[Game] THE Kings vs. Detroit Pistons, 2/7/2024, 7:00p PT/10:00p ET

[Tetsujin]

This Pistons team is terrible, though.

They’ve been less terrible with a lot of the clutter removed though. Just getting rid of Marvin Bagley alone has made their rotations and spacing a hell of a lot more competent.

 

[Vinny Basketballerino]

This is why Mike Brown gets fired from coaching jobs. Disgraceful job tonight. Fox was a no-show on both ends.

He got fired the year after he won his first COY award. But yeah this is a borderline "heads will roll" type loss. At the very least, you can bet people in the org will begin to talk.

There is something very off with this team.

 

[fansinceday1]

This Pistons team isn't terrible. Sasser was dropping buckets out there. I also think they look a lot better when Cade isn't playing. He's just a bad fit on this roster. They need to cut bait and just build around this Ivey, Thompson, Duren, Sasser lineup. Credit to them for taking it to us. The Kings played about 10 minutes of good defense out of 48. That's just not going to get it done regardless of what happens on offense.

They had won 6 games. Well now 7. 6 games….the pistons are not very good at all. There’s no putting any lipstick on that pig.

 

[Rob-The-Great]

Everyone knows that Cade Cunningham is the Pistons' leading scorer. I don't think that everyone knows that he's their best player. They're 3-37 with him this season, and now 4-6 without him. Has yet to have a season where he's even finished Top 5 on his own team in Win Shares. His efficiency is remarkably average, despite being Top 15 in Usage rate. I don't see any clear indication that he's the best player on the Pistons. There aren't many indications that he's even one of the Top 2.

Doesn't make this loss any less embarrassing, though.

Agree to disagree sir. Maybe he's not the best fit for the team he's on. But his efficiency average as you may say is still good individually. His shooting averaged are very good and his defense isn't bad either. He's got highest trade value of anyone on that team

 

[nikefutbolero]

This is why we are not a serious team.

 

[chief bromden]

They’ve been less terrible with a lot of the clutter removed though. Just getting rid of Marvin Bagley alone has made their rotations and spacing a hell of a lot more competent.

Bagley was barely playing for them. Cmon now, yeah, the Pistons aren't zombie Memphis bad and they try, but they aren't a good team.

 

[Tetsujin]

Everyone knows that Cade Cunningham is the Pistons' leading scorer. I don't think that everyone knows that he's their best player. They're 3-37 with him this season, and now 4-6 without him. Has yet to have a season where he's even finished Top 5 on his own team in Win Shares. His efficiency is remarkably average, despite being Top 15 in Usage rate. I don't see any clear indication that he's the best player on the Pistons. There aren't many indications that he's even one of the Top 2.

Doesn't make this loss any less embarrassing, though.

Yeah. Cade sorta got cast into the Luka big-guard ball dominator roll just by virtue of where he got picked but he’s probably better suited to not be that at the NBA level. Detroit obviously not going to want to let him take a secondary role though just based on where he was drafted alone.

 

[Vinny Basketballerino]

Settled for way to many 3s when they weren't falling and transition defense is trash.

We show zero creativity when our threes aren't falling.

It's just plain bad coaching.

 

[iowamcnabb]

56/54/100 shooting splits are how a 7 win team wins

 

[KF8]

Anyone see a trend with the kings? They seem to not play well against teams with their main guys missing. Dont know if it's a lack of preparation or they don't do well against the element of surprise.

 

[ockingsfan]

The Kings can be attacked by certain combo's and if a team is hitting their 3's it's going to be a rough night.

A lot easier for the other team to hit their 3s when the Kings leave them wide open the whole game. The Kings 3 point defense is atrocious.

 

[SacTownKid]

The problem is that the players do not take other teams seriously.

Also, Detroit was hitting a lot of three-pointers with shorter players trying to guard them; the closeouts were often good, but the Pistons are taller. I know Mitchell plays very good man-to-man defense, but we needed someone like Edwards out there to keep them honest from the three-point line.

Maybe Mitchell will be gone by tomorrow night? Here's hoping.

At this point Mitchell needs to be moved for a few reasons. His benefit to potentially go to a team that knows what they want out of him and give him the chance to fail and for the Kings to at the very least get a little cap back so they can get a bit further away from any aprons or whatever this summer. The MLE might be crucial for Monte if he can't improve the team via trade or draft moving forward. The MLE is a pretty sizable chunk of dough nowadays so in 2 years time you could potentially push your cap up into the danger zone just with exceptions.

 

[NewArena]

The soft swipe at the ball and soft fouls we commit, are a Kings tradition unlike any other. Since the days of Peja and Brad miller, i can’t believe this is still a thing. The only upside to this embarrassment is that the Kings respond well to this crap quite often, and it’s just one game (as Bibby just said) but this one is going to feel nasty for a little while.

 

[Vinny Basketballerino]

And Monte thought this roster was good enough to “run it back” this year . What a waste of a year if nothing is done tomorrow.

The crazy thing is our players have shown very good individual development pretty top to bottom. I don't think it's the roster.

 

[SacTownKid]

A lot easier for the other team to hit their 3s when the Kings leave them wide open the whole game. The Kings 3 point defense is atrocious.

