Oof. The Sacramento Kings were bullied in Sacramento Monday night by the New York Knicks. New York controlled pretty much the whole game on both ends of the floor and by late third quarter this one was well over, as the Knicks cruised to a 133-104 win.
Sacramento’s struggle to keep pace with the Knicks began in the first quarter as a result of New York’s physicality and hot shooting. Miles McBride dropped in 15 points in the quarter and the Knicks finished the quarter shooting 61% from the field and 71% from three. Is that good? The Kings were losing the rebound battle 14-6 at that point and shooting just 31% from the field, putting them in a 37-22 deficit by the end of the first quarter.
The Kings showed a little fight in the second quarter with a 10-0 run and at the 7:38 mark they were only down by 10. Despite this and getting the Knicks into the penalty early through the second, the Knicks were able to respond and regain momentum. The Kings could not contain New York’s ball movement and continued to be unable to match their physicality. At halftime, Sacramento was down 66-51 and the writing was on the wall that Malik Monk’s return to action from the toe injury might be spoiled. The Knicks were still shooting 55% from the field at the half and had 18 assists to the Kings 10. And the Kings only had 6 fast break points.
Things had to get better in the second half, right?
Wrong.
The lead ballooned to over 20 with a barrage of threes and defensive pressure the Kings could not figure out. Sacramento looked the part of playing on the second night of a back to back as the offense often was a mix of last-option, three-point heaves and broken pick and rolls. Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby easily dissected the Kings defense and Sacramento’s leading scorer in the game, Monk, exited to the locker room late in the third. The Knicks finished the third shooting 55% from three and the Kings were down 103-77.
At this point, the fourth quarter was a formality as the Knicks dominance continued. The Kings defense never found an answer for New York’s ball movement and three point shooting. And the Kings offense never found a rhythm thanks to the Knicks physicality. The fourth quarter opened up some nice minutes for Isaac Jones, but other than that, this 133-104 blowout was written way before that.
As Monk put it after the game, they just “punked us tonight.” He also said he left the game in the third to get his toe checked, but it is all good.
The Good
- Malik Monk’s Return: Monk scored 21 points to the lead the team in scoring, and it is good that he is OK after he exited the game in the second half.
- Free Throw Shooting: I’m searching here for the good, but the Kings did shoot 84% from the free throw line (22-26) to the Knicks 80%.
- Points In The Paint: Somehow, the Kings managed to win the points in the paint battle 44-40.
- Isaac Jones: Jones got 19 minutes and finished with 12 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal. He is athletic, lively and makes his presence felt when he is on the floor.
- The Knicks Starters: All five players scored at least 15 and had at least 3 assists. Towns and Anunoby had no trouble with the Kings defense.
The Bad
It is difficult to single out a few things when so much went wrong.
- Defense and Physicality: Monk put it best saying the Knicks punked the Kings. New York won rebounds, steals, turnovers and fast break points. The Kings were held to 29% from three.
- Ball Movement: The Knicks won the assist category 34-18.
- Fast Break Points: The Knicks won this category 26-8, yeesh.
The Ugly
The bad and the ugly sort of blend together here.
- Kings 3 Point Defense: The Knicks shot 55% from three. It was something from pretty much start to finish the Kings had no answer for.
- First Quarter: This quarter really set the tone. The Knicks won it 37-22 and it was a punch the Kings couldn’t recover from.
- Lack Of Competitiveness: This is just one of those games in which the Kings had nothing to fight back with aside from a couple of short-lived runs. The largest deficit of the night was 35 points.
Up Next
The Kings will take on the Golden State Warriors Thursday at 7 p.m. in San Francisco.
Your Sacramediocre Kings!
It really was a game of runs. Just too bad the Kings wore out after flying in from a half state away, it allowed the Knicks to finish on a 118-92 run. Right up into the last 42 minutes I thought they had the Knicks right where they wanted them.
Agreed – this game gave me the runs.
Kangz still the softest team in the league for the 20 something-th year in a row…
This team is destined for one of the last play-in spots which will give their pick to ATL. Even if the Kings somehow pulled a miracle out of butts and won two play-in games, they’d be destroyed in the first round.
The play-in is such fools gold, fugazi, a scam. It allows for non-playoff teams to sniff the postseason when in reality they’d be better off keeping their lottery pick. Real #8 seeds rarely beat #1 seeds, but now we’ve been sold the lie that a #9-10 could have a shot? Please….
9-10 is okay if you’re a team on the rise. Gives a young squad some experience competing thru the late regular season and then a game or two of Playoff-like pressure. Sneaking into the 9-10 could be good for POR this season for example.
