Last night the Kings lost to the Jazz by 49 points. Last night the Phoenix Suns clinched a playoff appearance.
The Suns held the second-longest active playoff drought in the NBA, having failed to reach the postseason since 2010. For those of you keeping score at home, that means that the Suns playoff drought started 4 years after the Sacramento Kings. The next longest drought is the New York Knicks at 7 years, a streak that appears destined to end this year.
The Sacramento Kings will extend their drought to 15 years. They’re aren’t mathematically eliminated yet, but that’s coming any day now and we can be realistic and count them out even if the coaching staff refuses to recognize reality. 15 seasons will tie the longest playoff drought in NBA history, a record set by the Los Angeles Clippers between the 76-77 and 90-91 seasons.
We could recount all the things that have changed or happened since the Kings drought started, but that’s already been done countless times. All of this has been done before.
The Kings will tie an all-time record for NBA futility this year. Barring some lottery luck or a huge trade, it seems like this squad is a longshot to make the playoffs next year as well. A streak this long, in a league where over half the teams make the playoff every year, is a true testament to sustained ineptitude.
Go Kangz.
The streak is going to go back to being the Timberwolves in 2nd place with *ahem* 3 whole seasons away from the playoffs.
Is a bar
I’ll just repost my comment from the recap thread because it fits better here:
Vivek is the new James Dolan. Plus, they both love jazz…and suck at it.
At this point, I think he is more Donald Sterling, minus the racism. Vivek seems to value profits over competitiveness, he’s cycles through front offices and coaches like days of the week, and he’s about to tie Sterling for the longest playoff drought in league history.
I don’t think he values profits over competitiveness. I just think he’s terrible at hiring the right people. He let vlade give out massive contracts to anyone who would come to us thinking it would make the team better. George Hill, Cory joseph, dedmon, list goes on.
The Kings have been in the bottom quarter of the teams in spending since he acquired the team. This is a league that you have to spend to win, and he has not done that.
Spending in free agency to fill a roster is not the same as going over the cap to retain the assets you have control of. Time and time again the Kings have let controlled assets leave via trade or free agency.
They traded Tyreke at the end of his rookie deal, rather than extending him. They let IT go for a box of rocks when they controlled his future. They traded DMC right before he was do for an extension (and I fully supported that one). They let Bogi walk for nothing. Holmes could be next.
Guess how many times the Kings have gone over the cap, if only to retain the player as an asset? The answer is zero.
Paying George Hill in free agency is not the same as paying George Hill in free agency AND paying to keep the controlled assets you already have.
You can spend tons and still not win. Knicks of old were a capped out team and couldnt win anything because they would overspend on bad players. Kings continue to do that now without being the draw that NY is.
I actually agree with a lot that you say normally, just not in this case. Kings had a chance to re-sign tyreke and IT. For whatever reason, Pete d didn’t like them and traded them for jack. He’s dumb, gets fired. Let’s get another gm to handle things. Vlade comes along and there are misgivings about dmc. Time to trade him. It’s not like mcnair didn’t try to trade bogi, it was just an illegal trade that squashed the trade. I’m with you on holmes. Holmes should have been traded for a low first with a wink wink I’ll try to get you back in the summer deal.
Vivek is an asshole for allowing his ego to keep the Kings terrible.
If he doesn’t give up power-at least you GM-we are fucked until he’s gone.
We, as a fan base, will need to start a campaign and quit going to games but I’m not sure I(we) have the energy for that.
It’s really disgusting how rich fucks can ruin a City’s team.
The Kings are the only NBA team to fail to make the NBA playoffs during the tenure of Ranadive’s ownership. Ranadive now owns the longest drought of any Kings owner, dating all the way back to 1949.
Who the F are downvoting this? It’s simply fact. How can anyone be a Vivek apologist.
Vivek, his son and Vlade?
I want the record. Let’s do this Kangz. Continue to let me down.
Despite season after season of lapsing into apathy, I have resisted abandoning my fandom of this team for over two decades.
I don’t know how much I have left in me. Watching the Giants and/or Jeopardy is always a better choice. Republic games are going to start on ESPN+.
I can’t keep doing this to myself.
Last night I watched the second half on mute and listened to a non-NBA podcast.
Oh no I watched that second half and let that shit burn in. My wife even joined me to gauge the talent’s honesty.
And how honest were they? I didn’t bother.
