Mike Brown signaled his desperation level by doing something in Sunday’s game that he has never done as Sacramento Kings head coach: he started Malik Monk. It resulted in a 42-point first quarter, and yet the overall result remains the same as the Sacramento Kings lost to the San Antonio Spurs 127-125. If you’ve watched any number of Kings games this season you already know how this one went. The Kings squandered leads, the Kings didn’t make enough threes, the Kings gave up a lot of threes. Rinse and repeat.
It’s hard to find new ways to write about a team that keeps losing in the same ways, but I’ll give it a try.
Starting Monk Doesn’t Fix The Depth Issue
It turns out that if you start your only good bench player, it doesn’t fix your lack of depth. The Kings came out scorching, and Monk had a really good game overall, finishing with 19 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, a steal and a block. The flow to start the game was really good, not surprising with your 5 best players on the floor, but as soon as the bench players started coming in the cracks showed. Keon Ellis had 8 points off the bench and was 2 for 4 from 3, while also adding 3 rebounds and a block. Isaac Jones continues to be a bright spot off the bench, adding 12 points, 4 rebounds, an assist, a steal, and a block. Jae Crowder had 2 points, 5 rebounds and assist in 11 minutes. Colby Jones continues to be bad when he plays, and yet he still got 7 minutes. Single game plus/minus is a bad stat and I try to avoid it, but Colby managed a -9 in 7 minutes, and it matched the eye test. Play Jordan McLaughlin instead, Mike, I’m begging you.
If we want to search for a sliver of optimism, we could point to Trey Lyles and Kevin Huerter both being out with injuries. Squint and maybe you could convince yourself that Ellis/Huerter/Crowder/Isaac Jones/Lyles is a real bench unit. But I suspect the idea is better than the reality.
It’s Simple Math
The Kings shot 37.5% from three in this one, a respectable percentage. But they only took 32 threes, making 12. The Kings allowed the Spurs to shoot 50% from three, and the Spurs took 46 threes. 12 made threes versus 23 made threes is a math problem the Kings can’t overcome.
Mike Brown’s defense since arriving in Sacramento has focused on selling out to protect the paint. It has resulted in opponent’s shooting above average from three against the Kings for over two years now. With the league continuing to push the boundaries of how many threes teams take per game, this system is doomed to fail. The defensive system needs to change.
Individual Accolades
Domantas Sabonis: 25 points, 13 rebounds, 6 assists
DeMar DeRozan: 28 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 steals
De’Aaron Fox: 23 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds, 2 steals
What a shame this team continues to waste the indivual successes of these guys.
Oh Keegan Where Art Though
Keegan Murray finished with 8 points (4/9 FGA, 0/2 3PA), 6 rebounds, 1 steal, and 1 block. Now that “we need to start Malik Monk!” is no longer a useful way to fill air time, I expect “we need to trade Keegan Murray!” to be the new talking point. I’m not out on Keegan Murray, but I am frustrated with him. This team needs him to remember how to shoot threes ASAP.
Look to my coming at afternoon on the next day, in the afternoon, look to the L2M
The officiating wasn’t great at the end of the game. I’m sure the L2M will provide us all solace that Victor Wembanyama got away with an uncalled over the back. Or not. Who cares, it doesn’t matter. The Kings only have themselves to blame for even being in that situation in the 4th quarter.
Up Next
The Kings host the Houston Rockets on Tuesday at 7 PM PT. The Rockets are 15-6, 2nd in the West. Can’t wait.
Deep down, we all know the answer, even if many here don’t want to admit it.
Blow it up.
Get some value for Fox while you still can.
Protect your first round pick from the Huerter trade.
Get some value for Keegan while he still has any.
Decide what you want and can do with Domas.
Try to capitalize on a good draft class and build a team that fits the current NBA reality.
Recognize what’s in front of you and be prepared to be ruthless and methodical.
Or just Kangz it, again. Whatever.
There’s a chance this is the answer, but if that’s the path do you want Monte McNair to be the one to do it? I’m not sure he’s the right GM for a blow up and rebuild. I’m not sure I’d want him doing it, and I’m not sure you can replace him midseason with a proper search.
Well, given the urgency with at least Fox, I think your resigned to have him doing that part.
Then again, he might waffle so long, waiting for just the right deal it’ll be the end of the season anyway.
I think we should have known there were issues when we discovered the guy only has body-warmers in his closet to avoid difficult decisions.
And one.
I have been quite vocal in my disappointment with both Brown and Monte, dating back to last season.
I think you need to clear house.
I also fear that this will not happen, at all.
I think if the Kings miss the playoffs this year, they fire Monte. My worry is that they would just promote Wes Wilcox though, instead of doing a whole new search and really cleaning house.
