Alex Len returns on one year contract

Tetsujin said:
WE RUNNING IT BACK
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Actually a very smart move. Len seemed to get what Brown was wanting from him down the stretch.
 
Perfectly fine with this. Len provides a better rebounding and shot blocking presence than anyone else that was likely to agree to come as a bench center that will get likely limited minutes that is dependent on matchups.
 
Len averaged .9 offensive rebounds in 6.2 mpg for us last year? thats pretty insane. Ya cant hate on this move. There's pretty much no risk at all.

I wonder if the Kings will ask him to cut any weight? I've followed him closely since his time at Maryland, he looks heavy to me honestly, a bit more lumbering. when I look at him i think "is this age or weight?", i think its the weight but honestly they might like him heavy too as hes clearly our "oh, you thought we were only going to play smallball?" option

I'll always be one of those people that bought the hype with him in college, I still wanna believe he can shoot like 75% from the FT stripe and nail a midrange J (cuz if u see him warmup, or at least when you used to he'd make a ton) but it seems with the way the NBA's moved he's basically our teams giant n tasked with pretty much always standing close to the basket.
 
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The_Jamal said:
Bad news for Queta. Hopefully not bad news for Lyles.

Don't mind it though. He was great to close the year, big body on reserve if we need it.
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I‘m guessing it’s going to be a bit of a matchup platoon. Do,as has struggled against big guys while Len has traditionally randomly turned into the Hulk against them. Lyles probably gets the backup center minutes otherwise.
Plus it’s the vet minimum so if Len loses out in camp battle to Queta or something, we can just cut him Though Len seems like the chill sort of dude who wouldn’t mind just sitting around at the end of the bench as a “break glass in case of emergency” guy either since that’s essentially what he’s been for the last two seasons.
 
The_Jamal said:
Bad news for Queta. Hopefully not bad news for Lyles.

Don't mind it though. He was great to close the year, big body on reserve if we need it.
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It is a lack of trust in Queta. We want to be a playoff team. I think most of the 5 minutes will go to Lyles, but there will be times when that doesn’t work and you need a bigger body. We clearly aren’t comfortable with Queta in that role.

Len seems perfect for that role. You might not play for 10 games, but then we are going to call your number for 10-15 potentially high leverage minutes.
 
Len is going to be the backup 5 unless he loses that spot for whatever reason.

Brown obviously trusted him at the end of last season so he's going to have the benefit of the doubt I think.

Len was huge for giving us size, Lyles isn't that guy.

Len was huge against the Warriors I often thought he was the better center when compared to Domas.

If Len can hit a mid range shot he'd be super valuable.

And his free throws wet so I don't see why he can't do so.

I like Len, let's get it
 
Rain man said:
It is a lack of trust in Queta. We want to be a playoff team. I think most of the 5 minutes will go to Lyles, but there will be times when that doesn’t work and you need a bigger body. We clearly aren’t comfortable with Queta in that role.

Len seems perfect for that role. You might not play for 10 games, but then we are going to call your number for 10-15 potentially high leverage minutes.
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Or in the case of Len you might not play for the first 60-70 games..

Now I might be spitballing total nonsense here, but maybe theres a chance this could be the case

What if we resign Queta as well, n prep him as the 3rd string during the season, if it fails we can fall back on Len, seems viable to me because well, we kinda sorta just did that exact same thing with Len last season when you think about it...
 
iowamcnabb said:
I think thats the minimum he can get paid based off ten years of service.

Also, hats off to Len, how many busts (bases off draft slot) have 10 year nba careers?
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Len was overdrafted, not a bust, IMO. Yinka Dare was a bust.

In hindsight Utah got so much credit for selecting Gobert in that 2013 draft but lemme ask ya this --- do you think they'd have actually chosen him over Len if they had the opportunity --- I sure don't, they arent that smart, they got lucky other teams picked bad straws infront of them n they just so happened to come up with the straw that everyone else was looking for. Thats my perception of the events n im sticking with it... This sort of crowning of geniuses after the fact happens far too often in sports convos, its tiresome.

I dont believe the onus is really on Len to live up to his draft position either, I'd argue thats more a failure of the evaluators n the teams spending $$$ to obtain clarity on these situations. Fans want to hold players accountable though, idk to me that seems very twisted and misdirected, It's like if I overestimated your talents, hired you to do a job that you were woefully unable to tackle, I'd think thats my fault as a manager and evaluator, not your fault for not living up to my singular expectations..I feel like these people must be completely ignorant to the duties of a "casting director" on a set of a movie or tv show... Somehow that logic has eluded folks... this whole thing veers into strange abstractions n socioeconomic behaviors "my team" overpaid this guy and that hurt our chances so I dont like him, and meanwhile the guy who signed them to that deal makes peanuts in comparison to the player and he a genius if it works n fired if it doesnt n so noone cares much, theres all these double -standards of accountablility all over the place n the way everything gets piled onto some 20 year old kid that barely spoke english when he first arrived to this country not long ago, its completely absurd. Its like uhhh, squeezing blood from a stone, yeah, so often thats how it goes.. The fans think about "the sacrifice" they went thru to lose to get this pick and now they should keep up with the joneses, but thats not whats relevant, n they hold onto ghosts from the past, it becomes whats known as a sunken-cost commodity, Chris Duarte just got ran out of town and shipped to our doorstep because of a situation just like this, consumerism begins to rear its ugly head even in sports fandom if you keep an eye out for it.. Fred Van Vleet and Desmond Bane just signed 500 million dollars worth of contracts for just a few seasons of play, wasnt THAT long ago, these 2 could'a been had for peanuts, Van Vleet wasnt even good enough to get drafted apparently! in the way that Van Vleet is seen as some triumph of a keen eye in finding underappreciated talent, there truly is a counter argument to be made, that really they lucked out because the teams infront of them thinned the field by rushing to make poor choices, so with Anthony Bennett at the top of the draft, its really just the opposite of the Van Vleet situation, but in the eyes of the fans thats not how it is, they wanna roast the 'underperformer' to a crisp, and so some of these lotto picks represent big hopes and dreams to fans, while to NBA teams it can be a much more sending canaries in the coal mine to see if they survive type of situation, call me crazy but I'd tend to not blame the canaries...
 
