Either way, thus far in 2024, the Kings have done nothing to silence those critics.
Currently riding a three-game losing streak, including back-to-back horrific losses to the Los Angeles Clippers and Brooklyn Nets, the Kings are playing exactly how the national media predicted and Kings fans feared, even with the acknowledgement of DeRozan’s great individual skills. They don’t play defense, and they can’t shoot threes.
Nor are they winning games.
In a microcosmic example to the larger thread of the season, the Kings lost to the (then) 6-10 Brooklyn Nets on Sunday evening by getting obliterated from beyond the arc. Heading into the night, the Nets represented one of the better three-point shooting teams in the league, sitting in 8th place in accuracy at 37.6%. At the Golden One Center, Brooklyn knocked down four more threes than their average (15) at a clip of 48.7%. The Nets shot better from deep than the league averages from the floor, and that sort of event hasn’t been close to a one-off for Sacramento this season.
The Kings rank 26th in the league in defensive three-point field goal percentage differential in 2024, as their opponents are averaging 37.1% from three-point range. Most notably, Sacramento surrenders the most corner threes in the NBA, 11.3 per game, and their opponents are knocking down 39.2% of those attempts.
And giving up so many three-pointers (40.1 per game, 28th in the league) and so many open three-pointers (17 per game, last in the league) is clearly a flaw in a defensive system designed to protect a non-shot-blocking center and an overall undersized starting unit. While they give up oodles and gobs of three-pointers, the Kings actually allow the fewest field goal attempts in the paint in the league by a good margin, currently sitting at 19.8 per game. They sell out to the interior and sacrifice the more efficient three-point line in the process, even though they’re not particularly efficient in paint protection either, ranking 23rd in opponent field goal percentage at the rim.
It may not be particularly surprising that a team built around mostly average to bad defenders isn’t particularly good at defending the three-point line, but the other half to Sacramento’s equation of inefficiency is their inability to capitalize from the same area. Currently, the Kings rank 26th in the league in three-point accuracy at 33.2%. Kevin Huerter is shooting 29.5% from deep. Keegan Murray is shooting 30.4% from deep. Malik Monk is shooting 27.9% from deep. Doug McDermott is shooting 32.4% from deep. In fact, the only rotational players who are knocking down three-pointers above league average are Keon Ellis and Domantas Sabonis.
To summarize Sacramento’s inability to punish teams from the outside, the Kings are currently at a 257-195 disadvantage in made three-pointers this season, a deficit of 186 points over 17 games.
That’s not going to win many games in the modern NBA.
Of course, there are many other factors at play for Sacramento’s under .500 record. Mike Brown has been an unmitigated disaster on the bench. He’s played Mason Jones over Keon Ellis at times, continued to start Kevin Huerter, despite the fact that his one differentiating skill hasn’t been a difference-maker for a long time, played Colby Jones an inexplicable amount in the last couple of games, and a host of other rotational errors. There have also been some injuries, including Malik Monk missing significant time.
The one guy who seems to be doing his job to par, De’Aaron Fox (career-high in points, eFG%, 2P%, FT%), is the guy who’s always asked to rescue the team from their nonsense. At some point, losing games while scoring 30 or 40 or 60 points is going to get tiresome. It’s inevitable.
Entering into the season, several question marks surrounded the Kings. Could they generate enough three-point makes considering the fact that their three best, most-used offensive players generally weren’t known for their three-point shooting? Could a shoddy-at-best bench with no backup wing maintain, build on, or gain leads? Could the front office find it in themselves to spend real assets to surround De’Aaron Fox with enough talent to where he didn’t have to play hero ball every night?
Thus far, the answer is a resounding no.
Excellent article.
This season…
Light the meme!
LIVE BY THE 2, DIE BY THE 3!
Trade coaches now
Who could have predicted this wouldn’t work?
(Everyone. Everyone could have predicted.)
Now that’s a name and avatar I remember from the good ole STR days?
What’s up, nbrans?
Hello! Lots of lurking and shaking my damn head haha. Really appreciate everyone keeping the lights on here.
Baby Giraffe sighting???
And it’s only going to get worse as the schedule gets harder and the 40MPG nights for the Kings starters begins to take its toll.
As they are currently playing and looking at the schedule between now and the end of the calendar year, I see anywhere from 3-5 more wins, which could put the Kings around 5 to 6 games below .500 to start 2025.
FWIW, they were 4 games above .500 on the last day of 2022, and 7 games above .500 to end 2023.
From NBA.com:
Going to be an interesting trade deadline this year.
I feel like this front office is too risk averse to make a meaningful trade. I think the team will improve some, likely to about where they were last season. Maybe a little better, maybe a little worse. But if this kind of play does continue through the season, the move is going to be to fire Mike Brown.
Right after giving him a three-year extension!
