iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
I don’t know exactly what they are doing right now. They had Sochan playing point for some reason and Collins was playing center as far as I could tell before he was hurt.
Keegan “KEEGAN MURRAY” Murray
- Thread starter Tetsujin
- Start date
I don’t know exactly what they are doing right now. They had Sochan playing point for some reason and Collins was playing center as far as I could tell before he was hurt.
kingsboi
Hall of Famer
yeah Pop playing Sochan at the point may be due to trying to squeeze some juice out of a dried up lemon because he doesn't really have a position where he can excel at right now
He is already a year ahead of where I thought he’d be after last season (and light years ahead of what I expected when we drafted him). I think he might even take another jump post All-Star break.
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
The floor for him has been moved up to Tobias Harris and he is almost there already. The hardest thing for Keegan to do is to be aggressive the whole season regardless of the shots falling or not. If he does he will get to the line too. Even 2 trips a game will add 3+ points a game to his total.
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
I also want to see more transition points.
His transition game was nasty in college. And we see signs of it this year where he looks dominant attacking the rim too. He's on a perfect progression arc, just has to keep moving forward along it
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
And if Monte gets a 4th, that's going to be a superteam if Keegan can keep going.
coolhandluke
Starter
I'm excited about the rebounds. It's high time someone supports Sabonis on the boards.
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
This is why we don't need another max player. Keegan has already made Huerter and Barnes redundant within the offense which in turn has put more attention on their defensive limitations. We'll have to see if Monk has outplayed whatever contact we can offer him. If we are able to keep him, there aren't enough shots left to support a LaVine, Siakam, or comparable high usage scorer.
Personally I think we need to unload Barnes, Huerter, and Lyles ASAP and not take back any big contracts in return because we'll need that cap space (just over 40 million) to keep our core group together. We should be filling in around Fox, Murray, Sabonis, and Monk with affordable defensive roleplayers on mid level deals.
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
I go back and forth on this. Will our top end talent (Fox Domas Keegan and probably Monk) surrounded by plus defenders be enough to compete against Claw/PG/Harden Joker/jamal/MPJ/AG Chet/Shai/JDub etc? Or do we just to overwhelm on offense and be passable on defense (we played pretty good defense overall in the playoffs).
Then the other thing I ask is, what makes a very good defensive team? I asked in the nba thread why a team like the Nets are bad defensively with an elite defender (Bridges) plus defender (DFS) a rim protector (Claxton) and 3 good defenders ( cam, Royce and Dennis smith jr) if we add 2 good defenders at the 2 and 4 will we be a top 12 defense? Can our offense return to top 3?
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
JTA on Keegan
"I think he can be a helluva player in this league; he's a star already," Juan said. "47 is really hard to do in any league. I don't think I've ever dropped 47 in any game... that was impressive. I actually wanted him to break the [three-point] record that night, for his own reasons, but even for selfish reasons. I was there when Stephen Curry broke the three-point record, I was LeBron [James] teammate when he broke the scoring record, and it would've been pretty cool to say 'I was Keegan Murray's teammate when he broke the three-pointers made in a game record'... I'm blessed to play with De'Aaron Fox and play with young talent like Keegan Murray. It's delightful to be a part of."
"I think he can be a helluva player in this league; he's a star already," Juan said. "47 is really hard to do in any league. I don't think I've ever dropped 47 in any game... that was impressive. I actually wanted him to break the [three-point] record that night, for his own reasons, but even for selfish reasons. I was there when Stephen Curry broke the three-point record, I was LeBron [James] teammate when he broke the scoring record, and it would've been pretty cool to say 'I was Keegan Murray's teammate when he broke the three-pointers made in a game record'... I'm blessed to play with De'Aaron Fox and play with young talent like Keegan Murray. It's delightful to be a part of."
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
And hopefully more Keon with both Fox and Monk as a SG. He needs to be playing more than backup PG.
I honestly think he's like ideal to plug in at the starting 2. Kind of like that "Thabo" role, but with a little more ball-handling ability and the freedom for "James Harden" to come off the bench. Versatility to fit with both Fox and Monk and even maybe at the 3, in certain match-ups with them.
I think Lyles should stay. He has excellent +/- this season (it's skewed by him not playing early in the season when Fox was out as well), had modest positive one last season and excellent in the PO series. Trey is shooting 40% from outside and solid defensively. His salary is less than 6% of the cap and will be even lower percentage next season. Lyles looks like he can be a good top-8 in playoffs rotation.
The problem is we have 3 guys who are more or less redundant. Barnes (17 million), Lyles (8 million), and Vezenkov (6.3 million). Paying and rostering all three of these guys is hurting us because it means we're not paying or playing a dynamic defender at the PF spot. I don't have a problem with Lyles specifically, I just think the roster isn't balanced very well right now and he might have decent trade value to other teams in the league which don't have the same surplus of stretch 4s that we have.
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
From the Slater article on Keegan. He also said that the kings see Fox Sabonis and Murray as the big three now and in the future. Looking for pieces around them. Also mentioned they admire the slow team building path the Nuggets took. Probably see Monte and Wes do the same
“Murray, per Synergy Sports Technology, has only given up 28 points in 47 isolation situations this season, placing him in the 91st percentile. The efficiency against him ticks up in pick-and-roll situations, but it’s still under a point per possession faced. He needs to get more adept navigating screens and guarding in traffic, but one Kings staffer suggested the possibility he could become an All-Defense type wing by the time his prime arrives.”
“Murray, per Synergy Sports Technology, has only given up 28 points in 47 isolation situations this season, placing him in the 91st percentile. The efficiency against him ticks up in pick-and-roll situations, but it’s still under a point per possession faced. He needs to get more adept navigating screens and guarding in traffic, but one Kings staffer suggested the possibility he could become an All-Defense type wing by the time his prime arrives.”
Ya you can see he has all defensive potential would be really nice to get another 6’6 + wing to help him on defense.
And Jokic ain’t walking through that door nothing slow about a rebuild when a generational player lands in your lap
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
remember this is Joker’s 9th year in the league. They weren’t really considered contenders until last year, before that most just saw them as a really good regular season team. Then they made the trade for Gordon and then added Bruce and KCP.
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
Going to be? Tetsu-chan, he already is.
In January, 11 games:
18 PPG
6.1 RPG
1.5 APG
61.2% TS (!!!)
39.1% from 3 (5.8 3PA/game)
19.5% USG
Just a MPJ offensive split, but he's adding excellent, verging on elite, defense with it. Even if he just stopped exactly where he is now, in terms of development, he's a $100 mil player. But I think his growth curve is just beginning.
