The Boston Celtics play host to the Sacramento Kings today as trade rumors and smoke screens swirl about. Will anything come of it? Probably not. Will this game be good? Probably not. Did I write anything below the fold about what’s about to take place on the court? Yeah, no. Let’s talk Kings basketball!
When: Friday, March 19th, 4:30 PM PST
Where: CTD Garden, Boston, MA
TV: NBCSCA – Mark Jones on the call.
Radio: KHTK Sports 1140 AM
For Your Consideration
“Hey ramblin’ (owner) now wontcha settle down?”: The Kings are 2-2 since coming back from the All-Star Break – a fact that can’t be celebrated or lamented too hard because well, they’re too bad for the wins to mean much and they aren’t bad enough for those losses to really move the franchise into a position for a truly game changing player in this upcoming draft. Sacramento isn’t basketball hell, it’s basketball purgatory and your only hope of leaving is to give up all hope in the first place and just let the waves of acceptance wash over you – this team is more likely to spend another fifteen years out of the playoff race than win a championship in the next thirty. That isn’t a knock on Monte McNair – I think he’s a fine choice and probably an intelligent man with a solid knack for this stuff. But the current ownership cannot, under any circumstances, get the hell out of their own way.
I wish I had the drive left in me to look up previous seasons, but just yesterday Howard Beck went on local radio host Matt George’s Locked on Kings podcast and is quoted as saying “One of the things I heard, (Kings are) only going to trade Barnes & Hield if they’re blown away by an offer. Not because they over-value them, but because Vivek Ranadive wants to be competitive, doesn’t want to tank, he values those two guys”.
With other reports from Sam Amick and James Ham that Vivek isn’t willing to cut the legs from the team in the hopes of getting a player impactful today and that the Kings as an entity aren’t looking to swap vets like Barnes and Buddy for young players and future draft assets like many fans had hoped… it is truly just a goddamn Groundhog Day scenario for us here sitting around waiting for a new day to dawn. It’s amazing how perspective changes over time isn’t it? Once, I felt impressed with Vivek saying he surrounded himself with people much smarter than he was. It was billionaire speak, sure, but with us all coming off of the Maloofs, there was a humble charm to it. Now, I’d venture to guess that when it comes to the operation of a professional basketball team, Vivek could walk into his empty team store and not be in the top tier of basketball minds.
Obviously, money is a big motivating factor. It always has been and always will be in a small market like Sacramento. He’s gushing money downtown because of the pandemic and I’m sure to someone who has always seemed a little illiquid, a playoff race with COVID-19 restrictions easing up sounds like just the ticket to turn those red months in the ledger to green.
You know what else would? A true goddamn superstar. Not, De’Aaron Fox, whose ceiling is begging for an All-Star Game when the Kings are finally at .500 at the season’s break – I’m talking a guy who steps on the court in an opposing arena and an obnoxious amount of kids are rocking his jersey. Someone who can be the engine to 8 years of playoff appearances. Vivek likes to quote his old friend Steve Jobs about “putting a dent in the universe”. He’s been here seven season and can’t even put a dent in the Pacific Division. How much money does a guy like Luka make Mark Cuban? How many more seats get filled, jerseys get bought, beers are drank if the Kings just picked the consensus year after year – if Vivek Ranadive picked someone willing to just pick the consensus and then stayed the hell out of his way? This isn’t even about a single player on Mavs. This is about the consistent refusal from the top to just realize the hole they’ve dug, then stop. fucking. digging.
Make no mistake, he IS the guy I put this on. After three general managers, a near half dozen coaches and as many off-seasons and trade deadlines of “Ownership is afraid to do this” or “ownership is always a factor when it comes to deals in Sacramento”, Vivek is the lone guy there. No more Chris Mullins or Brandon Williams cop outs. This team is destined to top out a three years of clawing at the eighth seed then bottoming out again because Vivek Ranadive can’t just stay all the way out of it. Sure, the first run to the playoffs will be fun, even if the Kings are crushed into dust by teams with good owners who listen to the management they hired. Vivek will stand at center court and talk about promised kept looking like George Bush on an aircraft carrier with a “Mission Accomplished” sign waving proudly in the background. He’ll get some short term gains from it and be happy, never knowing that he went about his entire tenure with the Kings in the hardest, most difficult way possible and wound up with less than if he’d have just said nothing at all and let a competent GM work.
