The Kings entered tonight’s game with the deck stacked in their favor. They were riding the wave of their longest win streak so far this season and the Charlotte Hornets’ roster was wrecked by COVID health and safety protocols, eliminating seven players from their rotation, including LaMelo Ball, Terry Rozier, and Mason Plumlee. Was this yet another break from the basketball gods in the form of a winnable game? Yes. Did Kings fans around the world breathe a sigh of relief and prepare for an easy win? HELL NO. With this team, every game is still anyone’s game. Let’s see if the Kings decided to make it theirs:
Quick Stats
Outcome: Kings lose, 124-123
Sacramento Kings: 123 pts, 48.0% fg, 34.1% 3 pt, 76.5% ft, 22 ast, 47 reb, 14 to
Charlotte Hornets: 124 pts, 55.2% fg, 40.0% 3 pt, 70.0% ft, 29 ast, 39 reb, 15 to
This could be argued to be the Kings’ worst loss of the season. The defense was atrocious, the rotations were weird, the execution was unfocused, and it all resulted in an ugly loss to a depleted Charlotte Hornets team. Except for two missed free throws that would have tied the game in the final seconds, De’Aaron Fox did all he could offensively to carry this team, finishing with 31 points. However, the Hornets got big numbers from their guards and wings, including a career-high 24 points from James Bouknight.
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
The good
- Scoring: The Kings started out shooting well, going 7-12 from deep in the first quarter. This was a huge blessing as they gave up 37 points to start and needed those early buckets to stay within just one point to end the quarter. Their outside shooting cooled down after that, hitting only seven more the rest of the game, but they were able to stay in with some midrange magic from De’Aaron Fox and transition terror from Terence Davis. The scoring was consistent enough throughout the game, and you would think that 123 points would be enough to beat a wounded Charlotte Hornets team, but Kangz, am I right?
The Bad
- Rotations: Alvin Gentry’s rotations felt weird. After exercising a tight leash on Buddy Hield since taking his interim position, he seemed to loosen his grip tonight. Buddy had a productive start, scoring 13 points in the first half, but then went cold again through the second half. Gentry stuck with him through the game and paid for it in defensive breakdowns. During a final defensive possession, we saw Buddy Hield and Marvin Bagley III both follow the ball to leave Cody Martin open for his attack to the basket, all while Harrison Barnes remained on the bench. Alex Len got the start tonight in the absence of Richaun Holmes, but only played for 12 minutes after providing minimal rim protection. Gentry then went to Tristan Thompson who provided a bit more physicality, but we still saw the Hornets have free lanes to the rim on multiple occasions. It would have been interesting to see Damian Jones get some time, even if to just spend some fouls to make the Hornets think twice before coming into the lane.
The Ugly
- Defense: How many more ways can I describe how awful this defense is? From beginning to end, the Kings’ defense was ugly. To start, it appeared to be a lack of effort and physicality. The Hornets’ guards and wings got into the key at will, bullying their way to the rim with little resistance and no paint pressure. The Kings were flat footed on the ball, frozen on rotations, and lazy on close outs, often running at shooters without a hand up. They gave up 11 offensive rebounds to the Hornets, a handful of which turned into open 3s. As the game wore on and the Kings realized they couldn’t score their way to a win, their effort picked up, but their execution did not. We saw better on ball coverage from De’Aaron Fox, but also miscommunications and over helping on weak side coverages that led to open looks for the Hornets. In a game where just an average defensive performance could have gotten them a win, the Kings weren’t even able to achieve that.
The King of Kings
I feel like I take him for granted at times, so tonight’s King of Kings goes to De’Aaron Fox. Since playing for Alvin Gentry, Fox has seemed to really find his stride again. He’s found his mastery in the midrange again and battled his way to the free throw line ten times tonight. He missed the two to tie it at the end, but the Kings would have been long lost in this game without him.
Up Next
Saturday, December 11th @ Cleveland Cavaliers – 5:00 P.M. (PT)
Harrison Barnes with 26 minutes and Marvin Bagley with 27.
Kings needed defense and when you are playing a team almost entirely made up of wings you don’t bench the best wing you have.
