Well, the 2020-21 NBA season is finally here for Kings fans and boy what a season this is shaping up to be. So many questions surround the boys in Sacramento this year! Can the Sacramento Kings win enough games to miss out on one of the elite prospects of next year’s draft? Can the Kings actually complete a trade without being an accessory to a crime in the eyes of the all-knowing, ever watchful eye of Adam Silver? Is the coaching staff in Sacramento on the hot seat and is that seat hot enough that it will be an issue for a coach wanting to sit in it regardless of whether or not he’s told no? Can De’Aaron Fox become a leader in Sacramento and can that leadership involve him leading the team in more than one statistical category? Will Tyrese Haliburton pull off the near impossible for Kings rookies and A) not suck and B) not suck and not get injured? What is a Whiteside and why is it always, always flexing?
Tonight, the Kings will take on the one that got away, Mike Malone and his Denver Nuggets squad that are chomping at the bit to get back to the Western Conference Finals. They’re youthful, talented and deeper than the hole that Vlade Divac is hiding in right now from the mobs of Kings fans still waiting for their young superteam. Make no mistake, the Nuggets are championship contenders, when healthy.
Welcome to the 2020-21 season. Things are about to get real weird.
When: Wednesday, December 23rd, 6:00 PM PST
Where: Ball Arena, Denver, CO
TV: NBCSCA, Mark Jones on the call.
Radio: KHTK Sports 1140 AM
For Your Consideration
Show Me The List: So, how we feeling about tonight everyone? Are we excited to see a semi-young team semi-scrape to a semi-decent draft position? Are we nervous about seeing fan favorites like Buddy Hield, Harrison Barnes, Nemanja Bjelica and Richaun Holmes potentially put on the block to the highest bidder, or are you just biting your nails waiting to hear the return for the Kings scraps? I find myself vacillating a bit. Am I curious to see if De’Aaron Fox fly or fall in a critical season for his development? Yes. Am I hoping the preseason hype to Tyrese Haliburton is real? Hell Yeah. Am I excited to see my favorite dysfunctional team struggle yet again to get out of the mudpit they’ve been sloshing about in since before the release of the first iPhone? Eh well, it’s a shrug at best.
This season will be defined far more by its individual parts than the overarching whole. It’s Christmas soon, so in the spirit of that, I’m making a list of all the things I want. I want to see Buddy play well and be sent somewhere where he can be happy. I want to see De’Aaron figure out his three point shot. I want to see our rookies surprise us and our veterans do well enough to merit sending them to playoff teams and franchises that will love them like we have. I want to see Marvin Bagley showing some of the promise of his first season and of the talent he flashed that made Vlade go blind to all others in 2018. I want to see our guys healthy and safe from Coronavirus. If all those other things can’t happen then I want to see entertaining basketball in someway. The wins and losses this year matter least of everything to me. The Kings could surprise us and get into the play-in game or be the worst team in the league and neither thing would truly surprise me. We’ve spent far too long rooting for a team that bucks expectations of even the smallest variety. They defy being predictable. While I might want that coveted first pick in the draft and I might root for that goal, I also don’t ever truly like seeing this team lose. It’s difficult enough at times paying attention to this franchise, so tossing another 50+ losses into the endless pit of suckitude that is the Kings record these last 35 years is just an emotionless drain of the fandom.
There’s also things to be appreciative of and excited for. Mark Jones has been a pleasure to listen to and he’s gelled very quickly with Doug Christie. I wasn’t able to hear Kyle Draper’s call but from what I’ve heard, he’ll be a worthy replacement in his own right. We do have the potential to really see some young and hungry guys do some fun things this season, it just might be during a 35 point blowout or win the Kings a game that moves them further away from an elite pick in the off-season.