Is there a possibility that this is all a smokescreen and wowee, lookie there Barnes and Buddy got traded before the deadline? Sure. But it won’t do much to ease the anxiety and general malaise that is setting in. He’s done it once, he’s done it a thousand times and he’s worry-warted and affected who knows how many deals that would have improved this team, pressured his pick in the draft who knows how many times. He doesn’t even have to be successful in his attempts to have a negative effect on the totality of the franchise. Just constant pressure, constant micromanaging, constant worrying to the press about how long it’s going to take to be a winner.
Sad part is, one playoff appearance isn’t going to excite me too much. That ship has sailed. 14 seasons without a playoff appearance I want a squad built for a championship run, that has a ceiling with a Larry O’Brien hanging from the chandelier. I’m not saying this current squad isn’t the start of that. I’m saying that if Vivek can’t change, they’re never ever going to do anything but step out of the basement and onto the first floor for a while. Don’t put a dent in the universe, man. Just put a sock in it.
Prediction
The Kings Herald staff have ordered padding and wall mounts. They’ve started a text thread asking if anyone can figure out what size jacket I am, you know. Just in case, Will needs it.
Kings: 124, Celtics: 119
My word. Like Will said, this org is simply crappy sports groundhog’s day. How many freaking times did they make this same “announcement” during the Vlade era?
And yet here they are again. Same BS, different day.
And now let the Kings PR vs. media info battles begin. Same as it ever was.
I’m sorry. I simply can’t deal with Bruski. His “sources” disagree with Anderson’s reporting. But, technically, Anderson is basically correct. But, the spin is also never correct? Bruski loves to write tweets like he’s this all knowing old witch that speaks in riddles. Solving the riddle is easy as long as you’re as clever as he is. It’s fucking dumb.
I know who he is.
But what are you saying, that you believe the Kings statement that “no really, this time the GM is in charge. Trust us?”
I agree. After years of bs, when the Kings put out a statement like that it translates to me as: Vivek is two-seconds ahead of that fool McNair.
I’m saying he adds nothing of value to the conversation. I’m not less confused about what’s going on after reading his tweet. And that’s intentional because he wants people to feel that only he is smart enough to understand what’s really going on.
I think both are playing a meaningless semantics game. Of course owners have input in basketball decisions. The extent may vary owner to owner. Some may only want final say on whether to say, exceed the luxury tax threshold, while others may be more deeply involved in personnel and draft moves. But its disingenuous on both sides to imply that this is some binary decision of meddling (bad) vs. non-meddling (good). That’s not the real problem. Mark Cuban, for example, doesn’t seem to get a ton of criticism anymore for being a pretty involved owner.
The issue is that Vivek is a clueless idiot that 1) has his priorities out of whack (e.g. prioritizing short-term competitiveness over long-term team building, fetishizing certain players or player-types, etc.) and 2) thinks he’s smarter than everyone by defying conventional NBA wisdom, but in all the wrong ways.
The only reason “final say” is even a debated topic is because of the litany of disastrous decisions Vivek has presided over. It’s a symptom, not the problem. Putting him as far away from basketball decisions as possible may be a salve, but doesn’t change the fact that there is what appears to be a fool at the helm of the ship.
Edit: I don’t mean to characterize Vivek in such a way as a personal attack. Just speaking of his record as managing partner of this franchise.
The Celtics at home for the Kings
Lots of talk that they want some big wings.
Don’t know how much is true
But what Monte should do:
At least answer the phone when Ainge rings!
If the upshot of this is that neither of these guys are given away for magic beans, then this doesn’t bother me too much. Given 1951’s comment, I’m not too worried about it. Trading one or both of these guys for a proper return is important enough that it need not happen this season.
Monte McNair is not a stupid man. He didn’t leave a good job to come to Sacramento without being very specific with Ranadive about where to find his line in the sand.
Do you think Vivek is preventing McNair from giving away Barnes and Buddy for magic beans? I’m trying to figure out how that scenario could’ve happened had this info not leaked.
At this point, we could use some magic beans.
I have no sympathy for Vivek’s finances. Even if everything they keep shilling is true, about hundreds of millions being lost (yeahright!). Vivek got handed the real estate deal of a lifetime when he bought the Kings. Has anyone followed what has happened to real estate since? And anyway, if you can’t afford to lose hundreds of millions then you have no business buying an NBA franchise, and we as fans got screwed! If he can’t afford to lose money then there’s one more reason for him to sell. Billionaires buy sports franchises for the write-offs and then cash-in when they sell. All the whining just insults me as a consumer. I’m not especially angry at Vivek for being obviously clueless and overbearing, but I have no interest in a pity party. Thanks, I been wanting that off my chest for a minute.
Without actually knowing anything about Ranadive’s finances, and for the sake of argument, let’s say he’s got significant problems, how exactly did “we as fans get screwed”?
He has never, not once, made noises, let alone threatened to relocate the team. If you’ve forgotten the continually uncertain state of the Kings while owned by the Shithead Brothers, either read up, or ask somebody.
“Screwed.” jfc
We got screwed because we were supposed to get a “whale” like Ron Burkle. Instead we got a guy who leveraged some paper gains from an inflated stock market into the real estate deal of the century, but the value of the property is still sky-rocketing so he’s not ready to sell leaving him a bit ill-liquid so we should just be happy we still have a team in Sac, because James Hamm says the team is losing money. I’m glad we still have a team in Sac, but I’m not surrendering to the toxic positivity. Vivek needs to keep spending or sell. I waste too much time worrying about his team to spend anymore crying of his poor billionaire finances.
What do you think andy_sims? Did Burkle pull a bait and switch leaving us with a stooge for an owner? What did Burkle get for his involvement?
As I recall, the NBA would not let Burkle be part of the ownership group because he owned a sports agency or some other conflicting business.
Yup, that is why he left the group. He didn’t want to let go of his sports agency.
CD said that was not really accurate, and I kinda believe him. I can’t remember the exact analogy, but it was basically like Burkle saying he backed out of buying a lemon orchard because he didn’t want to give up his lemonade stand.
Gotcha. I don’t remember all the details just the gist of what was reported.
I do think it’s funny that guys like Ham believe it when someone tells them the Kings have lost $100 million in a year. Could you imagine what the Kings would be worth if the business generated $100 million per year in profit in addition to all the profits from broadcast rights?
The same Ron Burkle that just scuttled Sacramento’s MLS aspirations?
You sure can pick ’em.
I didn’t pick him. He picked Vivek. I would’ve liked Ballmer, but Ballmer didn’t like Sac, just the price of the franchise. I understand we don’t get to chose the owner, we just have to accept them and their mistakes. But we don’t have to accept their excuses.
Since Burkle couldn’t pay the MLS expansion fee, that indicates that his finances aren’t in a good enough shape to make him a viable Kings owner right now.
What a fascinating misinterpretation of what I said. The implication I take from the reports is that McNair will do what he thinks is best, regardless of how Ranadive feels about it. If the offers remain subpar, Barns & Hield will remain. If McNair is offered something that will advance the team’s goals of remaining cap flexible in the offseason and/or acquiring picks/players, then he’ll pull the trigger.
McNair is months into a multi-year contract. If management couldn’t bring itself to fire Lose Walton for fucking up a wet dream, I’m 100% certain that McNair will survive trading away Barnes and/or Hield.
how does that square with “Vivek Ranadive wants to be competitive.” What if the trade that provides the best value for the Kings makes the team less competitive in the short-term?
Someone put forth the proposition that Monte is actually leveraging Vivek’s cluelessness, telling other teams he needs a bigger payday because of Vivek’s personal attachment to certain players. One thing the Kings do exceedingly well is smokescreen because just about anything is believable, and god only knows what they are thinking.
How hard is it to report that any employee of the organization, all the way up to the owner, feels that they’d “like to be competitive?”
Pretty sure all of us around here would like that, too. At this point, I think we have a GM with a plan to do so, and who is bright enough to know that it ain’t happening this season, barring some other team offering up an all-star for what we’ve got available.
Do you honestly not see the difference between a trade that maintains competitiveness and one that maximizes the return long-term?
I mostly agree, although I haven’t given up on this trade deadline yet. I know the rep. Danny Ainge has regarding trades, but he has every reason to become reasonable, and maybe even accommodating as he may be feeling more pressure than he wants to allow. And I think the play-in tournament really is motivation for teams on the cusp, meaning only a few teams completely left out as sellers.
I think the number of possible trade scenarios beneficial to both sides says something should get done. If not it was because someone wanted to get over and someone wasn’t willing to grab his ankles. There’s still a week left, that’s a lot of time to continue staring across the table at each other. And the east is still wide open for a team with depth. Imagine playoff time Covid protocols on just 1 or2 stars ruining the momentum of one of the top teams!
I have very little patience for the lame-ass statements and excuses made by this front office and their apologists, everything from injuries to the pandemic, Ranadive’s finances. All CRAP! But to be clear, I am hardly sure this is the best time to make major moves. Barnes and Buddy are each likely to become only more tradable as their contacts near expiration, and they both get cheaper. Buddy is the contract they should regret the most, but it’s still not a boondoggle.
If you wanna replace Barnes at small forward through the draft, (and I think you should) I see the logic of having said draftee in place and already producing before trading Barnes. Let someone have half of next season to learn the job. Then trade Barnes next season at the deadline with only one season and less than $18.5 mil. left on his deal. Harrison is the one I could see Fox unhappy about losing also. With Barnes gone and no adequate replacement, Fox’s job becomes much tougher and less fun. In the mean time, Barnes doesn’t make a big enough difference to hinder the tank. Unless it’s RWII the Kings have no one at all ready to step into that role.
My focus is: How does this team get better? I believe that short of drafting a superstar, it’s effectively impossible to improve while holding on to those two players. It seems like maximizing return should be the focus, and not stubbornly holding on because we’re overvaluing average to above average players.
It could be argued that it’s effectively impossible to improve while holding on to a dozen current Kings players.
I would probably agree with that argument! I think the cheap players aren’t in the way, necessarily, where Buddy and Barnes are core to being sub-medicore today and in the way of possibly being good later.
I dont understand the rant or the timing of the rant, Will. And what are you even saying after Fox makes a game winning shot, we need a better superstar than him? He didn’t airball that shot, it was all-net and it was easy.
As far as Vivek, he didn’t tell Vlade to take Marvin over Luka, did he? So how was he in the “fucking way” in regards to the most collosal mistake the team has made in over a decade.
I am all on board with assigning blame or fault but point the finger in the right direction. Now if Vivek at fault for hiring Vlade? Yeah, I think so because after the PDA fiasco, the pencil pushing dweeb with the analytics background Vivek decided to do a 180 and hire someone that would go over well in terms of public relations.
Vivek hired a name, nevermind that Vlade was NOT too bright and lacked work ethic and thought he could skate by with superficial analysis and research. But Vivek’s mistake was not getting in the way of Vlade, it was hiring him in the first place.
If an ex-King was to be given a shot at running the team, Chris Webber would have been the better choice. Smarter guy, more astute. I don’t know if he would have succeeded but I think he would have faired better than the Vladefather.
And it is also simply wrong that trading Barnes and Buddy (which is NOT going to happen) would end the “general malaise” because it would dramatically altar the dynamics of the team. How can you assert that when you do not even know what we may get back, say, hypothetically, a Laurie Markannen?
The future IS bright because Fox is a superstar and we hit a homerun with Ty Haliburton. If Fox flatlined this year and Haliburton was your typical #12 pick, struggling to crack a team rotation, the angst and pearl clutching would be warrranted.
And one last thing, Vivek did NOT hire Walton, a POS coach. That was on Vlade, the man that Vivek had the good sense to get rid of.
I disagree that Webber would have been an effective GM, but will concede that he really would have needed to put on a dunce cap made from panda fur in order to have done a worse job than VD.
The rest of it is difficult to disagree with. The downvotes seem odd.
Agree on Webber. Better than Vlade, but you almost literally couldn’t do worse. I don’t think Webber would have been effective. I also think the idea that he should just be gifted that job because he was a good player is ridiculous. Learn the job and work your way up, like Shareef Abdur-Rahim, to name one person.
Shareef put the work in, and his success is that effort borne fruit. Same for Udoka in the coaching ranks.
Of course, both of these guys are quite bright, even if neither one of them ever opened a restaurant.
Fox is not an all star, let alone a super star. Sorry to break it to you Fox homers. He hasn’t shown anything that suggests he will be anything more than a few times all star.
I think we need a superstar before we can get a “better one”.
CWebb was on the Real Ones pod with Logan Murdock and Raja Bell a couple of weeks ago. They asked him who he’d pick, if he could choose any player currently the league to build a team around. He said he’d pick Chris Paul. Chris Paul is 35 years old.
Oh wow.
I’d be curious to hear Reggie Miller’s pick as well.
Did he at least qualify it by saying that he means Chris Paul as a rookie? On the other hand, management in Phoenix is looking pretty smart snatching up the point god.
It was a couple of weeks ago, but I do recall that they were surprised, and told him they meant current players at their current age. He said something along the lines of “it doesn’t matter what kind of talent you bring in if the culture isn’t right.” It was just a random questions, so it probably doesn’t give us too much insight as to how he would run a team, but I laughed at the time nonetheless.
We also can’t rule out Chris Paul playing until he’s fifty years old.
“this team is more likely to spend another fifteen years out of the playoff race than win a championship in the next thirty.” Don’t think the Kings will be out of the playoffs for the next 15 years but the NBA doesn’t work like other leagues when it comes to championships. What other league would have the same two championship finalists for four years in a row?
In baseball, the Kansas City Royals had 25 years of as bad as the Kings or worse ineptitude then went to two World Series, won one and then returned to ineptitude. The Kings best chance for an NBA championship was 2002-2003. Missing two many free throws against the Lakers one year, Chris Webber blowing out his knee the next year doomed that. The Warriors won a couple of championships because they hit big in the draft a few times (not Andrew Bogut, their only #1 pick in the draft but others like Seth Curry’s brother and that Thomson guy, etc.). The Lakers win championships because they have acquired GOAT conversation players through the draft: Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, going way back, Jerry West, and signed or were able to trade for other complementary GOAT level superstars: Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem, Shaq, Mr. James, AD. Cleveland won a championship because their hometown guy, the arguable GOAT of basketball wanted to play in his home town for a few years. Miami wins championships because, well, Miami is a preferred place to live for young NBA multi-millionaires.
Don’t know if the Kings goal should be winning a championship as much as fielding a good, winning team. Kind of like the Utah Jazz. A good winning team could always add that one more player (like the Kansas City Chiefs getting Patrick Mahomes in football) and go all the way. Constantly breaking down a team that’s on the verge of being okay because it’s not on the verge of greatness is never going to work.
I could not disagree more. That should be the only goal. You are correct, winning a championship in the NBA is all about having top end talent.
Kings should do whatever it takes to get some of that. Keeping nice players around like Barnes and refusing to trade overpaid guys like Buddy because you don’t like the return is a great way to not acquire any top end talent.
You can’t miss as many times as the Kings have. Every time you miss on a Lillard, Giannis, or a Luka you set yourself back years. That said, pick yourself up, stop crying about the past and do whatever it takes to get it right the next time!
There should be no debate. Superstars aren’t walking through the FA door, so you do what you need to force one of those dudes to play here, which means the draft or a trade. That’s why draft assets and trade flexibility should be so vital to this particular organization.
Stop fucking around with mediocre and overplayed players, low expectations, and chasing an average winning record already!
I don’t know if anyone is really disagreeing.
Yes, the Kings can’t make the same mistakes they’ve made in the past. Missing on Lillard, Giannis, and especially Luka set the team back. The Luka miss was critical. That may have pushed the team beyond Fox’s window.
Nobody wants to trade Barnes, Buddy for below value.
Playing the Jazz, Pacers, Spurs strategy (fielding winning teams) keeps a team poised for a breakthrough and keeps the team interesting.
Vivek’s desire to keep Barnes and Buddy does not equate to fielding a winning team.
I wish Vivek would just go away.
Or maybe Kings fans and the FO are overvaluing them. Getting rid of their contracts has as much value towards the goal of winning a championship as any return you get.
They have no value to the Kings at all if your goal is a ring. They only have value if your goal is mediocrity.
Good perspective.
Absence could be a positive.
If they go, let’s hope we get something decent back.
I put up this idea on the forum.
Nets will have a hard time resigning Dinwiddie and are dangling him for some help in the playoffs.
Would they go for Bjelica or some package from the Kings?
Might be a way for the Kings to pick up some talent.
Kings would have the Bird rights to try to resign.
This. I believe that this team can’t improve long-term with those players on the team. They take up too much cap space eat too many minutes, are too old and are not good enough to be part of meaningful improvement in the team’s future.
They absolutely could with a coaching change, we have to realize the context of what we are seeing with this team.
I truly believe if a change from DJ never occurred we would of been in the playoffs already.
So well put.
ALL ROADS LEAD TO VIVEK.
Absolutely true! But then again, The Kings are “hemorrhaging” money so, maybe we should just be glad we still have a team, even if they end up trading Barnes for “cash incentives.”