If your team is stagnant in the 9-10 area or declining into that range, it’s time to rebuild.
Also, if you have traded away your protected lottery pick, then it’s great to get your team some experience in a playoff environment even if you lose in the play-in. It’s worse when you sell out to make the play-in and it causes you to lose your draft pick.
Right. If the Kings were building it’s all good. But they are not.
Nah. We dont need some stinking lottery pick. We need more veteran leadership.
yeah, like a new owner
That’s our only hope at this point. Vivek has no idea what he’s doing and he’s too arrogant to get out of the way.
Based off the Sam Amick report from last Friday, I’m already expecting that whenever Vivek decides to step down as the owner, he will appoint his daughter or son to be the new owner, so the clown show will just continue. Hope I’m wrong, but not banking on it.
Ah, beat me to it.
Oh I’m already resigned to that reality. It’s depressing.
Yeah, I’m assuming that Anjali will probably be the owner after Vivek unless the Kings are sold.
Who made babies with that turdnugget?
Gross.
Our best hope is that he cedes his place to his daughter and that she’ll date someone with a great basketball mind.
Or hire someone competent and let them do their job.
Yes. Or maybe if there’s enough fan pressure/protest/fans stop going he’ll be forced to give up power and back off? Ala James Dolan
Trade the Lamb for a Lion?
Trade the Jeremy Lamb for a Lion-el Simmons?
She’s gotta do better than Jeremy Lamb then lol.
The ultimate dream. Crazy thing is, if V left and Kings got a normal owner they be good again. It’s really that simple.
I mean both, but in theory, we have a lot of veterans.
We also need cost-controlled young talent, who help with the salary cap or make attractive assets for trade to acquire another star.
And another short combo guard, a couple non shooters, a few bad defenders and cash considerations.
Yes, yes and yes.
The only way this team will change or try to build (cause V is so ego stubborn) is to be forced into it. Meaning- losing and losing a lot. Being bad. Being humiliated so Vivek’s pea ???? brain realizes “oh, this team can’t go anywhere. “
I don’t give a fuck about making playoffs- or play in -that’s not enough nor is it what a team (or teams fan base) should be striving for. Contending is all I care about. Or working toward that.
The rest is bullshit. This owner is bullshit. If he’d just back off and spend…..be a good owner—-but no way.
Poor effort.
That was a good old fashioned ass whipping.
Hmmmm, Old Fashioned.
Old Fashioned ass whipping by the team from ___
Well done. I wish I could have The Last Word, but my glass is more than half empty.
And here I always thought we were both full of it.
Guess we’re just 2 girls one cup.
Why is there some kind of sea sponge or slug moving around in that drink?
Garnish?
It’s a protein drink.
The trio of DDR, LaVine and Monk is bad news. Any 2 of 3 is OK but having those 3 on the court together does not work offensively or defensively.
Monk was atrocious last night on defense. I’m not sure even having 2 out of the 3 on the court will cut it. I’m think just one at a time. It would be a serious mistake if the Monte decides to return with those 3 next year with the intention of starting.
I still feel that if the Kings lose in the play-in, Monte is most likely gone.
You could be right, but I fear who will come in his place. The grass isn’t always greener.
Vivek will probably hire a GM that is open to hiring Mark Jackson as the new coach. *Shudders.*
Please join me in prayers to avoid that.
This I heard Hamm and others say Wilcox would take over and that’s much worse. Even more of a Vivek sycophant.
I said it before, and I will keep saying it. I really believe that if he remains a loyal company shill, he’s safe.
I honestly don’t think he’s been that bad of a GM. Has he made some poor choices? Sure, but none crippling and no GM is infallible. What I do think, however, is his choices are hamstrung by a meddling dismissive little chap who won’t let his GM do proper GMing. This is why I fear if Monte is replaced we will get an even worse shill.
Yeah, I don’t disagree, but we have had these discussions in the past. He has the title, he takes the paychecks, he owns it.
It’s a bit too easy to ascribe all good decisions to Monte, and blame Vivek for all the bad decisions. (Not that you were doing that, it was just a general observation)
I think it’s more complicated than that. Monte is hard to evaluate because he doesn’t even do the full GM job. Wes does all the communication stuff, both with players and their camps and other front offenses. It’s crazy.
Why do the Kings need 2 GMs? It’s led to numerous problems, some of it reported, much of it not. It’s why players and their camps are repeatedly told one thing (i.e. “we have a trade for the pick,” or “we will make a statement,” “we will keep coach Brown” etc.) and then those things don’t happen. And these GMs don’t even necessarily have the same agenda all the time.
I think Monte is smart but he should not be the GM if he doesn’t like and/or isn’t capable of doing the entire job.
