Update 9:45 PM
We got one half of really fun half of basketball! The offense was clicking, the defense worked. The Suns couldn’t make a three. Zach LaVine could make all of the threes. At the end of the second quarter the Kings were up 71-54 and LaVine had 22 points.
By the end of the third quarter, the Kings lead was down to 2. The Suns started to really out-rebound them, the Kings stopped moving the ball on offense and couldn’t make free throws. To top it off, LaVine went cold, scoring only 6 points in the second half.
The Suns won offensive rebounds 18-9 and points in the paint 64-54.
Only 81 more ya’ll!
From Earlier Preview:
The Sacramento Kings, facing several injuries to key starters and coming off the heels of a rough preseason, are about to embark on another 82-game season in hopes of making the playoffs. Vegas doesn’t believe in them. NBA analysts don’t believe in them. This tired blogger doesn’t believe in them. But all of those entities have been wrong before.
Who: Sacramento Kings (0-0) vs. Phoenix Suns (0-0)
Where: Mortgage Matchup Center, Phoenix, AZ
When: 7:00 PM PT / 10:00 PM ET
Watch: LeaguePass, NBCSCA
As referenced above, the Kings will be without Isaac Jones (illness), Keegan Murray (thumb), and Domantas Sabonis (hamstring). On the Phoenix side, they’ll be missing Grayson Allen (hip), and Jalen Green (hamstring).
Doug Christie has yet to reveal his opening night starting lineup, but if they keep pushing the veterans like we’ve seen thus far, I’ll go ahead and predict Dennis Schroder, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Dario Saric, and Drew Eubanks. That’ll be a depressing answer to a Kings trivia question someday.
Coach Christie has mentioned that they might adjust their starting lineup depending on matchups, and the Suns are pretty small. ESPN projects a starting frontcourt of Ryan Dunn, Dillon Brooks, and Mark Williams for Phoenix tonight, which opens the door for the Kings to play a bit smaller, too. They could run Eubanks at center, DeRozan at forward (where he played a lot for both the Spurs and Bulls) with any of Keon Ellis, Nique Clifford… or even Russell Westbrook, and get away with it. I’d probably take any of those options over Saric, but we’ll see how experimental Christie decides to get in this spot.
I probably sound like a broken record with my praise for Keon Ellis, but matching his minutes with Devin Booker would be my preference tonight. He’s the best guard defender the Kings employ, and Booker is the biggest threat on the Suns roster by a significant margin. Limit Booker, and the Kings will have a decent opportunity to take Game 1 on the road.
While betting odds aren’t everything, and some might argue they are nothing, BetMGM set the Kings’ win total for the season at 32.5 wins and the Suns’ at 30.5 wins. I reference those odds to say: Phoenix represents one of the few Western Conference teams many expect to be *worse* than the Kings this year. I understand how silly it is to call Game 1 “must-win” so I’m not going to do that, however if Sacramento is going to make any noise this season, beating the teams you’re supposed to beat, or at the least can beat, is of utmost importance.
Prediction: Kings 112, Suns 102
You can’t be 82-0 until you win game 1 . Just sayin !
1/2 game ahead of the Rockets and Lakers. Progress!!!
But yesterday we were tied for 1st. Now we’re tied for 3rd. 🙁
That Rockets vs, Thunder game show what basketball can be. Terrific defense. Both teams!
Great game! Had playoff intensity.
I think the giant HOU starting lineup will be fine. Amen is going to get a lot of open 3s, if he can approach league average he’ll be an all-star.
Yeah what a game to start the season! Absolutely riveting all the way through.
All I could think was, “Gawwwwwd, we are soooooo far away!”
Don’t know what to expect from the Suns,
Though I’m sure that they’ll go on some runs.
Vivek’s roster is weak—
We need more than a tweak—
Spend those profits that he’s made for once!
+1 What does Phoenix think about this matchup?
How many seasons are you doing this now?