I was shocked Buddy was still on the court in the final couple minutes over Barnes. Coaching felt a little…hmm, Walton-ish? tonight.
Where are the Buddy loyalists tonight?
Don’t ask me.
I see wings blow by Barnes all the time. He’s pretty much as defensively deficient as anyone else on the Kings.
FWIW, for some of the key players under discussion here basketball-ref shows defensive ratings for this game as follows:
TD 111
Fox 121
Buddy 124
Tyrese 126
Marvin 129
Barnes 132
Davion 134
Thanks for that, but there’s not one lock down defender on that list, save Davion potentially. It’s a crap shoot who the Kings throw out there to defend.
Harrison Barnes was playing like garbage though. He wasn’t making a mark defensively, and he was throwing up bad shots offensively. Bagley earned his minutes last night.
Harrison seemed to be having trouble with an injury tonight. Every time he came out of the game he went directly over to the stationary bike with a trainer.
Kind of done with the “Fox kept us in the game” narrative.
It’s nice that he woke up in the 4th but you play 4 quarters, at two sides of the court.
and missing not one but both FT’s is just inexcusable, especially for your max guy.
At the NBA level especially, I’d modify that to and missing not one but both FT’s is just inexcusable period.
On another disappointing note, what’s your take on the Browns season so far?
Baker played good the first two games, then got worse after getting injured. I don’t know how much of that is due to his injuries, though. That’s the toughest part about this season.
I am not sold on Woods as DC and Stefanski has not been great this season either, somehow. I would not be sorry if he gives up playcalling duties.
BUT, ownership is staying in their lane and I have a lot of faith in the FO, so I am optimistic that they’ll figure things out. If not this season then in the future.
I’ve heard some “it’s time to move on from Baker” chatter, but like you, I’m not sure how much his injuries have factored into his play this year.
At the beginning of the season, I thought they could be primed for a deep playoff run, now I’m not even sure they’ll make the playoffs. Guess we just ride it out and see how it goes.
Fox is an empty stats player, it’s Cousins all over again. Supposed franchise super star player that doesn’t win.
If Cousins was a PG, he would’ve gotten this team to the playoffs
Yeah the chemistry would have been wonderful with DMC. LOL.
Chemistry?!?! Yea he had some anger issues that hurt the team in situations but do you think DMC misses two free throws with the game on the line and then is nonchalant about it afterwards?
No, bc DMC would have gotten T’d up twice, been ejected, and then given the other team free points by yelling at the refs instead of playing defense.
Damn, I should have read through the thread first. Well played.
Cousins would have been ejected long before it came down to two FTs.
You guys act like he got thrown out of every game or something
You act like he had led this team to a shitload of victories.
He did less with more talent and better coaches. You hear the things Jerry Reynolds alluded to; it’s as bad as we thought.
More talent? Better coaches? He had like ten different coaches. This is a guards league and he played center
He is now on a non guaranteed minimum contract which indicates what the League thinks of him !
He made himself unavailable for a lot of important moments. A talented player, but in no way a team leader.
Beyond his anger issues DMC was just not a team leader. And more than that the way he treated his team mates alienated them such that there was no esprit de corps on DMC “led” teams.
Don’t forget the smiling and laughing afterwards like everything was ok
I’m not a big Fox fan and it didn’t look good but everyone deals with those situations differently and what you see on the outside is not necessarily similar to how one feels inside.
Choked like a dog.
But nice player
The lack of defense is more troublesome than the FTs.
The former being a consistent problem. If our best player cared at all about defense then this game never comes down to those FTs.
Fox had two free throws to win or just hit one for overtime ! Major gag !
https://twitter.com/rchapmanj/status/1469504374607003650?s=21
Your Sacrameltdown Kings
Yo-yo season I get down and then just when I hit bottom, they win again and then get to #10. I get excited and they get to play the depleted Hornets.! a trap game? no, couldn’t be that!
But it is and the yo goes down.
The only potential balm for this mess ? victories over the Cavs who have 10 seven footers and the Raptors who beat the Kings like a drum.
I would leave town but COVID lurks. I would root for the 49ers or Raiders but yikes.
It is cold outside and I don’t even have a good book.
