[Game] Kings @ Rockets, 11/6/2023 5pm Pacific 8pm Eastern

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I mentioned this last year myself.

If you squint hard enough, Lyles is sort of the PF we’d be looking for next to Sabonis. Let’s review his attributes…
  • Great size & length (6’9” w/o shoes with a 7’1.5” wingspan & a 9’0” standing reach)
  • Good shooter (.363 3P% on 6.9 3PA per 36 min, .446 Corner 3P%, and .815 FT%
  • Efficient role playing scorer (16.2 PTS per 36 min and .607 TS%)
  • Good rebounder (8.7 REB per 36 min)
  • Decent rim protector (0.9 BLK per 36 min)
  • Okay defender
  • Solid BBIQ
  • Got a bit of an edge/toughness to him

In a vacuum, I don’t think he’s a better player than Barnes but I think his fit in the starting lineup (and more importantly next to Sabonis) could have a synergistic effect. He’s definitely much different from Barnes in terms of size/length, rim protection, rebounding, and edge/fire.

Barnes is the better iso scorer which we could take advantage of when Fox and/or Sabonis are off the floor and Barnes’ is matched up with weaker 2nd units. Monk and Barnes would be solid go-to scorers in a 2nd unit to help keep us afloat while Lyles brings some other attributes to the starting unit that we could really use.

You obviously have to sell Barnes on it, but when he was a kid, he did witness a starter level player in Iguodala accept a bench role on his Warriors team helping them win a championship (not to mention that Barnes doesn’t have to worry about being moved to the bench in a contract year).
Nice analysis
 
I’m as low on Barnes as anyone, but what the heck has Sasha done to take his spot? Lol
Sasha should be a great fit and I think adds a little bit of grit to that starting lineup.

Same with Duarte, his defense is much needed and hopefully his offense could be solid enough
 

hrdboild

Moloch in whom I dream Angels!
Staff member
Barnes needs to come off the bench.

Sasha should take his spot.

Then you can replace Huerter with Duarte.

I think the team would be much better.
Huerter shot 40% on 510 three point attempts last season. Duarte shot 31.6% on 174 three point attempts last season. It's been 6 games. Huerter isn't going to shoot 24% from deep all year. He's not a great defensive player but what he provides in floor spacing is essential to this team's success on offense. Keegan and Kevin each giving us 2-3 triples a game at elite percentages was what made the Fox and Sabonis pairing elite. Both are struggling with their shot at the same time right now and that's a killer combination but not having Fox out there pulling in defenders probably has a lot to do with that.

Barnes is who he is at this point. When everything else is clicking he'll fill in the gaps and contribute but don't expect him to carry the offense or provide vocal leadership. When the team is playing it's worst is often when he's most invisible. I don't know that Lyles (a career backup) or Vezenkov (with 86 minutes played in the NBA to date) is going to be any better for us in the starting lineup given their defensive limitations but moving Barnes into a bench role seems to fit more with who he is at this point in time. The better move might be to put Monk in the starting lineup. At least we know Malik's not going to pass up open shots.

The hope is still that we can find that magical 5th player to compliment our core group but to replace Barnes and elevate the starting lineup above what it is now we'd need to find someone who can be a defensive stopper and a knockdown shooter and that player isn't really a role-player -- they're a star. Nobody is trading us a star for our role-players so it's an open question how we find this imaginary player.
 
I mean at this point I’m pretty much full on the “Monk as the full time backup PG” train while getting some extra minutes at SG to get him into that 24-30 mpg role, but the pretend GM inside of me would hate to crater Mitchell’s value by benching him.

We don’t have a pick in the 2024 draft (unless we somehow are bad enough to where our 1st doesn’t convey to ATL). Wondering if there are any teams out there that would be looking to surrender a late 1st for Mitchell’s services?
 
I mean at this point I’m pretty much full on the “Monk as the full time backup PG” train while getting some extra minutes at SG to get him into that 24-30 mpg role, but the pretend GM inside of me would hate to crater Mitchell’s value by benching him.

