The Kings have won four of their last five games, which would normally be a good thing. Except this is the Sacramento Kings, so it’s not.
Terrible Timing
The Kings couldn’t have picked a worse time to start stringing some wins together. Despite a commanding lead in the tank race just a little while ago, the Kings have now won 6 of 11 games and 4 of their last 5. One of those wins came on the back of a 22 point Devin Carter 4th quarter against a fellow tanking team in the Pacers, another was a shocking road win against the Clippers, and then DeMar DeRozan dropped 41 points on the Jazz the next night.
I knew the schedule was going to ease up for the Kings here but at this point in the season these wins are more annoying than anything else. It sucks that the league is structured in such a way that I can’t be happy when my team is winning, but I am finding very little joy in these recent victories, because in my mind, they’re just costing themselves opportunities for a higher draft pick. Yes, nothing is a guarantee, and yes no matter what the Kings will likely have an excellent shot at landing a top 4 pick. But winning makes those chances go down and the number one rule of being a Kings fan is basically to embrace the worst case possibility happening, which as of now would mean the Kings fall to the 8th pick.
It would be much better for the Kings to suck extremely hard for a short while than just be kinda bad for a long time like we just experienced during that recent playoff drought. I don’t blame the players for trying their hardest, and some guys are really balling out right now (shout out Precious Achiuwa). But I just can’t find myself enjoying these wins (although I do crack a small smile at the young guys putting on sun glasses and styling themselves as the Beam Boys). Hopefully the ping pong balls bless us and we can turn this around sooner rather than later so we don’t have to go through this for too long.
Killian Hayes signed
I wasn’t sure if the Kings would keep Killian Hayes on after his first 10 day contract, but they brought him back for another and now have signed him for the rest of the season and for next season as well (I’m guessing on a non-guaranteed deal of sorts). Hayes offense has started to pick up of late and he’s shot 55% from the field and 50% from three over the last three games. His passing has been excellent throughout his entire time here, as he’s totaled 41 assists to just 10 turnovers in that time, which is impressive given how little prep time he got with the team. I don’t mind low risk flyers like this, and it’s exactly the type of move that Scott Perry should have considered instead of signing someone like Dennis Schröder or Russell Westbrook, but hey, maybe they’re learning.
Daeqwon “Anti-Tank Rifle” Plowden
Daeqwon Plowden is shooting just 28.7% from three for the season but I swear he is shooting 90% from three when it’s clutch time. I have no statistics to back it up and no energy to look it up, but it feels like if the game is in danger of slipping away and Plowden gets the ball from distance, that thing is going in. If only we could have had you in Game 4 against the Warriors a couple years ago Daeqwon.
Dylan’s back!
There have been few enough reasons for me to get excited about watching the Kings this season, but Dylan Cardwell has been one of them, and I’m glad he’s back in action after missing the last month due to an ankle injury. With Drew Eubanks now out for the rest of the season, both Dylan and Max will basically get all of the center minutes going forward, which is just fine with me.
March Madness
This week will also be the start of March Madness so there’s a lot of prospects to keep an eye on. There’s always someone who makes a big name for themselves throughout the tourney and eventually shoots up draft boards. If you are just now tuning into college basketball, here’s a list of some of the higher tier guys and their schools to potentially keep an eye on throughout the tourney:
- Cameron Boozer (#1 Duke)
- Darryn Peterson (#4 Kansas)
- AJ Dybantsa (#6 BYU)
- Kingston Flemings (#2 Houston)
- Darius Acuff (#4 Arkansas)
- Keaton Wagler (#3 Illinois)
- Mikel Brown Jr. (#6 Louisville)
- Nate Ament (#6 Tennessee)
- Braylon Mullins (#2 UConn)
- Labaron Philon (#4 Alabama)
- Yaxel Lendeborg (#1 Michigan)
There’s some other players further down most tier lists that I’d also pay attention to, as the Kings have two second round picks. Here’s a few of those guys that I’m interested in seeing in action:
- Flory Bidunga (#4 Kansas)
- Braden Smith (#2 Purdue)
- Richie Saunders (#6 BYU)
- JoJo Tugler (#2 Houston)
- Andrej Stojakovic (#3 Illinois) – I’m already calling that this is one of our two-way guys next season for obvious reasons.
Regardless, it should be a fun tourney and it will be nice to watch some basketball with actual stakes for once.
***
Upcoming Schedule
- Tuesday, March 17th vs. San Antonio Spurs
- Thursday, March 19th vs. Philadelphia 76ers
- Sunday, March 22nd vs. Brooklyn Nets
From NBA.com Power rankings:
Here are the most improved teams since the break:
1. Atlanta Hawks
Pre-break: 26-30 (.464), -1.3 points per 100 possessionsPost-break: 10-1 (.909), +12.8 per 1002. New Orleans Pelicans
Pre-break: 15-41 (.268), -5.6 per 100Post-break: 7-5 (.583), +1.9 per 1003. Sacramento Kings
Pre-break: 12-44 (.214), -10.2 per 100Post-break: 6-7 (.462), -6.1 per 1004. Orlando Magic
Pre-break: 28-5 (.528), -0.4 per 100Post-break: 10-3 (.769), +9.2 per 1005. Miami Heat
Pre-break: 29-27 (.518), +2.1 per 100Post-break: 9-3 (.750), +10.0 per 100Stupidest franchise in sports
Hopefully the Spurs smack our guys back down to earth tomorrow.
