Annnnnd we’re back!
Yes, after a three week hiatus as I moved halfway across the world, the official KingsFans.com Game Day Game Thread is back and better than ever (probably not). Yes, we’re back now that I have a stable form of internet access in my new apartment in northern Japan. Of course, the time difference makes it rather difficult for me to watch games in real time or, as was the case last time, put game threads up without staying up until five in the morning. In other words, we’ll see how things go as I try to maintain some semblance of a game thread routine across the ocean.
Meanwhile, the entire roster of the Kings seems to have changed overnight, with most of the rotation I was writing about before I left at the end of November now playing in a city with snow. Gone are Greivis Vasquez, Luc Mbah a Moute, John Salmons, Patrick Patterson, and Chuck Hayes. In are Rudy Gay, Derrick Williams, Quincy Acy, and some guy cosplaying as Shaggy from Scooby Doo.
As our team’s been owned by a family of total nincompoops for the past decade and a half, I have absolutely no clue how to react to an ownership group and front office that actually seems to care and is fully willing to actually take on money in exchange for talent (Although I’m sure the team actually saves money in this deal as they no longer have to pay for Chuck Hayes’s share of the pre-game buffet).
Since I haven’t really had a chance to talk about either of these moves since they’ve occurred, I’m going to go through them now.
The Luc for Derrick Williams move was met with tilted curious puppy heads by some members of the fanbase. After a pair of games in which Luc’s defensive presence had a resounding impact, Petey D shipped him off to Minnesota in exchange for a washed up draft bust who couldn’t crack the rotation of a team barely managing to keep its head above the water in the Western Conference playoff hunt. But Luc would have been a key member of our eventual championship with his defensive role player skills! Fire D’Alessandro!
Two weeks later, this trade could probably be assessed as a success (for now) for our team’s front office. Yes, the team’s defensive efforts have been less than stellar of late but the move both made the team younger and gave the team a potential Robin to Demarcus’s Batman (Until we went ahead and decided to grab a guy who was already in spandex). Still just 22 years old and having come from a team coached by a guy who, D-Will’s potential has been evident almost from the second he put on the purple and black. In his debut, he out outdunked Lob City. While in no way as good as Prince Luc’s, Derrick’s defensive game plan hasn’t been all that terrible (he was surprisingly good against Kevin Durant) and at times he’s exhibited court vision beyond what most people in Minnesota were telling us we’d get. While his shot is still inconsistent, his form is good enough for me to believe that Chris Jent will be able to turn him into a respectable shooter before all is said and done. How high is his ceiling? By all means, not Lebron. But he’s no where near as much of a bust as people were claiming he was and is probably the best small forward our team has had since Ron Ron was busy forgetting to feed his dogs. And who knows? Maybe we’ve just got Demarcus a new sideki- What’s that? Another trade?!
In a completely unprecedented move (at least for our team), the Sacramento Kings pulled off a blockbuster mid-season trade in which we actually acquired the best player of the deal (as opposed to the Maloof-patented trade our good players for the change in the other team’s owner’s pocket maneuver) and managed to get rid of the Stinky Fish and the Chuckwagon in the process. Yes you read that right. The Sacramento Kings somehow managed to jettison Chuck Hayes and John Salmons without having to drug the other team’s GM. Is it too late to nominate Pete D’Allesandro for the Nobel Peace Prize?
Obviously, the centerpiece of the move was Rudy Gay, a guy who, after being the second or third best player on the Memphis Grizzlies for several years, wound up being incredibly inefficient in Toronto, though to his credit the only thing efficient in that city is their mayor to controversy ratio. Having spent years in Lionel Hollins’s slow-dance tempo system, his defense isn’t embarrassing although it wasn’t good enough that their team’s front office though he was irreplaceable. Possessing a smooth shooting stroke, good length for a small forward, and deceptive agility, Gay immediately becomes the closest thing our team has had to a second star to compliment DFC since we drafted him. (Obviously Reke had a chance but we were unfortunately coached by a series of ridiculously banal coaches in his tenure with the team.) No matter how inefficient he is (or was), Rudy provides our team with a second go-to big dog and forms the third wheel of a potential big three (We just need our number 2/1B guy) for our team.
While his contract certainly isn’t the greatest one ever, it’s important to note that good players generally cost money which means any other eventual big three-level player would have and will probably cost a big rig of gold as well unless we wind up nabbing Parker, Wiggins, Randle, or Embiid in the draft.
So where do these moves leave us? Well, surprisingly, we’re younger than where we started off, with our two key guys both younger or barely in their primes (Cousins is 23 and Gay is 27) and many of the key members of a potential supporting cast also below the 30-year-old threshold (D-Will is 22, IT is 24, McLemore is only 20, JT is 27). Heck, the oldest guy on our active roster is the 29-year old Aaron Gray. In other words, after years of whatever the hell the Maloofs were trying to do, we finally seem to be building for future success. No matter how bad things get this season (and, despite the complete and utter lack of defensive success, things haven’t been all that terrible), there is actually a light on the horizon. And it is a bright one.
Now we just need to find star number three.
Why did Michael Jordan Play for the Wizards?
Kanye West, love him or hate him, he’s provided the country with some sort of entertainment for the greater part of a decade.
Cue up this latest gem from Kanye’s recent concert in his hometown of Chicago in which he goes off on a long rambling screed about Michael Jordan and his time with the Washington Wizards. If this doesn’t make much sense to you, it’s because Kanye West is sort of a crazy person.
(NOTE: the language in this video is NSFW but that probably goes without saying)
I appreciate the sentiment. I think.
Tyreke Watch 2013
After missing a handful of games in typical Tyreke fashion (surprisingly, he hurt his ankle again), Reke returned to action with his first triple double since RekeROY night some four-odd years ago. Take from that what you will.
At the end of the day, he’s the one on the potential playoff team (though most of that has to do with the fact that they lucked their way into getting the number one pick in a draft year featuring one of the best big men to enter the league in years and being a couple of years further along in the fantastic-new-ownership-group-takes-over-for-terrible-owner process than us).
Awards Time
No awards because I wasn’t able to watch the game against the Hawks.
Tonight’s Game
After two losses against the mighty Boobcats and Hawks, the Kings continue on their latest sightseeing tour of the east coast with a matchup against the middling Miami Heat led by Alonzo Mourning and one-legged Tim Hardaway. Oh what? This is 2013? Well poo.
Though we’ve traditionally played the Miami Heat pretty well, they’re still Lebron, Wade, and company, which means they’re more likely than not to blow us out of the water. Lebron is as good as ever as he plays the power forward spot for the undersized Heat. D-Wade is as injured as ever but still dangerous whenever he’s on the floor.
Mario Chalmers made the news for getting screamed at by his more famous teammates which of course means that he’s going to set a new career high against us as IT waits at the nearest concession stand for a snack while on defense.
Shane Battier is old but still among the better glue guys in the league. A consummate pro and defender, he will be tough to get by for former teammate Rudy Gay.
Also old and still in the league is current Miami sixth man Jesus Shuttleworth who is putting up Ben McLemore numbers as a ninety-seven year old great grandfather.
On the Greg Oden front, he’s yet to have even played a game for them though that is purportedly because they want to keep him fresh for the playoffs. In the meantime, the Heat’s mediocre frontline is headed by Chris Bosh who has gone from a guy that people wanted to trade Demarcus for several seasons ago to a guy who looks like Mikki Moore’s kid brother (and I'm saying that about his actual game, not just the fact they both have had ridiculous dreadlocks). Michael Beasley is their first big man off the bench, doing whatever it is he does. Other big men the Heat are willing to throw out there include elderly Rashard Lewis and king of body ink Chris Anderson and the ghost of Udonis Haslem. In other words, if we’re going to win, it’s going to be because the Miami frontcourt leaves a gigantic turd in the punchbowl.
Matchups
Demarcus versus Miami’s frontcourt: If we win, it’s going to be because Demarcus steamrolls the ancient front court of the Heat. He’s definitely capable of it.
Lebron versus vanity: What don’t you just pull an MJ and just shave it all already?
Quincy Acy versus Beard Lice: That’s gotta be uncomfortable.
Marcus Thornton versus the bench: Will Coach Malone just go with a massive lineup again instead of dusting off ol’ poutyface?
Predictions
The homer in me says the Kings win. The rational thinker in me says that’s not happening. Heat win 109-87. Demarcus puts up 29, 13, and 5 in a losing effort.
GO KINGS!
PS. This game thread brought to you by a strong earthquake at one in the morning.
Last edited by a moderator:
