It was close down to the wire in this takeoff, but ultimately, the Sacramento Kings had enough taken out of the tank to pick up a win against the Brooklyn Nets 126-122. With the Kings up 125-122 with 5 seconds left, the Nets stepped out of bounds and that was a wrap.
Malik Monk dropped 32 points off the bench on 8-17 from the field. Maxime Raynaud again had another solid game, finishing with 22 points and 10 rebounds in 36 minutes. Precious Achiuwa added 14 points and 15 rebounds. Devin Carter finished with 16 points and 5 rebounds off the bench.
Sacramento out-rebounded Brooklyn 51-25 and shot 52% from three. That was enough to propel the Kings to a win.
The Kings are now 19-53, more wins than the Nets, Washington Wizards and Indiana Pacers.
There are only 10 games left in the season as the race for the bottom continues.
Idiots. Dumbest owner, Coach, franchise in nba, maybe ever.
Doug subbing D for O in the end. Vets playing a lot of minutes.
Ego-morons
I watched 3 straight possessions towards the end of the game where the ONLY two people to touch the ball on offense was Monk and Demar…just not even trying to get the young guys involved haha
And Doug talks about how they’re not thinking because it’s bad for the young guys. What a joke. How about you let the young guys close out so they learn how to do that? How about you bring up G guys who might have a chance?
How about you fire Doug and make the owner cell? I wish.
Although this was meant for the Preview/Game thread, I’ll post it here:
From Brooklyn the Nets just flew in;
Neither team should be wanting to win.
When our tank got stalled,
Many fans were appalled.
Time to oust Vivek, kith and kin!
Realistically, being in the bottom 3 is what matters. We can’t even do that. I think if every GM in the NBA was given the chance to pick a team’s roster as their roster, ours would be bottom 3 every single time, but we’re organizationally not even able to do that. Adam Silver and Vivek need to listen to Kayte, because what they don’t realize is that fans don’t want what’s happening.
For Funzies, if the Kings stay at 4 their odds by final pick are:
So the clean summary is:
Right now, they won’t fall behind any other East teams (9 games back of the Bulls), but they are only 2.5 ahead of Jazz, 4.5 ahead of Mavs with 10 games left. I’m a basketball God atheist, and the Kings are more likely to drop down than to land one of the 3 elite players in this draft. Without intervention, this is a hopeless team that I can’t bring myself to watch, and haven’t more than twice this year.
Fine time to start winning games. Just the stupidest team ever.
Exactly. Dumbest team/owner/coach ever.
You don’t believe in tanking? Really Doug. Just such ego blindness.
and even if you think Doug should be trying to win for his job, somebody up higher should be telling him if he wants to keep his job he should be sitting play players and losing games.
though he better not be the coach next year. He shouldn’t have even gotten the job in the first place.
hate them.
LOL, Doug must really be trying to show up the haters (about 50 games too late…).
I’ve been boycotting all season, unless this team’s luck (because they’re too incompetent to actually do something right) with the lottery gods is favorable, I’ll keep the boycott going next season. The only hope I had that there would be something worth spending money on or watching was a promising draft pick.
Fuck this franchise.
I’ve gotten more joy from the few NCAA games I’ve been able to watch than I got from a single Kings game this season. Kangz are single handedly killing my NBA fandom.
I haven’t watched football in a few years (I’m a Raider fan), that may be where I spend my sports time this fall. 26 years in a row, I’ve watched at least 75% of the Kings games, bought more stuff than I can remember and went to at least one game every season. Now I can’t stand to look at the box score because win or lose, seeing Deebo, Russ and Precious play 30+ minutes a night in a completely lost season just pisses me off.
They are simply an unserious franchise. There is nothing they are currently doing that is planning for beyond this season. Vivek lives for the moment and we are forced to bear witness if we are to continue being Kings fans.
And fuck Vivek.
I wouldn’t fuck Vivek with Matina’s dick.
I wonder what that would look like court side with 50 Cent and Kesley Grammer looking on?
Adam Silver is lending them a hand…
Yep, Silver is complicit in killing the association.
Maybe we will get lucky and be rewarded for not purposely tanking
For me 2 players the Kings should target this summer. Peyton Watson or Jonathan Kuminga. IMO a trade involving Carter and say a 3030
or 3031 first would be realistic in getting Watson. Might throw in this years #42 draft pict to sweeten the pot. Watson would be a great fit next to Keegan Murray as they compliment each other.
To get Kuminga IMO a trade involving Monk and Carter would work. Both would be excellent fits for the Hawks. Either one would be great for the Kings. If I had to pick one overhe other Watson would IMO fit better.
they can take all the 3030 and 3031 picks, hell, throw in 3032 and 3033 for all I care
Unfortunately, this is the Kangs we are talking about.
Shouldn’t Carter be starting instead of coming off the bench?
Or Killian Hayes?
Let’s see if these guys can run a team.
It’s simple, the Kings care more about the positive press of Russ and DDR padding their career numbers than they do about development. Russ is poised to pass Elvin Hayes for #13 all time and DDR is about to pass Domonique Wilkins for #17. It’s pretty apparent by the tv broadcast that that is what they really care about.
bbbbbbbbingo
In the picture above, is Monk shushing his own fans? Seems like an odd thing to do.
