The Sacramento Kings arrived to the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Monday night riding a rough two-game losing streak. Sacramento followed up an all-time Kangz loss in Charlotte with a horrendous effort in Cleveland to put together the worst run of Alvin Gentry’s tenure as the Kings’ head coach. So far. And despite those losses, the team woke up Monday morning as the reigning 10th seed in the Western Conference play-in race.
The bottom of the West is just begging for somebody to start playing decent basketball, but it sure as hell wasn’t the Kings tonight.
Gentry rolled out another new starting lineup for this one which felt like an appropriate response to their offensive effort in Cleveland. Richaun Holmes is still out with an eye injury, so the Kings started Alex Len, Chimezie Metu, Harrison Barnes, Tyrese Haliburton, and De’Aaron Fox. Early returns on that unit were pretty terrible.
The Raptors jumped out to a quick 11-0 lead which should have told us exactly where this game was going, but for one fleeting moment in the middle of the the first quarter, the Kings looked like a competent basketball team. Then came the 2nd quarter, and it was at that point that I stopped taking real notes down because the Kings stopped playing basketball.
Toronto dominated Sacramento 40-23 in the 2nd quarter, and carried a 70-45 lead into the half. Seventy to forty-five. There is nothing valuable to say about an NBA game where roughly 40 of the 48 regulation minutes were garbage time.
I’m saying nothing new here, but this team is a mess right now. They’ve been a mess for a while, of course, but things are particularly messy in this moment. Their defense is as bad as it has ever been in a season where they themselves talked about playoff expectations. Embarrassing is a good word.
I don’t know what else to say about this one, fellow people with questionable decision making who are still watching this basketball team. I guess we’re all just waiting to see what happens next, right? Will Monte McNair finally make an impact move, or will we continue to watch Vlade Divac’s roster flounder?
Monte McNair has to know that his seat is rapidly warming up, yeah? Even if ownership is telling him he’s safe, I would advise him that this is Sacramento – nobody is safe. Ownership expectations and executive job security can change on a whim. There is no time to wait. With McNair’s back against the wall, I don’t believe that he’ll go down without a swing, so we’ll see what happens over the next couple of weeks.
To make matters more difficult, opposing general managers know that the Kings are desperate right now. McNair has the difficult job of picking a direction – playoff push or rebuild, and maneuver around that direction without getting fleeced by teams that know you’re deeply broken.
But that’s just life as a King fan. See you back here on Wednesday.
Someone explain to me why this season has me more dejected than any other during the drought. It’s been bad this whole time, but this year has felt the worst.
Because everyone realizes that it’s not the coach. it’s the players, and the organization. The entire team is just a bunch of people who haven’t the first clue how to win.
It’s this, above all else. Let’s be real: Vlade was a huuuge issue. Getting rid of him had to happen. Walton was a huuuuge issue. It had to happen. But now that the massive piles of turds have been removed from the lawn, we can focus on the fact that the lawn is dead. There was good reason to be hyped about Fox, but it’s increasingly obvious that he’s not going to make it to heights need to break the Kings out. Then the rest of the cast range from Nice to mediocre. That’s not enough, and we don’t have the capital to launch higher.
And once more, another year into purgatory.
The source of the cancer is still there
Is there evidence Vivek is still meddling? Seemed like there was more news about it while Vlade was around, but it seems more rumor lately. Idk though.
In any case, it’s super troubling, at least considering my own experience. I consider myself a pretty ardent fan, and most seasons I usually watch for player development once the playoffs are out of the picture, because before there was a future to look forward to, but now I find myself more curious/hopeful about seeing players like Hali and Mitchell excelling on other teams. Like I find myself watching and rooting for players like Bogi and Bjeli, while in years past I wouldn’t have (I’m a Kings/playoffs fan more than general NBA fan, I guess).
Ham recently reported the org structure in basketball ops is Vivek/Dumars at the top and Monte somewhere in the middle. I have said this many times: I think Monte is a smart basketball mind, and do not believe it was his decision alone to chase the play-in last year instead of blowing it up, and keeping Walton.
We are an army of knuckleheads at TKH, and 90% of knew those were the wrong moves.
Why does he hire only GM’s that have never ran a franchise ? Answer- He is the shadow GM but needs a fall guy !
Everything going according to plans!
Correction. -It’s the OWNER. He runs a fucked up, probably underpaid amd under appreciated and understaffed organization. The whole thing is rotten to the core .
There’s no sign of him backing off.
I think many fans thought/hoped but doubted, as I did, that hiring McNair meant Vivek backing off and letting GM-Monte run the show. Nope.
