Welcome back to Chainmail! We had some great questions this week, so let’s jump right in!
From RikSmits:
Please talk me off of the ledge of apathy
Tim: I don’t know how to talk you off of the ledge that I’m sitting on and swinging my legs from while eating lunch like one of those old-timey steelworkers.
The Kings beat the COVID-ravaged, tanking Oklahoma City Thunder by six points on Tuesday night. Did anyone out there feel good about that win? Does anyone out there feel like that means anything in the short or long term? This squad allowed a team missing multiple key guys, a team that averages 100 points per game, the lowest mark in the NBA, to put up 57 points in the first half and 111 in the game. De’Aaron Fox scored 12 points on 17 field goal attempts. The Kings looked bad – the Thunder just happened to be worse. (Clearly, I’m writing this response on a Wednesday morning)
And that’s where we are night in and night out with this franchise. They’ll lose three in a row, win two of four, and then lose a couple more. The roster hasn’t changed significantly in the past three years, nor in the last 15 months that Monte McNair has been in charge. I’ll start really caring again when ownership, the front office, and the players show that they care. Until then, I’m chillin’ on that ledge on my lunch break. Losses don’t bother me; wins don’t excite me.
Will: No. I love the franchise, enjoy watching certain players play but, I’m not going to tell you to try and force yourself to watch an inferior product, waste the precious minutes you have on this earth here, especially not you of all people, Rik! You’re tuning in from a far different time zone and wasting a whole different set of time!
The Kings are bad, they’ve been bad and they’ll continue to be bad if their current course doesn’t change. Apathy should be expect when something you love doesn’t put out the same effort that you do for 15 years. A ton of long time Kings fans are done looking for silver linings, done taking this franchise seriously, or engaging with it in a way that could cause emotional or monetary investment. They’re addicted to mediocre and with the price too high for even that, the Kings have resorted to shooting mediocre heavily cut with bullshit and bad to pretend they’re getting the same stuff. When they decide to get clean, when they’re making concerted efforts to change their habits, then we might have a talk about stepping back from that ledge, my friend. Till then: apathy away.
From Corneroffense:
My question: does anybody really think it’s just that ‘they don’t try hard enough?’ As in, these guys have so much ‘talent’ that they should win 45-48 games, but they’re just so ‘lazy’ that they’re going to lose 50?
Tim: This team’s low level of play stems from a multitude of factors, and the lack of nuance in mediums like Twitter and sports radio really doesn’t allow for the analysis that’s needed of a team like the Kings. For example, Luke Walton was a problem for this franchise, not the problem. His dismissal helped but didn’t solve everything. The same can be said of the effort level of this team. It’s an issue, but not the only one.
If the majority of Sacramento’s players put forth a modicum of effort on the defensive end of the floor, this team would probably be hovering around .500, but that’s probably the ceiling of this squad due to their lack of talent, lack of roster balance, and lack of good coaching. So yes, they don’t try hard enough, but they also wouldn’t be that good even if they did.
Will: We talked about it prior to the opening of the season and I’ll stick with it now – on paper, I think this is pretty close to the most talent the Kings have had on their roster in the last 15 years. The utilization of that talent, the motivation of that talent has been absolutely abysmal. Agree with Tim that discourse on Twitter and other social media just doesn’t give the space for necessary context or engagement, but I do think a motivated, well coached version of this squad would be in the playoff hunt right now. Maybe not long term, but this season? Absolutely. That doesn’t make them a good team. More than anything, it would just be a team good enough to take advantage of a weak year in the West. They couldn’t even do that.
From Kingsguru21:
Assuming you aren’t trading Fox or Haliburton, what kind of trades would you make to improve the roster and go for the playoffs?
Tim: This is an interesting exercise and it’s probably good for Will and me to take on as probably the two most high-profile pro-tank members of the TKH staff.
Okay, so if we’re trying to win now, we’re probably looking at trading off large contracts and picks for even worse contracts. The first one of those that catches my eye is Tobias Harris with the Philadelphia 76ers. He’s a pretty good, not great player on a max deal. According to quite a few Sixers fans out there, they wouldn’t mind shedding his overpaid deal. I’ll call and offer Harrison Barnes and Tristan Thompson or Marvin Bagley for Harris. Upgrade number one completed.
From there, I call the Indiana Pacers and offer Davion Mitchell, Richaun Holmes, and a top-10 protected first rounder for Myles Turner and Caris LeVert, landing me a significant upgrade in my rim protection and floor spacing, as well as a solid wing in LeVert. At the deadline, I shop Hield’s expiring deal and my 2024 selection to see if that garners any significant interest. I also need to go find a backup point guard. That group can probably squeeze into the seventh or eighth seed in the West. CURSE BROKEN!
Will: Man, I wrote a whole paragraph on a Fox trade before I remember the concept of this question being that I can’t trade him. This is a terrible exercise! Okay… I’ll try this again. Send Buddy Hield and an Top 5 Protected 2024 1st Rounder to the Detroit Pistons for Jerami Grant. The Pistons have one single shooter to put next to Cade Cunningham now and a good pick from a Kings team that could very well turn out to be a 5-10 pick to aid in their rebuilding process. The Kings get a capable wing defender and scorer. He and Harrison Barnes are a bit redundant but being able to essential switch every screen there and lose nothing is great and he’d be a big help for a team that’s always giving up a size advantage.
I cosign Tim’s trades as well and now wash my hands of this!
(Great question)
A hypothetical twist on Tim’s trade idea with Indy (sorry Nate, I’m including Fox)
Does anyone thing Indy would be interested in Fox? Could a Fox and Brogdon backcourt be something to them?
I ask because it’s well known that Indy is looking for a reset and LeVert is most likely to be moved followed by one of Turner or Sabonis. Would a Turner and LaVert for Fox and filler (Harkless?) satisfy all parties? No picks involved.
Kings hand the keys to Hali, get LaVert at the 2, Barnes at the 3 and go with double bigs in Turner and Holmes. Indy gets a young PG in Fox and their reset. Is it enough for both teams?
I don’t care if you include Fox in your hypothetical trade ideas or not Adam. I don’t agree with your opinion, but I don’t give one shit of one iota how you rosterbate dude.
Just playing devil’s advocate.
Firstly, I’m not sure Indy is going for a “reset” whatever that means in this case. Reports from media was that they were and that LeVert and one of either Sabonis or Turner would move. Then someone from their front office backed away from that publicly.
I think that on a talent basis: Turner + LeVert > Fox + filler (maybe Harkless). I don’t think Indy does that without a pick or better talent from Sac.
I do think Holmes and Turner could work on the floor together. Holmes plays the 5 on offense and the 4 on defense while Turner plays the 4 on offense and the 5 on defense. Could work imo. However, I don’t think Turner stays beyond his current contract based on comments to The Athletic’s beat reporter. He wants to be more than just a spot up corner 3 spacer. But Haliburton can make more happen for him.
Finally, I’ve heard that LeVert is just not that good. I don’t follow Indy at all; maybe you do and can weigh in on if he would be an upgrade at that 2/3 hybrid.
I’ll bet you that if the Kings ever have any games after last Tuesday, that Fox’s performance will improve.
You got all the cherries, son.
Can not trade Fox because the broadcast team would need to find someone else to put into the Hall of Fame ! Hours of slurpage wasted !
Totally useless in terms of winning basketball but likely an actual conversation in Vivek’s office.
Whart would it take to get both Christian Wood and Cam Reddish? Any possible trade scenario. Those 2 would solve alot of the KIngs problems. Not all, Becuase they still need a rebounder.
Whart, mole. Tomato, tomahto…
Wood can rebound. He is 10th in the league in defensive rebound percentage (> 20 mpg) and 16th in total rebound percentage (> 20 mpg).
The report is Atlanta wants a 1st round pick for Reddish. My hypothesis is they have a lot of salary they’re going to have to pay soon and they want to flip Reddish for a rookie with 4 years at rookie scale salary. If true, Mitchell might interest them as a rookie this year with 3 years rookie scale left after this season. He can compete with Wright to back up Young.
I have to think Houston wants a pick. They are rebuilding from the studs with Green and Porter Jr. A first rounder and Thompson might be enough if we’re willing to trade that for Wood.
Am I the only one who thinks Buddy for Horton Tucker and filler is the only Trade that makes sense so we can finally ship his overpaid a$$ somewhere else?
Trade for Malik Monk instead ! Younger cheaper and less selfish version ! Would need Laker filler to make it work !
I Dont watch lakers games but monk seems important to them squad….adamsite….bazemore is a filler, isnt?
Not enough. Buddy is making over $22M. THT makes $9.5M. The closest behind that is Nunn at $5M. They would need a bunch of other minimum contract guys to get up to $22M. It would be like a 5 players for 1 trade. Kings would also need to make roster space. It’s pretty much impossible.
Great..vlade made the bum untradeable
*(is that a Word?)More difficult, yes, but not impossible to trade. John Wall and Russell Westbrook have gotten traded for each other.
It’s really, IMO, whether or not McNair can trade Buddy Hield more than what he can get for him. Optics can make trading a guy like Hield tough, but the truth is Hield isn’t McNair’s guy either. He can afford from an optics standpoint to dump Hield for an expiring contract to get him off the roster.
I think the problem is the Lakers don’t have filler to make salaries work.
I also think the Lakers moved Rondo to open up a roster spot to take on contracts in order to move Westbrook. IMO, if the Kings want to move Buddy to the Lakers, they’d have to be willing to take on Westbrook, which I feel would be insane. Westbrook has the most undesirable contract in the league, second only to Wall.
Go on….
Don’t even go there, Spackler!
I’ll hand you my knife if you want Adam.
I always imagined it was a fork.
v
I have too much respect for forks to ever stab with you one Spackler.
Fox’s contract?
Bagley’s entire career and contract?
Bad contracts do not mean anything to this team.
Houston getting frustrated with Porter Jr and with Wood. Both are flakes. Wood has ten dollar talent and a ten cent brain. Reminds me of Whiteside- not physically but he gets numbers but seem empty.
Porter has a ton of turnovers.
Wood might be expendable due to Sengun but not sure I would want him.
and I don’t think Houston believes that Porter is building block.
Intervention is needed, y’all. But I agree with Will that there might be something stupid like trading for Simmons (which I was never a big fan of but now I wouldn’t do) at the deadline.
Hopefully that’s not what happens though. It’ll be interesting to see what McNair can pull off at the deadline, if he can pull it off and has everything available in trade (which he may not).
Feels like I’m watching the Kings right now watching DC crumble in the 2nd qtr against the Hornets.
Anybody randomly chucking three pointers?
Complete isolation offense?
Do they know which basket to defend?
yep. Kings are a “team” that is less than the sum of it’s parts. Subtraction might help. Where has TD gone?
Does not seem to be a solution to this mediocracy. Draft- top 10 but not top 3, free agents? not to Sac, sign and trade maybe.
LOL- I wonder if it is possible to get both Westbrook and Simmonds? Take on everybody’s left- overs. Kings would get congeniality award for superior compliance
Thanks guys, I guess?
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