I mean, we have plenty of things to worry in that regard. But I am sick and tired of those arguing against taking the necessary and risky, hard steps just because the alternative could very well be worse.
That is such a defeatist attitude in my view, but I guess it is also by the same fans who are “just happy that we have a team” or claim that “we only just broke the play-off drought and these things take time” or “Vivek will meddle anyway”.
It doesn’t have to take time. Other teams tanked harder than us and recovered and are in a better position than we are now.
I also don’t think making the play-offs shuld be sufficient to save Monte’s ass. We need to win a play-off series, after 20 years.
Preach!
I do fear all of this is because Vivek hasn’t fully backed away, allowed GM to do what he wants and spend over tax if needed.
I don’t think Monte is an idiot, and yet she chose to add DeRozan, a bad three point shooter and below average defender to a team who doesn’t need that.
so, whose idea was that? Seems like it was pushed by V. I’ve heard Monte talk about getting three point shooters.
there’s also been a disconnect between Monte and Brown for a couple of years now.
The situation is fucked up because everybody knew what the kings had to do after their first playoff run.
also, the insistence on building around Fox is definitely is a V thing.
it drives me crazy because it’s not very hard to see what they need to do.
of all the things wrong with this team, Demar is the least of my concerns. He’s mostly integrated well into a broken system run by Brown.
do/did we need more 3’s.. sure, but this doesn’t rest on Demar.
He’s not the least of problems….it’s acquiring a player like him when he doesn’t do what they need.
all due respect, none of the players do what they are supposed to do. At least he does what he does at a high level with better than average efficiency
Wes Wilcox is the front runner and likely choice because nobody else is willing to do it. The NBA GM title is great. The Sacramento Kings GM title has shown itself to be a career ending position.
Monte McNair won Exec of the Year and would absolutely be able to find another job in an NBA front office if the Kings fire him. There are only 30 of these jobs available. If the Kings want to conduct a full search, there will be many candidates. There were multiple good candidates last search and the Kings were in a much worse position.
They will definitely find plenty of candidates. They will not have the top tier candidates seriously pursuing the job. I do agree that Monte can get another job if they let him go. I do not think he rolls right into another GM roll. He will have to get some of the KanGZ stank off first.
All of this is just my uninformed and personal opinion.
I’ve wanted them to do this since Vivek showed up but they don’t have the stomach for a proper rebuild. I’m fairly certain that’s a Vivek mandate as this team has never actually rebuilt in any meaningful sustainable fashion during his tenure. We just have to hope the lottery balls fall right in May because we’re going to have a top-10 pick.
Yeah, I agree that Vivek has never had the stomach for a teardown and rebuild. It’s clear that his mandate from day one was to end the drought and now he wants more playoffs.
They kind of tried to after the Cousins trade. Unfortunately the moron of a GM in charge couldn’t draft water if he was sitting on a boat in the middle of the ocean.
Is McNair any better in terms of judging talent? I don’t think so. He’s had one great but obvious pick in Haliburton, 1 complete miss with Davion, and Keegan wouldn’t go top ten in a redraft. I don’t have any faith in McNair’s ability to rebuild.
I think Keegan would still be top 10 in that draft. Who are the 10 you’d put above him?
I was curious because I looked at the list and made my own top 10. In no specific order, I think it’s Paolo, Chet, Jalen Williams, Keegan, Daniels, Mathurin, Eason, Duren, Sochan, and then either Walker Kessler or Andrew Nembhard. Sharp, Watson, Braun, and Jokic in the next tier.
Obviously continues to evolve year over year, last year Keegan was still a no brainer top 5, but the younger guys in the class will continue to improve.
I would take Daniels and Eason for their defense since playing defense doesn’t make them shoot like they’re Ben Simmons. Apparently Keegan can only be successful doing one thing at a time on the court.
But yes, a lot of the young guys will continue to improve and likely pass up Keegan.
This is painful to read because I wanted the Kings to trade down and draft Daniels
I think Keegan is good and isn’t a McNair issue-he’s a coach Brown issue.
Brown runs a (non) O that does not help Keegan blossom. In fact, they have Sabonis and should be playing like Denver.
so I think Monte’s done a decent job, but Brown isn’t running the right system.
Genuine question: is it lack of stomach or lack of wallet? Blowing it up can mean years of losses, even if the rebuild works out (which it often doesn’t). Vivek may have a silly amount of money in absolute terms, but he has a lot less in NBA owner terms.
Probably a combination of both. A worse team impacts revenue, although with the new tv deal incoming and the revenue sharing from tax teams, the money even for a bad team is continuing to rise.
There is also a very likely cash influx to each owner if expansion occurs, especially if it ends up being 2 teams. I’d have to imagine any expansion team is gonna start at a $1B buy in, or even more.
