[Game] Kings @ Pelicans (Play-In Tournament) - 4/19 6:30PM PDT/9:30 PM EDT

[QWERTYLICIOUS]

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.

 

[SacTownKid]

Not too unhappy - the Kings keep their 13th draft pick and can trade or take a stab at a pick. They'll be paying Monk a hefty salary increaase deservedly so. They need a change, but curious the route they take. Its been a tough finish to the year, but bouncing the Warriora was a nice add.

Good gracious, why of all years, a draft with this many guards and centers? lol.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

I certainly can't complain about the lack of development of Ellis; it's been fantastic. Mitchell turned it around this year also, imo. But frankly I was miffed when I heard that Murray was practicing with Fox with "no-inside" (essentially no contact) rules because I would want him to have the opposite kind of training program. I would think that Murray's developmental training, which is of ultimate importance to this team, would have been thought through to the last little detail this past summer. It seems like they just let him free lance in a haphazard way rather than ultra-carefully and methodically devise a plan for him to become great. It annoys me and I hope there is much more thoughtful planning this upcoming summer than last summer.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Sounds like a political move, rather than interest in finding the most talented, experienced, and qualified head coach

a) she's earned a chance
b) in Portland, yes it would be

two things can be true at once

 

[Tetsujin]

a) she's earned a chance
b) in Portland, yes it would be

two things can be true at once

It’s not like Chauncey Billups was supremely qualified to be a head coach when he got the job and he had massive massive red flags that they blew through to bring him in in the first place

 

[ShastaKingsFan]

a) she's earned a chance
b) in Portland, yes it would be

two things can be true at once

Do you consider her next in line, as most qualified for an NBA head coaching job?

 

[pdxKingsFan]

It’s not like Chauncey Billups was supremely qualified to be a head coach when he got the job and he had massive massive red flags that they blew through to bring him in in the first place

horrible hire and amazingly (unless something dropped in the last 24) the org has bizarrely remained steadfastly committed to him.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

and so now she is now more qualified than Doug Christie, Bobby Jackson, and several others?

Well, she certainly doesn't seem to be less qualified. As near as I can tell, they're all more or less equally qualified, and Harding may have a better aptitude for the head job.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Do you consider her next in line, as most qualified for an NBA head coaching job?

I consider her worthy of a hire on her merits. She probably is as or more qualified than the other rookie coaches hired in the last 14 months except maybe Jordi. But she has more "head coaching" experience running a G-League squad than Jordi doing a part time Canada squad.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

There appears to be a certain type of team that he struggles against and those are the teams that have size on the perimeter to defend catch and shoot plays.

Houston, Boston, LAC, to name a few are all teams that attack the DHO and Keegan has done about as well or worse against them as he did the Pelicans.

I'd say that supports @Kingster's thesis that Murray needs to spend his offseason practicing against stronger, longer guys.

 

[Tetsujin]

Good gracious, why of all years, a draft with this many guards and centers? lol.

Rob Dillingham, YOU are a Sacramento King! (Honestly wouldn’t be a bad pick to fill the Monk role if he left in free agency since they are essentially the same player as far as how their roles looked at Kentucky).

 

[pdxKingsFan]

One of the reasons I am loath to call the season a waste or a failure is because there are obvious next steps for most of our core to work on (and also next steps for the role players). They did a good job improving individual weaknesses and team defense while the team as a whole may have slipped a rung or two.

This is not excuse making as I've been accused of, it's saying we have 4-6 guys I want back and we're building around.

 

[megapoxy]

I think what was frustrated for the fans was that this season had many defeats that crushed us mentally. At first we had the big margin defeats when players seemed to give up after going down early, some of them was due to Fox early in the season injury. Then we had the "losing matches being up by 20+" and as the end of the season was coming closer we lost almost all of the "do or die" match vs other teams that fought for the 6th place and several matches "down the stretch" most of the "down the stretch of the regular season" as well. Apart from the fans this had an impact on the players as well. The last 20-25 matches we had bad 2nd halves and it was a mental issue not able to respond even to mini runs of our opponents each time. The match vs the Warriors was the exception, everything went well there, one of the few crucial matches we won, it was just those and the 2 last win vs Lakers and Clippers that stood out.

This "variety" of how to lose so many matches by so many different frustrating ways was too much to handle after an amazing last season. And I did forget the losing to "crappy" or "depleted" teams.

In my opinion the team never recovered those back to back defeats at Milwaukee and Phoenix, we were going down non stop after and eventually missed the playoffs at the end.

 

[SacTownKid]

I'd say that supports @Kingster's thesis that Murray needs to spend his offseason practicing against stronger, longer guys.

And I'd add to find a routine with the Kings strength coach that will help Keegan to keep his offseason build on without dropping too much size as the year goes on. I mean, every player drops some size during the year but still.

 

[SacTownKid]

Rob Dillingham, YOU are a Sacramento King! (Honestly wouldn’t be a bad pick to fill the Monk role if he left in free agency since they are essentially the same player as far as how their roles looked at Kentucky).

Brown ain't playing no end of the lottery pick next year and we know this man! hahaha.

 

[iowamcnabb]

Brown ain't playing no end of the lottery pick next year and we know this man! hahaha.

