Missed free throws, missed threes, and allowing opponents to shoot near 50% from 3. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
Full recap to follow.
Postgame Thread: Nets 108, Kings 103
Another wasted opportunity.
By Greg Wissinger | 113 Comments | Nov 24, 2024
Nov 24, 2024; Sacramento, California, USA; Brooklyn Nets forward Trendon Watford (9) shoots against Sacramento Kings forward Doug McDermott (7) during the first quarter at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
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Vlade sitting two seats to his right.
I am ok with Vlade coming off the bench as a back up big.
That oaf is a curse get him off the sidelines. We wouldn’t be going through this had that moron made the right pick.
Have you seen him play basketball?
What? in the dark ages of time. I have seen Doncic play basketball. And Vlade can’t hold his jock.
It all makes sense now.
And…is that Jeremy Lamb next to his daughter? WTF?
He is a guard so it would make sense that they are going to bring him up. Injured or not. We can never have enough guards.
He officially retired, but I find it interesting that the Stockton Kings signed him (under Anjali Ranadive) last season, and he now sits next to her courtside.
Didn’t he have an ankle injury that ended it?
She is dating him, I heard.
Yea they’re together now, according to her social media.
And his daughter is giving him advice. We’re fucked.
That’s his daughter of the famous 4 hang back and cherry pick strategy that won a youth championship.
Have things agreed going downhill since Vlade was named Basketball Ambassador, or whatever stupid title he was given?
2 seats away from being 2 seats away
Nice!
He had a better seat two days ago.
I petition to ban Vlade from G1, he can only step foot on the former site of Arco but even as a player all I remember is his tip back to Horry so I think I just need him banned from Sac County. Sorry Vlad but this is what’s best for me.
Is there somewhere I can bet on Fox scoring 30 plus and his team losing?
I like the odds.
Things are gonna get brutal schedule-wise for the rest of the season.
Time to panic? Asking for a friend.
Gettin close- I think because there are fundamental issues—1-Brown has been running an O that is not good for Keegan or Huerter or Sabonis to a degree. It calls for dribble, drive, get your own or spray. It’s a non O that is 1-1 and good for the few. He’s not utilizing his talent.
Ideally, Brown would adjust but he won’t. And Monte has not given Brown the right players for his shit system.
So, how will that change? Unless Monte moves a few people. There may be a disconnect w GM and coach. ?
And Brown is actually helping Keegan and others regress.
Oh, and why add Derozen? Is Vivek in this?
….
Full admission, I liked the DeRozan signing, but I now wonder if it’s just bogged things down. I made a point to watch him tonight when he got the ball, and he definitely slowed things down and drained the shot clock. His teammates just stood around waiting for him to ISO and either draw a foul and take a shot, or kick out after the double team.
He’s a great player, but not sure if he works in with this roster and system. Things are just…disjointed.
They need to keep moving when he has the ball. Is the gameplan to just let him ISO and stay out of his way? I keep hearing how he is a good passer, so get some guys moving and see what he can do to get them open shots.
It’s just a mess of a system that seems to be getting slower and slower each game.
Definitely disjointed. DDR is an O clogger. Super talented but not what the needed at all….except getting to line-maybe getting his own bucket/end game.
They have always needed shooters and defenders around Fox and Sabonis. DDR is neither.
Maybe they figure this out but whole team build/running is counterintuitive.
They needed 3/4s D who can shoot 3. They needed to facilitate and help Keegan’s 3-not crush it. They need an O with sets. They got none of it
So, the national media heads who know nothing and are biased against the Kings may have stumbled upon something accidentally, when they questioned his fit?
We all knew what the main issues of this team were, and we also knew that an undersized, slow playing and unathletic SG/SF who is not a serious threat from 3 and a so-so defender would solve none of these issues.
Most of us just got blinded by it being the biggest Kings acquisition since Naismith invented the game. Because we somehow love grading stuff against the Kangz scale, instead of against the NBA scale.
In all honesty I have not seen an actual recognizable offense being run.
Am I the only one?
I hear talk of spray threes and playing with pace. Both are code words for shoot a lot and run fast.
There is no real set O. Whoever gets ball -usually on perimeter- passes quickly or usually drives/dribbles to get shot. If not there he throws it outside. That’s the extent of this O. Quick decisions.
it’s supposed to be free flow I guess but unless you have all guys on the floor who can handle/make plays it’s not great.
Fox/Monk-both good in this type O. But it’s not ball movement and team. It’s more iso and individual.
It is definitely ISO ball and not all capable of controlling time of possession in a half court set to lock down games.
Well, we can’t defend the three nor shoot the three, our offense is disjointed and our bench weak and inconsistent, but it is worth noting that this is still a .471 team and three years ago we would’ve been pretty happy with that.