Kyle and Katie played it straight, I thought. I honestly think Kyle keeps things in reality check, and Kayte just can’t get too shilly sitting next to him.
I think Kyle has really helped with this, actually. I’ve learned not to listen to Mark or Doug in this respect, and that’s OK too.
I would love to hear if Celtics broadcasts are as shilly as Kings, it just seems like Kyle rarely plays into the shilliness (at least during the post-games).
Yeah, Kyle used to work on the Celtics broadcast crew. When I lived in Boston and watched games, I thought Tommy Heinsohn and Mike Gorman were gigantic homers. Never felt like they were shilling…just that they were big Celtics fans and were biased.
I just kept yelling out the deficit to my kid.
“It’s at thirty!”
“Thirty-five now.”
“Forty!”
“Forty-fucking-seven.”
“Fifty! And yet I cannot look away.”
I think it was as high as fifty-two.
And shit-for-brains only giving Ramsey five minutes was the diarrhea icing on the season-long turd cake cooked up by Baked Walton.
Does a 50 pt loss get my attention….at this point a little, but not like it’s huge Kangz news. But Walton only dishing out minutes to the youngsters halfway through the 4th is the biggest joke of all. Even the Jazz played their end of the bench before us…that speaks volumes to me.
The biggest joke of all is Vivek and him thinking this team will/should make a playoff push. He’s an idiot.
If he doesn’t let Monte run the show, doesn’t fire Walton I will have to find a different team.
Do what I do and watch other teams play. Enjoy the beauty of watching other bad teams flounder, or watch great teams show what good basketball play is.
I still love the kings and I watch all their games, but why not watch the nuggets, knicks, cavs, whoever else might interest you.
I watch a lot of Suns, Hawks and Knicks games due to fun and legit coaching ! Plus I really enjoy watching CP3, Bogi, and Randle ! I want to support the Kings more but it seems to destroy my love for NBA basketball !
I watch a lot of wiz games for Russ’ FU, I will win this game myself attitude. Spurs and philly get an insta-watch. My real pleasure is watching the nuggets play. Man, they are just so good, even without Murray.
I’m starting to think of this futility as a sort of family curse. When the Kings finally made the playoffs in 96, my dad was 43. If we just wait until I’m 43, we’ll celebrate the playoffs in . . .
2036.
Grow up, kid!
Keep the faith man. The kings will be back in the playoffs sooner or later. The thing is to find a very good coach. Look at what a coaching change can do for a team. Exhibit a, knicks, b, hawks, and c, bulls. Heck, even look at the t-wolves. Finch is doing work with the young guys in Minnesota.
Your dad and I are the same age and share a similar timeline ( I’m guessing he’s been following the Kings close to the time they got here). I took my son to his first Kings game at ARCO in 1999 and he got a Mike Bibby uni that reached his toes and grew out of it 5 years later. As fans we forget how many seasons in Sac resulted in a losing record despite the glory years.
My son now lives in Portland and is still a Kangz fans and goes to all the Blazers/Kings game wearing his Kangz gear. When the playoffs start we switch to being Blazers fans so at least we have a team to root for.
His fandom has been reignited by the addition of Hali and Dfox’s growth this year. He still believes that Marv is never going to be worth the second pick but that as long as he’s on the team he should be playing max minutes and coached hard to discover where there is a kernel of value there or not. That’s called hope and I don’t share it it but understand it.
SMF-PDX, it is a family curse. The closer I get to 70 I have come to the conclusion that I might not live long enough to see the Kings make the playoffs. I fully believe that nothing will change until vivek is gone. We talk about the Kings constantly during the season, so that’s been good for our relationship but the mutual love/hate and intense frustration with the team has been growing on us.
SMX if your dad is still around pls say hi to him for me. Asa far as I can tell he’s raised a good son. I respect your take on basketball and the Kings in particular. I’m glad you’ve decided to continue to hang with the team.
Thank you. The synchronicity of this gives me the heebie jeebies a bit. If it weren’t for the story of the Mike Bibby jersey, this could’ve been my story to a tee.
I’ve been recently trying to approach this team more like a reality soap opera instead of an operating sports franchise.
It’s a tragicomedy, basically.
Super Team Just Young and Restless.
Definitely not Dynasty.
As the World Burns?
Star Dreck.
Shit Creek.
American Horror Story.
9021Oh no we suck again.