No doubt. That's where the Kings early help gets teams going. And we know, when a team gets easy ones early and they fall odds are a run is around the corner and you have things like Mike Muscala dropping step back 3's on you lol.

 

[Tizzy Flip]

The Kings can be attacked by certain combo's and if a team is hitting their 3's it's going to be a rough night.

I get it, but that team had 6 wins out of 49 games before tonight. And they were without 3 starters tonight. No excuses. I really wish Fox played with the same energy and effort that Sabonis does. His inconsistency is what differentiates him from the best players

 

[206Fan]

Anyone see a trend with the kings? They seem to not play well against teams with their main guys missing. Dont know if it's a lack of preparation or they don't do well against the element of surprise.

soft team that doesn't give their maximum effort when the opposing team's best players don't play.

starts with Fox.. always has.

 

[Tetsujin]

Bagley was barely playing for them. Cmon now, yeah, the Pistons aren't zombie Memphis bad and they try, but they aren't a good team.

Muscala helps them way may than he would help any other team in the league as a guy who isn’t awful at defense and capable of hitting an open three. Cade being out simplifies their offense by turning them into a downhill pnr team and Bojan being out sorta takes away their worst defender. I’m not saying they’re a good team or anything but they just make a bit more sense as a functional NBA roster like this rather than how we saw them in Detroit.

 

[NewArena]

A lot easier for the other team to hit their 3s when the Kings leave them wide open the whole game. The Kings 3 point defense is atrocious.

If this front office doesn’t at least attempt to address this, i really don’t know what to say. I know it’s easier said than done, but omg this is insane to see each night. Fox absolutely has to step up but we need Keegan and everyone else to be aggressive as well as the coaching staff making SURE these guys have more plays ran for them.

 

[Vinny Basketballerino]

20-20 from the free throw line and 54 percent from 3

Teams just shoot amazingly well from three against us.

 

[iowamcnabb]

Do we need to shut Fox down until after the break? We can’t have 12 points from our best player. Whether it’s mental, physical or just a slump I wonder if it would do him some good? I know he was great the other night but we are getting super inconsistent offense from him, even those three point attempts have dropped. Odd stuff

 

[ShastaKingsFan]

Anyone see a trend with the kings? They seem to not play well against teams with their main guys missing. Dont know if it's a lack of preparation or they don't do well against the element of surprise.

It's called playing to your competition. I'm calling Fox out on this one, as he looks nowhere near as focused against teams with a losing record

 

[KF8]

I hope monte/vivek dont do anything dumb this trade deadline just because of this one game.

 

[SacTownKid]

I get it, but that team had 6 wins out of 49 games before tonight. And they were without 3 starters tonight. No excuses. I really wish Fox played with the same energy and effort that Sabonis does. His inconsistency is what differentiates him from the best players

Weaknesses don't need excuses, they just are what they are and that's up to the decision makers to correct them.

 

[hrdboild]

This Pistons team is terrible, though.

Yes they are terrible this season but they were not terrible tonight. And I think trusting their young guys had a lot to do with that. Duren is a flat out stud and Ivey was playing with swagger and dominating this game. They might not statistically be their best players this year but those guys are the future of this team.

If you think a team is bad just because their record shows it you're in the same boat as the Kings. Record is irrelevant to what we saw tonight. It's not a bad thing to give a team credit when they play well and we don't. Wins still have to be earned and judging just from this game these players seem to think the way we'll earn them is by firing up a three on every possession while allowing the other team an endless parade of layups and floaters. I love Mike Brown but I'm actually most frustrated with him tonight. The players completely lost the plot and he's supposed to be the guy making sure that doesn't happen.

 

[Vinny Basketballerino]

If this front office doesn’t at least attempt to address this, i really don’t know what to say. I know it’s easier said than done, but omg this is insane to see each night. Fox absolutely has to step up but we need Keegan and everyone else to be aggressive as well as the coaching staff making SURE these guys have more plays ran for them.

It's the coaching - not the roster.

 

[Norcalphilly]

I get it, but that team had 6 wins out of 49 games before tonight. And they were without 3 starters tonight. No excuses. I really wish Fox played with the same energy and effort that Sabonis does. His inconsistency is what differentiates him from the best players

Agree 100%

 

[KF8]

It's called playing to your competition. I'm calling Fox out on this one, as he looks nowhere near as focused against teams with a losing record

Yea this is the thing i notice about fox. He doesn't play with any urgency when it's against the weaker teams.

 

[ockingsfan]

To make matters worse we are out of the top 6 and New Orleans is about to beat the clippers to give them a one game lead over us plus the obvious tie breaker. Really bad timing for this loss considering the terrible stretch of games coming up. We need to hold steady and then rip off five or six in a row in march

Unfortunately, I think we are headed for the play-in games and a first round exit. This team is soft mentally. They don't have that dawg in them.

 

[ShastaKingsFan]

Do we need to shut Fox down until after the break? We can’t have 12 points from our best player. Whether it’s mental, physical or just a slump I wonder if it would do him some good? I know he was great the other night but we are getting super inconsistent offense from him, even those three point attempts have dropped. Odd stuff

and without looking at the stats, it feels like his free throw shooting has somehow got worse. Feels like a 65% guy at this point