I’m not happy with this and quess I am in the minority. I was hopping for a really good year with a playoff run to boot. Wishful thinking but as a positive we are a 471 team.
I almost always ask and get what I am asking from you. What I asked and proposed 2 or 3 casts ago you answered. In this one instance I tend to disagree. It had to do with the bench. I know we are missing Monk but one player isn’t going to solve the bench problem. I do include Huerter in this because IMO Ellis is the starter at SG. 9 points compared to 44 is pathetic. If it happens once in a while I could understand it but its almost every game. Huerter plays maybe 1 in 4 games. Last night not bad on offense but not on defense. Sure he had a nice block but also let his man go by him almost at will. Lyle is basically nonexistent. Last night Brown played Jones and in all the minutes he played scored zero. Where was McLaughlin last night. He has been IMO pretty well as of late. McDermott should not be on the court at all. I would rather play Issac Jones.
We need to fix the bench. If Monty doesn’t make some trades for Huerter, Lyles, Jones and McDermott we are lost.
Murray has no backup what so ever. He needs someone to come in and give him meaningful minutes and be productive. There are trades out there and we have the means to make those trades.
Lastly I know he deserves to be a head coach but I wish we still had Jordi here in Sactamento. He out coached Brown last night and really has his team(for what he has) playing good basketball. Praise to Jordi.
Lastly I have another question for you Adamsite because I really admire you answers. Question? Do you think Btown needs to find not wholly but in part a better offense. IMO the whole league has found out how to defend this offense. Last night I watched 80% of the offense above the 3 point line being defended to the point where they could not run it effectively because the other team has figured this out and play defense accordingly. What do you think?
1) I don’t think any tinkering around the edges is going make much of a difference in this team, Jack. There are clearly 8 rotation players eating the bulk of the minutes. Even if you are moving one or more of those rotation players for one or more rotational players, you are just rearranging the deck chairs and the upgrade will be minimal at best…unless you are selling the farm for a rebuild. I don’t see that happening at the moment.
2) Coach Brown has been the biggest disappointment from me this season. Not only have other teams figured out the Kings scheme, Brown just stubbornly has not adjusted. The book is out on the Kings and teams with inferior talent are looking like contenders when they play this team. The efficiency and potency of the Kings offense is on a three year decline. Brown needs to fix things fast or he’s gonna find his seat getting hot, contract extension be damned.
I don’t disagree, but Monte is the one who gave Brown the premature extension and has created this roster.
Some of the problems with this roster construction are not easy to solve for any coach (and I am very critical of Brown).
It is easier and more common to fire the coach, but who is more to blame?
I also wonder how much Monte and Mike are in lockstep.
The problems definitely start from the top.
I’ve been going back to the DeRozan S&T and realized it happened a full week into free agency, and more than a week after the cap clearing moves by Monte. Part of me is beginning to wonder if DeRozan was a hastily put together acquisition because he felt pressure that something had to be done. It wasn’t necessarily a panic move, but a desperate move as all other option had dried up. It sort of reminds me of when Vlade leveraged the Kings future in trade with Philly in 2015 to open up cap space, only to land Rondo for one season.
What is the difference between a panic move and a desperation move?
Will Sac ever have an NBA team? Send the whole Kings team to the G league
Nets average 15 three points makes a game at 37%…when healthy.
Tonight they made 19 at 48%…missing two starters.
Got the old copy paste on the new app sorted out.
2 things are apparent so far this year. We can’t shoot the 3 and can’t defend the 3. One more we don’t have a bench.
What is that Loser Vlade sitting there? Unreal? A man that set this organization back 10 years. Is still sitting on the sidelines. Pathetic. The man is a curse.
That pick cost the Kings hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from ticket sales, playoff games, merchandise, TV deals, etc.
And the guy they picked was a zero. Not even a solid role player or league average guy.
Weird that Vivek still lets Vlade in the building after that. Maybe Vivek had some serious input on the pick as well.
They would have figured out how to break Luka too. Luka has the same number of rings as Colby Jones.
Good thing SGA and Thunder are resting well tonight in Sac on 4 days rest to face the Kings tomorrow coming off their 5th back to back.
Good times.
Not sure you could pay me to watch tomorrow.
And we couldn’t even come out and play after three days off!
We have been running our starters into the ground to play sub .500 ball against the leagues second easiest schedule. It’s hard to blame Mike Brown for playing these guys so much when the rest of the roster is this bad.
Then again, our offense looks like a shadow of the 22-23 team. It’s so stagnant.
What happened to the coach and executive of the year? Are they even in the top third of the league?
Much of this is on Monte, but Brown has made many questionable decisions himself. Robinson had a few decent outings and got rewarded with DNP-CD’s etc.
