The Sacramento Kings are dragging themselves to Minnesota today after suffering their fourth loss in a row at home to an injury riddled Thunder squad on Monday night, and boy howdy, are we in for an anxiety filled, frustrating game tonight. Losers of three games in a row themselves, both teams come in to tonight with pissed off fanbases, frustrated and demoralized players, and the general NBA apparatus questioning the moves they made, or didn’t make, prior to the start of this season. Why trade KAT when they did? Why stop making moves after the DeRozan deal? Why the hell did we ever expect prolonged levels of competence from these respective franchises?? And yet, a glimmer of hope remains: 2.5 games separating the 4th seed from the 12th seed, the latter being the space the Kings currently own.
Let’s talk Kings basketball.
When: Wednesday, November 27th, 5:00 PM PST
Where: Target Center, Minneapolis, MN
TV: NBCSCA
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140 AM
For Your Consideration
Two Words, Not Ready: We’ve played the Timberwolves down to the wire twice this season. Opening night, we’re a little zip on the ball away from a Keegan open three to win the game. The other night, Fox goes for 60 and Anthony Edwards hits a couple of well contested shots to ice the game. We’ve seen this team enough that I don’t think you need me to break it down and find their Achilles heel. The Kings don’t have an Achilles heel, they’ve got a full on Trey Lyles leg – a now perennial collection of issues, that allow for no growth, no time to get into rhythm and can be relied on to flare up any time some momentum is reached. Which issue popped into your head first when you read that? Was it Sacramento’s inability to guard the three ball? Was it the lack of reliable forwards, or any reliable length at all outside of Keegan Murray? Was it the Kings underestimating lesser opponents, or assuming they can spot teams a really great quarter and still comeback to win? These are issues that while understandable, correctable and worth of patience in year one of a surprise playoff team, are pretty much to the point of unforgiveable by year three, especially considering the franchise has only that one series and a bright, shiny beam to point to as the successes of this era.
Patience is a virtue, yes, and one that is constantly extolled by Monte McNair and Co. when worthy moves are left on the table or not worthy of an extra asset or nearly happen seemingly every off-season and trade deadline. But, assertiveness is also a virtue. Courage is a virtue. Flexibility, not the act of maintaining it, but actually using it in pursuit of a better team, also a virtue. And, let’s be clear here: this team as currently constructed, is not playing like a better team than the one Sacramento rolled out two season’s ago. The talent level might be higher, but it’s wasted night in and night out by a general manager who seems to be sticking too much to his guns, or a coach that isn’t properly seeing the vision as to what has been laid before him, or by a team that isn’t prepared nightly to execute that vision. They talked during media day about how there’s no way the Kings shouldn’t be Top-5 in pace, they aren’t even at league average – they’re 17th in pace. They instituted some new scheming to create more opportunities for offensive rebounds, and they’ve plummeted from the 12th best offensive rebounding team in the league to the 25th. McNair built a bench that Mike Brown deemed untrustworthy, which led to Mike Brown playing his starters way too many minutes out of the gate, which led to a 35 year old man, the league leader in minutes last season, immediately having lower back issues and I know that sounds disconnected, but at 35 with the wear and tear on his body, I actually do think an extra 5 minutes a game made a difference. Starters legs are dead, the bench has no cohesion or confidence, Fox has never done more and been given less in the way of wins on the board. They’re using Keegan Murray like he’s a roll of Flex Seal tape, slapping him on every issue possible and just hoping like hell he keeps them afloat. Defend one through five? Keegan. One good three point shooter in the starting lineup? Keegan. Someone to cut back door? Keegan. 40+ minutes tonight? Get back in there kid. He’s asked to do everything and a lot of it and he’s failing, not because he’s bad but because he’s good and stretched way too thin because of it.
The game tonight really doesn’t matter to me. Sure, a players only meeting might help, 17 games in. They can tighten things up, talk about playing together, have the “tough conversations”. But it’s the management that’s failing here. It’s the coaching staff that’s forced to play the hand they’ve been dealt and they’re not living up to that monumental task, sure. But the buck stops with McNair, and if Jae Crowder is the only Buck he’s stopping to get this team going again? We might be in for a long, frustrating season.
Prediction
Another day, another duel.
Kings:129, Wolves:126
Two sheep, an ant and a fox walked onto a basketball court. Said the ant to the fox, wouldn’t you love to be a Grizzly right now?
The debate over starting Ellis or Huerter is likely over tonight, since both are likely to start. You can’t start Keegan at the 3 because there is no 4 to move into his usual spot. I’m guessing Huerter gets the start at 3.
…or the Kings announce the Jae Crowder signing and Brown does the unimaginable
Why not have a debate about truly improving the team. Huerter and Keon are basically equal. Start Monk. Do something that will impact the game. Keon and Huerter will still get their minutes but Monk will get 30 plus minutes. Monk creates pressure on a defense that builds stats for all of his team.
