2023 TRADE DEADLINE MEGATHREAD
- Thread starter Tetsujin
- Start date
Do the Kings even make the playoffs this year?
The West is extremely tight with only 4.5 games separating us and the 10th seed. I enjoyed getting the win tonight against Houston, but there's no way that any legitimate teams let the worst team in the NBA hang around... and we've done that a bit too much this year.
Here's my current predictions of the standings in the West without the Kings:
1. Nuggets
2. Grizzlies
3. Suns
4. Mavericks
5. Lakers
6. Clippers
7. Pelicans
8. Timberwolves
9. Warriors
10. Blazers
11. Thunder
12. Jazz
According to Talkathon, we have the 3rd hardest schedule remaining: https://www.tankathon.com/remaining_schedule_strength
I have no clue why anyone thought this road trip was hard. We had the Rockets 2x, crippled T-Wolves, Spurs, and Pacers. Going 4-3 wasn't good enough. If we keep playing the way we're playing, I don't know if it's sustainable down the stretch. We keep letting teams hang around because we don't play any defense. Almost all of our games go down to the wire and it just turns into an offensive shootout. I don't think we can keep winning this way. We also have more games remaining than most of the teams in the West by 2-3.
I think this puts more pressure on Monte to make moves. The stupid Nets completely swung the pendulum for two teams in the West.
The West is extremely tight with only 4.5 games separating us and the 10th seed. I enjoyed getting the win tonight against Houston, but there's no way that any legitimate teams let the worst team in the NBA hang around... and we've done that a bit too much this year.
Here's my current predictions of the standings in the West without the Kings:
1. Nuggets
2. Grizzlies
3. Suns
4. Mavericks
5. Lakers
6. Clippers
7. Pelicans
8. Timberwolves
9. Warriors
10. Blazers
11. Thunder
12. Jazz
According to Talkathon, we have the 3rd hardest schedule remaining: https://www.tankathon.com/remaining_schedule_strength
I have no clue why anyone thought this road trip was hard. We had the Rockets 2x, crippled T-Wolves, Spurs, and Pacers. Going 4-3 wasn't good enough. If we keep playing the way we're playing, I don't know if it's sustainable down the stretch. We keep letting teams hang around because we don't play any defense. Almost all of our games go down to the wire and it just turns into an offensive shootout. I don't think we can keep winning this way. We also have more games remaining than most of the teams in the West by 2-3.
I think this puts more pressure on Monte to make moves. The stupid Nets completely swung the pendulum for two teams in the West.
Games aren't won on paper. We'll see if the Mavs, Suns, or Lakers actually got any better. All the Kings need to do is keep playing the way they have been for the last 54 games and they'll be fine. The only teams in the West I take seriously right now are Denver and Memphis because they've proven all season that they're for real. We have 3 games a piece against Dallas and Phoenix which I see as an advantage. All we need to do is take care of business and we have nothing to worry about.
They are 8-9 games over 500. meaning not every game is life and death like it is for teams like the Wolves/Jazz/GSW/Blazers/Thunder/Lakers/Mavs/Pelicans meaning they can play way more freely barring some serious injuries they should make it. Also the mental stress having to go life and death over a 30 game span is insanely taxing and could easily lead to a complete collapse from any of those teams if they go a 3-4 game losing streak something the Kings record allows them to weather.
to be fair the Rockets have beat the Bucks, suns twice, Sixers and Dallas. In other words good to great teams lose to bad teams occasionally or let them hang around. I’m happy with 4-3 on this trip because the road is always hard. We were one of only 2 teams (last time I looked) that have a winning record on the road in the western conference. You just trying to hover around .500 and then take care of business at home which we have not done as much as we would like.
I think we have to take a step back and realize that we have already taken a huge step forward this season that most did not predict. We are already at a huge disadvantage as we are probably going to be the only team to make the playoffs this year that didn’t make it last year. These stars are always talking about learning how to win. We have actually done a good job of it overall but hopefully this years experience teaches us how to grit out wins. It’s going to be super tough to stay in the top 6 but some of those teams made major changes and probably will see some growing pains. Just got to hover around .500 the rest of the season and then get hot for a 4-5 game stretch. We shall see
I think we have to take a step back and realize that we have already taken a huge step forward this season that most did not predict. We are already at a huge disadvantage as we are probably going to be the only team to make the playoffs this year that didn’t make it last year. These stars are always talking about learning how to win. We have actually done a good job of it overall but hopefully this years experience teaches us how to grit out wins. It’s going to be super tough to stay in the top 6 but some of those teams made major changes and probably will see some growing pains. Just got to hover around .500 the rest of the season and then get hot for a 4-5 game stretch. We shall see
The best course of action probably remains to just stay the course until the summer when the Kings will be like the one good team left in the division with most of their picks and a young core while every other team in the west is going to be stuck in salary cap hell with an aging core and absolutely no draft capital left to refill their rosters.
These trades have essentially turned most of the big name teams in the west into the Lakers, which hasn’t exactly worked out well for the Lakers of late.
These trades have essentially turned most of the big name teams in the west into the Lakers, which hasn’t exactly worked out well for the Lakers of late.
