[KINGS] Comments that don't warrant their own thread (Redux)
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Trae Young of the Atlantic Hawks suffered a concussion last night and is "out indefinitely."
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/39356045/hawks-trae-young-suffers-concussion-indefinitely
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/39356045/hawks-trae-young-suffers-concussion-indefinitely
I do not usually comment on trade scenarios, but Zach LaVine's recent ankle injury may make him more available if Monte McNair has him targeted:
https://theathletic.com/5216504/2024/01/21/zach-lavine-injury-clouds-bulls-trade-prospects/
https://theathletic.com/5216504/2024/01/21/zach-lavine-injury-clouds-bulls-trade-prospects/
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The Milwaukee Bucks are in second place with a .698 winning percentage and +4.1 point differential.
And they fired their first-year coach, Adrian Griffith, after 43 games. "We thank Coach Griffin for his hard work and contributions to the team."
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...s-firing-first-year-head-coach-adrian-griffin
Twitter is saying that the firing came about because Griffith refused to conduct team meetings and film sessions in Greek.
And they fired their first-year coach, Adrian Griffith, after 43 games. "We thank Coach Griffin for his hard work and contributions to the team."
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...s-firing-first-year-head-coach-adrian-griffin
Twitter is saying that the firing came about because Griffith refused to conduct team meetings and film sessions in Greek.
I'm not bothered by this at all. Unless something else changes, we will still get to see the Kings play the Clippers on national TV (ESPN on 2/25). In addition, our schedule currently has us playing the following teams on national TV:
Phoenix (2/13) - TNT
LAL (3/13) - ESPN
Dallas (3/26) - TNT
New Orleans (4/11) - TNT
We also have multiple games on NBA TV:
Miami (2/26)
Philadelphia (3/25)
Dallas (3/29)
Boston (4/5)
Phoenix (4/12)
Losing a TNT game against the Clippers ain't the end of the world.
Phoenix (2/13) - TNT
LAL (3/13) - ESPN
Dallas (3/26) - TNT
New Orleans (4/11) - TNT
We also have multiple games on NBA TV:
Miami (2/26)
Philadelphia (3/25)
Dallas (3/29)
Boston (4/5)
Phoenix (4/12)
Losing a TNT game against the Clippers ain't the end of the world.
And ended up with 73 and 62 respectively. Less than a week after Embiid hits 70 and KAT 62.
These types of games becoming commonplace further demonstrates how much of a farce the NBA game has become wrt to rules, officiating, volume 3 point shooting, and manufacturing “stars”.
These aren’t the greatest players in the history of the league. But that’s what the NBA wants everyone to believe so they can sell more everything.
These regular season games are almost becoming indistinguishable from all-star games. Ole‘ defense and players left wide open on the perimeter far too often.
They should let these teams shoot 100 threes each (three point contest style) then send ‘em all home.
These types of games becoming commonplace further demonstrates how much of a farce the NBA game has become wrt to rules, officiating, volume 3 point shooting, and manufacturing “stars”.
These aren’t the greatest players in the history of the league. But that’s what the NBA wants everyone to believe so they can sell more everything.
These regular season games are almost becoming indistinguishable from all-star games. Ole‘ defense and players left wide open on the perimeter far too often.
They should let these teams shoot 100 threes each (three point contest style) then send ‘em all home.
I get what you are saying but I tend to agree with Jerry Reynolds’ take: this is nba basketball at its core. In the early days it was high paced with lots of shooting and not super effective defense. It wasn’t really until the 80s/90s that defense was more featured.
The number one reason guys can score more is the spacing and that is largely due to elite shooting and analytics. I was watching an interview with Franz Wagner and he said each player on the Magic has a log in to Second Spectrum and he finds it incredibly useful. He learns where he is most effective and even how to slow down on his drives which has helped his finishing.
I love defense but you get plenty of that in the playoffs and a more free flowing game is more enjoyable to watch for most id say. Last nights game was a perfect example, some would see it as a no defense chuckfest while others like myself saw it as an elite shot making clinic.
