Welcome to the “At Least the Kids Are Playing” Phase

The Sacramento Kings stood pat at the trade deadline and have tied the Sacramento-era record for losses in a row, but hey, at least the young guys are getting more playing time.

The deadline passed, the problems didn’t

The NBA trade deadline came and went without the Kings making another move following their trade of Keon Ellis, Dennis Schröder and Dario Saric for De’Andre Hunter.  The Kings had been rumored to be in on Jonathan Kuminga (eventually traded to Atlanta), Ja Morant and R.J. Barrett, but in the end nothing else came to fruition.  The closest deal was seemingly a trade that would have sent Domantas Sabonis to Toronto for R.J. Barrett, but the Kings didn’t want to take on Jakob Poeltl’s contract, and the Raptors didn’t want to send out a bunch of draft capital to a third team to help take on that contract. It’s possible some sort of deal still happens there in the summer, as there does seem to be some mutual interest. The same could be said for Morant, who the Grizzlies are very likely looking to part ways with considering they just sent out Jaren Jackson Jr. and look more focused on rebuilding than continuing forward with Morant.

Scott Perry mentioned a couple of times in his post-deadline presser that the team was still in the very early stages of rebuilding itself and that he wasn’t going to make a trade just to make a trade.  It’s still very disheartening that a team with the worst record in the NBA didn’t really make any meaningful changes.  DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine and Domantas Sabonis are all still a part of this roster, and will be through the end of the season.  Now, clearly a big part of that is the fact that no NBA team was willing to send anything of value for those players. Maybe that changes this summer when the money doesn’t look as bad.  LaVine will be an expiring contract next season (a huge one).  DeRozan is only partially guaranteed, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s willing to give up on some of that guarantee this summer to find a new home where he can better compete if the Kings can’t find a trade partner.

Sabonis meanwhile has two more seasons on the books, and I’m growing skeptical that the Kings holding out for a ton of compensation for him will ever happen.  The Kings were supposedly looking to get a first from Toronto in addition to Barrett in exchange for Sabonis, something Toronto clearly didn’t want to do.  Then you look at some of the compensation being sent out in recent trades and Sacramento’s unwillingness to play ball on that end seems a little silly, because I don’t think any team is throwing out a first for a defensively limited center in this day and age.  Anthony Davis was sent out for two firsts and three seconds, but one of those firsts is going to be the last pick in the first round this year, and the other is only going to be granted if it’s 21-30.  Ivica Zubac was actually traded for two real firsts, along with a young player, but he’s also bigger, younger and more of a two-way player than Sabonis is while on a much more friendly contract (Zubac makes less over the next two years than Sabonis makes next year alone).  At this point a younger player like R.J. Barrett and some second rounders might just be the best offer on the table.  Now, it’s possible the Kings feel the same way but figure they’ll probably have the same deal on the table come draft time so why not just wait and see if something better comes along, which is fine.  But there is a danger in waiting too long and having teams move on.  One of Monte McNair’s biggest failings was failing to get deals done. We heard time and time again about the Kings being in on players and then deals falling apart at the finish line.  Hopefully that trend doesn’t continue.  Perry didn’t build this roster, so he is having to deal with some cleanup, but it’s also not a great sign that his only real move at the deadline was already having to fix one of his own mistakes.

Twelve straight and counting

The Kings managed to do it, losing their twelfth game in a row, tying the Sacramento-era record set in 1998, the year before the Richmond-Webber trade.  Some of these losses were impressively close as well, with the Kings losing their last four games by six points or fewer.  The Kings have just two more games before the All-Star break, both against fellow tanking teams in the New Orleans Pelicans and Utah Jazz.  Should they manage to lose those two as well, they’ll tie the overall franchise record dating back to their time in Cincinnati.  What a year for the history books.  All-Star break can’t come soon enough for this team.

