As a long-time Kings fan, I am used to pain. You can’t hurt me, I am already dead. That’s why I have felt almost sorry for my Mavericks fan friends over the course of the last several days as shockwaves continue to ripple through all of sports over the trade of Luka Doncic that had fans bringing coffins to the American Airlines Center and GM Nico Harrison hiring private security.
You merely adopted the dark; I was born in it, moulded by it.
Harrison showed up court-side Monday night to watch his new-look Mavericks take on the new-look Sacramento Kings, accompanied by team governor Patrick Dumont and Dallas mayor Eric Johnson, another turncoat associated with that god-forsaken city. He was bold to show his face at the AAC, not just for trading away the city’s beloved superstar, but for dropping the news in the middle of the Super Bowl that the recently acquired Anthony “street clothes” Davis was out indefinitely. Insult was added to injury when the legend Dirk Nowitzki, he of the statue outside the arena, announced he was going to LA to watch Luka’s debut with the Lakers.
They’re down bad, as the kids say.
Sacramento rolled into town hoping to take the franchise from bad to worse, and had every advantage on paper to do exactly that. But this is the Kings, and thus nothing came easy.
The Kings started strong, taking a nine point lead early in the first behind seven points from DeMar DeRozan and six from Zach LaVine. But a 17 point swing over the final nine minutes of the frame saw the visitors trail by eight after one, mostly thanks to Spencer Dinwiddie’s 11. The second quarter saw the teams flip-flop, with Sacramento out-scoring Dallas 34-26, leaving things all knotted up at 61 at the break.
Since the calendar page flipped to February, the Kings have treated the basketball like it was trying to dump it before Valentine’s Day. Monday night was especially egregious, as Sacramento committed 21 turnovers leading to 36 Mavs points. For a team that played Olivier-Maxence Prosper 34 minutes, that was significant, and helped the home team pull away for a double-digit lead in the fourth. The aforementioned Prosper of course had the game of his young career, scoring 16 points and pulling down four rebounds. Before Monday, he was averaging just nine minutes of court time per game and pitching in a 3.2 points and 2.2 rebounds per contest. Injuries have plagued Dallas all season, and Monday was no exception, leading to extensive minutes for players that aren’t used to being called into action. In addition to Davis being out, the Mavericks were without Dallas already was playing without P.J. Washington, Dereck Lively, and Dwight Powell and lost Daniel Gafford in the second quarter. Short-handed doesn’t do the team justice, and yet they had a late lead. That was mostly thanks to Kyrie Irving, who has (probably willingly) stepped back into the lead-dog role, an opportunity he has relished throughout his career despite it coming without much in the way of winning. He poured in 30 points as part of a near triple-effort as no King could slow him down.
Irving’s heroics helped the Mavs build a double-digit lead late, and they were up 12 with just over eight and a half minutes to play in regulation. From that point it would be all Kings though, as DeMar DeRozan scored 13 of his game-high 42 points in the fourth quarter, including a jumper to tie things at 116 with 3.1 seconds remaining on the clock. It wouldn’t be the last of his heroics, either.
Malik Monk, as he is oft to do, shined brightest in the biggest spot, scoring six points in overtime to keep Sacramento in the race and set up DeRozan for a beautiful game-winner that saw him split a double-team and sink a baseline floater after Klay Thompson hit a deep three to give the home team the advantage.
It was a balanced effort overall from Sacramento, if not a clean one. Domantas Sabonis had another double-double, taking advantage of Dallas’ front-court woes to drop 16/15. We even saw Sabonis and Jonas Valanciunas share the court for an extended stretch; Valanciunas is settling into his role nicely and added 13/8 including six offensive rebounds, in 18 minutes off the bench. Monk and Zach LaVine added 17 points a piece and Keegan Murray ensured all five starters were in double-digits with 11 points.
Former King Kessler Edwards started for the Mavericks and struggled in his 26 minutes, finishing with a -10 +/-.
Monday night’s game is the start of a three game road swing, and though it wasn’t the prettiest win, it pushed Sacramento over .500. They’ll play a weird back-to-back in New Orleans against the Pelicans before heading back home to Golden1 to take on Golden State and get their first look at Jimmy Butler as a Warrior. It feels like Doug Christie is starting to get a rhythm with his new assets and the team is still figuring out how to play together – hence the turnovers – but the combination DeRozan, Monk, LaVine, and Sabonis can continually cause problems offensively for opponents.
