I've said this many times before, but it still needs to be said again...
I always considered last season to be one gigantic anomaly. We were one of the most healthiest, if not the most healthiest, teams in the entire league. As a result, our starting unit was able to gel and establish that chemistry that took us all the way to the 3rd seed, a division title, and game 7 against the Golden State Warriors.
It was going to take pretty much an identical 2023-2024 campaign to match that performance, let alone exceed it. Did I expect, coming into this season, the Kings to be back in the playoffs as at least a top 6 seed? Yes, I did. Did I expect the regular season to virtually mimic the 2022-2023 regular season? No, I did not. That would have been darn near difficult to accomplish. I knew we would most likely take a step back in overall performance.
I think, if nothing else, this season has given us a more true depiction of what our team looks like. At least more so than last season. Which is why I was totally fine with "running it back". I almost felt as if we NEEDED to run it back this season. Because, if we didn't, and we made moves to bring in additional pieces, and by doing that, we all of a sudden lost some of that chemistry that made us successful last season, we might be looking at a much steeper climb back to being where we need to be.
By "running it back" we now know our ceiling. We now know our flaws. And we now know what needs to be done to be able to take that next step.
We just gotta go out there and do it.
I always considered last season to be one gigantic anomaly. We were one of the most healthiest, if not the most healthiest, teams in the entire league. As a result, our starting unit was able to gel and establish that chemistry that took us all the way to the 3rd seed, a division title, and game 7 against the Golden State Warriors.
It was going to take pretty much an identical 2023-2024 campaign to match that performance, let alone exceed it. Did I expect, coming into this season, the Kings to be back in the playoffs as at least a top 6 seed? Yes, I did. Did I expect the regular season to virtually mimic the 2022-2023 regular season? No, I did not. That would have been darn near difficult to accomplish. I knew we would most likely take a step back in overall performance.
I think, if nothing else, this season has given us a more true depiction of what our team looks like. At least more so than last season. Which is why I was totally fine with "running it back". I almost felt as if we NEEDED to run it back this season. Because, if we didn't, and we made moves to bring in additional pieces, and by doing that, we all of a sudden lost some of that chemistry that made us successful last season, we might be looking at a much steeper climb back to being where we need to be.
By "running it back" we now know our ceiling. We now know our flaws. And we now know what needs to be done to be able to take that next step.
We just gotta go out there and do it.