I imagine Jman sitting on one of the deckchairs of the Titanic, the strings in the background, everyone ele running around in panic, the deck tilting, and he’s humming and writing a limerick on his paper notepad.
There was this optimistic seaman
Who stayed on board while others ran
As the ship started to sink
He sat down to think,
How bad can it be? I’m a Kings fan!
This will be the twelfth season, I think.
In my life, that’s barely a blink.
This time things seem worse,
But I can’t shake this curse.
Does anyone know a good shrink?!
So you have limmericked your way through the D’Allessandro, Divac, and McNair era’s, and it somehow survived the coaching of Malone, Corbin, Karl, Joerger, Walton, Gentry and Brown.
Dude.
You can set your watch via Jman,
He’s TKH’s very own G-man.
Though the losses may mount
to an amount you can’t count,
He makes me a TKH thread fan.
A limmerick about the Kings
Is one of the very best things
Along with the gifs
and exasperated pfffs
Thank You Jman, That’s great, but we need Wings
There once was a girl from Nantucket
oops, wrong site…
Question for the group, If Ellis is your best defensive player and Doug is a Defensive coach, if Ellis is not getting minutes (assuming he is playing some what well) can we assume he is getting to much input from the front office
Our current and prior coaches preach and talk about defense, and yet we traded Davion Mitchell, refuse to start Keon Ellis or play him enough minutes, and Devin Carter will barely see the floor. We also traded JV for the ability to have Dennis Schroder eat up more of Ellis/Carter’s minutes.
Judge this team by its actions, not its words.
(I do get it, Carter may not be ready for rotational minutes, but the point remains.)
This.
Exactly. Until any evidence otherwise, I just presume that absolutely every single horrible stupid thing this organization does is because Vivek has deemed it so. I think Scott Perry is a puppet. I think Doug Christie is a puppet. I think Monte McNair and Mike Brown were not puppet’s so they’re gone. Vivek tried so hard to be normal but he just couldn’t do it so we’re back to the puppet show.
I’m with you on this. Just my personal opinion, but I feel Vivek took a back seat for the first time when he hired Monte. He bit his lip after embarrassing stints with Pete and Vlade, and let a real GM do real GMing. He even hired an outside consulting firm to help with the process.
Monte drafted Hali, Davion, Keegan, and Carter and signed an undrafted Keon. That’s 3 current NBA starters (should be 4 with Keon) and the last 4 being a nod to defense. That’s the best run by a King GM since Petrie last century! There was a walk to his talk.
Then, as soon as things turned south in the end of the 2024 season, in large part to when Monk and Huerter went down, Vivek reared his ugly meddling head again and pushed for DDR. The S&T was out of step with Monte’s previous moves, which is why I think he was pressured from above. Then Brown, Fox, and Monte were gone within months. It’s just been a snowballing of shit ever since.
Yep also enamored with Lavine, from 2018! Damn you little chap 🙂
I think you absolutely nailed it right here and I completely agree.
The Vlade mess was so embarrassing after not taking Luka, I think he was forced into hiring a real GM for the first and only time during his tenure here. You noted Monte draft record and the team actually making the playoffs and having its best stretch in two decades speak for themselves. In addition, I have heard on a couple NBA podcasts people vaguely mention that they don’t believe the Kings issues were Monte McNair’s fault and he probably shouldn’t have been let go.
The timeline you laid out seems so clear to me. For a couple brief years the Kings made the moves a normal franchise would make. Now, we’re back to the Keystone Cops clown show. If the Kings don’t win a couple games to start the year here, I think this thing is going to go south really fast. I would not rule out Doug Christie being fired within the next two months OR Scott Perry being fired within a year. I would bet a large portion of this current roster will be gone soon for minimal returns as well.
I honestly do not believe people are prepared for how badly this season is going to go. I think we’re in for an epic shit show the likes we haven’t seen in quite some time. I just don’t see how we get out of this hole without Vivek selling the team because he is incapable of running a competent basketball organization.
