Welcome to the first Chainmail of the season! Before we dive in, a quick update on Greg’s never-ending life journey!
Greg started awake. He opened his eyes—or at least he tried to; they were nearly swollen shut. Did he get into another Roadhouse-esque fight last night? No. Did he stay up too late reading every one of Tim’s past articles? Not this time.
Then it hit him: cats. The neighbor’s cats must be back. Those damn cats.
There were two things in life Greg was highly, nearly deathly allergic to: happiness and cats.
Greg stumbled out of bed, put in his medicated eye drops, and, over a few minutes, the world slowly came back into focus. He stumbled to the shower, cleaned himself up, and got ready for the big game—one of the biggest basketball games of his life.
Eight hours later, the final game of the regular season for Nashville High School was underway in the big barn. Greg, the supposed best player in the state, the supposed leader of his team, the supposed “next big thing,” was playing horrifically. He was 1 for 13 from the field at halftime, and his five turnovers were even worse than his shooting. His mentor, his hero, Dewayne Dedmon, would have been ashamed to see the game. Luckily, Dewayne was off at the Basketball Hall of Fame getting inducted.
Despite his coach’s urging and his teammates’ encouragement, Greg simply couldn’t get it done. He finished the night with 6 points on 22 attempts, 3 assists to 9 turnovers, and an insignificant defensive impact. Worse yet, his team suffered their first loss of the season, which happened to be their last game—a bad omen headed into the state playoffs.
As he walked out of the old barn, dejected and confused, Greg reviewed his performance. Every time he shot the ball, he felt like he couldn’t see right! His teammates were blurs, the ball was a blob instead of a sphere—something just wasn’t right. Did he suddenly need glasses? Was he suddenly just a bad basketball player, like his friend Will, who always ate at Buffalo Wild Wings after games? What was the deal?
Tears of frustration streamed down his face. As he reached up to wipe them away, he felt his eyes. They were swollen! Just like that morning! Then he heard it: a quiet but distinct “meow!” He looked up, and there on the roof of the gym was not one cat, not three cats, but a countless number of cats. Their dander must have drifted through into the actual court, throwing off his eyesight.
Greg smiled in relief. He would take care of those cats, and he would never play that badly again!
Over the next couple of weeks, Greg worked harder than he ever had in his life. Between school, practice, band, choir, juggling club, and creative writing, he only had a few minutes each day to don a mask and slowly clear out the cats from the ceiling of the old barn. Most importantly, he got them and their dander off of the roof. With each cat gone, his performance continued to improve.
Finally, the night of the championship game arrived.
Everyone was in the stands: Dewayne Dedmon, Tim, Tiger Woods—three of the greats in their respective fields.
Greg felt ready, and he was. The Nashville High School Warriors destroyed their opponent. The final score was 96–69. Greg finished the game with 32 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 steals. He was named Championship MVP, and his future never seemed brighter.
As he walked out of the game, Tim—the Zach Lowe of The Kings Herald—sauntered over with a twinkle in his eye.
“Hey, Greg,” he called. “I watched you play a few weeks ago, and you were a mess. I’ve been scouting you since, and each game, you’ve seemed to get better and better. What’s the deal?” he asked in his distinct yet charming Brooklyn accent.
Greg replied, “It was easy. What made me and my team better? The hairs on barn? It’s gone.”
And with that, welcome to the first mailbag of the 2024-2025 season! We are here to answer your questions about the early season results. The Kings lost to a pair of solid teams, beat a couple of bad ones, and their rotation seems to be coming into focus. Feel free to ask about DeMar’s performance, Keon’s DNP-CD, Huerter’s return, Keegan’s shooting, or whatever else comes to mind.
Now, get to asking, so we can get to answering!
Why is it, no matter who’s on the roster, who’s coaching on the sidelines, that this team always seems to have one quarter where they just stop being able to do anything right? We always joke about the 3rd Quarter, but it’s just incomprehensible to me how the lazy quarter is practically baked into this team’s DNA.
