Another loss because we can’t hit threes. Ugh.
Full recap to follow.
Postgame Thread: Grizzlies 115, Kings 110
What a frustrating loss.
By Greg Wissinger | 83 Comments | Dec 5, 2024
NBA: Sacramento Kings at Memphis Grizzlies
Dec 5, 2024; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Sacramento Kings forward DeMar DeRozan (10) drives to the basket as Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. (13) defends during the fourth quarter at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images
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Live by the 2, die by the 3.
At this point, Monte should be posting his resume on Indeed.
Not only did we piss away the momentum after Ja got ejected, I caught Klam’s cold!
The Kings haven’t been this bad in years and I haven’t been sick since January 2020!
Try some tequila!
Hard pass, but appreciate the thought!
Hard drink, appreciate the draught!
Sorry, mate! Hope the recovery goes fast!
I’m hoping the worst of my symptom settle down by the weekend so I can air fry some marinated chicken wings my mom gave me over Thanksgiving.
It’s all good! Cheers to a hopefully speedy recovery all around!
It’s funny, because on my Toronto trip with my folks back in September, I avoided my Dad’s cold and I dodged another sickness when I was seated near a sick person on my flight back, but I have no clue where this one came from.
I’m at a loss as well, especially after all my recent travel. Oh well. Alka Seltzer and sleep time.
Quite the spirited game. We did enough to win. However if we are going to continue shoot 3s like it’s 1982, we are going to lose a lot of games…..
A man named Keon Ellis did happen to hit 9 threes a few games back, idk
And he got 2 minutes tonight while Huerter had a not very good game and got 24.
Monk had 31 minutes, he was the only player that seemed to know how to make 3pt shots (except for that last one, yikes).
I just don’t understand Brown’s logic behind decisions. Maybe trying to showcase Huerter for a potential trade soon?
I hope your right. Even I. Jones being a good rotational player might put Lyles in a tradeable position. Also Keon because if Brown isn’t going to play him then TRADE him. He has earned the right to play even if its for another team.
Yeah MB needs to be replaced this offseason…he is overcomplicating the easiest part of his job, play your best players in the best complimentary fashions. Everyone sees it but him
This exactly, man.
Atleast keon can make spot up 3’s.
Kevin has 1 below average game,making 3/7 last game and MB chooses to trust the dude this game, so he kept chucking. Im not sure aboit you but everytime kevin shoots, I expect it to be a miss.
Does anyone know if devin is a good spot up shooter? I’d trust a rookie at this point over kevin trash huerter.
He gets payed 7mil(correct me if im wrong)a year to commit stupid fouls and rebound.
$16.8m this season, $17.9m next season.
Bro
17M a year to chuck up shots, get a few rebounds, make stupid fouls. How is this guy even in the league smh.
Wish devin could play and we find a payton pritchard type of dawg in him.
Ellis is shooting 44% from three on 3.5 attempts per game this year, after shooting 42% on 3 attempts per game last year.
But Brown won’t play him because… reasons.
And plays great defense and still sits on the bench. Brown is ruining him. I feel sorry for Keon.
You want Brown to make decisions based on knowledge, facts and stats?
As Chris Webber once said: “Good luck!”
That’s the thing. I feel like Brown only looks at ESPN box scores to make his judgements.
“Oh, I see Huerter took 7 shots, while Ellis only too 3. I guess I should play Huerter more.” -Brown…probably.
Yeah, I mean some more meaningful stats than the simple counting stats.
But whatever. Brown just is playing his favorites and overplaying his stars. Thibs jr.
I agree here. And he as never told us why he isn’t playing Keon in any of his interviews. Probable won’t because you keep it to yourself and not the media. I could understand some of it.
Who knows. I also , if I,m wrong let me know, it seems to me on Brown’s interviews he comes across as more negative on some players but never includes himself.
Huerter has made 31pt shots on 108 attempts his season good for 67% of his total attempts. Keon has made 30pt shots on on 68 attempts good for 70% of his FG attempts.
Huerter has played 60 more minutes this year than Ellis, which is over two more games than Ellis. Give Ellis those 60 minutes at 5.7 3pt attempts per 36 and take Huerter’s away at 8 3pt attempts per 36 minutes and they are not that far apart.
It’s pretty fucking hard to take shots when the coach doesn’t play you or dicks around with your minutes
Ellis is better than Huerter in virtually every statistical category. Including a +4.8 net rating (second best on the team) compared to Huerter’s -5.5 rating!
Maybe it’s hard for Brown to understand from his coaching perspective but its but a 3rd grader could understand it from a numbers perspective.
Brown must have some secret stats he is using based on what he values, because no stats I can find justify Keon playing limited minutes, and Huerter getting 80 more minutes on the season, despite missing 3 games due to injury.
