From Rob Hessing via the no-pants section of the comments: How do you see the minutes re-allocating upon BB8’s return?
Tim: It wouldn’t be surprising to see a minutes limit for Bogi when he first returns, both as an injury prevention technique and as a way to get into game shape, but let’s assume we’re talking about a fully healthy Serbian Sniper. In that case, I expect him to field about 32 minutes per game, meaning we have to find that time between the shooting guard and small forward positions, with a few moments sprinkled in at point guard. Here’s how the current minutes per game break down:
The easiest place to find some minutes for our returning guard is to steal a chunk of minutes away from Justin Jackson, who has had a rather uneven start to the season. Let’s reduce his minutes from almost 30 per game to 10. That leaves about 20 to go. Ben McLemore shouldn’t play a single minute more for the Kings, gaining an additional 4 minutes per game. Bogi can play point guard, shooting guard, and small forward, so benching Frank Mason may be necessary as Yogi Ferrell has been the better player to start the season, while Iman Shumpert should get the slight priority over Jackson when it comes to court time:
Will: Tim brought out the fancy graphics for that question. I’m not going to contradict his hustle.
From thishotfirekevin in the comments: It’s early, but when do we start to panic over Giles lack of production and foul issues?
Tim: I’m giving Giles until the All-Star break before I even start to show some slight concerns. We know he’s been awesome in practice, and he was pretty impressive in Summer League and in preseason. He hasn’t played meaningful basketball in two years, so he’s going to have a large adjustment period. The Kings also need to adjust their utilization of Giles and stop featuring him in the offense – let the young big get a few easy scores to boost his confidence before treating him like Boogie Jr.
Will: I’m actually going to give him till this time next year before the worry really starts to settle in my brain, and it’s mostly because I know this coaching staff doesn’t like to hand young big men minutes, and because Vlade has a forest full of trees to clear to make room for Giles being an option worthy of productive minutes on the floor. I think Joerger and company have it set that they’re giving Giles the same treatment as Willie Cauley-Stein got during the last half season of Boogie Cousins and hoping that Vlade and Brandon Williams are making moves to clear out those extra big guys. But, I’d bet good money that most of those same big guys are still in Sacramento after the All-Star Break, either due to no other team really wanting them or Divac and Williams believing they’re actually onto something with the whole eight bigs thing. Giles could go this whole season stuck in the middle of guys more productive than he, get a feel for how fast and tough the NBA is for bigs and then come out and have a big year in a similar jump to what we see from De’Aaron this year. If six games into next year he’s still a Hall of Shame level foul machine, that when I start thinking that he might not be our secret weapon after all.
From RikSmits via the comments: Tim, if you could not be a giraffe, what animal would you be? Will, if you were not allowed to be a Kings fan, which NBA team would you root for?
Tim: I would probably be a human.
Will: This question is too entirely relevant to a conversation a friend and I have had every year since the relocation drama. During the time where any hopes of keeping the Kings were less closer to reality than they were to fiction, my roommate and I began taking applications to other teams. He was a Timberwolves fan, a team I immediately rejected because I really didn’t feel like another decade of heart break to add to it. We went through each one, made cases for each of them, kicked out the super teams etc. and eventually I settled on the San Antonio Spurs as my rebound team. Every year since then, we have the same discussion: picking our next NBA city to seek asylum in, if this was the year we finally have to escape our franchises. The Process years it was the Sixers, last year it was Milwaukee, this year and probably for many future years to come; The Dallas Mavericks. My affinity for their two young stars is pretty well known, they’ve got a loveable Dirk as their franchise setting star, a great coach and a forward thinking front office. Runner up being the Jazz: everything about them is what I wanted for the Kings over the years.
From Mr. Gallego via email: Thanks for the great articles. As fun as the Kings have been this year, we still have a front court glut and not a long-term solution at small forward. Do you see the Kings making a move anytime soon, or do you think we’ll need to wait until the trade deadline? Also, who do you see as the best fit with the Kings young core?
Tim: I fully expect the Kings to be active prior to, and at the trade deadline. It’s quite rare for trades to occur this early in the season, so the earliest action we’ll likely see will be in late December or early January, with most occurring in February. Vlade has put Sacramento in an enviable position as the only team with cap space, but there’s a fine line to walk between taking on bad contracts for assets and wasting cap space on low-value transactions.
All of that being said, I don’t foresee the Kings solving the small forward conundrum during the 2018-2019 season. There may be a stop-gap option found at the deadline, but I wouldn’t count on much more. There’s a pretty good crop of wings available this summer, and my semi-bold prediction is a near-max offer sheet being signed by Tobias Harris in July.
Will: Like Tim has intimated, the Kings aren’t doing anything till near the deadline and if there is a deadline deal, I would venture a guess that Otto Porter Jr. is the guy the Kings nab. The Wizards wouldn’t find chemistry in their locker room if they hired Walter White as their coach, and with their recent complaints about teammates whining over shots, I could see the Kings taking advantage of the pissing contest in DC and swapping Willie at the deadline for him.
The more likely venture is that Sacramento waits until the off-season when their cap space isn’t nearly as sexy, to grab a Mario Hezonja or middle tier guy on an overpay.
Quick Hitters
From adamsite via the comments: Should I wash my socks inside out? I have sweaty feet, so sue me. My thinking is that the inside of my socks are “dirtier” than the outside. The outside of my socks almost never see the light of day as they are encapsulated in my clean shoes, while the inside are up against my sweaty skin. I remove both my socks and shoes once at the homestead. I don’t walk around in my sock at home, because that is just gross. They are an undergarment.
Will: “Hey adamsite, why are their copies of the style section all over the place? You got a dog? A little chow or something?”
Unless your socks are waterproof, the sweat is definitely spreading throughout the sock, so I think the impact in cleaning the sweat better by turning them inside out is pretty negligible. However, what I will say is washing your socks inside out is bound to get you less of that pesky between-the-toes lint, so if you’re not a fan of that toe-snow, give it a shot and report back.
Tim: I’ll concede that the inside of the sock is likely more sweaty than the inside, but turning the socks inside out requires me to touch the inside of the sock – something I have no desire to do. Keep your weird laundry beliefs to yourself, Adam.
From LaBradford via the comments: Which STR writer would you want for each of these positions on your fantasy team: GM, Coach, PG, SG, SF, PF, C, Bench Mob, Mascot, PR
Will:
GM: Akis is our Vlade, Omer is our Brandon Williams (Bryant is our scout)
Coach: Greg Wissinger
PG: Sanjesh Singh
SG: Richard Ivanowski
SF: Tony Xypteras
PF: Marcin Gortat Kevin Fippin
C: Tim Maxwell
Bench Mob: Blake Ellington is our Sixth Man, I’m more the Z-Bo type.
Mascot: Robby “Tha Beagle” Beigler
PR: Brad for the tweets, Kimani for the snaps
Tim: GM: Akis
Coach: Omer
PG: Bryant
SG: Tony
SF: Fippin
PF: Will
C: Me
Bench Mob: Greg is our resident Z-Bo, Sanjesh is the backup point guard
Mascot: Richard “the bearded wonder” Ivanowski
PR: Brad has a disturbing penchant for going viral
From Klam via Twitter: What is the name of the director of Lady Bird?
Will: Kevin I’m not gonna lie here. I spent the whole week figuring out how to screw this up for comedic effect, and when I got to the question this morning, the first thing I did was confidently type her name as “Gina Gershon”.
Tim: Tommy Wiseau?
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