Kings schedule for final year at Sleep Train

[The Hammer]

2-6 seems like pessimism to the extreme. Is 2-6 a potential start? Yes. But I think it is highly unlikely. We are the clear favorite against the Lakers at home. If we are anywhere as good as we think we are, home games against Memphis, LAC, Houston, and a road game against Phoenix should be 50/50 affairs. A road game at LAC, and home games against Warriors and Spurs don't feel hopeless, but are probably closer to winnable underdog games. To go 2-6, you would basically have to go 1-3 in 50/50 games and lose all three winnable/underdog games. If we are going to win 1 out of every 7 home games against playoff teams and road games against .500 teams, we are in for a VERY LONG season.
This feels more like a 4-4, with a potential of 5-3 or 3-5. 2-6 just seems so unlikely unless we are really bad again.

On the POSITIVE side, it's going to force this team to focus and galvanize early, which is exactly what I think this team needs. And if we go 5-3 or better in those first 8, against that schedule, there will be buzz, and confidence.

 

[gunks]

Boogie is gonna drop back to back 20/20 games on those LA d-bags.

 

[King Baller]

I hate the Clippers, but they improved over the offseason. They have the talent to be a top seed in the West and we could potentially lose both (the pessimistic side of me says we will).

I hate the LA Clippers also. Cuban almost neutered that bunch but we know how that turned out. The Kings can beat the Clippers so I don't have the doom and gloom

 

[Entity]

I was just pointing out the easier ones, but to be frank, until I see what we look like on the court, I will not just hand out wins against contenders and playoff teams. If I have learned one thing over the years with this team, expect the unexpected and nothing is ever a sure thing.

Sentiments are understood. But talent level top to bottom is unprecedented for this team for at least 10 years. Now had we just added a draft pick and a middle of the road free agent as normal I would hold back optimism yet again. This just feels different very different. For instance had we stood pat and added WCS and Bellineli everybody would be excited that was two holes. But we plugged those two and three more with legit NBA talent with Rondo, Koufos, and butler

Additions only
Rondo
Bellineli
Butler
WCS
Koufos

if that were an NBA starting lineup its middle of the pack in East

 

[NewArena]

We could potentially start the season 2-6, which would not be a good thing. Clippers twice, Memphis, Houston, Warriors, Spurs. Only winnable games are vs Lakers and Suns. We start the season off with a tougher schedule again, although we get to be at home for most of them (not that we have been a great home team, but we player tougher at home).

On a positive note: Our schedule the last month become significantly easier to handle with only a handful of tough teams, so if we are making a playoff push, it will allow us to maybe sneak in... (bold=winnable, italicized=tougher, but still winnable). If literally everything falls into place from March-April, we could potentially go 15-4. Unlikely, but still encouraging.

Mar. 11 Orlando 10:00
Mar. 13 Utah 6:00
Mar. 15 at Los Angeles 10:30 (Lakers)
Mar. 16 New Orleans 10:00
Mar. 18 at Detroit 7:30
Mar. 20 at New York 7:30
Mar. 21 at Chicago 8:00
Mar. 23 at Minnesota 8:00
Mar. 25 Phoenix 10:00
Mar. 27 Dallas 6:00
Mar. 28 at Portland 10:00
Mar. 30 Washington 10:00
Apr. 1 Miami 10:00
Apr. 2 at Denver 9:00
Apr. 5 Portland 10:00
Apr. 7 Minnesota 10:00
Apr. 9 Oklahoma City 10:30
Apr. 11 at Phoenix 10:00
Apr. 13 at Houston 8:00

oh wow. i actually love the look of this depending on where we are

 

[HereWeBoogie]

I just hope they don't fall on their faces on ESPN & TNT

Well the TNT games are against Lakers and Knicks so yea, that would be embarassing.

and ESPN games will be a chance to prove ourselves on a national stage, Spurs & Rockets

 

[Sac.1989]

nothing like starting up against the clips.

Demarcus will be ready thats for sure and his new running mate Rondo wont be showing no love to CP3.

 

[Team_Dime]

I'm so glad to see that 2 of our first 3 games are up against the Clippers. Cousins normally tears it up against their frontline. I couldn't be anymore excited! Though it would have been great to face lesser opposition at least for our opener.

Rondo
Belinelli
Gay
Cousins
Koufus

That in my opinion is the line up that will win us the most games this season. However, specifically against the clippers, it just won't work. I'm interested to see what line up Karl will bring out to match up on opening day against LA.

 

[KingMilz]

Sentiments are understood. But talent level top to bottom is unprecedented for this team for at least 10 years. Now had we just added a draft pick and a middle of the road free agent as normal I would hold back optimism yet again. This just feels different very different. For instance had we stood pat and added WCS and Bellineli everybody would be excited that was two holes. But we plugged those two and three more with legit NBA talent with Rondo, Koufos, and butler

Additions only
Rondo
Bellineli
Butler
WCS
Koufos

if that were an NBA starting lineup its middle of the pack in East

No chance, they would be at the very bottom of the East I know the East sucks but come on this is the NBA they might be middle of the pack in EuroLeague.

