Bulletin Board Material, 2023 Season

Capt. Factorial said:
Yes, he did and I forgot to mention it, but I felt that it was maybe a bit peripheral to the overachiement argument - even though one could reasonably expect us to regress to the mean with injuries (i.e. we were lucky on injuries) I don't think there's any reason to believe we were lucky on defense. Our defense was what it was.

Obviously we did not add a wing stopper, and we were never going to add a rim protector in the starting lineup given Domas and Keegan holding down the frontcourt, though we did add JaVale and for all we know right now he may be in the rotation.
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Brown tends to give chances to "his" guys. Last year he started Okpala, gave Metu a lot of chances at backup C, and brought in Moneke and Delly when they probably wouldn't have made another NBA roster. Some of those worked out better than others (Metu played okay and Delly was far more valuable as a vet voice, but didn't hurt the team), but that's to Brown's credit. He had a history with those guys and that gave them an opportunity, but he's going to always do what's best for the team.

That said, McGee both brings some things the Kings need and has that past relationship with Brown. I'd be very surprised if he isn't the backup center on opening night. Hopefully we still get some instances of Lyles as a smallball 5 with Sasha at the 4, but we'll see.
 
Capt. Factorial said:
Yes, he did and I forgot to mention it, but I felt that it was maybe a bit peripheral to the overachiement argument - even though one could reasonably expect us to regress to the mean with injuries (i.e. we were lucky on injuries) I don't think there's any reason to believe we were lucky on defense. Our defense was what it was.

Obviously we did not add a wing stopper, and we were never going to add a rim protector in the starting lineup given Domas and Keegan holding down the frontcourt, though we did add JaVale and for all we know right now he may be in the rotation.
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I mean as a fan base we are a bit of a chip on our shoulder attitude. I’m a Fresno State fan and I think it’s a valley thing.…

I have no idea how we will do this year but factors I’m weighing

1) Con: we were exceedingly healthy and Hollinger pointed out age and history as factors but even then it would be unlikely to be that healthy again.

2) Con: Wing defense is a real issue. No one has clearly owned the defensive stopper role. Do we trade a stretch 4? Does Edwards progress as a shooter? If we are starting Sabonis we need a wing stopper

3) Pro: Keegan Murray could be very good and provide a running mate with Fox. His development will go a long way to determining how we perform

4) ???: do we have a trade coming. This team is very unbalanced in we have in my opinion 4 good to very good stretch 4’s: Keegan, Sasha, Lyles, Barnes…. and we have potentially if Mitchell steps up 3 good to very good primary ball handlers: Fox, Monk, Mitchell.

5) ???: Sabonis was exposed in the play-offs. He can expect every team is going to overplay on our wings, drop their rim protector and dare Sabonis to beat them. Can he make them pay or did the Kings overpay him?
 
Tetsujin said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1710704151527625128

is that win totals or the over/under on games Zion plays this year?
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Just as puzzling as that is the T-Wolves total.

These “predictors” really should share their math. What kind of justification is there for Minnesota to be #2 in the West. They were a play-in team last season.

Did they trade for Joel Embiid or Nikola Jokic when I wasn’t looking?
 
sactowndog said:
I mean as a fan base we are a bit of a chip on our shoulder attitude. I’m a Fresno State fan and I think it’s a valley thing.…

I have no idea how we will do this year but factors I’m weighing

1) Con: we were exceedingly healthy and Hollinger pointed out age and history as factors but even then it would be unlikely to be that healthy again.
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1) Our age is in our favor. Barnes is our only key/rotation player over 28, and he has basically no injury history. The injury history for the rest of our players is also pretty clean. It's not like we're dragging a bunch of guys out there with bum legs. We had two top guys get their hands broken last year, and they played through that. I think we're far more likely to be healthy than not.

2) Con: Wing defense is a real issue. No one has clearly owned the defensive stopper role. Do we trade a stretch 4? Does Edwards progress as a shooter? If we are starting Sabonis we need a wing stopper
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We had zero wing defense last year and managed to stumble our way into the #3 seed. I'm not saying wing defense is BAD, but maybe having wing defense is a bit overrated. The bottom line is that the team that scores the most points wins. For some teams, the plan to score the most points includes trying to stop other teams from scoring points with excellent wing defense. For other teams, the plan doesn't include that, but rather relies on scoring yet more points. To that end, we just brought in the best scoring player in the entire continent of Europe. If we score 130 points per game, wing defense may not really matter a whole lot.

3) Pro: Keegan Murray could be very good and provide a running mate with Fox. His development will go a long way to determining how we perform
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Agreed. Keegan was great last year as a rookie, and we can reasonably expect him to be even better this year.

4) ???: do we have a trade coming. This team is very unbalanced in we have in my opinion 4 good to very good stretch 4’s: Keegan, Sasha, Lyles, Barnes…. and we have potentially if Mitchell steps up 3 good to very good primary ball handlers: Fox, Monk, Mitchell.
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I don't quite get this trend where people like to call Barnes a PF. He's clearly a SF. He keeps playing SF. He defends the wing. What more do you want?

