Welcome to Basketball Hell.
Tonight, in his tape-watching brilliance, and in a desperate bid to shake things up for a team faltering in the “race for 10th”, Luke Walton decided to swap out one of his shooting guards for Moe Harkless in the name of defense. Did he substitute the worst defending guard in the NBA? No, he sent his Rookie of the Year candidate to the bench for a washed forward averaging 2.2 points per game this year. And shocker of shockers, it didn’t work out.
The Kings started off the game slowly, scoring just 8 points in the first 6 minutes, and they never game a damn or showed any heart throughout the entire night. Two days after losing to the worst team in the NBA, the Kings got blown out by the worst team in the Eastern Conference, a squad that was missing their only good player in Jerami Grant. Their leading available scorer on the night? Hamidou Diallo at 12.8 points per game. Oh, and Cory Joseph outscored De’Aaron Fox.
Welcome to Basketball Hell.
Quick Stats
Outcome: Kings lose, 113 – 101
Sacramento Kings: 101 points, 44.2% FG, 23.3% 3P, 69% FT, 32 rebounds, 20 assists, 12 turnovers
Detroit Pistons: 113 points, 52.4% FG, 34.9% 3P, 85% FT, 36 rebounds, 24 assists, 16 turnovers
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
The Good:
- Nothing
The Bad:
- Everything
The Ugly:
- Luke Walton’s dumbassery
The King of Kings
Whichever fans were loyal and/or foolish enough to watch this game.
Up Next
Saturday, April 10th vs. Utah Jazz – 6:00 P.M. (PT)
It is better to be pissed off than Piston.
In related news, UofA now has unlisted phone number.
If this is not the last straw to end Walton’s pathetic run in kangzing this team the last two years, I don’t know what is. Just get rid of this ineptitude or fans will never come back
It is time to fire Luke Walton. They brought in help to make a push for the playoffs but it doesn’t matter if you have a coach this bad. I hate that I am a Kings fan, I wish my heart doesn’t want what my heart wants.
Well, I guess Detroit found their all-star In Cory Joseph
I love Fox and this game wasn’t his fault but man he needs to start taking over sooner. And as the leader of this team, if his scoring isn’t there he needs to step it up in other ways…. in other words play better D.
It’s not just taking over; it doing while playing in the flow of the game and making the right decisions.
He took two consecutive threes, both airballs, that I can only describe as deep freeze-checks. Early in the shotclock, no rythm, nothing. How? Why?
And why the heck doesn’t he come out and sets the tone in effort and aggression, but sleepwalks through first quarters?
On defense, every screen wipes him out of a play defensively.
EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
If not for Buddy and Whiteside’s limited minutes, he would be by far the most frustrating player on defense.
20 games left before Walton gets fired.. If Vivek is serious about winning and pushing for the playoffs or play-in next year (if that is still on the table next season) then Walton has to go. Wes Unseld Jr, David Vanterpool and Kenny Atkinson comes to mind.
No reason whatsoever to yank Haliburton out of the starting lineup. If one has to be replaced it should be Hield. This game could have been the last straw and the nail in the coffin for Walton’s head coaching career.
Benching Hali over Buddy is the most amazing realization of the total lack of accountability that permeates this organization!
Throw in Brad Stevens.not sure he survives this season. Boston is trash.
Good work Vivek. You have put together a piece of shit organization, team and coach.
Vivek has put his stamp on this club. Going for the 10-play in. Fuck you. Not firing Walton. Fu$@ you. Not letting a GM hire his coach or run the show….seriously, Fu@@ you.
Why spell out the first F bomb but not the others?
I took it as a way to increase the emphasis, but might be wrong.
Fuck everybody involved!!!!
This is rock bottom
Kings will always find another level of rock bottom, stay tuned
That’s a veteran Kings fan, right there.
30+ years and counting
I just have the hardest time keeping track of my possessions, but with the Kings, I know I never have to worry about finding my rock bottom because it’s never too far away!
