Scott Perry is the new GM of Sacramento Kings

[Warhawk]

Funny how things get labeled good and bad decisions after the fact. Webber was definitely a gamble that turned out to be beneficial. He didn’t even want to come here at first.

His health wasn't the gamble (played over 70 games both seasons before coming to Sacramento), and that's the big one. Attitudes can change, especially with younger players trying to sort it all out.

But the talent and health were there.

Not so with Zion. He's got half of that. The other half, no.

 

[coolhandluke]

Oh no a single mom with an "Only god can judge me" tat just hacked Perry's account.

Mike Bibby is a single mom?

 

[Insomniacal Fan]

His health wasn't the gamble (played over 70 games both seasons before coming to Sacramento), and that's the big one. Attitudes can change, especially with younger players trying to sort it all out.

But the talent and health were there.

Not so with Zion. He's got half of that. The other half, no.

Eh, that's a very specific window, the two years before that he played 53 and 15 games. Washington fans thought he was made of glass.

Webber was surrounded by clouds before he got to Sacramento, he was a risky bet.

 

[Warhawk]

Eh, that's a very specific window, the two years before that he played 53 and 15 games. Washington fans thought he was made of glass.

Webber was surrounded by clouds before he got to Sacramento, he was a risky bet.

But that is also what you need to see before taking a chance on a player like that. The league has tons of Odens to point to where injury derailed a career. You can point to his talent and say, "let's take a chance!" But until they show that they can be consistently healthy (and I'd say 2 consecutive years is a good time frame to establish this) the risk is likely too great, especially for those with large contracts. For a smaller contract player, sure. But when that much of your cap is tied to one player you can't take that financial risk. You can't fill in enough talent around them when their contract is that big to take up their "talent loss" if they go down.

I realize anyone can get injured at any time. But this is an obvious, significant, team-building issue that can somewhat be mitigated by not "gambling" on someone who can't seem to ever stay healthy. It's the stupidest kind of "gambling" on a player (those with a history of injury and/or not being able to play, like Simmons).

 

[coolhandluke]

Eh, that's a very specific window, the two years before that he played 53 and 15 games. Washington fans thought he was made of glass.

Webber was surrounded by clouds before he got to Sacramento, he was a risky bet.

At that time, Webber was considered as a knucklehead due to his off court issues and that's why he was even available for trade.

 

[gunks]

I'm not a fan of bringing Zion in, for all the reasons stated by other posters.

But he seems very much like a "Vivek bet" haha

And if we ship Keegan out for him, he's 100% going to turn into Kawhi 2.0, I know it.

 

[Joshyjosh31]

I'm not a fan of bringing Zion in, for all the reasons stated by other posters.

But he seems very much like a "Vivek bet" haha

And if we ship Keegan out for him, he's 100% going to turn into Kawhi 2.0, I know it.

Brother nobody is trading Keegan for zion at best it’s a Sabonis swap or Lavine and a first

 

[gunks]

Brother nobody is trading Keegan for zion at best it’s a Sabonis swap or Lavine and a first

Hope so! I'm not sure we can assume Keegan is still untouchable like he was with Monte.

Even if he's been "disappointing" on offense, his defense alone is reason to keep him around.

 

[Joshyjosh31]

Hope so! I'm not sure we can assume Keegan is still untouchable like he was with Monte.

Even if he's been "disappointing" on offense, his defense alone is reason to keep him around.

Keegan’s prototype is coveted in the league and we only have him and maybe Jake so I doubt Perry would trade him unless we’re getting a star in return

 

[Kingster]

Which Perry do you believe? The Perry that thought Lavine was overrated or the new Perry that seems to see him with the Kings' long term? I tend to think the former.

 

[Capt. Factorial]

Which Perry do you believe? The Perry that thought Lavine was overrated or the new Perry that seems to see him with the Kings' long term? I tend to think the former.

Both can be true. LaVine is overrated (or perhaps more to the point, overpaid) AND LaVine is with the Kings for the long term (the next two years) because they're unlikely to be able to trade him without taking an unacceptable hit.

 

[Caccia]

If you are talking about Zach LaVine being a positive or negative for the Sacramento Kings, post all-star break, his shooting was phenomenal: 53% from the field, 49.2% from three, 84.7% from the line, with 3.5 assists per game. If you want a shooting guard or small forward, this is the guy. Best part is, he is already on the team, no need to trade. I bet that Mr. Perry is going to want to see what he can do in a full season and within a new defensive structure.

 

[TaxMan]

If you are talking about Zach LaVine being a positive or negative for the Sacramento Kings, post all-star break, his shooting was phenomenal: 53% from the field, 49.2% from three, 84.7% from the line, with 3.5 assists per game. If you want a shooting guard or small forward, this is the guy. Best part is, he is already on the team, no need to trade. I bet that Mr. Perry is going to want to see what he can do in a full season and within a new defensive structure.

Zach is not worth is salary because he’s not a number one. However he can still be a very valuable piece to the right team in the right role. As a personality, he’s actually nothing like I thought. I always pictured him as a me first primadonna type. However he actually seems like a pretty down to earth good guy who if anything struggled trying not to step on toes when he came here. I’m certainly not adverse to trading him, but I wouldn’t give him away unless we have some other pressing need for his cap space. Otherwise, I think Perry just needs to ignore his salary and get him into a secondary type role that he could in theory be very valuable.

 

[The_Jamal]

Both can be true. LaVine is overrated (or perhaps more to the point, overpaid) AND LaVine is with the Kings for the long term (the next two years) because they're unlikely to be able to trade him without taking an unacceptable hit.

I was against LaVine for the longest time because he was 1. overpaid and 2. incredibly injury prone. He showed he could solve #2 last year and put up one of his best seasons of his career. Just flat out one of the best scorers/shooters in the game. He comes with obvious defensive problems, but nobody can deny he's as good a bucket-getter as we've had in a long time. Probably since The Rock.

I was also incredibly encouraged that pretty much every balanced lineup we threw on the floor (meaning, not all 4 of DDR/Monk/LaVine/Domas) looked very good and performed pretty well. If you put a steady dose of Keon/Carter/Keegan/LaRavia (hopefully) and add one more impact defender around Domas/LaVine, that in theory should work incredibly well on paper. Just a mountain of shooting/defense/toughness/scrap and see how far LaVine and Domas can take us as the offensive hubs with Monk running the bench unit.

 

[Padrino]

I was against LaVine for the longest time because he was 1. overpaid and 2. incredibly injury prone. He showed he could solve #2 last year and put up one of his best seasons of his career. Just flat out one of the best scorers/shooters in the game. He comes with obvious defensive problems, but nobody can deny he's as good a bucket-getter as we've had in a long time. Probably since The Rock.

I was also incredibly encouraged that pretty much every balanced lineup we threw on the floor (meaning, not all 4 of DDR/Monk/LaVine/Domas) looked very good and performed pretty well. If you put a steady dose of Keon/Carter/Keegan/LaRavia (hopefully) and add one more impact defender around Domas/LaVine, that in theory should work incredibly well on paper. Just a mountain of shooting/defense/toughness/scrap and see how far LaVine and Domas can take us as the offensive hubs with Monk running the bench unit.

It's still baffling to me how frequently all four of DDR/Monk/LaVine/Domas were played together after the All-Star break. Injury/availability was pretty much the only thing that broke up that insanity, and I'm grateful it was made plainly obvious how important it will be not to "run it back" with those four as permanent starters alongside each other. As you said, most of the Kings' more balanced lineups performed pretty well after the trade for LaVine. My expectation is that Perry will look to deal DDR, and possibly Malik, this off-season, and that in doing so, the Kings will be able to walk into next season with something resembling a balanced roster. It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be a massive risk-taking overhaul. But it does need to represent an attempt at building a workable rotation with plenty of talent on both sides of the ball.

 

[The_Jamal]

It's still baffling to me how frequently all four of DDR/Monk/LaVine/Domas were played together after the All-Star break. Injury/availability was pretty much the only thing that broke up that insanity, and I'm grateful it was made plainly obvious how important it will be not to "run it back" with those four as permanent starters alongside each other. As you said, most of the Kings' more balanced lineups performed pretty well after the trade for LaVine. My expectation is that Perry will look to deal DDR, and possibly Malik, this off-season, and that in doing so, the Kings will be able to walk into next season with something resembling a balanced roster. It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be a massive risk-taking overhaul. But it does need to represent an attempt at building a workable rotation with plenty of talent on both sides of the ball.

Yeah, honestly, why I was so baffled by the lack of Keon commitment last year. Not only was he pretty much the only reason we could play passable defense, but because I think his offfensive role helped just as much just make things easier on the floor for everyone else. He's not a playmaker, but he's a very good connective passer that can make the right read, he's an outstanding C&S spacer and he's not someone that demands 10+ shots a game. So just his presence let the high USG guys get their touches and have the offense run through them, which is their primary value on the floor.

I think also forcing Keegan into this super "3andD" role where he's basically at HB USG is a waste of his talent as well. He was outstanding the last 3 months of the year shooting the ball and was just simply an incredibly effective scorer in his limited touches. Essentially 13 PPG on 60% TS with a 15% USG rate. We need to see if he can sustain that with a larger workload; that's another way out of the middle. If Keegan keeps his defensive prowess, but starts giving us 18+ PPG? Now we're talking. And if you actually give Keegan some help defensively where he's not covering for 4 sub-par defenders, maybe he'd actually have some legs to give you the more consistent high-end offensive production. Another reason Keon/Carter need to be primary rotation players next season.

I like DDR, but he has to go. Get him to MIA or DAL for even just one of their defensive wings I think makes us a better overall team. Open up the room for the defenders to play and just trust Keegan to take that next step to be the 3rd scorer.