We don’t have a pick in the 2024 draft (unless we somehow are bad enough to where our 1st doesn’t convey to ATL). Wondering if there are any teams out there that would be looking to surrender a late 1st for Mitchell’s services?
I'd love to try and snag Caruso from the Bulls, especially if they decide to firesale at the deadline. Free option to look at Davion for next season+ 2 2nds? That seems highly competitive offer for me, unless someone actually parts with a First.

But yeah, you also have to weigh Davion being one of the worst offensive players in the NBA and continuing to stink it up tanking his value as well. Especially when we have an army of 2/3 developmental guy(Colby/Duarte/Keon/Kessler)we can try out in that slot with Monk moving over to full-time ball-handler
 
Barnes is who he is at this point. When everything else is clicking he'll fill in the gaps and contribute but don't expect him to carry the offense or provide vocal leadership. When the team is playing it's worst is often when he's most invisible. I don't know that Lyles (a career backup) or Vezenkov (with 86 minutes played in the NBA to date) is going to be any better for us in the starting lineup given their defensive limitations but moving Barnes into a bench role seems to fit more with who he is at this point in time. The better move might be to put Monk in the starting lineup. At least we know Malik's not going to pass up open shots.
It's interesting though, that seemingly everyone claims that Barnes has been an integral part of their culture and "locker room". Maybe it's all by quiet professionalism, with little on the vocal end?

What are Lyles' defensive limitations as a power forward? The obvious difference being that he is a 4/5 and Barnes is a 3/4, with each having their advantages
 
I want Fox healthy, but I'm honestly kind of glad he's not playing vs POR. I think the core sans Fox needs the opportunity to redeem themselves and get some confidence back.
The Blazers will also be without Anfernee Simons, Scoot Henderson, and Time Lord. Shadeon Sharpe might be their best player right now.

If we lose against these Blazers……
 
We should be able to beat these guys without Fox. I like giving the guys a(nother) chance at redemption. Hopefully they can do it.

I really wish Davion was more on offense. When he was guarding Curry in the playoffs he did great on that end. Im liking a fox-hueter(for now)-monk guard rotation. If they put guards on Keegan he needs to eat. Go get 30 Keegan.
 

Kingster

Hall of Famer
With how sensitive the league has become, guys are probably reluctant to act on "send a message" plays, because if it happens to look excessive, they know they'll be suspended. Which could hurt the team, already being short handed
They don't have to be blatant about it. There are "accidental on purpose" hits that may or may not get calls. See Draymond Green for a zillion examples. He's a master of it. Sabonis can't do it because he's too important to the team. Lyles is the only other guy on this team that has shown some backbone. Everybody else believes in turning the other cheek.
 
Is Davion really that horrible on offense?

He must be shooting 35% on wide open shots from 3pt and not sure what else you really want him to do.

He brings it on defense (although I admit I haven't been paying as much attention on defense this year)
 

Kingster

Hall of Famer
Is Davion really that horrible on offense?

He must be shooting 35% on wide open shots from 3pt and not sure what else you really want him to do.

He brings it on defense (although I admit I haven't been paying as much attention on defense this year)
It doesn't seem to work with Mitchell. What I keep thinking about is last year in Game 7 of the playoffs Brown doesn't use him in guarding Curry, who scores 50. Then in the last Warriors game Brown uses him to guard Thompson, who in turn easily shoots over him for the win. In the Houston game Mitchell seemed very ineffective on offense, not breaking down the defense well enough to scare Houston into leaving open Kings' players on the perimeter, which in turn made life difficult for King shooters. Also in the Houston game I would never have known that there was a very good defensive guard on the floor for the Kings, as Houston made mince-meat out of dribble drive penetration. In other games the Kings have played, Mitchell has made some good plays on defense, but they are sporadic and not consistent enough to have any clear impact on the game. Also, he doesn't shut a particularly hot player down on the opposing team because teams will just force the Kings to switch him off onto a player who is a lesser offensive threat, negating his effectiveness. Overall, I just don't see the impact that I was hoping for.
 
