There’s an old saying, “The best thing about the NBA is there’s another game in 48 hours. The worst thing is there’s another game in 48 hours”. In this case, it’s 24 hours. The Sacramento Kings and their fans have no time to lament Thursday’s loss to the Grizzlies, as they are immediately back in action and facing the San Antonio Spurs. The Kings are already 0-2 against the Spurs this season, but they have a chance to turn things around. Will the Kings grab the reins and take the game and the narrative back, or will they continue to get thrown off in the same old ways?
Let’s talk Kings basketball.
When: Friday, December 6th, 5:00 PM PST
Where: Frost Bank Center, San Antonio, TX
TV: NBCSCA
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140 AM
For Your Consideration
Three For All: Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but this game will come down to three pointers. In their first matchup this season, the Kings allowed the Spurs to set a franchise record with 22 made threes. In their second matchup this season, the Kings allowed the Spurs to set a franchise record with 23 made threes. The Spurs are currently 6th in the NBA in three point attempts, despite being 18th in 3P%. The Spurs are going to shoot threes no matter what. And when they come across a Kings team that is 29th in Opponent 3P%, all those attempts start resulting in makes. On the other side of the coin, the Spurs hold opponents to 35.4% from 3, 11th best in the league, and just 37.1 3PAs, also 11th best. If the Kings shot 37 threes and made 35.4% of them, it would raise Sacramento’s season averages.
I know I said we wouldn’t have time to dwell on last night’s loss, but it’s just another in an ongoing pattern for the Kings. Sacramento shot 8/35 (22.9%) from three. De’Aaron Fox, Keegan Murray, and Kevin Huerter were a combined 1-for-20 from three. It was a five point loss. Even just making 30% of the team’s threes last night would’ve seen the Kings run away with a victory. I was really hopeful that seeing a couple shots fall against the Rockets would help Huerter and Murray bust out of their slumps, but they returned to form in devastating fashion. The Kings need to make their threes at a respectable clip to have any chance of turning this season around.
Rotation, Rotation, Rotation: Mike Brown needs to figure out his rotation. Playing Jordan McLaughlin 3 minutes. Playing Keon Ellis two different stints for a combined total of 2 minutes. These are not the rotation decisions of a good NBA coach. I don’t really care what lesson Brown is trying to teach Keon Ellis, he’s cutting off his nose to spite his face. The rotation has been a disaster throughout the season, and it’s gone on long enough.
An Opportunity Awaits: The Kings are coming off a loss and playing this game as a back to back, but the same is true for the Spurs. San Antonio lost to the lowly Bulls last night, albeit without Victor Wembanyama, who is nursing a sore lower back. As we saw recently with DeMar DeRozan, back injuries can linger. Due to the back-to-backs, neither the Kings nor Spurs have submitted their injury reports yet, so no word on whether Wemby will play. If he does, he’ll be rested and that could hurt the Kings, but he could also still be sore and the physicality of Sabonis could be a challenge for him. Despite everything that’s happened this season, I still believe the Kings should be a better team than the Spurs. They have an opportunity to win tonight and take a step in the right direction.
Prediction
The Kings make 35% of their threes, while holding the Spurs to only making 20 threes. The Kings win in a route.
Kings 131, Spurs 105
Take this Texas two-step and turn this terrible tank around!
Really? Maybe the Spurs are just he better team. Likely better coached, anyway.
I’m genuinely asking out of curiosity because I’ve seen the comment more and more that Brown isn’t the right coach anymore, who would you pick to replace him if you could? As far as we know, he’s still got the locker room, especially Fox and Sabonis.
I have no clue, but I just see better coaches doing more with less. I look at Udoka, Lue, and now Jordi taking teams with less talent farther. I still think the Kings, on paper, have a ton of talent, but they just can’t get their schtick to jive. I lay that on the feet of the coaching staff. Brown seems to be just throwing anything he can against the wall to see if it sticks.
What are Brown’s rotations?
Without saying he’s a “bad coach” (see COTY “22-’23) It seems objectively obvious Brown has pushed all the wrong buttons this season.
Apart from the COTY curse, some of the selections in the past are not all that indicative of recognizing great coaching. (Spoelstra has never won it, BTW)
Spoelstra never winning it means that is not a very legitimate award
For the record, I’m not the one saying there should be a coaching change. I’m only responding to comments I’ve seen that are bringing it up as a possibility, wondering what people think the alternatives are.
Would Kenny Atkinson have been an interesting alternative? With how the Cavs are performing, certainly. I just don’t see which coaches are available and would perform better across the board than Brown right now.
I don’t think anyone is available right now. Firing Brown would be throwing the towel in, and likely the near end of Fox as a King.
I also don’t think some move around the edges (an example being Huerter and Lyles for Kuzma) is going to make much of a difference.
The path is set, unless Monte decides to blaze some new trail at the cost of the season and next at a minimum.
Right, and blazing a new trail that doesn’t mean tinkering around the edges probably means Keegan’s on the table.
Lately, an idea’s popped up in my head that, Keegan’s coming up on RFA, what if there was a swap with another RFA? A package with Brooklyn involving Cam Thomas?
I’m still a believer in Keegan, especially because of all the other things he does on the court. I feel guys like Cam Thomas are a dime a dozen in the NBA, not to mention he’s redundant with Fox and Monk. No more 6’4 and under guards, please.