And no matter how it looked, it could always be worse; Mavericks brass threw out a fan for saying “Fire Nico” on the Jumbotron and folks here are looking to start boycotting games.
A long-distance Light The Beam, Go Kings.
Mavericks fans have every right to boycott. They gave away Luka for nothing.
This is very Jimmy Dolan-esque behavior. Escorting a fan for not liking the team’s GM?
(recall the Charles Oakley times at MSG).
They are going to have to escort out a lot of fans, methinks. And they will have a tough time defending that.
If you read the conspiracists of late: this is all a plan to get the Mavs to Las Vegas and a partial team ownership with Team Lebron.
We Kings fans are used to bad ownership, so as Melissa states, we understand but only look on with a “been there, done that” glare.
Conspiricists might have to think, which is a better four sport town (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL) Dallas or Las Vegas? A lot more people live in Texas than Nevada. Seattle Mavericks? Seattle could be a four sport town, but it’s not as sexy as Las Vegas.
Dallas is what like the 4th or 5th biggest tv metropolis.
It’s an insane theory. Especially with expansion on the horizon
Not insane if Adelson’s plan is to move the Mavericks to Vegas then the league grants Dallas an expansion team. From the moment her family became majority owners, rumors of moving the team to Vegas have been swirling.
With sports betting being so intertwined in sports (literal sponsors of the major sports, oh how times have changed), I can see the pull to get another major sport there. NFL and NHL are already there, the A’s have been trying to get there. NBA is next. They all see the betting money and have dollar signs in their eyes.
We will look back on this era of the proliferation of sports betting one day and see it for the blight on society that it truly is
100%
It sure is crazy. I do some minimal daily fantasy sports, but some people I know have a massive web of bets on various sports that parlay in to others, and future bets that are months or years out.
Advertise to children, create entire generations of gambling addicts, have those people destroy their own lives and finances, and the lives and finances of the people they love around them. Create a sports environment where athletes from the pros down to t-ball are having grown adults threaten to kill them for missing the spread (and if they hit the spread, then there’s just another set of adults mad at another set of athletes). Addiction leads to destitution, society broadly suffers, and Miriam Adelson gets to throw another zero onto her net worth. Terrific.
I’ve always compared gambling to cigarettes.The only people it benefits are those who provide it.
Makes me glad my folks taught me early on not to smoke cigarettes.
Reading this made me think of The Running Man.
Great book! Coincidentally set in … 2025!
Now I feel bad for playing A few hands of black jack last weekend while in Reno waiting in line for the Buffet. Normally don’t like Buffets but when you have adults sons that can plow throug a couple pounds of crab legs the 60 buck a person charge looks cheap. I only played a few hands and walked away $55 up after a few tips… so hopefully I didn’t add to the degradation of America too much… but I agree sports betting has gotten crazy , my step son is borderline addicted and I can’t see the joy in losing hard earned money. At least when I play black jack I have a set limit of $100 and and that happens maybe 2 times a year.
I don’t mind gambling. I like a hand of poker or blackjack, myself. But it shouldn’t be in your pocket sounding notifications that are algorithmically dialed to make you want to gamble all day all the time on everything.
Yep. Nationalize.
it is.
Cuban made a deal with the Devil
Tonight on Shark Tank:
Mark buys 40% stake in Lucifer Industries in exchange for just one soul.
I totally believe she is going to use her leverage as owner of the Mavs to get looser gambling laws in Texas. It’s no secret she wants casinos there. If Texas won’t grant her desires, she may just pick up her ball (the Mavs) and head back to Nevada.
Comparing Adam Silver to David Stern…I don’t think Stern would have allowed all the sports betting sites to be so prevalent in the NBA. I could be wrong, but he didn’t seem like that type of guy.
Silver on the other hand, he is terrible. Him and Rob Manfred are neck and neck for worst Commissioner in sports. Silver cares about one thing, money. Integrity of the sport means nothing to him.
I’m generally lukewarm on Silver. I think he did great with the Donald Sterling controversy, the BLM protests, and growing the international appeal of the game. I even like the NBA cup. But of course, no commissioner gets hired without consideration for the owners’ pockets.
