The Sacramento Kings concluded their 6-game road trip with a win over the Detroit Pistons. Going into this road trip a 3-3 outcome seemed optimistic, and it speaks to the quality of this team that they’ve emerged from a difficult part of their schedule still in good shape .
Over the last few days there have been a few notable pieces of media coverage that didn’t lend themselves to us writing an article about or reacting to, but are still worth sharing and worth your time to read or listen to. As such, we bring you a quick roundup of notable links.
The Sacramento Kings’ Offense Is Playoff-Worthy – Jared Dubin, FiveThirtyEight
To that end, our RAPTOR-based prediction model now gives the Kings a 49 percent chance of making the playoffs.1 That’s up from 13 percent in the preseason model, and the 36 percentage point jump is the largest for any team so far this season. Sacramento’s projected record of 42-40 is 11 wins better than its preseason projection, and its plus-0.5 projected per-game point differential is up 4.1 points. Both of those figures are also the most-improved in the league to date.
An excellent dive into the Kings success, as well as playoff projection from 538. Their model tends to be slow to adjust from preseason models, so it’s encouraging (not insulting) that the model is so high on the Kings so far.
The Man Behind The Beam – Ringer NBA Podcast
Starting around the 38 minute mark, Sam Amick and the Ringer NBA crew interviewed Mo Brazelton, Senior Director of Entertainment for the Sacramento Kings. A very fun behind-the-scenes look at how The Beam came to be. I’ve never met Mo personally, but he’s well-known and well-regarded by pretty much everyone in Sacramento who has crossed his path.
Blast from the past: Kings’ high-octane offense brings back memories for assistant coach Doug Christie – James Herbert, CBS Sports
When Christie’s playing days come up now, it is not because he has decided to take a trip down memory lane and drag a bunch of 20somethings with him. “They just tell me how old I am and stuff like that,” he said. “Which is totally cool.” The spirit of those teams, though, is present every time he talks to them about making reads and improvisation.
“One thing with our teams is every movement was a chance for something to happen,” Christie said. “It just wasn’t a movement to move. And when you play that way, that means everything is live.”
Fantastic article from James Herbert where he interviews Doug Christie about the parallels between the glory-era Kings and the modern team.
Mike Brown was fined $25k for storming the court during the Toronto Raptors game. Personally, I believe it was a calculated decision by Brown, both to fire up his team and to defend De’Aaron Fox. In an interesting wrinkle, the official announcement came from the office of Joe Dumars.
Fun stats about Domantas Sabonis:
Domantas Sabonis last night:
✅ 23 PTS
✅ 13 REB
✅ 7 AST
✅ 9-11 FGIt's his third straight game with at least 20p/10r/5a on 75% shooting from the field.
The last NBA player to record three such games in a row was Wilt Chamberlain (Feb. 1967).
More: https://t.co/16WzmXZ6D7
— Justin Kubatko (@jkubatko) December 17, 2022
Let me add this one, I found it, uh. Well, it doesn’t matter how I found it:
beamwhore.edu
That really DOES look like Kevin Huerter in that video!
Is it safe to click on the link? ????
From DOCO to Tahoe, light the MF Beam
https://twitter.com/worldwidewob/status/1592747021387018240?s=46&t=j-_gR_t_LzKxOo9dLn56ng
I used to be BORED OF THE KINGS.
Oh lord, how things have changed.
Now I want to Misty Mountain Hop to the Barbershop as we Battle for Evermore wins! Maybe even a ring.
What’s the team’s record when at least one player wears a band-aid on his face?
7-win streak, incoming!
I always thought Domas belongs in the same category as Wilt…
20,000 lovers might agree… (ya never know)
http://www.wilt.dk/
The story tonight, besides Devin Booker going off for 58, is the ejection of Ja Morant in the first quarter of the game that Memphis then lost to OKC for talking to a fan and to summarize – disrespecting a referee.
Wow! What about the people who paid all that Saturday night ticket money to see
The RefereeJa? The League has some explaining to do.This is tough. If the ref gets suspended/fined whatever – the players will know and well, it might be even worse. This is Joey Crawford T-ing up Tim Duncan for laughing on the Spurs bench back in his player days.
It’s getting a bit out of hand. Not just here in Kangzdom– I am seeing a lot of unhappiness among fans with officiating this year.
NBA should implement some basic AI refereeing, e.g. cameras to check out of bounds play, to keep the zebras on their toes. Hopefully future generation can get rid of humans to referee.
The VAR in soccer has not been a great succes yet, IMO.
His shot is very mechanical.
It’s automatic.
I think he looks a bit rusty
I watched US Open tennis where line judges are gone – awesome
Good points all. I usually don’t comment on the refereeing because I usually figure that it’s going to balance out over the length of a season and that the stars are going to get star calls.
