Morant unhappy

If the Suns have any assets left they should try get him for Green , Booker needs a PG who can assist, I could also see Houston and Miami trying to get him , he could turn the Rockets into a contender, Morant could end up being what Rasheed Wallace was to the Pistons on a team a talented psycho who can put you over the top.
 
Tetsujin said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1986097794105659438

Just like with Kuminga though, it all depends on the price. Obviously, Ja is currently a different class of player than Kuminga but the “Buy low” idea still applies.
Click to expand...
The fact that this dude doesn't understand that we don't want Ja Morant if he is going to cost us significant assets, and that we'd much rather sell low in order to buy low, is crazy.
 
QWERTYLICIOUS said:
The fact that this dude doesn't understand that we don't want Ja Morant if he is going to cost us significant assets, and that we'd much rather sell low in order to buy low, is crazy.
Click to expand...
Also, he punched a kid at a pick-up game, he's had (at least) three NBA suspensions, including two related to guns, there are some actual red flags here. Could be a fit with the team, but who wants to give up an arm and a leg and then see him self-destruct yet again, this time to our detriment?
 
Capt. Factorial said:
Also, he punched a kid at a pick-up game, he's had (at least) three NBA suspensions, including two related to guns, there are some actual red flags here. Could be a fit with the team, but who wants to give up an arm and a leg and then see him self-destruct yet again, this time to our detriment?
Click to expand...

Also if you run team ball he quits and wants the coach fired.. his problem with Jenkins and the new coach is that they’re not giving him the ball every possession and playing “Luka ball” with him. Why should we want that selfishness here how would that fit with Sabonis and Lavine let alone the other bell dominate guys we have here


When they fired Jenkins and gave him the ball they played .500 basketball while he got his stats 27-7 but they had a better record wearily in the season running team oriented offense. So he can’t be coached, doesn’t want to play team basketball even when it’s working and the teams winning, off court issues, and is declining by the month talent wise. Stay away from him rather get Trae Young atleast he performs in the playoffs doesn’t have baggage and doesn’t quit
 
If he’s not happy in Memphis, why would he come to a far more dysfunctional franchise and be happy here? The Kings are a mess from top to bottom right now, and not in a good place to take on a player with the issues Morant has had.
 
Capt. Factorial said:
Also, he punched a kid at a pick-up game, he's had (at least) three NBA suspensions, including two related to guns, there are some actual red flags here. Could be a fit with the team, but who wants to give up an arm and a leg and then see him self-destruct yet again, this time to our detriment?
Click to expand...

To be fair, the same could be said about C-Webb when he got traded here
 
Tetsujin said:
To be fair, the same could be said about C-Webb when he got traded here
Click to expand...

The CWebb trade, Peja Stojakovic joining the NBA, and JWill's scene-stealing rookie season all hitting at once is a big part of our shared history and mythology as Kings fans and in a way those three moves are looming in the background of almost every other decision this franchise has made since then. It may finally be time to acknowledge that the chances of lighting striking twice like that are extremely slim...

I understand why in 2006 the Kings would be chasing after recreating what had worked before but we're now 10-15 years overdue on jettisoning that identity in order to forge a new one. Partly because front offices are more sophisticated now in the way they process information, partly because the success of those moves has informed the rest of the league as well, and partly because the NBA of 1998 and the NBA of 2025 are very very different circumstances, to pine after the next CWebb trade is actually counterproductive to our future. The total team salary of the Kings in 1998 was $32.2 million. This season it is $180.7 million. Even accounting for inflation, I don't think a $30 million gamble and a $126 million gamble are even in the same ballpark.**

That being said, it doesn't surprise me that our front office is interested in Ja Morant. Our front offices over the years have frequently leaned into the same marketing strategy masquerading as a basketball strategy: "Can you believe this once relevant superstar is coming to play for the Kings??!! Get your tickets (and jerseys) now!" I am a little surprised that any of the remaining die-hard basketball fans still devoted to this franchise are willing to entertain the idea. There is a slim chance that trading for one-time rising superstar Ja Morant would kick-start a resurrection of exciting league-transforming basketball in the order of a certain Sports Illustrated cover from February of 2001 but more likely we will just extend this gap year into a gap 5 years at the end of which will be a 10-20 win season as we re-set the clock to 2009 and have absolutely nothing to show for 25 years of re-building.
 
Last edited:
hrdboild said:
The CWebb trade, Peja Stojakovic joining the NBA, and JWill's scene-stealing rookie season all hitting at once is a big part of our shared history and mythology as Kings fans and in a way those three moves are looming in the background of almost every other decision this franchise has made since then. It may finally be time to acknowledge that the chances of lighting striking twice like that are extremely slim...