Also, hubris. Vivek from day one thought he knew the secret code to building a championship team without tanking because Warriors or Silicon Valley or something? Which, to be fair, is not unique to him. There have been a few ‘new’ owners like that.
But c’mon now. You failed. Do it the way everyone else does, tank for an MVP level player. Especially after watching Wemby destroy them, how obvious does it need to be? Doubly true with this draft. The time is now.
How many teams that won championship built through the draft?
Championship teams make a couple of decent draft decisions then build a solid known all star veteran.
I mean, Boston, Golden State, Denver, Milwaukee, Cleveland, San Antonio all acquired their top stars through the draft. The modern outliers are Toronto and LA
They were good once they went all in on known players in trades and free agency. Dallas is in the middle of it. A good draft pick is a small piece of the puzzle.
That just doesn’t jive with the facts. The draft is where you get your franchise talent. Boston, Denver, Bucks, Warriors, and Spurs account for the vast majority of titles over the past 10 years and they all had home grown talent. Even Miami’s big 3 had Wade, Dallas’ one title had Dirk, Cleveland had Kyrie.
The Lakers are really the only consistent team to buck the trend of building through the draft.
Yup, the draft is still the best way to build your roster unless you are LA or pull off some miracle trades like Toronto did.
Yup even that Toronto team traded their ‘home-grown’ talent (DDR) for Kawahi and Green and the Lakers traded a bunch of young high draft picks for AD. So any way you slice it you need to build through the draft, and the best way to hit in the draft is with higher picks or to get unblievably lucky and draft a Jokic in the second round.
I mean even the Warriors have gone through mini-tanks in the Curry era. And the one time we get really lucky with the lottery, we don’t need to talk about… But I guess Vivek must know better than everyone else. He likes to zig when everyone zags.
Refusing to rebuild can work if you have star core and an owner willing to spend, but the Kings have had neither unlike the Warriors over the years. With the new CBA, a tear down looks like the only option. A Fox supermax consigns us to oblivion, and he might take it as I doubt other teams value him like the Kings do.
Question: Do you think Brown has what it takes for a rebuild? If he’s not the guy to take trading off the team’s talent and sitting through some rebuilding years, while also developing that young talent, shouldn’t he be one of the first to go as well?
Like i wrote above; in my book, they both have to go.
I guess in my mind, that’s the one move you can do that doesn’t involve any other teams, so might as well get it done first, but I don’t think Monte has approval from ownership to pull that trigger. It was also be an admission of a major blunder on Monte’s part, in giving Brown a lucrative extension.
To that end, if it’s a top down change, the firing of Monte would likely just be the promotion of Wes Wilcox, who doesn’t exactly have a stellar resume.
Oh, okay. Then don’t do anything, I guess.
Sorry, general frustration with this situation, not with you (yet!).
There’s no universe in which Brown is the coach for a rebuilding team. Time after time, innovative teams have succeeded with fresh faces and assistants coming to the front of the bench.
no, an nba season is 82 games.
also if Keegan has a down year, the team won’t have to overpay to keep him.
So being a trash team for another year keeps payroll down?
When is it ok to win?
Do you have the switch in your pocket that changes Keegan once he signs a league minimum deal?
I think it’s a cool team. Keegan’s fine.
you’ve been really trollish lately. hope you’re doing okay.
I think you nailed it with this, Greg:
Brown is coaching like it’s 1994 instead of 2024. The Kings are doing great by clogging the paint and “forcing” their opponent to shoot from outside, but in reality, that exactly how today’s NBA offenses want to work.
Before folks say, “it’s because they are protecting Sabonis from getting fouls because there is no rim protection.” Yes, that is is an issue, but not one that warrants ignoring the perimeter.
The #1 3pt defending team, the Warriors, don’t have great rim protection but their defense is swarming to protect the 3pt shot. To boot, one of the worst 3pt defending teams, the Cavs, have two rim protecting bigs in Allen and Mobley. So it’s not pick your poison situation. The Kings 3pt defensive problem is more their scheme, not the players. I lay the majority of the blame at Brown’s feet.
As to Sabonis propensity of fouling this year. He is in fact near the top of the list of fouls committed this season, but its not because he’s left to protect the paint. A full 22.5% of his fouls are offensive.
I think it’s a combination, to an extent. I think Monte has failed to get players with appropriate size, length, and athleticism to recover and close out on threes. But I think Brown has failed to adapt his system to his personnel.
I think it’s just effort. You either want to commit to playing D for 48 or you don’t.
The Rockets are an abysmal
3 pt shooting team. Yet, second in total
defense. Relentless, all dogs and grab every missed 3 they attempt. The Rockets are also a
Finals contender with poor 3 pt shooting.
It has little to do with scheme and more to do with pride.