This ownership is living in an alternate reality. 10th seed? Can’t they see how horrid this all is? Nope. Ego blind.
Allegedly Vivek was entertaining the idea of Doug Christie as interim.
If he was the incompetent intereferer you claim him to be, why did not just get his way?
Why is Doug not in charge now?
The best we can do is try to read the tea leaves, but it seems that the owner deferred to the judgement of the GM with the naming of Gentry.
Vivek allowed the GM to chose the man more prepared for the job over the splashy hire.
So how do you reconcile this probability with your assessment of the owner?
I’ll wait for an answer that makes sense. I think I will be waiting a while.
From what I read, it was Vivek who wanted Doug, but it was McNair, Dumars, and Wilcox who wanted Gentry. It took 3 basketball minds to convince Vivek.
The issue I have, is that we heard that Vivek wanted Doug. Why is he still giving his input to what he wants if McNair is supposedly in charge of making all basketball decisions? That is unnecessary pressure and influence from a owner on a GM.
I heard the same thing. It is ridiculous that 3 basketball minds had to convince an inept owner of their recommendation.
Ham also mentioned how toxic it is now b/c everyone knows that Vivek’s next head coach is already sitting on the bench. Why would Gentry, or any prospective head coach, want this job if they knew that any slip-up and Vivek is running into Monte’s office saying, “I told you so, time to promote Doug!”
I love your obnoxious tone.
Adamaste and others answered your query.
Plus, about a billion other examples of Vivek meddling. Why would you think it’s anything else when most things point to Vivek still running things?
It’s not the players fault really, most of these guys are very average at best
This is very true. The team has no top end talent.
Weren’t we the first first team in NBA history to go undefeated in both Summer League and Preseason?
I’ll second this. I’ve chosen to not watch more games already this year than any full season previously.
Cue Charlie Brown’s teacher voice
-165 is this a legit stat? I’m a J and 2 beers deep right now, too lazy to look it up. Because you can’t just add up individuals +/- , right?….example a team only plays 5 players and loses by 20 point’s…did starters lose by a combined -100 points?
Yeah, that’s kinda weird.
Stoned and 2 beers deep is a requirement to survive the Kings experience.
Take a hit for me.
Done…..and done again.
I still don’t feel anything.
wait … wait … uncontrollable laughter.
Ha. I’ll smoke more next time.
I mean, the good news is we are tanking whether on purpose or not
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
That’s the thing though, they’re not.
Gonna finish one spot out of the play-in. With a pick between 9 and 13.
Blow it up
GIVE ME A DETAILED PLAN!!!
ha
First -you blow it up
Second- you rebuild
Third -you might actually be able to call yourself a professional organization and mean it.
This seems about right for this team:
And if the front office hadn’t been sitting around
holding their d…being “patient,” “disciplined” and proclaiming what a fantastic place they were as far as the roster goes, they wouldn’t be in this spot right now. Their inaction was inevitably going to lead to a situation where movement is more difficult. It’s certainly not impossible to make a move to improve the team, but it’s very likely tougher today than it was in the offseason, at the deadline and in the prior offseason.Yup. Monte has painted himself into a corner by his own design.
“This is a playoff roster” – Monte McNair
“Walton will take us to the playoffs.” -Monte McNair
These (somewhat accurate) quotes are just from a few month ago.
Geeforshitsky.
I started drinking as soon as the Toronto starters were introduced.
The incredible thing about that team that just beat the Kings, is they had just one lottery pick, in Barnes, and only two other first round picks in Siakam (27th) and Flynn (29th). The rest of the players tonight were second round picks or undrafted.
That is incredible.
FWIW, the Kings started 4 lottery picks, and brought 4 first round picks off the bench.
And they’ve won a championship.
On pace for 32 wins & the 7th worst record in the league.
we don’t even have enough moral victories to get into the moral playoffs.
I think we have enough moral losses for the moral lottery, so we’ve got that going for us.
Yes, but we can get into the playin game, and that’s all that really matters anyway.
Hello 7th pick my old friend. They’ve come to screw you up again.
It’s not the pick that screws you, it’s the picker.
+1 Perfect timing on this GIF, considering it’s been raining almost non-stop since yesterday here in NorCal (with some more rain throughout this week too).
We’re at the point where we know Fox is not the star that can lead this team. There should have been noticeable progress by now. I keep seeing reports of the Kings being interested in this player and that player. This organization should be interested in every good player in the league. No one is untouchable when you’re this bad.
We all just have to be emotionally prepared to see Fox killing it once he leaves.
