[Game] 40/82: Kings vs. lakers 12 JAN 2026, 7pm PT/10pm ET
- Thread starter Mr. S£im Citrus
- Start date
Caccia
Starter
If so, that would be a serious misreading of his personality. DeMar just the night before last said Malik has been busting it in practice, even when not playing.
MizzouKing
Starter
If only we'd known this years ago!!So, you shoot good you win … you shoot poorly you lose?
Who’d have thought?
Padrino
All-Star
Yeah, back-to-back wins against likely Western Conference playoff teams is a mirage the Kings don't need to indulge. It's good that Maxime's been playing pretty well, and it's nice to see Cardwell getting some meaningful minutes out there, but I just can't handle DeRozan and Westbrook pulling 35 minutes each and 35 shots between them. Malik doesn't appear to be in the Kings' long-term plans, either, though I suppose there's the need to "showcase" these guys? Personally, I've always found that line of thinking amongst fans to be rather specious. Anyway, there's a little over three weeks to the trade deadline. Let's see what Scott Perry's made of.
Yeah I'd hate to miss out on Dybansta and have to settle on someone in the 6-7 range because Doug is riding the vets hard to meaningless wins.
Teams that need scoring would be stupid to not trade for DDR. He's still an above average player that would easily boost the bench scoring of any team he lands on. But I agree, the league knows what all these guys are capable of and they've played enough this year to where there's no mysteries about them. We have zero leverage with any of them so there's no valuable haul that will be coming back our way but at least getting some sort of assets along with freeing up time for the youngsters along with a prime slot in the lottery is what is necessary to begin a proper rebuild.
You can't lose them all, even if you try. They've got a seven-game road trip coming up; let them lose all of those. Meanwhile, let the paying customers have a little bit of feel-good.
Kings Fans are going to have to make peace with the high probability that getting rid of the vets will likely mean taking a bath in trade negotiations.
Padrino
All-Star
I'm aware; I've made this very argument repeatedly here at KF.com. You cannot lose them all, but I just do not see value in the strategy that is producing these wins. In a season in which the Kings are pulling a .250 win percentage, what's a win like this one even for? A win that's absolutely and utterly meaningless until it potentially pushes the Kings out of a more desirable draft range that could land them a potential star talent?
If Keon Ellis and Nique Clifford were seeing more than 12-15 minutes per game, and Devin Carter was seeing the floor at all, and the Kings managed to win... so be it. Fair play to the young guys who could very well be a part of the Kings' long-term future. That tells us something. But a win with DeMar DeRozan and Russell Westbrook eating the majority of the minutes and a majority of the shots?
I mean, if the paying customers are enjoying watching two guys who won't be with the team much longer, and have no long-term history to anchor them to the Kings in any meaningful way, hoist 35 shots in a win that means nothing beyond the temporary elation that comes from beating the Lakers... good for them, I guess? The customer is always right, and all that? I just can't countenance this level of a short-sightedness from a franchise that has, for much of its history, refused to get out of its own way.
With respect to draft positioning (which I know you care little about), the win may amount to no harm/no foul, of course. The Kings remain a bad team. As you've pointed out, there's a road trip coming up, and there are surely plenty of losses coming. It remains likely that some number of veterans will be traded before the deadline. I just look at wins like this one through the prism of their utility to the long-term health of the franchise. The season is lost, but that doesn't mean the wins or the losses need to be meaningless.
So did we learn anything of value about this team from the win? Did we learn anything about where the Kings' younger players' limits are, where they're meeting/exceeding expectations, where they're behind in their growth/development? No, not really, because all of the players who aren't in the Kings' long-term plans were in the way.
Would you rather they beat teams they're jockeying for lottery position with?
Padrino
All-Star
Would you rather they beat teams they're jockeying for lottery position with?
No, but those games are harder to lose. Though the Rockets and Lakers are not at the top of the conference, they're likely playoff teams. Those are easier losses to justify, especially if you're giving your younger talent consistent court time. I'll stipulate that I think the Lakers are a worse team than their record indicates. As Capt. pointed out earlier in this thread, their net rating suggests a team that's much closer to .500 than the .622 win percentage they currently possess. I think I've made it very well-known that I'm not among the tin foil hat set here at KF.com, but the Lakers' obscene free throw differential does suggest a team that is given a much more consistent benefit of the doubt via the whistle than other teams, which they've leveraged into wins they probably didn't deserve.
Perhaps in the aggregate, but the 2025-26 Sacramento Kings have a .269 winning percentage versus winning teams, and a .214 winning percentage versus losing teams.
Doesn't matter. The only return I care about is what Domas would haul in a deal. Everyone else can go for whatever as long as we're not attaching draft capital
And that's probably the best that Kings Fans can expect, not having to give up a pick to get rid of most of those guys.
I don't expect Sabonis to command a "haul."
Don't care either but it would be nice to get a second rounder or two.
Padrino
All-Star
Indeed. But where you and I are on the same page is that I'm not for tanking, at least, not by the definition most people use. I don't want to see the Kings intentionally holding guys out longer than their injury recoveries demand, creating fake injuries to excuse DNPs, or finding ways to literally throw games. That's the kind of mess you court when you're worried about ensuring losses against the teams you're jockeying for lottery position with.
Personally, I want to see the Kings lose as a byproduct of a strategy that values long-term development of younger talent over game-to-game success in the win/loss column. I want the Kings to craft a minutes distribution that pays the veterans' their necessary due, but that prioritizes getting their younger players on the court long enough and consistently enough to make the kind of mistakes necessary to grow as NBA talents. Those mistakes will inevitably lead to boatloads of losses, but at least they're productive losses, because the team would be learning something about what it has in its long-term pieces. And again, if it leads to wins, so be it; the young guys would deserve their flowers in the event that they manage to win against more experienced NBA talent.
So while you're right that the Kings currently possess a lower win percentage against losing teams than winning teams, I'm not counting on their sustained ability to drop games to poor competition (especially as those teams that are truly "tanking" get serious in pursuit of their tank in the second half of the season). I'd rather see the Kings lose the games they're theoretically "supposed to" lose by making sure that DeRozan and Westbrook are pulling fewer minutes and the Kings younger players are given a heftier and more consistent workload.
Then I'm afraid I've got some bad news: Doug Christie has made it clear, through his actions, that he's going to play those guys as long as they're there to be played. So it looks like it's up to Perry.
Padrino
All-Star
Well, you're not delivering some kind of reality check to me; I'm well aware of Christie's priorities. I've been immensely critical of his tenure as head coach since he first possessed the interim tag. But I agree with you that it's up to Scott Perry. I thought acquiring the first rounder that became Nique Clifford was shrewd, and Maxime Raynaud looks like he could be a second round steal. But I absolutely hated the Schroder signing. And I hated the Westbrook signing even more, though at least it was only a one year deal. On balance, Perry's in the negative with me, and he's got work to do in the next three weeks if he wants to "get younger" and if his head coach is going to continue to play the short game.