Pick Watch (aka Tank Talk 2020)

kingsboi

Hall of Famer
#2
with Holmes out another 2 or 3 weeks and Bogi out too, the losses will continue to pile up unless Fox says otherwise. Come draft time, hopefully Vlade drafts a good player just by default like he did with Fox because the fanbase has no confidence in him doing anything with the pick.
 
#6
Kings and T-Wolves move into a tie for 9th as T-Wolves make their push for all time worst Franchise. Chicago stays on their streak with another loss but still at 15 in the all important wins column. Yes, if you’re likely to win the loss column matters but for the losers competition any one win can knock you out.
 
#7
The east has so many bad teams it'll be hard to keep pace with Chicago, Charlotte, Detroit, and Washington with the Kings' inevitable better than expected March/April record when they have no shot at the playoffs. Warriors, Knicks, Cleveland are locks for the bottom. Atlanta is the wild card as they could improve quite a bit in the second half of the season. I think the Kings, Hawks, and Tpups will be duking it out for 7,8,9. I'm guessing we finish with the 8th worst record.
 
#8
I agree that it'll be hard to keep up with the flock of bad eastern teams, which is kind of a strange situation. We normally expect the leastern conference to be bad, but it used to extend to the top, e.g., whether the Kings or Lakers made it to the finals, everyone knew the Nets were toast. Now it seems like there are two teams with an excellent shot at the championship, four more who have a chance, six who will have a bit of fun in the postseason, six who will fight for a chance at a first round exit, and twelve who have nothing to look forward to but the lottery. Those who have things going their way are now pretty evenly divided between east and west, but the gulf between the have and have-not teams is huge.

The west has more that are middling and the east more that are worse, but the fact that a .477 team would be in 8th in either conference, tells me that the bigger inequality is the concentration of star power in a handful of franchises. By way of contrast, no team from either conference has made the playoffs with a losing record since the Nets did it with .466 five years ago. The last western conference team to do it was the '96-7 Clippers. Last time it happened in both conferences at once was '87-8, when we picked Kenny Smith over Kevin Johnson, Reggie Miller and Horace Grant. With a league as top heavy as we now have, a small market, have-not team really must draft well to even rise to the level of mediocrity, so I'm basically hoping for the Kings to win the lottery the next few years in a row.

Sorry for the digression, but it's historically a very peculiar situation, and I thought it deserved mention.
 
#9
The east has so many bad teams it'll be hard to keep pace with Chicago, Charlotte, Detroit, and Washington with the Kings' inevitable better than expected March/April record when they have no shot at the playoffs. Warriors, Knicks, Cleveland are locks for the bottom. Atlanta is the wild card as they could improve quite a bit in the second half of the season. I think the Kings, Hawks, and Tpups will be duking it out for 7,8,9. I'm guessing we finish with the 8th worst record.
Well despite this comment someone still has to play Cleveland and Atlanta. Lucky for our pick odds both Detroit and Chicago won. On the downside the Minnesota Fan base could be equally miserable. If you see a TWolves fan give them a hug. They are now tied with us for 8th place and a 29% chance of a top 4 pick.
 
#10
The Refs stepped up and delivered a much needed Lin. With a win the Kings would have dropped to 10, 13.9% odds of a top 4 pick. Instead with this massive LIN the Kings stay at tied for 7th with a real shot to move into 5th or 6th which is a 40% of a top 4 pick.
 
#11
I believe that really, the most rational decision we could make is to tank as much as we can and try to land the highest pick possible. If we just get the seventh pick in the draft, we improve nothing. If we get a top-3 pick, it (potentially) may be a game changer.
 
#12
Just staying the same would do. Over the last 17 games the Kings are playing at .176, and a tie for 5th is only two lins away right now. Nobody in the league is below .222, so an early pick definitely could happen.
 
#13
Play the players that are goint to be a part of your core two years down the line and trade away those that wont be. Win total will be whatever it is but dont play guys that will leave the team after a year or two just to get a couple more wins this season. Let JJ play big minutes, if we are not planning to retain Bogdan or if we get great offers for him then trade him, even play Kyle Guy if you need to. Evaluate what the possible future pieces can do and get a better pick
 
#14
The east has so many bad teams it'll be hard to keep pace with Chicago, Charlotte, Detroit, and Washington with the Kings' inevitable better than expected March/April record when they have no shot at the playoffs. Warriors, Knicks, Cleveland are locks for the bottom. Atlanta is the wild card as they could improve quite a bit in the second half of the season. I think the Kings, Hawks, and Tpups will be duking it out for 7,8,9. I'm guessing we finish with the 8th worst record.
“Tpups”. Lol
 
#15
Play the players that are goint to be a part of your core two years down the line and trade away those that wont be. Win total will be whatever it is but dont play guys that will leave the team after a year or two just to get a couple more wins this season. Let JJ play big minutes, if we are not planning to retain Bogdan or if we get great offers for him then trade him, even play Kyle Guy if you need to. Evaluate what the possible future pieces can do and get a better pick
I don’t disagree, but I imagine that the Kings organization won’t go that direction this season until it becomes all but statistically certain that the Kings will miss the playoffs.
 