Ponder-us-aaauuughgh
Big KangTheory
Breaking Bad Records of Futility
Jeers
I Love Losing
The Orifice.
The Waltons.
No! [points finger at Rob]
Game of Groans.
Honestly, I find myself not even really caring about basketball anymore. I enjoy the sport, sure, but it’s hard to have an emotional connection to this league when you don’t have a connection through a team (because I truly don’t feel anything toward the Kings anymore). I don’t even really enjoy watching the good teams because it just brings to mind what could have been for us, and it’s not like there’s any sense in trying to measure this organization against any other.
Yeah, I can understand that.
Like I wrote elsewhere:
If I could switch and leave it all behind I would. Tried a few times, doesn’t work for me (yet?).
Happy for people who can.
Two-and-a-half Decades
Coming to NBC, fall 2031!
Curb Your Enthusiasm
The Browns spent 18 years in futility, Lions have sucked forever, Cubs didn’t win a title for 108 years, Rockies suck each year with a few superstars and feel-good years mixed in. Each sport just has those one or two franchises. Along with the TWolves, we are one of those.
Just accept it, your loyalty to the only pro sports team in SAC won’t drive you completely away, and “enjoy the wins”. The West is only getting better, there is no hope. Whatever can go wrong will go wrong for this franchise.
Until they become Sonics 2.0. Then it’s just us.
This is where I’m at KL. I’m 52 and can remember lots of pro sport teams who spent a decade in extreme irrelevancy. That’s the word I ultimately think of here, irrelevant. I see the Kings tossing money into a pot so the colluders can drive the bus.
The webber years were good. Kings could get back to that with a good front office and coach tandem. I don’t know if Monte McNair is that guy, but let’s hope he is and he can pick a great coaching partner to work with this off-season.
What both the Cubs and Browns did though in large part was read the tea leaves of their habits and constructively plan to maximize being terrible, tank and plan for their moment 4 or 5 years down the line. Which the Kings are still refusing to do. If you have been this bad why are you going about it the same way? Making win now moves, signing high mid levels, pushing for unlikely playoff births that count you out of the pinnacle of the draft lottery. Admitting whats likely would be for trading for assets maximizing the g league etc and benching the home stretch. Or at least operating expecting that the next three seasons will be likely 30 wins or lower and making decisions accordingly.
These are all approaches that beyond our history of being bad, are frankly necessary in an undesirable market that has little if any max player free agency leverage regardless of record, and is fighting up a harder hill than half the rest of the league.
Ladies and gentleman, your Suckramento Kangz!
Where do the Kings play their home games at?
Meanwhile, at Marvin Bagley’s rehab session:
Healthy but, sore from playing 3 on 3 in practice. Chose to sit out instead of play in a game in which key players on his team are truly injured. Great winning mentality he brings to this team.
What is his potential again? Can’t it be plainly said that Bagley is a bust? At this point the only question is how long the Kangz protect this jack ass from reality?
Trade him to a team that has a media group that will point out what he is instead of ignore it.
In New York…James Dolan is an ass hole but the new guy Bagley simply gives up on his team
In LA….After giving Bagley a ten day contract it is clear that he cannot play in the NBA. Out of the 10 days, Bagley only practiced for an hour and chose to sit the remainder of his 10 day contract because he is sore
In San Antonio….Popovich states in the after game press conference that Bagley will no longer be allowed to be with the team unless he can actually point to the ball while playing defense and then understand which team is currently In possession of the ball.
10 years later in Sacramento…After signing his max contract Bagley’s potential is still intriguing as the Kings try to assemble a team to support his talents. Bagley has been starting for more than a decade and his two assists show his amazing potential as a threat that cannot be ignored in the NBA.
Billboard time!
May as well make some noise and see if we can get that little shit owner to budge.
Dude was pissed when a sports magazine ranked Kings as the worst ownership, firing back “hey, that was the previous ownership, not us!”
This guy thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room, feigning humility with the “I surround myself with people smarter than me”.
From 2013, when this shit show first emerged:
https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2013/05/22/the-new-king-of-sacramentos-kings-scoffs-in-the-face-of-long-odds
Boy, was SI completely wrong…
It’s funny – I read that coaching story at the time and was on his side. I thought what he did was smart. In hindsight, he basically exploited a weakness in little kids inability to really play competitive basketball. “Hey look! Kids can’t dribble! I’ll exploit that to win meaningless games and ruin everyone’s fun!” He basically proved that an adult can beat kids. Is that something to be proud of or embarrassed about?
