Welcome back to Chainmail, where one author has a prestigious new show with a Kings legend releasing today, and the other’s claim to fame is…getting yelled at by Harry Giles in a post-game interview. We’re all feeling just wonderful about ourselves today.
Anyway, existential crises aside, we have a lot to chat about in this week’s mailbag. According to the Jonathan Givony of ESPN, the Kings have been one of the teams heavily shopping their first round pick heading into the draft next week. With no further specifics, that could mean Monte McNair is looking to move up, as several teams ahead of them have been aggressively shopping their selections, or he could be looking to move back and acquire an extra asset, or he could even be looking to trade completely out of the first round for a player that will help the team right now.
Outside of the draft rumors, the operations side of the franchise made a huge splash last week, hiring the nationally recognized Mark Jones as the teams mostly full-time play-by-play announcer, although it has yet to be confirmed who his replacement will be for the few games per year in which he’ll be absent. The team also released their ugly-ass new jerseys after they had been previously leaked. Our site had a small announcement on Monday as well, as we were able to acquire the services of the second-most famous man from French Lick, Indiana, Jerry Reynolds. As a thank you to the Patrons who actually allow this site to exist, we’re excited to produce some content especially for you, whether that’s Patreon-driven questions or Patreon-only episodes.
A few things have been happening around the league as well. The NBA and NBPA recently ratified a modified collective bargaining agreement, which included a November 20th free agency start date, an artificially inflated salary cap, and unique adjustments to player escrow and luxury tax payments. Trade rumors have also started in earnest, as Brian Windhorst and Tim Bontemps of ESPN have reported that the Phoenix Suns and Oklahoma City Thunder have engaged in conversations regarding a Chris Paul trade, while the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Atlanta Hawks have been discussing a swap of Jarret Culver and the seventeenth pick for the sixth overall selection according to Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer. Meanwhile, James Harden and Russell Westbrook may both be questioning their future with the Houston Rockets, as the team has shifted into an new era with a new GM and a new head coach. Multiple reports have mentioned the possibility of the Rockets moving on from one or both players.
Before we get into your questions, we also want to thank our sponsor for the mailbag, Carter Imports! Carter Imports is a Sacramento-based company that imports some of the very best Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Cretan Thyme Honey available in the world today. There has never been a better time to support one of our own than right now!
Now get to asking, so we can get to answering!
Rank the new City Edition Kings uniforms on a scale of burning retinas to total apocalypse of the eyes.
¬ There’s nothing I can do,
a total apocalypse of the eyes.. .¬
Is the compressed timeline to start the new season an advantage or disadvantage for the Kings?
The Kings will not lose as many games!
Don’t you underestimate the Kings!
The league recently confirmed that travel to start next season will be minimized, and teams will play largely in their markets. This means we could see A LOT of the Warriors, Lakers, and Clippers. Should the potential for a very brutal schedule impact how the team moves forward this off-season? Does it make the team more likely to enter a full rebuild, rather than trying (and failing) to reach the playoffs?
My guess is that the heavier rotation teams for the Kings will be the Dubs, Lakers, Clips, Blazers, Suns and Jazz – maybe the Nugs. Those are all teams that they can play with no overnight stay and relatively short flights. And to your point, it should lead to more losses.
Why have the Kings drafted so poorly over so many years, regardless of whom was at the helm?
Poor talent evaluation
May I ask what happened to the court jester podcast as I enjoyed that one too.
Acquiring Jerry Reynolds is the biggest Free Agent pickup in TKH franchise history. The plethora of successes you guys have achieved is stunning. If sports blogs were a competitive league, you guys would have won a few championships.
When the St*/TKH Hall of Fame opens, and if it only allows one person to win per year, who will get enshrined first/who is a first-ballot hall of famer?:
Tom Ziller: Obviously qualified to go first since he was the person who started it all and built an awesome site. (Might also get in by bribing the officials with them sweet, sweet Zillerbucks)
Akis Yerocostas: Who took an impressive site and found a way to make it even better, and under his watch as GM has netted us the legendary Jerry Reynolds. (Also could get in with an Akis Drachmas bribe)
Greg Wissinger: Also a big reason why this site has succeeded. Because, where we would be without all of the Greg Memes? Plus, he freed a lot of folks from marriage. (my wife just punched me)
section214/Rob Hessing: When they finally started recording statistics, Rob was the first to 3000 upvotes. And this is all before they started counting blocks! There’s good reason he was first to get the purple badge: great takes, great humor, and a great ass (don’t ever put those pants on, sir!)
Blake Ellington: This site doesn’t get built without this man. And I wouldn’t be writing these words without him. Actually, who knows if he isn’t editing this comment right now and adding his name in? He controls everything!
ElRON: None of these guys would be here if it weren’t for the first man ever born. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Neither! ElRON came first. And he ate chicken and eggs for breakfast.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/65196675/1166107758.jpg.0.jpg)
ElRon ate dinosaur eggs for breakfast.