Other NBA owners would never allow this franchise to move . Have averaged . over 20,000 per game for 20 plus years and have a huge local TV deal . Also market twice the size of Vegas . New owners or Cuban taking over again much more likely .
Yet NBA owners let the Sonics move from a basketball mecca to OKC.
I read about them escorting a fan out. He was on the jumbo-tron and mouthed the words “Fire Nico.” If that’s all he did, that’s some messed up Dolan-esque behavior for sure.
I saw the video and I believe another “F” word was also used but I’m not amazing at reading lips.
Free Nico?!
Lol. Cue the MJ song.
Sheldon Adelson made Dolan look like a choir boy. As bad as it’s been with Vivek, I actually do feel for Mavs fans.
Let’s just note that the Kings are trendsetters here. We were the first ones to give away Luka for nothing.
This is golden, but should be purple
Yeah, but at least we did’t give him to the Lakers!
No, we gave him to the Mavs—who gave him to the Lakers.
Well, no. We actually gifted Luka to the Hawks, who then traded the 3rd pick to the Mavs for Trae, their “franchise player.” ATL should give us a solid and waive the peotections on the ’25 pick since we spared them from this drama.
Okay, but if we’re going to get nitpicky, the Suns passed on him before we so stupidly did.
Hipster Vlade: I did it before it was cool.
oh come on!
Mavs got ZZ Tp in return- a well-dressed man. Day to day lived up to expectations.
LAL are playing better than expected. Luka might help them, sort of. He does look, well, rather large, and doughy. He is a talent but just plain hogs the ball.
We will see what happens. In the meantime, Gafford looks hurt. Mavs in trouble. Kings could overtake them.
Much better watching an ugly win than a bad loss. This squad is barely treading water against beatable teams.
Good news is that this is the weakest part of their schedule and if they can keep eking out wins until the all-star break, they might be able to congeal as a unit by the time things start to get a little tougher.
They need to win these two against New Orleans, then figure out how to play together. A sixth seed is in reach. So is finishing 11th.
If they’re gonna figure it out they better do it now because the March schedule is absolutely insane. They’re going to need a cushion or some luck to stay in the play-in race.
Yeah. 29 games left. Need to go 18-11(a 51 win pace) to finish with 45 wins. Took 46 wins to make the play-in last season.
The LTB season everyone was hoping they could hold onto the 6 seed down the stretch, very tough schedule. They ended in the 3 seed.
Very different team and every other contender had serious injuries that year. That is absolutely not the case this year and the West is much stronger this year than it was that year.
The 7 game home stand is BRUTAL
Yeah it’s absolutely hellacious.
We’re hoping to compete with the Clippers and T-Wolves for a playoff spot.
Realistically, we’re competing with the Mavs, Warriors, Suns, and maaaaybe the Spurs for the back end of the play-in.
Sure, our March is brutal, but we don’t play those games in a vacuum. Phoenix has the toughest SOS remaining. Dallas and GS have a .493 SOS remaining but they’re also fundamentally flawed rosters. Dallas is demoralized by the loss of Luka on top of being flawed. SA’s SOS is slightly worse than ours currently and they have more of a hole to overcome.
The Clippers have the 4th most challenging SOS. The Wolves probably have the clearest path on paper with the easiest remaining schedule of any team in the West.
I’m not saying the Kings make it to the play-in, but I don’t hate their chances. Solely looking at the Kings’ schedule is ignoring the challenges our competition faces.
Let’s ride on your optimism, BTS, and imagine we get the 7th seed which means we get to play…Bagley and the Grizzlies. Oh how the wheel turns. LOL
Haha, I’m pretty down on this team. I cursed at them through the entire game last night. My “optimism” is really just a belief that one of the Suns, Mavs, or Warriors will falter by season’s end.
The Kings are flawed but now have a mostly complete roster. If they stop fumbling the ball like a teenage boy trying to undo a bra hook on prom night, they could end up in the 7th or 8th seed….where they’ll get promptly destroyed. Seeing Bagley celebrate would hurt my heart a little.
How do you like them apples, Adam?
That photo at the top is an amazing perspective after seeing the play.
Totally! And it looked to me like a travel in live action. Then the replay showed him just burn ’em on the step though!
I was so excited this morning when I saw that photo. Sometimes it’s hard finding a good photo for articles, but that was a perfect picture for the recap.
