnog?
Hmm. Greg’s eggnog? Greggnog? Maybe there’s something to that . . .
This should be the next TKH t-shirt!
Greggnog hahaha
A fun thing to do is add an extra g to the end of Greg when writing to someone named Greg. It’s like scratching on a chalkboard for Gregs.
As someone with a frequently misspelled and mispronounced first name, how dare you.
I hate when they add a C to my name,
Yeah, I can only imagine, Crik.
I feel your pain, Crik.
Yeah, Rikc would be weird.
Damnit same joke! Deleting. Haha
Haha I feel your pain dude. My name is Alek but I have been called Alex since kindergarten and then when I actually do explain to people that it’s “Alek” they spell it with a “c” and we’re right back to square one.
Sure thing Smurf.
Good? No. Not horrible? Yes!
As an aside, how nice is it that we have a guy who has a meh game with 21/7/4? Pretty nice!
If I thought that they were ready to play the kind of unselfish offense and efforted defense we saw last night, then the argument could be made. Given how young the team is, there are going to be times where things look like absolute garbage on one end of the floor or the other (or both).
It’s okay, though! When guys are on their game and are competitive, that’s something that you can consider as foundation-building. Seeing Haliburton playing composed and effectively at both ends right out of the gate is just wonderful. He doesn’t need to be created as an NBA player, he only needs seasoning and the time to learn some of the tricks that veterans employ, and he’ll be a huge part of what could be a playoff team in the next couple of years.
It’s one game, but Denver is a very good team, and even had the Kings lost, I’d have been very happy with what I saw.
My apologies for the uncharacteristic optimism, I know that it confuses people.
What a difference a day makes!
It’s okay Sims. We’re too confused ourselves about this team to notice your optimism.
Thanks for the clarification. I was waiting for the amber alert to appear on my phone.
I agree with this. Team is farther along than people realize.
That one turnover Buddy had at the end as two defenders sort of sandwiched his passing lane, on the replay I’m still wondering where exactly his pass was even headed. I believe both of his teammates underneath were covered.
Buddy has this really bad habit of starting to penetrate without any idea where he’s going or where anybody else is. Then I think he just panics and throws it to where he thinks a person should be. It kind of cracks me up because I played ball with a dude in high school who would do the exact same thing.
So does his coach.
He’s trying to be a playmaker when that’s not his strength. It leads to forcing passes and drives that are better left to the Foxes and Halliburtons of the team.
Several of Buddy’s TO’s IMO were due to De’Aaron Fox giving up the ball and standing around. That’s one area that really needs to improve with Swipa. You wanna be a max player? You have to power through and figure it out there. You can’t just give up the ball and take three possessions off and hope Buddy doesn’t throw it away.
But Buddy’s passing is never going to be confused with John Stockton, either.
Rec’d for John Stockton reference!
F*** it. With only 2.6 seconds left in regulation, we should have subbed Bjeli in for Whiteside to recreate last year’s game winner against Houston.
Things that end up bad don’t usually start off good.
Germany was really kicking ass for the first few years of WWII, though.
Easy there, Godwin.
Lance Armstrong says hey girl!
Viral meningitis disagrees.
I said it in the game recap thread. Just replace Bogi, Dedmon and Ariza with Haliburton, Whiteside and GR3 and add them to a 39 win team that is playing fast again and do we have something?
It’s been said here. Are we good? Probably not. Will it be fun? FOX YEAH.
FOX IT! WE DESERVED THIS WIN!
I’m eating up all this positivity.
They’re not and I hope not yet as we need one more piece. But they’re definitely fun.
I am excited for the youth.
Fox looked good in the second half.
My goals for Bagley are for health, the speed of the game to slow down, and 16 and 8.
Haliburton can play with yesterday’s pace/confidence and he will have a good year.
Barnes, I just need 1/2 to 3/4 of that every night and that contract will be fine! Easily one of the best games he has played for us.
Yesterday was so much fun. Even Doug and Mark seemed to have good chemistry.
