SLAB
Hall of Famer
I fixed this for you...
Because Sabonis, DeRozan, and LaVine are killing it so hard!
I just want the world to burn. The Kings will never be good, let’s just be the chaos instead of the deadweight boring bad team in the league.
Are the Kings entering a rebuild phase?
- Thread starter Tetsujin
- Start date
Because Sabonis, DeRozan, and LaVine are killing it so hard!
I just want the world to burn. The Kings will never be good, let’s just be the chaos instead of the deadweight boring bad team in the league.
SLAB
Hall of Famer
The NBA already rewarded us and we spat in their face by picking Marvin. We’re never getting that lucky bounce ever again.
QWERTYLICIOUS
Starter
...because we've fared so well in the past whenever we've managed to land a "high draft pick", right???
QWERTYLICIOUS
Starter
What leads you to believe that these are the "dudes" I speak of???Because Sabonis, DeRozan, and LaVine are killing it so hard!
And "Never Nervous"...unfortunately.
gunks
Hall of Famer
Do we have a Luka tier player we can give the Lakers?
QWERTYLICIOUS
Starter
...virtually for free.
All top-10 picks in the Sacramento era vs. top-5 players available at that pick by career WS:
1989 #1 = Pervis Ellison (Vlade, Clifford Robinson, Shawn Kemp, Glen Rice, Tim Hardaway)
2018 #2 = Marvin Bagley (SGA, Luka, Brunson, Trae, Mikal Bridges)
1991 #3 = Traded away
2009 #4 = Tyreke Evans (Curry, DeRozan, Jrue, Taj Gibson, Jeff Teague)
2022 #4 = Keegan Murray (Jalen Williams, Jalen Duren, Walker Kessler, Christian Braun, Keegan)
2010 #5 = DeMarcus Cousins (Paul George, Gordon Hayward, Hassan Whiteside!!, Greg Monroe, Cousins)
2012 #5 = Thomas Robinson (Lillard, Drummond, Draymond, Harrison Barnes, Khris Middleton)
2017 #5 = De'Aaron Fox (Jarrett Allen, Bam Adebayo, Donovan Mitchell, Derrick White, John Collins)
1985 #6 = Joe Kleine (Karl Malone, Terry Porter, Detlef Schrempf, A.C. Green, Chris Mullin)
1987 #6 = Kenny Smith (Reggie Miller, Horace Grant, Kevin Johnson, Mark Jackson, Derrick McKey)
2015 #6 = Willie Cauley-Stein (Devin Booker, Myles Turner, Montrezl Harrell, Kevon Looney, Larry Nance)
1990 #7 = Lionel Simmons (Elden Campbell, Toni Kukoc, Antonio Davis, Tyrone Hill, Cedric Ceballos)
1992 #7 = Walt Williams (P.J. Brown, Robert Horry, Clarence Weatherspoon, Latrell Sprewell, Doug Christie)
1993 #7 = Bobby Hurley (Sam Cassell Nick Van Exel, Allan Houston, Bryon Russell, Vin Baker)
1998 #7 = Jason Williams (Dirk, Paul Pierce, Rashard Lewis, Cuttino Mobley, Al Harrington)
2011 #7 = Traded away
2013 #7 = Ben McLemore (Giannis, Gobert, Steven Adams, Mason Plumlee, C.J. McCollum)
1994 #8 = Brian Grant (Eddie Jones, Brian Grant, Jalen Rose, Wesley Person, Aaron McKie)
2014 #8 = Nik Stauskas (Jokic, Clint Capela, Dwight Powell, Kyle Anderson Zach LaVine)
2016 #8 = Traded away
2021 #9 = Davion Mitchell (Sengun, Trey Murphy, Herb Jones, Aaron Wiggins, Ayo Dosunmu)
2007 #10 = Spencer Hawes (Marc Gasol, Thaddeus Young, Jared Dudley, Carl Landry, Arron Afflalo)
2017 #10 = Traded away
As a guy whose mantra is "you can't hit every time", man...that is grim.
QWERTYLICIOUS
Starter
That's rough.
Padrino
All-Star
Grim, indeed.
It's certainly enough to make the average fan blanch at the idea of entertaining a rebuild. Still, gotta turn that luck around if this franchise wants to get anywhere.
QWERTYLICIOUS
Starter
Quite literally, one of the only things, if not the only thing, that still gives me hope that this franchise will, one day, be able to right that ship is San Antonio (another small market) landing the number 1 pick to then go out and draft Tim Duncan. If a franchise like San Antonio can luck out, land the number 1 pick, and go out there and draft, arguably, the greatest PF to ever play the game, and then proceed to go on the best run that franchise has ever seen, I have hope that this franchise will, too, be greeted with that same stroke of luck.Grim, indeed.
It's certainly enough to make the average fan blanch at the idea of entertaining a rebuild. Still, gotta turn that luck around if this franchise wants to get anywhere.
As a die hard Sean Elliott stan that draft class was ass.
You have to acknowledge that 91 pick was traded for Mitch. Still top 5 King in my book.