Maybe all of this is karmic retribution for that garbage move.
And, not to mention, stunt his players’ growth in the meantime.
Just a beautiful take.
He’s Michael Scott, folks.
Why hasn’t Luke been fired? I mean, at this point, you’ve paid most of this year’s salary – fire the bum.
A team without two of it’s best players came into our building and hung 150 points on us. Losing needs to start having consequences.
My theory:
Luke has videotape of Vivek and Matina buying puppies from a puppy mill and handing them over to Chris Hansen of Seattle as a gift. And they are afraid of the fallout if the public were to see it.
It’s why he keeps threatening them in public with “I guess I’ll have to watch the tape.” …To remind them that he’s got kompromat on them.
Luke’s not smart enough to blackmail.
Blackmail requires devising a plan.
They had 76 points at the half and the teams response to that was allowing 78 points in the second half. Talk about a team who doesn’t give two shits about their head coach or really even any self pride
And I bet Luke is ready to wash his hands of this, take his buyout and get out of town.
By the way he is coaching it almost seems like he’s trying to get fired.
Hopefully he gets to join the list of coaches we actively pay to not coach here anymore soon
If I’m not mistaken, this was the first season of the Vivek era in which the Kings were only paying one head coach’s salary:
2013-14: Smart, Malone
2014-2015: Malone, Corbin, Karl
2015-2016: Karl, Malone
2016-17: Joerger, Karl
2018-19: Joerger, Karl
2019-20: Walton, Joerger
2020-21: Walton
Quite a legacy.
I might’ve missed one year in there. Haven’t finished my morning Rockstar Zero Carb yet
Doubt they payed Malone in 2015-16. That was his first season in Denver.
you’re better at this stuff than me. I have reassigned the task to you. Please have a full report by COB.
They had Karl Malone as a coach in 2015-16??? haha
John Stockton played for us, too.
As well as our G-League affiliate.
Vivek has yet to allow the GM to hire his coach from the start.
That’s true, and it’s a huge divergence from the usual (i.e. smart) way of allowing a GM to operate.
But hey, try new things, right! Just because it hasn’t worked either time here doesn’t mean
YES IT DOES
Best thing about this was Kyle calling out Kayte when she said ‘…at least they showed something in the second half” Kyle’s ‘You really think that?!’ comment was what anyone who had on in the background while doing something else more important thought.
Ignoring gross behavior is supporting gross behaviorKayte and all The Sac broadcast team. It is in no way helpful or doing their job.
I’m wondering this to. Sadly, I get this sickly feeling in the pit of my stomach when I think they might just bring back Walton for another year.
Perish the thought….
They can’t even sell out 1,600 seats right now, if they bring Walton back next year…. ooooooofffff those Kings games are going to be bleak
and yes, I get saying they can’t sell 1,600 seats is a little disingenuous with all that’s going on, but if this team was at least halfway decent with a better coach, I think Sacramento sells those out still.
If that happens, I will walk away until he is gone. Even then, I might not come back.
That’s my thought. Leave and/or billboard/protest as fans.
Around the time McNair was hired, I seem to remember them saying specifically that Walton is coach for this season. Hopefully that means that next season is up to McNair, and that he’s assertive enough to make a change.
That’s my recollection as well, and we all attributed it to not wanting to pay Walton for three years to get high, watch TV, and the occasional date rape.
The jury is out on McNair, but I can’t imagine that anyone believes it was his preference to keep failson around.
You need luke to finish the job of losing the next ten straight. Another coach might play some of the young guys and accidentally win some games.
With Barnes and Fox out, that’s going to happen anyways with Walton or without him. Kings aren’t catching Detroit. Kings lottery %’s are basically where they’re going to be at come lottery day
Yeah, this seems right to me. The Kings are four games behind the 6th spot, and the two teams tied for that spot are 2-8 and 1-9 in their last 10. McNair blew an opportunity to get a higher draft spot this season by holding on to Barnes and Holmes. You can never prove what would have happened, but I continue to think it was a blunder that will be made worse if Holmes walks for nothing.
I don’t fully expect that we’ll even have a draft pick this year. I think the Kings first round pick(s) are going out for a star of some kind over the next two seasons.