Add 2-3 assists for Bagley and I’ll agree. This team has some good finishers at the rim. It should be easy enough for Bagley to pick up a couple easy assists per night instead of always trying to force a bucket.
I Agree, Bagley is trying to plow through people like Julius Randle did his rookie year. My hope is the game slows down but I like what I saw yesterday.
Shit, has he even played 82 games? Let’s think of him as a rookie and everything goes down easier!
Unfortunately, his contract does not think of him as a rookie, and therefore, neither should we.
I laughed so hard when the announcers talked about Bagleys defender “guessing right” when Bagley tried to left right into his defender. Its not a guess when he always goes left
Sure, 1 win may make us fans delusional, but nothing wrong with feeling giddy after a win!
Delusion of possible competence is a nice change of pace from crippling negativity and hopelessness. I’m taking what I can get right now.
You can’t let it cripple you. Powering through is key, for just long enough until the next horrible thing happens.
Very true. Thank you Andy.
Yeah I’m sure the new FO will make plenty of mistakes for me to complain about and the proof will, as always, be in the pudding but I am getting whiffs of competence and that is something I haven’t gotten since Petrie was running the show.
We had some kind of pudding for Christmas breakfast this morning. I am not a pudding fan. Yuck. I will never know the proof of the truth. The only part of the pudding that was edible was the whisky sauce which I drank.
Kings not as bad as we anticipated not as good as we hope after one win.
Oh, we have had such delusions almost every season, when this team made the inevitable good 8 to 14 game run.
Will this year be different? I don’t know.
Probably not, but that game was super fun! And I am very confident of one thing: Tyrese Haliburton is good! Already! That already feels like a huge win to me.
I’m already looking forward to people complaining about Rese hitting the rookie wall.
Honestly in this year of all it years it will almost assuredly happen but he is the first Kings rookie I can remember, probably ever, where it actually surprises me when he makes a mistake. He lost MPJ last night down low for a layup and you could tell he was so mad at himself for screwing that up. It’s just all the little things like the look off on the corner three by Corey Joseph to give him a little more space or never really losing cutters by staying attached so he doesn’t give up a back door layup. That’s advanced stuff that most of our vets don’t do consistently. He already does it. I really am way too excited for this kid.
We will handle it when we get there, but for now find me on J street screaming that our savior has arrived.
What’s there on J St to yell at these days? Everything is closed…..
Nothing. Just yelling in general. People can listen if they’re around.
Oh. That sounds like J St at 3am during normal times, actually.
Huh. That’s the time I usually go. Weird.
Agree with all of this.
Define good. Are the Kings competing with the Lakers and the Bucks for the NBA crown this year? No. Could they sneak into that 9th/10th spot and be eligible for the play in? Maybe. So far, they ARE better than expected. Counting preseason the Kings are 3-2 for the 20/21 season.
Barnes and Buddy’s trade values goingggg up!
If we are good then we need to be shopping these guys soon. If I was a contending team and watched those two guys last night, I would be interested.
Maybe I’m just naive, but I really want to lose more games for the possibility to land Cade. He’s just so damn good and would a beautiful fit with Fox and Haliburton.
I want nice things! Why can’t we have nice things!
Yeah, I want McNair to make a trade like Buddy and 2 seconds for LeVert and Kurucs. Just make it happen lol
Cade would be nice but I doubt we’ll be that bad.
This kind of trade won’t happen. Especially with the Nets who already have Joe Harris.
If you don’t want a repeat of the last decade and half, hope ownership has actual resources they can commit to the Kings and a FO that can properly value asset’s. That’s what will make this team better all things being equal.
I actually think LeVert is better than Buddy so I don’t see how this would be a step backward for us..
For the Nets, why not Buddy and Harris? They have their stars, fit is easy, and $$ is the same.
If you’re struggling to understand why the Nets wouldn’t do this, I don’t know what to say.
Hard pass on Kurucs, he (allegedly) choked out his ex-girlfriend.
We already had the Matt Barnes/Ty Lawson era.
