Update: 8:45 pm
The Sacramento Kings tank rolled on in Phoenix Friday night as the Suns dispatched of them 129-102. It was good for the tank, but bad for Maxime Raynaud, who is one of the very few good things this season, as he left limping off the floor in the second half. Prior to that, he stayed on the ground for a while holding his knee. Hopefully it isn’t too serious.
Keegan Murray finished 23 points and 9 rebounds in 33 minutes. Russell Westbrook had 17 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists.
The Kings had 21 turnovers, lost fast break points 19-8, and points in the paint 66-44.
From Earlier Preview:
I decided to further depress myself before writing this preview by looking up NBA win total projections from October, aka the preseason. BetMGM placed the Suns over/under at 30.5, and the Kings’ at 32.5. Whoops. The Kings are in Phoenix tonight to play one of most unexpectedly-good teams in the league this season. Let’s get to it then.
Who: Sacramento Kings (8-26) vs. Phoenix Suns (19-14)
Where: Mortgage Matchup Center, Phoenix, AZ
When: 6:00 PM PT / 9:00 PM ET
Watch: NBCSCA / League Pass
The flip side of those aforementioned win total projections? Sometimes the teams everyone seems to think will be terrible aren’t terrible. There’s hope for the Kings. Not this season, but someday. Maybe. Anyway.
The Suns will be without Jalen Green, Grayson Allen, and Jordan Goodwin tonight. For the Kings, Doug Christie will still be missing Domantas Sabonis, Zach LaVine, and Dylan Cardwell.
Sacramento had a decent showing vs. Boston last night before ultimately losing 120-106. They’re in Phoenix tonight on the second night of a back-to-back, so I don’t feel particularly good about a win here, and that’s right where the organization needs to be. Play the youth, hope they look good, but keep losing games. That’s where we’re at.
Prediction: Kings 116, Suns 110.
No comments the next day still…site is fire lol
Kings destroy another thing
Now it’s working!
I couldn’t post. Obv working now.
The tank is strong. I remember when we were disparaging the Suns before the season started…
Sorry everyone, we’re trying to improve the site speed and in doing so some challenges can come up on a live site, but comments are back and site should be faster. Now back to Kangz.
Maybe it’s time for a full rebuild? You’ve already traded off Greg. What kind of assets did you get in return. I’ve read the top of this year’s IT draft is loaded.
Can TKH out tank the Kangz? I’m sticking around to find out.
Thanks for all the hard work to keep the lights on!
Rumors are there were no takers and they just used the stretch provision on Greg, with a hat tip to Vlade.
I think TKH ‘had to’ include their unprotected #1 in order to get SBNation to absorb Greg’s monstrous salary
Use a new site host for sure. This site host or whatever you call it is terrible and has always been slow and clunky.
Thanks. If only the fucking Kangz would fix obvious problems as TKH did.
And what the fuck are they doing playing Westbrook so many minutes or any veterans for that matter? THis team is horrible. Everybody knows it everybody sees it. Stupid owner.
I don’t mind Westbrook getting the minutes he gets. I think his distribution and experience is super valuable for the young guys, I love the chemistry he’s built with some of them, and I feel like out of all the vets, he’s the most valuable on the floor at a bargain price.
I used to be so annoyed by him.
now that he’s a king and we see him nightly, I’ve really grown a deeper appreciation for him and his passion, and really enjoy him now.
I hope I’m right..
but also, I’ve been a loyal kings fan for decades, and have allowed this abusive relationship with them continue.. so I could be way off!!! ????????
Hey, thanks for working on the TKH website!
Very much appreciated, Blake!
One side note, dark mode seems to have disappeared in the process, and after using it for several years, the lack of it is blinding to my not-so-great eyesight.
Any chance of it coming back any time soon?
The best team.coach and owner won and the weak team, coach and owner lost . Sport is usually fair and just .
When you compare teh Suns and Kings rosters on paper you’d swear the Kings were superior. The Suns really just have Booker and role players, and they don’t even have Jalen Green playing.
IMO, it tells you that roster construction is equally as important is just amassing talent. The Kangz have fallen into the trap that gathering stars will equal winning games. It’s the same issue the Durant Nets had, the Howard Lakers had, and often times Team USA had. I guess the NBA has just shifted away from the “Big 3” trend, in large part due to the aprons, and now real roster construction is where stat nerds get their day. Money Ball has hit the NBA.
I’m constantly looking at Harrison Barnes at the Spurs, and even though he’s usually the fifth option when on the floor, he’s exactly the low usage glue guy that they need, doing the little things quietly and just being a pro and good teammate.
The Kings started to fall apart when they got rid of the glue that Barnes provided. Everybody here was happy to give his spot to DDR, even with the fit questrions. Well, guess what…
A quality organization understands the importance of chemistry and glue guys. The Kings do not.