We are a few months away from cooking up potential Fox trades and tracking our longtime friend Tankathon.
Hell, I posted a tankathon link in the game thread…AND WE ARE STILL IN NOVEMBER!!
Been looking throughout the week already. At least no undersized guards are projected in the lottery!
Does not matter who is projected. The choice is the Kings to make. We will find a 5′-6″ guard that has long arms for length.
Trading Fox for pennies on the dollar and watching the Sabonis era Pacers – just this time in a legitimate conference – is the perfect Kangz timeline. vomit emoji
Why trade him for pennies on the dollar?
He has openly said if this team is not a contender he is gone.
He did imply that.
Playing the second half off games doesn’t seem to work very well .
Warmups wear them out.
Somebody call the puke on the floor courtside guy and get him a seat he’s needed again…we’re so back baby! except in the not good way, feels like we’ve just about officially been Kangz’d, it’s like Punk’d.
Idk man Idk, Monte and MB have some explaining to do, and these players have disappeared wtf?! We shoulda moved on from these guys and should be sitting people who can’t hit shots or won’t take em, care less who you put in.
It’s getting ugly early but it’s nothing I haven’t seen before so it’s whatevs.
Open try outs are a good idea at this point.
When are these open tryouts? I can puke with the best of them!
In my opinion they should have two new bench players each quarter. If Brown plays them great, if not, on to the next batch.
Maybe we find someone that can get a bucket?
Random Notes and Hot Takes:
Maybe Jordi gave Mike Brown advice.
Unable to sustain the 3rd Q momentum into the 4th Q as Sac scores only 15. And still unable make shots or stops in crunch time.
Worst stats: 21 assists. That’s a combo of ISO (Fox or DeRozan) ball and lack of passing. 16 Turnovers. 20/31 FT (64.5%) . 3 Pointers: Keegan, DeRozan, Sabonis and Huerter: 3/15 (20%)
Favorite stat:
Alex Len: 00:01 playing time: -3 on the +/-.
Colby Jones is wild out there. No JMac. As the Kings drift below .500 with a 3 game losing streak and 12th in the West.
Next.
time to start Keon?
Time to start Monk. Both Keon and Huerter are equal at best.
So the Kings suck. That much shouldn’t be very surprising at this point.
The issue, as it was in the preseason, is that the Kings do not take or make very many threes and they allow their opponents to shoot and make a ton of threes. The Kings lost by 5 in a game where they were -30 from the three point line. I don’t care how good you are at getting to the hoop or stopping penetration, it is impossible to win in today’s game playing that way. It’s just totally untenable. We have a team built to compete in 2006 but it’s 2024. Something’s gotta give.
Whenever a team comes averaging poor shooting, I pretty much assume that their players will have career shooting nights for the better at this point.
Yeah it seems like a given at this point. They are collapsing the paint and just leaving shooters wide open constantly.
It’s a feature of Brown’s defense, not a bug.
Yeah that seems to be the case. They can’t protect the rim so they’re selling out to collapse the paint. The problem is you just can’t do that without getting torched from deep by basically every single team in the league.
A small roster has to play team defense at the rim. The three point defense to me is not all that complex. We do not and have not had guards at the perimeter that are willing to play defense. Catch the ball and shoot it. The Kings will not challenge you because they all play three steps back trying not to be embarrassed on game tape.
Did something this morning that I normally never do: check the score.
I’m glad I did.
Any reason why McLaughlin didn’t play?
YMCA?
Who gets the feeling that we win tomorrows game against the thunder because kangz?
I wish. Definitely don’t get that feeling.
I wouldn’t be terribly surprised, but it would not change the core isues with this team, IMO, and would be another confirmation that the Kings have a tendency to play down to the level of their competition.
Kings kept the wrong coach. Thought this last year, proved right last night
Where is that clown?
Is he watching film somewhere collecting a check?
Lead assistant coach for the Pistons, currently.
So same level as the Kings. He is unstoppable.
Two things were obvious at the time they occurred.
Kings should have fired MB and made Jordi HC.
Kings should have never made the DDR trade.
Some things are obvious. This franchise is now downtrending from that playoff run two years ago and will be officially f’kd once they stupidly give Fox a super max.
But some are happy to have a mediocre team after almost two decades of futility. Good for them. Personally, I want to see deep playoff Bball.
You are assuming Fox stays. He has said he will stay if the team is a contender or truly progressing towards one. As it stands now he is gone.
Money talks, he’s taking the super max if MM offers it.
Maybe?
Still a big pile of money to go to another team that is decent.
Brown may be a problem, but the players are the fundamental one. There’s no magical way to turn mediocre defensive players into good one at this level. So the primary villains are Monte and Vivek.
