Tuesday’s loss to the Charlotte Hornets was an embarrassment. The Sacramento Kings shot themselves in the foot at every opportunity, and exposed every flaw that has haunted them throughout the season. The Kings held the lead for the majority of the game, and yet they never found a way to create real separation. Turnovers and defensive lapses reared their ugly heads every time it looked like the Kings were about to pull away, and the Kings completely folded in the final minutes of the game.
The worst part is how many of us saw it coming.
To anyone who has watched the Kings this season, this loss wasn’t a surprise. It was still a disappointment, still embarrassing, still inexcusable, and yet it was entirely predictable. After letdown losses against the Houston Rockets and Portland Trail Blazers, and after a too-close affair against the Washington Wizards, we know the Kings fail to show up in what should be easy games.
I don’t know how the Kings fix this issue. How does Mike Brown convince these guys that they simply aren’t good enough to overlook teams? How does Monte McNair find the right upgrades in the trade market? How do you improve the mental toughness of a team? There’s no magic bullet here.
Yet, despite these issues I’m not quite as despondent as some fans are this morning. The Kings are still a good team, they’ve simply failed (so far, at least) to be a notably better team than they were last year. The Kings are currently 19-13. Last season the Kings started 17-15. The Kings are once again on pace for around 48 or 49 wins. A little better execution and consistency, a few internal improvements, a good trade, or even just a few lucky bounces, and suddenly this team is over 50 wins. This season isn’t a disaster, it’s just not the linear growth we hoped for.
All that said, work those phones, Monte. I’m tired of watching games like that.
“Sabonis turns and heads to the basket…”
Where are the other 3?
Already plated.
Those must be the illegal screens!
Just not athletic enough overall and definitely too soft in the paint. Every time it’s these issues. An athletic, rebounding SF or PF would make a huge difference. Someone who bodies up on the other team’s best players and patrol’s the paint with disdain for the opponent.
I wonder if PJ Washington would be worth trying to trade for. Another Kentucky player (one year after Fox) with some size, or heft anyway. Not sure how well he plays defense, but played well against the Kings last night.
I’d trade Barnes and a pick swap or a 2nd for him. Not sure that Charlotte would go for it. I don’t think that he would be much more than an incremental improvement, but his skillset appears as though it would blend better with Sabonis and Murray.
PJ is just very mediocre to me and I’m not really interested in trading assets for mediocre players unless it’s just 1-2 seconds.
He seems to save his best games for when he plays against the Kings.
I agree. Due to the Kings limited assets, if they do pull the trigger on a trade, it needs to be more than a lateral move/change in skillsets.
As someone stated in the recap thread, those kind of losses happen to all good teams. I just wonder with what frequency good teams lose to bad teams or mediocre teams on long losing streaks.
Does it indeed happen more to the Kings or are we more aware of them than we are of other teams?
Probably difficult to find stats for that.
Aside from that, I do think that we are a (negative) outlier where it comes to Segababa’s. I remember seeing a stat about that last season.
It was just last week that the Celtics had to go to overtime to beat the Pistons, which would have been the Celtics worse loss in a very long time. Sometimes teams just hate losing and bring an extra effort. It seemed Charlotte brought more effort than the Kings and it built over time. You could see Charlotte believed they could win. It was evident the Kings were playing not to lose. And what was up with those weird rotations? They never really got a good flow going before another hockey line came in. BTW, Rik, I’m a fan from Brussels…
Hi there neighbor!
Lovely city.
Mainly agree, but a near-loss is still a win.
They are the Celtics, after all
I don’t think fox like lay ups anymore …..
I think his new tendency toward the three ball is a simple equation of energy expenditure and expected points per possession. Plus, he’s always been lethal in the mid-range, and I think he’s just decided that it’s better to just take 2-3 steps back than take the middy.
He’s trying to avoid shooting free throws.
Late in the 4th, I watched Monk close out hard against a Terry Rozier three. He must’ve high-fived him on the contest, he was that close. Rozier splashed it, anyway.
There were at least 6-8 other moments like that. Moments we often shrug off as “good defense, better offense.” We’re always so surprised that it seems that teams just tend to shoot better playing the Kings. As if it’s something that will regress back to the mean over time. And yet, that still doesn’t seem to happen.