I hear the players post game. Monk and Sabonis last night speak about the lack of 3 pt D. Monk angry about it. But he’s one of the worst culprits. Zero accountability. Time to look in the mirror.
The Rockets have athletes far and beyond what the Kings have. It’s not just effort.
You love the Rockets.
Sabonis said in a post-game interview against the Spurs that they stopped following the game plan, which was to switch 1 through 5…
THIS TEAM DOESN’T HAVE THE LENGTH AND SIZE TO SWITCH 1 THROUGH 5!
That is a coaching issue. Adapt your scheme to the players. Make them fight over a freaking screen, one damn time, and stuck with their man.
That’s not even a coaching issue. That is pure and simple stupidity of the highest level. Brown can’t be fired soon enough.
He’s doing the dumbest shit and making all kinds of panic moves with his lineups and not allowing bench players to grown into a role. I don’t think McLaughling is a saviour, but what kind of consistent run did he get to grow comfortable into his role? Robinson showed a bit of promise and is now MIA.
It’s ridiculous. Brown is just throwing shit at the wall without even taking the time to look what is sticking.
this seemed to be an issue last year too – it took until how many injuries before keon got consistent minutes? and we never really did get a solid determination if Sasha would benefit from a clear role (although the fact that he’s back in Europe would say maybe he’s not ultimately cut for the NBA). and Duarte seemed to get a lot of play that didn’t make sense last year too
Partly true. Partly an excuse. I would like the players to be a little more accountable.
That is something I don’t hear. With consistent effort this team could easily be at least mid pack defensively even with their lack of length.
Sabonis is a great regular season offensive player. But to continually use the excuses? Not a leader. By any stretch of the imagination.
Excuse? Maybe. Sure the players need to be better, but how much better can they be when working in the structure of a shit defensive scheme? They aren’t good enough defenders to make the scheme work, so the coaching staff needs to find a better system to suit the personnel that they have.
When different personnel is brought in, then change the scheme to suit them a bit.
I liken it to a lefty specialist in baseball. They are/were brought in to get out the best left-handed hitter in the lineup. If a coach brings them in against the best right-handed hitter, he isn’t putting his player/team in the best possible position to succeed.
What defensive scheme do you think works with this roster?
Not the one they have now! I am not a basketball guru by any stretch of the imagination. However, I see a team that keeps doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
What can they do differently with the players they have?
Give up the paint to be beat off the dribble at the perimeter? This was the last defensive iteration.
Not over commit to help in the paint? It’s nearly every player that collapses to the paint on a drive, strong and weakside defenders. That leaves 1 defender to guard an offensive player in the corner and above the break. That’s not good. Maybe bring one defender down to help with the drive?
Just doing the same thing isn’t working. New players aren’t coming anytime soon. Coach needs to figure out something with what he has, and quickly. Pretty soon, it will be tank time if this continues (if we aren’t already there).
I think they commit to the paint because he only has three players that can play man to man defense. Sabonis (in the paint), Keegan (in the paint), and Ellis (one man on the perimeter playing 15 minutes and not scoring). He needs guards that can and will play defense. They have to play a step or two back to avoid getting beat badly off of the dribble.
Stop being vaginas and play man to man defense. Watch film (no Luke Walton) and figure out the best match ups before the game. Take some pride in shutting down your man. If someone is getting cooked, switch.
That is unbelievable.
ISO Fox and ISO Monk do not play within a system.
A full and proper rebuild is a dream scenario. Not sure Vivek will approve it.
But I would love to see most of these core pieces moved for youth and picks. This upcoming draft is one of the strongest in 2 decades. 10-15 players are projected to be very high level starters in the league moving forward. This is the year to stockpile picks.
Something that I think the entire fan base will embrace and enjoy the process. Instead of continuing to rearrange deck chairs every single season hoping for different results.
So many nice trade partners out there. Pels, Magic, Hou, Miami, Detroit, Spurs.
I am just afraid Monte, Vivek, Wes and chain Smoker have other plans
Like trading 2 first rounders and Huerter for Kuzma. Thinking this is the the missing piece.
IMO, the last thing Monte should do is leverage future assets to swing for a double on the likes of Kuzma or Jerami Grant. They won’t move the needle much in terms of team performance, especially if it comes at the cost of what little depth the team currently has.
My fear is that this is exactly what Monte will be forced to do.
Stay as we are and enjoy the show the other team puts on when they are here.
That’s what I was saying too, I don’t think it’s the best call, but because of current team play, Monte isn’t going to be able to be as “safe” as before and will pull the trigger on something like that even if he knows he is “losing” the trade.
Unfortunately, I think it is too late to acquire good picks in this draft, should have been a couple of years ago. But I agree that we have to start the rebuild now. Thinking oddly that Monk and Murray have the most value. Hard to know how teams value Fox.
I think a few teams will really be interested in. Fox.
immediately.