My very uneducated observation is that the turnovers will go down once they get a few practices which should help the team. I don’t understand why we don’t put in a Princeton style offense.
we have decent shooters in Lavine and Keegan, LaRavia, Lyles, McDermott, Monk, Ellis guys that can cut Keegan, LaRavai, Lavine and the Lithuanian Twin Towers can pass out of High Post..
I also think a few practices will help. What frustrates me is that the turnovers also have increased from the guys that have played together all season.
Keon with a crap entry pass to Domas. Monk had a late shot clock pass to Domas that ended up being stolen. Things like that happening that don’t involve the new guys.
You’re not wrong. Guys are still finding their way into the late-game management vacuum that was created by trading Fox. It’ll take some time.
The guys that have been around all season, particularly Monk and Keon, are being thrust into different roles. Even if they know the offense, they haven’t had time to practice the elements of it that they’re now responsible for (POA playmaking/handling).
Ellis literally struggles to throw an entry pass. That’s a basic thing for a guard at most levels of basketball.
Ellis also struggles with his handle and decision-making with the ball. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being an excellent spot up shooter (6th in the NBA in three point percentage) and defender, especially on this team.
I agree, he is probably my favorite player on the team. I just want him to get some of the basics down because it would help him stay on the floor (which the team needs), and help the team succeed. I really hope he focuses on that in the offseason. Some PG skills could really help.
Overall, I think he is improving in those areas. He is better on the fast break now. He is handling the ball a little more. He is driving into the defense and reacting to the defense with sound decisions. It’s not at the PG level, but like Carl was saying, he is mainly out there for defense and hitting threes. The gradual improvement in other areas will round out his game a bit more.
We’ve seen glimpses of improvement from Keon in his ball handling, but he still has a long way to go. I’ve been hoping he develops a reliable floater since he has been driving into the middle of the key lately but almost always passes back out to someone on the perimeter.
yes Jman- ne needs a floater and I bet you have a poem for that.
I think he can improve. his AST/TO is actually on par with Monk early in his career. Monk didn’t become a viable facilitator until he arrived in Sac during his 6th season in the league. Even then he didn’t become the passing Monk we know now until last season.
They tried giving Keon more ball-handling responsibilities in Summer League last year. The results were not good.
Yeah, unfortunately he doesn’t look any better than he did in SL. He *should* be able to bring the ball up the floor and make an entry pass. But a facilitator he is not.
That recap had some sass, what a pleasure to read Melissa. Thank you.
I already love having JV on the team. It is such a relief to have a capable person come in for Domas, and be able to affect the game with physicality. I still think the Kings need to work on entry passes and feed the beast down low when he comes in to force teams to foul or double on him. I liked Doug experimenting with the Beefy Combo as well, I think lineups with Domas & JV are going to have some value down the stretch.
I don’t even know what to say about DeMar. He really has a sense of the moment that few in the NBA have, or maybe even ever have had. Remarkable player.
I appreciate the Lavine is trying to fit in, and he seems happy to be a King, but he needs to score. One of my biggest pet peeves is the Kings over pass, or try and get too cute close to the basket and try and drop bounce passes in between five players in the key (which I feel is 60% of Domas’ turnovers), and Zach seems to be wanting to be a playmaker, but this team already has Monk, Domas, and DeMar who are handling those. I know Zach had some responsibility to distribute in Chicago, but he needs to be a shooter/finisher on this squad.
I think there is plenty for DC to work with here, the additions of Jake and JV allow for so much more positional and lineup flexibility, I hope DC is bold and really stretches himself creating a plan around the talent he has, rather than how MB tied himself into a knot trying to force players into a predetermined plan.
Lavine knows he has the leading rebounder in the NBA on his team, right? Vucevic is a fine rebounder, but Domas is next level. Lavine ought to put those shots up at the rim, and Domas can clean up the boards. The small window bounce passes with multiple defenders in the area are not working.
Those bounce passes drive me crazy.
Good point about Zach just putting it up and letting Domas clean it up, and Keegan is a decent offensive rebounder was well.
I know Jerry reads the Herald, I would love his take on the overpassing and too cute passes in traffic.
Yes! Good to have Melissa contributing again!
That play where Max Christie bounced off JV was glorious!
I laughed so hard.
