[Game] Kings v. Magic - Monday, Jan. 13 - 7PT/10ET

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Unfortunately, I don't think we had any great options in that position with Holmes out. It's funny too because they didn't even really try to force Marvin to help. Fournier was trying to iso Fox and Marvin was overhelping WAY off Vucevic who is a good shooter, even from 3. He kinda just screened Fox in the process, which I think would've infuriated me if Fournier took and made the shot rather than pass to Gordon (whom Ariza left while getting caught in no man's land himself).
yeah I agree, Ariza is cooked and we should be playing younger players. People forget in our winning streak Ariza was out also.
 
Kind of like a typical kings game. We get to within 2, then go down 10. Hopefully we get a late surge like typical kardiac kings fashion and eek into a playoffs like we eek out some close wins.
we are 4 games back in the loss column and dependent on a young kid with zero concept of team defense. Ideally the would put Bagley in the G league and have him play 35 minutes a game and tell him he can’t shoot with his left hand. He has tons of talent but very little Defensive understanding. We can’t have both Bagley and Buddy that way and ever be a winning team.
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
we are 4 games back in the loss column and dependent on a young kid with zero concept of team defense. Ideally the would put Bagley in the G league and have him play 35 minutes a game and tell him he can’t shoot with his left hand. He has tons of talent but very little Defensive understanding. We can’t have both Bagley and Buddy that way and ever be a winning team.
This is probably not the best game to be saying this after. Bagley was really good in his minutes tonight (particularly his second stint).
 
So ----- the KINGS surrender 65 points in the 1st half and lose to the lowest scoring team in the league. Sounds about right.

Is there anybody here that didn't think the KINGS would squander a phenomenal shooting effort from Belly and an A game from Swipa by 'easily' giving up that late basket?

As for the final play call ... PLEASE! The KINGS have shown that same action on a final play with Barnes going to the basket about a half dozen times so far this season. I'm sure teams have it scouted now. Do something else for pete's sake.

Lastly, I swear the KINGS are the worst team EVER at getting the ball in the hands of the clearly HOT player.

It's a crime for a player to be 13-16 and 8-10 from three to only have 16 shots in 33 minutes PT.

And please nobody tell me "the defense was taking him away" BS. I see nearly every other team able to get the ball to their hot players. Because they keep at it and make a concerted effort.

But never THIS team.

Belly should have scored 40+ tonight and might have scored 50 if the KINGS actually made an effort and knew how to get him the ball.
 
Also, if Walton isn't gonna play Justin James at all -- even though he's shown enough to warrant some PT -- can they at least send him down to G-League so the kid can get some work in? What's the point of him wasting away on the bench?

Seems to me he could be developed a bit better actually playing some ball.
 
Also, if Walton isn't gonna play Justin James at all -- even though he's shown enough to warrant some PT -- can they at least send him down to G-League so the kid can get some work in? What's the point of him wasting away on the bench?

Seems to me he could be developed a bit better actually playing some ball.
he did play in Stockton the previous night. Scored 30.
 
he did play in Stockton the previous night. Scored 30.
Ok then. My bad. I missed that somehow. Totally slipped past me.

Still, he needs to be down playing more often if Walton's not gonna give him more than 3 minutes a game (2 games ain't enough). It's called 'development'. I know you know what I'm talking about ;)
 
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Same old same old

Fox/Bjelly play well (normally add Holmes)
Buddy/Bagley low IQ
Barnes not sure if he even played and the rest meh at best

Bjelly is seriously one of the most underrated/underestimated players I have seen in a long time, the guy is a straight up baller, if Thibs/Joeger actually used him like he was in Europe (which is the way he played today) they might still have jobs (include Luke in that). Instead Thibs in particular wanted to make him a spot up shooter when he's a point forward.

Huge props to Fox with his brave play at both ends but he can't carry scrubs, when the two best players other than Fox are journeymen in Bjelica/Holmes who were discarded/thrown away by previous teams you got serious problems.

The Barnes contract is making the Landry/Thronton signings look respectable, Buddy not to far behind.
 
On Dec 16th the Kings were 12-14. They are now 15-25 with upcoming games against Dallas, Utah, and Miami.

Yikes!
It's now entering that phase where they have to be very cautious in how to proceed. You'd think by the end of the season the mark to get in will be around .500. The Kings are getting a bit heavy on the loss side at this point and they are currently the western bottom feeder starting to nosedive.
 
Honestly, I can't see Kings being a legit playoff candidate if we don't make some changes in our roster before the trade deadline. As I said many times in the past, each and every player is tradeable in my opinion, simply because we are a team that has no real superstar and we haven't been in the playoffs for the past 15 years or so. Developing young players is nice, but I have no 3 lives to wait for Divac to finally find the right combination of draft picks.

I'd personally consider some offers for Hield, Bogdan and Bagley. Hield and Bagley are decent young players, but they're not superstar caliber, not good defenders and not high BBIQ players. Bogdan on another hand is constantly injured and has no ability to play on a consistent level even when he's healthy. I'm sorry, but I'd rather have those 3 out and a legit superstar player and a young, developing player in. With Fox, Bjelica, Holmes and others, we could actually be a team.
 
This team isn't good enough to allow the Magic to score 25% greater than average in the 1H and then expect to win. The Kings should've won by 10 points last night. It is time for some changes, starting with Vlade.

The only untouchables are Fox and Bags. Fox is already flashing elite play. Bags has his black hole, one handed, and no defensive awareness warts, but you don't give up on a 20 year big with elite athleticism, who's played only 10 games into his second year.
 
What a demoralizing loss. Multiple guys played great and they still lost because they didn't get a stop.