Fire Walton, hire Becky Hammon.
What did Becky Hammon do to you to deserve this?
What did Becky do to deserve the job?
You sound just like him.
Firing Walton at this point would make no difference. And placing so much of the blame on Walton is short sighted. The Kings squad is much more talented than the Pistons, the players have to show up and play with pride.
At the end of the day the ownership, coach and players all suck.
This franchise should have been tanking this year, instead they took the play-in route which is so pathetic. Like the best you can aspire tonis the tenth best team in the conference.
I haven’t watched the Kings this year, but I’m certainly glad Dish removed the carrier of Kings games so I don’t have to be tempted to watch this sh@t show excuse for a team.
Remember, all roads lead to Vivek. The smartest guy in the room.
Just to play devils advocate, Vivek fired Vlade. Was that a good decision? And Vivek hired the two decent coaches we’ve had: Joerger and Malone. Also if Vivek is “running the show” then why did not intervene when we could have had Luka at #2? I just want clarification on this because I think the owner would have taken him if he was not allowing the GM to do his job at the time.
Fuck that. Walton needs to go. Take his sorry ass to Arizona .
At what point does the league step in and assume control of the franchise? This has been a shot show for 15 years, and there is no end in sight
Didn’t the league already step in when David Stern recruited Vivek and installed him as Governor of the Kings?
Yes, and he proceeded to screw that up.
The Pistons will be back in the Playoffs before the Kings. OKC will too.
Seattle probably too.
This team is what we thought they were; FREAKING TERRIBLE!!
I don’t even care because we all knew they would be, especially after the trade deadline.
The problem I have is this bullshit organization trying to half ass everything they do, and never fully commit to either A)- winning, or B)- rebuilding.
I’ve given up watching the actual games. The team sucks, the broadcasters suck, hell even the uniforms suck!
I don’t even try when it comes to the prediction thread, (evidenced by the steady decline), because Ive become so disinterested in the team… the ONLY thing that remains a Kings fan for me, is this community and the pride of my hometown. The actual team representing the laundry I cheer for are useless, tone deaf and outsiders. We’re proud of our town GTFOOH and take Vivek with you!
Must not forget the Value trades at the deadline ! Best player on the floor last nite was Cory Joseph ! So, Bogi playing great for former bottom feeder Atlanta now 5th in East ! DONE with Vivek and his shitshow !
Cory Joseph never played that way when he wore a Kings uniform, oh wait, it wasn’t until last night he was guarded by Buddy Yield!
If you don’t think one player can torpedo a team, think again. Buddy Hield is a disaster. And Jerry made a good point on the lastest Pod our defense with Ty and Fox is leaving a lot to be desired. They are giving 80-90% on defensive and the coach allows it.
You can see this when we go to the bench with Davis and Wright we get an infusion of defensive pressure and picking up higher. Ty and Fox are capable of comparable if not better defensive with more commitment and will.
I have NO problem with Fluke juggling his starters his 3-guard lineup ran its course, but the problem was Mo’ Scoreless, aka SloMoe, as the new starter. The jam he got, the time machine capsule moment, will “earn” him another 2-3 weeks as a starter.
But if you are looking for a defensive boost, a rightful motivation, you do not get it with a relatively low energy low activity player. That is clear as day. You need a high energy like Metu, even Woodward or even Silva. You need size and muscle not this scrawny guy trying to make his way with savvy.
But it is Walton’s coffin, another self-inflicted nail!
Walton looks like he is aging a lot, he looks unhealthy and mentally broke. That is what happens when you hitch your wagon to Buddy Yield and Marvin Badly, and other vets over the young upstarts, having faith and confidence in the new and the fresh, nurturing talent instead of living in the past.
McGenius is envisioning the future when he gets Terrence Davis and Damion Jones. The coach is living in the past when he trots out Mo Scoreless. It is two different perspectives that are incompatible. The irony is the coach thinks he is saving his job relying on the vets, and this includes Buddy, who should be friggin bench, when in fact the only way he could have saved his job is trusting Kyle Guy and Metu and getting them to be a much better place than where they are now had they not been disregarded for most of the season.