And don’t get me wrong, the disfunction of the Kings FO goes beyond just having Wes around as GM Part Deux (see e.g., Vivek, Vivek’s kid, Matina, Matina’s kid, Vlade, and another untold number of voices in the mix).
But still, it makes answering the questions like, “is Monte a good GM?” or “has Monte done more good than bad?” or “has Monte done enough to keep his job?” near impossible to answer.
At the end of the day, the Kings success is predicated on a complicated mixture of voices and agendas randomly assembling a successful product, which is a low probability formula for success.
Wait. There’s a Matina kid hanging around the FO?
Yes.
Oh FFS.
And then they have that dumb shit Vlade sitting courtside, as if he didn’t take away our opportunity to trade for Unibrow.
Hah! Thanks Vlade… I guess.
Gross. Worst run organization in sports still.
Didn’t know that about Wilcox. He’s a Vivek mouthpiece then. All makes more sense now.
he might of been even worse on offense…he NEEDS to be a 6th man
Agree – he was focused on his offense – only. Maybe trying to get back in rhythm. I dunno.
More “red hot” hot takes:
On the positive: gotta be happy with Valunciunas. And that he came out and spoke to the media after that drubbing, and he’s been a King for about 8 games, gives him high marks from me.
Zach is a gifted offense player and seems to be improving in that regard.
I think they actually missed Jake of LaRivia.
It was nice to see Isaac Jones on the court, he did ok.
Markelle Fultz has seemed lesser, every outing.
I don’t know what to think of Devin Carter. But it ain’t much at this point.
I also don’t know what to think about Keon’s playing time. Or Keegan’s offense which has slipped from promising to occasionally decent.
Sigh. (again).
If they intend to keep Monk around, he needs to go back to being the 6th man.
DDR just needs to go. They should target another SF/PF that is low volume and a good defender, and see what Keegan looks like with more of an offensive load next season.
The Kings are what they are.
They can fairly consistently beat sub .500 teams and fairly consistently lose to above .500 teams.
Very on point stat:
https://x.com/ChrisBiderman/status/1899322372660002965
If we go by this stat, then the Kings have about a 35% (+/- 2 varianxe) chance of winning against teams above 0.500. 12 games against teams with winning recorda means gping 3-9 against them.
6b games against losing record teams, means about 63-67% chance of wins, so because its the Kings, lets say they go 3-3.
2024-2025 projected W/L: 39-43. It’s Joerger all over again! Yourrrrr Sacramento Kangz!
We have achieved mediocrity, which has been Vivek’s goal all along. It was my only hope for 16 years.
i’ll still take being mediocre with no hope over being terrible with no hope, but the way we’re mediocre is not fun to watch. Give me a scrappy team that fights instead of a team focused on iso and making sure their chuckers get their shots up.
I would so much rather be terrible with young exciting talent than be mediocre with old vets and no upside.
Yeah, it’s fine to be mediocre when you are rebuilding with youth and have a cupboard full of picks to play with. This Kings team, however, is now the 4th oldest team in the league and very likely doesn’t have a pick in this year’s draft.
It’s like they are at the tail end of a playoff window that was never opened.
The Ugly
Our broadcast
teamdescribing in great detail how a play developed, but talking over the next three plays to do it.W H E N D O E S I T E N D ?
Incredibly, as bad as they are…they aren’t even in the worst 15 broadcast teams in the NBA. It’s truly amazing how poor most broadcast teams are at their jobs.
FIFY
I can’t believe Reggie Miller still has a job and was signed by NBC. And he’s national.
Perfect example.
Most would say Millers somewhere between “really-poor” and “just-okay”, mostly because they’ve had to listen to even worse during their own home games…being “poor-to-okay” as an announcer in today’s NBA means you get a job televising national games.
See Mark Jones. With his 2-3 stories about every team. That plays fine nationally, but drives me nuts when he’s calling the Kings.
That’s because the national audience does not know what “Malik” means in Arabic.
Probably not a popular opinion, but Reggie Miller really doesn’t bother me at all.
I know it’s probably hard to believe, but I’m pretty easy to please when it comes to a PBP broadcast team. I’m not looking for fireworks. Call the game and have fun.
But when plays are occurring right in front of you, and you’re still talking about a play that happened three plays ago, you are blatantly incompetent.
Think of it like a bus driver who refuses to use their mirrors. Sure, they can drive a bus.
Imagine in football you’re still talking about how first down developed while 3rd and 5 is happening in front of you. It’s so incompetent it makes me friggin insane.
The broadcast is just a total talk over . I mute about half the game to be able to fallow the actual game .
If it ended, how would you know that a dead ball turnover is the best kind of turnover?
