The Sacramento Kings will play one of their most important games of the season in Brooklyn tonight. Let’s get to it.
Who: Sacramento Kings (19-56) vs. Brooklyn Nets (17-57)
Where: Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY
When: 3:00 PM ET / 6:00 PM ET
Watch: NBCSCA / League Pass
The Kings have a chance to make up some ground at the bottom of the NBA standings tonight in Brooklyn. At 17-57, the Nets currently have the 2nd worst record in the NBA. At 19-56, the Kings hold the 4th worst record in the NBA. A loss for the Kings tonight will close the tank gap considerably, while a win could put the Nets completely out of reach.
The Nets have also played one fewer game than the Kings, so there’s time to make up some ground here. Unfortunately this Nets team has lost 10-straight and have showed no signs of slowing down. Good luck in Brooklyn.
Prediction: Kings 118, Nets 109
My apologies to Tony for doubting that he would post a thread today.
Maybe this time we won’t light the Beam
As tonight the Nets are the home team.
Keep our tank in high gear
Till we close out this year.
Better yet if it makes Vivek scream!
Absolutely do not want to win this game. Please do it for my Dad, Kangz, because today is his birthday!!
I’m wondering if Doug needs to consider laying off those smelling salts. That stuff can’t be good.
That’s too bad Clifford can’t shoot a lick. Maybe he’ll pan out as a type of role/end of bench type player.
If he really can’t shoot, why would you draft him? I’m a little concerned that Scott Perry drafts guys that can’t shoot the three but are athletic. Has he been watching the NBA at all? You’re not gonna win anything unless you have shooters.
Nique’s rookie season is statistically just about on par with Justin Jackson’s rookie year. So there’s that…
Good comp, JJ. And Nique is doing much better than Malachi Richardson when he came up, at least.
Bummer
He’s also pretty comparable statistically to Max Christie for its worth.
DeRozen sitting. So it can happen!
Looks like this is the team that should have been on the floor since the break.
The injury list is smarter than Doug and the entire king’s organization. Exactly right. All the veterans should’ve barely been playing.
I might buy that t-shirt.
Ha. Print it up. Good idea.
Indiana just beat the Heat 135 – 118; Siakam 30 pts in 31 minutes!
Where are this man’s shoulders?
Can this brother hit threes like Cameron’s brother can?
Just got home from 3 wonderful days in Pinnacles National Park to tune into this game. Go Nets!
Hope you had a good time! I’ve been to Pinnacles several times. First time I went with some friends to camp for a couple nights, and I think when we got to the highest point on the high peaks trail, we had several California Condors right above us, some were even sitting on the rocks and we got some good views of them. I wish I had a better camera and took more pictures/videos, because I’ve never been able to see Condors as close as I did during that trip.
The high peaks trail was awesome We saw one condor, but from a bit of a distance. We got to do all the tunnels since it was March and the bats hadn’t nested yet. Those were my highlights.
Kings outscore the Nets by 10 in the 3rd. Kings had better not Kangz this up!
Anyone know how tiebreakers pan out if we end up with the same amount of losses as Indiana, Brooklyn, and Washington? I have barely watched this season so I don’t remember whether we already won/lost games against them.
Coin flip.
Right, right. I forgot it’s the lottery and not playoff seeding, lol.
The race to the bottom is getting serious. And a bit entertaining.
We now have a decent chance to grab a top-three draft lottery slot. It’s pretty easy to see us losing all of our remaining games. Meanwhile the Nets just started a six game home stand, which includes consecutive games against the Wizards, Bucks, and Pacers. Winning two of those three games would give them at least 20 wins.
Good tank day for the Kings! With this loss there’s at least chance they could drop a spot or two. Some of the bottom tank teams (Wizards/Pacers/Nets) still play each other a couple times.
How Tanktastic! Let’s keep this think rolling!
Think tank!
Looks like the Kangz are have the 4th worst record now with a legit shot at the worst record, only a game out in the loss column from matching Indy.
I listened to the Ringer’s Annual Worst NBA Contracts podcast. We had three in top 10 lol, (Lavine, Domas, Keegan). One contract we traded for and the other two we handed out.
I didn’t like any of these moves/contracts in the moment and they’re looking worse now.
Just emphasizes how important it is we get some luck in this draft, the King’s FO/Vivek need to be saved from themselves.
Do you have the list? I find it hard to believe the guy who is the 81st highest paid player in the league next year (Keegan) is on a top 10 worst contract. I can see the argument for LaVine (even though he will be expiring) and Sabonis, but Keegan surprises me. Is is due to recent injuries?
yeah silly take and domas/keegs only there because of the injury plagued year.
if you want to talk production to money, fox has GOT to be on that list, but probably isn’t because wemby gonna wemby
Yeah, even if you take into consideration length of contract Keegan at the last year of his 5 year extension will be making $31M. Pair that with the projection that at the same time a max deal will be well into $80M per year or above.