Fox took over the game in the 4th and looked like an actual superstar who was assertive. He still needs to do this more often, especially earlier in game. As I mentioned earlier in this game thread, Fox has to realize that he's often the best player on the floor. When you're the best player on the floor you have to be assertive and make your presence known. Too often (especially early in games) he just floats around being "one of the guys" and not really doing anything to leave his imprint on the game. Heavy lies the crown as they say. When you're the best player you gotta take more responsibility that comes with it. I think he's starting to figure this out.

Bjelica was awesome and is an underrated player (by the league). Nobody ever talks about trading Bjelica but would be interesting to see if a contender is looking at him and if the Kings could pry a first round pick out of someone. He could help a lot of teams. He's doing his best to try and help this one but not enough guys around him playing well.

Bagley had a really good game on offense and wasn't awful on defense (had some moments). We actually saw Bagley dive hard to the rim and finish strong off a couple pick-n-rolls. The Magic were giving him a lot of open lanes to the rim and when he has it, he needs to explode and head right at the rim. Bagley still needs to learn (and want) to set better screens though. He seems to really avoid contact on his screens and you just can't do that as a big man in the NBA. If you have to make the screen "stick" and you can't do that if you're afraid of contact and side-stepping the guard that's about to come into contact with you. Sometime's it's effective as a change of pace trick "pick n slip" but Bagley looks to slip almost every screen and is clearly trying to avoid contact.

Buddy wasn't terrible but was just kinda around.

Barnes makes a lot of money to just constantly be a ghost out there. He doesn't play winning basketball. Not assertive and doesn't make anybody better. The last play going to Barnes was an exercise in futility because regardless of whether he was fouled or not, Barnes isn't going to make a game winning shot anyways. Throughout his career he's shown almost no clutch ability. It's too bad because he's a super guy and model citizen of what a "pro" should act like.......but on the court he's just blah.
 
Honestly, I can't see Kings being a legit playoff candidate if we don't make some changes in our roster before the trade deadline. As I said many times in the past, each and every player is tradeable in my opinion, simply because we are a team that has no real superstar and we haven't been in the playoffs for the past 15 years or so. Developing young players is nice, but I have no 3 lives to wait for Divac to finally find the right combination of draft picks.

I'd personally consider some offers for Hield, Bogdan and Bagley. Hield and Bagley are decent young players, but they're not superstar caliber, not good defenders and not high BBIQ players. Bogdan on another hand is constantly injured and has no ability to play on a consistent level even when he's healthy. I'm sorry, but I'd rather have those 3 out and a legit superstar player and a young, developing player in. With Fox, Bjelica, Holmes and others, we could actually be a team.
I would only trade Bagley if it nets us a star player. He’s still too young and raw to give up on just to become marginally better. Not even taking into account that his value probably isn’t sky high right now given his injury history and lack of growth from last season to this one.
 
When your identity is defense, and you give up 65 in the first half to the lowest scoring team in the League, you may have sealed your fate.
Kayte talked about defense last night. The Kings died by it last night.
 
I would only trade Bagley if it nets us a star player. He’s still too young and raw to give up on just to become marginally better. Not even taking into account that his value probably isn’t sky high right now given his injury history and lack of growth from last season to this one.
I don't think we can get a superstar caliber player if we trade Bagley one on one right now. However, if we put Hield or Bogdan (or maybe Barnes) in the package we could. Again, I have nothing against Bagley, but I want Kings to be a playoff team as soon as possible and I feel like we need to give up on Fox or Bagley in possible trade and I wouldn't give up on Fox. You said for yourself, Bagley is showing early signs of being injury-prone, he's not growing as fast as we hoped and his BBIQ is questionable.

If you look at 2nd picks on the previous few drafts, they managed to have pretty high impact on their teams right from the start and some of them are now already All-Star caliber players - Ja Morant, Brandon Ingram, D'Angelo Russell, etc.

Again, the question is - are we ready to bet on our young guys for a few more years and possibly end up with nothing or we'd considering sending away some talent to get a player who could finally push us to the playoffs? I'm all in for the 2nd option.
 

SLAB

Hall of Famer
As much as I’m not even a huge fan of Bagley the thought of admitting defeat and trading him already is one of the most asinine takes I have ever read. The Kings franchise is going to live or die by what he does or doesn’t become, and that’s very likely the cold hard reality of the situation.

This team needs to dive headlong into a proper rebuild. No more marginal but non-needle moving vets. The Kings have tried this song and dance dating back to the DeMarcus era. Trade Bjeli. Trade Bogi. Trade Dedmon. Trade Ariza. Try to stockpile picks. Maybe do something with said stockpiled picks. I don’t know exactly what, but what they’re doing isn’t working. The team is bad. Bad bad bad.

.... However, do I think the Kings have the right GM to manage a proper rebuild? LOL NO!
 
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I don't think we can get a superstar caliber player if we trade Bagley one on one right now. However, if we put Hield or Bogdan (or maybe Barnes) in the package we could. Again, I have nothing against Bagley, but I want Kings to be a playoff team as soon as possible and I feel like we need to give up on Fox or Bagley in possible trade and I wouldn't give up on Fox. You said for yourself, Bagley is showing early signs of being injury-prone, he's not growing as fast as we hoped and his BBIQ is questionable.

If you look at 2nd picks on the previous few drafts, they managed to have pretty high impact on their teams right from the start and some of them are now already All-Star caliber players - Ja Morant, Brandon Ingram, D'Angelo Russell, etc.

Again, the question is - are we ready to bet on our young guys for a few more years and possibly end up with nothing or we'd considering sending away some talent to get a player who could finally push us to the playoffs? I'm all in for the 2nd option.
Ingram and Russell are great examples... of guys who took a couple/few years to look like the player they were expected to become.
 
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