Perhaps an organization with such a lowly track record should be 1) less haughty and closed-minded in its assessment of what makes a good basketball team 2) more proactive and try more stuff.
In the spirit of those annoying lawn signs, in this house, we believe:
You’re crazy, man. I like you but you’re crazy.
Spot on.
Thank you for your service McNair and Brown. But neither of you have the vision, risk taking or advanced analytics / modern BB knowledge to get this team to the 2nd round or beyond. Neither of you have enough attention to detail either.
Small market teams need to be ahead of the curve instead of finding players that fit the NBA 10 years ago.
Again, it is fun to watch a competitive team that rarely gets blown. But McNair has been here 5 years with 1 playoff (if they don’t make it this year as currently projected).
DeMar is averaging 22 PPG on 50% shooting and a 2:1 AST/TO ratio. The fit was always going to be a little wobbly, but it could work. And still can, I think, with the right adjustments.
Aside from the aforementioned bricklaying of their two supposed sharpshooters, the team also keeps turning the damn ball over. Specifically, Fox and Sabonis. Sabonis has 31 turnovers in the last five games. And as great as Fox has been, every game he does something careless with the ball, either dribbling off his foot or getting careless with it and letting a defender pick it from him.
Keon needs to start and I never want to see Doug McDermott again. He is super cooked.
I agree on most of what you said. Ellis should start not Huerter. We need someone besides Murray(bless his soul) who can consistently play defense and have an offense. Huerter right now has a tiny bit of offense and basically no defense. IMO Ellis can take more shots( I would like him to penetrate a little more) but saw some defensive plays last night that Huerter just dreams about. Brown: Why are you playing Jones when you have McLaughlin who has been playing really well? McDermott should not be playing at all. No defense what so ever. I would play Issac Jones over Jones or McDermott. Give the kid a break.
Too many turnovers at lot unforced. Everytime Sabonis bring the ball down below the waist( and he does it a lot) its almost a turnover everytime. He gets stripped.
Last night Tre Lyles had at least 3 open shots around the free throw line, maybe more, and tried to get the ball into the key more. Turnover. Why doesn’t he shoot the ball. What is it no confidence or is he tolded not to. How many minutes, no points.
I really like all the players on this team but NBA basketball is a business. We need to go out and get at least 2 maybe 3 bench players that can sub in and provide minutes with points and defense. Looked at last night Nets bench 44 points. Kings bench 9. Just doesn’t cut it. Monty has the resources to go out and get some young( not old) talent that will help this team thrive.
It is essential that when the big 3 are on the floor that 2 40% three point shooters are on the floor with them. We have 1 of those. Oddly Ellis is a perfect 3&D guy for one of those spots. Play him.
Keegan would be the other if he ever gets his shot back, as of now he doesn’t fit the spot.and If when we acquire a 3&D big the Kings should move him to the bench.
A more palatable option to me, but not the Kings would be to move DeRozan to the bench and have the bulk of his playing time come when Fox or Sabonis is off the floor.
i won’t even go into my Mantra that you can’t have that many volume shooters on the floor at the same time without some of them not being able to their peak level.
The more I see of Mike Brown the less I like. Seems incredibly slow to make adjustments both in-game and from game to game. The team seems to be getting worse not better.
In MB’s defense between Huerter, Keegan, Keon, Monk (before injury this year), McDermott and Lyles, none of them has shot threes consistently even with open looks. Tough to coach when most of the players you have available are so inconsistent.
Going back to my first comment, it is obvious this is not working and all I hear from Brown is spray 3s, take open 3s, we have good looks, etc. No adjustments at all.
Brown is not innocent in all of this, but almost everyone around here noted the need for additional depth at the 3-4, especially when it came to defensive length and offensive spacing. And that has never happened. The front office presented the coaching staff with Trey Lyles and Alex Len as the only options up front, and McDermott was plucked off the trash heap late. Is this roster underachieving? I think that it is. But does it also have canyon-sized holes in it? Yes.
Most infuriating to me is the inability of this permutation of Kings basketball to defend the home floor. The teams above the Kings in the West of playing .700 ball at home. The Kings are at .455. They have gacked up a pair of home games to Minny, who are 1-6 on the road in non-Kings games and 6-8 overall in non-Kings games. The Hawks are 2-6 road sans Kings, and the Nets 2-7. Throw in a loss to a shorthanded Clips team, and you have ballclub that does everything but leave mints on the pillows to ensure their guests a comfortable stay.
And that’s the way that it has pretty much been for the past 2+ years – this team has seriously underperformed at G1C. The fans are raucous, but the team comes out soft and passive. This is not a team that will seemingly ever give you an early knockout, and the roster construction cannot withstand early, large deficits.
Very well said, agree on all.
MB has a flawed roster to work with for sure but I do think a better coach could get more out of it than he does.
Look what Jordi got our of his team last night and they don’t have the talent Brown has. Go figure.