Not a chance. If he leaves, he’ll wind up in a situation where he’s a #3 option putting up 17 or 18 a night. That’s the type of player he ultimately is. We’re just used to him stat stuffing on terrible teams that have no other players better than him (which is why we’re a perennial 30-win team)
That may happen but it’s not working nor has it worked since he was drafted. The sad part is we had that star in DeMarcus but unbelievable talent was ruined by his attitude and his refusal to get along with his coaches and teammates. You have to move Fox and get what you can for him.
Swing for the fences. What’s the worst that can happen? We miss the playoffs again? 🤷♂️
What if Fox is really just our Monta Ellis? The very good but not great guard we have to finally send packing to get this team moving in the right direction.
Waiting for the Vivek “Go on”-meme.
Only one way to find out…
But I thought Luke was the problem?
“A” problem….along with the roster and management. Regardless, he’ll likely not land another HC job in the NBA, and rightfully so.
The only solution is an infusion of talent. Luke, Gentry or whoever isn’t changing a thing.
Simmer down now. No we haven’t played good the last few games…quite terrible the last 2 games being honest. Real shit the bed kind of games. But we’re still .5 games from the 10 seed (play in), and only 4 games out from the 5th seed, 5 games out of the 4th Seed.
Don’t. Just don’t.
I will…
Have a rec
The 10 seed ain’t shit. It’s a lowering of an already low bar.
32 win pace. 7th worst record in the NBA. That is where this team is on 12/13/21. A shitty team playing shitty basketball.
10th seed is the new playoffs. That format seems to be staying. They have been playing shitty basketball the last few games, no argument there. But there’s still like 44 games or so left to be played. And the numbers say they’re still very much in the thick of things, as of now. We’re not even at halftime of the season, and people are giving up. I’m not there yet.
Remember, they were tied for the 1 seed after opening night. We’re only 11.5 away from reclaiming that.
For the last 15 years the Kings could not be among the 53% of the league that makes the playoffs. So now the bar has been lowered so that 67% of the league makes the playoffs or play-in. And if the play-in started today, the Kings would be on the outside, looking in.
.500 is the minimum baseline for me. And this team seems to still be light years away from that.
I hear ya…but it’s been so long I’ll take whatever I can get. If that’s a sub .500, 10th seed so be it.
10th seed is the 9th loser.
If you’re not first, you’re last!
We haven’t played well in 15 years.
Does anyone still watch the games? If yes, why?
I watch them because you’re not on the call…
Well played
I miss me.
I don’t care, I sure miss him and Jerry. Who is this guy with Kayte? Every time someone hits a three it’s, “and so and so with the ‘three game'”. Or Holmes does his push shot, “and Holmes with the push game”, “the float game”, Jesus its irritating.
To root losses.
.
.
.
.
.
No really, I’m at that point. I want it to burn.
When can we meet and do this together?
I live in Sac, and one of these days would love to get together in person with y’all to watch a game and be angry together.
I’m in Loomis and more than agreeable to that.
I’m in Pasadena.
Can we all meet halfway? Say….Firebaugh?
Sure, may as well be in hell to experience hell.
LOL
We should all meet in Temecula and fight all the anti-tankers!
Come to Portland, we sure know how to party after the last two years.
I’ve been rooting for chaos and dysfunction for two years. It’s honestly WAY more healthy and sane.
Thankfully, we’ve had chaos and dysfunction for 15 years.
That’s why rooting for chaos and dysfunction is healthy, you know it’s coming.
We’ll probably get a locker room incident any minute now if we’re lucky.
Seems like we may have just had that with a players only meeting that nobody wants to really acknowledge.
No lol. Especially if I have to listen to the terrible commentary duo.
The unintentional tank, humvee, Bradley, whatever you wanna call it, continues. Honestly, it’s very hard for me to believe this organization is actually interested in winning games anymore. I think it’s all about staying profitable, regardless of the on-court product.
I think the dismissive little chap got one hell of a real estate deal and I expect him to cash out at some point.
I often wonder when how much is enough for billionaires. They basically making $300K every day before they even roll out of bed. At least Ballmer takes on the challenge and desire to build a winning team, because other than that, I’m not sure what motivates on NBA owner.
Let’s hope so. The real estate holdings by the organization alone would have to make it an attractive buy should Vivek decide to cash out.
I don’t mind if he cashes out, in fact I’d prefer it. Like, really prefer it. But, I don’t want him to sell to someone looking to move the team.
Zero reason to move the team, even if it was possible. You’d be operating an arena with the 6th most tickets sold this past year. You have a fan base that is basically held hostage, due to lack of other decent professional sports entertainment in the metro area. As well as a history of sellouts if you simply build a team that hovers around .500.