What would you do about Keon Ellis? He doesn’t play enough to impact the team. Should we just let him sit or try and trade him for say a big PF.
My take? Give him a regular rotation spot for the next five games. We’ve got a variety of teams coming up that are all beatable to differing degrees. If any of those games come down to how well Keon played, then there’s something bigger happening with the team, win or lose.
It’s understandable that more of our offense is ISO ball with DeRozan here, but I’d still like to see more offball movement happening, and I think with the sample size we have from last season, trying to get Keon going could help with that.
He most definitely made a huge impact in his 17 minutes against the Jazz. 3 blocks and 2 steals?
He has definitely put himself in the running to be part of a package deal.
If after years of subtle hinting and more years of not so subtle badgering, I will finally manage to convince my wife to take a vacation to Sacramento, how do I plan a perfect game day?
Staying at the Sawyer Hotel with a view of the beam when it’s lit is pretty awesome, especially when it’s raining. It looks incredible in the rain. Lots of amazing spots in Doco to sample and Old Sac is just down the street.
I know the writers will answer in their way but I thought I might add my two cents as a local.
I would avoid K Street east of about 8th or 9th Street at night because it can get a little sketchy. My perfect day in Sac would probably involve a trip to the Crocker or the new Discovery Science Museum, early dinner at Mulvaney’s or Waterboy in midtown, and a Kings game. The Sawyer and Citizen are both great hotels within walking distance of the arena. I have a friend who comes to visit annually and his trip always includes the Railroad Museum and staying on the Delta King. I find the Delta King to be a little musty smelling, so I don’t normally recommend it to friends but some people love staying on a riverboat, regardless.
Dreaming big – you might plan a day in spring when both the A’s and Kings are playing since it’s a short walk from one venue to the other with plenty to do around DoCo or the Rivercats’ stadium.
Is Kyle and Kayte complaining about the Lakers celebrating their win when we light a beam to Jupiter after our wins:
A – Ironic
B – Hypocritical
C – A gross lack of self-awareness
D – Fucking stupid
E – All of the above
What happened?
When the Lakers won, they shot off confetti streamers as they do for every home win. Kyle and Kayte thought the celebration was over the top, and said something to the effect of “what did they win game 7 of the finals or something?”
LOL. Thanks.
It is such a bummer to have such homer uninteresting announcers. Shills. Illogical bullshit. It is a low budget-small town type operation.
Try to listen but can’t.
I personally like them.
Yeah, I’m fine with them, too. They’re not Gary Gerould but really, nobody is. If Gerould was in LA, the world would treat him like he’s Vin Scully. But Kayte comes to the game well prepared and Kyle’s just fun to listen to.
Kayte is a wealth of basketball knowledge that is forced to deal with sub par talent they put next to her.
As multiple people have called out, she definitely needs to learn how to stop talking over the action, particularly the big momentum shifts. I think that will change over time. Personally, I don’t think Mark Jones is a sub par talent – he’s just so overall generic that he doesn’t move me.
The fact is that none of the broadcasters can draw on the wealth of great player stories that Jerry Reynolds could, or even really Grant for that matter. I was (and remain) an absolute Grant hater, but when the Kings cut him, they lost a person who could draw upon a vast knowledge of the history of the Kings in Sacramento. It’s clear that Kayte does her homework for every game, but she doesn’t seem to have the personal connection to the players that Grant had. That’s both good and bad. Sometimes, Grant’s connection felt far too personal.
F – None of the above, funk the Lakers
Question: Why do you do this to me?
How many marriages have you ruined?
Why do the Kings play so far off of shooter on the perimeter? They are consistently out of position to contest most 3pt shots, which is reflected by opposing teams, generally, torching the Kings from 3.
Is this a scheme issue? Personnel issue? Defensive philosophy issue? And why is there no change when the same results keep happening?
