It's schedule release day in the NBA! One of the most mildly interesting days in the NBA calendar. Nobody really cares this far out from opening night, but we have an obligation to post it, so here you go:
Complete Sacramento Kings 2021-22 NBA schedule pic.twitter.com/EYFyZ0IUEh
— Jason Anderson (@JandersonSacBee) August 20, 2021
The Kings will open the 2021-22 regular season in Portland on October 20th, and host their home opener vs. the Utah Jazz on October 22nd. I would analyze the schedule further, but 1) I don't care all that much, and 2) I haven't seen a plain text simple, readable version of the schedule posted online yet, so blurry twitter images will have to do for now, and we can save the over-analysis for later.
The Kings social team put their own spin on the schedule reveal, as they do every year. You can check that out here:
✅ Leopards
✅ Yaks
✅ Bumble BeesThe Kings schedule presented by @kpgreatersac looks a little different this season 🤣 pic.twitter.com/pytevDHZyI
— Sacramento Kings (@SacramentoKings) August 20, 2021
I suppose I'll close my thoughts with this – the Kings have a grand total of zero games on ESPN, ABC, or TNT this season. That isn't terribly surprising, but kind of a bummer. I'm not going to argue that they deserve a true national TV game, but I do wish they had the sort of impact offseason that would warrant one of these networks giving them a shot on the big stage. We're all still waiting for that aggressive swing trade that would take them from a play-in contender to a legitimate playoff team with postseason expectations.
The Kings provided some of their own notes on the schedule, via press release:
Schedule breakdown by month: October (2 home, 4 away = 6 total), November (9 home, 7 away = 16 total), December (10 home, 5 away = 15 total), January (7 home, 8 away = 15 total), February (5 home, 6 away = 11 total), March (6 home, 8 away = 14 total), April (2 home, 3 away = 5 total).
By day, the schedule breaks down as follows: Monday (5 home, 7 away = 12 total), Tuesday (4 home, 3 away = 7 total), Wednesday (13 home, 10 away = 23 total), Thursday (1 home, 2 away = 3 total), Friday (7 home, 6 away = 13 total), Saturday (3 home, 9 away = 12 total), Sunday (8 home, 4 away = 12 total).
The Kings longest homestand features six games: Wednesday, Dec. 22 thru Sunday, Jan. 2 hosting LA Clippers (Dec. 22), Memphis (Dec. 26), Oklahoma City (Dec. 28), Dallas (Dec. 29, Dec. 31) and Miami (Jan. 2).
During three separate occasions, Sacramento will embark on season-long five-game road trips: Saturday, Jan. 22 thru Monday, Jan. 31, Saturday, Feb. 26 thru Saturday, March 5 and Wednesday, March 23 thru Friday, April 1.
Of the team’s 14 back-to-back sets, four are of the home-home variety, four are away-away, three represent the away-home category and three are home-away.
Sacramento’s 41-game home schedule features 18 weekend contests at Golden 1 Center (seven games on Fridays, three on Saturdays and eight on Sundays).
The Kings will open the season versus Portland for the first time since the 1989-90 campaign. Through four opening nights with the Trail Blazers, Sacramento owns a 1-3 record between Oct. 29, 1982 in Kansas City, Oct. 27, 1984 in Kansas City, Nov. 5, 1988 at Portland and Nov. 3, 1989 at Portland.
The Kings have a 24-12 record in home openers during the Sacramento-era (1985-present), including a 17-7 record since 1998-99.
If I squint hard enough, I can see 42 wins, but then I get dizzy and hit my head on the coffee table again, and that’s putting a strain on my helmet.
(…sees the Nostradumbass winner of 2021 predict the Kings total wins for the upcoming season.
RUNS TO PLACE A BET.)
Let’s get that first nine game losing streak out of the way, asap.
who knows, it may lead to Walton’s exit.
Hope springs eternal.
I’ve been advocating for an 0-10 start, and a 72-0 finish.
Walton doesn’t even qualify as deadwood. He’s more like petrified wood.