I understand why in 2006 the Kings would be chasing after recreating what had worked before but we're now 10-15 years overdue on jettisoning that identity in order to forge a new one. Partly because front offices are more sophisticated now in the way they process information, partly because the success of those moves has informed the rest of the league as well, and partly because the NBA of 1998 and the NBA of 2025 are very very different circumstances, to pine after the next CWebb trade is actually counterproductive to our future. The total team salary of the Kings in 1998 was $32.2 million. This season it is $180.7 million. Even accounting for inflation, I don't think a $30 million gamble and a $126 million gamble are even in the same ballpark.

That being said, it doesn't surprise me that our front office is interested in Ja Morant. Our front offices over the years have frequently leaned into the same marketing strategy masquerading as a basketball strategy: "Can you believe this once relevant superstar is coming to play for the Kings??!! Get your tickets (and jerseys) now!" I am a little surprised that any of the remaining die-hard basketball fans still devoted to this franchise are willing to entertain the idea. There is a slim chance that trading for one-time rising superstar Ja Morant would kick-start a resurrection of exciting league-transforming basketball in the order of a certain Sports Illustrated cover from February of 2001 but more likely we will just extend this gap year into a gap 5 years at the end of which will be a 10-20 win season as we re-set the clock to 2009 and have absolutely nothing to show for 25 years of re-building.
Click to expand...
I don't think any team in sports has lived so much off of a team from a quarter century in the past as the Kings live off that 1998-2022 team. From the cycling through of player into coaching/front office positions, to prominent seats courtside at games, references in the broadcast to bringing back a playstyle from those teams from the hay day, to general analogies about team building and recreating the magic. It's really unbelievable. Reminiscing about the beam team may take some of the attention away, but do think the front office will continue to talk about that team for the next 25 years.
 
hrdboild said:
The CWebb trade, Peja Stojakovic joining the NBA, and JWill's scene-stealing rookie season all hitting at once is a big part of our shared history and mythology as Kings fans and in a way those three moves are looming in the background of almost every other decision this franchise has made since then. It may finally be time to acknowledge that the chances of lighting striking twice like that are extremely slim...

I understand why in 2006 the Kings would be chasing after recreating what had worked before but we're now 10-15 years overdue on jettisoning that identity in order to forge a new one. Partly because front offices are more sophisticated now in the way they process information, partly because the success of those moves has informed the rest of the league as well, and partly because the NBA of 1998 and the NBA of 2025 are very very different circumstances, to pine after the next CWebb trade is actually counterproductive to our future. The total team salary of the Kings in 1998 was $32.2 million. This season it is $180.7 million. Even accounting for inflation, I don't think a $30 million gamble and a $126 million gamble are even in the same ballpark.**

That being said, it doesn't surprise me that our front office is interested in Ja Morant. Our front offices over the years have frequently leaned into the same marketing strategy masquerading as a basketball strategy: "Can you believe this once relevant superstar is coming to play for the Kings??!! Get your tickets (and jerseys) now!" I am a little surprised that any of the remaining die-hard basketball fans still devoted to this franchise are willing to entertain the idea. There is a slim chance that trading for one-time rising superstar Ja Morant would kick-start a resurrection of exciting league-transforming basketball in the order of a certain Sports Illustrated cover from February of 2001 but more likely we will just extend this gap year into a gap 5 years at the end of which will be a 10-20 win season as we re-set the clock to 2009 and have absolutely nothing to show for 25 years of re-building.
Click to expand...

This was going to be an EDIT to my previous post but it's too long... so I'll just make it another post instead.

**I'm anticipating some push-back on this point so I will admit that math is not my strong point. Maybe the proportionality of these contracts does align pretty well and I shouldn't have brought this up at all. To clarify, my biggest concern isn't the salary risk. We would have to trade salary out anyway and there's a good chance those outgoing salaries would be attached to players I want to see traded. My concern is that Morant is a player who will suck up all of the air in the room the same way that Westbrook and LaVine have since they arrived and that will cost us the opportunity to see what we could have made out of a roster that spotlights gritty two-way guys like Ellis, Carter, Murray, and Clifford.

What I want to see instead (no surprise to long-time Kingsfans,com readers, I'm sure) is a lot of smaller moves to acquire fringe rotation guys elsewhere who could thrive in an environment that prioritizes team-defense and empowers young players who are just now forging their own identities in the league. We've already paid Keegan Murray, let's try him out as a #1 option for a year and see how much his efficiency suffers. Let's build a guard rotation of all tenacious defenders who are capable of keeping up the backcourt pressure for all 48 minutes.

