THE KENTUCKY CONNECTION

Perhaps the calculus of who plays defense is less important when we just let the other team shoot 3s at their leisure?
 
Padrino said:
I loved the Devin Carter pick. LOVED it. But I don't think it's reasonable to expect the rookie to provide a shot in the arm in his very first NBA minutes, upon returning to the court from an injury, no less. If he's a meaningful contributor immediately, then that's the kind of gravy we'll all happily lap up. But I just don't think his offense is going to amount to a whole lot in his first season. He'll play his ass off, though. That much I'm sure of.
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Then again, the expectation should be that he can contribute. So far Monte's plan of older rookies has paid off the way you'd think and that's with no real physical development needed nor a really raw game to refine. Look at Jones for example. Now, Jones is even older and Carter would have more load to carry as a guard but still.
 
SacTownKid said:
Then again, the expectation should be that he can contribute. So far Monte's plan of older rookies has paid off the way you'd think and that's with no real physical development needed nor a really raw game to refine. Look at Jones for example. Now, Jones is even older and Carter would have more load to carry as a guard but still.
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He’s also the exact archetype of player Mike Brown has shown trust in in his time both here and in Golden State (elite athlete guards who are deadly when they find a crease in the defense like Fox and Monk /switchable guards who can pressure on ball like GPIII and Davion okay maybe not so much Davion)
 
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ESP47 said:
The bench is worrying but I'm not really worried about Monk starting anymore. Brown is going to stagger the guys enough to where we're not going to be looking at lineups that only consist of bench players. Sabonis, Monk, Fox and DDR are going to be mixed in there at all times.

Our issue for a while has just been bench production in general. You look at the box scores and other teams will have a couple guys scoring in the mid to high teens against us and our bench is scoring 0-4pts a piece on miserable efficiency. Jones has been a shot in the arm lately and Huerter getting back to his old ways will help tremendously but I'm not fully convinced of either at the moment.

Brown going full Thibs with the starters minutes is worrying for sure.
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Brown has really gone away from a lot of things his previous 2 years. He's basically solely relied on a 8 man rotation the entire season (with a random like 3 minute dude thrown in) after primarily being fairly consistent playing 10 guys during the regular season. We've started legitamately every other option at the 2 the last 2 years before turning to Monk. He doesn't burn the "quick timeout" anymore after the other team gets on a run.

I'd be curious who's had his ear this off-season. It's certainly been a philosophy change in my eyes just how he handles the team and rotation.
 
ESP47 said:
I wonder if the key to unlocking Monk is not having him carry the entire load off the bench? Curious to see if he just plays better with the starters or if he's just on a temporary heater right now.
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I know there were a few of us that felt MM should have been starting last season. It’s sad it had to come down to an underwhelming first quarter of a season for it to finally happen.

As you alluded to, it’s time to find out if this is a better fit or just a fugazi.
 
Padrino said:
I loved the Devin Carter pick. LOVED it. But I don't think it's reasonable to expect the rookie to provide a shot in the arm in his very first NBA minutes, upon returning to the court from an injury, no less. If he's a meaningful contributor immediately, then that's the kind of gravy we'll all happily lap up. But I just don't think his offense is going to amount to a whole lot in his first season. He'll play his ass off, though. That much I'm sure of.
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For the most part, I agree.

But I will propose the possibility that Devin having to sit and watch for this long now just might accelerate his learning curve and impact to this team.

We shall see.
 
KingsFanSince85 said:
For the most part, I agree.

But I will propose the possibility that Devin having to sit and watch for this long now just might accelerate his learning curve and impact to this team.

We shall see.
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yeh we are talking about a 3 year college player who played in pro-ams as a highschooler against NBA guys, has been around the NBA his whole life and has been working out with the team for nearly half a year. As Mark Jones described in interview about him yesterday, Carter plays with force. That usually translates, just have to live with the typical rookie mistakes. His shot, like it is for almost all perimeter players is one of the biggest determining factors of how big his impact will be.
 