I’m going to type out a response to you because it’s important.
Stink. Stank. Stunk.
Kings mail in an effort and the Knicks run over them in a laugher.
Sigh. I had higher hopes; I haven’t given up , but I’ve made adjustments to my expectations in the form of a downgrade.
This gem from the internet:
The talent is there, IMO. Effort, however, has to go to coaching. I can’t imagine a Heat or Celtic or Thunder or Knicks team being so bewildered.
I am going to hope for more and better against the Warriors, but won’t be as disappointed if that’s not the case. I suppose. Sigh.
Next.
Talent-only (Kings) can beat poor teams, but will lose against good teams.
Talent + Fit (Grizz) can beat anyone on any given night but will be inconsistent at times.
Talent + Fit + Identity (OKC) can beat anyone on any night no matter the circumstances and will win more often than not.
Get ready for more of this the next couple weeks because the schedule is only getting tougher. I thought this was one of the most winnable games left on the schedule and they got smoked. A 9 or 10 seed and a play-in exit while losing our draft pick is exactly what I’ve feared and exactly where we’re headed. After the Clippers loss, we’re almost guaranteed to be no higher than the 9 seed.
I’m happy to say I completely missed that the Kings played last night.
So you are lucky or smart. The Kings were there but didn’t play.
Actually it’s Talent as well. Brunson is better than any player in the Kings roster. including Sabonis. KAT is better than any player on the Kings roster.
Kings Talent: Lavine: 11 Seasons. Zero playoff victories. 1 winning season.
Demar: Worst Plus/Minus in NBA playoff history -360 All Time.
Sabonis: 13-7-2 all time in 20 playoff games.
Please don’t tell me it’s just Culture.
Numbers don’t lie.
Knicks own the Kings in every conceivable metric. Coaching, Talent, Cuture
Ant Simons: playoffs game played=15. PPG=4.7. In the 2019 1st round platoffs that Dame and CJ dominated, your offensive idol had 0.8 ppg, then 6.8 ppg, and 6.5 ppg in 2020 and 2021.
DDR: “worst +/- in NBA playoffs history”. You forgot to add 2016 NBA Champion in there, averaging 20.9 ppg that year. Career playoff games: 63, averaging 21.8 ppg. Yeah, i know. Very very pedestrian numbers.
Zach: career 20.7 ppg from Minny to Chicago. 2023 Chicago play-in game: 27 pppg. 2022 CHI playoffs: 19.3 ppg in 4 games. Only 1 playoff appearance in 11 seasons. Yep, its his fault his teams didn’t make the playoffs. Last time i checked, basketball is a team game and his squads sucked.
Domas: career playoffs…nevermind. Your hatred for Domas is unparalleled anyway.
Conclusion: Ant Simons is the saviour we have been waiting for.
Edit: DDR: 2016 All NBA and NBA Eastern Conference finals, not champion.
Ain’t too proud to correct myself lol
I agree that it may be something like culture. I turned the game off last night after a second-half play: Lavine was bringing the ball upcourt when OG stood in his path; Lavine just let him take the ball away, no effort, no fight. That’s culture or will or whatever you want to call it. Sabonis has it, Keon has it, LaRavia has it, and so does Keegan in his own quiet way. Lavine does not.
I don’t think it’s a talent problem with anyone this year, it’s a lack of top down running of the franchise. The HC for the Kings is a position that does not have the power or respect it deserves….everyone knows they players run the show, it’s a joke that we continue to roll out the same shitty starting lineup when healthy just because our HC is afraid of the players
Total talent versus Top End Talent + Fit.
Both teams have a lot of talent. But Knicks have more talent, arguably higher top end talent….
And their pieces fit together. Lots of versatile players, multiple defenders, switchable components.
We have a lot of our talent invested in score-first guards and wings who are solid to poor passers and who don’t play defense and are not very switchable.
Few teams are perfect and you can kind of get away with one player like that. But hard to run out three of them in your lineup and hope to beat the teams you can’t just overwhelm with pure talent (like the Pelicans and Mavs).
It feels like the lineup fits better when Keon is playing.
Every advanced metric and all the 5 man lineup data would agree with that assessment!
100% agree. Have said since the trade, we need to try to get one of these scorers to come off the bench in the sort of Manu, Jason Terry, Jamal Crawford role. Can still play 30mpg and close games as the closing lineup can vary, but we have better balance with Ellis on the floor and it shows in our best lineups.
Doug seemed do an alternate version of that for a moment when he was having Keon sub in for Monk after about 3 minutes for a few games. Basically protected the pride of the starters by letting them start, but subbed very quickly.