It really depends upon one’s preference. I, too, appreciate offense. And high IQ play. But I also appreciate effort and defense. What’s wrong with expecting an equal amount of effort and focus on both?
Unfortunately far too much focus and media attention has been on shooting and scoring. The vast majority of kids believe that deep shooting and fancy dribbling traveling is all that’s cool and that matters. That attitude has been filtering into the league for years.
Then there are factors such as players running teams far more so than the guys from the 90’s and earlier. They have carte blanche to jack up shots from anywhere and any time they want. Again, more so than the average player from the 90’s and earlier.
Prior to like 10-15 years ago, really only the likes of Kobe, Jordan, and a few select bigs could reasonably score 60, 70, even 80 points (Kobe) as there were very few that had their teams blessing to volume chuck. Yes, I know the hyper focus on 3’s plays a role, as teams are passing up layups for kick out 3’s (which I don’t view as high IQ plays), but there‘s far more to it than that.
I have league pass thus do watch a fair amount of games around the league and have for decades. The defense (or lack there of) and effort is about as bad as I’ve seen it.
IMO the game was much, much better in the late 90’s and early 2000’s when hand-checking was still permitted but the league was still favoring the free flowing offenses of the KINGS, Mavs and Suns. The exceptions to that time were the likes of San Antonio, Miami and a few others that got away with physical fouling all game long. I didn’t find that enjoyable at all, but still more enjoyable than the wild wild west.
I really believe the NBA started its downhill decent “around” 2004 or 2005ish when handchecking was 86’d and it’s been steadily downhill ever since with all the other changes that have allowed players too much freedom of movement to the point of egregious carrying and traveling. Eurostep, 2-3 step back threes, extreme cross overs, in and out dribbling, etc, etc.
Part of me does wonder, though, what prime Jason Williams would be able to pull off, trick wise, with today’s allowances.
Unfortunately far too much focus and media attention has been on shooting and scoring. The vast majority of kids believe that deep shooting and fancy dribbling traveling is all that’s cool and that matters. That attitude has been filtering into the league for years.
Then there are factors such as players running teams far more so than the guys from the 90’s and earlier. They have carte blanche to jack up shots from anywhere and any time they want. Again, more so than the average player from the 90’s and earlier.
Prior to like 10-15 years ago, really only the likes of Kobe, Jordan, and a few select bigs could reasonably score 60, 70, even 80 points (Kobe) as there were very few that had their teams blessing to volume chuck. Yes, I know the hyper focus on 3’s plays a role, as teams are passing up layups for kick out 3’s (which I don’t view as high IQ plays), but there‘s far more to it than that.
I have league pass thus do watch a fair amount of games around the league and have for decades. The defense (or lack there of) and effort is about as bad as I’ve seen it.
IMO the game was much, much better in the late 90’s and early 2000’s when hand-checking was still permitted but the league was still favoring the free flowing offenses of the KINGS, Mavs and Suns. The exceptions to that time were the likes of San Antonio, Miami and a few others that got away with physical fouling all game long. I didn’t find that enjoyable at all, but still more enjoyable than the wild wild west.
I really believe the NBA started its downhill decent “around” 2004 or 2005ish when handchecking was 86’d and it’s been steadily downhill ever since with all the other changes that have allowed players too much freedom of movement to the point of egregious carrying and traveling. Eurostep, 2-3 step back threes, extreme cross overs, in and out dribbling, etc, etc.
Part of me does wonder, though, what prime Jason Williams would be able to pull off, trick wise, with today’s allowances.
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We have a bit of a peculiar run in that "tour" that we began playing a few days ago.
Facing the Warriors it was a back to back match for them (facing the Hawks a day before), last match vs Mavericks it was back to back match for them again (Hawks was again their latest opponent, the previous time we played against Dallas was again a back to back match for them, again they were playing in the East, at Milwaukee that time).
So next match at Memphis will be again a back to back for the Grizzlies that will also be playing in the East later tonight (at Indiana), before heading back home.
