In an otherwise bleak season, one bright spot was the emergence of the “Beam Boys”: Maxime Raynaud, Nique Clifford, Precious Achiuwa and Dylan Cardwell. During rare Kings home wins, this group started a tradition of putting on sunglasses to light the beam as a group. It was fun, and more importantly their play on the court was one of the most compelling reasons to actually watch the team. Maxime Raynaud emerged as one of the best rookies from this draft despite being taken in the second round, Nique Clifford had his moments and got better as the season went along, Dylan Cardwell made an impact as an undrafted rookie, and Precious Achiuwa had a career-best season despite garnering no free agent buzz in the offseason.
Raynaud, Clifford and Achiuwa recently got together to do the Old Man and the Three podcast to discuss their camaraderie and the season that was, and it was a fun listen. The three all get into their backstories, their “welcome to the NBA” moments and lessons they learned during their rookie year.
Despite what happened with this team on the court last season, it seems that at least the young core is a pretty tight knit group. Precious is a free agent this offseason, and while I’m sure he’d like to come back, it will be interesting to see how the Kings manage that while also trying to stay under the luxury tax.
Regardless, it’s nice to see something positive for once with regards to the Kings, and the Beam Boys always manage to put a smile on my face and I think they do a good job of representing this team and hopefully get to do so on a more meaningful stage in the coming years.
Anyone else see the piece where Vlade discusses how he made a mistake, not drafting Luca?
no shit, asshole. Him not wanting to trade Fox or forcing Fox to play some off ball cost them Luca and Halliburton.
I hate Vlade and this franchise. Just straight up idiots. And it continues on with Doug actively not tanking.
sell the team. We are most likely fucked.
I’ll always love and appreciate Vlade and Doug, despite their mistakes. I’ll always hold the ownership responsible. Also Luka SUCKS!
In this instance, Vlade was at fault along w the owner. Plus, Vlade then proceeded to select the worst play player in that draft essentially.
And worse than that, the fucking owner brought him back in after all that shit.
Vlade should never been a general manager and he did a terrible job.
And I don’t see how Doug‘s inability to coach or his idiotic stance on tanking as anything to do with the owner.
Luka sucks-sarcastic. ?
sucks so bad is a five time first team all NBA. Sucks so bad he took his team to the championship already. He’s awesome.
Many time All Star and All NBA sucks . Kings need a player that sucks it seems .
You’re entitled to your opinion.
Vlader is a dumb a-hole who can’t string a coherent sentence together, whoi showed zero spine and accountability (and even now) as a GM, bringing in and entitling POS players and using bushleague tactics to smoke out a coach.
Doug was the owner’s plant and snitch and backstabbed Mike Brown in order to get this job that he is not qualified for.
They are not victims. They actively contributed to the mess this franchise is in, while being paid to do so.
They can live long and prosper in a galaxy far far away, as far as I am concerned.
Too bad we don’t have a player who sucks as much as Luka.
The most infuriating part of the interview is when former GM Vlade admitted that Luka was “a big market talent” and wouldn’t fit with Sacramento (along with the line that he was Fox incompatible).
I have suspected and his words reinforce my belief that super agent Bill Duffy nixed any way, shape or form that his client, Luka Doncic, would end up in Vivek’s Sacramento. That Divac would foolishly admit that a big market talent shouldn’t be in Sacramento further reveals his true feelings about the Kings and Ranadive and provides further insight into his clownish actions whilst positioned as GM.
Who’s this Luca guy you speak of?
Lol when I saw that snippet of the interview, I was like “oh Vlade. Why oh why did you have to reopen that wound again?”
His comments about market size make me think Luka did not want to be in Sacramento. Still gotta draft the kid anyway and then get something to trade down if you think he won’t stay. Dont just pass on him.
Feels even worse now – this team just keeps letting assets slip through their fingers.
while the Jazz and the Wizards sat EVERYBODY and played guys who could not even make the G League (true), the Kings were building culture– coming back from 22 down to the Pacers, beating the duds, the Clippers and Toronto in the last week. Winning was losing. If they had simply won the coin toss and got #4, they would probably be ok but this was a monumental mess up.
The Nets were just plain bad. The Pacers, actively tanked and the Jazz and Wizards were despicable.
Fun interview.
They seem like nice dudes. Hope they have decent careers.
We’ll probably trade them.
The “Beam Boys” is a nice little story to an otherwise dreadful season, but I think it’s going to go the way of Iman Shumpert’s “The Scores” moniker that few Kings fans will remember in time
The truth is, I give about a 1% chance of Precious returning. He’s a soon to be 27 year old UFA coming off the best year of his career. He’s gonna want, and deserve, to get paid this summer, and the Kings simply can’t afford him.
When it coms to the rookies, unless Sabonis gets moved, I don’t expect the same kind of minutes and production from Maxi and Cardwell. Their minutes and opportunity were a blessing in wake of injuries. Something tells me Vivek is going to want bigger names to fulfill their roles next season.
That leaves Nique, the one guy who Perry gave up an unprotected pick to acquire. Unless LaVine gets moved, I feel he too will get left at the bottom end of the rotation. Doug is coaching for carer as next season as it is his last guaranteed year. He’s gonna play the vets as much as he can.
Pretty sure it’s a 2027 Top 16 protected Spurs pick. If it ends up going to Kings (and Spurs are top 16 – unlikely) I think the pick converts to two 2nds.
Lot of stupid moves have occurred, but this seemed reasonable at time and now.
Nope, if it falls #17-#30 it conveys to OKC (this is the most likely scenario) and the Kings get nothing. If it falls #1-16 the Kings keep it BUT have to convey 2 second round picks to OKC.
OKC wins either way, as they gave up the pick to get Nique. Classic kick the can down the road move by Presti because he didn’t want/need another 1st round guaranteed salary this past season.
Basically the odds look like Perry gave up the unprotected pick in 2027, which will likely be in the high 20’s the way the Spurs are looking, for Nique, who was taken in the mid 20’s.
That means Fox and Huerter have so far turned into LaVine, Nique, the Minny 2031 pick and pair of seconds. That Minny pick may end up being gold, but time will tell.
I’m waiting for the accounting on the Haliburton trade after Domas gets moved. Great guy, and at least he added some much-needed entertainment to the team, but we basically got two winning seasons and one first round playoff loss. The flipside is they’re the only two winning seasons this team has had in the last two decades, so I guess it’s not all bad?
The undercurrent here is I don’t expect much value back for Domas. Matching (hopefully shorter term) salary and a replacement level player?
I really wonder how much success we would have had if we’d have kept Haliburton. I have a hard time imagining the Kings building a team around him that play to his strengths and masks his weaknesses like the Pacers managed to do.
Gotta remember, at the time of the trade the starting 5 were Fox, Hali, Barnes, Metu and Holmes. The bench was Bagley, Mitchell, Harkless, and Damion Jones That team was going nowhere fast.
It wasn’t just the Sabonis trade that gave the Kings a shot in the arm, it was the later trade of Bagey that brought in Lyles, the trade for Huerter, and the signing of Monk that following summer. The trade for Sabonis, who ended up missing half of the remaining schedule, also landed Keegan in the draft. I guess one could argue that if the Sabonis trade hadn’t happened the rest of the moves would likely have not taken place. A butterfly flaps its wings and all…
Oh the Kings would have 100% screwed it up had they kept Haliburton. They certainly screwed it up with Domas.
But in terms of value and team impact, last year’s playoffs was a historic performance for Tyrese. He hit four game winning or tying shots in the last five seconds, for a team without a major superstar and that wasn’t close to the most talented team in the NBA. Players spend their whole careers without matching those numbers.
I’m calling it now, I’ve got a feeling that Toronto trade will be rekindled. Toronto will send one of Barrett or Quickly to the Kings and Poeltl and pick(s) would be absorbed by the Bulls. FWIW, the Bulls have no center on their roster and over $60M in cap space.
In two years they’ll be doing a podcast about how grateful they are to be in a better situation.
…and you’ll still be a Sonics fan
I give them no credit for bringing in Precious. He was out there for the taking for at least a couple seasons, and they refused until there was no one else. They did it out of desperation, not prudence.
OT: Playoff banter:
I’ve thought for a while that Detroit didn’t have the fire power for the playoffs and they have run into a defense focused Orlando who has gotten hot at the right time. I thought at the deadline that LaVine made a lot of sense next to Cade, and I still do.
Here’s hoping LaVine, who has said it wants to win, agrees to a buyout and signs with the Pistons. FWIW, they potentially have over $30M in cap space this summer.
And Detroit can cover to some degree for how awful LaVine is on defense. You also wonder if he was in a better situation with a good defensive team if he’d put more effort in on that end. I don’t think we’ve ever seen that from him, but anything is possible!
Off topic but I keep seeing Acuff mocked to the Kings which I find hilarious. The Kings drafting a guy I see compared to Fox with worse defense quite often would be the perfect cherry on top of this turd Sunday of a season and organization. I can’t wait to be wondering if Acuff can lead us to a playoff berth in 7 years.
Vivek loves him some John Calipari
Badge Legend