The team can’t move, they’re locked into a lease for another 25 years or so
tell that to St. Louis Rams fans.
Money finds a way.
As someone who was living in St. Louis when this happened I can tell you this is 100% correct.
I don’t expect the NBA to be as blatant about breaking their own relocation rules as the NFL was, but if they decide it’s better to have a team in Seattle or Las Vegas and ownership (whomever that may be) agrees then they’ll find a way to make it happen.
A lawsuit with the city is small potatoes compared to the potential money to be made.
Dint even say such things. Don’t let me dream.
I love listening to K9 just throwing napalm on Fox and the rest of the roster. The only bright spot of this season has been listening to him and Barnes trash the organization. It’s refreshing to hear from the broadcast team.
If we are not winning, then why not fire sale the whole roster ?
(I mean like, Fox for one 1st round pick, Hield for mid 1st round pick, Barnes for mid 1st round pick, Bagley for a potato chip)
Get more picks, and at the same time, give more playing times to those with potential (Ramsey, Queta, King, Terry, Woodard)
The worse case of the above roster will not be worse than the current roster (maybe just another blowout that we have been seeing recently)
I think they just need more time for the core to gel.
And of course the new coach!
But whatever they do, don’t change the players. Especially the ones who have been here for a few years.
Welcome to basketball gel?
Kayte?
They’re also so young.
Poor Ownership, No Culture, No Direction, Mediocre Coaching, and Average Players. This team has little to no future moving forward. The Play in is considered a successful season?
A year where the Eastern Conference is now superior to the the West. The West is now littered with injuries to major stars, Aging teams, and rebuilds. The Kings couldn’t even seize this opportunity.
A team that has not improved one iota over last season. The Kings defense is still the worst in the league. No One on this team should be untouchable. Yet, Vivek and Monte overvalue the talent on this roster. This will be validated, once the Kings make the their 1-2 minor moves in the upcoming trade deadline. Trying to justify, the Kings are just a couple pieces away from overtaking Memphis for that 4th Seed.
The Kings will be mentioned with multiple big names at the trade deadline. Just like the 15 seasons preceded. Agents love to use the Kings as leverage. Other teams will have more assets and talent to procure the best available trade targets. The Kings Brass are deluded in thinking Hield and Bags are going to be highly valued in the open market. Lol.
What is crazy is how many franchises are showing the Kings that you can built relatively quickly in this league.
It really makes the Vivek Era so painfully frustrating as there have been sooooo many opportunities for this team to build something since he took over as Chairman.
they should relocate. Seriously.
As in they should relocate the majority of the roster to other teams?
Sure, let’s give it a try.
Their location has nothing to do with management, their roster, or their performance.
We had something that was working, however tenuous, and Old Man Gentry abandoned it.
Two games in a row we tried to match size with size and two times we got crushed. Marvin and Metu barely affected the defense and stifling to the offense. Neglible on one end and derailing on the other . Yippee!
Betting on Buddy Yield, moving him ahead of TD when he was clearly inferior over the three game win streak, is putting a nail in your coffin and that’s what the old man did.
If you are going to discount TDs energy and defense because you need your Proven Scrub to break out of his slump, misplaced priorities and misguided and inexcusable strategy, you deserve the results you got in CLE and TOR.
TD helped Ty and Fox play with pace space and moxie. It was not only the plays TD could make but the synergistic effect. Last night Ty took 2 shots in 21 minutes. He took 8 shots vs CLE. At 41% on 3s, and with his running floater, Ty should be at 12-14 FGAs, looking to get his and dish to others. He is currently at 10 FGAs. Buddy is at 14 FGAs per game. This shot distribution should be reversed at minimum until Buddy is mercifully off the team.
You enable Ty shot attempts by having him on the floor with guys who want to play like he does, i.e. TD. TD is not a panacea for all that ails us, but he’s NOT a player you bury in your rotatation, just as he emerges from his slump. Why suddenly turn away from a good thing?! And worse turn towards super cringe thing?!
Ty disappears, TD disrespected, HB disappears – from best player to WTF, and the backup for Holmes gives you 20-30% of his production when you need 70-80%. Of course you are going to get obliterated. You have four key players who amount to nothing and expect to compete? Maybe if two of the four are missing in action you can russle up a respectable showing. If these players are non-entities for various reasons, you need Marvin or Buddy to explode to support Fox, but they are incapable.