Personally for me, if Holmes walks for nothing this summer, McNair is officially in the negative for me and I will question his ability to be an even decent GM. That would be both Bogi and Holmes walking for nothing. Shit teams can’t let that happen.
This is the Vivek issue. Did Monte not move Holmes (or Buddy or Barnes) b/c he wanted to make a run at the play-in or Vivek wanted to make a run at the play-in? Amick brought up the point that if this was Monte’s call, we would likely heard rumblings from the within the org that Monte screwed up, but radio silence on that front (plus reports of Monte calling this “a gap year”) points to this being another stupid Vivek decision.
Question for the group: Which option would you have chosen at the trade deadline?
A) Trade Holmes to the Raptors for Malachi Flynn and Stanley Johnson
B) Keep Holmes and go into free agency with a 50:50 chance to re-sign Holmes using the early bird exception (4 years, $47 million)
the reason I ask is that losing him for nothing could just mean 1 team offered him 4 years, $50 million. So the real question is what type of asset would’ve been good enough to forgo having X% chance of re-signing Holmes to a reasonable deal in the offseason.
Was that the only trade available for the kings? From the rumor mill stories I was reading, the kings could have gotten a low first round pick from a contending team. That’s enough for me to say, i got an asset back for holmes. I love Holmes, by the way.
I don’t think there was ever a potential trade leaked. I just put that one out there because the Raptors were rumored to be interested. My point is to gently push back on the “lose Holmes for nothing” talking point. There could be a situation in which they “barely lose Holmes for nothing, but the risk associated with keeping him outweighed the reward of trading him at the deadline.” Or to put it another way, would you take a 100% chance at getting $1 instead of a 50% chance of winning $2?
If the opportunity was there to trade holmes for a middle 20s to late 20s pick, I’d do it. That pick plus the kings pick might be able to let the kings move up one or two spots, if the guy the kings are targeting is just above them. At least that way, the kings have another asset to work with.
Whatever the risk calculation, if the team loses Holmes for nothing after failing to deal him at the deadline, the result is going to be very, very difficult to defend.
And that failure will be connected to both Vivek and McNair, undermining McNair’s image and authority.
if that’s the case, then GMs should always trade every player that can be an impending free agent since there’s always going to be a greater than 0% chance they’ll leave.
Kings need to stay within that 6th to 9th worst record though. A few more wins can have them overtaking the bulls, pelicans, toronto, and potentially wiz. Okc doesn’t have shai playing, and they still get the occasional win. Kings need to be minnesota without kat kind of bad to get both a better pick and to show the front office we need to clean house of almost everything. I’m really kind of hoping for 10 losses in a row to end the season even though I’ll be voting for kings wins in the predictions.
Unfortunately, in the history of the Kings franchise (especially the Sacramento era), losing has had very few consequences.
Who cares at this point… fire him at season’s end and see who is available out there, blow up the team, etc… Make it the Summer of Monte.
If giving up 150+ points and losing by 49 to a team missing its two best players isn’t a fireable offense, then Walton will be the coach for all eternity.
Seems like there would need to have been an interval of non-sucking in order to use “again.”
At least every 15 years.
Maybe it’s time to resurrect my old black and white graphic from the rid us of Cousins period.
That also dates back to Buffalo, and San Diego, too.
On one hand, this streak is very much Vivek’s to own. But, really, unless you were thinking the entire West was going to drop off, there was no way to make the playoffs this season. It was inevitable, in otherwords.
Last night was crappy, but I didn’t pay it any mind. I was watching the Denver-New Orleans game, and if I could have been bothered to care about the Clippers-Suns game in Phoenix I would have finished up with that game. I turned on Netflix, conked out, and that was that. I turned the Kings game off in the 2nd qtr and never bothered to turn it back on. I could see what kinda game it was, I just didn’t think the Kings would lose by 49. That’s rather impressive, but I’ve seen plenty of those blowouts over the years. I don’t bother to watch anymore. There’s nothing to see there.
The question is do basketball people have control of this thing. This can be turned around, nothing has changed over the last week that wasn’t true before then, and the next week won’t change anything either. But hopefully there’s some mechanism that kicks in that embarrasses Vivek to allow his basketball people to run things. What’s funny is that he probably has made good hires before, but doesn’t realize why. It would be a good thing this time if he realizes what he has in Monte McNair rather than trying to push an arbitrary agenda (like making the playoffs) next season. At this point, the playoff drought streak is really irrelevant. Make good decisions (you have to understand what that means), have good process (this too), this other shit takes care of itself (you have to understand the previous two points to get to this juncture). It’s pretty simple, but I guess you can be as dumb as you want when you write the checks. As always, proof is in the pudding.
