[Game] 03/82 Kings vs Lakers 26 OCT 2025, 6pm Pacific 9pm Eastern

Mr. S£im Citrus said:
It's not like Ayton was ever a Number One Overall pick, or anything. The surprising part shouldn't be when Ayton punks Sabonis, it should be when he doesn't.

Without looking it up, if you had to guess and be right, whom do you think has the higher career scoring average, Ayton or Sabonis?
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I’ll guess Sabonis but the fact that you’re comparing him to Ayton when he’s an alleged top ten player is wild in itself
 
The_Jamal said:
Possibly, it's just hard to believe he can maintain this level over the course of a full season. In terms of just scoring, he'd be right at the level of the MVP candidates, which is sorta hard to believe is actually real.

I'm more concerned about Domas having a lower USG rate than Drew Eubanks right now at 13.9%! 7.8% AST rate checks out on the film too where he's just not getting involved offensively. For reference, he's been at 30.4%, 33.9% and 26% the last 3 seasons in Sacramento. Even his first 15 games after he got traded was 28% AST rate.

Meanwhile

LaVine: 28.8% USG-- 64.4% TS.. Excellent. Elite #1 type numbers, not turning the ball over
Dennis: 24.5% USG-- 51.6 TS%.. 17.4% TOV rate...Awful
Russ: 23.2% USG-- 53.5% TS.. 17.2 TOV rate...With his explosion game yesterday too counted here... awful
Monk: 22.8% USG-- 71.5% TS. He's been lights out to start the year, but obviously unsustainable. Can absolutely argue he hasn't played enough with his hot start. Also not turning the ball over
DeRozan: 20.5% USG-- 53.9% TS. Not great, but he's picked up playmaking slack (22% AST rate) and not turning the ball over.


So ****ing rich that the two guys we brought in to "stabilize" the PG position have been incredibly inefficient shooting and incredibly careless with turning the ball over.
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And yet, none of this even matters when our defense is putting up no resistance at all. Yes it's a small sample size and these numbers will normalize a bit more over time but look at the spread on these Defensive Ratings:

RkPlayerGSMPPTSORtgDRtg^
1Devin Carter030.0089
2Drew Eubanks1375.144105
3Nique Clifford1243.9105107
4Keon Ellis14818.6105107
5Dylan Cardwell0275.257109
6Domantas Sabonis26715.4114110
7Maxime Raynaud0110.052112
8Malik Monk07334.7137115
9DeMar DeRozan311423.4117116
10Russell Westbrook06323.1106117
11Dennis Schroder39823.4102117
12Dario Saric0288.497120
13Zach LaVine311238.9120123
14Isaac Jones1156.3148125

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 10/27/2025.

This also tracks with what we've seen in the past with these players. Schröder and LaVine are almost always the worst on their respective teams in Defensive Rating. This is why I've been advocating for starting Ellis and Clifford in the backcourt over Schröder and LaVine. I know Clifford is injured right now but even in the one game he did play, Coach Christie started him at SF next to LaVine and Schröder which is not really going to help. That's like putting a band-aid on a broken arm.
 
I don’t think I’ve ever felt this unenthused watching the Kings during my entire tenure as a fan.

I think a lot of fans would be okay with losing more games this year, but the fact that they are losing (likely going to lose) while forcing us to watch an aging, over the hill product led by Schroder, Westbrook, Monk, LaVine, and DeRozan is just bonkers.

At least when you play your young guys and lose, you can still root for their growth & development, get excited about their potential, etc. But what did we do instead? We assembled the island of misfit toys and decided to leave our brand new toys behind at the North Pole on Christmas Eve.
 
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hrdboild said:
And yet, none of this even matters when our defense is putting up no resistance at all. Yes it's a small sample size and these numbers will normalize a bit more over time but look at the spread on these Defensive Ratings:

RkPlayerGSMPPTSORtgDRtg^
1Devin Carter030.0089
2Drew Eubanks1375.144105
3Nique Clifford1243.9105107
4Keon Ellis14818.6105107
5Dylan Cardwell0275.257109
6Domantas Sabonis26715.4114110
7Maxime Raynaud0110.052112
8Malik Monk07334.7137115
9DeMar DeRozan311423.4117116
10Russell Westbrook06323.1106117
11Dennis Schroder39823.4102117
12Dario Saric0288.497120
13Zach LaVine311238.9120123
14Isaac Jones1156.3148125

Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 10/27/2025.

This also tracks with what we've seen in the past with these players. Schröder and LaVine are almost always the worst on their respective teams in Defensive Rating. This is why I've been advocating for starting Ellis and Clifford in the backcourt over Schröder and LaVine. I know Clifford is injured right now but even in the one game he did play, Coach Christie started him at SF next to LaVine and Schröder which is not really going to help. That's like putting a band-aid on a broken arm.
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The numbers that jump out at me from the grid is the difference between offense and defense for individuals. Excluding the barely played guys, Westbrook and Schroeder have been bad. At least Lavines numbers are close. Saric is another although the MP for him is low, his differential is atrocious.
 
dude12 said:
The numbers that jump out at me from the grid is the difference between offense and defense for individuals. Excluding the barely played guys, Westbrook and Schroeder have been bad. At least Lavines numbers are close. Saric is another although the MP for him is low, his differential is atrocious.
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True -- the differential between offense and defense is at least in the same ballpark for Ellis, Clifford, and LaVine. I personally hate the way LaVine plays but his offense so far is almost making up for his non-existent defense. I do believe given their relative inexperience (Clifford) and fluctuating role (Ellis) that Nique and Keon are more likely to improve on their offensive ratings as the sample size grows than LaVine is to change his atrocious approach to defense. But I am also biased in favor of low defensive rating players in general so take that for what it is.

Monk and DeRozan being net positives should hopefully help to sell their value to the more analytics-driven front offices (which is probably all of them at this point). Reynaud and Cardwell get a pass for being low-minute rookies. Sabonis is reliably solid. And lol at Devin Carter who apparently did not get penalized in defensive rating for fouling twice in 3 minutes. If he'd made that fast-break layup or gotten an assist instead of the charge call he'd have far and away the best ratings on the team.

EDIT: It's probably also worth noting that the four veterans Scott Perry signed or traded for this off-season (Eubanks, Westbrook, Schröder, and Saric) are pulling this team down like a boat anchor around the neck through the first 3 games. Not a good first impression... unless it was intentional? 🤔
 
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What was concerning for me is that a professional team should be so fundamentally unsound on defense. Starting from the very beginning of the game both Ellis and Sabonis hit or held the arm of the opposing shooter. That set the tone for the evening. Several more arm fouls occurred in the game. It was ridiculous. I think I saw at least seven of these obvious arm fouls during the game. Any official who is not blind would call these fouls. There was not subtlety in these fouls, none whatsoever, unlike a lot of 50-50 situations where two players are fighting for position on the floor. I don't know why a professional would do something like this, unless they just don't give a **** and they are giving up already or they think the only shot they have to win the game is to commit these blatant fouls and hope the refs are coming off an all-night bender and want to get on the plane asap for their next destination. It does not give me comfort about Christie's coaching competence when I see this amateurish play, and coming from veteran players no less.
 
The_Jamal said:
The issue is we're getting completely unsustainable shooting from LaVine and Monk to start the year too, which is keeping these games competitive

LaVine: 31 PPG-- 64.4% TS ( For comparison, Stephs MVP scoring season was 30.5 PPG at 66.9% TS)
Monk: 18 PPG-- 71.5% TS

And we got the Russ explosion game going 4-6 from 3, which won't happen very often yesterday.

If/when these guys cool off, these scores are going to start looking real lopsided.
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I wonder if Monk has been working with LaVine? Malik's shot looks so smooth and effortless this season. I have been watching him for eight years now, and have never seen it look so good. In four straight seasons, 2020-24, on three different teams, his TS% reached the high 50s.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/m/monkma01.html

Now if he and Zach could both get that two-man game going with Sabonis (and Eubanks) that will be a treat to watch. It seems to be more up to the coaches than the players.
 
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