Probably means Fox is on the table first. Keegan, now looking at less than max, may mean he’s more likely to stay, rather than less.
Right now, I have an even harder time imaging who Fox could be traded for and which team would want him than who could replace Brown.
Are you referring to Fox’s limitations or the market?
The market. He’s a couple years too old for a tanking team, and most contenders seem set at point guard. Off the top of my head, the only team that could appear to use and want Fox is Orlando.
Gotcha, that’s fair.
I used to think they would, but I think they love their defensive guards in KCP and Suggs.
I really can’t think of any legit playoff team that would need him. Teams like Boston, Cleveland, Dallas, OKC, Denver etc. are all set.
It would need to be a rebuilding team with the ability and want to extend him…and have him willing to sign that extension.
I could squint my eyes and see Denver wanting a different guard from Murray. He just hasn’t been the same guy since the championship run. A reverse pick and roll between Jokic and Fox would be something else.
The Spurs would love to have him, Parring him with Memby would be great for the Spurs. They have the young players and draft picks to do this.
I’m not saying to trade him but teams like the Spurs. Pistons and Magic would definitely listen.
I agree. Put it this way, if Keegan were on the block, I’d imagine 29 other GMs would be calling. He’s a 6’8″ two way wing on his rookie scale deal.
Now, if Fox were put on the block, I’d imagine about half as many GMs would be calling. A lot of that has to do with role/usage and contract.
Los Angeles
It’s trading this
v
for this
Maybe better, but still bad.
Yes, really. If the Kings could make a reasonable percentage of their wide open threes they’d be several wins better this season.
While not significantly better, the Kings still have the better net rating and the better points differential. And that’s with all the slumps from deep.
I feel any team can say “if we just made a few more shots, we’d have won that close game.” I get that the Kings 3pt shooting percentages are below the league and player averages, but it’s been a steady trend that started more than a year ago.
Are we approaching a conclusion that this is just who the Kings are instead of it being slumps? Was the playoff year a fluke and what we’ve seen for past 1+ seasons the reality?
The playoff year seemed have everyone clicking, Last season, not so much. Now, so far this season has seen even more of a regression. That’s 1+ seasons.
As of now this is what you get. MM has no players on the bench now that Monk starts as nobody on the bench even if you consolodate players can he get a solid player in return. If you do consolodate bench players it will cost MM draft picks to get anyone worthwhile.
I’m starting to believe the best use of DDR is to come off the bench to provide scoring with the reserves. His iso ball will play better there and not kill the starter ball movement.
Start Keon over DDR (Or I.Jones, and move Keegan to the three) and I bet you see a more exciting brand of basketball
I don’t disagree. Just seems like a change needs to be made to not keep with the same trends. Both I. Jones and Keon could both use development minutes starting with the vets, while DDR can continue what he does and create for himself off the bench.
I mentioned this a while back, when they really started struggling. It makes sense in a couple ways; he can be the microwave scorer off the bench, he can work against backup defenders, he can be the vet playing with the younger guys, it could lower his minutes and prevent injuries.
What I saw, especially last night, was coach Brown leaving his rotations out for at least 2-3 minutes too long. You would see a rotation getting in a good rhythm, then the Grizz coach would rotate, and Brown would just hope the same guys would keep it up, as you see them gasping for air and getting blown away. He’s afraid to go away from a good thing, cause he doesn’t know how to get it back.
Whether Brown has confidence in the bench or not doesn’t matter, he has to play them because the starters are going to die on the court if he doesn’t.
And for as well as the Griz bench played, they had multiple rotation players injured. That’s a deep team.
They had a season from hell last year. So many injuries to key players. They used those unfortunate circumstances to play a bunch of guys extended minutes, try new players out in real scenarios, and evaluate their reserves. Now that they have their starters returning healthy, they have a deep team of role guys with real experience under their belts, and who are better players for the experience.
I like Ja’s highlight plays but am otherwise not a fan of his, but I am a big fan of the Grizzlies organization overall. They do an excellent job with asset management, they are really good at player evaluation, and they draft well.
I never tire of watching JJJ completely disappear when Sabonis is around. When your starting center and max rookie extension guy (I think) gets you two rebounds in twenty-five minutes? And has shot threes at league average one time in seven seasons? I’ll bet Ike can do at least as well.
And Morant. When he got booted, it was a one-point game. He somehow managed to be at -32 at the time. It’s actually quite impressive.
I don’t think Memphis’ best players are nearly as good as Sacramento’s, and it was very much in evidence Thursday night. Their bench is very good, and Sacramento’s is playing far below its capabilities in a majority of games. The Kings’ subs could be deeper, but the rotation guys are by and large pretty good.
There isn’t much a coach can do when three guys combine to score three points on twenty shots, but Brown was outcoached last night. I don’t think he needs to go, but configuring rotations based on, I don’t know. Spite? Isn’t cutting it.
Here’s another tough road back to back
‘Gainst the Spurs who we lost to in Sac.
Wemby sat out last night
‘Cause his back was tight.
If he’s out take the ball to the rack!
+1 Join us for our big adventure to find our missing 3-pt shot!
Roy Al Ammo!
I watched the Duke game last night. A freshman named Evans shot lights out. A freshman. We have pros who make a lot of money and supposedly the best in the world. Go figure. And not just one or two but the whole team. Go figure.
FWIW— Devin Vassell and Tre Jones are both listed as out tonight; Wemby listed as GTD.
Yep, we’re boned.
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