He’s heading in the opposite trajectory though, from last year to this year, both in the nba and g league and that doesn’t speak to work being put in. But we’ll see. I actually was a fan of him at draft time, and the pick, just hasn’t inspired me yet since
[Game] 56/82: Kings @ Jazz 11 FEB 2026, 6pm PT/9pm ET
- Thread starter Mr. S£im Citrus
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He’s heading in the opposite trajectory though, from last year to this year, both in the nba and g league and that doesn’t speak to work being put in. But we’ll see. I actually was a fan of him at draft time, and the pick, just hasn’t inspired me yet since
ShastaKingsFan
Hall of Famer
It's true that being fully capable of doing something...vs actually committing to doing the work to make it happen, are two separate things.
Next season should tell us a lot about him and whether there is going to be more complete player there
sactowndog
Hall of Famer
Some times when you are trying to change it can slow you down at first. You spend time thinking about it and it slows you down.
serbiangoat
Starter
To stop drafting older rookies who are not NBA ready (just stop drafting them in general until you have a good team), the Kings currently need one elite talent to build around which has to hopefully come in the draft , the Kings have been drsfting like they are adding pieces to a championship team rather than building for the future and currently might have the worst young core in the NBA.
There's no other way to build for them atm they have no good assets to trade other than Sabonis and even the return you get for him will be on the wesker side
KingsFanSince85
All-Star
Another game, another loss. What’s new?!
I wonder how deep this current hole will go.
I wonder how deep this current hole will go.
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Gotta be pretty cool tbh. Russ was at the height of his powers and an MVP when a lot of these newer guys were kids and growing up. Russ is probably a lot of people's "favorite player"
This is still my no-good-reason prediction: AJ to Sac.
Joshyjosh31
Starter
Speak it into existence
I'll do my best
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
If it's a top pick, then yes, hopefully they get it. There's still time for them to get some momentum going into the offseason. Christie is obviously not even running anything. Is that because he woefully unprepared for his eventual reality, or they are tanking? We shall see.
"Him"mer Fredette
G-League
I'll also keep trying to think it into existence @Capt. Factorial. Every BYU game I watch I think "dang this guy would look good in purple & black"
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
Star potential? That's probably off the table at this point. I'm just looking for a solid rotation player.
Your Carter optimism knows no equal
Every player has star potential if things come together and they can produce numbers. The only thing that sketches me about Nique is his productivity isn't that unreal in his minutes but if he gets it and finds ways to score consistently he has star potential just like anyone with skill and athletic ability.
Getting to the line like that and being legit at the 3 ball is pretty much all you need in this league to do so. He's obviously got a ways to go though. Is he going to be star? Probably not, but who knows. People were convinced Fox was trash too. Especially with guards they need time and opportunity.
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SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
His shot was always a moonball. It's clearly mental right now. Also in college he had a lot more autonomy to pull up and take deep ones. He's not seeing the shots right now for sure. He's definitely struggling with finding set shots but who isn't right now with this squad.
- On a scale of 1-10, what is your level of faith that the Kings can replicate that plan?
- On a scale of 1-10, what is your confidence rate that this organization won't **** it up, anyway?
- Whether it works or not, do you think that plan involves jettisoning the young players who are already here?
- And, if not, how long do you think it is acceptable to wait for the organization to start developing those players? Don't you think that they should have started doing that before now, if they planned to keep them?
- What's the plan for selling tickets between now and then? @ShastaKingsFan seems to believe that acquiring the Golden Ticket™ will immediately solve the ticket sales problems... a) I don't particularly believe that, and b) stipulating, for the sake of discourse that he's right, it still doesn't address the problem of how do you get people to buy tickets for the remaining 13 home games this season?
Padrino
All-Star
The thing is, I don't even understand what the Kings are doing. Wanna sit Domas and Keegan so they can "get healthy" (read: help the tank), sure, why not? It will certainly increase the likelihood of losses. But why does it seem like the coaching staff just has no interest in coaching these young guys up? They just sort of toss them out there, often in confusing lineups, ask them to sink or swim, run very few discernible sets, and hardly seem invested in helping them learn or grow.
If this is some sort of directive from the front office, it's a fool's errand. You don't need to lose by 30 against fellow basement dwellers in order to ensure favorable lottery positioning. Just holding Domas and Keegan out is probably enough. There's some potential in the younger talent on the roster, but they're not about to tear off a five-game winning streak. It's been my mantra that the Kings should lose, but lose well.
They're not losing well of late, and I've already been operating from a place of skepticism regarding Doug Christie and his staff, and this is only reinforcing the notion that this is not a developmentally-oriented staff. Not enough to just "play the kids". You've gotta coach them, too.
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
1) it’s the highest percentage plan. I have more faith they can get a top 5 pick right than I do them nailing middle of the round picks
2) I have no reason to have confidence they won’t messed it up given the history of the organization.
- I’m of the belief we are in demo mode, haven’t really started the rebuild yet. Nique has played and been developed all season, so has Dylan. Max has too, even though it came as a result of injury-something Perry has admitted himself.
3) If Deebo and Russ are off the team, you will be selling the fans on the future- top 5 pick, 2 more second round selections, Keegan, Nique, Dylan and Max. The kings will likely try to win next year but will still likely be a bottom 5 team due to competition. In the ‘27/‘28 season you hopefully have a nucleus that is where the Blazers are now or slightly better. At that point the Kings will have cap space and a ton of picks to take a swing and guys like Nique, Max, Dylan and Keegan will be in their primes.