If I was the coach I would tell Buddy to go home and stay away from the team like Marvin, and come back when you lose 10 pounds. He’s a joke on defense and offense. He moves terribly.
Just FYI, Kobe and LeBron bulked up in one of their off-seasons and they did not like the effects it had on their game, and they subsequently shed the extra pounds and muscle. So if Buddy fancies himself after the late #24, and we know he does, then he should have learned this lesson and prevented this mistake or at least correct it before he plays himself out of the league.
You need a high energy like Metu,
Woodwardor even Silva.There. I fixed it for you.
Seriously though, anyone at this point who wants to defend Walton after he benched the Rookie of the Year candidate loses all credibility. “Man, why aren’t we a contender? WAIT! What if I… BENCH OUR BEST PLAYER!!! Where’s a mirror so I can tell myself how genius I am and practice my Hall of Fame induction speech?!?”
I kind of understand the move re: Ty. He wanted to give more structure and playmaking to the second unit, two playmakers with Wright and Ty. That is okay and Ty is going to get a lot of minutes regardless.
But unfortunately he puts in Harkless to match up with Josh Jackson, the vaunted stalwart who we must treat as a future HOF inductee, first ballot and unanimous, of course. /s
This the problem, the reactive strategy instead of proactive. You need size and energy, why not show some faith in Metu as starter at PF? Instead his thought process is this – I know how his feeble mind works – is that two non-stretch bigs shuts down the lane for Fox.
But Fox can still get his game going through pick and roll. And he getting stops will get him in the open floor. Two pick setters with Metu and Holmes can work. And Metu is a better shooting stroke than Harkless.
This coach should have changed his starting lineup going back to the LAL game. And I am not saying this as “Monday Morning QB”, I advocated for it before that game!
The other lineup that has not been tried but should is Fox – Ty – HB – Metu – Holmes.
That was brutal. Watching CoJo go off in his revenge game and the Kings lose like that was horrid. And sending Hali to the bench in favor of Harkless seemed like an odd choice.
That Harkless dunk though…nasty.
There’s one other point I want to emphasize. No player wants to exert maximum effort on defense when you have a teammate looking for a miniscule crack of dawn to launch his next brick. And when you have a coach who endorses this egregious style of play you just have a infallible recipe to suck.
Fans can say, “oh it is their job to play defense, yada, yada…” but it is human nature when you have a teammate who has no shot discretion and no versatility to his offensive attack to become mentally and physically deflated when you have seen this same act play out over and over to predictable result.
When the coaches cites a lack of defense as the issue, well, he’s belying human nature and riding and dying with a player he has irrational faith in. Buddy is not who he was in 2018-2019. He’s trash, mentally and physically defecient, with bad habits and training regimen enabled by a coaching staff totally incompetent and replaceable with a Craiglist ad.
And you notice Buddy gets hot when we are down 15-20 points, then his hot streak ends when the game could get interesting. This is the story of his season, and Greg Wissinger writes a piece about his “improved” or “respectable” performance of late? Pfft. c’mon Greg, don’t be an apologist for this disgusting display of basketball. Buddy should be deactivated, DNP-CD (fat)!
The most frustrating part of this season for me is the biggest problem on the team, other than the coach or Marvin pretending to be a starting caliber player, is not awknowledged as such. Buddy is in denial, the coach is in denial, and nothing was ever done to break him out of the slump, no adjustment, no tinkering around the edges, just failed strategy continuously employed.
74% of your shots, 3s, why not 80%, why not 90%? Is there truth to the rumor Luke asked if Buddy could possibly shoot 105% of his shots from 3s?! This is the insane approach that has been normalized by the involved parties with no end in sight. McGenius, please save us.
Test
The Kings suck. We need a better coach. We need a better everything.
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