Early Playoff predictions
- Thread starter Bosnian Diehard
- Start date
Who would we trade? And for what? Who would you want coming that would send fox buddy Barnes or Bagley to the bench or to another team? If any of those guys plus bogi or Giles gets traded anything less than a all star would pee everybody in here off. And to get an all star it would take 2 Off them plus Bjelica
Guaranteed Playoffs
1. Nuggets, don't care how people feel about them. They were #2 seed last year and don't get the respect they deserve with Jokic, Murray, and more.
2. Clippers, they added Kawhi and PG13 while losing nothing of significance.
3. Jazz, added Conley and Bogdanovic to the core of Mitchell, Gobert, and Ingles.
4. Rockets, lots of dysfunction going on, but come on. They have James Harden. He could carry the 2008 Kings' team to the playoffs.
Most likely Playoffs
5. Warriors, baring any injuries to Steph, they're in, but their roster is horrible. FA isn't done yet with solid role players left, but look at the Warriors squad for next year without Klay for 1/2 the season. It's kinda rough. Can they survive without Klay?
PG: Curry/Bowman
SG: Russell/Poole
SF: McKinnie/Robinson III
PF: Green/Paschall
C: WCS/Looney
6. Lakers, everyone hates them, but they have LeBron, AD, Kuzma, Cousins, Green, and Rondo.
Playoff Bubbles
7. Blazers, they lost some serious depth this year with the loss of Nurkic(injury), Harkless, Aminu, and Kanter. We always count them out every year, but Damian Lillard is a magician. This could finally be the year they don't make the playoffs! Foreals this time? I don't like their PFs at all. Collins is a natural C, albeit lacking the strength. Tolliver is a solid backup 4, but does nothing aside from fire 3s. SG/SF rotation is pretty good, but I don't see a starting caliber SF. I think they need Nurkic back, but Whiteside has no problem holding down the fort.
PG: Lillard/Simmons
SG: McCollum/Bazemore
SF: Hood/Hezonja/Little
PF: Collins/Tolliver
C: Whiteside/Labissiere
8th Seed Race!!!!
8. Spurs, old as heck.. I feel like this is the year we can finally count them out.. but who knows?
9. Thunder, yes they lose PG13, but they add SGA and Gallo. OKC might want to blow it up and rebuild though.
10. Kings, Kings significantly upgraded their bench by adding Joseph, Ariza, and Holmes. However, is that enough? Success also rides heavily on the consistency and development of Fox, Bagley, and even Buddy. Lack of experience and the new HC change could make things difficult.
11. Pelicans, sleeper team right here. They have a good roster on paper, but will it translate to wins? I think they lack the experience to make a playoff push, but just look at their roster below. I know Lonzo and Holiday will be starting together, but decided to go ahead and show the talent they have at all positions.
PG: Holiday/Lonzo/NAW
SG: Redick/Hart/Moore/Jackson
SF: Ingram/Miller
PF: Zion/Favors/Bertans
C: Hayes, Okafor, and Wood.
1. Nuggets, don't care how people feel about them. They were #2 seed last year and don't get the respect they deserve with Jokic, Murray, and more.
2. Clippers, they added Kawhi and PG13 while losing nothing of significance.
3. Jazz, added Conley and Bogdanovic to the core of Mitchell, Gobert, and Ingles.
4. Rockets, lots of dysfunction going on, but come on. They have James Harden. He could carry the 2008 Kings' team to the playoffs.
Most likely Playoffs
5. Warriors, baring any injuries to Steph, they're in, but their roster is horrible. FA isn't done yet with solid role players left, but look at the Warriors squad for next year without Klay for 1/2 the season. It's kinda rough. Can they survive without Klay?
PG: Curry/Bowman
SG: Russell/Poole
SF: McKinnie/Robinson III
PF: Green/Paschall
C: WCS/Looney
6. Lakers, everyone hates them, but they have LeBron, AD, Kuzma, Cousins, Green, and Rondo.
Playoff Bubbles
7. Blazers, they lost some serious depth this year with the loss of Nurkic(injury), Harkless, Aminu, and Kanter. We always count them out every year, but Damian Lillard is a magician. This could finally be the year they don't make the playoffs! Foreals this time? I don't like their PFs at all. Collins is a natural C, albeit lacking the strength. Tolliver is a solid backup 4, but does nothing aside from fire 3s. SG/SF rotation is pretty good, but I don't see a starting caliber SF. I think they need Nurkic back, but Whiteside has no problem holding down the fort.
PG: Lillard/Simmons
SG: McCollum/Bazemore
SF: Hood/Hezonja/Little
PF: Collins/Tolliver
C: Whiteside/Labissiere
8th Seed Race!!!!
8. Spurs, old as heck.. I feel like this is the year we can finally count them out.. but who knows?
9. Thunder, yes they lose PG13, but they add SGA and Gallo. OKC might want to blow it up and rebuild though.
10. Kings, Kings significantly upgraded their bench by adding Joseph, Ariza, and Holmes. However, is that enough? Success also rides heavily on the consistency and development of Fox, Bagley, and even Buddy. Lack of experience and the new HC change could make things difficult.