Why? My guess is that on other teams that force misses at a league average level, they have defenders who are just a bit taller, a bit longer, a bit quicker on the close out, leap a little higher on the contest. These are natural physical gifts, not things that can be taught. And yet, they are the difference between ELITE defense, and mediocre defense.
Does a guy like Alex Caruso, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart, etc. block that Terry Rozier 3? Maybe. Maybe not. But I feel confident that all 3 of those guys would’ve made him miss – if not on that attempt, then on one of the other similar ones.
I can see the defensive scheme Brown is implementing. It is switch-heavy, big on communication, and focused on opportunistically doubling/trapping. I also see that the Kings are trying very hard to learn and implement this scheme – and I’d even say they’re doing as well as they could be expected to do.
But simply put, the personnel is not on this team to force misses and get stops when it matters. Not against the Celtics’s starting 5, and not against the Hornets/Trailblazers 3rd stringers. And until we get these types of defenders, any thoughts about title contention is mere fantasy.
The problem is the Kings ARE worse than they were last year. Not by record but absolutely by Net rating and that’s the problem. The offense has been the biggest culprit because they seemingly have no second option if threes aren’t going. Fox has been great from deep but a much worse finisher at the rim this year. Couple that with some terrible free throw shooting from our best players and you’ve got a problem. Last night was just a microcosm of larger systemic issues. This team should probably make the playoffs but I give them almost no shot to make it out of the first round.
Monte did the mental math this off-season and calculated the odds were good that A) Keegan would make a significant leap this year; B) Sasha would be a solid bench wing; and C) JaVale and Duarte would be upgrades over Metu and Davis, leading to a much-improved bench overall. None of these 3 things have come to pass. That’s not necessarily Monte’s fault — most reasonable observers were expecting/assuming at least 2 of the 3, if not all 3, to be true. It’s just an unfortunate scenario that’s played out. I still think Monte made the right call by not betting big on expensive free agents whose fit with the Kings’ core was suspect (Kuzma, etc). But it’s now up to Monte to figure out where this team goes from here. A lot of national media prognosticators were predicting the Kings to regress. That certainly hasn’t happened–they’ve held steady. Disappointing to Kings fans, but at least we now know where this current core’s floor is. The goal now is to raise the ceiling.
well said.
The moves were fine, just hasn’t worked out for some reason. Now it is up to Monte and Mike to figure out why and remedy the situation. Either new personnel, or putting the players in a better position to perform on a nightly basis. Glad I am not the GM or coach.
This may be nitpicky, but I see this often and it drives me a little crazy. I feel this is an inaccurate assessment that leads to a worse grade. Sasha, not JaVale, was to be an upgrade over Metu. Duarte was to be an upgrade over TD. JaVale was to be an upgrade over Holmes. If we evaluate based on that standard, the moves were minor improvements, except maybe Duarte (but Duarte has been playing better the last few games).
I feel like we need to trade off Keegan while his value is still high. He has made some improvements and I just don’t see that alpha-dog in him. I see a solid starter who can hit threes and eventually learn to defend. His ceiling is 3rd best scorer on a good team, maybe #2 option. How about this…Alex Caruso + Patrick Williams for Keegan and Barnes. We pick up two players who are great defenders while not sacrificing and 3pt%. We also get out of Barnes’ contract which is looking awful right now – use that money to match what Williams will get in free agency. Then we will have a glut of shooting guards and trade can trade Huerter to a team that needs a shooter (like how the Pacers are shopping Hield) for a starter quality SF..
This team finally has a young quality 3&D wing on a rookie contract and you want to trade him?
It’s a long season and they’re on pace for a better record in the West that is even stronger than last year, incremental improvements are not a bad thing.
This team’s success totally hinges on Keegan developing into what we want him to be within the timelines of Fox/Sabonis, otherwise this team will be perennial 5-6th seed. Defensive schemes aren’t going to change anything. You also got it wrong in the quote…Keegan is a 3 & eventually, showing promises of D. Sacrifice a little bit of offense for another young 3 & proven D in Williams. He is shooting 40% from 3. If you look him up on Youtube, all you see is his defensive highlights. Protection at the rim is desperately needed – we saw conga lines to our basket vs GSW in the playoffs. We saw it again vs Charlotte without LaMelo Ball or Brandon Miller. Caruso is also shooting near 44% from 3 while still being an efficient defender. THAT for a player shooting 35.6% from three this season while his value is still high because of his rookie contract? Need to strike while the fire is hot or else nothing happens and we’ll be talking trade scenarios after the boat has sailed.