I think Ben Simmonds is going to be finally traded- some form of 3 -4 team deal.
and yes, the golden child Fox could not even make one free throw. Yes FREE
Bone head Cody Martin fouls him and he messes the bed.
Guarantee Gentry sticks with the 4 guard lineup against the Cavs monstars.
i feel like we should just rerun Greg’s apathy article after every game. i pop in to see the take on the game – it’s now just ‘eh’ after every loss and ‘hmm. interesting’ after the rare win.
Cody Martin “Merry Christmas Kings, here’s a giftwrapped win from me to you.”
De’errorin’ Fox “Nah, happy holidays fam. You have it.”
There is no defense by OR defense of the Kings.
The main problem with the KIngs isn’t tactics or strategy or rotation. The Kings are not killers. They can’t close aggressively. Tonight was typical. They let the Hornets back in the game in the late third quarter than they got way behind in the fourth. Then they caught up, then they had the golden opportunity to win at the end, but they lost. Not tactics, not strategy or rotations. Lights out shooter Buddy Hield continually missing threes in the forth quarter and Fox undoing an otherwise awesome, yes I am an all star point guard game by clunking those two free throws. Didn’t the Kings get the rebound on the second one? A quick put back and victory is ours. But no.
It’s almost like the roster isn’t very good.
Well yes, you summed up what he said, but I think what he’s saying is true specifically in the sense this roster is bad because they have no leader. I love Fox, but he doesn’t have that dog mentality to be the true no 1 guy. Part of it is skill, but I think he just isn’t mentally that guy
fixed it
this roster is bad and they have no leader.
Oof sequenced.
Why anyone expects a team that hasn’t played defense for years to start doing it now is beyond me. If you want this team to it, ship out a lot of these guys and bring in players who will.
I wish there were an NBA version of Wife Swap. Draymond Green comes here for a month and Marvin Bagley goes to the Warriors.
Fox sure hasn’t turned out to be the player I thought he would be when he was drafted. For all his flaws, Ball is superior.
Fox is a better player than Ball. Ball has never even been a #2 guy in his life. Give Fox Zion or Lavine or even DeRozan and see what happens. The problem with Fox is that he is a fringe number 1 guy, more like 2A or a 1B. He needs a second star. Or a true alpha. I think Fox would kill to play with Zion or Lavine.
Would he start playing defense with those guys?
Spout catch and shoot numbers all you want, IMO Fox is fairly clueless if not outright useless off the ball. What’s he do after he dumps it to Lavine or Zion?
To your point, anyone that has been around longer than Hali needs to be flushed. Time to clear the pipes.
And that goes for the entire organization, from the top down.
Does that include Monte McNair and the FO?
At this point, the roster & coaching belong to this front office. Two drafts, two off seasons, one trade deadline. Decisions were made to hold onto Barnes, Hield & Walton. The FO wears the results.
Maybe something big happens come 12/15. I’m guessing that it will be more lather, rinse, repeat.
Get an owner that will bring in the type of top level NBA talent that can make the most out of its small market standing (i.e. value every asset, as you have less room for error than the big market teams), and also an owner that stays out of the daily basketball ops.
Yeah, there are no more passes for McNair. If he sits on his hands through the deadline he is as much to blame as anyone, which would mean maybe he’s not the guy. So far he’s just treading water in Purgatory Cove.
You sort of answered my question, sort of not. But I guess the prescient follow up is this: What value has McNair left on the table?
I don’t know. What was the market value for Hield & Barnes at the trade deadline, and what is it now, and what does another year of running it back accomplish? That is all on this front office.
The front office knew the inventory when they took the job. They have made (and not made) decisions that have neither moved the team forward or closer to a rebuild. Tick-tick-tick.
You can even question whether Monte should have waited with signing Fox to the max prematurely, like Jerry argued on one of the podcasts.
This whole conversation is coming back to where we both knew it was going: Can you build around Fox or should have you rebuilt and do it the OKC way?
I have no appetite for the OKC rebuild, or the Philly process although that was done under very different circumstances, and if Fox doesn’t work he doesn’t work ultimately is my POV.
