[Game] Kings v. Heat - Wednesday, March 14 - 7 PDT

The team plays quantifiably worse with Z-Bo on the court so it's not like the fact he's playing is the main reason we're losing draft position.
I think there's a couple reasons for it. One, he still leads the team in usage and tied for taking the most shots last night. Two, he has dominant games where he does in fact lead them to wins that they probably would not have won. I can think of about 5 off the top of my head that were 100% because of ZBo.

Very entertaining game last night but you can't help but have a lump in your throat when watching it while you cross off the top prospects in the draft.
 
ALL wins matter. Who's going to forget this March win in a losing season 1 year from now? oh wait....EVERYONE.

these wins are good for teaching the young guys not to lose. oh wait....we have 40 losses already?

I'm tired of playing ZBo. Tired of these excuses for playing ZBo. It's obvious that the Kings don't care about their draft position this year. Oh well. OH WAIT.
ZBO is actually really, really good for the tank though :

Offense Rating:

On- 104
Off- 104

Defense Rating:
On- 116.6!!!!! (lol)
Off- 109.9


But once again, am I supposed to be mad about:

Fox- 20 points, 3 assists, 2 rebounds, 1 turnover, 9/14 FGA, 35 minutes and the clutch shot to send it to OT?
Buddy- 24 points, 3 assists, 6 rebounds, 0 turnovers, 9/16 FGA, 31 minutes
WCS- 10 points, 3 assists, 9 rebounds, 2 turnovers, 3 steals, 2 blocks, 3/10 FGA, 36 minutes
Frank- 11 points, 2 assists, 4 rebounds, 0 turnovers, 3/6 FGA, 17 minutes

Bogdan- 14 points, 3 assists, 3 rebounds, 1 turnover, 5/14 FGA, 32 minutes

So not the greatest game from Bogdan, but I'd wager the above 4 guys had just as much to do with this win as ZBO did, if not moreso. Also worth pointing out that the Heat were missing 2 of their best players in Richardson and Whiteside, which significantly closed the talent gap between us as teams.

What are we supposed to do? Rest the young guys? We actually get better as a team when ZBO is off the floor, so how does that help the tank? Throw out a Cooley-Jakkar-Bruno led starting lineup? Fact is there are just 3-4 teams who are worse trash-can franchises than we are and are damn near impossible to out-tank unless we want to start resting Bogdan/Fox/WCS, etc.
 
Getting mad as a collective should do something about this front office. What the hell are we trying to do? Trade away are star and rebuild only to sign a bunch of redundant vets that are helping us win games against other subpar teams.

Vlade has no vision, he is an incompetent GM and he is the reason why we don’t have the luxury of tanking next year because we don’t have a first round pick.
"the luxury of tanking".... smh. no words
 
FYI, we have the 3rd worse offensive rating and the 2 worst defensive rating in the NBA but we are currently tied to pick 7th.

Some how we are only fanbase in the NBA that thinks this is ok. Everyone else would be rioting wondering why we are winning meaningless games. Yet here we are, content, using words like “winning culture” to justify the front office incompetence.
a 46 point blowout will do that to your stats.

be like Tom Brady - use it as a lesson to your kids "you can't lose every one".
 
Oh look, someone who was actually there had fun tonight.

Some of y'all are just toxic. Leave it on the tank threads please.
I like Carmichael Dave a lot as a radio guy and twitter personality, but I actually muted his twitter this week because it is this constant tank harangue and it is depressing - it is like poison. When the season is over I'll listen again and unmute the twitter but I am not wanting to surround my self with a few more weeks of "rooting to lose" all the time. it's toxic. Making it so you can't enjoy games like this or the win over the Knicks is twisted.
 

kingsboi

Hall of Famer
Despite the Heat missing two starters, this was one of those rare entertaining Kings games from start to finish and the Kings youngins competed, made an effort to play some defense and moved the ball well and while I'm all for the tank, I can't complain about this one too much because other than Z-Bo, the majority of the points came from players who should be contributing.
 
Seriously though, if Skal is healthy, I'm sure Z-Bo isn't getting those minutes. That should at least temper that argument for this game.