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
Then again, they hit on Fox and Cuz. That's literally the last 15 years worth of star players so...
Section 101
All-Star
These are the 2 that destroyed the chance at being a title contender and the sad fact is many wanted the right pick.
2012 #5 = Thomas Robinson (Lillard, Drummond, Draymond, Harrison Barnes, Khris Middleton)
2018 #2 = Marvin Bagley (SGA, Luka, Brunson, Trae, Mikal Bridges)
Joshyjosh31
Starter
Grim, indeed.
It's certainly enough to make the average fan blanch at the idea of entertaining a rebuild. Still, gotta turn that luck around if this franchise wants to get anywhere.
No I’ll take false hope over watching 35 year olds play selfish ball
Padrino
All-Star
I don't disagree. I am very much in favor of a rebuild regardless of what the past has delivered. Just saying that I understand those who aren't thrilled about the notion of going all-in on a rebuild given the sheer futility of the Kings long-term draft record.
I think what the Kings have really struggled with is fully committing to lotto picks development. It doesn't mean immediately you have to start them for 30+ MPG, but when you are an average-bad team, that lotto pick 100% should at bare minimum have a consistent role night in and night out.
We keep harping on Carter/Keon as our most recent examples because it's pretty much the exact opposite of how you should treat and value young players. There's not a single other thing Keon can do to show he's worthy of being a starter, ESPECIALLY on a bad team and even more ESPECIALLY on a horrible defensive team. It's not like we're trotting out OKC level perimeter defense out there.
And Carter has been a tough evaluation because they won't play him a consistent role. 6-10 minutes every other game or two tells you absolutely nothing. Maybe he's actually bad, but you can't spend a lotto pick on a guy and not actually find out of that's the case.
We can even extend this further to Keegan, who was the best offensive player in the country had an excellent rookie year... and just never let him find out if he's someone who can be a 2nd or 3rd option. He's always relegated to the bottom of the food chain because the guys around him are always high USG offensive players. So you're not even fully exploring your 4th overall pick, which I think we all agree, is a hit in terms of Keegan being a long-term starter. But why not see what happens when you design the offense to give him 17 FGA/game? Where he can launch 9 3's a game?
I think the Wizards are honestly doing the best right now at figuring out development without getting gifted the generational type player.They turned the keys over to Sarr/George/Bub/Tre/Bilal, you have a couple vet mentors like CJ and Middleton to babysit, at least for half the season and you see what those guys do with the opportunity. They're off to a predictably rough start, but they're going to have a chance at another top 5 pick while getting all the information on what those young guys are and aren't. So maybe, say Darryn Peterson is a franchise-changer... you already have the infrastructure around him to become a winner, real fast.
I actually see similarities with the Kings young guys. No, there's no franchise guy, but basically all of them are the exact archetypes you put around that franchise guy to win now in the NBA. Say Boozer is C-Webb reincarnate... well a surround core of Keon/Nique/Keegan (maybe Carter if we ever get to see him play) is a hell of a start in terms of shooting and defense for him to be successful in a #1 role.
Padrino
All-Star
I'm going to wait until about the quarter-season mark before I really start to dig into lineup data in my Record and Rankings thread because everything's just far too noisy right now. But predictably, just about every lineup that's been above-average defensively contains either Keon, Carter, or both. Unfortunately, there just aren't enough minutes played between them yet this season to grasp the impact they could conceivably have at this stage of their respective careers. We're learning nothing, and there's no good reason for it; this season's going nowhere on the backs of these older vets. I'm just hoping mid-December brings with it a clear shift in this organization's strategy. And it has to be communicated from the top-down so that the company man on the sideline feels authorized to actually play his best defenders.
sactowndog
Hall of Famer
Not sure your traded not away tells the full story when trading down.
sactowndog
Hall of Famer
The 2016 and 2017 trades were not bad either. The funny thing about Vlade’s draft moves is he put the team is good spots but they could never pick the right player…..
2016: Vlade had multiple picks to take an upside swing on Siakim and Murray.
2017: was an amazing draft. Having all those picks was a good move but again the draft department was dumb as rocks.
Joshyjosh31
Starter
How can anyone be in favor of not rebuilding we’re literally too bad for the play-in but not bad enough for a top pick while having zero promising payers under 25 it’s madness. Even NO now has some hope with Queen even after trading there pick
Padrino
All-Star
I dunno, man. I don't explain the motivations of others. Just saying I understand it.
Sherds
Bench
I know the draft is for the most part a crap shoot and every team misses on picks but just seeing Stauskas, McLemore & Bagleys names directly followed by Giannis, Luka and Jokic is unbelievable knowing how amazing they all turned out.
And painful.
ShastaKingsFan
All-Star
Joe Klein was picked ahead of Karl Malone 
That used to rate in our biggest blunders but now that Karl Malone is known to be a horrible person I guess we retroactively dodged that stain.Joe Klein was picked ahead of Karl Malone
Joshyjosh31
Starter
Sad thing is you’re absolutely right