All the games up to April 10th look winnable.
The Kings got Simmons!?
The Kings got Queta!!
I can see a couple opportunities for a nine game losing streak
The 5 game road trip in January is brutal: Milwaukee, Boston, Atlanta, Philly, NY. They then follow it up with a home game against the Nets the a road game at G.S.
That could easily be a 7 game losing streak.
January is too late to be firing Walton, but I’ll take it
Ayeeee they’re opening in Portland, I think I’ll probably get tickets to that one. Would be fun to see Davion start his career by covering Dame
when did portland get a team
No national T.V games? Or do they announce that later on?
NBATV counts as a nationally televised game, but no, there are no other national TV games as of now.
Over/Under of 34.5 wins feels about right, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Kings just squeak by to hit 35-36 wins.
So more of the same basically.
I’m so excited for the 11th pick in the 2022 draft.
Hey atleast we won the summer league champion!
Yay?!
at 11 in 2022 draft there are a few young big guys- tall, athletic, one year of college or even G league. They show promise. Can’t wait!
Looking at the schedule I feel it’s going to be right around 32 wins. Of course I don’t know other team’s schedules that the Kings may be getting them on a back to back. Just for what the Kings have listed, I don’t see them hitting 40 wins unless major changes are made.
Agreed, I don’t see 40 wins at all as the roster is currently constructed.
I do think the triumvirate of Fox/Haliburton/Mitchell (please for the love of god lets not refer to them as FHM) will by force-of-will be worth a few surprising wins — and I’m really looking forward to that.
Lastly, I’m not holding my breath on any major changes until the deadline, and even then, I don’t see a trade that moves the needle. One can hope that a contender in desperate need of shooting overpays for Buddy or Bagley shows vaaaaast improvement in IQ/skills/health, but… hope for the best, expect the worst as always.
Eh, it’s a schedule. Plenty of winnable games. Biggest thing for me is that they play so many teams b2b. I’m not the biggest fan of that. Especially the 2 games in Houston late in the season.
I’m sure it’s consistent for all teams
I don’t like the trend. It’s fine once or twice, but not like 10 times in a season.
it may be consistent but hard to win 2. the 3 lousy teams all want to steal one of the back to backs
I don’t see the potential trades (Simmons, Siakim) as making this squad a legit playoff team.
You should have more faith in the make believe trades.
Found the 4 teams we play 3 times: @Portland (twice), @San Antonio (twice), Minnesota and Memphis twice at home.
And so the road to another 30 something win season begins…
I just can’t wait 🤙
Yeah, but at least the front office has turned the roster over, gotten younger, picked up some draft picks and created long term cap flexibility.
I think 34 wins is pretty much on the mark. Considering we’re simply running out what is essentially an amalgamation of the previous two seasons’ 31 win teams, adding a bit of growth from Tyrese, and sprinkling in Mitchell’s defense for 18-20 minutes a night.
I’m going with 33 wins. Other teams haven’t stood pat and I don’t think the Kings are going to have as much injury luck this season. I also woudn’t be surprised to see some locker room issues this year, with Tristan Thompson coming in, Bagley seriously wanting out, and possibly Buddy wanting out as well. I think they’re going to run three and four guard lineups because the team is overfilled with guards and centers and that’s going to hurt as much as it helps.
And 1: The Kings are +450 or +500 underdogs to make the playoffs on the Vegas betting lines right now.
Does the play-in count as playoffs in Vegas? (Asking for Vivek)
I think it counts as the NBA Championship in the owner’s office!
Yeah, that five-centers thing is a death sentence. ESPN and me lost track after three.
Woodard as a Guard? That’s just trolling right?
Jones and Queta were on break when they called roll.
We might legitimately start the season 0-11 or 0-12. Maybe that’s enough to get Walton out.
Too bad I’m down on the Blazers now as well, that could’ve been fun (also depending on how willing I’d be in October to go to a packed arena given the current state of affairs).