Kinda like winning at the end of an embarrassing season.
Longest season ever.
What an absolute dumpster fire of a season.
This team can’t even loose correctly,
so at this point there is zero ability to make it into the top 3 worst teams, which means our only hope is praying to the ghost of David Stern and Patrick Ewing.
What an absolute shit show .
pathetic
Strength of remaining schedule suggests Utah will get #4.
My apathy is to the point where I don’t even care. This is exactly what I expected from this owner/GM/HC.
I wonder if Vivek needs to make sure the Kings are not fined for tanking. Can’t afford it.
2020 Kings fan: “This front office is incompetent and can’t do anything right.”
2021 Kings fan: “This front office is incompetent and can’t do anything right.”
2022 Kings fan: “This front office is incompetent and can’t do anything right.”
2023 Kings fan: “This front office is incompetent and can’t do anything right.”
2024 Kings fan: “This front office is incompetent and can’t do anything right.”
2025 Kings fan: “This front office is incompetent and can’t do anything right.”
2026 Kings fan: “If they can just get this pick right.”
*Raises hand*
I had little problem with the first few years of Monte’s front office. Wasn’t a fan of the Hali trade, but I understood and eventually accepted why it happened.
I’m still of the opinion that things were fine until the DDR sign and trade, but that move stunk of Vivek meddling, which began the tailspin the franchise is currently in.
100%
I think we would still be a 4-8 seed if Monte was in full control as it felt like he was that first year or so until forced DDR trade (absolutely atrocious).
Things just got a little tighter financially for the Kings.
Kings currently sit at $205M in contracts next year should they pick up DDR’s full deal and Hayes’ non-guarantee. They’ll be at $187M should they cut them both and eat DDR’s $10M. They would then have just 9 rostered players and need to get to a minimum 14 by opening day.
They are going to have one high lottery rookie salary that is likely to push them right up to the edge of the new $201M tax line. For those wondering, the #1 pick will earn around $13M next season. Should the Kings win it, they will be at the tax line. They also have 2 second round picks, but they can be converted to 2-way deals to fit under the cap if need be.
Kings will be over the cap by quite a sum and will have the the MLE and BLE at their disposal, but either would put them into the tax. Should they complete and S&T they will be hard capped at the first apron at $209M
Basically, kiss free agency goodbye this summer. The Kings will get their draft pick and a bunch of vet-minimum deals to round out the roster. The only hope for real change are some major trades.
https://bsky.app/profile/shamsbot.bsky.social/post/3mhr5zjxa5l24
There is a better than 0% chance that Vivek raised holy hell and mandated winning at all costs down the stretch in the hopes of securing a less expensive draft pick.
What a way to run a railroad.
Also,
I’m fairly convinced that this sham of an organization thinks that it has the talent to make a run at a play-in spot next year, convincing themselves that better health will turn the tide. So get ready for 28-33 exciting wins and the 10th-12th pick in a purportedly weak draft.
Did the Kings ever have a lineup of Russ, LaVine, DDR, Keegan and Sabonis this season? If not, then they will totally make the point of running it back.
Yeah that’s the problem they will try to create a winner with Sabonis rather than trade him for picks or just get rid of him for not much and tank. I agree with whoever said that trading for late draft picks won’t change much. We need 3 straight years of top 5 picks from bottom 5 finishes. It has to be the way because obviously no other way has worked for a franchise like the Kings.
Yup, and from that it still wouldn’t surprise me if the Kings drop in the draft and end up trading their top 8 pick for two later picks. That’s potentially two rookie scale salaries for the price of one.
Just an example: the Hornets currently hold #13 and #19 and OKC owns #15 and #18 (I bet Presti already has a package prepared)
I evidence this because it has already happened twice in the Vivek era:
In 2016 they traded the #8 pick for #13, #28, and the rights to Bogi.
In 2017 they trade the #10 for #15 and #20.
But we’re just the peon fans of lowly backwater Sacramento. We need to just shut up and enjoy all the NBA mega stars who see fit to come into our armpit of a town and show us how the big city boys do it…Vivek has us right where he wants us.
The Kings failing is what I’m rooting for at this point so any future problems that will contribute to losing and picks are good problems at this point.
It takes a minimum of 3 bad years I would say so they can suck as much as possible for the near future. Gotta strap in and embrace more seasons like this year.
But as we’ve seen they don’t acknowledge who they truly are and would rather be a poverty franchise than admit defeat and just tank.
The NBA has informed teams that the league is projecting a $165 million salary cap for 2026-27 — $1M lower than previous outlooks due to a reduction in local media revenue, sources tell ESPN. Minimum salary $149M, tax level $201M, first apron $209M, second apron $222M also $1M lower each.
-Shams
As I’ve been saying, the NBA is in decline. The salary cap going down, even by just $1 mill is a big deal and a sign of what’s to come.
There’s a huge disconnect in the NBA between Owners/Players and fans.
The game just isn’t the same anymore. I see it ending up similar to how baseball has been the two decades or so, just kind of there.
To be clear, that cap isn’t gong down, it’s just not growing as much as they expected. It’s still going form $154 this season to $165M next season. I wager the local media revenue decrease is due to increased streaming and new deals with Amazon and Peacock. The NBA is transitioning off of cable.
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