Are they all staying at The Sawyer?
No, but they’re taking a group dump alongside it.
He is bad man, don’t know WTF happened. Wants to run the top 4 guys into the ground, unwillingness to start Keon, or make any other starting lineup changes, wants to sellout to stop TWOs over THREEs etc. The other night against LA. wouldn’t even call a TO in the 1st to stop the 20-3 LA run. Like we are Phil Jackson’s disciplined squad that can work their way out of it?!
Totally agree. To me it does not feel like there is an actual plan, it feels like he is trying to see what sticks based on whims.
And he seems to play favorites.
Example is Huerter. He keeps starting him based on how he played two years ago, not his current production.
The basketball gods are just cruel: Harrison Barnes was named Western Conference Player of the Week. Congrats to him, but…damn.
I imagine Vivek having his assistant print this out just so he can storm into Monte’s office and slam it on his desk
I imagine Monte printing this out just so he can sneak into Vivek’s office (while he is out) and slip it into his stack of self designed basketball plays.
What do you think Adamsite if Vivek would give Monty full control over the entire basketball operation. I mean total control. Would things be different?
I’m just shit talking. I honestly have no idea how involved Vivek is in roster decisions. I’m just going of reporting and videos of years past. For all I know Monte has full control, but I have my doubts.
MM gave HB that ludicrous contract and then had to attach a pick swap to get rid of him in the DDR trade. And we probably have the same ceiling as last year lol.
THANK YOU TIM! Yeah all of this is a huge problem and I don’t really seen any way this changes without a roster overhaul. Can we trade Demar Derozan? Serious question. There is no way out of this with the roster as it is. The thing that really scares me is that we are going to be send out a bunch of draft picks to try and fix this problem when the issues are deeper than one player is going to fix. It’s a roster construction issue that hasn’t been resolved in the last couple years. Instead of doubling down on what made them dangerous a couple years ago, they went star chasing and so far it’s been a disaster. Would you rather have Amir Coffey or Demar Derozan right now? I can tell you which one fits on the team better and it isn’t Demar. This sucks because I don’t dislike Demar as a player, he just doesn’t fit on this team.
Something’s gotta give and I’m not sure what it is. I just know that if they don’t fix this roster soon, this team is dead in the water and heads are probably going to roll.
Monte has been brutal to be honest, since off season of 22-23. The Queta decision, the whole Vezenkov fiasco, letting a former top 10 pick like Davion go (while losing 3 second rounders), signing one trick pony, washed up McBuckets when they could’ve tried some other SF options…Brissett, Crowder (at least he can rebound & defend). And now the Demar move, a guy who clearly doesn’t fit the team. Limits ball movement, spacing and their pace too much in my opinion. All while being a defensive liability, don’t know how many 3s BK players hit on him last night, seemed like every time he was sagging 10 ft off his man.
The DDR trade was a dumb trade at the time and looks dumber now and will look stupid af by year’s end.
The roster is flawed and unbalanced with wings and no notable big besides Domas.
This is McGenius’ idea of roster construction.
Even if we make the play-in or playoffs, this roster isn’t constructed to succeed in a playoff environment. Domas and DDR have historically sucked in the playoffs.
But hey at least we’re mediocre and have that beam thing.
These guys aren’t worthy of lighting the beam this season.
It’s even more annoying they get to wear the classic 02-03 unis. And play on that court too, this team shouldn’t be allowed until they get their act together, lol.
Haha, you don’t like mediocrity or lighting the beam then I take it?
Well, it looks like we’ve got ourselves a consensus here at least. It seems like only yesterday that they lost a game 7 heart breaker to the Warriors. Murray shot 41% on 6+ threes, Huerter shot 40% on 6+, and Fox shot 51% overall. The clockwork dribble handoff, pin down screen offense worked for everybody. Monk was a highlight reel waiting to happen. They needed depth and defense. They needed to make a hard decision about who to trade for a rim protecting Sabonis sidekick. They needed to stop drafting point guards. They needed to take the second round seriously and get some athletic guys for the bench. They have done none of those. Huerter regressed. Murray is getting worn out defensively, and he’s regressed offensively. They’re still playing two 3’s even after trading Barnes. They passed on Carrington and Knecht to draft the Annual Point Guard. Imagine if they got a stud 4 for Barnes and Huerter, passed on DeMar, and drafted Knecht. And… kept the damn Warriors style offense!
Yep bud, it’s depressing. Should never have went star chasing, would’ve been better off moving HB & Huerter for Avdija, or a similar guy…start Monk, and then use whatever space left to get a scorer for the bench to replace Malik. But I think Vivek wanted his big star dammit! Coulda filled the bench with a young big like Azubuike or Yertseven, and then grabbed a SF like Oshae Brissett or Crowder. But MM is a genius and we all don’t know what we’re doing I guess, haha.
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