I think you all are right on track with these observations. Vivek was forced by the league to hire a competent GM after the Vlade debacle. The league brought in a consulting firm and everything.
I would like to add that the reason Monte was selected however, is because out of the approved candidates, he was the one willing to take Vivek’s shortcuts and “re-tool” around Fox.
Sachin Gupta was interviewed (twice iirc), and was padded over… likely bc he saw that team as needing a total overhaul in order to become truly relevant.
But Vivek wanted the quickest way to end his embarrassing playoff drought, so he hired Monte. Who ended up being probably the 2nd best GM in Kings history (low bar, I know).
Fate gave the Kangz another chance, when Haliburton fell into their lap. But once again, the mandate to end the playoff drought got in the way of true progress, and we got the pairing of Sabonis-Fox to give us a first round exit.
Other mistakes were made, but bottom line is this team will never be relevant under Vivek. He truly is incompetent when it comes to ruining a basketball team, and his ego will not allow him to give the job to someone who will make this team a true contender.
Same as it’s ever been. And he never learns.
Unfortunately I do not think Carter will ever be ready for rotational minutes. Sure would be nice to have Dasilva, Ware or DaRon Holmes… heck even Dalton Knect
It’s almost like we can see the future.
A rookie guard, Nique, gets 24 minutes while getting torched by Booker and Ellis plays 13 minutes.
All I can do is laugh.
Per basketball-ref, Nique had the second best defensive rating (108) on the team last night—Westbrook 115, Keon 116, Schroeder 118, LaVine 125, Monk 126!
Only Eubanks (106), with his 4 blocks and two steals, had a better rating.
That’s a very polite way of putting it.
DC got this job by being a company shill and sucking up to Vivek. What do you think?
If Doug isn’t going to play Keon then trade him. 13 minutes with your best defensive player last night just doesn’t make sense. Somebody on the Kings needs to explain to me why he isn’t playing so as an old defensive coach can understand why.
This is just my opinion but after watching LaVine and Derozan playing together I find myself saying both are not winners. Sure they score a lot but just like the Bulls they don;t win. I know it was Westbrooks first start as a King but his age has caught up with him. He isn’t going to help the team.
One of the things a team can do that represents defense is rebound. I understand Sabonis and Murray are the King’s best rebounders but come on the King’s could have done better just by boxing out . Playing Caldwell as your center in the fourth quarter during crunch time wasn’t right. I felt sorry for the guy.
Last but not least the King’s in the second half went back to what lost them games last year. Iso ball. So many times in the second half I saw three players standing around while LaVine, DDR and Monk tried to penetrate with dribbles down the stretch. So bad. No movement.
A new season for your Sacramento Kings!
I have never been more queasy for the start of a Kings season than this one. The roster is a mess, our most important players are both out, Vivek made his daughter GM of Stockton and she used it to make sexual advances on multiple employees and one of those employees turned out to be a murderer.
Tonight I will watch our extremely depleted and pathetic basketball team lose to another pathetic basketball team. It is night 1/82.
Go Kings.
That’s a great new tagline for Sacramento: The Big Queasy.
Succinctly and perfectly stated. For the life of me, I cannot understand how this didn’t become a national story. I know it’s the Kings and absolutely nobody in major media gives a crap, but c’mon…
Well it was a national story. New York Times covered it…..but why didn’t any of our local media? That’s the bigger media coverage travesty. Too afraid to get on bad terms with Kings Communications staff? Sounds like an open secret in Stockton as she was in multiple relationships with players and people around the team knew it. And isn’t it a thing to not be in a relationship with people you supervise or have power over…..GM has the ultimate power over players.
Phoenix and Sactown suck again.
Arise, KingSuns 2.0 (where is that thread again?)
What’s wild about that SunKings Game of Zones joke from all those years ago is that the Suns went from irrelevance to building up a team that made it to the Finals only to tear it all down again to return to irrelevance. The Kings never really left irrelevance.