Maybe being a volume shooter matters to Brown, even when clanking most of them is the results 70% of the time.
The same thing was happening last season with Keon/Davion/Huerter. It wasn’t until Huerter got injured that Keon played more (Brown was almost forced because of the injury), then Monk went down and Brown had no other options but to play Keon.
I listen to other broadcasts at times, and they all seem to like Keon and what he brings, and continuously go on about Huerter and his shooting woes and being attacked on the defensive end when he gets on the floor.
Long story short, if you want minutes on the Brown led Kings, just chuck the ball up when you get in there (?)
I think for some reason Brown doesn’t like Keon Ellis. Maybe Keon doesn’t Hussle in practice or is terrible in the locker room. What ever it is Brown is ruining Keon Ellis.
I’m wondering the same thing. I said the other day, it may be something we are not aware of. Is he not looking good in practice, messing up plays, attitude problems, etc.? The fact of the matter is, the numbers say he should be playing. That doesn’t mean he should get 30 minutes a game, but a DNP/CD and then 2 minutes just doesn’t make sense, especially when Huerter is 0-6 from deep and Crowder is scoreless in the last 2 games.
So he had bad attitude and looked bad in practice too last year when he didn’t play until there were injuries and somehow got a contract?
When it smells like a coach who simply doesn’t like a player and looks like a coach who simply doesn’t like a player it is probably a duck.
I don’t know if it is personal or not. IMO Brown gets enamored with Huerter’s occasional hot shooting streaks. He is living in the past thinking that first year of lights out Huerter was the reality and is trying to get back to it. The longer this goes it is obvious that was not the real Huerter. MB is basically chasing a ghost.
yeah mmalone is a mb apologist for unknown reasons
And IMO Brown is ruining him because he doesn’t play him. He is a big part of the King’s defense but sits on the bench. I could understand why for one or two games because of his mistakes a couple of games ago but like everyone else he is a human being and not a robot and will make mistakes. Even Mike Brown makes mistakes and this is one of them. Keon Ellis, we all know how he has worked from nobody to a starter for the Kings. I hope Brown hasn’t ruined him permanently.
I respect your opinions, you obviously care about the team but….
‘Fox, Keegan, and Huerter hitting zero shots is better than Keon shooting zero shots.’
Gotta call BS on this one.
He can’t, but the assumption would be Keon is allowing better offensive players take those shots, which I am fine with at this point in his development.
Allowing your opponents bench to score 60 points also allows you to win about 5% of your games.
So many fun stats in this loss!
Especially when your own bench only scored 15 (9 from I. Jones, 6 from Huerter, 0 from everyone else). In the bench’s defense, MB publicly declares his lack of confidence in them so they’re probably playing demoralized.
And whose fault is that, not Brown’s. The intials MM might give you and idea. We don’t have a bench now that Monk starts although I really like Issac Jones and what he has done.
Absolutely more MB than MM…
Kings effort tonight was as bland as the Grizzlies announcing crew. Just ran through the motions most of the night.
What really pisses me off is we get a lead as in many games and cannot built on that lead but let the other team catch up. Last night was an example. Up by 12 in the first have and by the end of the half down by 1. The second half told the story. 2 of the best clutch players in the league and we can’t finish. This happens more than not. Very frustrating.
Sigh.
Kevin Huerter?
I thought it was Roy Al
Have you ever seen Huerter and Roy Al in the same place at the same time?
Never seen Roy Al in the same place/time as anyone. He’s all of us.
We are Roy Al
No, he shoots better than Huerter.
When will we stop saying just wait things will change. And Brown says every game just keep chucking. Is this the answer?
The last play in last nights game Huerter could have had the opportunity to tie the game. More so than Monk’s desperation shot. He had the ball at the top of the key and was defended really well but his defender was leaning in close to him. Huerter should have recognized this and leaned in just a little to provide contact and shot the ball. Even if it didn’t go in he would have been folded and maybe made the 3 free throws which would have tied the game. Maybe not but to pass it to Monk who had a terrible shot wasn’t the answer.
So my question for MB is if as a team the Kings don’t shoot 3s well, why take so many?
And the quick pull ups or transition 3s, their percentage has to be bottom of the league.
Huerter, Keegan,Fox a combined 1 for 20 from three. That’s pretty much game right there.
Every Kings starter over 30 minutes tonight, with Keegan leading the way at 40. Only one Grizz, Bane, topped 30 minutes.
not true at all, just MB being shitty at rotations
McLaughlin averaged more minutes on a deeper and better Twolves team. How do you explain that?
He should (with proper coaching) be able to give 12 to 14 minutes a night consistenly and give our main guys some needed rest, I’d think.
Hero ball is not going to cut it.