Also, and for me probably the most important thing, there has absolutely never been a better time to be a Kings fan when it comes to discussing and listening to others discuss this team. From traditional sources like the Sacramento Bee with Jason Anderson, Noel Harris and others, to big time sites with The Athletic and Jason Jones or NBC hosting James Ham, to the radio with guys at various stations like Damien Barling, Kenny Caraway, Carmichael Dave, Matt George, you’re beset with talent in traditional media. But even that seems to pale in comparison to new media and the multitude of podcasts you can listen to. Pretty much everyone above has themselves a podcast or are regular guest on them but when you throw in talent like Dave “Deuce” Mason and Morgan Ragan, Jill Adge, Richard Ivanowski and Brenden Nunes, Sanjesh Singh and Tim Maxwell, Bradley Geiser, Tony Xypteras and JERRY REYNOLDS, you start to see that Sacramento is absolutely BURSTING at the seams with talent surrounding this win-allergic professional basketball team. This team is beloved, discussed, picked apart and put back together in a million different ways for a thousand different voices and they’re all hyper-talented men and women. I didn’t mention the Kings Herald because I’m currently writing an article for you jerks, but I’d say the level of commentary from commenters is the highest on just any independent site I’ve ever seen. Sure, some of you want to get overt in your attempts to sound stupid, but you’re all geniuses in my eyes. Brainiacs that deserve a team worthy of your commentary. Okay, now I’m a little excited.
Tonight’s game kicks off what will probably end up a bit of a slog. The Kings have a six-game losing streak in Denver dating back to January 3rd, 2017 and sport a record of 20-48 in the Sacramento era. Denver might be sporting their strongest teams ever and the Kings, well, not so much. Honestly, I’m not that worried. There’s that phrase about not seeing the forest through the trees – but this season is going to be the exact opposite. Focus on the details, look at all the individual trees and saplings around us and don’t worry about the cleansing forest fire raging around us.
Prediction
Screw you all, Kings are going 70something – 0 !!!!!!!! De’Aaron Fox is MVP. Tyrese Haliburton is ROY! Buddy Hield gets traded back in time for prime Michael Jordan!!!! Marvin Bagley plays in FIFTY FIVE GAMES!
I love this shit.
Kings. Nuggets.
Next.
I can’t believe that this actually exists.
Anyone remember this Burger King – Chris Webber commercial?
(sorry, I know TKH’s official sponsor is Carter Imports)
Is that Rordog in the commercial making a deal with CWebb?
Lol
I really want to see what our 2nd Team looks like.
When the NBA wants to see what its 2nd team looks like, it watches Kings highlights.
Savage!
All that running they have been doing should have them in perfect shape for this game at altitude. Kings come out with a WIN!!!
The running is just half of playing fast for me. They need to be able to process fast and pass even faster. The fast passing makes the running seem impossible to keep up with if they’re going to pull off a win.
Tonight we’ll see biggest over reaction we’ve ever seen out of me.
Win, and we’re one of the best young teams in the west.
Lose, and I’m buying a Cade Cunningham jersey.
Playoff berth and 4-1 series loss to the Lakers, or bottom 5 record with a chance to land Cade?
I’m Burnin’ for Halliburton!
I’ve not been able to watch the preseason games because of blackouts on League Pass, so I’m really excited to see Haliburton (and hopefully the other rookies). But it was nice listening to Gary Gerould again. 🙂
OT: League Pass charged me for the annual subscription a day after I signed up for the monthly subscription. So I got billed for both. So on brand!
Let’s go Kings!
Wish the NBA would get their league pass act together. I swear it’s the worst streaming interface I’ve used more than once.
I know, right?
I got an email response saying they’ll give me a refund. It’s just kind of annoying that they aren’t putting out a better service, considering they’re the NBA.
it’s not like they can’t afford it.
Turner will improve the product once it’s clear people are unhappy with the product and without investing into it they will lose customers. I’m considering dropping it after this season depending on how much I watch this year. And just live with the national TV games on ESPN/TNT/NBA TV that I get. That all comes with my Youtube TV package. But alot of games I’m interested in aren’t on national TV which is why I end up getting the package.
It’s amazing how much worse the NBA streaming is vs MLB TV. Maybe it’s the speed of the games….but that doesn’t seem to be the real issue. There’s just more investment in MLB TV it seems to me. Despite the abject stupidity that is the territorial restrictions and anti trust exemption which plagues it.
YouTubeTV looks sharper than other streaming services. The images always look better than Hulu, SonyVue, Comcast.. Nba League pass streaming never seemed to have as sharp a video image?