Granted, I don’t watch a lot of Bulls basketball, but Caruso has never struck me as much of a rim protector or a high-level rebounder.
I’m a Patrick Williams fan and I think he could help the team at PF if acquired. My personal fav target for a new PF is Tari Eason, but I’ve posted many times that P. Williams would be my #2 target if I were MM.
But IMO, trading Keegan Murray would be one of the worst moves this team could make right now (unless you’re getting back a Jaylen Brown level talent somehow).
Do it!
Let’s Bee Gees this mf trade season
falsetto our way to the Finals?
The record is better than last year at this time, but they usually look like they are disjointed in many games. The offensive identity is non-existent (minus the jacking up of 3 pointers). Some DHO, Horns, various types of screen action, etc. Just seems like the coaches have added many new wrinkles to the offense and the players aren’t able to execute consistently. Maybe simplify the scheme for a few games and see how it plays out.
Defensively, yikes. Just pretty bad all around. I am sure there is a stat for this…where do the Kings rank in allowing opponents open 3 point shots?
Not sure what to feel about the team this season. Happy that they are playing worse overall than last season, yet have a better record (winning in spite of…)? Or disappointed because they are playing worse and probably should be more of a .500 team?
Nah, I still like running it back. That was a hangover game. I’ve watched every game this year and this was different from all of them. Let’s see how they respond. Let’s see how they can improve, individually and collectively, before trading away the players who revived this franchise from the ashes.
Yeah, the Chicken Littles see that the sky is falling…its only raining a little right now.
Some of the reasons we see what we see is last year Huerter was hitting threes, Barnes was playing better, Mitchell was playing better and Murray was hitting his threes. Right now they aren’t doing what they did last year at this time. It might and I say might be time to shake up the roster a little. IMO keeping Fox, Sabonis, Murray, Monk and Lyles (which could be a very good starting 5) Monty is looking for possible trade targets which will help the team right now today. He isn’t looking to satisfy you or me but to improve the team the best way he can. Go Monty and GO KINGS!
I agree with your take and who you have listed as the team’s core 5, but I don’t think we need a major shake-up. Just an addition or two and some line-up tweaking (like moving KM to SG, HB to SF, and Lyles to PF when the lineups allow it). I think the starting SG and PF positions could be upgraded, but I doubt we manage both this trade deadline. I’d be more than happy with at least one positive change.
Also, all the players you mentioned (KH, HB, DM, & KM) that are having different degrees of disappointing seasons so far and despite that, the Kings have a better record than they did at the same point last year (in an even tougher Western Conf). Personally, I feel like the Kings are playing worse than they actually are, as opposed to last year where I felt they played better than they were.
All very legit opinions in this thread. In fact, I’d go so far as to say the collective BBIQ of the people who comment here is pretty high. That said, it’s a bad loss but not the end of the world. They also have quality wins over OKC (twice), Minnesota (in Minny), Denver, the Lakers and the Suns. Balance that against bad losses at Portland, versus Charlotte, and maybe the Rockets (but that was very early and the rockets are good). Give it a little bit before we say the sky is falling
I don’t particularly enjoy watching them lose to the likes of the Portlands and Charlottes of the NBA, but I also feel like this team hasn’t reached its potential this season at all yet and its not impossible to think they have another gear / level to achieve.
They’re parlaying last season’s success with a whole different attention being paid to what they’re trying to do on the court and the results have been terribly mixed. Imagine if they start nailing down those defensive rotations and traps consistently and bring the defense back into the + side of ratings over the last half of the season. Imagine if Kevin found his rhythm and got back to the shooting Kevin Durant was making sure people were paying attention to. Just those 2 things change the complexion of this team immensely. Add in a larger contribution from Davion, Duarte finding some consistency, Sasha, etc. getting some consistent rhythm. This really is an issue of the team adjusting to more responsibility and they need to figure it out.
That said, not doing so does lend itself to doubting the personnel but I just don’t see Monte rushing into a trade that compromises this team’s flexibility. If that player is out there I have no doubt they’ll make a move but I think this team’s success absolutely hinges on internal improvement. The coaching staff has its work cut out, because I would tend to agree that we’re a little light on the talent department compared to the likes of the Clippers, Bostons and Denvers of the NBA.
well said
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