40 years in Sacramento! 40 years of pain! Here’s to 40 more!
And so another year of pure pain and occasional beams shot into the night sky above G1C (recently named best arena in the league by ESPN, don’tcha know?) begins. G1C’s been around for eight seasons now but has never looked better and honestly given everything we had to go through (some of the members of this forum much more than others), all those years were worth it.
I just got back from three weeks back in Sacramento (okay, if we’re being fully transparent, it was Rancho Cordova, the home of Lester Holt, Seneca Wallace, and, more recently, Jacob Fatu) to visit the family and the difference between the last time I was back (I was technically back during the pandemic but that doesn’t count for obvious reasons) and now was stark. There are things to do downtown now! People actually like to spend time in the heart of the city! People are talking about the Kings again. There’s actually Kings merch at the airport! Our little city that could is, despite what some people may tell you, doing better than ever. And it’s all thanks to one permanently forlorn basketball team and its infinitely loyal fanbase.
Enough waxing poetic. Let’s talk some hoops!
The T-Wolves come into G1C tied for the worst record in the league and a particularly tumultuous month leading into the season in which they decided to trade their longest tenured player/everyone’s favorite 7’1” off-guard Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randle and former King Donte DiVincenzo, a trade viewed by many as a salary dump and others as a way to cut weight and really let Ant take over.
They also traded a unprotected pick in 2030 to the Spurs for Rob Dillingham, something that pundits absolutely had no issue with but is apparently terrible when it’s a pick swap in 2031done to facilitate bringing a third star to Sacramento. Dillingham didn’t play at all against the Lakers and probably won’t see much action tonight, seeing as how the Wolves were going with a tight Ant/Mike Conley/DDV guard rotation on opening night, which is a shame because he was one of my favorite players to watch in college basketball last season and someone I wanted us to look at in the event that Malik didn’t love it in Sacramento so much that he would sign an extension at below market value (which he did).
Other roster changes for the Wolves include the addition of 75-year-old Aussie forward Joe Ingles as a floor spacer who will get absolutely destroyed on defense at this point in his career if you play him more than three minutes at a time and the losses of Jordan McLaughlin (playing for the good guys) and Kyle Anderson (signed with the Warriors in free agency).
In other words, while the Timberwolves remain one of the best teams in the west, they might not quite be as talented as they were last season. With KAT gone, the T-Wolves are decidedly an Antman fueled team and the dude is perfectly capable of just winning one by himself on any given night. Rudy Gobert just signed a new contract extension to keep being the guy who plays DPOY defense in the regular season and unplayably awful defense in the playoffs. Naz Reid stole Malik Monk’s Sixth Man award. Mike Conley is very old now (he was drafted the same season as Kevin Durant) but still a high caliber offensive player. Orange Julius is still working his way into the Wolves system and his ball-pounding tendencies cause their offense to look out of sync at times in their opener. Jaden McDaniels is probably going to score 50 on us as revenge for the Kings effectively cutting his brother and ending his NBA career (probably).
For the Kings, it looks like Red Velvet is starting but I’d still expect Keon to get a lot of burn as Huerter works his way back into game shape. Trey Lyles is also active which means we’ll have another forward in the rotation who isn’t Isaac Jones or Doug McDermott.
Lineups:
Kings:
Sabonis/Len
Keegan/Trey/McBuckets
Derozan/Huerter
Huerter/Malik/Keon
Fox/JMac
Timberwolves:
Gobert/Randle/Iowan Hero Luka Garza
Randle/Naz Reid/Ingles
Jaden McDaniels/Nikeil Alexander-Walker
Anthony Edwards/Donte DiVincenzo
Mike Conley/Dillingham
Predictions
It won’t be an easy game. Minnesota is going to be pissed about how their last game went and no one wants to be the first team of the season to go on a losing streak. But I think the good guys will prevail in the end, sending the crowd home happy, with a bright beam lighting Minnesota’s path to the airport. Expect a big game from Deroz now that it’s actual season and not the preseason slog (plus he’s probably going to have Mike Conley on him for a lot of the game as the Wolves have to put McDaniels and Ant on Fox and Keegs. Also Domas is going to get hit in the face midway through the first quarter to announce the season really starting.
Kings 119, Wolves 111
It’s been three years(?!) since we lost VF21 but, as always, do what you can in her honor to LOVE THIS TEAM.