All I keep hearing is what Boston wants. I don’t give a flying flip what they or any other team wants!!! What the F are they offering??!! Barnes is playing like he has never played before. Of course they would like him. You want the Kings to give him away for hopes and prayers which you seem to be promoting, take your fandom elsewhere. I’m tired of the Kings being the farm team for the rest of the NBA. We have good players!! Stop trying to give them away for nothing!!! And if other teams are not offering anything substantial in return, Stop writing about it. There’s no story here. What a waste of freaking energy!
Good points. I was reading the Celtics fan site and they didn’t seem to high on Romeo Langford and Aaron Nesmith, the names usually mentioned in the proposed deals. After reading several posts over there, I came away hoping we do not trade for those guys.
…too high on …
What fan site? Celticsblog they are high on both of those players
Whatever the SB Nation site for the Celts is. They recently ran a series of stories on how the Celts got to where they are.
Based on the comments, the consensus seemed to be that the team has a small core of good players (Brown, Tatum, etc.) and then a big drop off.
They didn’t seem to have much hope for Nesmith, a bit more for Langford, but seemed content to trade them. However, it seemed like they didn’t see Barnes as a savior, just an upgrade that would give them a window for the next two, three years.
Other notes:
They were down on Ainge. Didn’t like the Kyrie trade, didn’t like Kemba deal, didn’t like how they lost Hayward. Said he squandered all the picks he gathered. Could be Monday morning quarterbacking, but I was surprised on how down they were on the team.
I know they’ve been losing, I know they need some help, but, hell, they still have two all stars.
Anyway, that was my take. Cooled me on the Barnes/Celtics talk.
I have faith in McNair, so, as someone commented, of course the GMs not named Vlade have a better gauge on the talent than I or most fans do.
Why have these comment boards at all if you’re going to say shit like that? Geez.
If fans of other teams are basing their opinions of our players based on what’s offered from Kings fansites, well…
I’ll simply venture to say that McNair and Ainge probably have better insights in regard to the valuation of their own players.
Username checks out
No we don’t Grant. If we did, we would win games.
I think a solid coach could be winning with this roster tbf
I know I’m like a broken record on this, but a very similar roster almost went .500 a few seasons back.
So I do agree with you, although I think the ceiling is limited due to a lack of top-end talent.
…and depth. This team is a rolled ankle to Fox, Holmes or Barnes away from a 10 game losing streak.
I agree that the ceiling is limited but with DJ we could easily have been a 5-8 seed team regularly with the current talent.
To get to the seventh seed or higher last season, we’d have needed 12 more wins. I’d imagine we’ll come up similarly short this season.
I don’t think Joerger gets us there by himself.
We do win games pal. Against good teams, too. Try watching.
Hark, a literalist!
Every team in the NBA wins games. Against good teams, too.
What’s your point?
Just countering his simplistic statement. What was his point?
That this team stinks.
I agree with him.
We do win games! Just look at the standings!
“It’s a little known fact that today’s game features the Celtics versus the Can’t-sell-tix.”
Just wow….
Celts are the 8th seed i thought…
Bravo, Will. Truly one of your best.
Kings. Celtics.
Next.
We’re having our own little tea party, Boston.
FK Vivek.
Just to be clear, Vivek’s competing by keeping Walton and starting Bagley, right?
Bravo sir
Imagine having to contact a reporter to let him know you’re not really as dysfunctional as everyone has been saying.
Exactly.
That they even feel the need to put this out there (yet again, mind you) tells you all you need to know.
Yup. It’s an admission of past problems and paints it pretty clear they those clouds still linger.
The clouds of past problems will linger until Monte makes moves that clearly show his imprint.
Yep. Legitimately ending the playoff drought would be a start. I think that it was Phoenix and New York that were the only teams to put up on 0-fer during Randadivé’s ownership. Both of those teams are on track to put an end to their streaks this season. Meanwhile, back in Sac…
Results tell the story. And the on-court results have been an inarguable train wreck during Vivek’s tenure.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t!
If they had not responded at all, many here would have pointed to their lack of response as proof that Vivek is meddling again.
I don’t think so.
A good org is fine with ignoring or laughing off the noise. We have seen the Kings feel the need to put stuff out through the local media before. This is more of that.
Show me, stop telling me, and I’ll believe it.