Kangzathon race with Bagley Wizards?
That dude can’t even get minutes on the Wiz right now. Currently averaging just over 5 minutes per game in just 10 games. The 24th pick in last year’s bad draft (Keyshawn George) is playing over Marvin.
Crazy that the most games Bagley played in a season was his rookie year at 62. He’s either hurt or DNP-CD.
And he will have made $74m by the end of this season. His pay per minute is off the charts. $9,846 per minute for Bagley. For perspective, Sabonis has made $5,642 per minute. Bagley has made almost 75% more than Sabonis on a per minute basis. Crazy.
That just makes me sick to my stomach. He has to be up near top of the list as NBA player who has made so much for doing so little.
Thanks, Vlade!
I remember the early talk about how Bagley could be a Hall of Famer, which was dumb from day one. Bagley wasn’t Papagiannis bad, but it was obvious from the beginning that he was a low skill player with a wildly inflated view of himself who wasn’t going to improve.
Any mention of this guy hurts my brain, needs to be banned from here lol
AnybodyButBagley
The T-Wolves have beaten us twice—
Each time by the thinnest slice.
Fox won’t duplicate
Sixty points—that was great.
Getting a win. That sure would be nice!
+1 Anybody remember the beam?!
Fox goes for 30 plus and we lose.
Glad to see McNair being called out. I think he’s been below average as a GM. Making the playoffs once in 5 years while the rebuilding teams below you have passed you by should get you fired.
Apparently Monk said there “would be a meeting where things can be said” before tonight’s game. I don’t usually have a good feeling about teams publicly announcing that there will be meetings like this. Why does it need to be announced to the media? Just go handle your business and move on.
Anyway, I am expecting another drubbing tonight, leading to a 5th straight loss for Sacramento.
ISO Fox gets beat by Minny.
If that happens, it’ll be the first time in Mike Brown’s Kings coaching tenure the team has lost 5 in a row.
I feel like other teams have weak benches and have managed that problem better than Brown has. Also, Jordi has a team which, on paper, should not be that competitive, that seems to be playing with a lot more motivation than the Kings. I don’t think we’re quite there yet, but perhaps we’re not that far off from saying Brown has lost the locker room.
But I can only blame Brown so much. Ultimately, the fish rots from the head. Vivek’s entire tenure has been shortcuts and quick fixes to become a playoff team in the shortest amount possible and a complete failure to understand that a few years of being really bad is infinitely better than perpetual mediocrity (as proven by nearly every other Western team that has lapped us).
Even more amazing, some teams have lapped the Kings twice. The Cavs have hit rock bottom twice, to the top of the league twice, and are now back to the top for a 3rd time, all while the Kings have done nothing but tread water.
It’s painful to watch, honestly. Cavs rebuild is one I think of often. OKC is the other obvious one. But seeing now Houston make quick work of things and imagining the Spurs going back into contention before we even sniff the second round. Ooof.
I’m no fan of Vivek in any shape or form (#HereWeBillboard!), but i find it way too easy to pin the current state of the team on him.
They did an organized search with a consultancy firm for a new GM and got one who was on the short-list. Monte.
Monte has received plenty of time to take this franchise and turn it around. And althougfh it wasn’t good, it wasn’t crippled in cap hell or devoid of all draft picks.
Monte succeeded, to some extent, and had some great moves, but after some initial success he has stalled and stalled badly. After drafting Hali, trading him for Domas and drafting Keegan, what has he really done to bring this team to the next level? To address the glaring needs that were obvious to most of us?
He picked his own coach, Brown, and gave him a premature extension (which I hated) for a significant amount of money. Maybe the team hasn’t gone over the cap (or hard cap or apron or whatever it is), but can you really blame Vivek for not going all-in on a team that hasn’t won even a first-round series yet?
I have heard no more than some minor grumbling or vague rumours that Vivek is still involved on the day-to-day decisionmaking. I find it hard to believe. And it’s always funny to me that the constant meddling is always limited to the bad oves. No-one is saying “Oh, Vivek insisted on getting Domas” or “Vivek told Monte to pick Keegan.”
Monte had plenty of time, opprtunity and freedom (without serious evidence to the opposite) to create a team in his image and pay a coach to lead it, and here we are.
I support this take but I do believe that top-notch ownership encompasses many things and I’m just not sure if Vivek will ever get there. I almost guarantee you that Vivek wanted the quickest rebuild possible, I believe he has said such or reported as saying it.
I don’t man I do think Monte is just as responsible but I have no faith in either at this point.
I don’t disagree with any of that. I don’t see Vivek as a super meddling owner either. I think he learned from his early mistakes, though that narrative may have stuck. And credit where credit is due – he is a great owner when it comes to non-basketball. I also believe him when he says “x move was Monte’s decision” (or previously Vlade’s) .
However, I see Monte as an extension of Vivek’s basketball philosophies. Whether that’s explicit – Vivek setting goals and timelines for Monte to achieve – or implicit – Vivek hiring Monte because their philosophies simply align. It’s probably a combination of both, but I have a strong feeling that during that GM search, many of the candidates proposed a teardown/rebuild and Vivek has no stomach for that. So he hired the guy that told him there’s no need to tank or do a full teardown.
I don’t think it’s only a straight-up aversion to tanking either. From day one, he has thought that he could somehow crack the secret of code of NBA team building because a) he saw the Warriors build a dynasty seemingly out of thin air and b) he’s from Silicon Valley where disruption is stock and trade. During Vivek’s tenure, the Kings have consistently behaved like they’re just one genius step away from being a championship contender. Maybe it’s just coincidence that all his GMs have been like that? Super team, just ____. But more likely, that’s how Vivek thinks, it permeates through the organization, and he hires accordingly.
The sooner he (and it has to be Vivek) realizes that the only clear path to being a top-tier team is to stockpile draft picks and be very bad for a few years, the better. There is another path, which is to find a way to draft MVP-level players with lower draft picks (Jokic, Giannis) but they keep whiffing on (or dismissing?) that for the SAME reason, which it they like to draft “NBA-ready” upperclassmen because they insist on being all-in now.
Does Monte have the chops to lead a full rebuild? I’m not convinced, but who leads is less relevant to me than embarking on one in the first place. Otherwise, we’re basically just the Bulls of the West, with some ‘light the beam’ vibes added on.
I suppose drafting Keegan (and the Huerter trade) mattered two seasons ago, but I don’t think either is in any way a great move. They’re both limited players in my opinion (Huerter more than Keegan) and neither is really moving the needle all that much. I do expect them both to play better over the course of the season, but we’re WAY off their career highs from a couple years ago. I liked the Monk acquisition, and he’s at least still giving (hot and cold) value on the floor.
I think most of the team’s success is tied to one thing: Tyrese Halburton being available at #12. Without Tyrese, there is no Domas and with no Domas, this is still a 30-something win team.
G*$damn right. We deserve better as fans. Dumpster diving for Jae Crowder ain’t cutting it.
Guys need to make open shots, but it’s not like our starters are going to have fresher legs down the stretch running out there 38mpg in November.
Kangz forgetting how to shoot needs to be studied. I play ball, been a great shooter my whole life, never changed.
This current team is not even better than the Kings team from opening night. The team has regressed and seems to be losing morale. I put that mostly on Brown. Monte created this unbalanced roster but Brown has to maximally utilize with whatever assets he’s got, and thus far he’s been quite ineffective at it.
This past offseason showed us that it’s time to move on from the Monte McNair experience. This season will show us it’s time to move on from the Mike Brown one, too.
Wonder how Vivek is feeling about the 25 million guaranteed contract to Brown about now ?
.
I always read that as a statement of dissatisfaction, not dissimilarity, especially when Vivek wears it.
Like the way the NBA officiating crew appears to treat the team.
TWolves are also below the median bar of .500, so the Kings have to look at this as a game they should win and likely goes on the easier side of the SOS scale. Ha!
However….
Minn has twice won against Sac so far this season, and TWolves are 5-3 at home and 3-6 on the road.
At the season’s start, I would have explained that the biggest threat to Sacramento is a team with size, and Gobert, Randle, Naz Reid, J McDaniel – big core unit. AntMan isn’t that tall, but skies so quickly and well, he is likewise a height advantaged player. Oy vey!
It’s a 3 Point League:
At home, Minnesota is shooting a handsome 39.6% 3FG on 41 3PA. /shudder.
As for those who wear the Kings’ jersey: Sacramento is NBA Top 5 in FG% and now at 5th from 1st in FT%. That’s kinda surprising given their poor shooting from beyond. Sac’s overall poor 32.8 % 3FG is mostly a result of a road 28.8%. As they are on the road tonight – Beware the ugly. It seems their calling card of late – poor shooting/worse defending the 3. (RikSmits quotable: live by the 2, die by the 3 springs to mind).
It is hard to muster confidence in any Kings performance right now. As a fan, I can see them losing to any team, at any time.
The only way for them to turn this around is to win (no spit, Sherlock). It’s still November and despite seeing the “they need to go 42-12 to hit 50 wins” stare back at what many had hoped before the season began and feeling the blood drain out of my face as I read that, they have to find a way to win. (If it is just having Jae Crowder on the roster, someone (not me) should eat a shoe or something because that would be beyond insane). Go eat some turkey.
Light that Beam! Go Kings!
Definitely not watching the game tonight, or even following it online. After tonight, exactly 1/3 of the wolves’ wins (3 out of 9) well have been against the Kings. We’re like their Washington Generals this season.
Aged a bit poorly, didn’t it.
Badge Legend