However this season seems different to me. Domas is getting the shit beat out of him on a nightly basis down in the low post and the blow to Fox’s head, hard enough to split his skin and draw blood has more than reached the point where even a casual fan says enough is enough.
This season the refs seem to me to be out of control, seemingly thinking the fans came to the game to see them ref. Their calls seem more arbitrary and biased. Obviously I’m biased and with the Kings playing well the missed calls seem more egregious and more favorable to the name teams. The first 4 games of the season perfectly shows the refs bias and their bad calls probably decided the outcome of at least 2 wins that should be in the King’s win column.
Someone (it could have been you Mr. Flatus) mentioned that the NBA should adopt the Hockey (?) system where only the team captain and assistant captain can speak to the refs. I’m all for it. It would help speed up the game and more importantly would take out the personalities and the refs fragile egos out of the mix. and would hopefully lead to a more equally refereed called game.
I heard an account on the perpetually reliable internet that the conversation with the fan encouraging Ja with a “Let’s go” and Ja saying he would if the refs would give him a f’ing whistle. Saying something like that in front of the official could get a whistled response.
someone who is good at photoshop should put Domas’ head on Wilt’s body in that famous black and white photo of him holding the 100 sign. But it says “100 Beams”.
Or something like that I don’t know
I’m a Beamer. My nickname for King’s fans.
OT: I know his contract his horrible, but if you moved Holmes (who’s contract is one year shorter than Duncan’s) as the main piece, it does offset it a bit. Robinson might thrive in a Kings system devoted to shooters around Sabonis. Miami might also have to send draft capital for someone to take on Robinson’s deal. FWIW, Holmes and Moneke for Robinson works.
Or, just sit on Holmes until someone really needs a center and is willing to be a buyer.
https://twitter.com/TheNBACentral/status/1604586591808372736
Here’s another view from a (most likely) different Eastern Conf GM
https://www.sportskeeda.com/amp/basketball/news-nba-executive-slams-duncan-robinson-s-futile-contract-miami-heat-with-robinson-big-deal-long-deal-bad-deal
It ain’t pretty. The team that signed him won’t play him. That’s a condemnation not a recommendation.
The Kings can use Duncan Robinson to re-sign Harrison Barnes. I like that better. But that’s just me.
I like Josh Okogie – he’s a UFA 2023, plays his butt off and oh, another member of the Nigerian National Team.
I also like Caris Lavert – because he is a slasher and can defend and an UFA at 2023. Arguably the anti-Duncan Robinson.
I meant Duncan Robinson money (left out the important $ part)
Kings will be very lucky to get a second round pick or developmental prospect for Holmes. Getting a player like Robinson will never Happen. Holmes contract was stupid. Their are 30 other big men who can do what Holmes does at 3-4 mill per. Call it what it is a dumb decision. Especially. Since he doesn’t even see the floor.
What does Robinson’s contract look like?
There. Look-see yourself fake Dutchman. (3/56M with a player option for the 3rd year after this season.)
https://www.spotrac.com/nba/miami-heat/yearly/cap/roster/
It does not make sense for several reasons. (1) it’s such a bad contract that it would be nearly impossible to move it later. (2) the team has plenty of depth already with Fox, Mitchell, Huerter, Monk, TD, Barnes, Keegan, so Robinson would not get any playing time in Sacramento this year either. (3) if you want to add a player like that next year, you can probably find someone like that in the 2nd round or undrafted. (Don’t forget, there’s Sasha Vezenkov who is still balling in Europe). (4) taking on his contract would make it difficult to resign players. (5) it’s generally not advisable to make WTF moves while the team is winning.
Kings have been losing these types of games for 15 years.
That is a huge improvement and culture change.
The West is tough and the parity is a big story early in the season .
What the Suns and Pels are doing is flat out amazing. Suns have been missing starters all year in and out of the Lineup. The Pels are Killin it without BI. Clips are unknown. But as you saw the other night when Kawhi and George on on. They destroyed a healthy Bucks team. Grizz are winning without arguably their second best player. Bane was playing like an All Star before the injury. Lillard has looked unstoppable since coming back. Kings have been super lucky. No real injuries this entire season
Only 2 games separate 5 through 10. Only 2.5 games separates 5 through 1.
Impossible to make any predictions on W-L before trade deadline. Even though the Kings will not be able to do much. Very few assets(unless they move Barnes) Teams are not going to be interested In Holmes 3/36. A contract that looks really bad right now. To me it will be a miracle if he can be traded for a couple second round picks. Maybe a developmental player. You’re not getting much more.
As teams get healthy and the trade deadline heats up, the standings can change a lot.
Kings have a nice opportunity to build a cushion before the ASB. After that 21 of the last 26 will be against playoff teams.
Just stay the course: consistently beat the lesser teams and split with the other playoff hopefuls.
Badge Legend