Not to be deterred from their path of outplaying our ping pong ball expectation, the Kings have brushed off their beat down at the hands of the Miami Heat and have travelled to Houston for a game against a team actually committed to a youth movement. The Rockets are the worst team in West by 2.5 games, but have found some decent momentum moving forward with the play of young star guard Jalen Green and his electric (and sometimes erratic) back court running partner, Kevin Porter Jr.
This is one of those games people are going to assume the Kings will win easily because paper tells them it’s a done deal and then not tune-in till a frustrated text from a friend tells them of a far, far different situation. Also, Alperen Sengun is questionable so… maybe count me in as one of those people? Who knows anymore!
Let’s talk Kings basketball!
When: Wednesday, March 30th, 5:00 PM PT
Where: Toyota Center, Houston, TX
TV: NBCSCA – Mark Jones (play-by-play)
Radio: KHTK Sports 1140 AM
For Your Consideration
Binary Stars: I kinda love that we’re all just ready for this season to be over. I’m over here trying to find six new ways to skin a cat, our good friend Jill Adge is posting podcast episodes with captions like “Who wants to hear about the Kings playing meaningless game? Not us! Seasons almost over :)!” and the front page of our community has an article titled “Just six more of these games left”. Sixteen years of the Kings feeding us from the mayo jar they left out in the sun and this season has been uniquely putrid, with heartbreak for playoff-hopefuls and tankers alike. Never have I seen more collective agreement on just being tired of this season, this team, this situation.
That isn’t a bad thing! Fans aren’t doing anything wrong and should absolutely never be shamed for such a thing with this franchise, but it’s nice that while we can almost never agree on a damn thing, we can all collectively come together to be relieved that THIS season is giving us it’s final gasps of cockamamie storylines. Will Davion be a starter this season? Do we have the pieces for a third big time player? Can the Kings cling to those 6th best lottery odds? History doesn’t repeat, but it does echo and we’re hearing the reverberations from years past rattling our eardrums yet again. And in response? We’re mostly shrugging, giving a thumbs up and counting down the games without much fan freak-out.
Yes we’re all at different levels of apathetic but I know for most, it’s more of a low-power mode that a total system shutdown. IF the Kings can maneuver through the draft, free agency, coaching hires and the cavalcade of trades bound to be offered their way all without embarassing themselves, there’s a good deal of us not caring much about these next two weeks that will be back and happy to see what happens next. Until then, it’s more than past time for us to take a rest from this team.
So all that being said, tonight’s game means very little either way for me. I’m watching for Sengun, if he plays, and to see if Jae’Sean Tate might be worth dropping big money on next year and of course, the battle between Davion Mitchell and Jalen Green. Off-Night vs. Green Light should be a fun matchup for years to come and with no reason for either of the two men to hold back, I can hope for an all out slug fest. That’s it though. Maybe some more Neemias Queta minutes? Maybe another surprise Jerry visit? This should be a fun game to watch while making dinner in the background as you wait for the water to boil and Green to get a dunk on SportsCenter.
Prediction
Neemias Queta gets 10 points and 5 blocks in 22 minutes of play. Kevin Porter Jr. does something that shows his enormous potential and then immediately does something else that shows why the league is so weary of his long-term effectiveness.
Kings: 122, Rockets: 117
Back in Sac we got only a split
When the refs tossed Fox for a hit.
Of a pair, this the first:
Get prepared for the worst.
Win or lose, just don’t play like sh*t!
Doesn’t Tate have a team option next year? I couldn’t imagine a scenario where the Rocket’s didn’t exercise that. Talk about a glue guy, he is terrific.
I am enjoying what Green has done the second half of the season, he has moments that are just electric out there. Sengun as well. You don’t have to squint too hard to see how good Chet would look lining up next to Sengun in a couple of seasons.
If I am the Rockets though, I would move on from Woods this offseason. That guys effort and body language are just not what I would want on a young team trying to develop 20 year olds, and probably needs to be on a veteran team with more competition for minutes and touches. Porter Jr, as well, seems more likely to have an uneven career than not with his personality, he doesn’t need a bad influence.
Deep thoughts by Jack Handy:
sometimes I think some people on this site are being trolls. But then I think, maybe the entire organization is one big troll.
the answer is right there in front of you
George Zip said that?
Love the title for this preview article.
Go Operation M.C.N.A.I.R.!
I am a newbie to Kings’ fandom, so perhaps you should dismiss this: I don’t find the Kings’ play nearly as depressing as last season’s team. Here’s why: there are players actually committed to playing defense. Davion and DDV can be a joy or watch for both their defense and rebounding. Damian, Lyles, and Metu can be fun both offensively and defensively. Think what a good coach might bring out of these rotation players, our starters, a good draft addition, and another pick-up in trade or free agency.
But then maybe I’m just a cock-eyed optimist.
I am looking forward to seeing where the organization goes from here.
I took a cursory look at the league overall, and when looking at the current rosters (and not future draft picks), I lumped the Kings in with the following group of teams: NY, Ind, Det, Orl, OKC, Hou, SA.
All other teams have more or more highly rated talent than the Kings. That is to say, I have teams like Por and Was over Sac because those teams would bet substantially more for Dame or Beal than the Kings would get for Fox of Sabonis. Teams like the Lakers, Nets and Dubs are older, but their roster assets are so much more valuable than the roster assets that the Kings possess.
So the Kings are among eight teams that need a confluence of skill, luck and timing to crawl out of the abyss. A couple of them will likely do it. Can the Kings be one of those teams. Sure. Will they be one of those teams? It’s anyone’s guess.
Year 17. Though next year’s team probably is ~4 games better than the teams of the last several years, and as good as any Kings team since 2006.