Part of me wonders if fans had been in the arena, would things have gone down differently this season. I really think the team is just treading water to keep the lights on. Right now there is no accountability to the poor play. There are no boo birds, paper bag wearing fans or noticeably empty seats due to disgust and apathy. The only thing that may be an indicator is TV viewership and sponsorship revenue, but I have no idea what those numbers are. I do know the Kings didn’t get a jersey sponsor this year, so maybe that is an indication of things?
I’ve wondered about this too, but there could be a number of explanations for it. Blue Diamond still has their sideline advertising, though, I’ve noticed.
It appears Rockets, Bucks, Wolves, and us are the only teams without uni sponsors.
Personally, I hope it stays that way. Was never a fan of it. Though, having the uni maker logo prominently displayed also annoys me.
One thing I’m curious about is their willingness to use all or most of the exceptions at their disposal next offseason. I believe they can theoretically use the early bird on Davis and Holmes, the NT MLE , the biannual, and minimums in FA, and two traded player exceptions ($3.6 mil for CoJo, ~$2 mil for Bjelly) for trades. That feels like enough tools to field a competitive squad if they nail their draft pick(s), and figure out how to move with Bagley and/or Buddy.
It really depends on whether or not the Kings have cap room Rory. Keep in mind you can’t combine exceptions so it’s not like you can combine the TPE and the NT MLE together. Which, naturally, makes cap room more valuable.
The only way to get cap room at this point is to move Buddy Hield, Harrison Barnes or Marvin Bagley and receive little salary in return.
I think Bagley might go. I’m not sure you can move Buddy and cut salary at the same time. They won’t deal Barnes unless they get someone better in return, and it’s tough to see that happening while also lowering salary. Could be that Barnes is sent out with the team’s first for a higher level starter.
What does Barnes plus Hali, plus 2021 first get you? That’s the Kind of deal I expect.
I’d better be getting a major star for that package personally. And I doubt there is one available as that seems light just based off what Harden got the Rockets. I’m not doing that for Beal, for instance, unless he agrees to a max deal beforehand which is basically forbidden now. Which I’m not sure puts the Kings in a much better place they can get to anyway.
But, I will say this Spackler, I think I hold Barnes in higher regard than you do. That’s probably the difference. Also, I think you have to look at how many teams have cap room and I think many are underrating how valuable Buddy could be to another team. His AST/TO ratio is nearly 2 to 1, his TS% is a tick over 57%, his WS/48 after hovering in the negatives for the first 1/4 of the season is now nearly .040. And that’s with the defensive numbers dragging him down (as it does everyone else). The only guys with 120+ ORtg are Barnes and Holmes, there’s a reason for that. Buddy is an excellent defensive rebounder, and is certainly passable in SOME matchups defensively (despite the perception). Buddy’s playmaking has certainly improved, although you wouldn’t know it by the comments around here.
Yes, I think it’s possible the Kings can trade Buddy Hield this summer and not have to take a bad contract back. I think it’s time to move on, certainly, for both sides. Just as it’s time to move from Bagley. But the thing is that Buddy’s flaws is blinding everyone around here including you Spackler. Everything Buddy does is loud, and when you get tired of franchise incompetence as many, understandably, are atm, I get it. But Buddy’s good things are loud, too, only the noise seems to be akin to the tree falling in the forrest without anyone hearing it.
Long story long, I think you are underrating Buddy’s value on the market compared to other FA’s and other long-ish contracts on the market. Buddy has notable skill and has improved in area’s like playmaking while not turning the ball over. The problem is Buddy’s turnover lead to points on the other end, and that has to go. But Buddy is not the only player on this roster guilty of that (hello De’Aaron Fox!) and Tyrese Haliburton is guilty of that, too. Rookie or not, Haliburton isn’t so great he’s a saviour. He’s a high hoops IQ role player who plays well off stars. You need those. Buddy isn’t really as plug ‘n play as that, that’s one reason he needs to go. And the Kings have more needs than what Buddy’s shooting gives them.
