Hello, if you’ve made it past the article summary, I want you to know that I’m sorry, and that the hawk-tuah stuff was never all that funny and that I did it for your own good. Sincerely, I hope you cringed hard enough to know you really don’t have to go into the comments and make those jokes now. For those of you who don’t know what the heck I’m talking about: don’t google it, don’t worry about it. Internet culture is rarely worth the research and it definitely isn’t worth the trouble of your wife (or mom) seeing it in your search history. Hey speaking of being worth the trouble, the Sacramento Kings are in Atlanta today for an early game against Trae Young and whoever isn’t on that War and Peace length injury report that got released yesterday! Out is Bogi Bogdanovic, out is De’Andre Hunter, out is Dyson Daniels, out is Kobe Bufkin and Cody Zeller and Vit Krejci… In? Well, bandages and KT tape I assume. And, lots of Trae Young hero ball.
Let’s talk Kings basketball.
When: Friday, November 1st, 4:30 PM PST
Where: State Farm Arena, Atlanta, GA
TV: NBCSCA – Kyle Draper (play-by-play)
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140 AM
For Your Consideration
Risacher Away: So how worried are we now about the Sacramento Kings and their start to the season? Losing to two good teams, especially in games that were as winnable as they were, is never fun. Beating bad teams, never quite as satisfying. But now, four games into the season, is it easier on your heart to know that the Kings are six measly points from a 4-0 start? This isn’t rhetorical, I’m truly curious as to how the average Kings Herald reader feels about it all.
Moving to tonight’s game: The Hawks are a deeply strange team. Led by Landry Fields and what sometimes feels like a cadre of frat brothers, the Hawks front office has been all over the place in recent years, dropping a ton of draft capital on Dejounte Murray, then shipping him out after two seasons of his best basketball, floating rumors about trading Trae, drafting players that don’t fit what they say they want to do, swapping coaches in and out… there’s a minor amount of chaos in Atlanta. Grabbing former Jazz coach Quin Snyder, and mid-season too, is a fantastic get, but there’s a good deal of the time that they feel like their being run by a committee of twitter users and ESPN panelists.
All that being said: they’re still a potent team that could surprise a team not prepared for the fight… while also being a team that lost to the (improving) Wizards two games straight coming into tonight. Through five games, the Hawks have leaned heavily on their offense to get them by: 7th in points per game at 117.6 ppg, running at the 5th fastest pace in the league and currently sporting the 11th best offensive rating in the league. The Hawks shoot the second most free throws in the NBA, are 19th in both two and three point attempts and shooting in the bottom ten in three point percentage and top ten in two point percentage. The engine of this team remains Trae Young, who, fresh off of getting away from his best teammate and mortal enemy, Dejounte Murray, is averaging 28.2 points, 11.6 assists and just under 6 turnovers a game. The Kings Herald writer’s chat had this conversation the other day and it think it has merit: Trae is basically Bizarro to the way the media treats Haliburton’s Superman. Tyrese is averaging 20 and 5 to start this season, with fewer turnovers and much, much greater help, but because he loves to podcast and Trae is in desperate need of follicular intervention and plays for Atlanta, Haliburton is the darling of the league while Trae remains this 1.0 failed homunculus oozing out points and surly disposition down in the basement. The media usually loves a good shitbird – they’ve been lapping up Draymond’s every word for a decade now. So what makes Trae, a guy I’m not even a fan of, any different? Evil Haliburton can’t get any airtime?
Okay back to the game here: the defensive side of the Hawks still has yet to show what Quinn Snyder was supposed to bring to the table when he made the jump, and that’s definitely not all on Quinn. Their actual counting numbers are decent: they’re 4th in steals, 9th in blocks. But, they’re also 28th in points allowed, 28th in defensive rating and probably most damning here: they allow the most three pointers per game to their opponents while also allowing the highest percentage of makes from beyond the arc. Teams walking into an arena against the Hawks are shooting 42.1% from deep against them and they’re yacking up an average of over 43 attempts. The Kings are taking nine less and making 8% fewer than that, so if we suddenly see a Huerter revenge game or DeRozan hit a few he isn’t supposed to, we’ll know it’s real.
Overall, the Hawks are in transition: somewhere between the tank and contention, with Trae Young keeping their heads too far above the water to fire sale, but young guys like first overall pick in the draft Zaccharie Risacher not being good enough or Onyeka Okungwu not getting enough minutes for them to go any higher. Jalen Johnson is going to have a fantastic season, Clint Capela still exists and is doing Capela things, but for the time being, they’re the worst thing imaginable: simply middle of the road.
The Small Stuff
Red Velvet’s Return: Greg wrote a good bit of writing yesterday on the return of the Kevin Huerter that we all know and loved from Beam Team: Season 1. Take away the fan favorites hunting for that starting spot – Huerter being good is flat out good for the Kings. Whether that be as a starting 2 or a back up 3, Kevin looking confident, hitting at a good clip and busting his ass on defense has no real downside. If Monte is chomping at the bit to get Keon more time, Huerter playing well means his value goes up. If the Kings defense suddenly falls off a cliff and a lower usage, higher defensive ceiling player is needed, Kevin slots in great off the bench. All sample sizes are still so small, but with every game that Kevin continues to prove himself in, my general feeling of nerves is bleeding into the “hey, if it works!” level of fandom.
Bogi Down: After missing only 3 games all last season, Bogi is once again set to miss some time this season with a hamstring surgery that will keep him out till at least December. Despite all the weirdness around his departure, Bogdanovic might be the former King I root hardest for in the league and I hate that his post Sacramento accomplishments have been absolutely shot due to injuries. Including his outlier year last year, Bogi is still averaging only 60 games a season with Atlanta.