We don’t have a pick in the 2024 draft (unless we somehow are bad enough to where our 1st doesn’t convey to ATL). Wondering if there are any teams out there that would be looking to surrender a late 1st for Mitchell’s services?
things could get pretty tricky for us as far as outside improvement going forward.

if we make the playoffs our tradable assets are
#26 first
#27 swap
#28 first
#29 swap
not going to list seconds or future firsts as seconds don’t have enough value and too risky to trade firsts that far down the road
KVon -would have really solid value around the league
Hb - would have value both as a contract and as a serviceable wing with a history of durability and shooting. I’d say comparable to what Brogdon’s value is.
Davion- I get the feeling Davion figured things out a little later in his career on his second or third team. I don’t think he has much trade value right now unfortunately

if we miss the playoffs we could trade our draft night selection again and a 28 but that might no get us what we want.

If we miss the playoffs, we can say goodbye to Keegan as he is the only player with a ton of value (won’t trade Fox and can’t trade Sabonis) ugh, I really hope that doesn’t happen.
 
Is Davion really that horrible on offense?

He must be shooting 35% on wide open shots from 3pt and not sure what else you really want him to do.

He brings it on defense (although I admit I haven't been paying as much attention on defense this year)
Play make and open up the defense....he provides little of this. Teams want him to shoot lots of outside shots, even if he hits a couple.

He'd probably have been better suited as a football defensive back
 
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Is Davion really that horrible on offense?

He must be shooting 35% on wide open shots from 3pt and not sure what else you really want him to do.

He brings it on defense (although I admit I haven't been paying as much attention on defense this year)
They can layoff him and sag the paint. When he drives he gets blocked even when getting by people. And he doesn't move enough when off the ball.
He's a situational defensive guy, not your backup pg.

If only he was a few inches taller.
 
Guys....small sample size after getting roasted two games in a row.

Of course the stats are going to be wildly skewed when comparing them to a guy who didn't play the last two games.

They aren't meaningless but they aren't some sort of smoking gun either. We're talking about 6 games.
 
Guys....small sample size after getting roasted two games in a row.

Of course the stats are going to be wildly skewed when comparing them to a guy who didn't play the last two games.

They aren't meaningless but they aren't some sort of smoking gun either. We're talking about 6 games.
The stats are not really relevant at the moment. We need a sample size of 20-30 games to conclude anything.
 
The Blazers will also be without Anfernee Simons, Scoot Henderson, and Time Lord. Shadeon Sharpe might be their best player right now.

If we lose against these Blazers……
Yeah, hopefully we got the "We're too good to show up for a lesser opponent" bug out of us. Vegas has us as 8 point favorites, even after the whooping Hou put on us.
Is Davion really that horrible on offense?

He must be shooting 35% on wide open shots from 3pt and not sure what else you really want him to do.

He brings it on defense (although I admit I haven't been paying as much attention on defense this year)
We're 23 points worse offensively with him with the starters compared to Fox. Not all on him obviously and we can't expect him to compare to Fox... but he certainly hasn't been passable in the slightest. Which is how we got away with it last year when Fox missed 9 games
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
Yeah, hopefully we got the "We're too good to show up for a lesser opponent" bug out of us. Vegas has us as 8 point favorites, even after the whooping Hou put on us.


We're 23 points worse offensively with him with the starters compared to Fox. Not all on him obviously and we can't expect him to compare to Fox... but he certainly hasn't been passable in the slightest. Which is how we got away with it last year when Fox missed 9 games
The wild thing is that there are similar splits with him and Colby in regards to the bench unit where the team has a positive rating with Colby on the floor and a mindnumbingly bad net rating with Davion instead of him. It's obviously not all Davion's fault and yet... the stats sorta say that it is?
 
The stats are not really relevant at the moment. We need a sample size of 20-30 games to conclude anything.
Agreed. And while Davion hasn't been a good NBA offensive player in his career, he's been better than this. So positive regression should be coming.

But still, something to be cognizant of moving forward. Especially if we keep dropping games early
 
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