Houston comes to mind: Team is regretting the extension on Green. If he continues to play this poorly. Hou could let go of Green.
Fox would be ideal there.
A package or Smith, Sheppard and Eason would be crazy good
Miami is another: A A Herro, Jacquez and Picks for Fox
Orlando: Suggs, Issac, and Picks.
The Rockets seem to be winning because they have size and length, along with guys that play defense. Why would they trade Smith Jr. and Eason, both whom have size, for a smaller Fox that doesn’t seem to be a great defender?
If I was the Kings, I would really consider that Rockets proposal, maybe adding getting some picks in return.
When is Houston not the solution to all things basketball?
I think we can say that, over the last 15 years, the Rockets have better solutions than the Kings, but, then again, most teams do.
This organization, in gif form:
Perhaps Crowder can teach Keegan to talk shit and stop being emotionless. I want him to taunt and be thrown out of a game.
Like a month ago I organized a work social excursion to the game tomorrow…Roy Al save us.
Is it too late to change the defensive scheme? Those things are worked on in training camp because there’s not a lot of practice time during the season.
Stop switching and stick with your man on a screen? That seems like it would be fairly simple.
Stop collapsing to the paint so much and leave your man open for a 3? Seems fairly simple.
It does seem teams are shooting more 3s than ever. How the heck do you let opponent make 23 3s (50%)!
To your point, we rank 25th in make percentage and 28th in prevent percentage. The difference is basically 11 pts. per game. That is absolutely enormous.
Die by the 3, die again by the 3.
6th worst home record in the NBA.
I do not think Brown has any real option for other defensive schemes. He has players that are not good defenders. If a player cannot or will not play good man defense they put distance between themselves and the opponent to make it easier to stay in front of them. Therefore the perimeter guards slack into the paint to create the space. This is something elementary school kids are taught.
Brown has a defensive scheme that fits his roster.
This has been my belief
I agree. IMO, MB is scared to death of the lack of rim protection, so the perimeter defenders sag towards the paint too far and then their overall lack of quickness and length to close out is exposed.
I see it every game, a guy hits multiple 3s and sure enough if he is weakside his defenders drifts too far to the paint.
I am waiting to see if MB will have them not sag so much at some point, I have not seen that adjustment attempted yet.
No adjustment, and here we are in year 3 of the Brown era.
Year three of Brown having the same roster. He is not by any means an amazing coach. If a PGA golfer is only given a putter he will be a good putter but cannot make the green.
Yeah, they have many issues. Coaching and personnel being the main ones. I get that. Hopefully Brown and Monte have talked about the roster and what Brown needs to be successful (he may have wanted Demar for all we know).
It’s just a mess from top to bottom. Sucks having a 1 year hiatus from being the laughing stock of the league, but here we are.
I like Demar and think he works here. I don’t understand how we have done nothing with the obvious need for a four. We needed one when HB was here and still need one now.
I liked Demar when they traded for him. He is fine, but he wasn’t what the team needed. They needed that stretch 4 that can defend, but they went with a smaller player that doesn’t stretch the floor.
Bobby Portis, Tari Eason, the better shooting version of Jonathan Isaac. Someone like that.
My guess is that these types of discussions will continue throughout the season and longer. Right now they aren’t playing well, and there is no simple solution, apparently.
If they want to salvage the season they need to get a four. I like the idea of getting rid of Fox before he leaves. In return we get a good four and an average point guard.
It becomes a chicken (roster construction) or the egg (coaching) argument quickly. The roster has major flaws and suspect coaching.
We know the crowd the paint strategy is not working so why not at least try staying on the shooters more? What is the worst that can happen you lose a game because you get destroyed in the paint?
Again, we know what will happen when playing with the current scheme.
Not the same roster for 3 years…what an excuse lol
Dude chooses to play poor defenders over good defenders…stop letting him get away with it in your mind
The Kings won many statistical categories in the game, but none of that mattered because the equalizer in the current NBA is the 3 ball. A good night from 3 will mask many flaws that a team has, which is what we all saw in 22-23, and to a lesser extent in the 23-24 season.
The 25-26 season…the 3 ball isn’t dropping nearly as frequently as in years past (for the Kings, that is), and the result is, well, ugly.
I don’t expect much to change as the season goes forward. Some great individual performances that will go to waste, like tonight, and some blowout wins when the Kings have the 3 ball going in.
It’s clear this experiment is over.
And it’s okay to admit that.
The team as constructed has/had a 2-3 year window to make the playoffs.
We did and ended the longest drought in history. ( hooray )
This team has good pieces but it’s to old to continue with any meaningful chances of change, and Brown sucks as managing them.
Murray has got to go, we’ve held onto him for far to long as it is.