Very good question.
I feel like the League-wide scouting report is that Sacramento, can’t or won’t guard the corner three. Particularly the (R) sided corner three.
We watched Utah go there constantly and despite everyone knowing they were sending someone there – Sensabaugh, Collins, Filipowski, Clarkson – boom! they got an open look for 3.
My Question: For how much longer can we look for Sacramento to corner the market as we see others market the corner?
Who ends up leading this team in points? Assists?
Lyles seems very rusty so far, yet Huerter does not. If Lyles can not produce like he has done in the past where do Brown and/or Monte turn to for big man minutes?
If history is an indicator another small wing or guard will be signed .
His trade value would be low at that point, so getting something decent in return would be challenging.
He is expiring so maybe some capped out apron team could see short term value in him for the playoffs. An example could be Denver. Lyles for Zeke Nnaji works and sheds long term salary for the Nuggets, but not sure if moves any needle for any team on the court. It would be a gamble for the Kings.
Why does no one talk about De’Aaron Fox’s persistent poor ball handling? Not just this year, but throughout his career. He just plain loses the dribble, dribbles off his foot, loses the ball when he puts his back to somebody in the post and then tries to make a move, dribbles too high where defenders can reach the ball, etc. A lot of times it seems like he’s moving too fast and his dribble can’t keep up, which is unacceptable for any starting NBA guard — even the league’s fastest player.
I was glad we kept Fox over Haliburton, but it was really nice watching the care that Haliburton took with the ball, even though he’s not half the athlete as De’Aaron. Fox has certainly put in a lot of work on his shot over the years, but it does not appear he has done the same with his ball handling. If D’Aaron Fox, the fastest player in the league, made a commitment to become a top 5 ball handler, he might be Allen Iverson. Otherwise, I guess we just have to keep watching him dribble off his foot and lose the ball out of bounds for no reason.
(I’ve been feeling this way for at least three seasons now and seen zero improvement in this area. So finally had to go ahead and post something about it. Can we start the “De’Aaron Fox, improve your ball handling” movement, please.)
Per basketball-reference Fox’s career TO% stands at 12.5%; Hali’s is 13.7%. Both have fairly steadily reduced their percentages through their careers, each establishing career lows last season. Fox’s was 10.1% while Hali’s was 12.2%. Fox has indeed had a TO problem so far this season with a SSS 15.5% TO rate.
Cool, thanks for looking that up. The years-long eye test says Fox loses the ball when he shouldn’t and his ball handling is not quite up to par.
I’ve kind of felt like Fox isn’t the best ball handler over the years, too. But those TO numbers aren’t egregious. The thing I haven’t loved has been when the Kings are down late in the game, Fox goes into iso mode and forces the ball into and through double teams. Frequently, this ends up in a TO while he tries to lobby for a foul.
Having DeMar here ought to relieve some of the pressure on Fox to initiate. We’re already seeing it pay dividends as DeMar has been landing quality shots and drawing foul calls at the same time. My thought is that as the team gels offensively, our perceptions of Fox’s ball-handling skills will improve.
Something that caught my attention in the Utah game the other day was the methodical way in which Domas and DDR have been working together. They’ve been seeking to get the defenders to switch and then letting Domas pound the ball down low. If they don’t get the switch, DDR goes iso and finds a good middy. It’s been a thing of beauty so far.
Not many would have predicted Hali with worse TO pct than Fox . Ball don’t lie !
Hali had a three game stretch of 40+(!) assists with ZERO turnovers last year.
So his stats for the rest of the season were not quite as good.
Also, data needs context and interpretation before it becomes information. Haliburton is primarily a distributor who averaged 11 assists a game last year, basically double Fox’s assist average. Fox is primarily a slasher, who averaged 5.6 assists last year. So out of each of their total overall turnovers, I’d say we can be pretty certain that more of Haliburton’s were passes to other players that were taken away. With Fox assisting at half the rate of Haliburton but having similar turnovers rates, that means more of his turnovers are simply from him losing the ball on his own. That’s why my post was about Fox’s ballhandling and sloppy dribbling, not overall turnovers figures.