Let's also bring in some low-minute superstars and project bigs who are afterthoughts on their current rosters. I still believe in Okongwu as a starter and desperately want him out of Atlanta as they clearly do not. I watched Phoenix acquire 3 young centers in the last year and a half (Nick Richards, Mark Williams, Khaman Maluach) and wonder which one will shake loose. They are all pretty low-salary guys and Maluach isn't even in the rotation so I suspect they would be willing to unload one of them for a PG and/or some draft compensation. OKC drafted my #1 target in the 2025 draft (Thomas Sorber) and he's out for the year with an ACL injury while OKC has 4 more first round picks coming in 2026, an 8-0 record, and $246 million in salary committed for next season. They are going to have to unload salary and clear out roster slots in June and they've already won their championship now so a Boston Celtics style teardown of sorts is probably coming. Sorber is a good buy-low bet in exactly the way that Morant is not.

Jonathan Kuminga's price has already gone up since this summer but as @sactowndog loves to tell us, larger wings with physicality and shot creation skills have become almost impossible to acquire in the draft unless you're in the top end of the lottery where we rarely are. That's still a guy I would love to kick the tires on, assuming some level of equilibrium could be maintained where he's not given carte blanche to dominate the offense at the expense of everyone else. And if we do get Kuminga, why not pair him up in a PF platoon with his countryman Oscar Tshiebwe who is getting no playing time at all in Utah and could be (based on his college production and per36 minute numbers in his limited NBA opportunities so far) an absolute beast for us off the bench as a rebounding and steals specialist?
 
Last edited:
TaxMan said:
I don't think any team in sports has lived so much off of a team from a quarter century in the past as the Kings live off that 1998-2022 team. From the cycling through of player into coaching/front office positions, to prominent seats courtside at games, references in the broadcast to bringing back a playstyle from those teams from the hay day, to general analogies about team building and recreating the magic. It's really unbelievable. Reminiscing about the beam team may take some of the attention away, but do think the front office will continue to talk about that team for the next 25 years.
Click to expand...

Man, I can't tell you how much I hate this phenomenon. Like all Kings fans, I loved that team. Special, they were, and among the very best in NBA history to never win a title. But I cannot stand how heavily this organization still leans on nostalgia for that brief half-decade or so of success. It was a blip in the life of an NBA franchise. It was the closest Sacramento had ever gotten to the mountaintop, and that's why it's regarded so fondly, but perhaps there should be a greater emphasis on what it would take to climb up the mountain again, instead of luxuriating in old glories and filling out the organization with ex-Kings who are primed to fail in roles they probably weren't right for in the first place.
 
The problem isn't uniquely Sacramento, beyond the fact that we just never made it to the top of the mountain.

Boston had Bob Cousy and Tommy Heinsohn calling games into the 2000s. I think Cousy made appearances up until 2020 and Heinsohn retired in 2019 a year before his death.

I mean sure they were part of Bill Russell's untouchable era but both these guys are older than my father and were retired and coaching before I was born.

I recall when league pass first was a thing so many play by play crews had at least one 80s "great" from that franchise on color commentary no matter how terrible that franchise was or how poorly their command of the language is. They'd get coaching and GM gigs too to varying degrees of success, and of course as we saw with Russell and MJ, on court greatness is no predicator of GM aptitude.

I have no problem with inviting these Kings legends to be part of the team but we absolutely need forward thinking management. Oddly, that one GM whose name I make it a point never to speak is one of the few who let players go too early rather than too late, just couldn't get anything near fair value on them. Which I guess is constantly our problem. Domas-Haliburton is the closest we've gotten to fair value in a trade and even that I still think we should have gotten some more draft compensation back.

You honestly have to go back to Webber to find the last time we unquestionably won a trade. And probably the trade that acquired Richmond before that. (if I missed something big let me know)
 
Tetsujin said:
Also it’s hilarious that Ja, Malik, and Dennis are all somehow on the books for the same general amount of time so the cap hit doesn’t actually change that much for the Kings when it’s all said and done
Click to expand...

If the deal were a one to one, where the Kings condense players like Malik and Dennis into a Morant it makes some sense as a desperation play. Youth/picks? No. The issue is still simple though the Kings need to be breaking up salary, not condensing it. Creating more "flexibility" as we've heard over the years. If they make a trade like this they are at the very least cementing it in that it will be a few years before they can even start to rebuild/develop youth if need be.
 
Padrino said:
Man, I can't tell you how much I hate this phenomenon. Like all Kings fans, I loved that team. Special, they were, and among the very best in NBA history to never win a title. But I cannot stand how heavily this organization still leans on nostalgia for that brief half-decade or so of success. It was a blip in the life of an NBA franchise. It was the closest Sacramento had ever gotten to the mountaintop, and that's why it's regarded so fondly, but perhaps there should be a greater emphasis on what it would take to climb up the mountain again, instead of luxuriating in old glories and filling out the organization with ex-Kings who are primed to fail in roles they probably weren't right for in the first place.
Click to expand...
It is extremely cringe worthy... especially when someone outside of the Kings fan bubble hears it. It just reenforces the ineptitude of this franchise that that run is the high point. I LOVED that team, but if I heard say an Atlanta Hawks fan talk about the highs of their 2014/2015 60 win team I would probably find that sad.
 
notoriousBEN3 said:
If he’s not happy in Memphis, why would he come to a far more dysfunctional franchise and be happy here? The Kings are a mess from top to bottom right now, and not in a good place to take on a player with the issues Morant has had.
Click to expand...