I love Fox as player, but he’s not “the guy”. We need “the guy”. luckily he’s got some extreme value for us to use.
Domas is the only complete player on this team that i’d consider keeping, but he’s worth more in trade.
blow it all up.
Brown can go, Monte can go, Fox and KM can go.
Hell maybe we can suck hard enough to catch up and draft Cooper Flagg, OH WAIT..
ughhhhhhh
Insane thing to say about a third year player. I know he’s been ass this year, but serious nba franchises don’t bail on guys like him after the two seasons he had to start his career.
Idk why you’d want Sabonis out of any of those guys considering his age and obvious limitations.
he had a great rookie season. year 2 was rough. year 3 he’s fallen off a cliff.
I don’t hate the guy, but he’s not the answer to any of this, and hasn’t shown he can be.
How many times have we said ” Murray really has to step up now” and he fails.. falls flat on his face every time. As a starter in this league you cannot have multiple single point games ESPECIALLY in a row.
he’s done that the last 3 games. prior to that he had a 2 game stretch in November (almost 3 ) and basically had a nother 3 game stretch just before that.
I don’t want to keep Domas, but the team has to fill out a salary and put players on the court. Domas could bring in value on a trade, but you still need someone to facilitate. He’s the best option you got.
It’s time to move on from McNair and Brown. Now it’s just about how long it takes before we touch bottom.
Know what the Rockets record was in the Beam Team season? 22-60.
Idk, maybe we should try more stuff like what OKC, Houston, Cleveland have done?
Crazy thoughts.
Those first few bullets perfectly describe Vlade’s reasoning for drafting Bagley. Just saying…
I recall these threads complaining about drafting for youth and athleticism instead of skill and IQ in years past, It seems to me that Monte has favored the later with proven upperclassmen. I guess the grass is always greener.
you left off:
Luka’d
Welp! I cannot agree with these commenters above – and they are, as a group, among my favorite to read.
The strategy is just so fuzzy ended.
What’s the goal to dismantling the entire roster, the coaching staff and the front office. Forget dismantling – too mild. Total annihilation, lay waste. In order to get better, everything needs to go?
To replace with…?
An idea of better?
Better players than Sabonis, Fox, DeRozan, Monk and Keegan? Three All-Stars/All-NBA but younger? Second in 6th Man voting but younger? A third year player who is struggling this 21 games of this season but holds realistic promise as a 2 way player but who is younger and better?
In Sacramento, with this ownership/governor?
To hire a new GM (who has another year and 3/4 left on contract), to then hire a new Head Coach (who has 2 3/4 seasons and $30M guaranteed)? Maybe have a search, have Alvin Gentry and Vlade Divac for input help?
uh-huh.
And then, as you hire this group mid-season now, or end season/Summer next season, you also engineer strategic trades, with other GMs who know and respect this new GM to make the shrewdest and most calculating deals, to be done tout de suite – new draftees, this season, next season, maybe the season after at the very latest. You NBA player agents: Welcome to beautiful Sacramento. Why would your players want anywhere else? Goodbye – De’Aaron; let someone else pay a top Ten scorer, former, not current, Clutch award/All-Star/All NBA player. Domas – we’re replacing you with a defensive wizard of a 5 who can also pass, and rebound and score like a double double machine. Thanks for being here, though. DeMar – you are washed up. Anyone can do the mid-range game because that is old skool. 3 pointers or bust. Don’t you know it is a 3 point League? I sure do. Malik Monk – you took a discount because your pizza doesn’t have pineapple. And hardly anyone speaks Arabic ’round the hardwood, so you are just Malik.
check.
Seems simple enough.
Fans – we are going to go through some big time drought years. At least a couple, maybe 3 – but with these great choices for GM, Head Coach and this new roster of young guns – it will be fun! Sit tight. All is well. We had a somewhat competitive team. Hey – Ricky Bobby said: If you ain’t winning your losing.
Local TV, NBA national TV schedule. Hold my beer. Diss us now at your own peril. We’ll show you!
There is a better way, no doubt. But tossing everyone off the boat and setting sail and expecting to find paradise because it’s raining just doesn’t seem sensible to me. I confuse easily, so there is that.
Please, expand upon your great knowledge so the lowly peons that are unaware of your brilliance can bask in your glory.
That is what I wrote. I wish I had all the answers. I do not.
I don’t get the strategy of wiping the slate clean. As I said – it is a fuzzy direction.
I respect the view of you all. I just don’t agree. If I had implied that I find your opinion unworthy, than I have done you (and my self) a disservice. Apologies.
I don’t think blowing it up is the right move at this point. If they played like this in January, and not at the start of the season, I think the sentiment would be a bit different.
They just need to make some adjustments, try something different, etc.
See discocricket’s comment below
So you are accusing me and other of going into a fuzzy direction and as an alternative you offer “Nothing. I wish I had answers.”?