My guess is that the Walton tenure end losing streak happens around the Dec 22 – Jan 2 winter break.
Happy New Year!
“Get out.”
I just read an article on NBA.com-“5 can’ miss matchups between NBA’s young talent.”
They missed the one I can’t wait for:
Mitchell vs Mitchell!
Minus massive poor injury luck I’m going 40-42. Bench a little better and defense has to be some better. Can’t go full .500 bc, well Kangz.
I will go with 41-41…….
I really think the bench can made a difference…………
(Harkless, Davis, Metu, Len, Mitchell vs CoJo, Jeffries, Whiteside, JJ, Guy)
I have faith the overall defense would be much better.
Sorry to ruin your Friday night, but Luke Walton only won 37 with Lebron in his prime.
that was his prime? really?
Is that you, Luke?
my fault for engaging
And I think he was injured that year where he missed games
I’m no fan of Luke, but it’s worth pointing out that team was very good when at full strength.
OT, but meaningful:
Condolences to his family and his Kings coworkers.
Gone at 49. That’s incredibly sad. I see the pain his loved ones are going through and wish them the best.
🙁
Rest in peace. Hoping for the best for the family.
Definitely OT
Wow
Ok
and definitely meaningful.
so sorry.
Probably 34 wins. They will get going a couple of times and look like a real team. Then they will drop 10 or 12 in a row. I see the losing streaks getting a little longer this year so less wins…..
Starting Dec 15 to Jan 19th we play 15 out of 19 games at home and only leave the state 2x (@LAL @GSW, @POR, @DEN). Up to this point, or first 28 games, there is a rough balance between H/A and strength of opponent. If we can get to the pre-holidays (12/15) around .500 we can make our move and try to go like 14-5 during this stretch.
So the first 6 weeks of the season should be viewed as a steep learning curve for Davion, allowing him to take his bumps and bruises, figuratively speaking, then start to flash star potential more consistently. This happens only if he is named a starter from Day One.
It is more important for Davion to be named starter than Ty, though I advocate for all three starting. I have not decided on the optimum 4/5 pairing, but I do not particularly like HB at the PF, his scoring tends to suffer there, and his rebounding is not where we need it to be.
The idea of starting Marvin sends shivers down my spine but FWIW he does look like he has an NBA physique based off photos I saw of him training down in Miami. Only took 4 years to lose the pudge.
In the first 4-6 weeks of the season Davion can get his feet wet against the likes of:
Lillard
Donovan
Conley
CP3
SGA
Cade Cunningham
LaMelo Ball
If SL showed us anything it is Davion is ready for a Trial under Fire. The real and more apt question perhaps is “are these players ready for (an) Off Night”? And do we have a coach not as braindead as it often seems with a willingness to start a rookie?
Fox is going to be making a renewed commitment to defense but he is also our leading scorer by a country mile. He may average close to 28-30 PPG this year and this can be facilitated to a degree if he shares the court with Davion so he does not have to exert as much effort checking the primary attacker.
All this is common sense but whether the coach processes the circumstances this way remains to be seen. You can ask more of Fox defensively, to rise to the level of Davion in terms of effort, if not effectiveness, and simultaneosuly mitigate his responsibility by assigning Davion to the more aggressive and ball dominant guard.
Allegedly Fox added 9 lbs of muscle since the season ended, so asking him to check SGs should be no problemo. Of course I expect a fair amount of switching between Fox and Davion. The combined defensive potential is devastating with the caveat Fox needs to be fresh to take over in the 4th, aka winning time.
The difference between Davion and our other rookies at their respective entry into the league (Ty, Marvin and Fox), is that he comes in with more of a pedigree and more of a readiness and maturity to be a starter. And off the SL performance, there is further substantiation of his readiness. Starting Davion not only helps him realize his potential sooner, it helps Fox to carry the scoring burden by providing him respite away from likes of Lillard and Donovan and still ask him to defend to an elite level.