Unless it’s Dalton Knecht. He is the Jaime Jaquez of this draft as far as guy that can come in and be productive right away.

 

[SacTownKid]

I think what was frustrated for the fans was that this season had many defeats that crushed us mentally. At first we had the big margin defeats when players seemed to give up after going down early, some of them was due to Fox early in the season injury. Then we had the "losing matches being up by 20+" and as the end of the season was coming closer we lost almost all of the "do or die" match vs other teams that fought for the 6th place and several matches "down the stretch" most of the "down the stretch of the regular season" as well. Apart from the fans this had an impact on the players as well. The last 20-25 matches we had bad 2nd halves and it was a mental issue not able to respond even to mini runs of our opponents each time. The match vs the Warriors was the exception, everything went well there, one of the few crucial matches we won, it was just those and the 2 last win vs Lakers and Clippers that stood out.

This "variety" of how to lose so many matches by so many different frustrating ways was too much to handle after an amazing last season. And I did forget the losing to "crappy" or "depleted" teams.

In my opinion the team never recovered those back to back defeats at Milwaukee and Phoenix, we were going down non stop after and eventually missed the playoffs at the end.

And the disappointing thing is the Kings built one of these shooters chance teams right as the league is saying F that. The West got tough and the league got physical. The days of just launching away from 3 and reaching deep into the playoffs might be officially over. Thankfully the Kings defense seems to be finding itself. Problem there is go back to playing 4 smallish guards and my bet is that is just as quickly over as it began as well.

 

[SacTownKid]

Unless it’s Dalton Knecht. He is the Jaime Jaquez of this draft as far as guy that can come in and be productive right away.

If teams let him last that deep they are stupid. Lets hope though.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

And the disappointing thing is the Kings built one of these shooters chance teams right as the league is saying F that. The West got tough and the league got physical. The days of just launching away from 3 and reaching deep into the playoffs might be officially over...

Let's keep it a stack: it only really worked with the one team, anyway.

 

[sackings]

This team has too many weak minded and passive players. We need more players that has the personality of Monk, which is to go out and give the team 100% effort.

After Monk went down, there wasn’t anyone close that could put up the same production and effort as Monk.

Murray is a good shooter but sometimes looks lost on the court and this is his 2nd year, which I thought he would improve from last year but has been a huge disappointment this year.

Sasha… I am not sure why this board was so high on this guy before the season. To be honest, the NBA pace is way too fast for him.

Barnes has been non-existent in majority of the games this year. The first game of the season he played lights out but production went down drastically as the season progressed.

You would think a team that lost 5 straight to NOL will be more aggressive tonight, but the team didn’t show up whatsoever. You would think a second season with the same players will provide more consistent and productive plays on both end of the court… but it was far from that.

 

[iowamcnabb]

Oof

 

[Elektrik]

You don't give up on the players that brought you here.

Brought us where exactly?

 

[Elektrik]

I can see why Monte thought standing pat seemed like a good idea, but in retrospect…

In retrospect, it was a bad move. In my mind no player is untouchable in the offseason except Fox, Sabonis, Monk and Keegan. That’s it. Most of all Davion Mitchell has got To go.

 

[SacTownKid]

In retrospect, it was a bad move. In my mind no player is untouchable in the offseason except Fox, Sabonis, Monk and Keegan. That’s it. Most of all Davion Mitchell has got To go.

At this point it's got to be Davion or Monk. Running 4 guards and 3 guard lineups was a fail this season for the most part. Brown eventually stopped doing it as much and obviously with the injuries it stopped altogether. No more guard ball as a first option. Not with all combo guards anyway. G/F's are OK but the Kings were too small for too many games.

 

[KF8]

In retrospect, it was a bad move. In my mind no player is untouchable in the offseason except Fox, Sabonis, Monk and Keegan. That’s it. Most of all Davion Mitchell has got To go.

I'd narrow that list. Fox and Sabonis are untouchable as of right now, but not monk and murray. Although there are only a handful of guys i would trade Murray for.

 

[serbiangoat]

The Kings are a playoff team but it's just tough they had to play the Pelicans who have there number. I think the Kings would have done solid/even won some against anyone in a 7 game series other than the Pelicans. Huerter/Barnes should be moved for some fresh energy/toughness players.

 

[forza kings]

A better coach could have produced a solution to losing to the same team 5 in a row during same season. And 2 of those games without their star player.

 

[KingsFanSince85]

A better coach could have produced a solution to losing to the same team 5 in a row during same season. And 2 of those games without their star player.

I think it would be hard to produce a cogent argument to suggest otherwise.

 

[KingsFanSince85]

The days of just launching away from 3 and reaching deep into the playoffs might be officially over.

It was never really a thing. Except for Golden State, who had two all-world shooters (+KD for a few seasons) and actually played great defense during their best years.

Much of the league tried to copycat as they typically do but have discovered that it isn't replicable (as some of us have been claiming all along).

 

[KingsFanSince85]

Sasha… I am not sure why this board was so high on this guy before the season. To be honest, the NBA pace is way too fast for him.

I'm not sure why you didn't predict this BEFORE the season. Since you knew it already....

How about we let the guy develop and figure things out a bit before writing him off, huh? And perhaps get some consistent PT from his stubborn head coach.