The Kings were slightly relevant during the Beam year, but PHX’s fall from grace hurts more. At least we are used to the bottom and have gotteb numb to falling down every year.
Saric and Eubanks potentially starting while the Kings employ over $100M in guards is peak Kangz.
The Kings have just 3 dudes over 6’7″ playing tonight. Eubanks, Saric, and Maxime.
This game is going to be all offense and zero defense. 136-134 Suns.
And I’m going to put the over/under on Maxime’s minutes tonight at 10, so it’s not like he’s going to be a major part of the action, either.
Dougie McBuckets and Cardwell
They better win these first two games because if they don’t, it’s going to get very dark, very fast. I’m rooting for one of the most embarrassing implosion’s ever so… yeah…
Yes, so go PHO and go UTA!
I hate it but kinda…
The world? No.
The Kings? Abso-f’ing-lutely.
If they don’t win either of the first two games, I don’t think they win a game until about Thanksgiving, when they face PHX and Utah again. an 0-18 start to the season would be absolutely insane.
I still feel they win at least one of these first two, but it’s all down hill after that.
132 – 114 Kings. Our weapons are just more offensive than the Suns.
Well, here we are, a player I dreaded being acquired by the team, Russell Westbrook, may be the only reason I tune in tonight. I am less excited by this team than I was by Jason Thomason and Dante Green, and I loathed that era. Cautiously optimistic for 30 wins!
Is it too early to check tankathon?
Never too early for tankathon around these parts!!
BREAKING NEWS: Russell Westbrook to sign with the Kings.
~ Jim C.
Will the Phoenix rise again in the Valley of the Sun?
This is a mostly young roster of some interesting young prospects. And though they have only decided to sell off Durant and Bradley Beal months ago, their collection of rookies and young prospects seems to already be ahead of the Utah Jazz (maybe Ace Bailey will change that, but I don’t think so) and are almost on par with Portland, IMO.
Last year’s rookie – Ryan Dunn, the defensive ace from UVa, has impressed from the start and though touted as having little to bring on offense, has proven to be not devoid of scoring and I thought he had a nice Summer League. His shooting %s need to be better, but I can see him being a taller (6’6″) Keon Ellis styled player for PHX. The other defensive minded mid-six footer is the ever hateable Dillon Brooks, formerly of Memphis, who can also knock down some treys. And completing the 78″ trifecta you have perennial Sun and All-Star Devin Booker who has the highest pay of anyone in the Association over the next 5 seasons, at $316M (often they say estimated, and that is because he is signed at around 35% of Cap which blossoms to 36% in the 2028-2029 season). This is Book’s 11th NBA season as he turns 29 next week.
Other youngsters are the surprisingly capable 6’1″ Craig Gillespie, the likable (from the interesting interviews I’ve seen) Oso Ighodaro (who I hope Dylan Cardwell can emulate), and 4 (four, count’em, four) Rookies: rookie Wildcat Toby Brea (hey, he’s 6’6″ as well – a fourfecta) who was the pick right before Maxime Raynaud, at #41 and is on a TWC but had a nice VSL showing, IMO, 6’9″ Rasheer Fleming (the first pick of the 2nd round at #31) from St. Joseph’s (not the children’s aspirin- Go Hawks!), CJ Huntley at 6’11″(undrafted out of Applachian State), and the maybe prize of the Phoenix four – Khaman Malauch, the 7’2″ South Sudanese former Blue Devil who was so impressive two Summers ago in the FIBA World Cup. He was one and done with Cooper Flagg at Duke, and has looked decently decent in Pre Season.
In Summary, this is a young squad with some size. They also have Nick Richards though no longer have Mason Plumlee nor Jusef Nurkic clogging the middle. The pesky defensive and superb 3 point shooting of another Dukie, Grayson Allen, will not be missed by Sacramento as he sits out tonight along with 24 year old, 4 season career 20 point scoring average of Jalen Green who was traded out by Houston and also misses the Suns season opener. He is from G-League Ignite (no college) and hails from nearby Prolific Prep in Napa (hey – that’s where Domas lives and makes Ones wine).
