[Game] Kings v. Pelicans - Sunday, April 7 - 6PT/9ET

#34
Buddy... (post all star break).

Still, a good year to build on for him

Barnes playing well and impacting tonight, but we are going to see him do it regularly next year before any high extension
 
#43
Not sure why when Bjelica was hot, DJ left his butt cooling on the bench and went down the stretch with his small ball line-up. I guess it’s somewhat a fitting end to the post all-star break Kings.

Joeger getting Barnes proved to be problematic.
 
#44
The season can’t end soon enough. The players and coaches have hit a wall. I said it before, the silver lining is it is really clear who needs to be in our long term plans, those who are expendable and those who we need to part ways with right after the Portland game
 

SacTownKid

Hall of Famer
#45
Well, now the question is whether they get to 40 wins or not. I'd say not hitting at that 40 is a disappointment after how well they played early in the year. It's kind of a big symbolic shift.
 
#47
Well, now the question is whether they get to 40 wins or not. I'd say not hitting at that 40 is a disappointment after how well they played early in the year. It's kind of a big symbolic shift.
Question is if that even matters. They’ve clinched a losing season. The symbolism we were hoping for was a winning or even season. A “would’ve made the playoffs in the East” season but we aren’t even getting that since the 8th seed out East is likely to finish with 41 wins.

Kings just never made the next step and really phoned it in down the home stretch. So we been stuck at the “if I told you in August...” symbol which is fine going forward but disappointing when they lost a few games that should’ve been easy down the stretch that would change the narrative completely.
 
#51
Unfortunately this is the team I think we’re closer too. It’ll be another struggle to .500 next season.

(Still better than the 18 wins I expected. But we’re not close to a playoff team yet... even after another year of seasoning)
See its these kind of takes that infuriate me. This is an IMPROVING team. What we saw this year was an IMPROVEMENT. It's not the ceiling. What we will see next year is the next step. Fox will take the next step. Hield will take the next step. Bagley will improve. Giles will improve. Bogdan will play better within the team construct. See this year was a stepping stone.

To make a post like this is so asinine and short sighted it just drives me up the wall. No offense, as I like you. But you can be so irrationally emotional it is just insanely stupid.

Edit: I'm not calling this team a playoff team right now. It needs an offseason. But next year yeah, it will be a playoff team. Through natural progression, quite easily. Most teams in the West wont come back as currently constructed. But the Kings will.
 
#52
Nice to see we can't even beat the aggressively tanking Pelicans at this point. There goes .500, for whatever that's worth.

It's been a positive season overall, but the 2nd half of the year has really left a sour taste in my mouth.
 
#53
See its these kind of takes that infuriate me. This is an IMPROVING team. What we saw this year was an IMPROVEMENT. It's not the ceiling. What we will see next year is the next step. Fox will take the next step. Hield will take the next step. Bagley will improve. Giles will improve. Bogdan will play better within the team construct. See this year was a stepping stone.

To make a post like this is so asinine and short sighted it just drives me up the wall. No offense, as I like you. But you can be so irrationally emotional it is just insanely stupid.
No. What we saw in the first half this year was an improvement. We've sucked since the all star break. His prediction of regression is not asinine at all.
 
#54
No. What we saw in the first half this year was an improvement. We've sucked since the all star break. His prediction of regression is not asinine at all.
Yeah see my argument is this is a natural progression, a normalization. They played above their heads and all things being equal they normalized out to a slightly below .500 team. They didnt regress. They just stopped playing above their heads.
 
#55
Not sure why when Bjelica was hot, DJ left his butt cooling on the bench and went down the stretch with his small ball line-up. I guess it’s somewhat a fitting end to the post all-star break Kings.

Joeger getting Barnes proved to be problematic.
Belli was hot in the first. But couldn't guard a coke machine.

Buddy missed a lot of shots he normally hits. I think the record thing was in his head.
 
#56
Belli was hot in the first. But couldn't guard a coke machine.
And therein lies the natural progression of basketball. As teams naturally start tightening up for the postseason the young Kings playing free and loose started having shots blocked (Buddy, Fox, Bagley) and lanes closed as well as half court offenses exploiting low post weaknesses and half court switch weaknesses.

Learning experience.
 
#57
I feel bad for the kings fans at Golden1. They don't see buddy break the record. They don't see Anthony Davis, holiday or Randle. And they don't even get to see a kings win in the final home game of the season against a lottery bound team. :(
 
#58
I watched WrestleMania which seems like the smart play. Damn though. Still hoping for a big win to hit 40 on Wednesday (and a decent priced ticket to the game).
 

SLAB

Hall of Famer
#59
I really don’t think my reaction is irrational. And in no way am I saying we didn’t improve. Because we did. Is it really that crazy to say we played far above our heads and next year will be our legit .500 year?

The team is on the right path. There is reason to have hope. But we aren’t as far ahead of the schedule as it appeared even a few months ago.

To your point on the players... I only worry about Buddy. We were at our best when he was pretending to be Klay Thompson. Is he really that good? I honestly don’t think he is. That’s not a knock... but his highs this year are going to be tough to match.
 

SacTownKid

Hall of Famer
#60
Yeah 11-15 down the stretch as not good.

I hope they don't just let it roll over and really dissect some of the play style shift down that stretch and use it to improve like they apparently did last year when they tossed most of the grit and grind. Putting some back in the last few weeks hasn't had much positive effect.