The Sacramento Kings entered the second half Saturday with a 12 point lead over the Milwaukee Bucks. By the end of the third the lead had been whittled to 3. By game’s end, the Bucks won 114-108. All the ways you’d think that might have happened? Yeah, that’s pretty much how it happened. Poor execution, missed opportunities, missed shots, it was all there in all the ways that have become so familiar for Kings fans this season.
At a quick glance at the box score, even without Malik Monk (illness) and Domantas Sabonis (injury), it looks like the Kings roster played a good game. Six Kings scored in doubt digits, including all five starters. DeMar DeRozan led the way with 22, and Keon Ellis had 20. But the Kings allowed the Bucks to shoot 41.9% from deep, while only making 23.7% of their own threes. The Bucks dominated fast break points and points in the paint. The Kings had no answer for Giannis Antetokounmpo, who finished with 32 points and 17 rebounds.
All this to say that, once again, the Kings put up a bunch of good individual performances that didn’t add up to a good team performance. I feel like a broken record talking about how this team is less than the sum of its parts, but it stands out over and over again.
Up Next
The Kings face the Celtics on Monday. Ouch.
I’m coming closer to accepting that this team will just stumble into the final play-in spot, get bounced in the first game, will finish lucky number 13 in the lottery, lose the pick, fire their GM ,and will have Vlade as interim GM entering the offseason. It’s the most probable Kangz scenario I can come up with, so it’s likely to happen.
Damn you!
Only because I share the same damning expectations and I damn sure wish I didn’t
I can play this game as well:
My other sour prediction is that Sac fails so spectacularly, they somehow miss the Play-In, which would be a strong reason to hire someone other than Doug Christie, they do a ridiculous HC search and hire DC anyway, fire Monte McNair, promote Wes Welker, add Anjali World (officially), end up at the 12th lottery spot, but have DAL or PHX at 13 or 14, move up and knock the Kangz to 13.
How’d I do?
Ohhhh, retaining the pick at 12 only to have our souls crushed when a 13 to 14 jump in the lottery is truly a kick to the groin. Well done!
The Lavine trade just gets more LOL with each passing game.
Kings are stuck with Loser Lavine. He’s a low iq baller. Coasts through most games. Not a leader and certainly not a player that makes any kind of difference down the stretch of close games.
I find Lavine unwatchable. What’s funny? Is so many fans think he’s having personal
issues at home? Those silly assumptions.
Lets try these assumptions instead as an alternate universe:
Kings most valuable trade chip. Sabonis.
But they would vertically screw that up as well.
Trey Lyles has been playing better? Comical
Sorry my Kangzt (Kangz angst) is hitting hard rn
This Kangk (Kang stank) is pretty heavy atm
LaVine is definitely a good offensive player. He probably does not want to be here. That’s the most plausible explanation. They look so weird without Sabonis. Like the Beam Team never happened. They’re simply not watchable. And if you’re not going to a legit contender, you better be watchable.
He just had a game off because of personal reasons, no?
And his wife gave birth shortly after the trade, no?
I’m not a fan of how the team is playing with him right now, but it could be that other matters in life are bothering him, and it has nothing to do with him not wanting to be here.
When they traded for LaVine, I had imagined this offense having him be a floor spacer, spot up guy, running off screens, relocating, etc (like Klay was used for so many years) while Monk, DDR, Sabonis were on the court handling the ball and getting others involved.
When Lavine and 1 of Monk/DDR/Sabonis were on the court together, then Zach could be more of the ball dominant self-creator.
Instead, it has been an offense where Monk gets his for a few, then it’s Demar’s turn for a few possessions, then Lavine…idk what the issue is. Coaches have a bad plan? Players aren’t executing the plan? Dudes don’t want to pass to one another?
It’s not working when the roster is healthy. Too many egos/mouths to feed, not enough defense.
I see your point. LaVine has good range. I think the best case scenario is that Doug isn’t enough of an offensive mind to integrate LaVine on the fly. The worst case scenario is your egos/ mouths to feed take. Sad if true because NOBODY is taking Da Bulls off our hands.