These hopeful up and comers have new rookie Head Coach Jordan Ott. After 7 seasons as an Assistant Coach (Brooklyn x4, LAL x 2, last season with Kenny Atkinson on Cleveland’s bench). Rookie Coach Doug Christie has a very different directive as these two face this season.
Phoenix is so different, I won’t talk much about the It’s All About The 3-Ball as they are unknown and can’t compare to last season.
Go Kings! Light the Beam!
I know I have written a lot (too much) already but I notice that there is no season prediction thread.
Las Vegas has Sacramento at 32.5 wins. What say YOU?
Put me down for 35 wins. Just in the sweet spot for a not great draft pick and just outside the top 10.
I fear we end up mid 30s. I’d prefer we end up in the 25-30 range. It’s a mismatched bunch, but there is talent. Unless the wheels completely fall off, I think 36 wins.
36 for me, but I am a well known and unabashed optimist.
Same. This is a borderline play-in team, unfortunately. Unless the lottery luck is exceptional, they’ll be picking at #12 or something like that.
This will be the first time in my 28 years of Kings fandom where i dont watch all 82 games. I canceled my Youtube TV service the day after last season ended and i can’t bring myself to pay $85/mo to watch this shit-show of a roster.
Is it just me or was the camera on Mark Jones and Kayte Christensen super saturated? Compared with the pre game, all the colors looked off, and lower res
I thought the same. Quality of the picture was way off.
Let’s get this shit show started!
Gonna be cautiously (stupidly) optimistic and call a Kings win. Lavine with 30+ and Nique with 15+.
Nique starting gives me a little bit of hope. Was expecting something very dumb
Yes. That was a positive.
How nice would it be to still have Valanciunas still on the roster? What did we get for him again?
Jones: “he threw it back like it was Thursday.”
I need help on that one. Is it a reference to something?
Throwback thursday, I think
10 point lead after on! Who had that on their bingo card. Monk with a quick 7 points. Am I allowed to have hope?
Rebounding wise, Raynaud is already a fantastic Domas replacement
Not last night. He was lost out there.
While not “fantastic”, Raynaud collected 4 boards in his 11-1/2 minutes, compared to Eubanks’ 4 in almost 22 minutes and Cardwell’s 1 in over 14-1/2 minutes.
Yet, if I heard him correctly, DC said he played Cardwell down the stretch because of his rebounding!
“He ought not try Keon Ellis” -Mark Jones
Also I know we’ve got a decent lead but can we pleeeeaaase try and match his minutes with Booker?
No! Keon only gets 13 minutes. Unfuckingbelievable
I like the deep, thorough rotation. Growing up playing hockey I could never understand why basketball teams didn’t swap players in and out more often for energy management. And I’m old enough that these thoughts predated the Grinnell system
Oh heck! Almost forgot…
Shout out for the Henry V quote!
Not a fan of Westbrook in instead of Ellis. Seriously, did he kill Doug Christie’s dog or something?
We spent the first 3 months of last season wondering the same thing about Mike Brown. I just don’t get it.
I feel like if we lose this game, it’s gonna be because Westbrook stayed in for 18 minutes in the second half and Booker got 40
Keon is +10 and 3/4 from the field. Will never understand why Keon is always getting the short end of the stick when he makes the team better,
Keon should have Westbrook’s minutes plus some more. I JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY HE ONLY PLAYED 13 MINUTES. If that’s the norm then TRADE HIM. He deserves better,
Holy moly these Suns are bad. I had no idea. They are going to need Booker to score 40 every night to try for a win.
It wouldn’t shock me if the Suns win 15 games and Booker wins the scoring title. Every other player of that caliber has at least one other guy that can score on the team. Maybe Giannis is in the same boat, but that’s the only guy I can think of off the top of my head.
I guess we should be fair, Jalen Green isn’t playing tonight. That dude is also bucket.