Obviously was Monk’s first game back last night, but he didn’t go back to that pattern.
It’s the owner. It’s always been the owner and always will be. His ego has killed this organization
Hmm, I expected the trolls that have been demanding/spamming the rest of us to stop being so down on the team (“they’re a major talent upgrade over a few months ago!”, “you naysayers still have time to jump on the bandwagon!”) would somehow disappear today. Guess I was right.
So anybody who does not agree with your opinion and tries to provide a counter-point is a troll? And i ask this with no disrespect or attitude, just curious, that’s all.
I’d suggest you go back and read some of the previous threads. I’d hardly call what these people were doing “providing a counter-point”.
I’m genuinely glad you enjoyed the game. This was a tough one for most Kings fans to enjoy but more power to those who did enjoy it. I’m not going to repeatedly tell/demand that you to feel the opposite of what you really feel – that would be trolling and it’s been happening quite a bit here recently.
Hopefully you’ll grow out of it.
RPO is right. There was alot of trolling the last week or so. It’s wasn’t people not agreeing with him. They were trolling.
Yeah, so did I.
Boy, I thought when I retired I’d have more time to join the discussion, but it seems that by the time I get to the keyboard the discussion has almost always moved on. Some of this is relevant to last night’s game, but most not, just some random observations about the team since the trade deadline:
-Last night’s game was probably always going to be a loss. When both teams are healthy, the Knicks are, talentwise, the better team. Last night each team was missing a key piece, and the Knicks are still better. Didn’t help that the Kings were on the second night…blah, blah, blah…and the game before went into overtime due to the refs overturning an obvious foul call. I’m telling you, that’s a foul in every single game of basketball I’ve ever played in, and DeRozen would have gotten that call last year….and that’s my tin foil hat for now…
-From my perspective I don’t think Christie is getting enough credit for the job he’s doing. I was skeptical, but he seems to be doing a pretty good job with the hand he’s been dealt, and light years better than Brown last year and this year. Not perfect, but this could’ve been a real shit show, and he’s kept them respectable.
-Keegan seems to be thriving without Brown and, maybe, Fox? Is that Christie’s work?
-DeRozen seems like a good guy, and he sure can get a bucket, but I do not like watching him play basketball. If I were Christie I’d be charging him $100 everytime he has the ball in his hands greater than 7 seconds. Move the damn thing! Christie would get rich.
-Not sure if I’m a Lavine fan or not, but boy is that dude smooth. And you gotta like the 3 point range.Totally aware of his lack of playoff success over 11 years, but building a playoff team is such an experiment and contexted based that I mostly give him a pass.Mostly, he was traded for a guy with about the same playoff record, so…and he is a better fit than Fox with Sabonis. And, who knows, we could get lucky and he stays healthy. That would be interesting to watch.
-As the standings are looking more and more solidified, I’m hoping that they don’t rush Sabonis back. Hamstrings are a bitch. Make sure that thing is fully healed.
-Fox can say he didn’t get Brown fired, and I believe that is technically true. But, as we watched him take his foot off the gas as it became clear he wouldn’t make all NBA, as we watched his agent make a VERY public showing to ask “what’s the plan?” and as we watched Fox make what is sure to be the dumbest play of the NBA season, I’m thinking he has a high degree of responsibility here.
-That said, I don’t blame the guy for wanting to go the San Antonio and doing everything he could to get there. Dude has two young children and his wife grew up in San Antonio. I’m guessing there’s family there. Basketball players are just humans afterall, and it’s the most natural thing in the world to want some family support with the youngsters. He’ll never be my favorite King of all time, but I wish him luck and thank him for all his exciting play (as if he cares what I think!).
-The team seems to be a Mike Bibby circa 2002 point guard away from being pretty darn good at this point. I can’t think of who that would be in 2025….But it’s not like they need a superstar….I least I don’t think so, but, you know, what do I know?.
-Last, my theory of why we all continue to follow the Kings after all the years of suckitude: In the NBA, my observation is there are always three levels of teams. The top levels are competing for championships. The next level are seeds 5-10 in the playoffs. And that last level just sucks all around. My observation (not a fact, just what I think I see) is, at any given point, a team can move from one level to another with one good move and some luck. In the kings case, they moved from sucking to mid-level with the Sabonis trade (good move), Keegan hitting 42% on 3 pointers (a little lucky) and a horrible injury year in the West (a lot lucky). Mostly the Sabonis trade made them relevant, which they still are, though their luck has been lacking lately (see refs). But we keep watching because maybe, just maybe, it’ll happen next year…
-For this reason, I can’t get on the “burn it down, collect picks and youth” bandwagon.Then we’re back to sucks, and it will take 2-3 years, then one good move and some luck to get back to merely relavant, and then another good move and more luck to get beyond that. And I’m just not ready yet to go back to just plain sucks again.I like watching relevant games in March. Let’s see if we can come up with one more good move and little luck while we’re still here. The burn it down moment is after 25-26 season. Of course, I’m an idiot…(disclaimer: OKC is the exception to this observation-so don’t throw that one at me, but their situation was unique to start with)
If you made it this far, thanks for reading!
