Kings training camp 2025 open thread
- Thread starter Tetsujin
- Start date
QWERTYLICIOUS
Starter
CHAMPIONSHIP!!!
Who's hosting the official "KingsFans.com Championship Party" in June???
ShastaKingsFan
All-Star
Christie keeps talking about "picking up 94 feet", before he has a roster that proves that it can commit to a straight up man to man defense in a half court set. No sagging off to help, just stick with your man and don't give up open 3's. You will give up some easy 2's, but don't allow easy 3's. Call it high iQ analytical defense.
Optimism here escapes me
Optimism here escapes me
You want 94 feet then you need to start Carter, Keon, Nique, and Keegan.
I'll start this with the caveat that we have not played a real minute yet under the Perry/Christie regime, but I have a sneaking suspicion we've just been getting all talk this off-season. They can say all the right things in a presser about being a defensive-focused organization, build an identity, we're going to fight every game etc.... and we come out the 1st game with the exact same problems as last year, allow 54% from 3 and -10 3PM on the night.
I'm no NBA coach and I won't pretend to even come close to understanding the intricacies of how to run a professional organization, but my god how was this not the first thing addressed this off-season and training camp? How do you watch a year of being the worst 3pt defense in basketball and literally the first game has those same exact problems? And people can keep pretending it's all personal; there's significantly worse teams with far worse talent that don't get shot out of the building night in and night out.
Like you said, I'll gladly accept open lay-ups every so often if that means we're not leaving uncontested 3's the entire game. Step 1 to fixing the defense SHOULD have been "Hey guys, we are not going to be 30th in 3pt defense this year."
ShastaKingsFan
All-Star
I'm afraid that Doug tends to be quite "pie in the sky". I'd rather him get a feel for what his roster is truly capable of, before throwing unrealistic goals out into the media. I think most of it is based on what his individual mindset was for himself, instead of what is really the strength of this group of players. I hope it's not his downfall as a head coach
Telemachus
Starter
The idea that someone can't improve unless they are young is ridiculous. Not to mention, he is 23, not 25. BTW, almost every player improves after 25.
Insomniacal Fan
Starter
There are no teams in the NBA with a starting center that is significantly worse at rim protection. https://stathead.com/tiny/kbXL8.
It's analytically the right call to give up 3s instead of open layups. I'm no coach, but I think most modern NBA offenses are going to be able to figure out a way to exploit a weak point.
sactowndog
Hall of Famer
Yep this team is hampered by the personnel and by an owner who adamantly hires people who tell him what he wants to hear. Most people do that but our owner is a demonstrated idiot about sports so it’s problematic.
Doug excels at telling people what they want to hear but actually accomplishing it with this roster will be tough. The Monte era was way worse than people want to admit in terms of shaping the roster. It’s going to take time to fix this thing.