It’s rare that the Kings are in a position to be the bigger, stronger, or taller team. They didn’t adjust to the Mavs lack of bigs until the fourth. It was a smart move that had definite advantages. It seemed like the mavs were respecting Domas on the 3pt line, so the paint wasn’t clogged either. I hope they practice a number of looks with the reworked squad, including this one. IMHO, the team really needs to learn how to take advantage of matchups.
Domas wasn’t exploiting their lack of size until JV came in.
I was hoping they would try inverting the offense a bit by bringing Domas out to the free throw line and letting him hit cutters along the baseline. Once Gafford left the game, the Mavs had no shot blockers to turn to.
Tossing a fan for expressing his displeasure for the FO and owners – despite hearing that most of the time here for Sac, it’s shocking. Our organization has never sunk that low, and hopefully they never will. Quit with the death threats, though – that’s never appropriate.
It was awesome to see our new Vi-King playing with his fellow countryman. And while it may not be the most stellar perimeter defense, the rebounding was insane. Now if we could do something about our bigs and fouls…
I’ll give a shout out to Jason Kidd and the Mavs who were undermanned and undersized and went to an OT loss.
And that segues to my concern these last three games: NOP, Blazers and then Dallas. I understand I have my Kings bias, but it seems that all three of these opponents outhustled the Kings; 50/50 balls, swarming D (Mavs were very good on 3 point defense IMO), and overall energy level.
This has been a point of emphasis for Coach Christie – effort and energy – but I find the current squad, with the nice increase in talent now present, can seem relatively old and slow too often.
Is this just my usual state of gruntle-ness? I am left wanting more as I have been impressed with less talented teams (the 3 last games) having very good showings against a Kings team with significantly more talent on paper. Is this a coaching issue?
Not sure what the issue with the consistent effort and hustle is all about. When they hustle and have some urgency, the game tends to swing their way. Be nice if they did all that at the beginning of the game. Maybe the lack of depth early on made them reserve their energy because they had to play 38 minutes each? With the depth now, I expect them all to start giving more consistent effort knowing that their bench has NBA caliber players now.
I do know that the teams you mentioned all have length and size at every position.
Doug Christie is Luke Walton, except the women take advantage of him.
There is probably a one-hand list of coaches that could extract more wins from this still-flawed roster, but they are not likely to be walking through that door anytime soon. The Kings are still thin on the wing, still have issues at the stretch four, and now we can add lack of depth at PG. (amazing when you consider Monte’s penchant for drafting ’em). No matter what side of the Fox trade one sits, I think it can be universally agreed that the trade addressed no roster needs while creating one more. Whatever the total package would have been, a trade that would have brought Castle or Collins or Cam Johnson would have benefitted the roster balance more than adding Zach LaVine.
We saw this offense open up a bit when Sabonis handled more down the stretch last night, and DDR was every bit the clutch player that Fox has been. So the question becomes, how does the overpriced LaVine help the current roster? How does this team address wing depth, the 4, and PG depth with roughly $80m tied up in shooting guards (LaVine, DDR, Ellis)? How do you get Ellis onto the floor more with the makeup of this roster? Those are the questions that will need to be answered if the Kings are going to ever do more than battle for play-in spots.
I think adding JV addressed a need. Backup center was terrible. Now they have a large human, whom is also good at NBA level basketball, to give them solid minutes.
LaRavia adds some length and much needed depth to the bench. He might not be a Cam Johnson or John Collins, but that need was moderately addressed.
Those two guys made the bench so much better. No more Len, Colby, Huerter, Carter minutes.
They still have work to do moving forward with addressing backup PG (which I think they tried to plug in the aggregate) and a stretch big (Lyles is just too inconsistent).
We have seen Ellis play 30+ minutes the last two games by lowering some minutes for starters. Hopefully the vets can understand the reasons why the minutes might be reduced some games.
Doug Christie’s postgame comments suggests that the vets have a good attitude about that.
Rob, your comment on Doug and women seems uncharacteristic of you. I hope I am reading more into it than was intended.
No worries. Rob is also used to not wearing the pants at home.
Joe, I owe you & anyone else I offended an apology. I was going for a Jackie joke, but it absolutely comes off as cringy. I gave it a second thought before posting – should given it ar least three.
Again, heartfelt apologies. I’ll try to do better moving forward.
Well done, sir.