That’s at least as fuzzy as my take. “Let’s just sit still and wait until things magically get better.”
I like you as a poster, but this disagreeing without having anything valid as alternative is weak.
Do you at least agree that there is a likelyhood that the following issues may occur if nothing improves soon?
And if one or more of those issues are likely to materialize, what should be done?
this is a perfect example of this team having no direction.
There is no path forward as currently constructed.
Yes, without sweeping changes, it’s very hard to see this team as much better than a first-round exit, IMO.
Unless he receives underwhelming offers, Fox is gone after this season, so may as well get ahead of the curve and start the rebuild now.
What does the governor have to do with anything?
The NBA has renamed the managing partners of franchises from Owners, to Governors.
I see.
For me, it comes down to the ultimate goal: playing in the Finals/winning a championship.
Once the Sabonis/Hali trade happened, the Kings had a window that coincided with the prime years of Fox and Sabonis. The Beam Team was Year 1. We’re now in Year 3. This is the age-28 season for Sabonis and age-27 for Fox. We are clearly further away from a Finals appearance than we were in 22-23. We have few (zero?) young assets with big upside. Several teams that were worse than us that season have improved dramatically, and have better young assets with big upside, and thus have brighter futures than the Kings. Both the Coach and GM seem to have gotten worse at their jobs over time.
If your ultimate goal is just playoff appearances, playing .500 ball or above, then I think there’s still a path here, and it involves more DeRozan-like moves. Nibble around the edges with a Kuzma, a Collins, replace 1-2 rotation pieces a year. Sign Fox to the supermax. Be happy with first-round exits and maybe a lucky break to sneak into the conference finals and get swept.
I don’t believe Mike Brown, Monte McNair, and the core of this team have shown the capability of reaching that top tier of teams within the Fox and Sabonis window. We don’t have a bunch of lottery picks from other teams. Just practicing “patience” is how the organization drove itself to its current state.
I hold the view that Golden1 Center house a competitive team. Larry O’Brien or bust is yours.
I agree with you wholeheartedly – what I place as my goals are “the problem” when just good enough, isn’t good enough.
There are levels to all of this, of course. .500 ball, Play-In, Play-off, 1st, 2nd, WCF winners/losers and winning the Main Event. The Whole Enchilada. The Title. Rings. Trophy. Parade. Rafters with real Banners. History. I get it.
I will blame this on being a long time Kings fan which has made me soft as puppy crap (watch out for toxoplasmosis!). I would love having a World (sorry Noah Lyles) Championship. For the Kings to own an actual 21st century crown.
This is a subject for more in-depth discussion. Journey <-> Destination level stuff.
/respect dc.
Respect reciprocated. I grew up w the Kings (their first season in Sacramento was my kindergarten year), so perhaps my hopes have escalated beyond what is reasonable.
I agree in that my bar is set at compelling basketball.
I’m a little more in the margins than some here. I think that there are two primary issues, plus a caveat –
First, the addition of DDR has caused a lot of offensive wonky. Is there another upper level NBA team that succeeds with its top three offensive players being low volume / low efficiency from deep. The Kings big three are shooting 34% on low volume. To wit, if you replaced DDR with Cam Johnson (who sits just outside the top 20 in 3s made per game this season), the percentage jumps to 40% on higher volume. That difference is perhaps a half dozen points per game, which would vault this team upward. It would also create more looks for guys like Huerter, Ellis and Murray, all of whom would probably benefit from the additional engagement. And it would also make better use of Sabonis’ ability as a handler and distributor.
More depth at the 3-4. It has been discussed once or twice around here, I believe.
The caveat is a little more agility from the coaching staff.
I won’t call the DDR signing a mistake. I still believe that it was better than nothing. But the roster as it stands is unbalanced and ineffective, so you need to break up that big three and get at least a bit of a volume / efficient sniper on offense while shoring up the 3-4. How do you do this? Beats me. But it would seem to be a slightly wider path than blowing it up and then hoping for the 15% (at most) chance that you capture the Flagg.
Until October 24, 2024 the expectation was that Cam Johnson was not needed because Sacramento had that, at the least, in #13 Murray.
Not blaming the former Hawkeye, but he’s not seeing straight, or clear or something. That’s one of the big holes in the season, IMO. It makes not having a Cam Johnson a glaring omission. (and Trey Lyles, injured, or not has also been disappointing as the relief).
Sigh.
Cam Johnson Stats (I had to look): Last season, Nets signed him to a $94.5M/4 yr deal (2023-2027), a big jump from his rookie deal (2019-2023) of $18.6M/4 yrs.
Cam is shooting an impressive 42.2 3FG% (and 90.8 FT%) this season (and a nylon blistering 47% 3FG%/94.4% FT% through the last 10 games).