I don’t think they’re a playoff team without a huge amount of luck. But might be as good as the two high 30 win teams the Kings have had in the last 16 years.
Yeah, Sabonis / Fox / Barnes are probably comparable to (say) Cousins / Thomas / Gay, more or less. Still not sure how Joerger coaxed 39 wins from a team that was primarily Fox, Hield and Bogi.
Agree, but for one minor quible; I think Washington is in the Kings group as well. They really painted themselves in a corner with Beal, and will probably have to offer him the supermax or lose him.
I’m not sure Beal with a supermax contract is a more tradeable asset than Fox with the max contract.
Porzingis has lost at least two steps, no lift and no lateral speed. hey have some nice youngsters, but no future stars.
The Washington ownership is not interested in tanking. Wes Unseld Jr. has been quite underwhelming, so far., I had high hopes for him. Perhaps an offseason after a first season as a head coach will do him good.
Excellent points here. Porzingis, his contract, and the forty games he’ll be available each season are a millstone around the Wizards’ neck for the next several years.
Yep. Glad the Kings didn’t make that deal, or any deal involving Porzingis.
Beal at a super max contract will be the next Westbrook , Wall disaster . Wiz will be paying him his last 3 years 50 million no to play .
😁
Since there’s no story for this yet, there’s a new article from the Bee on the Richuan Holmes domestic violence accusations.
‘My soul is not for sale’: The violent ordeal alleged by the ex-wife of Richaun Holmes
Thanks for sharing this. Like many others, I love Richaun the competitive, energetic basketball player.
Sports fans need to recognize that someone can be a wonderful athlete, a joy to watch. That does not make him a good person. I found Robin Epley (the writer) and Allexis Holmes (Richaun’s ex and the mother of his son) very believable.
Other sports fans need to realize that simply being accused of domestic violence does not mean that there is any truth to it.
You’re right. False accusations occur. I did not make a judgment as to fact.
However, it is also quite common to disbelieve accusations against an athlete because we love his play.
Which do you believe is more common: false accusations of abuse or abuse?
If you haven’t, I hope you read the article.
In a case involving the custody of a child?
I don’t believe anyone.
Where does not believing anyone leave the issues of custody and protecting children? Does it imply that in cases of accusations of abuse the parent accused always gets unsupervised custody (joint custody) as long as they deny the accusations?
Of course, I agree that we on the outside should withhold judgment. The issue would have to be investigated carefully to see whose assertions are corroborated by other evidence.
I don’t know what happened in this situation. But I’m going to go with hitting women and/or children is a lot more common than people fabricating it.
I read that and was wondering if there would be something here addressing it. It’s an opinion piece, and should be read as such. The writer did make Alexis Holmes sound extremely sympathetic and real, but it is her job to do so. The ugly reality is that we will probably never know what actually happened.
I will say this caveat. My wife is a social worker for a foster and adoption agency. It is almost impossible to prove child abuse short of a social worker arriving for a scheduled inspection and finding chains and locks on the refrigerator (Which has actually happened. People are stupid as well as monsters). It is a pendulum swing resulting from situations 10-20 years ago where it was way too easy for agencies to take children away from their parents. Now it is extremely difficult to lose parental rights. There have been many situations that I can’t talk about where it would seem obvious that child abuse was present but the parent was not found guilty and retained their rights as a parent.
All that to say, I’m not accusing Richaun of anything because I truly don’t know what is going on. But I do know how difficult it is to prove these things.
The
Lakersare the worst team in the western conference.Have we been moved to a sub-conference?
Maybe. Not sure why they would be involved with U-boats… maybe it would help them Dive,,,DIve,,,, Dive!
On several occasions over the last two years, Monte responded to questions about how he intended to go about building a team that could contend for the playoffs by mentioning that, in his opinion, the roster was already playoff-caliber.
A roster that’s good enough to be in the playoffs can fail to get there because of injuries, or because it significantly underperforms its point differential (loses way more than its share of close games), or because of poor coaching.
But in both years, the Kings suffered less than the average NBA team from injuries, S&H protocols, etc. — the injury difference was an advantage that they squandered each season. And their point differential is 25th out of 30 teams, so that ain’t it. As for coaching, prior to each season he said that he felt strongly that Luke was the right coach for this team; presumably, it was then Monte’s choice to replace Luke with Alvin.
One frightening prospect is that Monte told us what he honestly thought. If so, the team’s key basketball decision maker is a very poor judge of player and/or coaching talent.
The other possibility is that Monte just fed the media and fans what he thought would go over well in the moment, or what Vivek told him that they needed to hear, rather than what he genuinely believed — and he was ok with handing out this BS.
Honestly not sure which is worse.
Pretty sure they sold hope to sell tickets. To whom, I don’t know anymore.
Very interesting points and Monte to me has always seemed a smart drafter, 2nd banana type . Kings need a true leader type and doubtful Vivek would even allow it .
“Problem, we have a Houston” – genius
Fun quote from Kevin Pelton in an article ranking each teams prospects over the next 3 seasons. I recommend putting down any sharp objects before reading:
Nobody in the national media is going to say good things about this team. It’s not that I have anything against his opinion or anything — I don’t — it’s just par for the course.
It’s par for the course because the Kings haven’t given them any reason to say any different. The one time the Kings actually showed some life in the past three years we were inundated with “up-and-coming” articles. The national media will say good things about the Kings when there are good things to say.
Yep. 100% spot on BHE.
Interesting comments on Alvin Gentry on Queta:
https://twitter.com/James_HamNBA/status/1509306610593587204
Hello all! I’ve been a bit disconnected from the internet this past week because I’ve been on vacation in Seattle the past week (it’s actually the first trip I took since the start of the pandemic), but now I’m back again! 🙂
Yes!
Badge Legend