#16
I believe that really, the most rational decision we could make is to tank as much as we can and try to land the highest pick possible. If we just get the seventh pick in the draft, we improve nothing. If we get a top-3 pick, it (potentially) may be a game changer.
The result doesn't matter as much to me as much as us finally making good decisions for team building. Bogi and Bjelica will have real value to contenders and should be able to net a 1st round pick and/or young developmental talent at the deadline. Get off the Dedmon contract. Start getting Justin James and even Kyle Guy some consistent run.

If we win games because Bagley starts playing well and Justin James looks good in 20 MPG, so be it. I just want this team to actually start building a team that can be a long-term playoff staple. Not something that hopes to shoot for the 8th seed as currently constructed.
 
#17
The result doesn't matter as much to me as much as us finally making good decisions for team building. Bogi and Bjelica will have real value to contenders and should be able to net a 1st round pick and/or young developmental talent at the deadline. Get off the Dedmon contract. Start getting Justin James and even Kyle Guy some consistent run.

If we win games because Bagley starts playing well and Justin James looks good in 20 MPG, so be it. I just want this team to actually start building a team that can be a long-term playoff staple. Not something that hopes to shoot for the 8th seed as currently constructed.
Agreed. This is the most reasonable course of action. The problem is Vivek hasn’t shown a desire to go full on rebuild with the youth leading the way once since he’s owned the team. Maybe the very end of last year, but even then Bagley wasn’t playing major minutes.
 
#18
I believe that really, the most rational decision we could make is to tank as much as we can and try to land the highest pick possible. If we just get the seventh pick in the draft, we improve nothing. If we get a top-3 pick, it (potentially) may be a game changer.
Pick odds and Lottery structure is different from when we last participated. The lottery determines the top-4 not the top 3. Lottery odds for the top 4 all are around 50%. So going lower than 4 doesn’t matter. 5 and 6 both are about 40% so getting to 6 improves you chances of being lucky. 7 and 8 are 30% and the lowest we want to go. Based on how we are playing now, 7/8 shouldn’t be a problem though 6 would be nice.
 
#20
Anthony Edwards if we get the first pick, I don't care that he has cooled off. He has the makings and personality of an all-star, and is a good pairing with Fox. I still like him a lot.
 
#21
Anthony Edwards if we get the first pick, I don't care that he has cooled off. He has the makings and personality of an all-star, and is a good pairing with Fox. I still like him a lot.
He’s shooting 25% from mid range and 24% off the dribble he’s also shooting 38% in set offense, this is scary to me.

I’m not touching LaMelo either
 
#22
He’s shooting 25% from mid range and 24% off the dribble he’s also shooting 38% in set offense, this is scary to me.

I’m not touching LaMelo either
Yeah he's definitely not perfect but he has a lot of room to grow and I think he has the aptitude. His shot isn't broken, he's high character, a hard worker, has all-round skills and is an elite athlete. There are no Luka's in this draft unfortunately.

LaMelo is very talented but I'd stay away from him too, don't want Lavar anywhere near this team and LaMelo's personality is worrying IMO. He's closer to his dad than he is to Lonzo.
 
#23
My thing with "pick watching" is that unlike the NFL, there's no guarantee of first overall pick, let alone 2nd or 3rd. I get why there's a draft lottery, but it dampens my enthusiasm for tanking. We could end up with the worst record in the league and still lose the odds and come up with a weak draft slot. It's just...meh. And this years crop of players aren't exactly tantalizing.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#25
MOD NOTE: This, much like the Luka thread is for Luka, is now the designated thread for "Tank Talk 2020." Those of you who want to talk lins and wosses can do so here to your hearts content without bugging the crap out of those who don't want to be part of the brigade. Thanks.
 
#26
I just want to know... how does repeating what we have done for the last 15 years or so improve our team? We had our good luck landing Fox and Bagley. Chances are not good it will happen again. You attract talent by being a well run winning organization. Is anyone worried about Fox walking from this team? I am. If things continue the way they are, why would he stay?
 
#27
So far, I do like Edwards, Halliburton, & Ball (Although Ball scares me with his dad and he can come across more cocky than I remember Lonzo ever being).

There’s something about Halliburton though that makes me really like him, and he may be available when we pick since he’s not at the top of a lot of mocks. Great ball handler, great passer, good shooter, good rebounder, great defender, great length, good athlete, & high IQ. He does everything well it seems.
 
#29
My thing with "pick watching" is that unlike the NFL, there's no guarantee of first overall pick, let alone 2nd or 3rd. I get why there's a draft lottery, but it dampens my enthusiasm for tanking. We could end up with the worst record in the league and still lose the odds and come up with a weak draft slot. It's just...meh. And this years crop of players aren't exactly tantalizing.
well at this point there is little positive to focus on otherwise. It’s not like we have a bunch of young kids who just need to get better. We have a grand total of 4 roster players under 25 and one is Giles whom we declined his option.

Buddy isn’t going to suddenly turn into a superstar at 27. The rest of the rotation guys are old. Old guys winning does nothing for your future. Yes you have to draft correctly but what other hope do we have.
 
#30
MOD NOTE: This, much like the Luka thread is for Luka, is now the designated thread for "Tank Talk 2020." Those of you who want to talk lins and wosses can do so here to your hearts content without bugging the crap out of those who don't want to be part of the brigade. Thanks.
Im guessing VF21 is still holding onto playoff dreams and expects a few Lin comments in the Detroit thread.