Ah the NBA Playoffs, the yearly tradition the Sacramento Kings got one taste of and decided to ditch like a toddler rejecting broccoli. Seriously, I’ve been covering this team for this website (and our predecessor) since Jason Thompson was drafted in 2008. Since then the Kings have been to the playoffs once and they didn’t even win their series. I wasn’t even 21 years old then and now I’ll probably be in my 40s the next time they make an appearance. Depressing.
Anyways, it has still been fun to watch these NBA playoffs which just entered the second round. There’s been some big upsets already, with the Philadelphia 76ers knocking out the Boston Celtics, Minnesota taking out Denver in the first round, and Orlando taking Detroit to the brink. I haven’t watched every game, but I’ve watched a lot of them, and here’s my quick thoughts so far.
The East is Wide Open
Boston would have been my favorite to come out of the East before these playoffs began, so their loss to the Philadelphia 76ers in Game 7 was shocking to me, especially after being up 3-1 in the series. Jayson Tatum being out for Game 7 was obviously a huge factor, but the 76ers earned that series win, even if I’m not sure they’ll advance much further. Joel Embiid has had some vintage MVP-like performances already, and the supporting cast of Tyrese Maxey and rookie VJ Edgecombe has been great as well.
Their current opponent, the New York Knicks, are my new favorite to come out of the East, but I wouldn’t say that with any strong conviction. They looked a bit vulnerable early on in their first round series against the Atlanta Hawks, falling down 2-1, but they won the final three games in convincing fashion, including a 140-89 beatdown in Game 6 where they were up 83-36 at halftime. New York looked pretty comfortable in their first game against the 76ers though, winning by 39 and holding Embiid and Maxey in check.
The other series in the East between Detroit and Cleveland is a battle between one of the league’s best defenses (Detroit) and one of the best offenses (Cavaliers). Detroit nearly got upset by the 8th seed Magic in the first round, falling down 3-1 as they struggled to deal with Orlando’s size and physicality. Game 6 saw the Pistons come back after being down 24 points, with the Magic only scoring 19 points in the entire second half, something which Cade Cunningham managed to do in the 4th quarter by himself. In fact, Cade outscored the entire Pistons team 19-8 in that decisive 4th quarter as the Magic shot just 1-20 shooting from the field. Orlando spent a lot in assets to get Desmond Bane last offseason but it’s clear they still need a bit more offensive firepower going forward.
Cleveland on the other hand also had a back and forth seven game first round series against Toronto (three of the East’s first round series went seven games), but this is a real opportunity for them to advance to the NBA Finals for the first and only time without LeBron James on the roster. The Pistons have homecourt advantage and took Game 1, but the Cavaliers are a bit more battle tested and experienced overall. It should be a fun series.
Oklahoma City is still the Favorite
The road to the NBA Championship is still going to go through Oklahoma City barring some sort of major injury to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The Thunder easily took care of the Phoenix Suns in the first round in a four game sweep, and easily beat a Doncic-less Lakers team in the first game of the second series despite missing Jalen Williams. The Thunder definitely have a bit more of a villain narrative going this season thanks to everyone getting tired of SGA’s foul grifting and Lu Dort’s questionably physical defense, but it’s clear this Thunder squad is just a well-oiled machine at this point. Even if Luka comes back in this series, I don’t see the Lakers taking more than one game. I will say, it has been incredible to see LeBron James still doing what he’s doing at this age. The man is 41 and a half years old and is still dropping 25 point near triple doubles on a nightly basis. We will never see his like again.
I also think the only way the Thunder don’t repeat as champions is if they get stopped in the next round. The West-East differential isn’t quite as bad as it was in the early 2000s, but I’m not sure any Eastern team has what it takes to give the Thunder serious trouble.
Minnesota-San Antonio might be the best series all playoffs
If Game 1 was any indication, this second round battle between the Minnesota Timberwolves and the San Antonio Spurs is going to be incredibly fun. Game 1 was an intense back and forth affair the whole way through. Victor Wembanyama was a wall on defense, setting an NBA playoff record with 12 blocked shots. Anthony Edwards made a gutsy early comeback from a hamstring injury to come off the bench and put up 18 points, including 11 of them on 5-7 shooting in the final quarter. I though Chris Finch had a coaching masterclass in the fourth quarter by denying Victor Wembanyama the ball on offense and using Julius Randle as a small ball center to keep him out of the paint on the other end. Even still, the Spurs made a good run at the end and had a great look to win it all on an open Julian Champagnie three point attempt that came up short. This is definitely the series I’m going to make sure to watch each game of, as I think both of these teams have the potential to give the Thunder some trouble. But even outside of that, this series is just a fun matchup between two awesome young teams that could be the bud of a new rivalry given that I think these two will be in the Western Playoffs for quite a while. Wemby is just getting started and he’s already so good. I do think the Spurs need to get some size next to him though, as the Spurs are actually pretty tiny outside of him.