I love YouTube TV. I bought my LP through it so I can DVR all the games with the unlimited DVR
If it weren’t 50 extra dollars, I’d have done that. Supremely handy for making video clips like Sanjesh’s for instance, especially, I would suspect.
It’s because Turner is doing it. Not the NBA. Unfortunately.
My brother and I switched to a monthly plan of Disney Plus (but we are cancelling at the end of this month) after being on an annual plan when it first came out. Other than Mandalorian and when the trickle new movies out that we want to see (like Pixar’s new movie “Soul” coming out on Christmas day), we’re just going to subscribe here and there when there’s something new to see, because most stuff on it is just old movies, so not worth to have a continuing subscription.
That sucks.
I specifically bought NordVPN just so I can change my IP address any time I watch the Kings on LP. This is my first time buying League Pass to watch the Kangz but I’m hoping me changing my IP address works.
Well, I can see games being postponed in the future unfortunately.
Good Call by the NBA here.
Did anybody think there wouldn’t be postponements?
Probably the fella who downvotes my comments everytime I say COVID is going to be an issue for the league.
COVID deniers are hilariously insane
I predict this comment is going to get a downvote soon. 😉
I predict I will laugh about that if it happens
Do I think the public and media narrative especially around COVID is dumb? Yes, yes I do. But I’m not wasting my time arguing here about it. There’s no point.
Things get real up in Denver’s thin air;
Our best effort may get us nowhere.
Defense is a worry
Gainst Jokic and Murray,
A fast pace will test how our lungs fare!
Eh, sure. I’ll be busy changing out the kitchen faucet once I figure out how to actually install the faucet in the space of a postage stamp. (I really hate crawling underneath that sink which is why I haven’t done it yet.) So I might not be sending inane tweets off until late 4th quarter at that rate.
I do not, too. F- URL game, which is apparently the new normal. Pfft.
Is this team better than last year?….I think so.
Does that matter?….no.
Will the Kings get another high lottery draft pick?….yes.
And sure Bjelica is a fan favorite and will always go down with the best game winning quote in Kings history. But is Barnes really considered a fan favorite?….Honestly between the 2 of them I think they get a 2nd round pick (meaning Barnes won’t get traded w that contract).
As much as I enjoy Jason Jones, are he and James Ham considered bigtime? No….but perhaps big fish in a small pond.
Can the Kings at least stop being an embarrassment to an underrated City of Sacramento?….I sure hope so.
Was this a great first game write up by Will Griffith?….you bet you’re sweet ass (especially like the Bagley joke there at the end)!
Speaking of Kings and Nuggets…
Buddy Hield for Michael Porter Jr and Gary Harris.
Who says no?
Nuggets. LOL
Nah, there’s no way they’d be able to vocalize an actual no through all the laughter.
That was my response. Not the Nuggets FO. LOL
REGULAR SEASON YEESSSSS. No offense, but I understand literally NOTHING about trades and salaries and draft picks, so off season stories might as well be written in the low frequency noises that elephants make.
Until I learn how to read that stuff, the season ends, and a few months later the team comes back with a few new faces and without some old ones… through the power of magic I guess???
GO KINGS!
ð³
This season is mostly about figuring out what the Kings have in Bagley moving forward. Can he stay healthy? Is he even any good when healthy? If the answer to either of those questions is No at the end of the season then the Kings need to move on. I want Bagley to have the green light to score the ball. Jack up that three-point shot when open, give him face up opportunities when we can’t find a quick easy shot, post-ups, run pick and roll with him and Fox a lot. Let’s just see Bagley with all kinds of different looks. I know many people think he is a black hole that will never be a good defender but I just want to see him fail at both of those over a whole season before I am ready to give up on the dude. If the Kings use Bagley in this way it will either help our tank job for next year’s draft or Bagley will prove he is worth keeping(with a little luck both will happen). Let’s give Bagley every opportunity to win come back player of the year. LFG I AM ROOTING FOR YOU MARVIN!!!!
Go Bagley!
Will, that was really good. Salute!
Badge Legend