Lyles is likely to play a lot of bench 5 this year, just like last year. Sure, he's not a starting 5, but once things roll over to the bench things get a bit fluid.

Bottom line, one never really knows when a trade is coming, but I don't think we really need one. The balance here is fine. For my part I'd be in favor of a 3rd-string PG who isn't a SG in disguise, but perhaps where we're going we don't really need PGs.

5) ???: Sabonis was exposed in the play-offs. He can expect every team is going to overplay on our wings, drop their rim protector and dare Sabonis to beat them. Can he make them pay or did the Kings overpay him?
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He also was playing with a broken hand and a freshly stomped chest. (BTW, I'm not going to forget about that, or remotely consider forgiving, either. People somehow manage to completely memory-hole that fact that one of our top two players was assaulted on the court in a manner that would have been charged as a literal felony had it happened on the streets.) Sabonis put up a ridiculous .221 WS/48 last year in the regular season. LeBron has literally gone 5 seasons in a row without putting up those kinds of numbers. Webber, arguably the best player in Sacramento history, NEVER put up numbers like that. Fretting over Domas is only a small step down from fretting over Ted Williams ("Golly, I know he's a threat to hit .400 every year, but can he make a tiramisu where the base doesn't go all soggy by the time we can bring it over to the Jones's potluck?").
 
Memphis will be without the services of their best player for the first 25 games, 30% of the season. Smart is good defensively, but doesn't have good ball handling skills for a pg. That is why Boston traded him. Because Smart is with a new team and he doesn't have instinctive pg skills it probably means he will have a fairly long learning curve at the offensive end. Memphis will miss Tyus Jones, imo.

Warriors got considerably older in taking CP3 on the roster. He's had declining numbers for the last three years and you wonder whether the downhill slide will turn into an over-the-cliff free fall. It took 50 points by Curry to stop from being kicked in the first round of the playoffs last year. I wouldn't count on the same this season. If the Warriors make it to the western conference finals I'll be the most surprised fan in the country. If they don't make the playoffs, it won't surprise.

Unlike the Warriors, the Lakers got better because of a good off-season by their GM adding to their bench strength. They will need it. LBJ and Father Time will struggle mightily this year. I've been an unbeliever in AD and will continue with unbelief until I see him perform over an extended period of time. Some of the players they added last year and this off-season I coveted for the Kings, so I really don't want to see them do better than the Kings because it will be that much more painful to watch.

Regarding Minni, the Clipps and New Orleans: Until I see it I won't believe it.

The youngins like OKC and Portland are not to be overlooked. They will probably have some big upsets this year against some elite teams, but also will also get beat by the bottom of the barrel teams far too often.

Denver and the Suns are the elite competition for the Kings. How fast can the Suns gel? Will Denver manage without the same bench? Stay tuned.
 
We’re too good on the road to be winning just 44 or under, sorry. Barring injuries, i have no doubt we’ll be a very good regular season team again. Add in the continuity, familiarity and growth from the head coach all the way down to the end of the bench, and i have no doubt our team will be better than ever. I’m not worried.
 
Clippers can be a good to great team if everything works out in their favor (no significant injuries). However, this is year 5 of the Kawhi/PG experiment and they really haven’t done anything significant. They have been good, but not quite what a lot of folks expected them to be. How does Kawhi do with the new load management rules? Has he been taking it easy on purpose or is there a lingering injury that won’t heal?

The Suns are stacked with offensive firepower and on paper, are a nightmare to deal with. Depth will be an issue for them as will be sharing the ball. A lot of scoring ability, but none of them are known for running the offense. They downgraded their center position in terms of talent level, but if they got rid of a headache and distraction, it could very well be addition by subtraction for them. They have what’s needed to go all the way, if everyone stays healthy.

Denver. The former MVP and now defending champs. The Finals MVP who literally couldn’t wait to go home (epic). They are largely the same with a weaker bench. I still expect them to do well during the season (top 1-3 in the west) and with Jokic, you’re gonna be a contender. They lost depth, will it be enough to dethrone them?

Wolves. Fake news. Gobert is probably the most overrated big man in the league and has been for years. I like to see him fail. KAT is too busy looking at himself in the mirror and telling everyone he’s one of the greatest big men of all time to actually do anything on the court of significance. Anthony Edwards is the real deal. They will go as far as Edwards can carry them while dragging along the most funky starting line up in the league with 2 big men that can’t play together.

Warriors. Old but still significant. Somehow they got even older with one of my most hated players of all time in Chris Paul. I genuinely hope he never sniffs the finals again. Sorry had to throw that in there. They will go as far as Curry takes them but they are on their last legs and this may be the season they get taken out back to the pasture. What’s with Klay Thompson playing the 4? All to appease Chris Paul wanting to be in the starting line up? Not sure what that will look like but they definitely have way more questions than answers.