This will be eight years of non-playoffs under Ranadive, right? At some point, does it even matter who is making the personnel decisions? Ownership is, at the very least, making the front office decisions, so regardless of who is making the decisions, ownership is 100% at fault for placing the front office personnel.
Whether Ranadive is making the player personnel decisions or just the front office decisions, up to this point he has proven to be very bad at it, and any sane person (which excludes most of us) would stop thinking that the end result will change.
To your point, show me. If this team ever climbs back into NBA relevance, the hierarchy and decision making will matter far less. Until then, the current ownership has proven only that they can’t put a successful basketball team on the floor.
By the way, with this year’s non-trip to the playoffs, Ranadive overtakes the Maloofs for having the longer non-playoff streak. In fact, given that Lukenbill sold to Thomas six years into that nine year streak, Ranadive will hold the Sacramento record for longest futility streak by any Kings owner.
This is Napoleon. I lived with him for most of his life, starting in 2010.
In 2020 he passed away.
For his entire lifetime, he never got to see the Sacramento Kings in the playoffs.
Way to put a face on our suffering!
Napoleon looks like he was a very good boy.
Great looking dog. We’re of the Big Fuzzy variety as well.
A Husky mix? Sorry for your loss. He was a great friend I am sure.
And who’s fault is it the Kings lost $100 mil. last year!?
There were already comments in yesterday’s threads that were critical of Vivek based on Howard Beck’s reporting. In the end, though, I agre with Rob that the only thing that will change fan reactions is for the team results to change.
Bring up the memory of Vivek rolling out Shaq as partial owner, set it alongside today’s story that the FO spun Jason Anderson, and you’re looking at a couple of matching bookends of fear based spin.
Anyone interested in firing up a new and improved #HereWeBillboard campaign?
I am approaching worrying levels of indifference. Tyrese is my lifeline.
If it were not for the TKH community, the Kings could pack up and leave town tomorrow and it would have zero impact on me, other than freeing up a lot of extra time.
Yeah. Although I don’t associate TKH, a well-run, winning organization that causes me joy, much with the Sacramento Kings.
Nope. I don’t do negativity any more. I am post-negativity, having reached a Zen like state where all the awesome will arrive with patience so we might as well enjoy the small moments of joy in the moment while we can.
Go Kings!
« pookey-guru, Peja……Om(ri)
Nothings gonna change the Kings
Nothings gonna change the Kings «
Welp, Oral Roberts just blew up my bracket.
Cost me a couple of games – I had OSU losing to Arkansas in the elite 8.
Today is one of the starkest differences for me between normal life and COVID life. For years, I’d be sitting in my office on the first Thursday/Friday of the tournament, pretending to work and watching the games/checking my bracket.
This time around, I totally forgot there were games today until checking TKH.
Yeah. The Tourney just didn’t show up on my radar this year.
Did anyone have Oral?
Didn’t click on the link, but it appears someone took the time to write an article about this revelation:
Maybe that explains the absence of playing time–didn’t want him to get injured pre-trade!
This is the sort of small moment of joy I was talking about!
TKH better not rob us of our joy. I expect an article written about this news!
That’s just good reporting.
“Overpaid 12th man reluctantly made available by team that doesn’t play him.”
A functioning and self-aware press is mandatory for a democracy. The internet has certainly democratized journalism, but when you have an overwhelming percent of the public that remains credulous in the face of any information, you are well and truly farked.
You also get stuff like this: “***BREAKING*** Water reportedly still wet.”
Agreed, Will. We had one chance and fucking blew it. We almost always have the #7 pick or thereabouts, and usually pick someone that sucks and isn’t on the team anymore.
One year not too long ago we had the #2 pick by a miracle, a generational talent was there to be had (anyone saying anyone in the world had Bagley going to us at #2 is on crack rock), and the Kings fucked that up.
Whether that was Vivek, Vlade, Williams, Joerger, Peja, Mark Olberding or anyone else affiliated with the Kings at any point in time is completely irrelevant.
I am positive this franchise would be on a completely different trajectory right now if we would have simply just done the obvious.
It was a no-brainer.
We were gifted Luka and instead we decided to throw double middle fingers at the basketball gods and take Bagley instead.
I hated the pick at the time, hate is much too soft of a word nowadays.
I mean, great, we suck again, maybe we’ll get lucky again with the ping pong balls.
After 7 winning seasons out of 36 (soon to be 37) in Sacramento, wouldn’t it be great to root for something other than lottery odds?
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