3rd straight year of a decrease in pace.
Faster is not going to get us out of the play in.
What play-in?
We aren’t going to make the play-in.
Yes. We barely stay at .500. If speed is the goal this team peaks at play in loss. Exactly where we started our decline.
My hopes were sky high before this season. Felt like DDR was the missing piece.
But things just went to pieces.
I was shocked the first time I tuned in this year to see a generic high pick and roll offense after Brown installed the dribble handoff offense with off ball pin downs for Huerter and others, presumably to take advantage of Sabonis’ screening and passing. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been after the acquisition of DeRozan, the quintessential ten dribbles and a turnaround guy. What didn’t shock me was the defense. Miami under Spoelstra always looks like they have six guys on the court the way they cut off the drive and rotate to close out the shooter. The Kings always look like they have four.
Great comment.
4 on 5…go on…
Oh, you are mischievous.
Bingo. I don’t think it was a shock that the offense looked substantially better when DeRozan was out. Shooting percentage and volume were up as were the assists.
The dribble hand off, or DHO if one wants to sound smart using basketball acronyms, is a middle school offense. It works when the opportunity presents itself but by no means should it ever be an anchor strategy.
Defense in Miami is a culture and an expected behavior. The culture and expected behavior is also well established.
I appreciate your comments but you have no answer to those comments. Okay you apparently don’t think the King’s offense isn’t working and you call it middle school. Give me at least a lame answer to your comments. Want would you run . I always liked the motion offense. Do you? Give me an answer please.
I definitely do think the Kings offense is NOT working.
Add in some half court sets. Use a basic NBA motion offense that utilizes the dunker from the wing (that would be Keegan) to go to the rim or shoot the jumper to stretch the defense in the paint. We can get crazy and have Fox walk the ball up the floor and get the guys set up in half court offense to burn clock and get some good shots to maintain a lead for a win. Flash Huerter or Keon to the rim once in a while as they move from the perimeter towards the rim.
Do you like a motion offense in which the five (Sabonis) plays up high and sets up a screen or a pick and roll to move into the paint while the defense is still up top defending him?
I think Sabonis facilitates our offense better than Fox does.
One cannot seriously expect to use a dribble hand off for the entire game.
For the defense and culture in Miami, what do you doubt about that?
IMO the Heat have one of the best coaches in the NBA. He is innovated and if something doesn’t work then he will drop that and go with something else. Here in Sactown we don’t do that.
Riley is the master mind of Miami. He built a great coaching staff and roster. I think Miami is always one or two moves away from a ring. He is waiting for the opportunity.
Was in arena last night for the game and I definitely disagree with the take that the kings left all 3 point shooters wide open all night.
Did it happen a couple of times ? Yes but that was because the Nets worked hard to get them open.
More often than not the kings were in good defensive position contesting with hands up and the shot still went in. At one point the Nets were so hot that they were throwing up garbage shots that were still going in. It was frustrating to watch. Thankfully it was only a matter of time until they regressed to the mean.
The real problem felt like DeRozan was still a bit rusty and no one besides DeRozan , Fox , & Ox could score worth a damn. So many missed shots early. People started shooting better later in the game but the drought to start was a lot. At one point Fox had all but 4 of the Kings points and later he had 1/2 the Kings points well into the second quarter.
Kings tied it up heading into the 4th and then went ice cold ❄️ from the field. This icy shooting started when Fox went to the bench mid period. Unfortunately when Fox returned later in the quarter he couldn’t spark the scoring that had gone into a deep freeze ???? by then. Fox also seemed tired from having to carry so hard for so much of the rest of the game and after only getting a brief rest.
Monk was definitely missing and I think his absence also puts more pressure / stress on the rest of the bench. They end up having to take harder shots without him which is likely affecting their performance.
Ultimately unless Fox gets some help this will continue to look ugly. The good news is that DeRozan is likely to shake off the rust and return to form and at some point Monk returns.
But I strongly disagree with the same old narrative that the Kings just leave all the 3 point shooters wide open all night long and got scorched because of it.
I think the main point is that we are not defending the 3 point shot well. I may be wrong, but few people actually say that we “just leave all the 3 point shooters wide open”.
We are definitely late with closeouts and lack length to really bother those shots.
Maybe just maybe why we are late with closeouts we protect the paint so deep we can’t get there. One thing is our weak side defense is weak. We get so involved with protecting the paint we leave shooters wide open in the corner.
That is also an effort issue. It is hard to do.
You lost me when you said the Nets scored threes because they worked hard to get open shots and the Kings were in a good defensive position and contesting shots.
I drink sometimes when I am at the arena as well. The Kings were wearing the purple shirts last night. The team playing defense and making uncontested threes were wearing white shirts.
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