All this is obvious but our coach is probably ready to roll with Tristan Thompson as a starter, Harkless first off the bench, Louie King and Metu buried, Davion getting a measly 15 MPG. Maybe this coach will pleasantly surprise, he did after all give Terrence Davis the leeway and freedom to shine, but I learned to expect he will generally not do the right obvious thing.
If Davion does get the start, I give the coach NO credit. Why should he get credit for doing the right and obvious thing?! You cannot talk and preach defense until you are blue in the face, which started the moment the horn sounded from the final regular season game, then put an inferior defender on the floor over Mitchell to start games.
The other side of the coin is you bring him off the bench the first 10-15 games, build his confidence against second tier players, then promote him to starter once he has exceled in this role. This approach would be justified if you were dealing with a one-and-done rookie, a deer in the headlights player overwhelmed by the size or speed of the game. But that is not who were are dealing with.
UTA started Donovan, Davions role model, from Day One. If our coach was not bull-headed and intellectucally challenged, he’d refer to this template. Look at Donovan’s first 20 games, you will see the struggles incurred that precipitated his rapid and stunning development (though I predicted stardom for him). The early games of 1-7 FGs, 3-21 FGs, 1-10 FGs, were stepping stones to greatness, the aforementioned trial by fire.
Yet it takes faith and conviction the player you have can withstand the heat and tumult and emerge stronger, like a diamond, instead of reduced to ash, burned by a harsh, unforgiving league. It remains to be seen if this coach is a true believer in Davion or falsely labels him as a typical rookie and accords him no special favor.
I guess it is encouraging this coach got a front row seat in SL to watch Davion chew up and spit out the competition, dominate games with his defense. Now there are no excuses not to treat him as an atypical rookie, afford him the same consideration UTA gave to #45, and hope for comparable development. #15 cannot score like #45, and likely never will, but #45 cannot defend like #15, and likely never will. Their respective impacts on games may not be dissimilar, however, provided a coach who recognizes as much and coaches him as such.
As little confidence as I have in this myopic coach, I would predict he starts Donovan but not Ty. Barring a trade, which we need, I hope and expect to see a rotation like this, which would be unveiled as soon as our first preseason game, since this coach likes to roll early with his intended rotation and veer none to little at all.
1st Unit
Fox
Davion
HB
Bagley
Holmes
2nd Unit
Ty
TD
Buddy
Metu
Len
Then to close halves and games, you are looking at Fox, Davion, Ty, with HB and Holmes in most instances. This is the probable scenario unless the coach effs it up, likely, or until we land Siakum or Simmons, unlikely. Where King and Moe fit into this mix remains to be seen. This is a roster with a lot of potential but takes a deft coach to make it work. In lieu of a real coach, the new defensive coordinator and Doug need to work some magic then maybe we will see some magic sooner than later.
Regardless it goes without saying Davion is a heck of a fun player to watch so this is reason to stay tuned. Contrast him to Bad Moody or House Plant, the favorites of the Peanut Gallery, and there would be nothing in terms of a compelling infusion to get excited about. The season would be relatively DOA. Watching these two slugs, King Herald favorites, inexplicably so, is the equivalent of watching grass grow or paint dry. Thanks to McGenius, his bold ballsy selection, we got the most exciting easy to root for player in the draft, along with Jalen Green, which alone should make everyone eager for what the new season brings.
It would not surprise me one bit that if Buddy is slated to come off the bench, he requests a trade before the start of the regular season. Keep in mind, Walton started him in every game he played last season, so changing that trend would likely piss him off.
Same goes for Bagley. Walton started him 42 out of 43 games last year. Since the Kings made no improvement to the roster at the PF spot, I figure he is slated to start as well. If Walton plans to bring him off the bench, I’d expect and even louder trade demand from his camp.
If McNair can’t move them before the start of the season I fully expect some locker room drama to start the season. It won’t be pretty.
And yet we have no TNT games this season.
I thought they knew drama?