I like HB and DDR is/was a great player. The recent downturn in this team’s trajectory had less to do with moving HB and more to do with signing DDR. This team was decent and DDR did not fill a need or fit the way this team was playing. That signing was all about Vivek and being flashy, maybe it was meant to draw more interest in the team because of DDR’s popularity. Things unraveled from there. I fully believe if Vivek would have stayed out of player management and let Monte do his job, this team would be in a better position than it is today. I’m not confident Vivek can stay out of things and I have little hope the next move it two will be a good one. This next month is going to be very telling in what we should expect the next couple of years.
Suns have players who fit their roles. Kings have a collection of ill-fitting scorers.
I’m sorry, but I’ll keep commenting as long as I can. I am not taking anything for granted.
I only passively watched the game last night, but it sure seemed to me that Doug is slowly making s shift to youth. The offense seemed to be geared towards getting the ball into Keegan’s hands. Keon has also officially taken over Monk’s minutes, which is something I’m surprised isn’t being talked about more. Something is afoot! McDermott is now getting more minutes than Monk! I wonder if Perry is urging Doug to make these changes.
From all that, I think it’s just a matter of time before the vets start getting moved. I fear there is some hand shake agreement to land Kuminga on the 15th, which I feel would be a mistake unless they are only giving up matching salary. Don’t give up draft assets, please!
I don’t see the rush for this FO in going after Kuminga, at this point, if SP really wants him, just wait until the offseason. The objective should be unloading the vets, if part of that is Kuminga for one or two of the vets, w/o giving up picks, then fine, otherwise stop with the Kuminga nonsense.
Agreed. If it’s something like Monk and DDR in some package for Kuminga, then fine.
That being said I see no point in adding Kuminga if DDR and LaVine are still on the team.
Couldn’t post this before the game, so fwiw:
Back-to-back, second time in a week—
Prob’ly good for the draft slot we seek.
Not a game to enjoy
‘Cause the Suns can annoy.
Until Vivek sells, things look bleak!
What’s the story behind the Reno/Tahoe logo on the court last night?
The trade deadline is just a month away.
This team is clearly in the tank, whether Vivek and Perry want to accept it or not.
We actually have some players alot of teams can use (Monk, Dennis, Russ, DDR). These four should certainly be traded.
Given their contracts, it’s going to be difficult to move Zach and Domas. I could see Indy having interest in Domas this offseason once Ty is back.
Our only hope for getting rid of Zach is if MIL is desperate at the deadline to put another scorer next to Freak. The East is pretty open and if Freak goes into F U mode, I could see Zach being enough of a sidekick to get them to the ECF.
The Raptore are another team that is interested in Sabonis. I can see some trade value there. Toronto wants to trade R J Barrett. That;s where I would start but not end.
Yeah there’s a few East teams (Indy, ToR, DeT), that make sense for Domas, I can’t think of any in the West, except maybe PHX if they continue to want to win with Book.
Welp!
Oops.
Basketball University on X: “10 worst defenders in the NBA this season per D-DPM https://t.co/cJxNn9vroV” / X
Lavine, Schroder, Westbrook, and DDR all confirmed as some of the worst defenders in the league. I don’t want any of them, it’s like four of the same guy. Nobody else that’s any good wants these type of guys and we have 4 of em!
5, Monk can be added to that list as well.
Those are the 4 guys that Vivek had/has a crush on and couldn’t wait to acquire.
Even with five defenders, we’re still playing 4 on 5!
…Since 2013
Christ, 3 Kings on a list of worst defenders. When you share the with the likes of Jordan Poole, Anfernee Simons, Jordan Clarkson, etc. you know you are shit on defense.
All 10 of those dudes are probably best utilized as 6th men off the bench scorers and not guys you want to give 35+ minutes a night to to lead your team in usage.
So nice, we made the list twice!!!
that’s a special kind of Tropic Thunder Never Go Full you know what…. That has somehow become our super power!! ????????
I would say the Kings are definitely somewhat tanking at this point, which by now they obviously should have realized is the best strategy. I think Vivek is making sure some of the casual fans, there are some really clueless ones out there, still get to see Westbrook chase some records. He’s trotting out some recognizable names. Hopefully Christie is able to make sure we lose these games and get a top 3-5 pick.
I see this is one of our worst starts in franchise history, which honestly feels like a mistake by past teams because we’ve had worse teams than this that should’ve tanked more. Kings have historically been really bad at tanking and committing to it. I understand this city has a lot of fight in it but we need to lay down and admit defeat.
I think you can trust him to do that.
It’s becoming clear that Christi has the coaching ability to continue the tank while doing his best to win . Right man for the job .
This organization has more hubris than 10 Jake Pauls.
Maxi seems to be ok!
Good news!
Some of these pictures for these stories would make for great caption contests.
Sometimes, like now, yesterday, the day before, last month, and for the next 100 days, and 100 days after that, I forget that Zach Lavine is a king.
then remember that he technically is, and I get sad.
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