Yes, Keegan had a down year and last year was disappointing as well, but I lay most of that blame on roster construction, role, and coaching. For his career Keegan statistically is on par with OG Anunboy, who will be making nearly $20M more than Keegan next year.
Simmons applying too much of a Kangz Tax to the contracts. You could easily argue that everyone on the Kings is overpaid simply because they suck. As Indy went to the Finals 10 months ago, and Washington and Brooklyn are clearly tanking and have low salaries and that leaves with Da’ Kangz of the cellar dwellars.
Add in the worst owner in professional sports – King Vivek and Queen Matina – and it is recipe for unending ridicule. Deservedly so.
May 10th six weeks away. How’s your bracket?
That’s a good example of why stats don’t always tell the whole story.
Agreed, which is why I propose that Keegan’s “ESPN stats” don’t tell the whole story either.
OG is way better than Keegan
$20M more per year?
Fox was an honorable mention. But Fox’ contract is moveable, if he was on the trade block this offseason; there would be suitors.
No one has been interested in Domas and his contract. That’s the reality of why he’s still a King. He’s not worth 2 more years at a combined almost $100 mill.
Its not like Simmons loves Fox either he has taken a few shots at him over the years. Will be interesting to see who he goes in the playoffs
The pod was Bill Simmons, Wos, and Joe House and they were in agreement on Keegan, as am I.
King’s fans fall in to the trap of overrating their own players and take offense to the unbiased NBA talking head’s positions on the Kings. A story as old as time.
The comments under my original comment speak for themselves.
How do you mean? Is Keegan a sunk cost, not an NBA player, unworthy of a rookie extension?
I propose that the Kings extending Keegan is the best decision they’ve made in the past 2 years. They are retaining a known asset who is a legit NBA player on his rookie deal. Had they not extended him, I’d be even more in the doghouse on this franchise.
FWIW, the only Kings rookie scale deals that have been extended under Vivek are Fox and Buddy (whom they didn’t draft)
Extending Keegan is the only thing that gives me hope that this franchise is legitimately trying to compete in the future.
Smart franchises extend their rookie scale players who are NBA worthy because it’s how you keep talent on the cheap. The only alternative for Sacramento is overpaying dudes in free agency.
We’re talking about Keegan in terms of his contract, not him as a player in a vacuum.
He’s not worth 5/$140. He’s living off his rookie season and has consistently regressed since then, especially his shooting.
Funnily enough, the position you’re taking is the same as Vivek/Perry, let that sink in.
A day game after a night game, as they say in baseball. If, in a different kind of season, the Kings were trying to get the #6 seed and needed to beat Brooklyn, that early start would have been a problem. Exhausted Kings lose SGOBTB. But with tanking, the early start becomes an advantage. No matter how much Brooklyn wanted to lose, the Kings were too beatable. Can’t wait for this season to be effing over!
This season has been the least interesting, for me, in quite a long while. Not even getting a high draft matters much because I have almost no confidence that the Kings will make a good choice.
From Vivek, to Perry, to Doug, the confidence level in making good decisions is really low.
Pretty much sucks, don’t it?
Hey at least the NBA will address tanking, so when the team sucks again next year and the Kings can end up with a pick between 1-18.
I don’t get it. They talk about disincentivizing losing. However, when your owner is making money either way, even losing at record levels, you are not addressing the problem. You are only disincentivizing the fans from following the loser franchise.
I hate the lottery. Just do away with it. Be like the NFL and just let the worst record pick 1st and so on. Get rid of the pick protections. The NBA has just gotten worse over the years.
Agreed. Tanking is a hot topic again, but I’ve been saying for years that you just investigate that and if the usual suspects can’t be confimed (fake injuries, sitting starters in the 4th for no good reason, etc.) then the team loses the pick outright for falls somewhere down the line, say to the end of the 1st round.
It also takes away the questioned legitimacy of the lottery. Being fixed shouldn’t even be a thing that people have to discuss.
The lottery is almost completely worthless. It does not stop tanking. Like at all! If it’s a consensus weak-as-hell draft, only one or no teams might tank. But in a year like this, when everyone thinks the draft is a gold mine, teams that won’t make the playoffs anyway are stumbling over each other to lose games.
The only reason it is not completely worthless is that it is actively harmful. A team with much “ethical tanking” (i.e., to just legitimately suck really bad) could have the absolute worst record and definitely have a 48% chance of getting the FIFTH PICK! Two words for that: Stooooooooo Piiiiiiiiddd.
Agreed. There isn’t really any light at the end of tunnel right now. The Nets, Jazz, Wiz, all have that glow, but the Kings do not.
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