For Keon – in my great coaching expertise – I’d like to see him on more wings, rather than just guards, much like how they’ll have Keegan on some of League’s backcourt (Steph Curry comes quickly to mind). And with LaRavia as a backup wing/PF defender.
The lack of a PG for this team, IMO, isn’t a devastating problem as you have a Point Center, and even the Beam Team had Fox and Monk which LaVine and Monk isn’t a big shift from a quarterback standpoint. Since The Trade – Domas has only had 20 assists these last 5 games (4/game) and 14 TOs which might be part of the problem with the offense. He seems out of sorts to me, but I don’t know anything.
Lavine has been a disappointment thus far. He’s at his career low in PER and though he is frowned upon as a defender- he’s been good enough to be a 6MoY (2014) and 2 All-Star nods (2021, 2022). It is reasonable to expect him to be better overall: shooting, scoring, defending, assisting. Hopefully sooner rather than later. Unfortunately for Zach – he can’t play the Kings to get back on track.
As frustrated as I am with ownership and the front office – this collection, on paper, is an improvement, despite the loss of De’Aaron Fox, the best player of this group.
I am with you on coaching. Doug Christie has much to prove – though his first 21 games and 14-7 record are encouraging. It’s the Kangz, so they have a big hill to climb to convince me – but I am open to the idea, and right now, warming to it perhaps because it seems inevitable. He does not seem awful and as much of a Mike Brown fan as I became, Christie appears to be an upgrade. We have at least 29 games left to evaluate (before it becomes official).
I would argue that you should include Monk’s $20 million in that list. He can play PG, and I hope there’s a leap still there at that position for him, but right now, he’s at best a combo guard, and on almost any other team, he’s a two guard.
Solid point (no pun intended). And I’m not looking for an assist machine, but we need at least one more guard with enough handles that they can manage a little PnR, as well as direct the O when Domas is out or the focus of the opposing D.
Out of curiosity, can any of the stat geeks here post Doug’s successful ATO plays (if they actually do run one) or is it just get the ball to DD and iso?
Growing up in NorCal as a 49ers fan even before the Kings moved to Sacramento, my distaste for anything was Dallas conditioned at a young age. My distaste was further cemented in 2003 when the Mavericks beat the Kings in the 2nd round of the playoffs. But losing one of the unarguably top 3 players in the league for bullshit reasons has finally extinguished my hate for Dallas because as a Kings fan I know what it feels like to be snubbed by the Lakers.
I can’t be on board with this.
As a third generation Eagles fan, I root for a career-ending injury to every Cowboys player on every play, and it will be that way until the day I die.
I’m sensing that I’m starting to lose enthousiasm for Kings games, news, recaps, whatever.
Maybe I’m in need of an AS break, but I’m not sure.
The whole dysfunction of the organization is getting to me.
Sell the team before we lose the Dunking Dutchman!
I think we need to have an TKH Team meeting!
Security, please remove Rik from the premises.
please don’t boo.
I get it. Is there a Kings fan therapist around for Rik? Greg has been a lot lower. remember his article in 2021? We’re pulling for you.
Sacramento Kangz are the only franchise that can lead someone living in one of the happiest countries to lose enthusiasm…to Rick Niet opgeven! Hoop doet leven
eh, not sure about that
Not sure about what?
Right there with you Rik. It’s just almost impossible for me to get behind a race to the middle. I genuinely would rather they miss the playoffs and have a slim chance at a top-3 pick in a loaded draft than make the play-in, lose the pick and miss the playoffs. That is the absolute worst of the worst case scenario IMO.
Vivek’s ‘go Domas’ vacation video not doing it for you?
In all seriousness, I am also at a low point in my fandom for the obvious reasons but I think mainly, I find it difficult to root for Lavine. At least the Cousins’ era for all its ills stirred up passion in both directions. Lavine’s game makes me feel nothing but apathy.
Silver lining is that I am getting some enjoyment in how good Doug’s rotations have been. Lavine’s minutes and touches were pretty down in the 4th/OT which is what I would have done too, haha! And more JV/Domas minutes please!
Why is it difficult for you to root for Lavine? Seems like a nice, genuine dude, has love for his family, from all I have heard he is a good teammate, no off the court problems, fought through adversity to perform at a high level still.
Nothing at all against him personally, even listened to some of his interviews he definely says all the right things, seems like a good dude. It’s his game I am not a huge fan of.
He’s smooth, athletic, has a nice stroke, but just I don’t think it contributes to winning basketball in a way that’s hard to describe. Decision making maybe? He’s like a rich man’s Ben McLemore for me (more efficient, better handles). It doesn’t seem like he has a great flow/chemistry within the team concept even though he does share the ball just fine. I also don’t believe he’s realiable down the stretch, which is why I think we’ll see lineups in close games without him. Nor is he someone I see as being able to elevate his game and balling out in play-in game or seven-game series.
That said, I am not completely shutting the door on him. It’s just my current take that I maybe phrased wrong. I am rooting for him of course as a Kings player. I would be happy to be wrong and see him do well. I just do not get excited or find enjoyment in his game right now, beyond the few highlights.
It’s been filtered down to simple entertainment for me now. I certainly don’t have the desire to learn about the next potential first round pick they’ll no doubt mismanage on their way to playing in China.
Thanks , everybody.
Mavs fans in Mavsmoneyball: Screw this incompetent FO.
Kings fans: Today is tuesday.
(No disrespect meant to Mavs fans)
I have to admit, all the Mavs fan anger at their management made me chuckle not because it isn’t justified, but because we’ve lived this existence through multiple decades, ownership groups and front office’s. It’s amazing that we’ve managed to zero competent ownership with this franchise in basically 40 years of existence. As crazy as it sounds, the Maloofs are probably the BEST owners we’ve had and they tried to move the team!
Put another way, it is better to have Luka’d & lost than never to have Luka’d at all.
We’ll always have 2nd jump.
One man’s Sac is another man’s Bags.
We probably need to embrace the lovable loser concept and just own the fact that this is the most pathetic, moribund franchise in the most disregarded city in the NBA, if not all of American pro sports. We’re the Browns but our city doesn’t even have a modestly cool song about us like “Cleveland Rocks” or a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
When I reach “fuck it” like this, I feel much better about watching a shitass team represent my sad little city.
Kings currently have a winning record and are coming off two winning seasons with 48 and 46 wins.
Yeah!
We’re Charlie Sheen level winning….
Like, Old Sac levels of winning.
Like putting I-5 between downtown and the river levels of winning.
Like 4 years of construction on Highway 50 levels of winning.
Has it only been 4 years? Be better if you could actually see progress being made.
I moved away from Sacramento in 2020 and they were working Hwy 50 then. Actually, there has been major construction on Sacramento highways since I was a kid…and traffic remained the same.
They’ve screwed up 80 through Davis, West Sac and Vacaville too.
That gas tax hard at work!!
The Fix 50 project began in 2021 and is projected to end this year. Allegedly. I walk over it fairly regularly and they’re definitely making visible progress.
Like building a pedestrian mall on K St. and then putting train tracks right down the middle.
no, the use of the word “winning” in my comment refers to the win-loss record. having more wins than losses would be a winning record. finishing the season with more wins than losses is a winning season.
since the Kings moved to Sacramento in 1985, they’ve had 14 consecutive losing seasons, then 8 consecutive winning seasons, then 16 consecutive losing seasons, then two winning seasons with 48 and 46 wins.
Sorry was just making a joke. Yes, we’ve had two over .500 seasons, but as of right now it looks like we peaked in that LTB season.
Hopefully we can catch fire after the ASB, but right now we’re playing much more like a 41-45 win team than a 47-52 win team.
I totally get that. But the minute my mind begins to have hope about this team, they figure out how to let me down.
I’m just speaking for myself only. When I’m less of an emotionally involved observer, I seem to enjoy the raw beauty of basketball much more.
One playoff in appearance and zero playoff series wins since 2006. That is 19 years! 48 and 46 win seasons aren’t even very good!
But we won some playoff games!!
We did have one fun series in 20 years so I’ll give them that LOL.
What? You don’t like another 16 years of being in the lottery?
What’s everyone’s thoughts on who they like coming out of the West? I know it’s blasphemy but as a long-time Lebron admirer and with Luka there now, for all sorts of schadenfreudal reasons I’m kind of feeling the Lakers now, and actually like their lineup. I can’t root for OKC. Don’t like Houston. Hate Memphis. I really like Jokic but also hate everyone else in Denver. (Who is left?)
I could easily root for OKC, especially if they get Chet back.