Good drama, not bad
You make a solid argument for starting Bagley at PF. From what I’ve read, he’s been working hard, hopefully on his defense. If he’s healthy, he either plays himself into another contract, becomes an attractive trade piece (with the expiring contract as a bonus), or he plays himself into unrestricted free agency with very limited hope for a heavy contract.
He’s still one hell of an athlete, and that hasn’t been impacted by his injuries. It’s all on him, but Bagley’s path to having a pretty good NBA career isn’t hard to find. I hope he’s managed to locate it since last season.
Buddy is best off of the bench. Can play the same minutes off of the bench but used strategically. It is not Buddy’s decision to start or not start. That is Walton. Walton needs to grow a pair and tell Buddy he is not starting. Bagley was guaranteed a starting spot by the front office not Walton. Bagley now needs to earn it. If they guarantee him a starting spot this year they are without a doubt the most useless team in sports history.
Watching that video, especially when his back is to the camera, it’s all about his release point. When his release moves slightly left, the shot is left. You can see it before the shot even leaves his hand. When his release is consistent and true, the shots are generally either in or straight.
What do Davion and Donovan have in common other than their last name and being smallish guards (ignoring the significant difference in wingspan)?
Honestly, I’ve been wondering about that since he was drafted. I’ve heard people on television say over and over what a great comparison Donovan is for Davion, and other than the last name and initials, I don’t get it. To be fair, they are both basketball players. It strikes me as sheer laziness, and yet another instance of a narrative getting traction by repeating it over and over.
I watched the NCAA final, and thought, smaller Jrue Holiday, and everything I’ve seen since has firmed that up.
Yes, that’s his ceiling, IMO. If he reaches that it would be fantastic.
I guess the question is if a smaller Jrue Holiday is a Jrue Holiday at all. A big part of what makes Jrue special is that he’s a relatively big guard that can defend multiple positions. And, of course, he’s a more natural PG at the other end than Mitchell. While Mitchell is potentially a better shooter. Honestly, I’m having a really tough time coming up with good high end comp. I think the closest thing I’ve seen mentioned is probably Mike Conley. Minus a little facilitation. Plus some strength.
Thinking about it a bit more, guys like Mookie and Mo Cheeks also come to mind.
The 4th Mookie?
That’s really doing Mo a bit dirty; he was the prototypical point guard, who had a great feel for the pace and flow of the game and facilitating his teammates.
Yeah, none of them are perfect. Most guys his size that make a real name for themselves are true PGs. Of course, history was also much more beholden to traditional positional roles. Regardless, the truth is that finding high level impact guys with Mitchell’s basic profile (exceptional defending, small PG-sized but non-primary ball handler) is pretty tough.
This is why comps aren’t that useful. If Mitchell is a NBA player, which most seem to agree he’s got a strong shot of being, there’s not going to be a lot of guys with his profile.
For most of the NBAs history, bigs mattered more than other positions. It stands to reason that historically players with Mitchell’s profile weren’t likely to succeed. But this isn’t that league anymore, there’s a chance Mitchell could succeed provided the right circumstances. And that’s true of any player really when you get down to it.
I also really hate comps in the NBA, too.
Comps are just a shorthand for creating some context and familiarity. As with anything else, they have to be given the appropriate amount of weight and context, and taken with the appropriate number of grains of salt. That said, I do think assessing the impact of various player profiles in general is worthwhile (again, assuming you apply context).
You’ll notice I never said the lack of great individual comps means Mitchell can’t or won’t succeed.
I’ve never liked comps because I feel like the lesser known player gets lumped in with actually successful players in a way that isn’t useful. But with appropriate context, I’m fine with comps. I still hate using them personally which is why I don’t.
The biggest reason I hate using comps is take a guy like Jrue Holiday for instance. There’s not many, if anyone, that plays quite like him. He’s an unique player, that’s tough to comp a guy down to the screws.
It’s mostly a pet peeve of mine. And it’s not an issue I expect to change anytime soon.
