fansinceday1
Starter
Anjali will save this franchise.
[Game] 65/82 Kings @ Warriors 13 MAR 2025, 7p PST/10p EST (TNT)
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ShastaKingsFan
All-Star
maybe she can bring back Lindsay Harding to be head coach
sactowndog
All-Star
we aren’t. The coach is as is the GM who never got another starting caliber wing who can play defense. But hey let’s cycle through blaming all the players instead of the guy in charge.
Not sure how you can be confident in LaRavia being back, I'd love to have him but his contract situation is extremely complicated and he basically has to want to be here long term enough to be on himself to take 1 year at far less than market value to stay. I'm hoping but I worry a lot.
Something has to give and it is likely Monk giving up a starter's spot or shipping Deebo (or him accepting a bench role). Or both.
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
yeh I’m not sure he will be back but I like our chances. I’ll always come back to the Haywood Highsmith deal. He was a guy some of us liked who played great defense and could hit a three and he signed a 2 for 10 deal. I’m not sure that there is a team out there that fits him better than Sac. We desperately need his skill set and he has to feel that. It only takes one of course. Hoping he bets on himself and signs a 1 and 1 hoping for a better longer term deal.
Honestly if we move one of the three 2 guards we're trying to force into the starting lineup a good chance he and Keegan can be the starting front court, or he is 6th man if we start Keon. Either way balances the roster. Then again we're probably sure to miss Fox more once that happens, though Zach can be that guy maybe if he is comfortable in the offense.
Yeah, is what it is. You fire your HC, trade your long-term franchise player and now we're dealing with our OTHER franchise player out with a multi-week injury in the clutch points of the season. At some point, all this just catches up to you.
Despite what SOME here may think, there's significant potential with the bones of this roster with a full off-season and a coach willing to make the hard calls and stagger the guys who need to be staggered.
Keon-LaRavia-Keegan around LaVine and Domas would be an excellent starting 5. I'd bet on that unit being upper-echelon.
Insomniacal Fan
Starter
What would you say the ceiling of that hypothetical team is?
ShastaKingsFan
All-Star
Really? You'd bet on that starting lineup getting a top 6 seed next season, or is there another standard for upper echelon?
Joshyjosh31
Starter
This is unacceptable from Lavine
Joshyjosh31
Starter
Lineup isn’t changing
kingsboi
Hall of Famer
Lavine really struggles with pressure defense. I haven't watched many games this season but I have the last two, and the Kings had no chance in either one. Domas wouldn't of changed the outcome, maybe made the score more respectable but will repeat for emphasis, Monte needs to make the necessary moves after the conclusion of this season.
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
One thing that also isn't changing is the starters are a -2.3 net rating unit.
serbiangoat
Starter
His handle despite the elite athletic ability is very stiff (has zero shiftiness/craftiness) he's not beating any above average defender of the dribble unless it's a straight line drive on someone closing out to him.
I really hope DDR and Monk are traded in the off season keep LaRavia and start Keon
Caccia
Starter
Doug Christie was asked that question after the game: was LaVine aggressive enough? He said it primarily had to do with excellent defense by Golden State, which did not allow him to get many free shots. I would add that having Sabonis out means that you were relying on the guards for screening. They can be effective in conjunction with Domantas, but without him, there was less off-the-ball movement, and there were no threes off curls, one of the staples of Sacramento's offense.
Caccia
Starter
Valančiūnas started the game but only played 14 minutes and was -17. He was disastrous against Golden State's small & quick lineup. That poor start, to which he contributed, really put the Kings behind the eight ball the rest of the game. Coach Christie was wise enough to keep him mostly on the bench.
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serbiangoat
Starter
The fact they didn't post him up against Quinten Post when he had the clear mismatch was the disaster the Kings went in with the strategy to make Draymond and Payton beat them from 3 and they did and it made Jonas look terrible in particular as well when Monk/LaVine/DDR pick and roll game consisting of passing it to the Warriors. The issue is those three playing at the same time it throws the team balance off.
Srzly
G-League
Coaching Grade: D-
I like Doug and think he’s done a great job overall… but it would have been hard to come up with a worse gameplan or adjustments for this one. Yikes.
Great to have Keegan lock up Steph but a terrible gameplan when your other defenders in the lineup are useless and let GS get hot and build confidence across the rest of the roster.
JV just standing in the paint repeatedly watching his guy hit 3s was baffling. Made sense to bench him
What makes no sense then is to keep in Monk and DDR as much as he did, when it seems like almost every single made basket or offensive rebound involved one of their guys they were defending all game long.