Prediction
Trae Young is stuck in hell most of the night, with Fox and Keon and even Keegan stepping up to guard him all night. 25+ shots, 7 or so made field goals. Jalen Johnson remains a player many Kings fans openly covet, Garrison Mathews remains a player most of us actively despise and Zaccharie Risacher does the most middle of the road stuff imaginable.
Kings: 124 Hawks:111
I’m bummed by some of the injury issues Atlanta is already facing, and not just because of the “Kings lose when the other team is missing half their guys” trope. Vit Krejci is a fun player, and Dyson Daniels has been playing well so far.
It should still be a fun game, I really like watching Jalen Johnson play.
Calling Trae “Evil Haliburton” made me laugh.
Injuries suck.
Banchero out with a torn oublique for (at least) a month. Big blow for the Magic.
And half of the main rotation of the Pels is injured.
To Atlanta with two days of rest,
We face travel ahead that will test.
If we clamp down on Trae,
It will go a long way
For the defense that has us all stressed!
+1 Make the Hawks…
Bilal Coulibaly did great against Trae Young on both sides of the court.
I’ve had a basketball crush on Bilal since he was drafted. He’s gonna be very good in the league for years to come, like in a Mikal Bridges/OG Anunoby kind of good Anthony Black down in Orlando is another one. If, and that’s a BIG IF, the Kings decide to move on from Fox, an Anthony Black package to Orlando would be one of my first choices.
yeah, I remember you commenting about Bilal when he was a projected to go end of 1st or early 2nd on draft websites.
I moved to Woodstock Georgia. I finalized the move in the last month so I immediately bought a ticket for the Kings only game here. I am about 10 rows behind the Kings Bench and will be proudly repping our boys! I wish I could find my purple kings shirt so I stand out more! I promise to be loud and SacramentoProud!
That’s fantastic you got such a great seat W2W. Start the Light The Beam chant as early as you can. Have a blast tonight.
Enjoy, W2W!
Enjoy the game! I visited Atlanta for the first time earlier this year, lots of good stuff to see in terms of museums and historic sites.
Yup, I have been coming out here for 16 years. My wife just rolls her eyes when I want to stop at the Historical Landmarks..
Nice! Go Kings!
First trap game of the year. Hopefully they learned something from the losses to DET, WSH, PORT, etc. last year and don’t make some no name on ATL look like an All-Star.
Those type of losses are why they deserved to miss the playoffs last year.
Their play against the Blazers and Jazz has definitely given me some hope that getting smacked around by bad teams is a thing of the past. Tonight is a big one with a back to back in Toronto tomorrow.
We always seem to get scheduled to play Toronto within a couple days of election day. I only noticed this after seeing the Kings in Toronto in 2016. Just a small quirk of the schedule, I suppose.
Election Day 2024 is a pretty great time to be out of the country, if you ask me.
MAKE SURE YOU VOTE!
I think the lack or respect and praise for Trae Young comes in part to due to his obscene foul hunting style of play. It’s ugly basketball when he’s looking to draw the foul more than play the game. This year he’s averaging over 10FTA per game. He’s up there with the likes of Giannis and AD, but he doesn’t play physical like them.
It’s frustrating to watch a guy with so much talent play such an awful type of basketball. I can’t imagine having to look at that for eighty-two games.
Hawk tuah.
OT: Definitely did not see the Bucks starting 1-4. I know it’s early in the season, but I have a feeling they’re gonna regret that Doc Rivers hire.
Fired Bud, traded for Dame, hired and then fired Griffin while the team was in 1st or 2nd place (I believe), hired Doc and they stunk, made no moves of significance in the offseason, are now 1-4 and look really bad.
The fall from the top has been fast.
The media’s already talking about trade options for Giannis. Crazy.
Huerter & Lyles and all our picks for Giannis?
I think it’s because they leveraged their future for the team they have now, much like PHX. If they start looking bad, they may have to sell off their assets. Giannis is really the only guy who can re-stock their draft pick cupboard.
The only team I can see that would even have enough assets to pull off a Giannis trade is OKC, and frankly, given their talent and general direction, would they even want Giannis?
Idk. Fox, Keegan, and 4 firsts might get their attention.
Jalen Johnson is a gem. His rebounding is great from the wing.
OT. I don’t ever remember a B2B from Atlanta to Toronto. Scheduling that is terrible; especially when they come right back to Miami on Monday.
The scheduling on it sucks big time. Fly from Atlanta to Toronto, including the delays of going through customs, and then back down to Miami right after. Crappy schedule.
The Kings have beaten teams whose cities I have visited this year.
I visited Atlanta for a wedding.
Ergo, the Kings are going to win. It’s irrefutable.
That’s just science.
You heard it here first, the Kings will beat Dallas, Memphis, Atlanta, Indiana, Utah, and Chicago. Everyone else, no guarantees.
You better keep travelling!!!
If you want to pay my airfare, I won’t stop you!
Start a Go Fund Me, Kings fans would surely donate to that if it means more wins.
Can you do us all a favor and visit New Orleans?
If you send me to LA, that’s 7 more wins.
I’ve never been to New Orleans, but I suspect I like LA more.
I have no refutes.
Herb Jones and CJ McCollum are both out multiple weeks for the Pelicans. Hawks and Grizz have a ton of injuries and Banchero is now out for at least a month. Really brutal injury start for a number of teams.
While injuries suck, I hope the Kings can take advantage of that for tonight’s game. We shall see…
Dang, it just feels like this should apply to the Kings.
Sounds like the perfect “trap” game. I hope I’m wrong.
Always sucks losing let alone to lala. Keep talking me off ledge with only lost both games by combined 6 points. Need to stack some wins now. Let’s go Streaking!
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