But let’s not get this twisted: Buddy isn’t as bad as the doom and gloom sometimes makes him out to be. What he isn’t is Steph Curry either, and the adults in the room know that. Unless of course you think Monte McNair became an absolute idiot and didn’t know what he was inheriting in Buddy Hield. The Kings got lucky with so many guys signing extensions and taking themselves off the market for teams hoarding cap space. And you are obligated to miss me pointing out that teams will try to roll out cap space for 2022 and Buddy’s deal is too long to do that. I know that shit. But there won’t be 12 teams capable of doing that, and there will certainly be teams who think Buddy might be worth acquiring 2022 cap space be damned.
That’s Monte McNair’s job this summer. To reshape the roster and move the money around intelligently. If early returns are any indication, he’s capable of it. It might not be the move you like, but then again that isn’t Monte McNair’s job to kiss your ass either. I don’t know if McNair can succeed, or if Hield’s market is worth anything, not really I don’t. But I’ve seen comments like this before, and I’ve seen this attitude displayed before. Competent front offices can pull off a remodel and reshaping this roster. Nothing McNair has done has said he can’t do it, and it probably really depends on what’s available this summer to pull off. Maybe Hield can’t be traded this summer, maybe my optimism there is misplaced. But I know if I were a GM and I had cap space and maybe an expiring year deal, I know Hield would be a guy I’d be interested in if I need what he brings and I got the right setup to accommodate Buddy and put him in a position to succeed.
We’ll see as always. Proof is in the puddin’.
Hay Yo!
If they fire Walton, then it’ll be interesting to see Monte’s timeline for hiring a replacement. If I was in charge, I’d probably wait until after the draft lottery before making a decision. One has to assume that the pool of potential head coaches willing to take the job would look a bit different if the Kings move up in the draft. The idea of coaching Fox/Haliburton + Cade or Mobley would be a lot more appealing versus coaching the current core plus like Franz Wagner or whatever.
How much longer can Luke last?
https://twitter.com/JasonRoss1140/status/1387621589429080065?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1387621589429080065%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fbleacherreport.com%2Fsacramento-kings
Dick Mottafired 12/24/91
Phil Johnsonfired 2/9/87
Jerry Reynoldsreassigned 1/4/90
Luke Walton???
I guess I’d be okay if they replaced Walton with Dick Motta.
Any other dick than Walton is fine.
Their last game is May 16th, so I assume 5/17/21
So the largest home loss ever?
Yes.
Imagine if the building was full.
It’s much more difficult to imagine the G1C selling out at this point than the fans booing.
Leave it to the Kings to fire a coach on Christmas Eve.
“Happy holidays, here’s a paid vacation for the rest of the year!”
TH;DR
Too Hipster; Didn’t Read.
Currently having the traditional hipster brunch of Rockstar Zero Carb and chili beans while listening to the totally non-hipster Kings Pulse pod.
This morning, from somewhere inside the Kangz marketing department, I’d like to think someone snickered as they clicked send.
I’m expecting a wave of Jason Williams highlight reels being posted on Kings social media to appeal to fans.
We are now the same time away from the Glory Years as the Glory Years were from Reagan’s first term.
we have now entered…The Glory Hole
And it sucks hard.
The Gory Years
Thanks Luke Walton
Impotent rage is also a form of excitement, right?
I might be in the minority, but the streak at this point means nothing to me. I could care less on having a playoff showing if the team isn’t building for sustained success. I frankly have been more pissed that the decisions since 2010, have been mainly made for 8th seed showings than blowing it up and maximizing a rebuild. Why have the Kings at no point legitimately committed to the tank over a decade of being a terrible is the true embarrassment personally. It demonstrates a dillusion thats laughable, that we have been this awful for this long and yet never seemed to capitalize on our league position.
The same is true now. If this team makes the play in the suggestion that that means we are bonafide is absurd. We know this team isn’t in a position to capitalize or markedly improve without some drastic luck in FA or lottery fortunes regardless. Such being the case the inverse should be sought out intentionally. Especially when your franchise player is missing the remaining games.
I am optimistic because we have two young cornerstones that are worthy of investment and could be something together longterm. That said they are reliant on some more drastic influx of talent to join them to assure consistent summer basketball. Such being the case the priority should be as much. The streak is the streak but it exist because we have been hasty impatient and erratic. Just because it’s been decade doesnt change that fact.
I’m pretty sure most of us share this sentiment.