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I like Len. I hope he’ll get more minutes this season. But between him and Lyles, I think our backup C position is currently very dubious
 
Ozymandias said:
Or in the case of Len you might not play for the first 60-70 games..

Now I might be spitballing total nonsense here, but maybe theres a chance this could be the case

What if we resign Queta as well, n prep him as the 3rd string during the season, if it fails we can fall back on Len, seems viable to me because well, we kinda sorta just did that exact same thing with Len last season when you think about it...
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Yeah I honestly don't think this is for minutes. I think he's back in one of our vet min slots and similar to this season just stays ready if he's ever called. Got to fill out the roster eventually and Len as your 13th/14th man is a pretty good way to do it. Kings need the big man depth anyway with Metu and Holmes out of town.
 
I was also thinking the FO may want to give Queta a chance as the “big“ backup center and have Len as insurance. Another reason could be Len is from Ukraine and Sasha from Bulgaria. Len can be a cultural connection for Sasha, speaking similar Slavic language etc.
 
Len signing is for insurance or for special occasion playing time. I feel like the Kings still need to sign Christian Wood. If nothing, I guess we have no choice but stick with Len since he knows the system well and have been playing great in later part of the season. But don't be fool, he's not a scorer and doesn't spread the floor and open up lane to make the Kings more potent.
 
Okay … like, only if he’s the last man. Sure he’s better than I gave him credit for but this dude can’t be our backup big. Absolutely cannot.
 
Fox || Davion
Huerter || Monk
Keegan
HB || Vezenkov
Domas || Lyles

I think this pretty clearly our 9 man rotation. With

Edwards
Jones
Duarte

all fighting to take that 10th spot (essentially the TD role from last year). But that's your 10-12th slots in the rotation

Ellis
Queta
Slawson

as our main development pieces. Pretty likely Ellis and Slawson are on the 2-way. So let's say Queta is 13th and gets the first crack at "3rd C"

Len on the vet min as the 14th slot. Big man depth that's familiar with our team.

So I think the only potential big changes are if we go sign someone to clearly take that 10th slot in the rotation and move everyone down a peg. Someone like Torrey Craig. If we don't end up keeping Queta and letting him walk, I think we probably sign a vet min PG and maybe a more established back-up C option. Biyombo?

I'm still 100% on board with a PJW or Grant Williams swing. Go get talent when you can and they're both versatile enough where we can make it work.
Old KF.com favorite Kelly Oubre is an interesting idea too. He's not very good, but he's an actual wing and he's flexed almost equally at the 2 and 3 with the Hornets the last few years and with the Warriors the year before.
 
I love it! People may be forgetting how well Len matched up against some of the bigs in the league such as Joker. Great insurance in case Queta doesn't work out, six more fouls and a big body everything you wanted a third center, fourth if you're really counting Lyles as a center. And no hit to the cap space what more could you ask for?
 
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Ozymandias said:
Len averaged .9 offensive rebounds in 6.2 mpg for us last year? thats pretty insane. Ya cant hate on this move. There's pretty much no risk at all.

I wonder if the Kings will ask him to cut any weight? I've followed him closely since his time at Maryland, he looks heavy to me honestly, a bit more lumbering. when I look at him i think "is this age or weight?", i think its the weight but honestly they might like him heavy too as hes clearly our "oh, you thought we were only going to play smallball?" option

I'll always be one of those people that bought the hype with him in college, I still wanna believe he can shoot like 75% from the FT stripe and nail a midrange J (cuz if u see him warmup, or at least when you used to he'd make a ton) but it seems with the way the NBA's moved he's basically our teams giant n tasked with pretty much always standing close to the basket.
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I went to Univ of Maryland with Len, so have been following him since he's entered the league. His weight has always played a factor in his play - What's consistent with him is he's always played better the 2nd half of the season than the 1st. Always. It's like his body needs to get adjusted to the rhythm of the game or conditioning to start the year, then his quickness gets up to par ... Exhibit A last season, even go back to two years ago - He got cut by Toronto earlier in the year cause he was looking slow, then starts for Washington THAT same year in the playoffs. Year before, slow start with Atlanta, gets traded here mid-way and balls out.

I hope Len has altered his offseason approach so he's in optimal shape Day 1 of camp. Noone can understand being 7-2 and at that size; you really have to stay on top of your conditioning so I hope he's figured it our better this year.
 
SLAB said:
Okay … like, only if he’s the last man. Sure he’s better than I gave him credit for but this dude can’t be our backup big. Absolutely cannot.
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What about his play down the stretch of last season would make you have that conclusion? He didn't just looked good in that role; he practically looked perfect in my opinion. Completely shaped the bench's grit and defense when he entered, while being at the worst average offensively.
 
iowamcnabb said:
I think thats the minimum he can get paid based off ten years of service.

Also, hats off to Len, how many busts (bases off draft slot) have 10 year nba careers?
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Right, I just assumed other teams could have offered that was well. Suns took Metu around $2mm but maybe they're higher on him or maybe he fills a bigger need (versatility prob being in demand given their empty cupboard)
 
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