My personal comp pet peeve echoes a piece of yours. That people have a tendency to comp players to their absolute ceiling NBA outcomes. Rather than their most likely outcomes. Could Mitchell potentially impact games in a somewhat similar way to Holiday? Sure. But in reality very few NBA players reach that level of impact.
I heard Kevin O’Connor on the Ringer NBA show say he felt like he was some type of hybrid of young Eric Bledsoe and Kemba Walker. That would sound like a pretty intriguing player to me.
I’m not sure exactly where Kemba comes in, but I can see some Bledsoe comps. Though there’s a bit of the Donovan Mitchell issue where Bledsoe has 4ish more inches of wingspan which helps him guard up the spectrum a bit.
Yeah I think O’Connor was saying that Mitchell’s off the dribble shooting really reminded him of Kemba. I went back and watched some clips and I can see where he’s coming from. Agree on the wingspan questions but I wonder if he can make up for that with his strength. Mitchell isn’t big but he’s clearly very strong. The conversation about him guarding 3’s doesn’t really seem feasible to me but if he can defend the point of attack at anything close to the level that he did at Summer League he’ll still be plenty useful.
Long term I really think the question is whether or not it makes more sense to move Fox. I think he has the highest upside of he, Mitchell and Haliburton but I think Mitchell and Haliburton might impact winning more than Fox in the long run.
Mitchell’s ability to guard 3s (and 2s for that matter) is going to depend heavily on who that 3 is. I think he’ll be able to make life relatively difficult on any perimeter focused player. Even big 3s like PG that will ultimately be able to shoot over him, I think Mitchell will at least be able to make those shots uncomfortable by getting up into his belly. But if those guys, including normal sized SGs, have worked on their post game at all, they have a built in mismatch that Mitchell will really struggle to stop. Which is really what happened against Cunningham in college. A lot has been made about those games and Mitchell “locking him up.” In reality what happened is that Mitchell made life tough on Cunningham on the perimeter, so Cade used his size when Mitchell was on him and more perimeter moves when Mitchell wasn’t, and put up two very good games against Baylor.
His size (and in a different way, effectiveness on the perimeter) is going to make him a target in the paint. Opponents, especially if we ever get to games that matter, are going to spend a lot of time trying force Mitchell and Fox to defend bigger players (of all positions) in the post and see if the Kings figure out how to stop them without giving up easy post-ups or open opposite corner 3s all day.
That’s a good point. It’s possible that some day, Mitchell will be a better defender than Jrue, but he’ll always be three inches shorter, and that’s just something that effort can’t fix.
I checked Holiday’s info, because I thought he was 6’4″-6’5″, but he’s only 6’3″. They show Mitchell at 6’2″, which seems generous. Those numbers are generally padded a bit, but I’d be interested to see the two of them side-by-side. Maybe the size difference isn’t as much as I assumed.
These stats really ought to start showing wingspan, standing reach, max vertical, etc. so that I can go deeper down the rabbit hole.
And for the 53rd season in a row, team will start off with a tough schedule with no possible early cinderella team narrative
ohhhhhhhhh woe is me
Besides, it’s been midnight in Sacramento since the eighties.
Looks like a diagram of a fluke out of bounds play
Too bad the in-bounder does not have 5 minutes instead of 5 seconds.
The talent across the NBA has gotten better every year. Every team has either superstars or young talented players.
If Houston’s rookies show out, the star-crossed Kings will most likely be battling it out for last place with the OKC Thunder.
I’m going with 4 wins. That way if they win more I can tell myself they’ve surpassed my wildest expectations!
On a more serious note, do we get a parade when we break the NBA playoff drought record? I feel like it needs to be celebrated in some way.
Why not It’s a way to deal with the sadness and send a message to ownership. Everything that embarrases Vivek is a plus in my book.
It wouldn’t be a first in my everduring woes of fandom…
Wow I had no idea the Browns fans did this! That’s great. I feel like with football there’s an extra layer of sadness because it’s bitterly cold as well. At least if your NBA team is the apex of team of team sport failure, you get to have a parade in April or May.