He’s back. Played 25 minutes last night
I can root for OKC since Seattle tried to steal our team. And they run their team like I wished we ran ours.
Small market done right.
Also, Luck the Fakers!
It is the how they win so often and so strongly that has me bewildered. A masterful combination of coaching and talent accumulation to fill roles and keep on focus with those roles that is the marvel, game in and game out.
It’s almost like the best college team that graduated and is taking the pro league by storm. Or they are a hoops version of The Borg.
Not only do they add pieces to expand their depth and strengthen their weaknesses, they have a reserve of draft capital that boggles the mind allowing them the potential to draft or trade or acquire even more.
I don’t know if I should adore them or fear them or look for them to falter as the front runner they appear to be as they yet haven’t accomplished that crown.
They share the “best future” award with Wemby and the Spurs except they are obviously ahead at this time. Who else challenges that? Houston? Orlando?
I’d pull for Denver. After that, everybody but the Lakers and GS. I don’t mind OKC that much but I hate that they’re a small market that gets to watch great season after great season while we suffer every year with no real end in sight.
Denver, for the simple fact that I want the league to take extra notice of how great Jokic is. He gets a lot of shade from certain national media members, which is highly undeserved.
I always root for Denver because I love Jokic. Just pure basketball nirvana with that dude. Other than that, OKC would be fun because they are proof that a competent rebuilding strategy is really all you need to find success. They bottomed out and rebuilt in 3 years. Now they are on pace to win 65+ games. It is possible if you have competent leadership.
And a future HoF player that was playing at a high level that another team needed to trade for, so you get a really good young player and every damn draft pick that was available in return.
But OKC got George for Oladipo and Domas. So we’re half way there!!!
Success!
That helps for sure. But still, if the Kings had moved Fox in the offseason could they have gotten a bigger haul? Probably. And if they actually tire it down and maybe hung onto, Monk, Keegan and Ellis, they’d probably have quite a few assets.
Thanks for all the replies! I don’t dislike any player in OKC and would love any single one of them on our team (especially Chet). I just can’t bear to root for them out of extreme jealousy.
One we get to the playoffs I’ll probably swallow my dislike for the rest of Denver’s roster since Jokic is that great. I do like the Westbrook redemption storyline too. Loved Malone when he was here and wish they never fired him, but anyone else get rubbed the wrong way by him since he’s been Denver’s coach?
He does seem a tad bitter. Can’t really say I blame him though.
I totally understand why Malone is bitter, too.
Understand Malone’s bitterness but i can’t wrap my head around the longevity of it. It’s like you had a bad divorce 10+ years ago, but you’re still not over it. Nuggets fans are a different breed though. Just read one of their game threads and you’d feel uneasy reading about their championship level team. Night and day compared to TKH.
I agree with that – not getting over it is Malone’s problem. It doesn’t make any sense to harbor such resentment so many years later and after you’ve been to the top of the heap. Be proud of your accomplishments and look forward.
He already won a championship. That’s the Mt. Everest of revenge in sports IMHO.
I don’t mind OKC. Great team built in a good way, fun to see a small market succeed. But if the Kings are out of it I root for Denver. I’m in Colorado so there’s that connection, plus Jokic is just incredible to watch.
[redacted] sign Alex Len
LenBron.
2013 NBA Draft. Alex Len selected 5th overall to Phoenix. Anthony Bennett #1 to the Cavs. #7 Ben McLemore to Sacramento. (Sac also with #36 Ray McCallum and not CJ McCollum (who went #9 to the Blazers, though Sac had told him they were going to chose him. And he’s been taking it out on them ever since). Giannis at #15 (supposedly Geoff Petrie advised Kings to select him. Vivek, of course, did otherwise). This was Commissioner David Stern’s last NBA draft.
I wish it would have been literally any other team but I like Alex so I’m happy for him. I wonder if he’ll start.
Very OT – apologies, I just saw that Orlando Robinson, whom we released, is getting regular minutes in Orlando with respectable lines in the box scores: https://www.nba.com/player/1631115/orlando-robinson I was optimistic we might be able to cultivate him as a decent backup C.
His minutes are with Toronto, a team with 17 wins.
As I recall, he started a few games for Miami last season and played reasonably well. Unfortunately, he was injured during the preseason here, and MB never gave him much of a chance once he recovered.
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