I feel you, homie.
Trae Young
The only way the Kings move forward are with moves they probably will not make because it requires the owner letting the GM do his job.
Trade 2 of Monk and DDR. Get a 3/4 long-d and 3. Get a PG. Run your O around Sabonis. Surround him with shooters- preferably long switchable defender types.
It’s pretty Fucking obvious what has to happen but will the owner allow it? Doubt it
Late to this and agree, Christie has been a revelation:
Looked at this since Brown was fired and you can torture the data 1,000 different ways to build whatever case you want, but I certainly don’t think we have been better with Fox gone but would mostly highlight how much better the team has played under Christie.
After Brown was fired, we went 12-6 with Fox with several quality wins. Then we traded him, but also buffed up our depth and have gone 8-7 while integrating several new pieces into our lineup. Only one quality win so far, but still have to feel good about how tight the games were against the Nuggets and Clippers. At a minimum, if our players had a full season together instead of 15 games like those teams, maybe it’s a different outcome.
I liked Brown and had no ill will towards him, but as a longtime Kings fan, it is really fun to watch Christie doing so well.
I’ve been wondering this, too – could this same group of players and coach replicate this year’s Doug-era record for an entire season? I guess we’ll get to find out the answer next season since there’s a very good chance that the org rolls out the same lineup next year (hopefully we can retain LaRavia).
My guess is we would be better. However, I do have serious reservations about our potential ceiling. I think there are several younger, currently cheaper teams who have better talent and more future assets.
Will be on Monte to hit a home run. But struggling to see a real path to getting higher than peaking at a #5-6 seed and maybe a 2nd round playoff exit.
And to be clear, that’s not Doug’s fault, just the limit of where a team can get featuring our current roster or even a version of it where we shuffle some players around for slightly better fit.
I hope they use DeMar to acquire a starting PF or to somehow get a better PG and push Monk back to his 6th man role. Let Keegan get more of an offensive load and see what he can do. It will be a sink or swim year for his offense next season.
I feel Monte will be very hard pressed to find a PF better than Keegan. Finding a serviceable PG over Monk is far easier and, IMO, more of a pressing issue.
I was thinking that getting a better PF would allow Keegan to play more SF and not have to guard the bigger players each night. He would have more freedom to cover the best Wing/SG.
Either way, the question of minutes comes back in to play. If they keep Monk, Lavine, and Ellis, then the new PG would make a logjam again. I really like Monk as a 6th man, but not a starter. It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out, including the FO, coaching staff, and player personnel decisions. I expect a wild ride once the Kings stop playing basketball this season.
Which of these are real PFs?
6-8 225
6-8 210
6-8 235
6-7 240
6-8 225
6-9 226
6-6 230
6-8 245
Keegan
Tatum
Gordon
OG
Barnes
Collins
Randle
Draymond
Pascal
Tatum 6-8 210 & Pascal 6-8 245 were on this year’s all-star team.
I’d like that to, but am genuinely curious what his value will be. He’s about to turn 36 and while he’s still a quality player, his advanced stats have been declining for 5 years straight.
Some contenders should like him as more of a role player, but we would probably have to give up draft capital with him to get a starting PF. I mean, someone like John Collins or Cam Johnson would certainly cost DDR + 1-4 picks (not all first rounders).
I think you hit in on the head with the last paragraph. Monte may have to attach draft capital to him in order to find a younger more team fitting type of player. Both Utah and Brooklyn would value the pick(s) AND DDR’s contract that they could likely flip again.
I should also be clear, teams like Brooklyn and Utah can flip DDR again because they aren’t looking for the same kind of “win now” return that the Kings want. A guy like Ainge would likely gladly take a future first to eat DDR’s contract this summer and then would be more than happy to flip his non-guaranteed 3rd year contract to a contender for a couple of future 2nd round picks and filler in a year’s time.
Ainge can get better assets for Collin’s than DDR . He may decide to keep him since he still has 4/5 solid years ahead and has proven to be better and cheaper than Markkentan .
I don’t think Ainge is keeping anyone. He wants lottery tickets.
100% agree and think you hit the nail on the head of the downside to our approach. There are certainly other approaches than tanking, but when you are rebuilding you can at least accumulate assets that are very very helpful when you are trying to accelerate and win.