Oh, right. Forgot about that.
Dear Adam SIlver,
There are too many trades. Please revoke three.
PS. I am not a crackpot
looks like Sacramento still has a basketball team
Entertaining first half…can they play like this for 82 games?
If it’s against these Suns maybe! These guys stink!
NO! This team as constructed will NEVER be a good basketball team. The writing is on the wall but Vivek is blind. I was and still am a great fan of Doug Christie but have lost a little of my fan basically because he doesn’t or won’t play Keon Ellis. A gifted defender that shoots over 40% from three should play more than 13 minutes. If I am wrong Doug please explain why.
DC started a rookie in his first game next to Drew Eubanks and hung up 71 in the first half he may really be the G.O.A.T.
I feel like that status is highly dependent on the second half Westbrook-to-Ellis minutes ratio.
I apologize for the incessant complaining about Westbrook but Jesus he’s been bad for how many Keon minutes he’s stealing
Kings shot lights out. Suns couldn’t buy a bucket. Suns destroyed the Kings on the offensive glass 14-3. If the Kings come back to Earth and the Suns rise from the dead, this game will be a lot closer in the second half. I’m interested to see how the coaches adjust.
First half take: Kings are going to start the season 31-21 because everyone is balling out trying to get traded. Deadline passes with no trades. Players dejected.
Finish 7-23. 38 wins. 11th pick. Same as it ever was.
Man, if only we had a really good on-ball defender who could cool down Booker while also making some threes to help out our struggling offense!
If we had one we could use him to KeyOn whether or not the coach really believes in defense first!
Just take a look at our end of the bench. He is there.
This is Kangzy
Who the heck is 32?
That first half was fool’s gold, real Kangz coming out here in 2nd half. At least Christie is playing young guys some. Westbrook stat chasing a few records lol, what a waste of time
Westbrook isn’t young. Keon Ellis is.
Grayson fucking Allen is destroying Monk.
Seriously, if we’re not gonna match Keon’s minutes with Booker, just put him on their second best scoring guard.
End of the 3rd quarter and Ellis has played 9 minutes? Seriously? Russ brought in with no camp or preseason and has 16 minutes.
I hate what this franchise is doing. Defensive focused? Bullshit!
I agree. As I said earlier if you aren’t going to play Keon then trade him. He at least deserves that.
I agree agree agree!
Yikes, did Doug just get out adjusted by some new coach who just graduated from high school three years ago?
Suns are targeting Monk on every possession.
I was told defense matters, and if guys weren’t playing defense then they would be held accountable. More coach speak. Nonsense.
Last night the King’s played really good defense the first half but you don’t win games by playing defense for one half.
Only the first quarter really. Gave up 35-36-30 the last 3.
Gotta give Doug credit though, that’s more defense than LaVine and DDR have played the last 5 years.
He’s always been a terrible defender, you just have to hope his offense makes up for it. Its why he’s a good backup and not a starter (as we saw last season). DC needs a quicker hook on him though for sure
5 million open corner threes because apparently it is the hardest task in basketball to guard a guy whose entire job is to stand in the corner and wait for the pass
Kings are somehow managing to let Suns players get to the rim while they leave guys on the perimeter open. What the heck?
A bunch of low BBIQ, badly conditioned 30 year olds
*who all want to be on any other team
BuT tHeY DiD sO MaNy DeFeNsIvE DrIlLs ThIs TrAiNiNg CaMp!!!
Schroeder, DDR, LaVine, Monk, Westbrook all love to play ISO hero ball…never works, trying to do too much alone. Basketball is meant to be a beautiful flowing team game on both ends
Yeah. It is a team game. As a coach I hated to give out MVP’s at the end of the year. When I was young I was told that’s what we do. Later I found a way that every player deserved something that made them part of the team. No more MVP’s.
Cardwell is our closer lol, gonna be a long year
He was the only player from last night I felt sorry for. No other.
I felt bad for Clifford. He had no business starting. The Kings are going to ruin his development, as they’ve done with many others over the years.
At least Schroeder’s been good on Booker?
Holy shit LaVine, all he’s done in the clutch has been brick a three off the side of the backboard and give Dillon fucking Brooks 3 free throws
5 guard glut closing lineup…
The hideously bad FT shooting from both teams is really the whole margin here
Welp, this is going to be a loooong season. Just confirming my already apathetic mood to the year.
That Kangz Karma is real, take that L Vivek
That was definitely a 3 and I thought Lavine picked it cleanly
I genuinely think a big reason for collapsing this much is that all of our big scorers are in their 30s and have terrible conditioning
I also think Doug just go out coached in the 2nd half. The Suns made adjustments, including going zone defense. Kings couldn’t adapt.
Man, all those coaches available in the offseason and Vivek wants to keep Doug Christie because he’s getting paid pennies compared to other coaches.
Gonna be a long season.
Also, Jazz beat the Clippers tonight 129-108. Friday ain’t gonna be no cakewalk.
Tank you very much Suns. Can’t go 0-82 if you win the first one!
Surprise!!! DDR, LaVine, Monk, and Dennis all surpassed their career averages in points. Vivek delivers!
But we lost. We can’t get ride of LaVine because of his contract. Hopefully we can trade DDR, Monk and Carter.Ex. The Spurs would like Monk. Trade him and Carter and a second or two for Jeremy Sochan and Keldon Johnson. At one time I wanted to try and trade for Tari Eason using Keon as the trade chip. If Christie isn’t going to play Keon then try and trade him. I really would love Keon to be a King but for some reason unknown to me he doesn’t play. Go figure. Maybe Vivek is the one who doesn’t like Keon. Will we ever know? Sochan can play PF letting Keegan play SF. Two good defenders together are better than one. We already have scorers. Play Keon more now we have 3 really good defenders. Schroder isn’t bad either. DDR to the Clippers for Jones Jr. and Bogi. Derrick is a very good defender to backup either Murray or Sochan. Now we have some YOUNGER players to help our rebuild. Next up possibly Sabonis.
I don’t think the Spurs would want Monk. They have Fox, Castle, Harper.
Houston could be a good landing spot for Monk. Reed Sheppard looked terrible in the backup PG role.
Love the Kangs banner on the bottom..
Love it. The Kings may stink, but TKH will always be A+.
The link should be a Rick Roll because that would be most Kangz.
Man, what does Keon Ellis have to do to get more than 13 minutes of playing time? I bet he’s looking forward to going to another team once his current deal is over.
That is so perplexing no coaching staff sees what the stats and fans see.
And what the national media sees. Kings exist in a Vivek echo chamber of big names getting big minutes. LaVine, DDR, Monk, and Dennis got the most minutes tonight.
I have never purchased a basketball jersey. I might purchase a Keon Ellis jersey of which ever team he is traded to.
#freekeon
I agree. If you don’t or won’t play him then trade him.
There has to be something or someone behind this. Could it be Vivek?
I’m at the point that if he’s dumb enough to sign an extension here he deserves to ride the pine in bball hell.
Get out of here, Keon. You don’t need this, nor deserve this.
He should he deserves at least that. One of my top 3 Kings if not #1.
The Dario Saric experiment lasted 7 minutes. Good trade Perry!
I’m hoping for a maximum amount of losses this season, for an unintended tank as well as to rub it into a dismissive little nose. I have to admit, though, that seeing “Kings lose to Suns” on the TKH front page (I’m not watching any games this year, just checking results on TKH afterwards) shook me a little. I want this to be a winning franchise but I know that Vivek strives for just-below-average, play-in type results. Having the wheels fall off may be the only way to force Vivek to let go, either via him getting shamed or just arriving at common sense (not really hopeful of the latter, lol). I’ll just live with getting repeatedly shaken by multiple losses if it means it shines a bright spotlight on Vivek’s complete incompetence.
Some thoughts:
I don’t know why I watched and feel even more cynical about this team after doing so.
14 minutes for Keon Ellis? That´s about all I need to know about this game.
Just wait until Keegan and Domas are healthy. Keon will probably get less minutes then. It makes no sense to me.
Same old story, big lead in the first half, blow big lead in the second half. This has been this team’s M.O. for the last I don’t know how long. I guess I should be used to it.
OT: Mafia?? WTF
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/46695228/sources-terry-rozier-arrested-part-gambling-inquiry
Wow!
With the relaxing of rules around sports betting over the past decade or so, I’m actually shocked that this doesn’t happen more often.
This Sports update brought to you by Draft Kings, official partner of the NBA.
or was it brought to you by Fan Duel, also an official partner of the NBA.
Now, what was that about sports betting?
(to use the apropos cliché – they made their bed now they get to sleep in it. And IMO, David Stern is turning in his grave)
Google “Kalshi” and “Prediction market”. These are not classified as gambling, rather they are classified as “financial instruments”. Crazy shit.
I’m sure Adam Silver will say this is isolated and not related to the NBA.
I’m assuming it happens quite often, what’s shocking is that they don’t get busted more often.
So why did Perry trade JV for Saric, and then sign Eubanks? Did any Sac media members question him about that?
This franchise makes the stupid decisions. Any competent basketball fan or analyst can see it.
To free up money to overpay Schroder of course!
Mainly Vivek.
I really don’t think it is mainly Perry but mainly Vivek.
I enjoyed Christie’s postgame comments about Ellis:
“Keon is the ultimate professional, and he is always ready to play. In these situations, we have a logjam, so it’s going to come down to who’s playing.”
Dude, you decide who’s playing.
Vivek wanted “jazz”, so we get the big name, flashy guys on the court. I hate what this organization is doing.
DC’s a joke, I have zero confidence in him.
The worst part of last night’s game was that Dillon Brooks and Grayson Allen both won. They are the two most punchable people in the NBA!
Add Garrison Mathews to the list.
Saving all my punches for Vivek
More punchable than Draymond? Which makes me think of poor punchable Jordan Poole.
Ok, ok, ok…. I must have missed the memo, so a thousand pardons.
WHEN, oh when, did the NBA decide that teams will play Two halves of basketball? And will someone please inform the Sacramento Kings.
This does not bode well – the two teams that Sacramento is predicted to win more games then in the Western Conference this season are the Phoenix Suns and the Utah Jazz.
Both have better records than Sacramento. Uphill climb from Day 1.
It doesn’t even matter if we get top of the lottery. The pick will just go to whichever team trades their best player to the Lakers.
I really need to get into the habit of betting against this team whenever they have a massive lead built up at the half.
After watching the Jazz game last night, tomorrow is going to be interesting. The Jazz look surprisingly fun and are going to also shock some people this year. We are definitely finishing 12-14 in the west.
The Jazz also have size. Lauri, Kessler, Filipowski, Nurkic as their bigs. Bailey, Kyle Anderson as the forwards, etc. Kings are tiny, trying to play 4 or 5 guards that are all 6’6 or shorter.
Well, poo
More minutes for Westbrook!
&ct=g
Looks like the Kings are playing the old game of reducing Keon’s minutes to justify paying him less for his extension, that is, if the front office wants him at all.
Of course, it won’t work. NBA GMs recognize the ability of players regardless of playing time.
My guess is that Keon and his agent understood that he was not part of the Kings future when the team didn’t extend him after the end of the season. So he’s on his best behavior while his agent explores possible landing spots.
I used to see him in Denver, but there lots of teams that can use his skills effectively. I will enjoy watching him wherever he goes.
On another subject, does DC recognize how ridiculous he looks? He publicly goes out of his way to preach defense, and how he’s coaching the team to play better defense, but then continually gives out minutes to the worst defenders on the team. Doesn’t he have better things to do than be Vivek’s caddy?
This works too:
Same as it ever was.
Badge Legend