Triano is supposedly the offensive coordinator. Christie and him need to work together on getting things right. I really think that DDR being replaced with a player that is lower usage and better defender would make things a bit more defined offensively.
I think DDR is the easier piece to move, so I suspect he gets traded this offseason. Maybe they start LaRavia and use the return of a potential DDR trade to round out the bench better?
Agreed that DDR needs to be the moved. I think LaVine is still salvageable if used correctly and the right pieces are around him. He’d be a lot more effective with a true PG next to him (with Monk back to the bench or moved) and another 3 and D wing to pair next to Keegan.
I’ve honestly thought that if the Kings retain their pick this year, I could see it being packaged with DDR to get better fitting pieces. A rebuilding team would like another lottery pick and could use DDR’s deal later in trade. Just hypothetically speaking, DDR and this year’s lottery pick for Cam Johnson and one of Brooklyn’s later first rounders (they have 4 first round picks this year). Another could be something like DDR, Monk, this year’s pick for John Collins, Colin Sexton and their late first round Bucks pick.
Yeah, something like that. Pieces that fit better and make the team bigger, younger, more athletic.
I like both ideas.
Also Sabonis might want out if he feels the Kings aren’t there yet. A trade to the Heat for Hero, Ware, and either Highsmith or Jovic would work and Adebayo and Sabonis are buddies. The 2 together would be really good.
Is Sexton similar to Fox and Monk? I haven’t seen him play much over the years.
I’d say he’s more like Fox than Monk, but he can shoot from deep. He’s not a pure PG but more of a combo type. I might prefer Keyonte George, but I don’t think Utah would give him up.
Isn’t George like one of the worst defenders in the league?
I don’t know, but it is very young. Definitely a prospect/project. Sexton is more of a sure/proven thing.
I like the discussions of potential personal movement, usage of assets for trades, etc., but with Vivek in charge it’s merely rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. This team will likely never have any sustained success while Vivek is around, regardless of the personnel/asset management, and whatever success the team does have will likely be temporary and unexpected, like the beam team year. Being a winning franchise is simply not his priority and in fact getting too good may be something he’s trying to avoid, to avoid having to pay out more than he wants in salary. I just see no point at all anymore of saying “we should move this person” or “we should go after that person” because it’s all going to come crashing down on the foundation of quicksand that Vivek has set up, no matter what moves the FO makes. Just another somber day in Kangzland for me…
Thanks for telling us what we should and shouldn’t do. I rather enjoy thinking about roster construction and what could be done to improve the team.
I don’t think RPO is telling anyone how to fan, they just sound as frustrated with the situation as many of us are. There is sense of futility when it comes to Kings fandom and it manifests in different ways.
Yeah, I see that now as I read it again. Sorry RPO.
No worries. We all fan differently. I’m hoping I can someday (soon, hopefully) get to the point where I’m intrigued by roster construction discussion also.
I don’t think comments here have a lot of effect, but I do believe that the organization is aware of this site and the X/Blue Sky stuff.
So, while the organization hasn’t been willing to rebuild to this point, expressing the willingness/desire for that path and disgust with our current path, while ineffective so far, can’t hurt.
good points, doesn’t help over half of the original staff is gone, lol. Who is even left, and who are some of the main assistants outside of Jay & Barbosa, can someone list them….I’d really appreciate it!
Next year’s coaching staff is slated to be: Doug, Barbosa, Kayte, and the fan selected to shoot the half court shot.
Front office: Interim GM Vlade and special assistant to the GM, Anjali Ranadive.
International scout: Sim Buhllar.
Color commentator: Mike Bibby
14th rostered player: Air Bud
Deuce and Mo will still be allowed to have their podcast.
Look, feel free to mock Vlade all you want, but you do not dare besmirch the name of Air Bud. One of the most talented basketball players I have every seen and according to all character reviews, a very good boy.
