The Kings have three games left this season: Warriors, Warriors, and Trail Blazers. Both the Warriors and Blazers have clinched the play-in and have minimal reasons to try to win these games. I expect them to try, just saying… there isn’t a ton on the line here, and if they wanted to rest up some players for the games that matter, I wouldn’t be shocked. The Blazers could move up from 9th to 8th, and that’s about it.
Who: Sacramento Kings (21-58) vs. Golden State Warriors (36-42)
Where: Chase Center, San Francisco, CA
When: 7:00 PM PT / 10:00 PM ET
Watch: NBCSCA / League Pass
While the Warriors’ play-in position is already locked in, they do have something to play for: chemistry. Stephen Curry just returned from a knee injury that saw him miss the entirety of February and March. He looked fantastic against the Houston Rockets in his first game back, so while he probably wants to play to shake any rust off before the play-in, he’s also Steph Curry. The world knows what he can do. The Warriors have listed him as probable for tonight.
The Kings still need to lose these final games to remain in contention with the Utah Jazz for the 4th or 5th lottery position, so that’ll be where my rooting interest lies tonight. Godspeed.
Prediction: Kings 121, Warriors 108.
I don’t expect this to get any worse for the kangs. Warriors will get one win and one loss is my expectation. The blazers will be resting and willingly take the loss while laughing from the bench at the pitiful kings getting another win. Vivik wins and fans lose.
On the bright side its almost over.
Um….
Yeah.
The Dubs just brought Curry back;
They need him to pick up their slack.
Their fans have thrombosed
‘Cause without him, they’re toast.
While with Vivek our future looks black!
+1 The end is near!
Jman, I’ve looked forward to your limericks every game day this season. Much like the GMan, your season-long work and effort provide rare bright spots for us here in Kangzland. Thank You!
My thanks to this entire community for putting up with my therapeutic exercises. This has been a particularly taxing season. The transition from inveterate homer to tank aficionado has not been without its costs. I really am much too old for this perpetual purgatory!
I get a small morsel of joy when I get to be the fifth upvote that turns it purple.
Ain’t that the truth!
Jman – you are a fount of joy and a beacon of smiles in this quagmire of crap that is the present day Sacramento Kings. When (I hope not If) we meet I would be delighted to buy you a beverage of your choice.
Utah has Pelicans Grizzlies Lakers
Maybe Brooklyn will give us a break:
Bucks, Pacers, Bucks, Raptors
We’ll win 2 or all 3. Ws are locked into the 10th seed and it’s possible that the last game will mean nothing to Portland.
We’ll finish 5th worst and end up picking 7th.
Agreed. I’ve been on this bandwagon for awhile now…
In his latest mock draft, Ricky O’Donnell has the Kings picking Acuff at #5:
Ugh
Vivek is interested, most likely (Acuff? Acuff?)
Perry’s pillars, and Doug’s verbal ramts about defense, Acuff matches none of that.
When one can call a player the worst defensive dude in the class and that he makes sense for Sacramento, it means the league is laughing at the Kings.
You know what other undersized guard put up the very gaudy offensive numbers in college like Acuff just did, but also really couldn’t play a lick of defense?
Jimmer Fredette
It’s a done deal. Calipari came to a Kings game, and now Vivek will consider him
“a relationship”.
Sacramento Kings players coached by John Calipari:
DeMarcus Cousins
Patrick Patterson (not drafted but played for Sac)
Willie Cauley-Stein
Trey Lyles
Skal Labissiere
De’Aaron Fox
Malik (this means King in Arabic) Monk
…Darius Acuff, Jr.?
(and he’s 6’3″, I wouldn’t characterize him as undersized, but that’s just IMO)
Also this is interesting Shoe Deal
From what I’ve read, his measurements are pretty on par with Lillard, but Acuff has a 2″ shorter wingspan. Maybe Brunson is a more apt comp in terms of size.
Adding, scouting report worth the read over at SI.
https://www.si.com/nba/draft/newsfeed/nba-draft-scouting-report-darius-acuff-jr
Fun read, thanks A.
Of course, that just rabbit holed me to also look at Darryn Peterson and Cameron Boozer. SI has Boozer as a nice fit for Sacramento. (Duh!).
Acuff sounds like a pretty solid prospect – Damian Lillard, Kyrie Irving on the upside, Trae Young, Tim Hardaway in the middle and I don’t see anyone putting him in the Jimmer category.
We are just trading wishes but…
Boozer is off the board, Dybantsa is off the board. Would you take Darius Acuff, Jr or Darryn Peterson?
I’d think long and hard and likely take the positives of Acuff over the maybes of Peterson (Kansas player, his quirky injuries, his mysterious attitude and how that plays in SacTown).
That’s just me. Kangzton Flemings (you know that will be his nickname if he comes to G1C) Wagler, Caleb Wilson, might be your preference.
The major red flag for me on Acuff is that he’s not just an average to below avearge college defender, he’s been downright bad. If you can’t defend dudes in college or at least be respectable, how is he going to stop anyone in the pros.
I’m just tired of offense only dudes.
Yeah, I’m currently taking Flemings, Caleb, Wagler, and possibly Ament over Acuff Jr.
I also like Lendenborg, even though he is much older than the others. That dude just seems to understand the game, but that could just be experience.
Acuff? Ah ffuc!