They didn’t even run an offense in the 4th. It was some of the ugliest basketball I have seen in a while.
Agreed. They have stretches of every game like this where it looks like a pickup game
The DeRozan iso plays were ugly to watch.
in the traditional terms, I tend to agree. He at least can run a solid PnR game.
At this point, even the wins are becoming frustrating for me because I know another one won’t follow.
The wins are probably only hurting their ability to tank at this point. This team is going absolutely nowhere.
In an alternate universe, kevin goes 1/5 from 3, keegan goes 2/7 from 3, we win this game.
Is that too much to ask from kev and keegs?
I think the fact that huerters shots are simply rimming out gives him and MB confidence that the next one might go in.
I on the other hand expect him to miss shots because he’s simply outright trash this season. Give those damn minutes to someone who deserves it.
Fox has hit zero threes in three games this season. In those three games combined, he went 0-24 from three. Not blaming everything on Fox, but wowzers.
So why does he have the green light to keep shooting them?
Fox’s play feels bipolar to me. We see the aggressive, attack the paint relentlessly Fox once in a while, that player is a max player. But then we see the lazier, jack up 3s Fox like last night and that is not a max player.
IMO Domas should be taking more 3s and Fox should cut his 3s attempts in half.
Blow this shit up already.
Salvage what you can get for Fox, save your pick from the Huerter trade and try something different, because this team has a very clear ceiling. And that ceiling is not very high.
To reach last year’s record (46-36, which is .560), the Kings have to play .610 ball the rest of the way.
With that .560 record, as things currently stand, they’d have the 8th spot.
Do you think this team can get out of the play-in and win a play-off series? I don’t.
And to me, anything less than finally winning a play-off series after 20 years is a failure. YMMV.
I’ve been praying for a purposeful rebuild for almost 20 years. Will they finally do it? I doubt it. Ownership doesn’t want it so we will remain in purgatory unless we get really lucky in the lottery. Of course, we’re all very aware that’s no guarantee of anything either soooooo… I don’t know man.
Yeah, with Monte going all in with his core and adding DeRozan, anything less than some legitimate playoff noise is a failure. I don’t care that the West is deep, the truth of the matter is the whole league is deep. There is more talent today than there has ever been.
What do you think they could get for him realistically?
I have been thinking (and have thought this in the past) of trading Fox as well.
Watching last night, I was thinking what about Fox for JJJ as the primary trade pieces? I don’t have any idea how this would work contracts wise or if Memphis would be interested at all, just an interesting what if.
New starters:
PG – Monk
SG – DDR
SF – Keegan
PF – JJJ
C – Domas
I am not sure if Memphis would want Fox alongside Morant, but I would be happy getting JJJ.
I haven’t thought about realistic trade packages, to be honest. Because I fear the Kings will do the wrong thing and hang onto him.
Same. I feel like if Fox gets a max or even worse super max, it will be a big, regrettable mistake.
And I like Fox I just don’t think he is that level of player.
The fact that knowledgeable people over here are not sure whether giving Fox the (super) max or losing him or nothing will be worse tells a lot, IMO.
If Vivek won’t allow the Kings to rebuild and Fox asks out, then I have an idea for a retool that would rebalance the team.
3-way trade:
Kings – Lauri Markkanen (+ more?)
Jazz – Assets from 3rd team
3rd team – De’Aaron Fox
3rd Team Candidates? Spurs and Magic.
Team after trade:
Monk / Carter / 3rd PG
Keegan / Keon / Colby
DeRozan / Huerter / Bench Wing
Markkanen / Jones / Backup Big
Sabonis / Backup Big
I wouldn’t prefer this path if they were trade Fox but working within Vivek’s constraints, this wouldn’t be a bad pivot.
I wouldn’t hate it, especially if we can somehow get Collins as well.
Rinse and repeat. They will win the off game when they actually hit shots. Most of the time they won’t hit shots so they’re going to lose. It’s a broken roster that continues to perform exactly as we should expect at this point.
Woof.
Huerter stats by quarter:
Q1: 6 minutes, 1-3 FG. 2 pts, 1 reb, 1 TO
Q2: 7.3 minutes, 1-1 FG 2 pts, 1 steal. 1 foul
Q3: 6 minutes, 1-5 FG, 2 pts, 5 reb, 2 fouls
Q4: 5.5 minutes, 0-1 FG, no other stats
1st Half: 13.2 minutes. 4 points, 2-4 FG, 1 board, 1 steal, 1 TO, 1 foul
2nd Half: 11.6 minutes 2 points, 1-6 FG, 5 boards, 2 fouls
He in fact had zero assists last night
Edit: wrong reply
I’m very much okay with MB being replaced after the season with his rotations and dealings with players….no way Keon should be in the position he is
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