This may have been the easiest season in their history to properly tank, and of course they don’t have the courage for that.
Bring on the embarrassment, bring on the billboard.
Right? Like, how did they not see the giant Keith Haring sized writing on the Berlin sized wall in front of them for this season?
No fans in the stands (until recently) to boo or jeer or throw things on the court.
Sports not as relevant getting sandwiched between things like the election, the pandemic, etc.
One of the most loaded draft classes in years.
Possible clean slate bringing in a new front office, a transition time when everyone expects there to be overhauls.
2nd easiest season. The easiest season would have been 2013. New ownership that just saved the team for the City of Sacramento, with a new arena two years away? This ownership group had carte blanche to tear it down to the studs and suck to the high heavens for the next four-five years. What a colossal missed opportunity.
It was a terrible draft, and ironically, they had two direct opportunities to draft among the best few players in the draft (promise to McCollum and Petrie recommending Giannis) and of course whiffed on both.
I know I’m a broken record, but McNair was in Houston for the James Harden deal. That’s the model here. They’re not going to tank.
I understand. Boy do I understand.
And then Houston went on to win several championshi–oh, that’s right. They hella didn’t.
Yeah the success Houston had the last 5-6 years would really suck to have here…
Then vivek picked the wrong guy again, and we’ll watch minnesota to see if gupta should have been it.
The question to me has always been that Vivek always hires GM’s that have never been the decision makers for Winners ! Probably since he plans to be ! Why not throw money at a Presti, Buford, Lindsey etc ! Proven builders !
Why would Presti or Buford consider leaving their current situations for any amount of money to come here? (I’m not sure who Lindsey is, but I would probably ask the same of him/her.)
Ah, Dennis Lindsey of the Utah Jazzwho was an assistant GM under Buford before being hired by the Jazz and not a primary decision maker until then.
That is the point ! He is a proven winner now ! Also, none make as much money as Luke Walton ! Loser mentality says why try when just maybe for more money and years you may succeed ! Pat Riley left the Lakers for NYork and then N York for Miami ! Happens all the time !
I thought your point was that Vivek avoids hiring experienced GMs because he wants to be the decision maker himself. You’ve made that point several times over the past few months.
My point is that it is more common for teams to hire up-and-coming assistant GMs or promote from within than to hire previously experienced GMs. Presti, Buford, and Lindsey all fit my criteria. And I believe Riley was the HC for LA and NY, and didn’t become an executive until his stint with Miami.
Vivek deserves lots of criticism for his hiring decisions (particularly the Vlade hire), but the hiring of Pete and Monte followed a much more common path.
You, of course, are entitled to your opinion as I am to mine.
Couldn’t get those guys outside of offering ownership stake, probably. I would be 100000% behind a hire like that if it was possible. Even getting a ujiri, Bobby Webster, Tim Connelly would have been a coup. I’m not going to lie, I’ve advocated for bringing on the original tank man Hinkie back. Honestly, I’d still like him to be GM.
Where’s JLV when you need him?
Might even be too much for JLV
“JLV doesn’t want that smoke” – Mark Jones
JLFlee
JLV, after watching last night’s game:
“JLV out there catchin’ bodies!”
92,236 to 1
Those are the odds against doing something 15 times in a row when there’s only a 46-2/3% chance of doing it once. (The chance of missing the nba playoffs in any given year is 46-2/3% = 7/15.)
I’m hoping that in a couple of weeks, we’ll be able to feel a bit better about the possibility of breaking this mathematical anomaly in the next year or two.
Like you proved, it’s really hard to pull off what the Kings have done in regard to the playoffs.
There is a famous “3 Rules for Life” that I read in college from a novel by Nelson Algren that went something like this:
As a Kings fan I feel like I lost all my money playing poker with Doc, eat breakfast and dinner at Mom’s cuz she lets me run a tab and I sleep with a woman (when she lets me) who has a bad prescription med problem and who is paying back Doc with sex for all the money she lost to him and I’m in love with her and I just can’t kick her.
That’s what being a Kangz fan is like!!!
BTW the name of the novel is Walk on the Wild Side. Excellent
Fascinating tidbit: Lou Reed’s greatest hits is a one-disc collection consisting of “Walk on the Wild Side” fifteen times in a row.
If this rule were reversed, we’d go extinct from population loss in about two generations.
Badge Legend