He’ll have to still be available at 7, since that’s where we’ll be picking…
“Oh, THAT’S how you’re supposed to tank!” –Kangz front office.
Dear Fanbase,
It has been a while since we have posted. We’ve have been laying low and observing the young college prospects who will be our next franchise changers. There are some nice, young players, no? That shifty Stirtz willed Iowa to the Final Eight, and Smith excelled with the Purdue Boilerpeople. Excellent young men. Also we love Acuff! We as management all like to operate a little off the Cuff, so bringing in another Acuff would be enough Acuff. Besides; you can hear the chants now: Aaaa-Cuffff. Aaaa-Cufff. Playyyy-Offf. It is music to our ears.
We are back for this final stretch and we love how much we can hear when sitting court-side now that there are less peoples at the games. We should have tried feigning injuries much sooner.
So excited for our G-Leage finals team and looking forward to our core of young players being able to dominate in Summer League! Wishing you the best summer and please renew those season tix!
Sincerely,
Kings Management
Garbage officiating tonight. It always seems to be so god damn obvious against the Dubs.
Officially in a three-loss tie with the Nets and Jazz. 1 and 2 spot are pretty much out of reach, so we will end up best case 3, worst case 5 going into the lottery.
If the Nets beat the Pacers in Brooklyn on Thursday night, it will set up a three-way tie for that #3 slot among the Nets, Jazz and Kings…or maybe that should be the Nitz, Jisz and Kangz!
Kagnz Jisz?
If only Detroit were tanking!
Deetz Nitz maykz Kangz Jisz?
The Dubs will have little reason to compete when these teams meet again Friday night. The Dubs are locked into the 10 spot regardless of how they close out the season. Other than getting Curry’s legs ready for the play-in, it will pretty much be an exhibition game for them. And as Omer Khan brought to my attention, it is a b2b for the Dubs, so that will probably lead to even more minutes restrictions. I’ll still lean them over the Kings, but it is no automatic.
But the Dubs will want to entertain all their fans at the G1C Friday night.
Kangz currently sit with the fifth worst record, but can easily move up to the third spot as the two teams ahead of them have the same amount of losses. The worst three teams have the highest odds at landing the first pick, so the last few games are critical.
Which means we’ll end up with the fifth worst record.
I am fully prepared for us getting the 7th pick.
Vivek did say his favorite number is 7 when we got the 7th pick in 2013.
“My birthday is on the 7th, Curry was picked 7th, blah blah blah blah.”
Approximately 35 days ago…
Perry: “So Vivek, I looked into the question you had about rookie scale salaries. Turns out The #8 pick will make about $30M less over 3 years than the #1 pick.”
Vivek: “Tell Douglas to give DDR and Westbrook all the minutes they can handle.”
I’m actually thinking there’s some truth to this idea.
for the 2024 draft I could be persuaded to take that approach if I’m a poorer owner. For this one, you would just despised if that was the thought process.
A lower pick also might help the Kings avoid the luxury tax next season.
Maybe we’ve underestimated Vivek. Maybe he’s intentionally running a Comcast-style organization that is perpetually a hair above the cheap shittiness that would you get to cancel, where their only goal is to squeeze pennies into profit, and where they somehow keep managing to pull it off.
Maybe this is a perfectly efficient team, where averaging 30-something wins per year is the perfect mix of maximizing revenue while minimizing investment, and giving fans juuust enough to not quit.
I’m been buying into the hypothesis for a while now. It’s simple really:
1) Winning takes money. You have to pay to win, at least in the long term. OKC hasn’t yet, but this will need to soon.
2) Losing makes for empty seats. Being dead last is not only embarrassing for a guy who cares about his image, it also hurts the bottom line. This makes the DDR and Russ signings all the more important. Those guys alone get paying eyeballs.
3) Being average…well, that makes money You don’t have to spend to win and you don’t lose money for being bad. Late lottery is the sweet spot to fill seats and you never spend into the tax.
Like you said about Comcast, it’s a business model seen across this capitalist country. Do the bare minimum to not suck, bot don’t provide an excellent product that hurts the profit margins
We assume Vivek wants to win like we want the Kings to win, but maybe that’s where we have it wrong. He’s a buisness man, afterall.
There’s a reason he’s best friends with John Fisher. Birds of a feather. He also isn’t a billionaire by accident. He has hooked exactly the whale he wants in a Sacramento fanbase that, with the notable exception of many of us here on TKH, are just happy to be at the party with the big boys even if we never get to be the belle of the ball.
What’s even going on with this? The NBA is looking into a bad coaching mistake by Doug? That wasn’t a tank move.
They should investigate ESPN for showing a clip of Nique fouling Steph Curry, but talking about McBuckets fouling Seth.
For a second there I got excited thinking that the NBA was investigating Doug for taking a head coaching position he was never qualified for.
Tanking???
Inconceivable!!!
Never get involved in a land war in Asia, never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line…and DEFINITELY never expect the Kangz ‘organization’ to do anything competently!!!
LMAO ok. Clippers illegally circumvent salary/contract rules pretty damn blatantly to the tune of $28 million…crickets. Kings lose one game by five points…INVESTIGATION!!!
League investigating the Kings for tanking?
League,
Moving up from 9 to 8 is kind of a big deal. At 9, you have to win two games to get into the playoffs, at 8, you only have to win 1 game.
doesn’t draymond know that his organization has tanked?
Badge Legend