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Kings vs. Wizards Preview: 10th Seed or Bust?

Monte has finally made good and remade the team in his image… will they also wait till the last possible moment to have their sudden burst of success?
By | 4 Comments | Feb 12, 2022

Renewed and rejuvenated with some fresh blood and a healthy dose of “oh, god… am I next?”, survivors of the McNair Massacre will have to put a smile on their face and mourn their fallen comrades some other time – they’ve got recruits to impress, a 1oth seed to chase and more pressing – a basketball game to win!

The Wizards are fresh off of their own mini-reboot, acquiring former unicorn, currently deformed horse Kristaps Porzingis (who isn’t expected to play tonight) and shipping out most of the pieces they acquired in the Russell Westbrook deal. With Bradley Beal out for the season with a bum wrist, Washington is in all out-tank mode. The Kings… not so much. Can the new cast keep the Kings from repeating decades old habits? Will they play down to Wizard’s level or rise to the occasion for ONCE?  A new era starts today, so… Let’s talk Kings basketball!

When: Saturday, February 12th, 4:00 PM PT

Where: Capital One Arena, Washington, DC

TV: NBCSCA – Mark Jones (play-by-play)

RadioKHTK Sports 1140 AM

For Your Consideration

A Hard Reboot:  Sure, this deadline felt like the Red Wedding for anyone hoping to see a Fox-Haliburton-Jabari Smith Jr. young super team trot out there someday but as much as I mourn ever seeing a high draft pick come through the doors, I will give Monte McNair some credit. We called for him to pick a lane and he picked it. We called for a change and goddamn did he change it.
Now is where the hard part starts. You’ve got your star-adjacent point guard.  You’ve got your All-Star big. You’ve got some decent wings and defensive guards. Now what? While I do think there is a bit of addition by subtraction in removing Buddy Hield and Marvin Bagley from this team and a decent deal of addition by actual addition in acquiring pieces like Donte DiVincenzo, Trey Lyles, Justin Holiday and company, this front office still has a lot of work to do if they’re going to reach even the 10th seed this year… and be a perennial playoff contender in the near future.
For one, they need that third guy. Fox and Sabonis are a talented little core to build around, but they’re incredibly limited on one whole side of the basketball. If there’s any hope for prolonged success, they’re going to need forwards that can shoot and defend but also just… one more All-Star or just sub-All-Star level talent. If Fox is the Mike Conley of this group and Domatas Sabonis is the Z-Bo, the Kings still need their Marc Gasol. McNair’s deadline decision to keep Harrison Barnes, Richaun Holmes and all their future firsts is a decent opening conversation to whoever is next in line to give away high level talent for less than peak value. Would the Suns be silly enough to part with Ayton in a sign and trade? Would Miles Bridges be interested in a west coast relocation? Do the Jazz see Holmes and Barnes and a few firsts worthy of getting out of the quiet drama that seems to unfold every year between Gobert and Mitchell? I’m not sure McNair is necessarily concerned about fit… trade for talent first and figure out creative uses for them second. But that talent is still needed and I suspect that McNair has more moves ready for the coming seasons… just don’t hold your breath waiting for them.

I predicted 35 wins this season and the Kings will have to play just above .500 basketball to reach that modest goal. It’s doable. The 10th seed? Less so. Save for a huge win streak by the Kings or the Lakers fully imploding, the Kings are bound for the 11th seed for the second consecutive year but honestly… with the style of play they showed in that first game, they don’t just have my curiousity here. They have my full interest. It isn’t what I’d hoped for the Kings, it isn’t the best or easiest route, but it never needed to be. If that first game against the Wolves was a precursor of what we can can expect going forward, I’ll be watching the games again. Not just having them on in the background or skipping out after a bad first quarter… fully, completely watching.

Happy Saturday, everyone!

Operation: M.C.N.A.I.R. Update:

Well, the Kings won the other night and so I’m still holding onto the ASXL Rare Research Endowment as my donation choice until the next loss. Again, they’re an organization that researches in the hopes of better understanding the ASXL gene family and improve the care for those living with Bohring-Opitz, Shashi-Pena, and Bainbridge-Ropers Syndromes – rare, spontaneous genetic mutations that can lead to seizures, sleep and feeding difficulties, visual impairments, atypical growth, and congenital malformations. On the off-chance that the Kings lose tonight, I’ll be donating to them again (I did after the win in honor of the loss of Hali) and will be doing so in the name of Cooper Crowe – a five month old Sacramento-area resident who has been diagnosed with ASXL3. We were able to raise over $350 for the Crowe Family after a win so I’m very excited to see what we can do for them after the next Kings loss. If you’d like to follow their journey or donate to them after their next loss, their info is below!

Instagram

Donation

Prediction

Magic isn’t real and the Kings behead this false idol of basketball wizardy. Domas with a triple-double just to build more hype. Donte DiVincenzo and Davion combine for 7 steals and 2 blocks.

Kings: 121, Wizards: 101

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Jman1949
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February 12, 2022 12:28 pm

The Wiz made a big Zinger deal.
With our trades, so much better we feel.
The change in our tone is
‘Cause we got Sabonis.
Hope we turnaround this time for real!

rockbottom
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February 12, 2022 1:09 pm

The Wizards are heading towards a worse record than the Scott Brooks, Westbrook team ! Hope Kings help in that direction !

SMF-PDXConnection
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February 12, 2022 2:35 pm

Perhaps now that there’s some renewed interest in the Kings, however, tentative it is, Operation MCNAIR gets an amendment:

$10 for losses, double for wins. What say you, Kings fans?

L-Train3.1
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February 12, 2022 3:17 pm

Hopefully league pass is up to the challenge.

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