The Sacramento Kings are at home for the last time till Valentine’s Day weekend and they’re looking to finish their homestand strong against a Raptors’ squad stuck between a tank and a hard place. Still tough as nails, still as well run and well coached as any team in the league, the Raptors have still lost four of their last six games and at 1.5 games out of the last play-in spot are one of the absolutely lynch pins to the NBA Trade Deadline. Will the Raptors decimate what’s left of their championship core to better retool around Scotty Barnes? Will they hold tight and hope to turn it around in the second half of the season? Can I get through a whole preview without mentioning or referencing a certain blockbuster science fiction film released in 1993 directed by Steven Spielberg?? I’ll, uh, find a way!<\/p>\n
Let’s talk Kings basketball!<\/p>\n
When:<\/strong> Monday, January 25th, 7:00 PM PT Hold On To Your Barnes: <\/strong>I’ve been a Barnes skeptic for awhile now. If you’re a regular reader of my previews, you pretty much know that right around the time the pandemic hit and it was obvious the Kings weren’t going anywhere fast, that I felt that best thing that Harrison Barnes could possibly do for the Kings was… be traded for something in return. Granted, he’s never been a bad player, never been a bad locker room presence… he just wasn’t on the right timeline as the inevitable blow-up of the Kings. As time went on and the Walton era continued to flounder the man played checked out for stretches (an act for which I do not blame him), like a guy who knew he didn\u2019t belong on a roster of struggling kids and struggling coaches. Harrison Barnes belonged on a team where he could be the third to fifth best man on a team vying for a conference finals, not the second best guy on a team that should be tanking. He knew, we knew it and yet, every year, his name would come up in trade rumors, the deadline would come, then the deadline would go with Harrison Barnes still on this team. A player too good for the tank, but not good enough to bring back a haul worthy of Monte’s opinion of him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He started the first 9-10 games this season in an absolutely bottomed out pit – under 10 points a game, shooting like, 17% from deep, and in my eyes, he was the candy bar you saved for a rainy day, then the day comes and the chocolate’s got a weird white film, the bar has crumbled to dust on the corners and you’ve just got to power through eating it because you’d held on for too long. The guy who kept the Kings from being too bad, started this season looking like the guy who might just keep the team from achieving new heights. The full sails of a sinking ship, now wet with sea water drowning those beneath it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Smash cut to today. In his last 8 games, Barnes is averaging 22.5 points on 57.9% shooting and SIXTY percent from deep on a tenth of a percentage point under 7 attempts a game. During this stretch, he’s had 4 games where he\u2019s scored 27 or more and just two where he\u2019s scored sub-20. The man scored 27 points or more just once in the entire SEASON prior to this stretch. He has hit 5 threes or more in half these games I’m referencing. The guy was sporting a three point percentage that was absolutely abysmal for the first third or more of the season and now, just past the half way point he’s up to 39%. There’s been more than a handful of games where Fox and Sabonis are sitting, or just not hitting and Harrison Barnes eurosteps his way into tough bucket after tough bucket until the two stars get back or back into rhythm. He’s had shooting sprees that kept the Kings afloat or pushed the Kings out ahead. The guy is playing out of his gourd right now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As the trade deadline approaches, I don’t expect to see Barnes moved. What’s more, I don’t WANT to see Barnes moved. Hell, you’ve got Mike Brown up in front of the media calling Barnes irreplaceable and citing his time in big moments being a calming presence for two stars who haven’t ever been very high, haven’t succeeded in the brightest moments. Well, the moments for these Sacramento Kings are getting brighter all the time and if Barnes is the man that holds them steady through it, so be it. As a fan of a team that’s wallowed in the NBA’s proverbial basement for sixteen years, I’m happy now to bask in the light.<\/p>\n Harrison Barnes, you’ve got a believer in me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n On the other side of this coin, we’ve got the Toronto Raptors, who, while having been to the top and nabbed themselves a championship in 2019, are now in a semi-similar spot to where the Kings have been in recent years. Veteran talent keeping them afloat, youth with a bright future and a monkey wrench somewhere in the machine. At the top of the many talented guys, players like VanVleet, Siakam, OG Anunoby, is one mister Scottie Barnes. The reigning Rookie of the Year is an absolute junkyard dog, in all the right ways. I gushed about him pre-draft and fought with a few of you in the comments over him plenty of times. I was right, you were wrong. (No, no, I’m joking, there’s many shades of right and please remember I thought Willie Cauley-Stein was going to change the league forever). The point is, you don’t need to hear much from me about how good the guy is. You’ve read it before. But what we should question is just how Toronto decides to move forward with building their squad. Barnes, Precious Achiuwa, Christian Koloko and even a kid like Dalano Banton (a 6-9 pg, drafted with a pick the Kings had owned previously) are some very nice little building blocks. Guys like OG, VanVleet and Siakam should all be able to fetch first rounders and talented youngsters back. Even someone like Gary Trent Jr. could bring in youth to better surround Barnes.<\/p>\n But will Masai do it? Will Nick Nurse stick around for it? Will a league with incredible parity right now swing wildly if the powers that be in Toronto blow this team to smithereens? We’ve got a little over two weeks before they have to decide and as much as I love a good tank with smart management and coaching at the helm, the decisions made in Toronto could cause ripples that are felt here in Sacramento, could change pretenders into contenders in a hurry and now that we have something at stake here in Sac… I’m casting a suspicious eye the Raptors way until the figure out what the heck they’re going to do with this franchise.<\/p>\n Scottie Barnes, triple double. Domas Sabonis, triple double. Pascal Siakim 10+ full body rotation spin moves. De’Aaron Fox, 20 points in the 4th quarter. Nick Nurse, looking like he got caught cheating at his mom’s competitive bingo competition.<\/p>\n Kings: 119, Raptors:112<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Sacramento Kings are at home for the last time till Valentine’s Day weekend and they’re looking to finish their homestand strong against a Raptors’ squad stuck between a tank and a hard place. Still tough as nails, still as well run and well coached as any team in the league, the Raptors have still […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":14802,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10,5068],"tags":[58,725],"coauthors":[312],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nWhere:\u00a0<\/strong>Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
\nTV:<\/strong> NBC Sports California, NBATV
\nRadio:<\/strong> Sactown Sports 1140<\/p>\nFor Your Consideration<\/h3>\n
Prediction<\/h3>\n