[Game] Kings @ Pacers, 3/23/2022 4pm Pacific, 7pm Eastern

[KainLear]

Oooo Queta got a fresh cut.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

send Jones to Stockton

 

[Kingz19]

They played us

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Can the Kings challenge the non-call there?

Talk about saying the quiet part out loud: that would be a little too blatant.

 

[KainLear]

Well, Carlisle, you are tank Yoda. No way Kings are beating that kind of genius. Checkmate.

We could always leave Buddy alone...

 

[Tetsujin]

Fun game. Were we not five games out of the play-in with nine games left in the season, I'd be excited.

 

[The Effort Police]

We're going to get overtaken by Portland to land in 7th, and then drop 2 spots to pick 9th in an 8 player draft.

It's written in the stars.

 

[AaronPDX]

Well, that was a HUGE opportunity blown for nothing. SMDH

 

[Krunker]

OH my. Well, I can't blame Jones because his PT is low enough he's gotta play when he can. Buddy strikes again

 

[SLAB]

I don’t know why I even bother still.

 

[SacTownKid]

We could always leave Buddy alone...

That's the trick of tanking. The players don't care, they'll still play hard at times. The key is to put your players in the worse spots possible at the exact moment it needs to happen without them knowing. Rick Carlisle, hats off pal.

 

[SLAB]

We're going to get overtaken by Portland to land in 7th, and then drop 2 spots to pick 9th in an 8 player draft.

It's written in the stars.

you know it’s coming.
But winning culture or whatever.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

Guys, this win gets us Lotto Karma!

 

[pdxKingsFan]

It's OK, we can win the lottery almost as easily from 6th as from 5th.

I am more concerned about keeping safe distance from the Blazers because falling down to 7 makes us vulnerable to falling to 8 or 9 again and missing out on all the consolation prizes.

 

[Larry89]

GODDAMIT!!!!

 

[Tetsujin]

We're going to get overtaken by Portland to land in 7th, and then drop 2 spots to pick 9th in an 8 player draft.

It's written in the stars.

Chet
Jabari
Paolo
Ivey
Benn
Murray
Davis
Sharpe
Duren
Griffin
Ochai
TyTy
Tari Eason
Sochan
Dyson Daniels
Kendall Brown


There's really not a huge drop from the top ten to the next five or ten guys.

 

[SacTownKid]

We're going to get overtaken by Portland to land in 7th, and then drop 2 spots to pick 9th in an 8 player draft.

It's written in the stars.

Not so fast. This is a team in need of guards, plenty of good ones still there at 9-10 and ones you could argue going higher anyway like Agbaji.

 

[Tetsujin]

Don't blame the Kings. Blame Buddy

 

[The Effort Police]

I really don't particularly care about jumping in the lottery this year, I'm worried about picking x +1 in an x player draft.

Tier 1
Chet
Jabari
Banchero
Ivey

Tier 2
Griffin
Mathurin
Murray
Davis

(I don't like Griffin really, but there's no denying he's going ~5th, so that creates a buffer for us and I'm just hoping we don't pick him.

Staying at 6 is find, dropping 3 spots is pretty unlikely, but being at 7 is too risky. I like Tari Eason and Kendall Brown but they are nowhere near as exciting.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Talk about saying the quiet part out loud: that would be a little too blatant.

probably should have fouled on the inbounds.

 

[SacTownKid]

Chet
Jabari
Paolo
Ivey
Benn
Murray
Davis
Sharpe
Duren
Griffin
Ochai

There's really not a huge drop from the top ten to the next five or ten guys.

Yeah, the only thing that hurts is the Kings lose potential trade options the farther down they go. In terms of actual picks, the Kings are in a position to get a good one if they keep it and don't blow it.

 

[Tetsujin]

I really don't particularly care about jumping in the lottery this year, I'm worried about picking x +1 in an x player draft.

Tier 1
Chet
Jabari
Banchero
Ivey

Tier 2
Griffin
Mathurin
Murray
Davis

(I don't like Griffin really, but there's no denying he's going ~5th, so that creates a buffer for us and I'm just hoping we don't pick him.