The reason I asked about what value was left on the table because that’s very much an interpretation of what’s really out there. As long as the current ownership group continues in it’s manner of condescension and marveling at it’s own magnificence, the conversation around this franchise isn’t changing. The fans are tired of this organization and their attitude towards them, and so am I.
I guess the difference is that because I think the bulk of the FO has been largely in other places during this horrible run, they aren’t as effected by the Sacramento tax and it’s an opportunity to take the bull by the horns (and there’s a lot of bull and horn to take). I don’t think it matters what FO you bring in as long as the ownership dynamic is so screwy and dysfunctional. You’ll continue to not have any professionals of value (outside of the one’s you do) if you expect things to move along faster than they are capable of.
Moving Hield is the thing I keep seeing is necessary, and I think that’s easier now than it was when McNair took the job. Easier, not easy. But I also think Buddy’s slump, like everything with Buddy, is so in your face it’s easy to lose perspective on him in the aggregate/macro view.
I’ve though all along this is 41-45 win type of team, and I definitely am not moving off of that despite last night’s horrible loss and frustrating ending. The talent’s there, but can it pull together? Starting with De’Aaron Fox. But let’s not get this twisted: It’s missing another high level player somewhere between Fox and Haliburton (and yes Fox is clearly better than Haliburton who gets a very large pass here for ways I don’t quite understand). Who is that player to add? That’s the question, and can you add that player is the other question?
I would love for the Kings to add John Collins, but I see no way that’s happening with DeAndre Hunter’s repeated injury issues. I’m far more interested in Domantas Sabonis than Myles Turner personally, but that’s not going to be an easy nut to crack either.
If you’re bereft of assets, which I think is not as true as it was at the start of McNair’s tenure, then it might make sense to do a teardown rebuild. The direction of this team isn’t inspiring anyone, and it won’t unless this team starts looking like a 45 win team. Even then the ‘rebuild-rebuild-rebuild’ fans will still squawk that this team is no closer to winning a championship ignoring that tanking in your rebuild hasn’t necessarily proven to be a championship path either.
I do think McNair isn’t as bad as you and others think. He’s found value at the bottom of the roster that Vlade Divac simply couldn’t, and no, I don’t think there’s any usefulness in comparing a guy who is clearly a professional and adept at many areas of the job overall (but not necessarily better than his peers) to another guy who as never fit to be on the job in the first place. But I do think it takes time to move on from the many Vlade blunders committed over a half decade and that’s not going to be waved away with a couple of drafts and trade deadlines. Only time, patience, and the right moves can do that. That’s something that very few in this fanbase seem to have, and frankly I don’t personally care about the playoff record one iota. I want to see positive forward movement, and for fucks sake, better goddamn defense!
TBH, I’m not that upset by the record of 11-15 as much as I am at how many real W’s they’ve left on the table. Which is why they are a 41 and not 50 win team as constituted probably.
And so it goes, detective lieutenant.
Fun fact: I’ve never stated that McNair is good or bad. I have stated that the current state of this team is a direct byproduct of the actions and inactions of this front office, under current ownership. The results speak to the job that they are doing. I think that it is safe to say that the Kings are among the worst non-tanking teams in the league. I don’t see the organization taking net positive steps in the short or long term.
Hey, maybe these guys are great at their job. Maybe they suck. Maybe they are a trade away from turning this whole thing around. On 12/11/21, I’ll draw my conclusion by looking at the state of this team. Consider me dissatisfied.
I’ve been thinking of a response to this, but after awhile the best I could do is make a 2nd Gerry Rafferty reference. Here goes:
I would 100% prefer the OKC rebuild. Likeable and hardworking players, tons of cap space and draft picks.
at this point, that type of rebuild is very difficult. Best done alone and with some true assets to trade. Now have to compete with OKC, Detroit, Orlando for that strategy. They all have 1-3 year head start. My point- they all, particularly OKC , have accumulated all the future draft picks that were readily available. I think OKC has something over 20 future picks. There are no more picks (not many anyway) out there. The top teams have traded many picks. The middle teams still want to hang onto them since they do not believe that they can catch the top teams. and the bottom teams who have much of the future asset pool won’t let go. So–too little thinking and way too late.
There is a song for this: “Stuck in the Middle (again)”
Same. It also makes the team easy to root for.