11. Pelicans, sleeper team right here. They have a good roster on paper, but will it translate to wins? I think they lack the experience to make a playoff push, but just look at their roster below. I know Lonzo and Holiday will be starting together, but decided to go ahead and show the talent they have at all positions.
PG: Holiday/Lonzo/NAW
SG: Redick/Hart/Moore/Jackson
SF: Ingram/Miller
PF: Zion/Favors/Bertans
C: Hayes, Okafor, and Wood.
In order for the Kings to make the playoffs they need:
- Fox to develop into our franchise player, NOT a franchise PG. They need him to be our go-to scorer. You can't have passive Fox who sits and waits for Buddy to get hot. They need Fox to take control and realize that it's HIS team. Not a Mike Conley or Jeff Teague, but a Damian Lillard. An in your face PG who's not afraid to put the team on his back and score. I realize this is asking a lot from him, but it'll be his 3rd year. Ok, maybe he doesn't need to be Damian Lillard, but something like 20ppg+ would be fine. Definitely possible considering it's only 3pt more than his 17ppg last year.
- Bagley to steadily improve his all-around game with emphasis to his 3pt shot. We don't need him to be better than Luka, we just need him to be better than rookie Bagley. To be able to be our 3rd option on offense when we need a bucket. We don't want a ball-stopper either.
- Hield continues his consistent play. Looking for 18ppg on a consistent game to game basis. Consistency is what Buddy needs. Just make his shots and we'll be fine. 2nd or 3rd offensive option to compliment Fox.
- Bench play to step up and play consistently. NO Ramon Sessions nor JJ Hickson type BS from our free agents. Aka players who suddenly forget how to bounce a basketball as soon as they reach Sacramento.
- Coaching, all comes down to Luke Walton. With Joerger we won 39 games. Walton needs to win more than that because this is a much deeper team than Joerger was dealt.
Bagley is going to make a HUGE leap this year and it wouldn't surprise me if he's a 20/10 guy. I just worry about whether or not he can stay healthy!
As it stands now, we have Fox 18/8, Hield 20/4 and Bags 20/10. Barnes will probably be 17/5 and Dedmon will probably be close to 12/6. That's one hell of a starting lineup. Then you have Bjelica and Bogs, Holmes, Giles and Joseph coming off the bench with Ariza? Yikes man..
We have one hell of a scary roster. It wouldn't be surprising if we missed the playoffs and it wouldn't surprise me if we were a top 4 team in the west.
As it stands now, we have Fox 18/8, Hield 20/4 and Bags 20/10. Barnes will probably be 17/5 and Dedmon will probably be close to 12/6. That's one hell of a starting lineup. Then you have Bjelica and Bogs, Holmes, Giles and Joseph coming off the bench with Ariza? Yikes man..
We have one hell of a scary roster. It wouldn't be surprising if we missed the playoffs and it wouldn't surprise me if we were a top 4 team in the west.
LeBron showed last year that he's getting older and not the same player. Maybe missing the playoffs re-energized him, but he's also got a million non-basketball distractions going full time now that he's in LA and preparing for post NBA life. He's got more miles on him than Kobe did at this point so the idea that he is good to go for a full season is a question mark for me.
AD almost certainly will miss a chunk of the season too.
Boogie and Rondo are not the same players they were 3-4 years ago.
I just see this as a team with a very narrow window. Yes, they should make the playoffs, but I would not be shocked if they finish 10th or 11th either.
AD almost certainly will miss a chunk of the season too.
Boogie and Rondo are not the same players they were 3-4 years ago.
I just see this as a team with a very narrow window. Yes, they should make the playoffs, but I would not be shocked if they finish 10th or 11th either.
I think this is what many are not factoring in in this thread. The whole point is that our young guys have to get better, and much better. That's exactly how a team builds through the draft. You don't claim to build through the draft on one hand and then the next second say oh we didn't get star free agents so we aren't going to be much better. Whether it works or not is a different story and hopefully it will. Nuggets were in pretty much the same situation as us two years ago, haven't done all that much and now people are treating them as a lock for the playoffs.
Playoff Predictions? I don't know, not sure how the new players will play. Hield played the most consistently throughout last season, so I'd expect him to play similarly, but for other players I'd be guessing to an extent. And at this point I'd guess no for playoffs because of the uncertainty of new players meshing or not .
Way better basketball relative to last year or 2 years ago? And a team could be playing good basketball and missing the playoffs. Last year was a tough year to make the playoffs The Clippers @ #8 had 48 wins. That's higher than average - which would probably be 43 or 44. I don't think this upcoming Kings team is worth 48 wins....maybe 43/44 on the high end. I think the general opinion of some on here end of last season was Vlade is on the hot-seat this upcoming year for the team making the Playoffs. I think that is likely. The coaching change is another question make too.
The Kings won 39 games last season with a worse roster than this season and Dave Joerger coaching the team post-ASG like he was trying to get fired (refusing to not start a small lineup, WCS: point center, sticking with Bogi up until his confidence was so shot that he had no choice but to bench him, randomly benching Bjeli for some reason, the last game of the season). 43/44 is probably the floor next year barring unforeseen health issues.