It's not so common to have 3 consecutive matches with a day of rest facing teams that will be in their second consecutive match and I assume that perhaps later on in the season the opposite thing will happen (Kings on a back to back facing "fresh" opponents). Hopefully we will take advantage of it against shorthanded Grizzlies with high tempo from early on making it hard for them to keep up at the same pace.
Facing the Warriors it was a back to back match for them (facing the Hawks a day before), last match vs Mavericks it was back to back match for them again (Hawks was again their latest opponent, the previous time we played against Dallas was again a back to back match for them, again they were playing in the East, at Milwaukee that time).
So next match at Memphis will be again a back to back for the Grizzlies that will also be playing in the East later tonight (at Indiana), before heading back home.
It's not so common to have 3 consecutive matches with a day of rest facing teams that will be in their second consecutive match and I assume that perhaps later on in the season the opposite thing will happen (Kings on a back to back facing "fresh" opponents). Hopefully we will take advantage of it against shorthanded Grizzlies with high tempo from early on making it hard for them to keep up at the same pace.
I will go a bit further with our record over the last two years that we have had our awesome team...
OKC (5-0)
Wolves (2-4)
Clippers (3-3)
Nuggets (2-2)
Suns (4-3)
Pelicans (2-5)
Mavs (3-2)
Lakers (5-1)
Jazz (5-1)
W/L total: 31-21
adding Warriors here and Memphis
Warriors (3-4) *not including playoffs
Grizzlies (3-2)
W/L total: 37-27
This is why last year I was saying that we could easily win it all. We play most of the top teams in the last two years pretty tight. It's anyone's game. Wouldn't it be awesome if we played the Suns in the first round, Lakers in the second, and OKC in the third round, and then Milwaukee in the finals!
Breaking wins down like this is an interesting thing to do, but I would quibble a bit with who you selected - for instance Utah has not been a top team. So I tried looking at our record over the last two years against all teams, broken down by the opponent's margin of victory (separate MOV for the two seasons). The results make sense:
Kings vs. MOV 6 and better
2-6, .250
Kings vs. MOV 3 to 6
9-15, .375
Kings vs. MOV 0 to 3
25-17, .595
Kings vs. MOV -3 to 0
16-8, .667
Kings vs MOV -6 to -3
7-2, .778
Kings vs MOV -6 and worse
15-4, .789
As you can see, we struggle against teams with the best margins of victory (3+ points) and we take care of business against everybody else. But we are going to have to get good enough to beat those top teams to advance deep into the playoffs.
Kings vs. MOV 6 and better
2-6, .250
Kings vs. MOV 3 to 6
9-15, .375
Kings vs. MOV 0 to 3
25-17, .595
Kings vs. MOV -3 to 0
16-8, .667
Kings vs MOV -6 to -3
7-2, .778
Kings vs MOV -6 and worse
15-4, .789
As you can see, we struggle against teams with the best margins of victory (3+ points) and we take care of business against everybody else. But we are going to have to get good enough to beat those top teams to advance deep into the playoffs.
Yeah- and it happens again with the Pacers game. They are second night of back to back and we have an extra day of rest.
All told, on the 7 day road trip we will have
Less rest- 1 game (Chicago)
Equal rest - 2 games (Cleveland and Miami)
Better rest- 4 games (Memphis, Indiana, Dallas, Golden State). Interestingly, Memphis, Dallas, and Indiana are all on back to back where they are playing road games the night before and traveling home to play us.
Really odd for a lengthy game road trip where you play 7 games in 12 days in 4 time zones. But it does make the road trip slightly less daunting than the length and records of teams would suggest.
All told, on the 7 day road trip we will have
Less rest- 1 game (Chicago)
Equal rest - 2 games (Cleveland and Miami)
Better rest- 4 games (Memphis, Indiana, Dallas, Golden State). Interestingly, Memphis, Dallas, and Indiana are all on back to back where they are playing road games the night before and traveling home to play us.
Really odd for a lengthy game road trip where you play 7 games in 12 days in 4 time zones. But it does make the road trip slightly less daunting than the length and records of teams would suggest.