Definitely didnt know that about Kurucs. That’s an easy unfollow for me.
With the new draft lottery odds, we might not to need to be that bad, but still have a good chance to land the number one pick. Either way, I am aware that Cade is wishful thinking to the point of being ridiculous. I just think a high pick in this years draft is vital for our future.
They ain’t trading Levert, Durant won’t allow it. Kurucs and Prince for Buddy and a 2nd or late 1st (I see Brooklyn winning the East) and they’ll probably bite.
Barnes was legitimately great last night! That was nice to see and if he had a career year that would help us a lot by either raising his trade value or just helping the team possibly compete for the play-in tournament. I don’t expect it to continue but last night’s version of Barnes is a pretty good player.
Why would you want to trade Barnes?
He’s good and he’s our most versatile and switchable defender.
He looks more agile and spry than last year, likely healing from a nagging injury.
Hopefully this translates into steady offensive output.
Moreover the more versatile defenders you have the more you tend to kick ass.
Versatile defenders can be defined as able to hold their own in the interior and out near the three point line against most players.
In other words, they can guard all over the floor.
Let’s look at who can defend on the interior and perimter or neither:
Fox (perimeter)
Buddy (perimeter or neither)
Hali ( perimeter)
Joseph ( perimeter)
Barnes (perimeter AND interior)
Bjelica (neither, some interior)
Whiteside (interior)
Bagley (some interior, some perimeter)
Holmes (interior, some perimter)
Guy (perimeter)
Woodward (hopeful interior and perimeter)
You may disagree with how I catargorize these guys but the point is Barnes sort of distinguishes himself as a guy you can readily move about the floor to defend multiple positions.
As a defensive coach, he makes your game planning easier.
I include Woodward because it would be nice if he can develop and be same type or better defender than Barnes. Unfortunately he did not show the lateral mobility or agility to guard on the perimeter in pre-season.
Barnes makes your team defense a lot easier because he does not get stuck on mismatches as easily as others. It is underrated trait that does not show up in the box score. We need more players like this. We need Bagley to develop into a defender who guards inside and out. We need Whiteside to show more on pick and roll and he did a decent job at this a few times vs. Denver.
What we dont need to do is undervalue versatile defenders and hope they play well for a few weeks so we can peddle them off!
The same goes with Buddy as a shooter.
We lost Bogi and Bjelica is a washed up player whose minutes I expect to dwindle. He’s done as a player in my book. Our perimter shooting has taken a hit.
We cannot trade Buddy with perimeter shooter at a premium unless we are getting shooting back, and that seems like a lateral move or worse.
And if this coach is not going to put Kyle Guy in the rotation, Buddy’s shooting becomes even more important to spread the floor.
Not getting DeVincenzo stung because that would have made a Buddy trade more feasible.
In summation, Buddy and Barnes are not going to be traded if this GM keeps his wits about him or a team is desperate and willing to overpay.
This is all theoretical about Barnes. I mean, we have many years of his play to actually look at, and he’s sometimes fit your description – but quite often not.
It’s quite funny you list Bjelica as being no “defender”, yet he ranked way ahead of Barnes last season (his DBPM was at 0.5, Barnes at -1.3). Only players ranking better than Bjelica playing >50 minutes were Ariza at 1.3, Giles at 0.9 (both playing 1/3 of the minutes, and I think low minutes, subpar competition [reserves] and high block rate inflates Giles’ score a bit) and Holmes at 0.6.
The eye test does not give much credibility to Bjelica and I am sure he’d be beat 1-on-1 against many players he generally defends *effectively*, but he’s a smart player who can direct a player to go the less-preferred way (he’d make a player like Bagley always shoot with the other hand or be in a position where he should be shooting with it), or direct them towards other defenders. Basketball defense is not all about 1-on-1 defense.
It’s also nice to call “washed up” a player who led this team just last season in Value/Wins Over Replacement at 1.9/5.1 (over Hield at 1.7/4.6, Fox at 1.6/4.3 and Bogdanovic at 1.2/3.2) and was Kings’ best 3pt shooter at 41% FGM on a large number of attempts.