Just a gentle reminder from Gentry that he’s a journeyman retread coach and that we shouldn’t expect him to turn this team into a winner.
there was a play in the 4th that he didn’t even bother to come closer to the shooter.
he was supposed to be that shooter’s first man to defend butnhe was an arm’s length away at least. didn’t even move. pathetic.
trade this overpaid guy.
Not laughing. Not crying.
Kings is what it is.
I’m laughing. I thought that entire game was hilarious.
It’s better than crying. At this point, I’m not even mad because I just expect these kind of outcomes.
Empty calories, right?
Random thoughts:
1 & 5 1000% agree.
just like Cousins, took the FO too long to get rid of him.
Tough to be disappointed with Barnes in the 4th when he’s riding the pine.
He was on the bench because he was in Disappearing Act Barnes mode for three quarters.
Remember when in the preseason people were gushing over Rico’s developmental skills and how Doug and Davion would transform our defense?
Those were a fun 3 weeks.
Didn’t Gentry just bench Buddy for the entire second half of the Magic game?
You mean the game they won? Yes he did.
It’s not the coaches fault when the players suck. Unless his name is Walton, F that guy.
but really, Phil Jackson couldn’t get this team to the playoffs.
I think that there are current NBA coaches that could have this team – warts and all – at .500. But guys like Erik Spoelstra and Quin Snyder ain’t comin’ through that door.
I think the Kings could get the next Spoelstra, Snyder, Nurse, etc. if they just did a real good search this offseason. Those guys all rose up through the assistant ranks and became very good first time head coaches. There are guys currently as assistants in the league who could be the next good head coach. Just off the top of my head I’d like to see interviews of Ham, Cassell, and Vanderpool. This doesn’t even take into consideration some quality college coaches looking to make the jump to the NBA.
All I know is I really don’t want another NBA retread coach in the style of Gentry, D’Antoni, etc.
skip the college guys- they can coach for sure but takes too long to adjust to the players being in charge.
Your other 3 though are solid.
Brad Stevens and Billy Donovan came straight out of college.
What I’m disappointed in most is the lack of accountability. I’ve given up on the players on holding each other accountable, but Gentry for the most part hasn’t put the money where his mouth is. Hield gets 31 minutes while playing some of the worst basketball I’ve ever seen and there are no consequences to the olé defense of Fox and Haliburton.
I want to rant further about accountability throughout the organisation, but I’ve decided to enjoy a nice Saturday off instead. Hope you guys do as well!
Greetings from Waardenburg.
Max in pole position.
It is a lovely Saturday.
glad I didn’t fall for this trap after the kangZ couldn’t beat a sixers team missing their entire starting 5…now they can’t even beat a hornets team missing 7 players! What an absolute joke. Does anyone watch kongz games anymore?
I watch. With the cancellation of Santa Clarita Diet, the games are the only place I can turn for comedy, absurdity, and slow, graphic death.
Mentioned this in another post, but I think it warrants repeating. This team’s defense is a fucking disgrace.
If Marvin would have made the tip it would have been the biggest play of his career. He did a great job of swimming around the box out man, just rushed the putback, or short-armed it,
With 2.7 seconds he actually had time to catch come down and go back up for the foul or the and-one. I get that in the frenzy of the loose ball it is hard to have the presence of mind to gather and go back up, I just wish he would have done that. Ugh.
You can criticize Fox for DeErrorin’ on those two FTs but he was brilliant all night and in the 4th that put us in the position we were in. The guy was just slicing and dicing just like ORL which led to me say after that game “Fox is back” while other pretend pundits were making the declaration prematurely.
The critics of Fox are a joke because NO matter whether he is struggling or on MVP tear of 30 PPG like he was for handful of games, they are silent or pitchforks out, NO praise when praise is due, NO acwknowledgement of the lethal midrange, change of direction craftiness, the sweet arching tear drops, and gradual regain of explosiveness lost due too much muscle (reflecting on his work ethic) and suboptimal cardio.
As heartbreaking as last nights loss was, take solace in the fact our Superstar looks ready to claim this designation.