Zach: WTH was that? -34 on the night and I hate that stat but it for once tells the story accurately. He was draining every shot but looked like he had no interest in playing in this game. Super passive. Careless with the ball and absolutely ZERO hustle. You wont have every shooter on every game. Keegan and Monk had an off shooting night. Zach and Keon were on but Zach just decided to not really try. He should never be 100% from 3 because that means he wasn’t shooting enough. That was unacceptable.
I like Doug and think he’s done a great job overall… but it would have been hard to come up with a worse gameplan or adjustments for this one. Yikes.
Great to have Keegan lock up Steph but a terrible gameplan when your other defenders in the lineup are useless and let GS get hot and build confidence across the rest of the roster.
JV just standing in the paint repeatedly watching his guy hit 3s was baffling. Made sense to bench him
What makes no sense then is to keep in Monk and DDR as much as he did, when it seems like almost every single made basket or offensive rebound involved one of their guys they were defending all game long.
Zach: WTH was that? -34 on the night and I hate that stat but it for once tells the story accurately. He was draining every shot but looked like he had no interest in playing in this game. Super passive. Careless with the ball and absolutely ZERO hustle. You wont have every shooter on every game. Keegan and Monk had an off shooting night. Zach and Keon were on but Zach just decided to not really try. He should never be 100% from 3 because that means he wasn’t shooting enough. That was unacceptable.
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sactowndog
All-Star
neither Keon or LaVine can start at the point. Both are strictly secondary ball handlers. Adding LaVine was a sure way to F up the rotation. Monte would have been better off keeping the cap space and whatever he sent to get LaVine. Huerter plays better defense.
This team is bad and old. The players don’t fit and have lost faith in Monte to fix it. We have slim to no hope at making the play-offs and slim to no hope of keeping our draft pick. The worst possible outcome.
Win a playoff series. If it got hot at the right time, a WCF berth.
Again, is what it is. Vivek isn't going to burn 3-4 years to tank this out and try to actually build a championship contender. So I'll be fine with good/entertaining basketball
Padrino
All-Star
Many of us have been saying since the trade deadline that a starting trio of Monk/LaVine/DeRozan is never going to work. And in the two games since Monk returned from injury to displace Keon Ellis in the starting lineup, the Kings got absolutely blown out. They lost to the Knicks 133-104. Then they lost to the Warriors 130-104. Those are two very different teams, yet somehow the Kings lost by nearly the same margin and in the exact same fashion both games, by giving up over 50% from the field and over 50% from three, while shooting sub-50% from the field and sub-40% from three themselves. Not only are they defensively inept with Monk/LaVine/DeRozan starting alongside each other, but the offense isn't clicking the way it would need to in order to compensate for the pathetic defensive effort.
Yes, it definitely hurts that the Kings are currently missing Domas' contributions as a playmaker, but it's so dispiriting to see Doug Christie hold the line on a starting trio that everybody already recognizes is an exercise in futility. I mean, I didn't really expect anything different. I've held that this is a .500 team as long as the starting lineup features four below-average defenders, and in their last ten games... they're 5-5. Since the trade deadline, they're 8-6, with all of their wins against bad and/or injured teams, excepting their recent victory over the Rockets (who are themselves crashing back down to earth after a hot first half of the season). The Kings will likely keep on muddling through as a 9-seed, and even if they manage to win two games in the play-in, all it earns them is a first-round date with the Thunder, who I imagine will barely break a sweat as they swat the Kings out of their way.
I've said it before, but it was a lost season as soon as McNair felt forced to trade Fox, and it feels like an interminable wait until the roster and coaching staff are necessarily retooled in the off-season once again. It's frustrating that this franchise so often begins back at square one without ever committing to the future in a meaningful way. I know many will be upset if Doug Christie doesn't get the full-time nod as the team's head coach, but I just don't believe in him as any kind of long-term solution, especially if he's unwilling to put this roster in the best position to win today.
I think at this point, it's far better to bring in a brand new staff, one that's not beholden to anyone on the roster. Christie has been Monk's coach the last 3 years and obviously feels a sense of loyalty to him.. which is normally good! But he's putting that ahead of winning. Instead of broaching the possibility of DDR coming off the bench, he's letting his status as future HOF and "legend" dictate him staying in the starting lineup. Instead of winning.
And the even more frustrating part is pretty much every OTHER iteration of this squad looks really good when we have the proper offensive balance and defenders on the floor. Or at least looks like it has a chance at cohesion and working together. But the starting lineup has flat out been turbo-ass and DC is being stubborn with it. And it's going to cost him the HC job
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