Just for “fun:” Neemias Queta, Harrison Barnes, De’Aaron Fox, Keon Ellis, Dennis Schroder, Jake La Ravia.
These are all guys that were employed by the Kings within the past four years that are currently core rotation players on teams that right now stand to host 1st round playoff games. Add in Mike Brown under the heading of head coach.
Laughing. Stock.
Would you rather have this organization in Sacramento, or would you help pay the freight to ship it to Seattle or Las Vegas and then start over with an expansion team? And how many NBA fan bases would even consider such a question? The answer is the same answer to “How many times have the Sacramento Kings been to the playoffs under Vivek Ranadive?”
Not many.
I saw someone say online if Vivek tries to move us to Vegas, they’ll be called the LV DraftKings.
Vivegas Ranadive.
Davion Mitchell too
Although not a world-beater, Red Velvet is with no.1 east team right now too
Rob, this is exactly why I don’t think a top 4 pick next year will transform ANYthing.
The Kangz’ problems are deep, clearly. The problem remains – if you took those six players, added Davion Mitchell and some role players, what do you have? Even though fans pine for these players, that team doesn’t win more than 30 to 35 games (yes, I know that’s much better than where we are right now).
As much as I loved De’Aaron Fox, the guy is nothing more than a fringe All Star in a down conference year. For whatever reason, this franchise just does not draft players to build a franchise around. Our best picks in the Sacramento era have been what – Fox, Haliburton, DMC? One was a head case, one we traded in an effort to land an All Star big, one we traded because we’d finally burned him out. Aside from Haliburton, we really haven’t drafted a single potential Hall of Famer in the entire history of the franchise in Sacramento. Also, looking through that list, I neglected Stojakovic. But he, too, was no more than a fringe All Star.
And I was big time on the Keon Ellis train. I love the guy, but his numbers in Cleveland, while better, aren’t significantly different than what he did in Sacramento. TBH, I think Daeqwon Plowden fits that role just fine.
In addition to the well documented issues with player development, this team has massive problems simply getting talent through the draft. Getting back all 6 of those players doesn’t make the Kings a contender for jack squat, sadly.
I can see Akis giggling as he typed this.
You have to include Robbie Avila of Indiana State to the “must see TV”.
Cream Abdul Jabbar
Larry Blurred
Milk Chamberlain
The nicknames alone are worth the watch.
I saw a comp on this kid and it was, “As if Nikola Jokic and Luke Longly had a kid.” I laughed about for a full 2 minutes.
Fuck these idiots. From the top-Vivek to Doug. Seriously? You don’t think tanking is good for young guys?
what happened to the idea of developing young players?
Why not just fucking bring in G league players? I mean the ego idiocy of this owner and this organization is beyond comprehension. Worst organization in all of sports.
What did we do to deserve this?
Did we build G1C over Dorthea Puente’s old house?
(Google it, kids.)
That’s the plot for Poltergeist 5
Nothing. Except fight extraordinarily hard to keep this team in Sacramento.
That’s why I hated Vivek from the beginning. We kept this team here. Any asshole with money could’ve bought them. But we get this dickhead who just shits on all the fans in Sacramento. He’s the worst and I want him gone, but there’s no way to get rid of him.
#selltheteam
#gtfowithmatinaandexkings
The original shitshow has so many sequels!
History would suggest that whoever the Kings select at whatever spot will probably be the wrong guy.
I wouldn’t even know what to do at a Kangz game anymore…just yell sell the team the whole game, maybe boo every time Russ and DeMar touch the ball lol. Scary to think there are people cheering at these games for a win.
I’d probably just hold up a sign that said ‘BRING BACK PUKE MAN’
Any other sign ideas guys?
If there was a season for the Herald of the Change (Puke Man) to return… it would be this one.
Andrej? What makes you think the Kings would pull some kind of legacy contract out?
Is anyone surprised? It’s the annual “buidling cohesion/confidence for next season” routine.
This is my impressive of the franchise. They believe that they are some Forrest Gump sort of special and that they will eventually do marvelous things.
But they aren’t. They are just plain dumb. Nothing more, nothing less.
I am bored with just s&**#ing on this franchise. It’s lost a lot of the luster of the past, but if I look back, it’s never really changed. (cue: the Hello darkness my old friend meme). Will the NBA do anything to bring hope to this forlorn basketball fandom?
Obvious- there is no value in winning and plenty of value in losing. Other tankers know this and the Kings go to sleep.
Stupid.
This is depressing.
Whatever
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