Since Ham stopped working for the team, he doesnt bite his tongue or give softballs to the coach in the press room. I am not a fan of the guy but I do appreciate that he is not holding back, and he said Buddy should not even be playing anymore. And I appreciate he asked the coach, paraphrasing, why did you have Buddy on the floor when you could have gone with HB or TD or Davion?!?!
Here’s a memo to Coach Gentry, who I think has done a splendid job until last night: Buddy’s defense was shit in the first half. His defense was shit in the second half. There are no other halves for his defense not to be shit. There is no way Bouknight explodes like he did if for not Buddy running around like an idiot easily fooled and deceived and always a step slow.
I can bet there are assistants in his ear, probably Doug, saying we got to get Buddy out of his slump. Then we will really roll. And there were citing the last game we played CHA in which Buddy had arguably his best game, 8 for 17 on 3s, 26 points, in the game we won by 30. But that is flawed logic and granting undeserved respect to a player not worthy of it.
Barnes is 40% on 3s. Wheres the respect due to him? Unless his foot still hurts, he has to be on the floor over Buddy. I do not care he was having a bad game, he should still be on the floor. This is the biggest faux-paus on Gentry’s interim stint so far and I just hope he learns from it.
Alex Len is not helping our defense much, and he misses easy shots. Sure he sets a good pick but his paint presence is rather underwhelming. I want to see Damian Jones out there. He can give us everything Len has given and more!
Last night was another great example of why TD is better than Buddy, a conclusion I easily reached last year. TD was only 1-6 from 3s but overall played a very good game, including a brilliant defense stop on Hayward, striping him at the rim, another steal that led to coast to coast lay-up and another deflection that led to a Ty 3-pointer. TD was credited with 3 steals but I think he caused at least 5 TOs of the opponent with his great hands and anticipation.
When has Buddy ever gone 1-6 on 3s , and you said he played a very good overall game? The answer is never.
Buddy found the way to launch team leading 19 shots, make 6 of them, less than 33%, 2 for 10 on 3s, while HB and Ty only had 9 FGAs apiece. Thats a recipe to lose against depleted team, especially when the new coach is showing disconcerting tendencies that got the old coach canned.
Definitely TD over Buddy, 100%. And Terrence is only 24. He can and should replace Buddy.
Yes and it appears as if TD can give you around 15 PPG, Ty 15 PPG, Fox 25 PPG and Davion 12 PPG, as he settles in within the mid range and other nifty moves.
Buddy’s offense was more paramount when our guards were in a collective funk, and one of the reasons they were in a collective funk is because Buddys hero playing style put them there!
Now that Ty and Fox are finding their way, faciliated by TD in the starting lineup to bring pace and energy, Davion shaking off the Rookie Blues, Buddy’s offense does not need to be a priority at all.
It is a bullshit misconception that Buddy “creates gravity”. This is the conventional sentiment and lazy narrative that he helps everyone else get going. Does he? Does he really?
If a guy is a reliable decoy, then said decoy is shredding the opponent with dimes when overplayed. But the opponent wants to trap and close hard on Buddy bc it puts him in a vulnerable position, preys on his weakness; it is not something he is capable to consistently exploit.
Overplaying him is how you stop him because hes one dimensional and predictable. He has no elevation at the rim and his passes are sloppy and late. And he does not have length or craft to pass over the defense. Buddy would have more than a 1.5 Asst:TOV (2.2 / 1.5) ratio if this “mystical gravity” that he is alleged to create were so potent.
So, are we only analyzing half the game? Cuz last I checked it was Fox and Friends’ defense that “put us in the position we were in.”
Would love to know what Doug Christie–defensive sensei–makes of all this, now that he’s on the bench and able to influence this aspect of the game.
Ask Kayte since she has opinions on everything based on her WNBA skills ! Total non stop talk during game ! Wish Doug were back and he was annoying !
I find Kayte to be refreshingly fair in her commentary.
Particularly about fouls and calls and such.
I actually like Kayte- she is less of a homer than most ( I get League Pass and watch all the homers.
I imagine DC is realizing how much easier it is to do the job from behind the mic than it is to actually do the job.
A horrible, horrible loss yet again. This team doesn’t thrive in chaos, adversity or with prosperity. Kind of difficult to be consistent if you can’t find anything resembling an identity.