You make a good point about TO% not taking into account how those TOs occur. However, your initial comparison between Fox and Hali suggested that Hali was more careful with the ball (“it was really nice watching the care that Haliburton took with the ball…”). To my way of thinking, taking care of the ball includes not losing it because of errant passes.
You also criticized Fox for not working on his ball handling, but the steady reduction in his TO% from season to season (at least until the first few games of this season) suggests he has worked on it.
We may not wind up agreeing here, but your initial comment at least got me to take a look at what the stats show.
Sometimes passes that result in turnovers are the fault of the receiver not being where they should be, mishandling the passes, not looking when they should have looked, not blocking out the defender, etc., not necessarily just from errant passes. Passing is something that takes two. Dribbling is just on the ball handler.
At any rate, just keep an eye out and see if you don’t notice what I’m talking about. Although, now we know Fox is going to be playing with an injury to his dominant hand this season, so that will definitely have to be factored in. Respect for pulling those stats anyway, too, salute.
Dang, just saw this:
https://www.nbcsportsbayarea.com/nba/sacramento-kings/deaaron-fox-finger-injury-update/1799539/
That’s not good. Seems like a yearly thing w Fox. Lingering injury he has to play through.
Will Skal get any NBA minutes this year for Sacramento?
And if not, who should get fired for that?
He’s just getting Skalibrated.
There are a very select few left that are still in love with Skal.
Which core player not named Huerter would you consider trading to acquire a different maker power forward?
If the salary could work, they should just grab John Collins. Seems like they could basically get him for nothing to help the Jazz shed salary, too.
Kings would just need to match salary, which would be something like Huerter + Lyles.
Ellis, Len, or Lyles. Neither of those are core though.
Lyles
It’s year 3! What have you seen that appears to be different from Keegan so far this year? What’s your way to early to tell prediction for how his season will go?
How many games will it take for MB to figure out his rotations? I understand injuries to Kevin and Trey played a role but MB has had the same team for 2 years now
Who is going to be the thorn in our side this year like the pelicans last year? Not the best team in the conference, just the one we can’t get past. My feeling is that it’s Houston or GSW. The warriors are clicking on all cylinders right now (albeit not against a murderers row) but if that start raining threes I’m not sure we can match that this year.
My vote is a healthy Phoenix squad. Nurkic plays Domas well, and they have 3 versatile scorers, along with Grayson Allen who can drain 3s.
Is there a realisitic 3/D PF option than can bring the size/length everyone believes we’re lacking?
This seems like a unicorn position at this point as I’m not sure if there is somebody even getable that fits the 3/D criteria, with the D component also including rim protection.
He’s injured right now, but I’d love to swoop up GG Jackson from the Grizz. Memphis has quite a few big bodies in JJJ, Brandon Clarke, Santi Aldama, Jaylen Wells, and GG.
After four games, the Kings are dead last in rebounds per game but they’re 16th in points in the paint. Last year, with a very similar team makeup, they were 12th in rebounds per game. At the same time, when facing comparatively bigger teams in Portland and Utah, they have held their own. At times, they have picked apart the opponents’ defensive weaknesses with surgical precision.
Understanding the limited sample size of four games, do you think the concerns about the Kings’ frontcourt size appear to be legit? Also, do you think the Kings will end up in the bottom half of the league in rebounding or will those numbers significantly rise as the season continues?
What will it take for the Kings to move on from the current TV broadcast crew of Kayte, Kyle, and Mark?
Or do they just need some coaching on how to be better at their jobs? Kayte does has some good insight, but it is her delivery that needs some polish.
Who is the PJ Washington’s of this year that you’d like the team to target? Feels like the team is a wing short.
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