With adrenaline still pumping through my veins from Friday night, the only thing that could make this a perfect weekend would be to see the Kings handle their business in Oklahoma City. Before getting to come back home, the Kings have to face the young legs of the Thunder twice, and tonight was their first matchup. While beating a 4th seed in a barn burner to turn around and lose to an 11th seed would feel like a familiar sequence for the Kangz of yore, the Beam Team has higher expectations of themselves. Let’s see if they met them:
Quick Stats
Sacramento Kings: 124 pts, 52.9% fg, 41.9% 3 pt, 66.7% ft, 32 ast, 48 reb, 20 to
Oklahoma City Thunder: 115 pts, 47.7% fg, 40.0% 3 pt, 73.9% ft, 34 ast, 37 reb, 14 to
The Beam Team showed up tonight and took care of business. Building on their momentum from Friday night, the Kings came out with a strong start and maintained their lead for the entire game. Winning when you’re supposed to win feels pretty good. I think I could get used to this. Light that beam!
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
The good
- Controlling Pace: Without their electrifying point guard in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander tonight, OKC looked to create opportunities in transition and from the 3-point line as often as they could. While they got hot late in the game, hitting 12 of their 16 3-pointers in the 2nd half, the Kings did a good job of slowing them down in transition and contesting drives at the rim. Though the Kings also like to play at a fast pace, they were the team in control for most of the game, and often forced the Thunder to play half court offense, something they weren’t looking to do.
- Consistent Stars: Another quiet night from Kevin Huerter (six points and four turnovers) meant that the Kings needed more from elsewhere. When a good team needs more, their stars step up, and that’s what Domantas Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox did. Through all four quarters, the Kings were able to rely on consistent production from their stars. Sabonis finished with 14 points, 15 rebounds, and eight assists. Fox finished his 7th game in a row scoring 30+ points with 33 points and eight assists. Fox, especially, felt continuous throughout the whole game, as his scoring came in every quarter (9, 5, 12, & 7, respectively).
- Trey in the 4th: Trey Lyles led the bench unit tonight with 16 points and six rebounds. It was in the 4th quarter when he shined the most, hitting two huge 3-pointers to maintain the Kings’ lead, as well as playmaking and securing key rebounds.
The Bad
- Too Close for Comfort: Aside from a brief tie early on, the Kings led the entire game. But much like the Kings on Friday night, OKC never went away. The Kings led by as much as 15 points at one time, but spent most of the game with a lead within an 8-10 point range. OKC had their biggest run in the 3rd quarter where they drained five 3-pointers in a row, cut the lead to just one point, and put 40 points on the board. Even when trailing by nine points with under a minute to go, OKC was the team causing turnovers and diving on the floor. The Kings felt in control for most of this game, but showed lapses of sloppy execution that a more experienced team would certainly have taken advantage of. Isaiah Joe capitalized on these moments, leading OKC with 24 points on four made 3-pointers. Josh Giddey and Lu Dort each had 18 points of their own.
The Ugly
- Free Throws: The Kings shot a rough 16-24 (66.7%) from the free throw line tonight. Especially during some of OKC’s runs throughout the game, those extra points would have helped to bolster the Kings’ lead and dampen the Thunder’s momentum.
The King of Kings
Keegan Murray was the best version of himself tonight. Finishing with 20 points, six rebounds, and three steals, he dazzled on both sides of the ball. Especially on the defensive end, Keegan has shown tremendous growth in reading passing lanes and providing help side coverage. On offense, Keegan showed off some big boy moves as he attacked the rim aggressively and fearlessly flew around the rim for offensive boards.
Up Next
Tuesday, February 28th @ Oklahoma City Thunder – 5:00 P.M. (PT)
G-Man wearin the DPOG chain!
Shoot 3,000 Beams into the night sky!
OG G-Man
Just needs a cigar! Maybe sunglasses. 🙂
Let’s go!!!! 10 games over .500! Let’s keep this momentum going for the rest of the season and grab that playoff spot!
And congrats G-Man! A true king.
The lineup of Fox, Keegan, Barnes, Lyles, Sabonis was interesting. Killed OKC with size late in the game.
I really loved that. Early in the season I thought it was interesting how often Brown assigned Keegan to gaurds on defense. That is a really nice card for him to play in a series.
60 games in, 10 games above .500, Just WOW!
Winning this much still feels surreal, but…
Really good win tonight, even though we didn’t play our best, still got the victory. That’s what good teams are supposed to do.
Meanwhile Clippers losing 20-4 with 5:00 to go in the first
DO YOUR JOB, NUGGETS!
We need the Nuggets to redeem themselves for us after losing yesterday!
Just as importantly, the Wolves lost to the Warriors in SF tonight as well. The West from seeds 5-12 is going to be an absolute dogfight. Only the Nuggets really have much separation from anyone right now.
OKC he’s going to be playing for the championship in the next couple years. They are only four games under 500 but have a positive net rating. They have two first rounders in 2023, 4 first rounders in 24 and four in 25 ; and 3 first rounders in 26.
SAG is a stud and Giddey is going to be an All Star, they have an above average defense, and they are the youngest team in the NBA.
This is a story that has played out over and over again with varying success. There is no guarantee. SGA is solid, I’m not sold on Giddy, and the draft picks could be Greg Oden, Darko, and Derek Williams. OKC has potential, but potential is useless until realized.
Agreed.
Those picks are devalued at this point, unless they use them to get a real star. They dont have roster spots for that many players, and any team trading with them knows that. I expect this summer they will try and make a move, but I am not as sold on their bright future as some. A lot of their youngsters seem like they top out as low end starters or high end bench guys, in my eyes. I think a lot will depend on just how good Chet is going to be.
I still think Sengun would have been someone to keep rather than trade.
Any way Monte can trade for Sengun?
Yep. And Chet could be really, really good. But they are going to have trade a lot of picks away to get that star. I don’t think SGA is going to agree to another tank year.
As all long time suffering kings fans I’m still having trouble adjusting to this.
But tonight was one of the first games all year where the game wasn’t putting away ever, but I never felt overly concerned. Kinda always felt they would pull it out and step on it when they needed to.
Confidence in this organization feels frightening…but while realizing they aren’t there yet I started checking out the 2nd seed more than the 6th seed in the standings tonight. Up to this point I’ve just been constantly counting loss column to try and avoid the play in.
Obviously I can’t speak for everybody (lurkers and posters) but……I really think that most serious KIng’s fans are having a difficult time believing that this team is for real. I want to pinch myself. I’m still having a hard time digesting the Clippers game and at times I feel like pounding my head against the wall of my place just so I can determine what’s real.
Tonight’s game barely fazed me cuz with SGA out I expected we would win as easily as we did in an imperfect game from the Kings tonight. On the other hand I’m just holding my breath for the next 0-13 string of losses although I don’t think this team is gonna quit……but they could. This team is changing my sense of reality.
The clippers game felt all but over for sure. After the Houston game though, I started really having a “fuck it, we deserve this” mentality. We’re the cardiac Kings and I love that they just don’t give up. There’s been a few wins this year where they just made the plays that needed to be made. I’m still kind of waiting for the wheels to fall off but the more we win, the more I feel like we’ve truly turned a corner.
I think no one has bought into it more than De’Aaron. His lax attitude seems to have gone away and he’s putting the team on his back more than he ever has. We’re playing winning basketball and it is a damn good time to be a Kings fan
Part of me is still waiting for it to all fall apart, and I am pretty annoyed with that part of me.
Luckily the rest of me is close to perfect.
I can’t remember, was it four or five games over .500 that seemed to be an insurmountable hurdle earlier in the season.
Good times.
5 games over 500 is what you’re thinking of Marty. They got to the 4 game mark 7 times this season (the 7th being the time they hit 5 games over 500). 11/22 Won @Memphis to go 10-6, lost 11/23 @Atlanta; Won 12/4 against Chicago to go 13-9, lost 12/6 @Milwaukee; Won 12/16 @Detroit to go 16-12, 12/19 lost to Charlotte; Won 12/21 against the LA Lakers to go to 17-13, 12/23 lost to Washington; Won 12/30 to beat Utah to go 19-15, lost @Memphis 1/1; Won 1/3 @Utah to go 20-16, lost to Atlanta 1/4; won 1/11 against Houston to go 22-18, won 1/13 against Houston to go 23-18 and finally hit that 5 game over mark.
This highway sign sits between Tulsa and Oklahoma City.
So prescient!
This was a game that seemed like the average of what we expect from this playoff caliber team:
124 points (despite meh from charity)
30+ assists
40+ 3FG%
52+ FG%
won the rebounding (+11)
Those are numbers we?/I’ve cone to expect for the Kings.
The 20 TO were a combination of sloppy (Heurter) and fanciful (the low chance of success passes that predictably failed). Domas, Kev’on and Monk with 4 TOs each, though Sabonis’ offensive fouls are both fouls and turnovers.
Sabonis with only 3 fouls ? season low?
I made the silly rule to myself that this team wouldn’t be the Kings (not Kangz or even the transitional Kingz) until they were either 10 games above .500 or had that “x-Sacramento” designation, meaning they clinched a playoff spot.
I prematurely graduated them to Kings on Friday with that historic win. But look at that – they hit TEN GAMES above .500 anyway.
Light The Beam! and Dance!
&ct=g
Actually, Sabonis had ZERO fouls in the game against Portland a few days ago:
I was (am) dreading the post-ASB. Three straight wins is a nice way to start. Let’s keep it going…
This is so awesome. Congrats again, Gary!
Can’t believe I’m tuned in to the LAC DEN game rooting for the Nuggets to win it. Nuggets blew it and now it’s OT. C’mon Denver get the job done!
I wish the Kings could simulcast with G-Man. Kayte isn’t great and Mark Jones is terrible, I cannot stand his cliche crap announcing, First Name De’Arron last name Him” or the constant tired phrases he regurgitates like an out of touch uncle. Kyle is better but does the same thing sometimes. I enjoyed Christie for the most part, but G-man and Jerry are sacramento treasures.
I humbly disagree. I really like Katie who knows more basketball in her little finger than most announcers. Mark brings a unique and different style with his humor. It takes a real talent to come up with those cliches. It brings a different style to announciing no other can bring.
Kayte and Mark easily beats Doug and Kyle. I could not stand listening to them for 48 min. Kayte definitely has a homer vibe but that’s what she’s paid to do. They really are insightful in my opinion.
Doug was unfortunately a terrible color commentator (and radio co-host). He was always destined for coaching, and I’m very glad he’s on the bench now.
Kayte is unlistenable.
Then use your mute button respectfully.
Respectfully disagree. I find Kayte and Mark to be an unspectacular, but perfectly “fine,” duo. It’s hard to get very worked up one way or another about announcers. It’s like choosing or avoiding a restaurant because the waiter has a weird voice.
I find Jones and Kayte to be perfectly fine, while Kyle and Kayte are a train wreck.
Jones drives me nuts with his corny sayings. The worst thing is half the time they aren’t even keeping up with what is happening with the game on the floor. He’s still talking and there has been a steal, fast break, and dunk. No thanks…I’m on mute with him now.
I believe that what we should conclude from all these posts directly and indirectly in response to billoddity is that some of us like, some dislike, and some are OK with different announcers and color commentators in different combinations.
Suggestion about moving forward: we should stop complaining about or praising the various crews. We have different tastes, just as we like some people but not others, but we don’t all agree.
In short, GIVE IT A REST!
I repectfully agree.
Good odea.
When the season resumed after the ASG, I said I was hoping for a 14-11 finish from the Kings. Before this road trip, I hoped for a 2-1 record. Getting greedy now. Want another win on Tuesday and to keep holding on to the 3 spot with an eye on the #2.
I’m so impressed with Murray. I can’t remember seeing a Kings rookie develop from a game to game basis like he has. We saw it with the rebounding, the improved defense, the attempt at playmaking, and now the slowly increasing amount of drives and attacking close-outs. He’s putting all these things together now. He’s become such a more well-rounded player in just sixty NBA games. Obviously he has tons of room to grow, but improving this much as an ‘old’ rookie is super impressive.
And it sucks that RoTY is pretty much based solely on counting stats. Keegan has been the best rookie and is playing important minutes on the 3rd seed in the West.
To me it is telling how often Mike Brown has him in there to finish games. That’s a true measure of what he contributes to winning: Huerter out, Murray in.
IMHO, Murray recently passed Huerter on the Kings’ positionless depth chart, which is not a knock on Huerter.
I really like how Brown is handling rotations. How many times were we in here last season going nuts about LLLLLLLuke sticking to his rotations whether they were working or not? Brown gives guys a short leash, if they produce, they stay in, if they don’t, they don’t. Its not rocket science, except for Walton apparently. I love how he handles Hurter: If Huerter isn’t playing well offensively (and his defense has been brutal of late), Monk gets those minutes, if Monk isn’t producing, someone else gets those minutes, etc..
Yeah, Keegan is improving so much it’s amazing. His D is what is the most improved. He covers one on one well now, plays the passing lanes, gets deflection and steals, and takes a charge when he can. Really improved on D! The only area I see where he needs improvement is finishing at the rim. Once he does that, he will be a top player for sure. And yes, he’s ROY IMO.
Something to note: In the Western conference’s current top 10, only one team (Nuggets, in 1st) is better than 6-4 in its last 10 games. All the others range from 6-4 to 4-6. For all the hoopla surrounding the arrival of Durant and others to West contenders, the reality is that these newly bolstered teams all have to play each other, and could well spend the next 1.5 months just trading blows, with the end result being no team rises or falls greatly in the standings. If the Kings can manage .500 (or even just close to it) the rest of the way, they should be fine.
LAL tho. 🙁
LAL, the spoilers!
I hope the L*kers enjoy their play-in game on the road.
Meh, also 6-4
I saw all these Kings fans cheering the Lakers beating the Mavs yesterday?! Why?? NOTHING would be sweeter than the Lakers missing the playoffs this season.
When it comes to the teams behind us in the standings, I’m cheering on the teams with the worse record to beat the teams with the better record. Let the keep cannibalizing themselves. The Lakers have something like the 3rd easiest schedule here on out. So if they beat the better teams, but lose to the worse, the chances are very good they’ll be on the road for the play-in, at best.
It’s not as good as them missing altogether, but it also helps our cause, so I’m good with that.
Everything you say is perfectly logical… I just throw all logic out the window when it comes to the Lakers. Especially after the reports of them saying they want the Kings in the playoffs.
I would love the Kings to put their fast-paced, high-scoring offense against foot-injured LeBron and perpetually gimpy AD for a best-of-seven series. That would be immensely satisfying.
The Lakers win but may have shot themselves in the foot by losing LeBron to injury for a bit. Best of both worlds.
Yup – .500 gets 46 wins which is more than enough for the playoffs . The teams immediately behind them in the standings would have to put up preposterous records in their last 20 or so games to pass that.
Never thought I’d go streaking in such cold weather.
Light the Beam!
Hopefully not lost in all of this – The Kings came out of the all-star break and won 3 games in 4 nights, including a pair on the road. That is taking care of business (and then some) regardless of the opponents. Add to that the bonus basketball, and the KIngs basically won the backside of a b2b on the road in double overtime, and then re-grouped two nights later against an active opponent on the road (albeit sans SGA).
This is on the short list of most impressive pockets of play in a season of impressive pockets (have not dropped three straight since November).
Another point to add onto the list of impressive pockets of play (an important point to be sure): They can play better than this, too.
Just imagine Keegan, De’Aaron and Domas all firing on optimum cylinders at the same time. It’s hard to do, it doesn’t really happen game in game out, but, if it ever does, hoo buddy watch out. You cannot stop this group. There’s simply no mechanism to stop them, especially if Domas starts looking for his shot a smidge more than he does now.
Keegan scored 20 on so-so efficiency (for him) last night. He missed a lot of shots early, made quite a few late, and was a difference maker on defense last night. De’Aaron was, simply, pissed off new Dad De’Aaron Fox (superstar), and Domas was a very good version of what he normally is (and could have been much, much better with a few minor adjustments).
That’s the thing about this group that gets me. Normally I think “jeez, are ya watching” when I hear a few minor adjustments. I hear that when I see Hawks fans complain about Nate McMillan and think Quin Snyder is the answer. Or better yet, a lot of them at Peachtree wanted Kenny Atkinson and I bristled and said ‘hoo buddy, are you in for a shock with that one.’ But sometimes, minor adjustments are important, and sometimes it’s more fundamental. Most of the time it’s more fundamental.
Take Domas and De’Aaron for instance Rob. They weren’t supposed to play well off each other, and if you look at their career 3pt% now, it’s very close to what each has done for their career. But, it works! And it works because they don’t occupy the same area at the same time. De’Aaron put the team on his back last night, but honestly I was disappointed in Domas only having 8 shot attempts. They needed him to be in the 13-15 range last night. And some of it was, in fairness, OKC did double him a lot. They have nobody to defend him 1v1 and they know that. But that’s how other teams will operate, also. The Kings have to figure out ways to counter that, and Domas has to be more aggressive in looking for his shot.
That’s where we are at at with this Kings team. We are arguing semantics, subtlte distinctions in maintaining a tricky balance of shoot vs playmake, and so on. .We aren’t arguing fundamentals about whether or this team has a star or not. We aren’t arguing about whether this team has strengths worth building on. We aren’t talking about building something or focusing inate amounts of time on the draft. We’re wondering how the Kings build on a team clearly poised to make the 1st round without even the benefit of a playin game.
Quite refreshing. Winning a once in a lifetime type game on a rest disadvantage SEGABABA doesn’t hurt either.
People will be pissed off if the Kings don’t win tomorrow night in OKC. That’s …… new. Or a perspective that hasn’t been seen in these parts for the better part of 20 years.
I agree that this team still has untapped upside. They have benefitted from largely good health (or at least otherworldly toughness as it pertains to Sabonis), but they have not flushed that good fortune.
They have their draft pick, some MLE+ cap space (more than that if Barnes goes), possibly Veznekov waiting in the wings, the maturation of Murray, a repaired Sabonis, a full season of new level Fox. And they have continuity and synergy, which is something that we have not been able to say around here for the better part of a decade and a half.
My office memorabilia and wearables have gone from ironic to cool (though I am still much more ironic than cool), and there is a generation of Kings fans that are on the cusp of being introduced to how purple this city can get. Unbelievably fun times.
Viewing the power rankings from the top down? That’s new! Not poring through draft prospect profiles and ping pong ball possibilities? That’s new!! Checking the loss column of the 4-12 teams? That’s new!!!
The overwhelming likelihood is that the Kings will lose the final game that they play this season. But their final game will not be the last game of the regular season. However far the Kings get, it will be part of a larger education for this team. I can’t wait to watch this team tomorrow, this season, next season, and beyond.
Go Kings!
Count me as one who had no faith this could be turned around so quickly…in Vivek we trust?!
They also haven’t caught teams at a great time consistently, either. This goes both ways. If you’re going to say the Kings have benefitted from good health (which is certainly true), it should also be pointed out that they are facing mostly healthy rosters outside of a few instances. Which has also been true of opponents when Fox or Sabonis have missed (mostly Fox). I don’t think the health factor has hurt or helped the Kings dramatically this season (other than they have had a lot of time to play with each other).
Just as an FYI, but you cant have the MLE and cap space. The MLE is literally an exception (it’s in the title! LOL) and in order to have cap space you must renounce all exceptions. Plus all cap holds as well.
As of right now, I’m refusing to project cap space because it’s a fool errand, you have people like James Ham and Tim Maxwell that do that already (again, think it’s foolish, but I get why). My sneaking suspicion is that they will renounce all cap holds and exceptions IF it allows them to make the moves they want. If it doesn’t, or it doesn’t matter, they will not renounce any of those exceptions. They are in that middle ground of ‘they’ll have some cap space but not max space’ as of now. These things, as always, are fluid.
But, let’s just do this for the sake of argument. If the cap stays at the projected number of 134M (the tax line staying at 162M as well), the Kings will not be under the cap. They are currently at a bit over 105M in total salary already committed for 7 players (Fox, Sabonis, Huerter, Holmes, Monk, Murray, Mitchell) and there’s a team option for Kessler Edwards that pushes that amount to 95,116,258M. But…there are exceptions, cap holds (like Barnes) to consider. That’s where Keith Smith’s number of 105.062M comes in. He’s adding a 1st rd draft pick (I’m assuming the 23rd pick since that’s where the Kings are at RN) plus a roster charge (or 2nd rd picks like Vezenkov last year and the current picks the Kings still have this season) to get the Kings up to 12 spots. By my current projections, there are 3 of those roster charges but one of them is Vezenkov and the other 2 are the 2nd rd picks the Kings already have.
But Keith Smith currently projects the Kings practical cap space at around 26M (I call it functional cap space; means the same thing). Going with that number, I can see the Kings going a lot of ways here. They could keep their exceptions, but it wouldn’t be a ton of value in doing that especially since you have more options with cap space.
I don’t see any way McNair and this FO choosing to renounce Harrison Barnes because, even if it’s just for a S&T purpose, if you renounce his Bird rights you cannot S&T him to another team this summer. What’s important is that if you do S&T Harrison, you could add Holmes and take back a contract like Tobias Harris. Especially if Harrison’s contract starts at the right number.
We shall see on that. But like you say, the player element of that all matters. But if you get under the cap, you aren’t worried about signing Vezenkov. You have lots of options to do that without worrying about how many years or which exception you use to do so. That was not the case last summer.
This is a good point about the last game of the season, I never thought of it quite like that (I’ve thought of that point slightly differently in terms of there’s only 1 team that wins a championship).
These are fun times. My suggestion, as you have suggested, and others here and elsewhere, just simply enjoy it. We don’t have enough good times, appreciate them. 🙂
Not to bury the larger points, but here are the games missed for the two best players for each team among the WC top 13 teams:
Clips -44
Wolves -42
Pels -39
Lakers -38
Dubs -35
Suns -33
Griz -31
Nugs -22
Blazers -18
Mavs -13
Thunder -11
Jazz -8
Kings -7
It’s really basic for me. The Kings have been with their best two players for significantly more of the season than their main competitors. The median is 26.
And my guess is that the numbers are even more severe if you look at each team’s basic starting five. My guess is that the Kings have had the same starting five exponentially more than their main competitors. And the numbers would still reflect that if you ran it from the beginning of the season to a week prior to the trade deadline.
I’m not taking anything away from the Kings here, and the Kings could be much higher up the list if Sabonis wasn’t such a tough hombre. But I think that we’re looking at a much different season if Fox and Sabonis had combined to miss an additional 19 games this season.
Obviously yes, but part of the investment in Fox and Sabonis is that they’re young and really don’t have a history of being injured much or needing load management.
Is anyone really shocked at this point that Zion, AD, Kawhi, and PG13 are missing a ton of games? Or that older players like Steph, KD, CP3 and Lebron get banged up? The only WC guy who really missed a ton of time out of the blue this year is KAT.
Fox missed 19%, 18% and 33% of his games over the past three seasons leading into this one. 54 out of 226 games. Yes, some of that is late season shut down, but durability was always a concern for him coming into this season. Sabonis missed 40 of 226. That would average out to them missing a combined 35 games this season. They are far below that, which is sort of my point.
Man, I don’t get why we just can’t admit that we have had very good injury fortune this year compared to the average of the West or the NBA as a whole. It does not take anything away from the Kings success, other than to note it as a bit of a contributing factor.
Health is a factor. I just don’t think the Kings are that lucky. I think they’ve caught teams when they are mostly healthy.
Also, it may not be a factor to you Rob in whether the Kings are set up for sustainable success, but it certainly is elsewhere. Social media for starters. If your next argument is ‘well, that’s the issue, you’re talking about social media’ I’d agree. Only up to a point, however. Every member of the media is on Twitter. Lots of fans are on there, and Instagram.
These narratives, right or wrong, stem from our societal inability to no longer converse in a meaningful or reasonable or, dare I say it, appropriate fashion. And much of them generate from a few and spread. There aren’t that many meaningfully new ideas out there. What is said is often regurgitated. A big chunk of that narrative is the Kings poor roster construction is being covered up by supernatural healthy players. It’s just simply not possible that Twitter is wrong and the Kings have players who are staying healthy and they beat teams because they are better.
Fair or not, these things filter into these convos. Is thst mostly what’s happening? Not really. Danny Leroux is a dipshit, and I don’t really care if he hates the Kings or not, but that’s the type of crap he’d purport. Largely because his opinion has been proven wrong.
My point here is that type of point might be fine for the several handful of people who converse here at TKH, but that’s not necessarily true of the conversation out there that, fair or not, is influenced by social media.
A little bit lucky? Sure – they have mostly avoided the common foot/ankle/knee/finger injuries that happen regularly in the NBA, though Domas and Keegan playing through thumb injuries obscures this a bit.
The teams at the top of that list of games missed are, mostly, inviting the risk – their core players are either injury prone or older. If your plan A is Kawhi or Zion, you should absolutely have a plan B ready for 40 games. The Kings don’t have anyone that presents that sort of risk and their oldest rotation player is practically an ironman. This isn’t going to last forever, but it shouldn’t be surprising in the present.
Now you’ve done it! Fox questionable…
https://twitter.com/JandersonSacBee/status/1630350352007712774?cxt=HHwWjMDS7brAlaAtAAAA
I agree it’s surprising Fox has held up so well this year, but I suspect a large part of that is the Kings’ realistic chance to compete in the playoffs. With the Kings actually good this year, he has an incentive to play through certain bumps and tweaks that, in the past, might have led him to sit down for a game or two. (Why aggravate something to win 33 games instead of 32?) It goes for Sabonis, too. If the Kings were on the lottery fast track again, he would almost certainly have shut down at the All-Star break, or sooner.
Even then is the 3rd year out of 4 KAT has missed 20+ games out of the season.
But yeah, it’s not a huge surprise the Kings are healthier. I do wonder for how long this will stay the case, though.
I appreciate the wise words I see in this part of the thread:
I’m going to add my fat summary – like I said last Tuesday
Laissez les bon temps roulez
(Let the good times roll)
Agreed. This comes down to roster construction. If you build around older and/or injury-prone players, you are expecting they will miss significant chunks of time throughout the season. It’s what you’re paying for. The Kings chose to build around two mid-20-somethings with no significant injury histories. That’s what they are paying for. Fair’s fair.
I see Harrison as the type of guy that will actually consider Hometown discount.. not sure a player can take less to resign with team if someone offers more ( this is your expertise) but I’m sure his agent can make it clear if his client wants to stay .. I guess he could also quickly agree to a new contract. I don’t think the discount would be huge, but I also know that Harrison is a family man and seems to enjoy stability and Sacramento area is not a bad place to raise kids. I believe they have two and one should be or did start school.
just my useless 2 cents.. I love what Harrison Barnes brings and his game is not built on athleticism (NBA elite, I know they are all elite)
I agree with your basketball takes on HB. The shape that man is in is truly inspiring. That said this:
Sadly I’m not Bobby Marks. Who very much is an expert. But I digress.
Either way, HB can take less to stay and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. The question is does he want to, what’s his role, all that type of stuff. In fact the Kings could sign HB to an extension tomorrow if both sides could agree to terms.
Well you are TKH’s Bobby Marks! Thanks…
I would add that I think Davion will improve and be better offensively next season.. he hasn’t adjusted well offensively but think he will learn and grow…. I also think this group will more desirable to this role players when they look to make a change in offseason..
Also I think Monty did the right thing in not upsetting the apple cart and kept the team together. I also think at this stage Metu is doing a good job of backing up Sabonis. All of you are seeing Huerter is in a slump but IMO he is a much better player and scorer than what he is doing right now. I think in 4 or 5 games he will be as good if not better than he has up to this time.
Badge Legend