Lakers. Lebron and AD. A decent to good bench. Let’s not kid ourselves here. This will be all up to Lebron. AD is weak minded and gets injured just thinking about it. He’s not the guy. Lebron is. But Lebron is 39 years old. Is he going to be able to do what the Lakers need him to do? I fully expect them to be better this year and they will not need the play in to get into the playoffs if Lebron and AD stay healthy. A lot of ifs though.

OKC. A very very solid team that will have Chet for this season (hopefully). They will only be better and could surprise a lot of people. Definitely a team to watch. I like them quite a bit.

Kings. Championship contenders apparently. Said in the same sentence by our coach. Who knew? While I’m leery of jumping on that bandwagon, I do think he is trying to raise the bar further still. He expects a lot and he isn’t joking. Are we the real deal? I don’t think we are there yet, but I do know we aren’t going to be rolling out the red carpet for anyone. You’ll have to earn your win here good sirs. Make no mistake about it though, we are better than we were last year. How much better remains to be seen.

Portland. Dame is gone and even though it’s probably 2-3 seasons later than it should have been, they got a very good haul coming their way and will be fun to watch. Not a serious playoff threat but they also won’t be a joke either. They will beat you if you overlook them.

Dallas. This one is entirely on Doncic and Irving. I think they are worse than last year and I genuinely think Luka and Kyrie aren’t going to work. They have too many similarities that involve having the ball and even though Luka is a great passer, he very clearly struggles to trust Kyrie due to his alpha mentality. For a guy that averages that many assists, he is a little bit of a ball hog. They might implode during the season.

Memphis. Who knows honestly? They are weaker than before and their star player is missing 1/3 of the season roughly. Can they be relevant until he returns and even when he does, can he keep it together? Lots of turmoil for them to overcome. Remains to be seen.
 
Fox at 23 and Sabonis at 22 in Espns best 100 players for this season.

they both took a huge jump in the rankings from last year so not exactly a slight but I would have liked to see them higher.
 
It’s interesting how our lack of injuries makes us a team he sees as a team on the outside looking in but teams with major and consistent injury histories get a pass and are placed higher in the projected standings.

he also keeps talking about how are depth sucks. Monk scored the most points off the bench in the league last year. Lyles is one of the better 4/5s in a reserve role, Davion is one of the better defenders in the league and then we have Sasha Duarte and Colby who can also contribute
 
iowamcnabb said:
It’s interesting how our lack of injuries makes us a team he sees as a team on the outside looking in but teams with major and consistent injury histories get a pass and are placed higher in the projected standings.

he also keeps talking about how are depth sucks. Monk scored the most points off the bench in the league last year. Lyles is one of the better 4/5s in a reserve role, Davion is one of the better defenders in the league and then we have Sasha Duarte and Colby who can also contribute
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I feel he just liked patronising the Kings before we were good and somewhere along the lines convinced himself he is better than us. Now he doesn't want to loosen his grip.
 
Both he and Nate Duncan jerk each other off on their podcast and tell each other how smart each other are. It's so odd. I used to really like the Dunc'd on pod, besides it's mostly private, its gone downhill since Hollinger joined.
 
dude12 said:
At this point, I’m going to say Tyrese May be the most overrated player in NBA. Not that he’s not good but damn he’s overhyped
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Yeah it's getting ridiculous, im sorry. He played like 55-60 games out in the Eastern conference with worse defense than Fox and he's better without even getting to the playoffs just yet? Stop it.
 
iowamcnabb said:
It’s interesting how our lack of injuries makes us a team he sees as a team on the outside looking in but teams with major and consistent injury histories get a pass and are placed higher in the projected standings.

he also keeps talking about how are depth sucks. Monk scored the most points off the bench in the league last year. Lyles is one of the better 4/5s in a reserve role, Davion is one of the better defenders in the league and then we have Sasha Duarte and Colby who can also contribute
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As if the entire league was just decimated with more injuries than usual. There were quite a few but can anyone explain why we sucked the previous years when we had a nice clean bill of health for the most part? We're a good team, period. You don't win damn near 50 games in the western conference unless you are, i don't give a crap who was healthy - it just doesn't happen easily for anyone.
 
dude12 said:
At this point, I’m going to say Tyrese May be the most overrated player in NBA. Not that he’s not good but damn he’s overhyped
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He sure wasn’t as hyped during his time in SAC, that’s for sure.

However, the moment he was traded the pundits have acted as if the KINGS traded away Magic Johnson in his prime.

Instead it was more like trading away a younger version of Mitch Richmond for Chris Webber.

Absolutely loved the Wicked Mitch of the West and also was and still am a fan of Tyrese — but the KINGS got the better of the deal both times.
 
And Sabonis wasn't the only one playing hurt. I do expect if this team sustains some success and we have Domas and Fox and co. playing into their 30s they'll miss time but not while they still have stuff to prove. The majority of players who take time off for load management or to nurse lingering injuries have rings or are on teams that are soft tanking and ask their stars to rest (see Dame, and how that ended).
 
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