Insomniacal Fan
Starter
1. The Pistons had close to the worst lottery luck possible while being a bottom feeder; and they still managed to pull out of the spiral in 5 years. 90% chance that any team could do as well or better.
2. 50% chance. I'll be more comfortable when they ship out the last of the vets.
3. Do we know enough about the NBA business model to assume that short term ticket sales are a significant problem for an NBA franchise?
Do you believe that it has to be a "significant" problem in order for it to be considered a significant problem by Vivek Ranadivé?
Ranadivé seems to be the X-factor that people keep suspending disbelief for: all the optimism and faith that the Golden Ticket™ will lift the Kings to new heights... yeah, all that **** is cool, and it seems to presuppose that the Kings were an organization run by someone not named Vivek Ranadivé. Any outcome that you might assume that 90 percent of franchises could manage to make happen, you've got to drop down to, like, 30 percent, because of that guy.
Insomniacal Fan
Starter
I'm basically ambivalent about Vivek.
I didn't like his public image when he came on; but since he's stepped back from being so publicly involved in things like draft decision-making, it seems to me like individual GMs have each had a few years to implement their plans, and when their plans have failed they've been replaced.
I'm not sure what the failure criteria of a rebuild is; when the plan is to be a cellar dweller; do you fire Perry if we make the play-in?
Padrino
All-Star
But this raises the question I've been asking repeatedly this season: "What's the alternative?" What should the Kings be doing instead, given small market realities and Vivek's generally poor stewardship of the franchise?
With faith in "the Golden Ticket", at least there's a chance the Kings could be lifted to new heights. Even accounting for any possible Vivek-related meddling and GM-related buffoonery, this franchise could still quite literally luck into competence, such is the power of superstardom in the NBA. It remains the only one of the major professional American sports in which a single player can mean the difference between playoff success and perpetual consignment to the lottery.
Are either AJ Dybantsa or Darryn Peterson that guy? Are any of the other prospects available in the top-5 that guy? I don't know. But as much as I love him, I do know that Domas isn't. Keegan Murray probably isn't. Carter and Clifford and Raynaud very likely are not, either. Any number of those players could meaningfully contribute on a winning team if the Kings put them in the best possible position to succeed, but they're not turning the Kings into a playoff contender on their own or as a collective.
So what should the Kings be doing, if not angling for a blue chip prospect in the draft? Muddle along for play-in hopes in a brutally tough Western Conference, driving fans away through long-term malaise rather than short-term futility? They've been doing that as a franchise as far back as the post-Adelman Maloof years. They need a plan. And any plan is honestly better than the fumbling-around-in-the-dark that the Kings usually opt into.
For example, I would respect the hell out of Scott Perry if he held a press conference today and said, "We are not going to play to lose. We are not going to join the miscreant fraternity of tankers. We are going to prioritize developing our young talent, and wherever we land in each draft, we will invest in developing those players, too. We will put the best, most balanced team on the court that we possibly can, we will play hard every single game, and through that commitment to youth and excellence, we will eventually turn a corner and win."
I am of the opinion that the incentive structures of the modern NBA suggest that it's best for basement dwellers to lose a lot of games in a year in which there are well-scouted prospects considered to be potential superstars (as in the upcoming draft). But I would support a Kings front office that said the above, and that genuinely committed to doing so even if it took them out of the running for one of those blue chip prospects. My problem is that they consistently try and ride the middle as a franchise, hoping to have their cake and eat it, too. They want to trot out big name get-asses-in-seats types like DeMar DeRozan and Russell Westbrook for big minutes while simultaneously hoping that they can develop their young talent in limited minutes without teaching them awful ball-stopping and defense-averse habits because of the emphasis they put on acquiring those big names in the first place.
It's the worst of all worlds. They're losing games, shedding fans, playing aging vets more than they should, and giving their younger players too many unproductive minutes on the court. There's been an obvious shift since the trade deadline to finally start prioritizing their young talent to a greater degree, but those minutes seem geared toward generating losses rather than getting them meaningful reps. They're not losing well, and that bothers me. Hopefully they can get through the next 26 games without doing any long-term damage to those young guys, and I guess we'll see how the draft goes.
I just wish they hadn't tossed this season away like it didn't matter. Perry's "gap year" could have been useful. Losses are not problematic in and of themselves, especially if they teach the kids a few things about what it's going to take to succeed in the NBA.
The Kings need a top 10 NBA player. This season’s lottery is their best chance. They also need to turn Max, Dylan, Devon and Nique into rotation players. Westbrook, Domas and DeRozan are the right kind of vets to have around to demonstrate hard work and aggressiveness.
Fingers crossed that this tank works.
Fingers crossed that this tank works.
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
The Kings have proven time and again their failure has been in development or even the willingness to look in that direction. And with Domas or anyone else it's about COST. How can a team viably start from "scratch" with more than half of their cap accounted for? Right now stars and stuff like that aren't even the main issue, getting together a deeper talent pool on cheaper contracts should be priority number 1. Especially with the new cap rules. Of course not all the young guys will make it but if they do then the Kings can use that as fuel to build around them and use their cap to potential get stars or use them as assets to do it. The way is NOT midlevel hits like Schroder because there are no other real options.
I'm not an "Ends justify the means" type of person. Like, it's not the reason I got out of the rooting-for-teams business, but it's a big part of why I can't go back.
Were I still in the rooting-for-teams business, this is pretty much exactly what I would want the GM of my team to say, almost word-for-word. With perhaps something even more emphatic/declarative about committing to developing the young players into becoming the best versions of themselves. Preferably at the start of the season, not after the trade deadline.
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