I am sure he’ll see diminished minutes, but his minutes always correlate with results. Make of that what you will.
They’re good enough to do what they did last night!
I think we can at least come to the conclusion the team is not blatantly tanking. Who knows if that’s the right decision though. I think I’m okay with trying to win as many games as possible with the young core getting as many minutes as they can handle. I think that strikes a good balance between learning how to win while still getting an impact player in the draft.
Proclamations after one game, lol.
We just need something to pull it all together?
Jobu’d
Up your butt, BabalooMagoo.
Fox you Jobu
If they beat PHX twice this weekend and DEN again on Tuesday, then we might have something here.
If they do, there’ll be some serious butt-kissing comments on this blog.
Tough to defeat a good team like Denver on the road unless you are close to good ! The hoped for Tank does not seem likely as team has some young talent and solid proven vets ! Maybe just watch and enjoy and evaluate a bit later !
There’s an old saying that goes kinda like “on any given night any team can beat any other team”. Let’s see what their record is like after 10-15 games.
Haliburton will be ROY. Whiteside will lead the league in rebounding and blocked shots. Fox will lead the league in triple doubles. Buddy will lead the league in scoring and Bagley will be most improved player. The Kings will make it to the Western Conference Championship before getting knocked off by the San Antonio.
This team could really use Vlade…that is Vlade the player in his prime. Holmes and Bagley with Fox just limits us… hopefully we will be able to have only of the two when we go against smaller centers…
Are they good? slim chance they are. They’ve gotten back to their running style of play and is utilizing Buddy properly. Reminds me a lot when Joerger last coached the Kings in which the Kings were really looking good and seems to be on the rise.
But we’ll see. It’s just 1 game but if they can continue to play with this style of basketball throughout the season and our young guys are getting major minutes, I’ll be happy with the results win or lose.
Not ready to say we’ll be good, but I think we’ll be better than last year and more fun. Love the addition of Halliburton, feels like he’s an upgrade on Bogi already, and he fits perfectly into a fast paced game. I’m excited to see his growth along with Bagley’s this season. It’s crazy they’re 20 and 21 years old. Fox just turned 23 a few days ago. I just pray they stay healthy and pickup minutes and experience because they could grow dangerous very quickly.
Fun fact – this is the first time the Kings have been at, or above .500 under Walton.
As said by a few, they may or may not be good, but that was some fun basketball lead by our youth. More of that please!
“Good” is really in the eye of the beholder. To me, a good team is a playoff team, or maybe a .500 team – so probably not.
But I still don’t quite get the idea that this team should suddenly be a low-20s win team. It’s a similarly talented roster to the team that won 39 games a few seasons ago.
It’s a bad team because I want Cade Cunningham, goddammit. Why can’t you understand this?
The Charlie Brown football reference is dead on. I’m lightly jogging towards the football instead of a full sprint… Go Kings.
Merry Christmas!
My mantra is gonna be 6th seed until it’s painfully obvious my naive optimism was well misplaced. Let the cynics cynic.
I think that the Kings will be significantly better than expected. I attribute it a number of things, the proper use of Fox and Hield, the departure of Bogdanovic, who was a limited player and his replacement by Halliburton, a truly special one who improves everyone around him and improves execution on both ends of the floor. Halliburton has those special gifts, that feel for the game, the great ones have. An Andre Iguodala, Dennis Johnson, Dave DeBusschere, kind of player. Still can’t believe the Kings got him.
Of course they’re good.
The words in title of the article should be rearranged to read from;
Are the Kings…good?
to
The Kings are….good.
38 win team, book it.
I think people are seriously undervaluing this team. To me, the last month before the shutdown (where the King’s played over .500 ball) is more indicative of where this team is at and I am super excited for this season. There are still a lot of questions that need to be answered and they have a lot to prove but yeah, I think this team is pretty good. I think they are going to surprise a lot of people this year. Go Kings!!!
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