NBC’s Broadcast situation is a bit infuriating
I think NBC did a good job during the regular season, but it’s been a bit more infuriating in the playoffs so far. I find the fact that they are scheduling these second round games so that there’s an overlap annoying, and also the fact that one of them goes on NBC and the other goes on Peacock. The NBA (and sports in general) is becoming a lot less consumer friendly and at some point that trend needs to change.
Future Predictions
To cap it off here’s my predictions for the current series and going forward:
- Thunder-Lakers: 4-0 Thunder
- Spurs-Timberwolves: 4-3 Spurs
- Knicks-76ers: 4-1 Knicks
- Pistons-Cavaliers: 4-2 Cavaliers
- Thunder-Spurs: 4-2 Thunder
- Cavaliers-Knicks: 4-2 Knicks
- Thunder-Knicks: 4-2 Thunder
They’re fantastic! I have had a blast watching playoff basketball. It just makes the Kings situation that much sadder. The reality is this team will not be in the playoffs for a at least the next few years and probably another decade plus. Other than New Orleans, there are just no other teams in the West that are run even close to as poorly as the Kings. It makes it almost impossible for me to see this team ever having any type of success.
If the gripes are true, Portland may not be far behind. They are saying the new owner is the their version of Vivek.
Was just going to post something similar. The new owner seems to be a penny pincher.
It baffles my mind that someone would spend billions to buy a team and then pinch pennies.
Adam Silver burner account confirmed!
(Please kick Vivek out, or just give us the no. 1 pick)
Kicking Vivek out would be amazing. Ruined this team that was heading in the right direction, and put them back in the cellar for another decade.
Only bought the team to turn a profit?
Pels and the Kings…
Dumars and Perry (from the Dumars tree)
Yeah, that tracks
It’s wild the two of the worst teams in the West, excluding those who are legit going through rebuilds, have GMs that have a rich history together. How do these guys have front office jobs?
Side note. I totally forgot that the Knicks gave the Kings a 2019 2rd pick and cash considerations back in 2017 for hiring Perry away from the Kings. What did the Kings do with that 2nd round pick???
.
.
.
They traded it back to NY for an even later 2nd round pick (Kyle Guy) and more cash considerations.
Poverty franchise.
This made my laugh. May I present to you the Scott Perry Knicks of 2018-19. They finished 17-65 and were led in scoring by Tim Hardaway Jr.
They won 17 games. We won 22 this year. So, at least he’s improving.
Best series so far has been the DEN vs MIN one, then NY vs ATL, and HOU vs LAL
Impressed by Finch’s gameplan against Murray in gm 7. Twolves repeatedly hunted down Jamal in defense and Gobert was a pest in the paint. Gordon’s absence was a factor, but he alone would not have been able to help a burned out Jamal and a streaking McDaniels.
NY and ATL was a view of what could have been SAC had Monte acquired a decent PF to pair Domas with.
HOU vs LAL was fun because i had a blast reading the fanblogs of both (love how they are roasting Sengun and Jabari lmao. Send Jabari to us please)
I was curious how Fox would do against the Twolves. Felt like he always struggled against McDaniels in Sacramento. He had a really bad game 1. Hope he can bounce back. He’s so inconsistent that it’s frustrating.
I continue to think that he’ll be traded in the next couple of seasons as Harper and Castle are clearly the future. But not sure who wants to take on Fox’s huge contract.
SAS needs size next Wemby:
Nightmare trade idea:
Domas to SAS
Fox to MEM
JA to SAC
And we’ll somehow end up trading our pick to move down as well.
I can’t believe that SA passed on Max in the 2nd round. They could have had the French Resistence.
The Baguette Boys
The Coup d’Tall
The Spurs already have a Champagine on their roster so Victor and Maxi could have been…the Brothers Bordeaux!
The French Connection.
You’re French Toast! after a block.
This is going to happen one way or another, probably involving LaVine. Vivek will tell himself that plugging in Ja takes the Kings back three years to the Beam Team. In a surprise to no one, Vivek will be very, very wrong, and they’ll be stuck with yet another high-salary player than no one else wants, actively making their situation worse.
It does have some inevitability to it. The only way I’d consider that is if Memphis took on LaVine and also sent some picks with Ja. The guy has played just 79 games over the last 3 seasons. With that extra year on his deal, all his head case issues, and the injuries, he had better come with picks.
It’s the kind of move I could see a real rebuilding team, like the Bulls or Nets, do as long as the picks were included.
FWIW, Memphis owns all of their own future 1sts and bunch of others from Orlando, PHX, and Lakers. They have an impressive war chest.
The Kings would probably end up sending picks with Lavine for Ja. It seems very Kangz.
top 3 worst contract in the league starts next year…so glad we didn’t sign him to that
Right now Fox is the 18th highest paid player in the league for next year, and he will drop a bit more after free agency runs its course. He will make $1m more than Zach LaVine next year.
Hot take: Fox, who has already scored more points in the 2nd round of the playoffs than any King has since 2006, will score more points in the 2nd round of the playoffs than any King during the run of Fox’s career. But yay for financial flexibility, I guess – especially if you’re Vivek.
Fox is being carried in SA, that was not going to be the case here. You’ll see, SA won’t get even what we got for him, gonna be a brutal contract at avg of 57 mil a year for your 3rd best player, maybe 4th in a year or two
If Castle and Harper continue to grow, I would think the Spurs look to move Fox sooner rather than later. He’s working right now in San Antonio because he’s not being asked to be the alpha and no one else is on a max deal. He’d need to go to a place where he could be second fiddle next to a superior star.
Imagine him up in Minny next to Ant. Randle and DDV for Fox works math wise and could actually benefit both teams. Or, should Orlando look to move one of Franz or Paolo, the Magic could use Fox’s offensive firepower.
Spurs paid him and are thriving. Kings cut bait and are foundering. And while I will agree that correlation does not always equal causation, there is at least a little something to it here. The Spurs organization knows what it is doing, at least when compared to the subterranean bar of the Kangz.
Fox is a consummate teammate, and both Castle and Harper have been better for his presence. The game that McDaniels spent most of his 36 minutes bird dogging Fox? Those were 36 minutes that he was not covering Castle or Harper.
The Spurs are much better with Fox than without him. He carried the team when Wemby was out earlier this year. And as the NBA salary cap continues to climb, his contract will be roughly the same percentage of total team payroll that it is today. And my guess is that if the Spurs deal him, it will be because someone made them a deal that is superior than what the Kings got…which again, is not saying very much.
It will interesting to see how the Spurs, and OKC for that matter, handle their cap going forward. OKC is going to have $150M in three guys the season after next and the Spurs are a lock to give Wemby the rookie max extension this summer and Castle next summer. They have a little more time, but don’t have the depth of OKC. Both teams also have a bunch of picks that I could see being leveraged into short term win now moves to avoid the 2nd apron over the long haul. In the way way OKC punted on a prospect in Giddey to land Caruso, I could see similar moves by both franchises gong forward.
As an example, should either the Spurs or OKC falter this year (one of them obviously will) I don’t think they’ll want their later first round picks as they don’t want more prospects. OKC #17 an Spurs #20 could be available for short term rental of talent. The expirings of DeAndre Hunter or DDR, perhaps?
As they are two of the best franchises in the league, I’m sure they will figure it out.
My guess is they’ll trade those picks for future picks.
Likely. Just like how OKC did with the Nique pick.
However, OKC is going to have to make a decision on Cason Wallace this summer and Topic, Mitchell, Jaylin and McCain by next summer. They just can’t financially keep extending their prospects. I figure they going to have to cash those guys in on established short term talent, like the Caruso trade.
Good problem to have.
Agreed 100% on all counts.
Speaking of the TV viewing, I feel bad for the less tech savvy folks like my parents generation. My parent and in-laws still have basic cable and can’t watch half of the games. They just don’t have all the apps or know how required to watch the playoffs. Hell, my dad still has an AOL email and refuses to give it up!
I use an antenna, so basically get the traditional broadcast channels. Great for most NFL games, terrible for nearly every other sport.
The NBA has made such a convoluted mess that the easiest way to watch a game is to sail the high seas on your laptop and Chromecast your browser to your TV.
My Dad had a flip phone forever, and the only reason he finally got a smart phone was when my Mom upgraded her iPhone and gave her old one to him.
Please, oh please let it be Fox and the Spurs vs Mike Brown and the Knicks in the finals! Shine a bright spotlight on Vivek’s failures by having two of the people he discarded be in the finals!
Hali last year, Fox this year, and by some miracle Miami with Davion next year would be the perfect trifecta.
Spurs also have Barnes, lol. Many of the cast offs from the Kangz are/were in the playoffs. Hali, Fox, Barnes, Huerter, Davion, Ellis, Queta. Good enough for playoff teams, but not for the Kings.
It’s pretty wild when you think of it. I’ve said it a few times, but I didn’t know any better, you’d almost think it was intentional.
Remove Hali from that group and you have 6 guys from the Beam Team season. 4 are still in the playoffs this year.
I really do believe there’s intentionality here. Vivek simply isn’t willing to pay for a good team. Play-in is his preferred ceiling.
Bulls west for sure
He sure as hell paid for a bad team last season!
Vivek paid less than you might think since both LaVine and Sabonis missed more than half the season:
Wow, now I will look at the injuries of players and keep that 41 games threshold in mind.
If it has to be 41 STRAIGHT games, then I don’t believe any King qualifies.
Based on some basic research, Domas, Keegan, and Zach played their last games in Early-Mid February. None of them missed 41 straight games this season.
I could see Vivek using the Insurance Policy in the future. Seems very Vivek to me.
My bad; I looked at the wrong column in the b-ref game logs for Zach and Domas. However, it will be interesting to see if either misses the first dozen or so games of next season since:
Man, if their injuries linger that long, something ain’t right.
You know who else is in the playoffs this year as an assistant coach with the Pistons? I’ll give ypu a clue: his name has 96 Ls on it.
I’ll have to check the tape
Great to see physical defense and lower scores in this seasons playoffs . Just wish I could find the games . Too many networks involved in
What are these “playoffs” you speak of?
We’re #1!!!
In The Ringer’s Lottery Desperation Rankings.
Just the last part of our paragraph.
Badge Legend