Nique finds his footing

If there’s one bright spot to this latest losing streak and overall lost season, it’s the fact that the Kings have seemingly thrown in the towel on playing the vets truly meaningful minutes and are instead incorporating the young guys more and more.  We’ve already seen Maxime Raynaud and Dylan Cardwell get plenty of time throughout the season thanks to the lack of big man depth on this roster, but now rookie Nique Clifford is starting to get more of an opportunity as well.  Clifford, despite being the only first round pick of this year’s rookies, has probably had the most inconsistent season, but of late has started to look more and more comfortable.  Since January 25th, Clifford has been playing 30+ minutes per game and has responded by averaging 13.1 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.1 steals and 0.6 blocks while shooting 45.8% from the field and 46.9% from three.  He had by far the best performance of his young career in Sacramento’s last game against Cleveland, where he scored a career-high 30 points to go with 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks.

All season I felt like Clifford showed flashes of his talent, but he was playing the game too fast and also spent a lot of time deferring to the veterans.  Now the game looks like it’s slowed down for him and he’s getting more and more comfortable picking his spots. He also plays with great effort on the defensive end, and his actual impact on that end should hopefully get better with time and experience.  I still don’t think Clifford, Raynaud or Cardwell have the makings of future stars, but all three have shown to me that they belong in the NBA as rotation players, and that’s an impressive haul for one draft where the Kings didn’t have a top 20 pick.  I’m more excited to watch games now, knowing that the Kings are actually playing their young guys more and more, because at least I get a chance to watch guys I know might have a future on this team.

A tank race for the ages

For as bad as the Kings have been of late, there are several NBA teams that have been nearly as bad.  It’s crazy that even on a 12 game losing streak, the Kings aren’t really gaining much ground between them and the other bottom teams in the NBA.  Utah has 16 wins, Brooklyn, Washington and New Orleans have 14 each and Indiana has 13.  The top of this draft is very strong, and so we’re seeing teams at the bottom trying harder than ever to secure a top pick.  The latest and greatest strategy appears to be playing your main players to start the game but then benching them later on as the game gets close.  Just this last week we’ve seen Sacramento, Utah and Washington all do this down the stretch of otherwise close games that they were up in and then eventually lose.  It’s not likely to let up as the season enters its final stretch either.  Indiana just acquired Ivica Zubac but has already started mentioning how he has an ankle injury that he’s dealing with (one that was conveniently not keeping him out of Clippers games), and the Wizards already announced that newly acquired Anthony Davis won’t play the rest of the season (and Trae Young has also yet to make his debut).  It’s no surprise why teams are doing this, and I don’t think there’s any real way for the NBA to truly punish this. Drafting stars in the draft is still the easiest way to ensure long term success, and stars tend to be more prevalent near the top.  The flattening of the lottery odds has made it so the bottom teams aren’t as heavily favored, which might have helped teams from truly bottoming out but also given more incentive for teams closer to the play-in race to maybe consider a lottery ticket instead.  Last season saw three teams with below 20 wins.  This year I wouldn’t be surprised if we see that become five.  The bottom-three teams all have the same odds for the #1 pick, but the bottom team also still slides the least in a worst-case scenario, giving incentive to still be as bad as possible.

The Kings still have eight games left this season against other teams in the bottom-five of the league, including the next two.  Those contests will likely be huge in determining the final draft lottery order before the season ends.

NBA Expansion

News came today that the NBA Board of Governors is potentially going to vote this summer on NBA expansion, with Seattle and Las Vegas likely expected to be the cities rewarded should they vote yes.  That’s great news for fans in those markets, especially Seattle who have been waiting since 2008.  But I do wonder if it’s great for the NBA.  Two more franchises means 30 more players and a further diluting of the product.  Could it mean more parity? Perhaps, but I also could see a situation where the gulf between good and bad teams gets even worse.  I also could see a situation where the NBA doesn’t approve relocation purely because the threat of having cities like Seattle and Vegas out there for potential relocations is too good for these owners who continue to rely on public funding for their arenas.  Then again, relocation dollars would likely be a huge pay day for everyone, and in the end, money usually wins out.

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Upcoming Schedule:

• Monday, February 9th at New Orleans Pelicans
• Wednesday, February 11th at Utah Jazz