Not that Cam was available, particularly after the Mikal Bridges trade, but woulda been nice – in place of Deebo, nicer. But it is not a reality.
Will we be waiting for the return of sharpshooting Threegan all season? Longer?
Cam is also 4.5 years older than Keegan is likely the #2 offensive option on a rebuilding Nets.
Cam is an excellent player, but I’m not sure if you swapped the two, either team changes much. If you swap the coach however….that’s for another thread.
In a perfect world, the Kings have both Cam and Keegan on the wings to pair with Sabonis and Fox, but that’s not the current reality.
Nice voice of reason. I don’t agree with the blow-it-up approach, either. I believe we have a coach that’s either too inflexible or too stupid to make the necessary changes to his coaching style. Give him a few more games to try to make meaningful changes. Inserting Monk into the starting lineup was a good first step. If the team continues to not win then remove the coach – whoever the backup options for coach are, it can’t get much worse than it currently is, winning-wise. Remove the ineffective coach and then deal with the fallouts/dominos (Fox, whoever else) afterwards. Take the piece-wise change approach for the rest of the year, then blow it up in the offseason of need be. Also, since we’re very effectively (though unwillingly) tanking, our lottery draft pick should be safe.
If the “only” change to this team is a coach swap mid season.. then just keep brown on board.
changing mid season will do nothing to this team. there is no one on the staff as constructed that would do any better ( IMO ). just wait till the offseason to hopefully limit any disruptions on this already mentally weak team.
I’m out on Keegan Murray. Been saying it for 2 years. He’s soft as puppy crap. His limitations make him a 15 minute bench player. Derozan is great, but he makes no one better. This team needs facilitators and defense/rebounding. No one outside of Fox, Monk or Sabonis can make a play happen, or even shoot. I look at the assists and rebounding columns after every game and just shake my head.
I may be wrong, but I believe that Murray still has a positive net rating due to his defense. That is neither soft nor puppy crap. I think that part of the issue may be his total minutes coupled with his stellar (and almost solo at times) effort on the defensive side of the ball.
I loathe when players such as Murray or (say) Rudy Gay or Harrison Barnes are dismissed as soft or lacking fire because they don’t emote to the sometimes ridiculous levels of those around them. Murray is arguably the toughest player on this roster not named Domantas Sabonis.
I’m not against trading Murray or any of the players on the roster in the name of improvement, but let’s be real. The issue here is that there is no other option on the roster at the four than Murray, and the only other option at the three (DeRozan) is far less than stellar on the defensive end. Get Murray a DFS, for example, give him a little rest and a bit of a break (especially on the defensive end), and then let’s see what the impact is to his offensive game.
Or not. I know nothing.
All I want for Xmas is some Keegamotion
Agreed. He is doing so many other things on the floor when he is playing. He’s often the Kings 4th option on offense, or even 5th when Monk is playing the off guard. If your 4th or 5th option offense is averaging 12 and 7 while being your best defender you should be pretty happy. I was just doing a quick comparison of first 3 years of Keegan to Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby’s first 3 years, and I think he’s doing just fine. His outside shot will come back, while everything else he’s doing is pretty excellent.
What has Monte ever done? Draft Halliburton and trade him (not Fox) for Sabonis. That and draft Murray I suppose. What has Brown ever done? Install the Sabonis dribble handoff offense. They really could have fired them both after that and hired two TKH writers (or commenters!) as HC and GM. They have done nothing to support their two stars or develop their role players since. They collapse into the paint because Sabonis isn’t a shot blocker, but they don’t get one to help him. They fail to close out on threes because they’re not quick and physical, but they don’t get quick, physical guys as role players. They have let Murray and Huerter regress offensively, don’t help them, and don’t replace them. It’s a symbiotic dysfunctional relationship between Monte and Mike. They both gotta go. Then we can rebuild.
For all of Monte’s faults, he’s done more to benefit than any Kings GM, aside from Petrie around the turn of the century. Even Petrie’s last decade wasn’t all that great.
Why rate a GM against his predecessors of a historically bad franchise?
Why not rate him against his current peers? How has the Rockets GM fared, these last 4 years? And where is his team now?
So players can just go over the top of other people to grab a rebound?
The kings lost because they werent focused with maintaining that 17 point lead. Plus, all those damn switches and not being able to defend the 3, but we just cant catch a break from the refs.
What an awful joke. He was being boxed out and he reached OVER Domas. How could he clamp his arms above his head with his hands in front? Clearly over the back. His elbow is on Sabonis’ shoulder/neck.
Sabonis’ bruiser type game gets him into a lot of trouble most of the type. Think dwight but with no power play. His picks often put smaller guards down leading to offensive fouls. I watch rudy gobert and he does the same picks domas does but theres no force to it.