I know Monte was able to build upwards and then hit a homerun with the Harden trade before. But that was at a time a lot of teams didn’t have the analytics or insights the Rockets did. If a player like Harden came on the market now, I imagine there would be a lot more teams making bigger bids.
He can still make a home run trade, but the league has gotten a lot more sophisticated and I think it’s a lot trickier to just get an undervalued asset than it used to be.
The biggest issue with those possible trades is Nets/Jazz have zero interest in an old player . They are in rebuilds .
You are correct. The have no need in DeRozan the player, it’s the picks and the ability to flip him later that they would value
It’s kind of like how OKC ate Horford’s deal a few years ago. They got a first round pick from Philly out of it, played him a few games then shut him down for the rest of the season…and he wasn’t even injured. OKC then flipped Horford again for another first round pick by eating Kemba Walker’s deal!
By the way, that pick they got from Philly back in 2021 in the Horford deal was for 2025. It’s currently #7 in the lottery.
Presti is a fucking genius.
They would want the picks.
Agreed. Though at some point, he also just needs to increase the overall talent on the team.
Moving talent laterally for better fit will certainly help. But likely still caps us out as a 5/6 seed and potential second round exit (if we are a bit lucky).
The only issue is given the ages of our core, we have a bit of a ticking clock for him to hit that home run.
Agreed, and this is the part that worries me:
When Monte swings hard he’s as likely to hit his own ass as he is to hit a home run.
The King have no space to add an average PG. Someone has to go in order to bring someone back.
As the roster stands today the Kings are at $163M on just 8 players going into next season. The salary cap for next season is set at $154M with the tax line at $187M. The current starting 5 will make up 94.3% of the salary cap. The team has very little wiggle room to add anyone. The Kings will have to ad 6 players with just $24M in space under the tax line. Someone, or even a few, from the current depth has to go.
Let’s hope Carter and Isaac Jones can be contributors next season because they have smaller contracts.
Maybe Jones can replace Lyles at backup PF while retaining LaRavia.
I don’t see Fultz being an answer at PG. Maybe with some more time on the roster he can improve, but I am not counting on that.
My guess is that DeMar will be traded, and maybe even Monk, to acquire better fitting pieces.
Jones, Lyles, LaRavia, and Fultz are all free agents.
Keeping Jones and LaRavia would be fine with me. Lyles has been pretty bad for 2 full years now. Fultz is just a 3rd string PG, at best.
I’m fine with bringing back Jones on a 2-way deal. I’m also okay with Fultz and Lyles on vet minimum deals. The Kings need bodies after all. LaRavia is going to be the hard one to retain. I think we’d all love to have him back, but since the Kings can only offer $5.1M, that’s gonna be tough sell.
You can’t acquire players via free agency or trade that puts you into the tax unless you use an exception. The only proper way to spend into the tax is to re-sign or extend your own players. Extending Keegan this summer would be an example.
Also, Vivek has never spent into the tax.
He has never spent into the tax. A leopard doesn’t change its spots like folks on here change screen names.
Be kind of dumb to spend into the tax for an old borderline play-in team anyway.
For sure, and maybe that is the plan. Mediocre teams are not bad enough to remove butts from seats or eligible to earn top lottery pick guaranteed price tags. They are also not good enough to require the expectations of spending deep into the tax to be a contender.
Staying relatively average and below the tax line probably prints money for an owner.
11 Million + this year per that chart I linked above. That pretty much covers our fired coaches.
Only teams paying tax penalty this year:
Boston
Dallas
Denver
Golden State
LAL
Milwuakee
Minnesota
Miami
NYK
Phoenix
None of those teams are building into the playoffs.
With the repeater penalties you want to build your team first, then go into the tax to keep your team together. Kings going into the tax this off-season would be foolish, IMO.
Luxury Tax Tracker
Good teams yes. Good established teams. Either contending this year or trying to hang on to past glories or Phoenix.
Good up and coming teams like OKC, CLE, HOU are not in the tax, but will have to go there to keep their teams together.
Kings are neither good and established, nor good and up and coming.
Be kind of dumb to spend into the tax to barely make the playoffs.
I think a better point that “spending into the tax” boils down to is building through the draft. Like I said above, they way you spend into the tax is developing talent and then using the rules to spend into the tax to keep that talent.
Every NBA champion for the past 20 years developed their own drafted talent and retained them. The only exceptions are the Lakers and a team that had LeBron. Toronto is outlier as well, but they had Pascal and OG.
Warriors, Celtics, Nuggets, Spurs, Dallas, Bucks all hit the talent goldmine in the draft and then kept that talent by going into the tax.
