The Kings have no direction. They had a flawed all star, no elite prospects, and realized the math picking in the middle of the lottery is bad for grabbing elite talent.
Thus, in the last year of taking, they claimed to be committed to securing a bottom 3 record and excellent odds at at top 3 pick 47% chance).
They tried to be competitive early playing vets and chased feel good wins they could have easily “adjusted” their way out of with rotations like the Warriors and riding VC to a win over the Cavs. Now, holding too many wins, they’ve abandoned their initial plan and are touting a new plan and their successes to pump up the handful of remaining die hards.
As always, for over 10 years, the Kings have a winning percentage in the low 30. They don’t have an all star, let alone two. None of their prospects are elite. Math says the odds strongly favor they pick around 6-8 this year, no pick next year, odds are bad they sign an impact free agent this summer.
Fox might get a jumper and feel for the game and become elite. A few of the other prospects have upside but aren’t a strong bets to become all stars playing for a franchise that’s average at player development, and the Kings are well below that.
That you like this crummy team more than other crummy Kings team makes a ton of sense. But past Kings teams won’t be on the schedule the rest of this decade.
I’m sure those that will reply assert that I’m being too negative on the trajectories of these players. Ok. But based upon objectivity and/or ability, the track record for a lot of you on that issue is spotty for many and bad for others (often those railing against some being too negative)
The Kings have a dysfunctional ownership ownership group, an owner that can’t stick to a plan, a GM that no other team would hire as a GM if he became available, some nice pieces, but no clear path towards becoming a real team this decade.
The Kings claimed they were prepared to take their medicine this year and try math. Once again, sticking to a plan for 18 months was simply too much. So no, I won’t delight at ok prospects defeating 25% of an NBA team as progress when it looks a lot like more of the same for the most abysmal situation in the NBA one and a half decades running.