Padrino said:
Monk has played well as a starter so far, and his chemistry with Fox and Sabonis is obvious, but man, the first five played heavy minutes last night, and only two guys scored off the bench for a total of 25 points. With Monk in the starting lineup, bench production could be a serious problem, even if Huerter continues to look like an actual NBA player. Getting Lyles back may help as long as he also looks like an actual NBA player upon returning. And what we've seen from Isaac Jones is promising. But I'm guessing Mike Brown's a little nervous about his bench's long-term potential right now, because starting Monk is a bit of a "break glass in case of emergency" kind of move.
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Considering that this team hasn't been able to string together consecutive wins for the past month and nobody in Sacramento can be happy about going into December with a sub .500 record, something needed to change. Pushing Monk into the starting lineup is the only big shakeup that Coach Brown hadn't tried yet. And that Fox/Monk backcourt has been his preferred pairing to close-out games dating back to his first season in Sacramento so it's not entirely without precedent.

What's really mind-boggling is that within the span of a week the Kings both won a game where they only scored 12 points in a quarter and lost a game where they scored 42 points in a quarter. I can't even imagine how pissed I would be as a coach on the sideline watching my team stumble through that kind of inconsistency. Isaac Jones and Keon Ellis need to be studs to keep this bench unit afloat. Jae Crowder is probably not going to be a big contributor every night at this point in his career but he has X-factor potential as a guy who can get randomly hot and pick up some scoring slack once in awhile. What's really missed in the second unit with Monk in the starting lineup is another playmaker but Mike Brown seems to have solved that by subbing Fox out early and then bringing him back to lead the second unit.
 
Tetsujin said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1864520680135643415
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I remember seeing something that showed Westbrook’s stats before a technical and after a technical (he was better after a technical). It would be fascinating to see something like that for Fox, but I feel like he doesn’t really get technicals that much. You’d have to arbitrarily decide when Fox is “pissed off” and record his stats after that point. Probably something that’s too laborious or difficult to capture unless you’re being paid by the Sacramento Kings. ;)

But depending on how drastic the difference is between “pissed off Fox” and “not pissed off Fox,” it could be very eye opening to Fox and potentially be a motivating factor to figure out how he can get to that level every game. For instance, if someone told me that I score 35 PTS per 36 min while shooting 60% from the floor after I’m “pissed off.” I’d immediately ask myself “how do I get into that mindset all game/every game?”
 
The knock on Fox for some time has been that he seems to just coast on his talent at minimal effort for lengthy stretches each season, and hasn't discovered the next gear that will keep him performing at his peak all the time. I think Mike Brown said it well in his most recent interview. If Fox is going to be a great player, he needs to be able to access his greatness at will, rather than wait until some external situation on the court pisses him off enough to reach that level.
 
Padrino said:
The knock on Fox for some time has been that he seems to just coast on his talent at minimal effort for lengthy stretches each season, and hasn't discovered the next gear that will keep him performing at his peak all the time. I think Mike Brown said it well in his most recent interview. If Fox is going to be a great player, he needs to be able to access his greatness at will, rather than wait until some external situation on the court pisses him off enough to reach that level.
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We don’t have an irritant on the team like a Draymond type and never really have. Ylour roster is filled with well adjusted human beings haha
 
twslam07 said:
I remember seeing something that showed Westbrook’s stats before a technical and after a technical (he was better after a technical). It would be fascinating to see something like that for Fox, but I feel like he doesn’t really get technicals that much. You’d have to arbitrarily decide when Fox is “pissed off” and record his stats after that point. Probably something that’s too laborious or difficult to capture unless you’re being paid by the Sacramento Kings.
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Well, I think on the broadcast the other day they said that it was Fox's 50th technical? BB-Ref doesn't list them, but you can find lists of the players with the most techs on a season-by-season basis and I was able to count up 48 techs. He didn't make the lists for his first three years, but he likely had two in that time.

And I'd say 50 is probably plenty to get some reliable numbers out of.
 
iowamcnabb said:
yeh hopefully he can do that for us
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We've had a few Jae Crowder types throughout the years but I don't think their leadership impact is quite there since they're normally one of the worst players on the roster as well. At least a guy like Draymond can talk the talk and walk the walk. We usually only get players that can do one or the other.
 
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