If Old Man Gentry is going to continue to juggle his lineup, he should name Davion starter . This is what I have been calling for from Day One. It makes more sense now with Davion getting comfortable juking the opponent and team defense as woeful as ever. If we cannot find offense elsewhere on the floor, Fox needs to start scoring 30-35 PPG. He can do this and will be enabled if the defensive burden is taken off him by playing along side Davion.
And if this shit keeps up, where the backups along the frontline are unable to compete, we should call up Queta. He is worse than Len? I don’t think so. He can pass better, challenge shots as well or better. Len has been a big disapppointment, zero touch on his flip shot, no 3s in an eternity, obviously inferior to Whiteside from a a year ago yet gets a complete pass from the fanbase.
Two thing:
(1) I am 100% with you re Buddy. I’d be fine never to see him play another minute in a Kings uniform.
(2) I am with you on starting Mitchell. Our current starters refuse to play any defense and spot the other team a nice lead from which there is no coming back for this Kings team. Start the dude that plays D, plus his offense has been serviceable lately!
I think the issue with starting Mitchell would imply that the roster is broken and McNair has f*cked up. It would be an admission of failure and would imply a reset.
Now, I’m perfectly fine with that because I think the roster is broken and needs to be blown up, but do McNair and company agree?
That ship has sailed. The record and team performance took care of that debate!
Oh, please. As long as there is a mathematical chance at the play-offs, they’ll cling to it and you know it.
Exactly. Until something tells me otherwise, this is what they’ll be doing.
I am saying that the ship sailed on whether “the roster is broken and McNair has f*cked up.”
What they do about it, if anything significant, is another question.
Ah, well, that makes sense.
Not holding my breath about meaningful changes.
Yep. I’m secretly waiting for McNair to get fired having done nothing during his entire tenure. Dude will have presumably collected several million dollars for drafting a couple of guys. Good work if you can get it.
I’m really hoping that doesn’t happen, because this damn team needs improvement, but it’s becoming more possible every day.
How is it an admission of failure to put your best point of attack defender on opponents best initiator? Thats not admitting failure, thats doing what needs to be done, and probably should have been done sooner. Fox is better suited to defend SGs than PGs anyway unless the PG is about the same size. And putting Fox on a guy that is easier for him to check helps him carry the scoring load.
Fox has issue with defending guys who have lower center of balance than he does, the pesky waterbug types like Garland, and these are just the types of players that Davion can shut down cold. I see Fox and Davion as having more natural chemistry too, since it seems Davion can play off the ball better than Ty.
It is not an admission of failure to maximize the potential of your roster. What is the alternative? Pretending what is not working will somehow work? And you can justify not inserting Davion as a starter before he played 20-30 games and went through the league once. Now that Davion has taken his lumps, and shown growth, he has proven worthy of the increase in challenge.
If you move Ty to 6th man (my preference) or keep him as a starter in a three guard set, that is not admission of failure either. You could say that Ty’s role in leading the second unit, is as important or more important than the role he has now, so I would not categorize a move to non-starter as demotion.
(And just as point of clarification, Ty spends time leading the second team. It is just that he also spends time NOT leading the first team, which cuts into the total amount of time he is leading the team.)
Ty needs more shots. And usage. His shot attempts are down from 10.7 FGAs to 10.1 FGAs His usage is down from 18.1 to 15.9 %. It should be close to 20%. Every viable option should be on the table to get these numbers in the right direction. The best thing to make Ty more of a focal point is DNP-CD Buddy or trade him, but in lieu of this you could simply bring Ty off the bench for Fox in the 1st and 3rd and then run every play through him.
This is really a secondary reason to start Davion, but the reason to start Davion does not necessarily mean you get less from Ty or he has less chance to excel. He may have more.
I like these suggestions.
I think when people say such a change would be an admission of failure, they are referring to the front office. The front office rolled this team out with certain expectations. If the coach changes up the mix, he’s saying, this shit ain’t working.
It is obvious there is disfunction. Your argument about TD is a good example. TD comes on strong. He and the other guards seem to be feeding off each other and then his role is diminished??
I suspect the lack of D was part of that, but can you pin that all on TD?
Moving Davion to the starting lineup may help that. Hell, moving Damian Jones to the starting lineup may help that.
I don’t think anything should be off the table.
Maybe their hoping Hield has several good games in a row to boost his value. I think Monte may be looking at what he could have gotten for Hield from the Lakers and wants to make sure he matches that return. I don’t think he will.
Record is 11-17…How the hell did they win 11?
The most amazing thing about these last 3 games is that the Kings lose Holmes for all 3 games and nobody steps up. All 3 teams we play have MULTIPLE starters out and all their players play well with no problems on offense or defense.
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