The Kings history has always been the place where someone can redeem themselves and turn over a new leaf. Probably not the case these days however. Beyond that the timing isn't there right now, sorry Vivek. The Kings have one of the oldest core's in the league all of a sudden. This ascension if it happened would be so unsustainable it's not even funny.

Lets look at the Webber years. Once Christie and Vlade started aging out it took some pretty genius moves from Petrie to even keep the ship afloat. How did he do it? By having DEVELOPED YOUNG ASSETS. J-Will and Hedo specifically were used as major trade pieces to augment the team and close those gaps roster wise.

The Kings haven't done the necessary steps to have much of a shot to pull something like this off right now. Like usual they are trying to go straight to steps 3-4 directly. Even with the Webber injury it was a super short timeline team. The difference was it didn't happen overnight. That buildup to where the Kings became a contender and then slid was essentially a 4-5 year process. We're not sure the current GM even has the abilities of a Petrie but even if he did he certainly doesn't have the time or assets to make those further augmentations unless he goes full on Isiah Thomas level and destroys the franchise for a decade to do it. I mean, think about this, Domas is basically the same age as Vlade when Vlade came to the Kings.
 
Last edited:
hrdboild said:
The CWebb trade, Peja Stojakovic joining the NBA, and JWill's scene-stealing rookie season all hitting at once is a big part of our shared history and mythology as Kings fans and in a way those three moves are looming in the background of almost every other decision this franchise has made since then. It may finally be time to acknowledge that the chances of lighting striking twice like that are extremely slim...

I understand why in 2006 the Kings would be chasing after recreating what had worked before but we're now 10-15 years overdue on jettisoning that identity in order to forge a new one. Partly because front offices are more sophisticated now in the way they process information, partly because the success of those moves has informed the rest of the league as well, and partly because the NBA of 1998 and the NBA of 2025 are very very different circumstances, to pine after the next CWebb trade is actually counterproductive to our future. The total team salary of the Kings in 1998 was $32.2 million. This season it is $180.7 million. Even accounting for inflation, I don't think a $30 million gamble and a $126 million gamble are even in the same ballpark.**

That being said, it doesn't surprise me that our front office is interested in Ja Morant. Our front offices over the years have frequently leaned into the same marketing strategy masquerading as a basketball strategy: "Can you believe this once relevant superstar is coming to play for the Kings??!! Get your tickets (and jerseys) now!" I am a little surprised that any of the remaining die-hard basketball fans still devoted to this franchise are willing to entertain the idea. There is a slim chance that trading for one-time rising superstar Ja Morant would kick-start a resurrection of exciting league-transforming basketball in the order of a certain Sports Illustrated cover from February of 2001 but more likely we will just extend this gap year into a gap 5 years at the end of which will be a 10-20 win season as we re-set the clock to 2009 and have absolutely nothing to show for 25 years of re-building.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Time to step away from the one armed bandit at some point. Quit gambling! Gamble on the lottery like every other franchise that's rebuilt itself in less than 20 freaking years, lol.
 
TaxMan said:
It is extremely cringe worthy... especially when someone outside of the Kings fan bubble hears it. It just reenforces the ineptitude of this franchise that that run is the high point. I LOVED that team, but if I heard say an Atlanta Hawks fan talk about the highs of their 2014/2015 60 win team I would probably find that sad.
Click to expand...

Eh, I think most fans reminisce and make comparisons about the best teams in their memory
 
Tetsujin said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1986507762302591224
Click to expand...
IMHO, the Memphis and Ja Morant relationship is broken and it can't be fixed. TBH, I don't think Memphis wants to keep dealing with the problem child that Morant has become. I fully expect Memphis to trade him by the trade deadline.

BUT, if they want to really stick it to him, they can trade him to "Basketballl Hell" as Rudy Gay put it, and send him to the Kings for pennies on the dollar. :p
 
ockingsfan said:
IMHO, the Memphis and Ja Morant relationship is broken and it can't be fixed. TBH, I don't think Memphis wants to keep dealing with the problem child that Morant has become. I fully expect Memphis to trade him by the trade deadline.

BUT, if they want to really stick it to him, they can trade him to "Basketballl Hell" as Rudy Gay put it, and send him to the Kings for pennies on the dollar. :p
Click to expand...

It's likely a negotiating tactic to try to portray a higher value in him than they really have
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top