ElRON brought us the Beatles.
“rin-GO!”
ElRon as a baby with his one of his first pets.
ElRon’s original name was “Big Bang.”
Do the kings not have someone on staff who can offer fashion advice? Or was this uniform designed to be so hideous as to convey a competitive advantage while on court because the opponents can’t bear to look at them? This is only marginally better than gold jerseys. They should bring back the red ones.
Who do you think fills in for Mark Jones when he has his other ESPN obligations?
I really hope it’s someone who’s already here filling in. The Kings have quite a few quality homegrown options to choose from.
Probably Jason Ross
You rang?!
Sorry…had to downvote that image. You understand. 😉
change the background to Four Seasons Total Landscaping and we got a winner
Hope my question is not too long winded. I feel the NBA has too many teams which waters down the competition. Every year there are only 4-5 teams that have a legitimate shot at the championship. I would like to see that NBA disband at least six teams, then hold a supplemental draft of the players from those teams in the same order as that year’s college draft. Any thoughts on that ever happening?
That would never happen, follow the money. If anything, they’ll add two franchises at some point. I can see Seattle and LV getting teams down the line.
I agree, probably never will. Sports is a fickle entity that has us spending our money and cheering for a team (Kings) that hasn’t made the playoffs in 14 years.
As players (and agents) have gotten more power in this industry, they have turned down NBA money to play for a better team, or better overall situation such as market. I think it was an unintended consequence of shortening the contract to 4 years max. Players can change teams so often they can just keep title hunting, or taking money from whoever has cap space, then request a trade a year later to a better situation.
Is there any reason for Kings fans to watch games this season?
We should suck as always and should suck even more since we have a presumably smart GM finally who’ll embrace the tank for a loaded 2021 draft.
I watched sparingly last season as I was still having (still am) Luka withdrawals, so I can’t see myself motivated to watch this year either.
As the new GM, how long of a leash would you give Walton this season to prove coaching fit here? He was Vlade’s hire and hasn’t shown much ability as a coach to guide this squad or capitalize on its talents… would you reassess his abilities to guide the team 20 games in, 40 games in, or give him the full (truncated) season to figure something out?
If god forbid the Kings do tank next year, why doesn’t anybody realize that will only keep Luke as the coach longer. A tank season keeps him around for 21-22. Why trade our assets for draft capital that most likely will not work out. No free agent will come to Sacramento so the only way they get good players is to trade our proven players for other proven players. I hope McNair realizes that he will have to overpay every garbage free agent to do nothing for the Kings. Trades of Bogi, Buddy, and Barnes need to return players that are good now not maybe good in 3 years.
(1) How will the Stockton Kings be utilized under McNair?
(2) Now that the NBA & NBPA have agreed to a schedule for 20/21 season, what needs to happen for the G-League to have a season?
(3) If the staff had the #1 pick in the draft, who would each of you select as BPA?
With a 72 game season, let’s play Houdini. Will the kings win over or under 35 games next year? Yes, yes I know, the off-season has not started, blah blah blah. Assuming the squad resembles last years team with a couple of rooks and a marginal FA addition.
The Kings tank without even trying to tank because of the competition in the Pacific and the rest of the West. Who do you draft with a top 3 pick in 2021 regardless of who is already on the Kings team?
Do you think McNair would consider a prospect’s familiarity with Fox as a factor in his decision making process on draft day?
One would think McNair would just pick the BPA, but it’s interesting that two projected late lottery picks seem to fit with Fox on and off the court. That’s the type of little bonus that could help keep Fox happy in Sac if the rebuild takes a couple more years to yield positive results.
Bonus question: why is everyone in the media so sure Giles is leaving? It seems like a foregone conclusion at this point, and don’t really understand why. He’s not going to get paid more than what the Kings can afford. He’s always on social media interacting with various members of the staff. Are there whispers that folks in-the-know are hearing that us common folk aren’t privy to?
just in case people aren’t aware I’m referring to Maxey and Hampton here. All three are from TX. Hampton trains with Fox in the summer. Maxey “has looked up to Fox since he was 13,” and obviously followed in his footsteps going to Kentucky.
Regarding Giles and interacting with staff, I think he knows he’s a fringe NBA player at this point, based on team role anyway, and doesn’t want to burn any bridges. Also I think that’s just who he is. It’s remarkable how he’s stayed mostly positive through his injury history.
There are a lot of centers who are going to be available on the FA market this year who are better than Harry is at this point, I have a tough time believing that he is going to do better than 3.9 million. As much fun as he is to root for, he has not proven all that much on the court in comparison to who else is on the market, and he is still undersized.
I would love for the Kings to bring Harry back, but he has plenty to prove. Turning down his option wasn’t as large a risk as it was often made out to be.
Badge Legend