By comparison, the Kings have Keegan and Carter as their draft “talent” at the moment…and they are about to lose this year’s pick.
In today’s CBA you have to draft and retain talent to compete…unless you are the Lakers.
Well said.
No, good teams don’t pay the tax to win. Good teams pay the tax to keep winning.
Phoenix tried to buy a contending team and are pretty screwed at this point.
Boston is a good example.
20-21 – .500 team – No tax lost in 1st round
21-22 – lost in finals – No tax
22-23 – lost in EC Finals – Paid Tax as their youth needed new contracts (see Adam’s comment above)
23-24 – Won Title – Paid Tax
You’ve got my proxy here, Adam. I’m picking up ABB / DannyG vibes. He/she’s all yours. God bless & good luck.
I was thinking this too, more likely DannyG than ABB.
Is there a difference?The commonality is never letting go.
Wasn’t there a rule limiting the number of times a commenter could change screen names? Perhaps that was on the STR site and not something that could implemented easily here.
What has happened recently that is positive? Genuinely curious because all I see is a team that’s ceiling is a 9 or 10 seed. We’re basically locked into the 9 seed at best already this season and I expect that to be confirmed over the next couple weeks. If this team finishes under .500 with a 9 or 10 seed, have we really made positive changes?
You can go over the cap to sign your own free agents not other teams .
If we beat the Warriors tomorrow, I won’t be negative for the rest of the season. I swear.
If we win the title this year, I won’t make any silly jokes for the entire off season. I swear.
Lol. If we win the title this year I will be drunk for the entire off season. I swear.
If Sacramento makes the playoffs:
Monte will be GM (can he, will he, make roster changes?)
Christie will be Head Coach (he’d be cheaper too. If you changed him out for Nick Nurse, Budenholzer, Mark Jackson, David Adelman, re-hired Mike Brown – and they started the next season like this season – oh brother! It’s Doug Christie’s job unless the next 30 days are a total collapse)
Bonus: Vivek and Matina will feel vindicated that they know what the heck they are doing (and
Jeremy LambAnjali World as well).The Sac Catch-22. Even if Sac gets swept in the first round, this season, depending on who decides, or who decides who decides, can claim the season, a success. If they do even better than that- win a playoff game, two playoff games, etc. make it to the second round, get swept, win one second round game.. etc. Not making the Play-In (still a possibility) or Playoffs is fodder for more debate.
For me – I am all in. Winning in any capacity, works for me at this point. Whether or not the Kings are Championship contenders (not foreseeable under current ownership) or playoff contenders or play-in contenders – that’s both the reality of today or within tweaking distance in the future, in my estimation), they reach the “competitive” level, for me.
Call it what you want – mediocrity – sure. For the Sacramento Kings franchise, the ceiling is low. I’d place their standing as able to jump over the limbo bar. And that is better than all but 3 of the last twenty years.
Low expectations, unfortunately, is living in realism for this franchise. And unfortunately, given Vivek’s complete incompetence, the current team, as mediocre as it is, may be the best team we’ll see for many years.
That’s where it is for me.
Should this team remain at this level – basically .500 ball – I’d call it a win over the 25-30 win seasons that were the standard prior.
That is moving from constant mediocre bad to mediocre. And a 15 game-ish elevation in win percentage (.250 to .500). The next step up is .600 ball (49 wins). I think this is in reach, but obviously, change has to occur as that hasn’t happened yet (Mike Brown 48, 46 and won’t happen this season unless the Kings go 16-2)
That is my expectation.
OT: Maybe instead of penalizing a team with a fine for outright tanking, just reduce the number of ping-pong balls they get in the lottery.
Why not both?
Markannen is Finnished.
Jokic is Serbing up a lot of assists this year.
Did Dallas trade Luka because he was Slovenly?
Wembanyama puts French dressing on any cut he gets.
Sabonis lives in Napa and makes wine because he was born into Portland.
Do you imagine that Deni Avdija’s game Is real?
How we describe Franz and Mo Wagner is germane?
When discussing Alperen Şengün, we aren’t just talking Turkey.
Don’t be a Haiter, unless you’re Skal Labissiere
Give Jeremy Sochan the Pole position.
The Bucks are hoping that with the Bucks’ resurgence, Giannis will aGreek to an extension and stay.
Did a chunk of this thread disappear or am I just imagining things?
Yes. FoxFreeMexicoCity and replies were removed.
Or it’s just a glitch in the matrix
As long as my complaints about the broadcast
teamremains I’m ok with it.🙂
Oh weird. I must’ve missed something. Didn’t seem like they had done anything too egregious.
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