That said, it’s only a single game. There’s time, but nobody believes the time left will make much of a difference unless the team illustrates it.
And as always, the proof is in the pudding.
disagree with this breakdown. You can’t gloss over two missed free throws. To win and then tie the game. From a Max player. That tells you all you need to know about Fox
Fox is the Kings best player and as long as that is true the team will never be a winner ! He is a no 2 scorer with an alpha no 1 player like Butler ( which the Kings will never get ) ! A lot of 35-38 win seasons ahead ! Enjoy
Yeah good players should never miss clutch FTs….shit happens.
I can’t off top of my head remember FOx being particularly unclutch with late free throws. Kind of felt opposite relative to his poor FT shooting. At least that has been better since the horrendous October he had from the line.
Gee, this seems like such an apt comparison…
Golly, if you took away from that post that I’m comparing him to Lebron/other great player ability wise, then that doesn’t seem like an apt analysis.
You’re comparing him to great players, though.
Would you call Fox a great player? And if so, what is the definition of a great player?
Intentionally wrote “good”player in first post so this didn’t happen. Wrote great in second post bc of the Lebron comparison insinuation.
And it’s not a comparison of skill. It’s an acknowledgement that good to great players have bad moments. Fox has flaws but late game free throws surprisingly hasn’t really been one I would draw after the last 4+ years. I will wait to damn him on this attribute and have it be an indictment on his player record until it becomes a more regular theme…which is possible.
But if you wanna make this I think Deaaron is a great player argument then have at it.
While I’ve not been super thrilled with De’Aaron overall this season, I understand your point. Missing FT’s happens at the end of the game. Hopefully this helps De’Aaron moving ahead is all you can really say, but I’m not sure it will. He just missed them, mostly, and that’s sometimes just simply the damning truth of it.
Fox is a terrific player and many top players have missed key FT ‘s late but the main issue to me is that he is not the type player that can lead a team anywhere ! Good enough to be the leading scorer but not the best and most valuable player ! That player is not here !
I’m with you. He missed them and it’s on him…but I just don’t think it’s an indictment of he is a choker or can’t be the lead dog or any other take someone chooses to throw out there.
If one has those takes it’s understandable…could be true. But there is better evidence to support that viewpoint than just a one off couple of FTs. That was my overall point of posting video.
A frustrating, mediocre team is not what anyone wants, but that’s what is here atm. I get why the commentary is what it is at this point, but your comment here is 100% spot on.
What’s absurd is, this team is still 11-15. It’s not like they can’t easily be 500 or even 3 or 4 games over 500 by the end of the month.
I think that it is fair to assert that if De’Aaron Fox is going to ascend to the next level as a player, he has to consistently convert with the game on the line, on either end of the floor. It’s one thing to be a great player and have a bad moment. It’s another thing for a good player that is trying to become a great player.
And I say this as someone that is not calling Fox a choker or laying the game at his feet. They had a chance to win because of Fox. Fox failed to convert on that opportunity.
What is your confidence level when Fox is at the line? Mine is low.
Mine is about 75%…
I don’t disagree with most of what you said. But fail to see how anything I’ve said is contrary to your points. What are we talking about here?
And I don’t think Fox is a great player…and probably never will be. My point is that the takes of “He missed FTs, he’s not a lead player!” lacks just a smidge of nuance. Not saying you did that Rob, but that’s who my original post was in reply to. The point then got taken into another argument which I’m not defending
Fox is not great unless that standard is reserved for about 75 current players ! Low bar !
Good lord reading comprehension on this board is a challenge…when did I call him great???
Even the best players, who typically are good FT shooters, miss free throws in the clutch. Is it really a surprise when a below average FT shooter like Fox misses a couple? He did shoot 80% for the game, which is slightly above the league average of 77.8%. It sucks to lose a close game due to free throws but let’s not be “apathetic” to facts.
Fox certainly had his fingerprints all over this game.
Unfortunately, he woke up this morning with his fingerprints all over his neck.
Kings of mediocrity. At least they’re consistent at being mediocre. By the end of the season the Kings will once again miss the playoffs and get the 7th or 8th spot in next year’s draft. Go Kings!
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