As for the big picture, think about the last few games - it HAS been the youth leading the Kings to wins. If anything, you should be frustrated with Joerger for getting the kids to play well. For teaching them how to play well in close games, for learning to close out a win. That will pay dividends during upcoming seasons, which is more important than learning how to lose. Or maybe, we can tank it all to hell, get the #1 pick, and waste his talent because no one knows how to win a damn game.

How many times have we had a more talented roster underperform? Maybe this team doesn't have a superstar. Maybe he already exists on the roster, but is growing into the role. Maybe he's Giles. I'm not sure. Neither is anyone else. Maybe we end up with the #1 pick in the draft, and he shows up and mentally forgets how to play the game of basketball. That's apparently a thing that happens nowadays.
That's a lot of "maybe" on both sides of the argument.

The point is, enjoy this win. The players we want leading the charge are the ones that are doing it when it matters.
 
Surpassing Mitchell? You so funny. Fox is not even on the same planet, talent wise. Mitchell will be an All Star next year. I like Fox, but outside of his clutch moments, I don’t see All Star. All Stars are not always clutch and vice versa. All star players bring it every night, score a lot, and make the players around them better. I am yet to see those qualities from Fox. Not saying he won’t develop, but O do t see it now. Mitchell has all three of those aforementioned in spades, Now.
Donovan is more physically mature than De'Aaron. But De'Aaron does not take a backseat in terms of talent. The questions regarding De'Aaron were related to his shot. I never doubted his shot. His mechanics are nice. He just needed more reps and confidence. To say Fox is not on the same planet as Mitchell is troll level hyperbole, and I say that as someone who forecast stardom for both players.

Donovan has an NBA body. De'Aaron is getting there. Mitchell has the range advantage. Fox cannot shoot several feet beyond the three point line like Mitchell. But Fox has more end to end speed with the ball in his hands. Both Donovan and De'Aaron create separation with their speed and juke moves. Both have makings of lock down defenders.

The reason that Donovan performance curve is ahead of Fox like I said is due to physical maturity. Mitchell can bounce off defenders and play through contact. Fox is more susceptible to getting thrown off balance and the refs not giving him the call.

Moreover the Jazz enable his learning curve by granting him high usage to start the season in which he was 35% FGs over the first 10 games or so. They took the training wheels off. The Kings kept the training wheels on with Fox, with their Z-Bo centered offense and George Hill sharing the PG responsibilities.

Whether this slowed or aided his development is debatable. From my eyes the more Z-Bo gets out of his way, the more Fox seems to thrive.

It also has to be nice for Mitchell to have Gobert behind him defensively so he can take more chances whereas Fox is trying to slow the opponent with Z-Bo and Willie behind him and in pick and roll. This is not helpful to his overall game. This is a rational comparison of the two players not your histrionic conclusions.
 
Yes thank god we are picking in in the middle of lottery when all the stars will be gone. 12 years of this crap, still no direction, Vlade is out there blabing about cap space. Lol like anyone would want to sign with us. He can’t seem to hit on a draft pick outside of the top 5 and watch him waste it another no name from Europe next year.
Yeah, a real gloomy picture. Happily, I see it as quite the opposite. Hey, we won a good one, come join the celebration.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
I was just catching up on my Twitter reading. Did anybody else know RON BURKLE was at G1C last night? I mean, RON EFFING BURKLE - the guy who struck FEAR into the hearts of the Maloofs? I certainly hope he received a nice ovation.
 
I was just catching up on my Twitter reading. Did anybody else know RON BURKLE was at G1C last night? I mean, RON EFFING BURKLE - the guy who struck FEAR into the hearts of the Maloofs? I certainly hope he received a nice ovation.
Didn't he say he was going to invest in Sacramento still?
 
The team plays quantifiably worse with Z-Bo on the court so it's not like the fact he's playing is the main reason we're losing draft position.
Precisely! ZBo has actually been instrumental in some of our loses this year. Every now and then he will have a good game like he did against Miami (though he gives up as many points as he scores if not more) but overall if you want to lose, have him on the floor.