Per basketball-ref:
Jay Triano Associate Head Coach
Ricardo Fois Assistant Coach
Jim Moran Assistant Coach
Leandro Barbosa Assistant Coach
So the issue is that this really isn’t the type of player Zach LaVine is or at least it isn’t how he’s been used. He is very much an on-ball player who excels with the ball in his hands. Even in Chicago, he simply wasn’t utilized that way.
Looked it up on NBA.com and for some of the playtypes here’s the % for LaVine in Chicago versus Sacramento:
Hand-off:
Chicago (’24): 5.3% of possessions, 1.08 PPP
Chicago (’25): 3.5% , 1.16 PPP
Sacramento (’25): 7.7%, 1.10 PPP
Off-Screen:
Chicago (’24): 3.4%, 0.88 PPP
Chicago (’25): 3.3%, 0.83 PPP
Sacramento (’25): 2.8%, 1.54 PPP
Spot Up:
Chicago (’24): 16.8%, 1.04 PPP
Chicago (’25): 13.6%, 1.21 PPP
Sacramento (’25): 16.2%, 1.25 PPP
Both his percent of two pointers (54% on Sac v. 47% on Chi) and three pointers (60% v. 52%) have gone up in Sac.
So it seems like to some degree they have tried and have increased that usage versus Chicago. Some of the PPP numbers above are good, but some on low volume and some that are mixed or pretty poor. We certainly can try to use him that way more, but it oddly would be a bit of a different muscle or playstyle for him. But to your point, perhaps we should try to get him into those situations more, though also a bit easier said than done.
The real unfortunate thing is he’s just not great at P&R, which is where it would be really nice if he excelled for our offense:
P&R Ball Handler
Chicago (’24): 32.7%, 0.94 PPP
Chicago (’25): 26.7%, 0.99 PPP
Sacramento (’25): 22.8%, 0.80 PPP
He’s generally done more and been more comfortable in ISO and in transition:
ISO
Chicago (’24):12.7%, 0.83 PPP
Chicago (’25): 16.6%, 1.15 PPP
Sacramento (’25): 15.9%, 0.84 PPP
Transition
Chicago (’24): 22.1%, 1.22 PPP
Chicago (’25): 23.3%, 1.26 PPP
Sacramento (’25): 23.3%, 1.46 PPP
Realize it is hard to contextualize a lot of these without a lot more comparisons. However, once I started adding the data, thought I would at least drop it here. Am sure others will have comments or can look up others.
The big one that stands out is P&R. That’s pretty egregious for a player with his talent. For comparison, DeRozan is P&R ball handler for 23.5% of his possessions and gets 1.10 points per possession. Sitting below 1.0 with two teams over 3 years isn’t great.
Same shit, different game
Faster than I expected him to return to participate in practice.
Great that he’s recovering quickly, but I don’t see any point to rushing him back for these next two games.
This. Let the man heal, there is really nothing to play for at the point.
Blue sky, lol.
The Kings will probably finish this year between 40 and 43 wins and the ninth seed in play-off/play-in. If they lose the pick, at least it’s not hanging over their heads for years like the J.J. Hickson trade from 10 years ago or the Vlade salary dump from six years ago. If they beat the Suns in the first play-in and the T-Wolves in the second, they actually make the playoffs. Don’t think they get past OKC. Then for next year, in my world, they hire Doug Christie full time, keep Monte McNair for one more chance/year, treat Devin Carter like next year’s number 1 pick, add some second round picks who have a chance to contribute to an NBA roster, hire a quietly up and coming assistant coach to replace Luke Loucks and fix the roster for 25/26 through trades, free agents and/or player development. All I’m saying is, it’s possible.
It’s possible, but would require a level of skill and execution that the Kings have not shown themselves capable of.
And Carter has played in 27 games (and counting). I think we can all acknowledge that he had a tough entry to the league with surgery, missing summer league/training camp/preseason, followed by the team being in upheaval as he got healthy. But I’m still not going to pretend that next year is his rookie year.
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