Staying at 6 is find, dropping 3 spots is pretty unlikely, but being at 7 is too risky. I like Tari Eason and Kendall Brown but they are nowhere near as exciting.

No Shaedon?

 

[SacTownKid]

No Shaedon?

Yeah. He's either going to rise or drop. I've seen the high school vids, looks awesome. Has the size. The body. Workouts are going to matter this year more than ever.

 

[Tetsujin]

Yeah, the only thing that hurts is the Kings lose potential trade options the farther down they go. In terms of actual picks, the Kings are in a position to get a good one if they keep it and don't blow it.

Yeah, I at least have faith in Monte to pick the BPA and come away with someone useful in the draft rather doing something completely out of left field like take a massive reach on Nikola Jovic or something like Vlade probably would have.

 

[The Effort Police]

Chet
Jabari
Paolo
Ivey
Benn
Murray
Davis
Sharpe
Duren
Griffin
Ochai
TyTy
Tari Eason
Sochan
Dyson Daniels
Kendall Brown


There's really not a huge drop from the top ten to the next five or ten guys.

I doubt Sharpe's declaring, but I beg to differ.

Where I bolded is the drop off point (with Griffin very clearly projected to go higher), those guys may not be bad per se, but it's Mitchell over Giddey/Wagner/Kuminga all over again.

 

[The_Jamal]

you know it’s coming.
But winning culture or whatever.

What are we supposed to do? Our 2 best players are out and 2 of our top 8 players (TD, Holmes) are out. Gentry held Barnes to 32 minutes rather than his normal 36-38+. Vets Lyles and Holiday played 22 minutes. I guess the only thing would be playing Len over Queta, but lets be real; that changes nothing.

Can't tell dudes like Damian Jones or Metu to cool down and not play hard. They're fighting for their NBA careers. And like it or not, we actually have to put 5 guys on the court. It's very annoying obviously, but this isn't like past KANGZ end of season games where we run all our fully healthy vets into the ground against bad teams.

Outside of just straight up trying to throw the game on purpose, this is about as hard we can tank.

 

[Tetsujin]

I doubt Sharpe's declaring, but I beg to differ.

Where I bolded is the drop off point (with Griffin very clearly projected to go higher), those guys may not be bad per se, but it's Mitchell over Giddey/Wagner/Kuminga all over again.

Before the tourney I would have agreed with you but there's so much noise about him declaring at this point that I'd be surprised if he didn't.

 

[SacTownKid]

Yeah, I at least have faith in Monte to pick the BPA and come away with someone useful in the draft rather to do something completely out of left field like take a massive reach on Nikola Jovic or something like Vlade probably would have.

And it's to the point where as long as he doesn't reach on Duren, they all fit in some way. Griffin, Davis, Murray, Mathurin, all fill a role and probably jump the current starter in the lineup.

 

[Tetsujin]

What are we supposed to do? Our 2 best players are out and 2 of our top 8 players (TD, Holmes) are out. Gentry held Barnes to 32 minutes rather than his normal 36-38+. Vets Lyles and Holiday played 22 minutes. I guess the only thing would be playing Len over Queta, but lets be real; that changes nothing.

Can't tell dudes like Damian Jones or Metu to cool down and not play hard. They're fighting for their NBA careers. And like it or not, we actually have to put 5 guys on the court. It's very annoying obviously, but this isn't like past KANGZ end of season games where we run all our fully healthy vets into the ground against bad teams.

Yeah, compared to last season when we won a bunch of games with Delon Wright and Buddy, it's hard to complain about winning on the back of Davion Mitchell looking like a star and Damian Jones and Chimezie Metu rewarding the Kings player development efforts by having solid nights.

 

[SacTownKid]

Before the tourney I would have agreed with you but there's so much noise about him declaring at this point that I'd be surprised if he didn't.

He should be a first rounder in this draft. It gets pretty weak on physical beasts past about 18-19 or so. If he's a first rounder and pulls out then he's listenting to the wrong people. From then on it becomes a question of how high he can rise.