Go Kings! LTB
And so another year of pure pain and occasional beams shot into the night sky above G1C (recently named best arena in the league by ESPN, don’tcha know?) begins. G1C’s been around for eight seasons now but has never looked better and honestly given everything we had to go through (some of the members of this forum much more than others), all those years were worth it.
I just got back from three weeks back in Sacramento (okay, if we’re being fully transparent, it was Rancho Cordova, the home of Lester Holt, Seneca Wallace, and, more recently, Jacob Fatu) to visit the family and the difference between the last time I was back (I was technically back during the pandemic but that doesn’t count for obvious reasons) and now was stark. There are things to do downtown now! People actually like to spend time in the heart of the city! People are talking about the Kings again. There’s actually Kings merch at the airport! Our little city that could is, despite what some people may tell you, doing better than ever. And it’s all thanks to one permanently forlorn basketball team and its infinitely loyal fanbase.
Enough waxing poetic. Let’s talk some hoops!
The T-Wolves come into G1C tied for the worst record in the league and a particularly tumultuous month leading into the season in which they decided to trade their longest tenured player/everyone’s favorite 7’1” off-guard Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randle and former King Donte DiVincenzo, a trade viewed by many as a salary dump and others as a way to cut weight and really let Ant take over.
They also traded a unprotected pick in 2030 to the Spurs for Rob Dillingham, something that pundits absolutely had no issue with but is apparently terrible when it’s a pick swap in 2031done to facilitate bringing a third star to Sacramento. Dillingham didn’t play at all against the Lakers and probably won’t see much action tonight, seeing as how the Wolves were going with a tight Ant/Mike Conley/DDV guard rotation on opening night, which is a shame because he was one of my favorite players to watch in college basketball last season and someone I wanted us to look at in the event that Malik didn’t love it in Sacramento so much that he would sign an extension at below market value (which he did).
Other roster changes for the Wolves include the addition of 75-year-old Aussie forward Joe Ingles as a floor spacer who will get absolutely destroyed on defense at this point in his career if you play him more than three minutes at a time and the losses of Jordan McLaughlin (playing for the good guys) and Kyle Anderson (signed with the Warriors in free agency).
In other words, while the Timberwolves remain one of the best teams in the west, they might not quite be as talented as they were last season. With KAT gone, the T-Wolves are decidedly an Antman fueled team and the dude is perfectly capable of just winning one by himself on any given night. Rudy Gobert just signed a new contract extension to keep being the guy who plays DPOY defense in the regular season and unplayably awful defense in the playoffs. Naz Reid stole Malik Monk’s Sixth Man award. Mike Conley is very old now (he was drafted the same season as Kevin Durant) but still a high caliber offensive player. Orange Julius is still working his way into the Wolves system and his ball-pounding tendencies cause their offense to look out of sync at times in their opener. Jaden McDaniels is probably going to score 50 on us as revenge for the Kings effectively cutting his brother and ending his NBA career (probably).
For the Kings, it looks like Red Velvet is starting but I’d still expect Keon to get a lot of burn as Huerter works his way back into game shape. Trey Lyles is also active which means we’ll have another forward in the rotation who isn’t Isaac Jones or Doug McDermott.
Lineups:
Kings:
Sabonis/Len
Keegan/Trey/McBuckets
Derozan/Huerter
Huerter/Malik/Keon
Fox/JMac
Timberwolves:
Gobert/Randle/Iowan Hero Luka Garza
Randle/Naz Reid/Ingles
Jaden McDaniels/Nikeil Alexander-Walker
Anthony Edwards/Donte DiVincenzo
Mike Conley/Dillingham
Predictions
It won’t be an easy game. Minnesota is going to be pissed about how their last game went and no one wants to be the first team of the season to go on a losing streak. But I think the good guys will prevail in the end, sending the crowd home happy, with a bright beam lighting Minnesota’s path to the airport. Expect a big game from Deroz now that it’s actual season and not the preseason slog (plus he’s probably going to have Mike Conley on him for a lot of the game as the Wolves have to put McDaniels and Ant on Fox and Keegs. Also Domas is going to get hit in the face midway through the first quarter to announce the season really starting.
Kings 119, Wolves 111
It’s been three years(?!) since we lost VF21 but, as always, do what you can in her honor to LOVE THIS TEAM.
Go Kings! LTB
Last edited:
