[Game] (Preseason) Sacramento Kings at LA Clippers, 10/17/2024 7:30 pm Pacific, 10;30 pm Eastern (League Pass)

What about love of the game, passion, heart, and desire?
Need to have a verifiable skill with it. Especially nowadays. There are a bunch of players with those qualities. Mason Jones isn't a terrible ball player or anything, it's just it's hard to pinpoint what his best asset skill wise is. Role players without true position or quantifiable skills are hard for coaches to slot in unless they have one of those rare rosters where all you need is a positive energy guy. Maybe he finds a team like that somewhere. It will be extremely tough for that to be this one IMO. At 26 years old, it might be time for someone like him to really try and find a place full time maybe in the Euros where he can start solidifying his pro career.
 
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I’m trying to find some positives from this preseason (for my own sanity). Here is what I’ve come up with:

The Kings outplayed the Warriors starters in both games so I really count those as wins.

Keegan looks better as a passer, help defender and a bit more aggressive on offense.

Sabonis taking and making mid range is a really good sign. Dude could be an all around scorer if he wants to. The turnovers are not likely to continue given he has no track record of errant passes. Most of his turnover in years past are of the stripped in the paint variety. He has great size, a very good handle and crazy strength. If he wants to shoot from mid range and the three a total beast is unlocked.

JMac. Didn’t play as well in this last game but he still got steals. I think he is likely an upgrade over Davion

Mcbuckets- that shot is pure. Moves well. Talks a lot. If we just compare roles to last years team I think he has a chance to be an upgrade over Sasha.

The offensive rebounding- we had 74 offensive rebounds in 5 games and out offensive rebounded the other team in 4 of those games. That Monte strategy appears to have worked.

Isaac Jones- doesn’t help us this year but I could seen him helping us next year. Great size, hustles, can pass and covers good ground on defense.

The rest is a mix bag of minor concerns, big worries and things that will likely work themselves out.
 
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When you look at a player and you can't define what they are, especially a guard, that's a tough road. Hustle alone can no longer keep you in the NBA unless it comes with something else like rebounding, defense, or size.
Mason did have 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal in 20 minutes. That's all right in my book. He was +12 and the only other guy in purple and black with a positive number was Keon Ellis, at +1. Or am I spending too much time dissecting the box score again? I seem to remember Mason had one bad defensive play.
 
Filtering to just the 1st half of preseason games (which is when the “real” rotations tend to play more), the Kings were…
  • 27th in NETRTG
  • 25th in OFFRTG
  • 28th in DEFRTG
  • 30th in 3P%
  • 25th in 3PA
  • 24th in FT%
  • 26th in PF
That’s some ugly, ugly stuff. Hopefully this is something we can kick come the regular season.
 
Filtering to just the 1st half of preseason games (which is when the “real” rotations tend to play more), the Kings were…
  • 27th in NETRTG
  • 25th in OFFRTG
  • 28th in DEFRTG
  • 30th in 3P%
  • 25th in 3PA
  • 24th in FT%
  • 26th in PF
That’s some ugly, ugly stuff. Hopefully this is something we can kick come the regular season.
I would not bet on it. At this point, it could take until January to start to look like a playoff team, and it may be too late by then.
 
Last game was the first time I felt concerned about this team.

However, I remain optimistic. We looked good the first two games. There is no way Domas is going to lead the league in TOs this year. It didn’t seem like DDR was really going full speed for these last few games.

And we have to be a better shooting team than what we have shown this preseason. If the entire team really regressed at shooting this much then we need to fire whoever the shooting coach is ASAP. No one has been able to hit 3s and we know they are capable.

I think we will look a lot better once the real games start.
 
I still maintain that this preseason would have been 200% less dramatic if the Kings were at least shooting remotely close to average splits. These scores look lopsided because the other team is shooting okay to slightly less than average while the Kings are shooting like half the percentage that they should be shooting.
right but that has been true for most of the preseason which is a tad concerning. It’s not like it’s a one off. Keegan looks like he has worked so hard on driving to the basket he has completely lost his release point and everything is flat. He was down last year and looks further down this year.
 
Mason did have 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal in 20 minutes. That's all right in my book. He was +12 and the only other guy in purple and black with a positive number was Keon Ellis, at +1. Or am I spending too much time dissecting the box score again? I seem to remember Mason had one bad defensive play.
Yeah, but what kind of player is he? Not a PG, not really a SG, not a SF. He just does a little bit of everything. If he plays minutes he'll produce probably, but almost every player does. When he's on the floor he's just kind of there. Not really creating assists, not creating shots. Not really scoring either although on the right team in college or other situations he's shown he can. The Kings need players you can define a specific skill set at this point. This team is far too deep in definable guards and F's.
 
Mike Brown basically said we didn’t run any of our actual sets or much of what we’ll see in the real games but i feel like preseason would’ve been a good opportunity to do so. Idk, he certainly knows more than i do so im not worried.
 
Mike Brown basically said we didn’t run any of our actual sets or much of what we’ll see in the real games but i feel like preseason would’ve been a good opportunity to do so. Idk, he certainly knows more than i do so im not worried.
1989 Dallas Cowboys went 3-1 in preseason before 1-15 in the regular season. Jimmy Johnson said he learned pre season is about evaluating the middle and bottom of the roster not the top.