 

[randymoss1881]

I hate the LA Clippers also. Cuban almost neutered that bunch but we know how that turned out. The Kings can beat the Clippers so I don't have the doom and gloom

Agreed also don't let Smiths playoffs fool you he was bad last year and if Lance stays Lance that bench would be terrible. They have 0 answer for Gay/Cousins and I'll take Collison, Marco, Casspi, and WCS over Rivers, Lance(PER worse than Ben), Johnson, and Smith. Also the Memphis game at home is off of 2 days rest while Memphis would have played GS the night before as well as us being the 3rd game in 4 nights.

 

[randymoss1881]

I was reading 'Nik Stauskas' Replacement' on FanSided for iOS and I thought you might be interested in reading it too.
http://aroyalpain.com/2015/08/10/nik-stauskas-replacement/

This article states replacing Nik with Belinelli offers a 5.94 wins over replacement. Now add that and what Collison would do replacing Ray/Sessions off the bench.

 

[Bricklayer]

This is good news:

Sean Cunningham ‏@News10Sean 2m2 minutes ago
Hearing Kings will play 9 of first 11 games & 6 straight at home to open the 2015-16 season in Sacramento.

Starting with a heavy dose of home cooking should play in the Kings favor.I'm calling the first 11 games 7 wins and 4 losses

So, the pendulum swings back again. The Kings always either start off with one of the easiest or one of the hardest opening months in the league. In 2012-13 and 2013-14 we had extremely easy early season schedules, which ended up kind of sucking because we were in chaos, got off to lousy starts, and wasted all of our cake games early. The numbers may not have said it, but we were out of the playoff hunt by mid-December. Then last year we started off with the toughest damn schedule in the entire league, and we were crushing it...until far more unlikely and idiotic circumstances again had us out of the playoff hunt by mid-December.

So this year we're back to the 12-13/13-14 early cake schedule, burning up a huge chunk of our home games in the opening weeks. Given our circumstances I like that. What we precisely need is to start winning so we can start gelling early. But given that for the 10th or season in a row we are again a roster in transition, there is always the chance we'll be disorganized and still learning early on, and if we blow it again... Well, bottom line is we can't. The opportunity is there to again have a winning November, and its one we absolutely need to take advantage of.

 

[KingMilz]

I'm so glad to see that 2 of our first 3 games are up against the Clippers. Cousins normally tears it up against their frontline. I couldn't be anymore excited! Though it would have been great to face lesser opposition at least for our opener.

Rondo
Belinelli
Gay
Cousins
Koufus

That in my opinion is the line up that will win us the most games this season. However, specifically against the clippers, it just won't work. I'm interested to see what line up Karl will bring out to match up on opening day against LA.

I'm the opposite view lets for a second assume the Kings will be a "legit"team this year it's better to play and catch all these good teams by surprise to start of the season and if we lose to them well no big deal we were meant to lose to them. I rather play the harder teams before they are in a groove since most the elite teams are veteran type teams. Most the scrub teams normally fly out of the gates with all there energy (see us last year/Philly and Lakers year before).

 

[The Hammer]

Sentiments are understood. But talent level top to bottom is unprecedented for this team for at least 10 years. Now had we just added a draft pick and a middle of the road free agent as normal I would hold back optimism yet again. This just feels different very different. For instance had we stood pat and added WCS and Bellineli everybody would be excited that was two holes. But we plugged those two and three more with legit NBA talent with Rondo, Koufos, and butler

Additions only
Rondo
Bellineli
Butler
WCS
Koufos

if that were an NBA starting lineup its middle of the pack in East

You forgot Acy.

And possibly Mbah a Moute.

That top 7 is a borderline playoff rotation in the East.

And again, those are just our additions.

 

[randymoss1881]

You forgot Acy.

And possibly Mbah a Moute.

That top 7 is a borderline playoff rotation in the East.

And again, those are just our additions.

But we are only winning 30-34 games don't you watch TV.

 

[The Hammer]

But we are only winning 30-34 games don't you watch TV.

Sorry, that's right, I keep forgetting. I guess I'll have to repeat it ad nauseam to myself to block out the obvious truth that we'll win more, just like the TV people do. Thank you for reminding me to defer to my masters. Please don't give up on me sir.

 

[KingMilz]

You forgot Acy.

And possibly Mbah a Moute.

That top 7 is a borderline playoff rotation in the East.

And again, those are just our additions.

How? Boston with Rondo/Sullinger/KO/Jeff Green and Avery Bradley was not doing anything in the East and that's a FAR FAR more talented group. There is no way any team in the NBA would make the playoffs with our ''additions' as there starting roster.

I know we had a great off season and I love the moves we made but they are a solid bench and that's it.