Thread for the stubborn optimistic fans. Only for positive thoughts.

[bubulina]

Nice couple of games. What's impressive is that the Phoenix game is not even a particularly good game from Fox. He has a wonderful flow to his game. Beautiful to watch. When he will cut the turnovers and improve even a little his threes, he will be a superstar.

 

[rosa u podne]

Err...umm... this is the positive thread. Let’s not dwell on past mistakes

my bad I read the score wrong. I guess we aren’t better than the bucks. Just almost as good.

We will prove to be better in a couple of days.

 

[King Baller]

Dedmon played from the mid-point of the 3rd quarter to the end of the game in Phoenix. As a matter of fact so did Cojo and Trevor Ariza.

What do those three have in common?

Look at the gameflow in the link below. See how the scoring graph follows who is playing:

http://www.popcornmachine.net/gf?date=20200107&game=SACPHO

 

[White_Chocolate]

Justin James looks like a player

 

[dude12]

Fox is looking more and more healthy and his game is taking off. Would be nice if refs protected him a little but it is what it is.

 

[ockingsfan]

I wonder if the Kings finally had an epiphany when they lost all those close games against sub - 0.500 teams, like the New Orleans game last week.

Harry Giles said it on an interview the other day, you can't put the games in the refs hands at the end of games. You can't trust/expect the refs to always make the right call, you just need to go out and give yourselves a cushion going into the final minutes.

Hopefully, the Kings don't forget that valuable lesson and keep the focus and intensity up to close out games and take the game out of the refs hands at the end of games.

 

[Kingster]

As others have suggested: Is this Suns game a one-off, or are there things in this game that can propel this team forward so they win more consistently? My vague sense of the matter that the Kings played well because of the lineups that Walton put out on the floor, not because of a sudden epiphany by the players on how they need to play the game. Did Walton himself learn something from the win? Might it not have reinforced some of his views on lineups and how to approach things? It's going to be interesting to watch the next several games to see if this Suns' game was just a chance encounter or maybe something more significant.

 

[L'Optimisme]

You called?

 

[L'Optimisme]

Goal one: get back to .500. If we can do that, then we can feel in the playoff race again. Doing that is not impossible. We are 8 games under .500. We are also just 1.5 games out of the 8th seed.

If there had just been 4 games that we lost but should have, could have won, we'd be at .500, and very well positioned for a playoff run. I can easily think of 4 games that we ABSOLUTELY should have won.

 

[dude12]

Kings are first in pace, tied with Memphis, in the last 4 games and went 3-1. This is the ticket.

 

[The_Jamal]

Kings are first in pace, tied with Memphis, in the last 4 games and went 3-1. This is the ticket.

It really is. That 2nd quarter in Memphis... oooh boy. Was Fox-Buddy-Bogi-Barnes-Holmes and the boys were just all over the place just going at full speed the whole quarter. And we were dominant. Fox and Holmes were blowing up their PnR and they could not hang with us in transition.

Regardless of Walton trying to teach stuff, we just can't be last in pace in the league. Doesn't work for this roster and it never will. Even when we're (hopefully) good someday, this core is going to need to be in the top 5 of pace to be relevant.

 

[Turgenev]

I'm really looking forward to Bagley getting some consistent minutes. He's a talented young king and is fun to watch.

 

[Kings_of_California]

I'm really looking forward to Bagley getting some consistent minutes. He's a talented young king and is fun to watch.

Same. Despite the negativity around here I still think he can be a great player. If he gets injured again though, I'll really start to worry. Injury-prone bigs don't age well.

 

[gunks]

Same. Despite the negativity around here I still think he can be a great player. If he gets injured again though, I'll really start to worry. Injury-prone bigs don't age well.

With this being the optimism thread and all, I'd like to consider the possibility that Bagley is one of those players that starts out injury prone, but then outgrows it. He may just need to thicken up a bit, maybe take up yoga or get a better stretching routine. I agree that he'll be a stud. He's even showing signs of growing into a non-liability on defense, which was my biggest gripe with him. Definitely had a positive impact last night in his limited minutes.

Fox has been studly lately. I've said it all along, when his shot is on he plays with far more aggression. He's going to keep getting better and better. Now if only the friggin refs will give him respect!

 

[sactowndog]

Bagley’s defensive play in the Miami game was very encouraging. Miami put him defensively in the pick and roll over and over and Marvin played it much much better. If Marvin can maintain this defensive improvement we will be a much better team.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

With this being the optimism thread and all, I'd like to consider the possibility that Bagley is one of those players that starts out injury prone, but then outgrows it. He may just need to thicken up a bit, maybe take up yoga or get a better stretching routine. I agree that he'll be a stud. He's even showing signs of growing into a non-liability on defense, which was my biggest gripe with him. Definitely had a positive impact last night in his limited minutes.

I posted about this elsewhere as it's very frustrating, but his injuries have all been relatively minor so he probably just needs an adjustment of some sort - I am guessing that the same on court weaknesses he has had with basically being coaches son may also be evident in whatever training regime he may have had prior to the NBA. So as long as his knees and back stay healthy hopefully in another offseason or two he'll develop whatever he needs to be less fragile. Either way, hopefully our training team can figure it out as we need him on the court developing into the player he can be. He was battling on both ends of the glass which is an extremely positive sign given how this team has often struggled in that area in recent times.

 

[Kingster]

Reasons for optimism:

Pistons
Bulls
Timberwolves

Other reasons:

Hield had a solidly good game against Miami.
Bagley continued his improvement, and will continue to improve.
Fox hasn't had a shooting night that bad since I don't know when.
Bjelica looked like he took defense lessons at Walton's school.
Bogs looked like he was moving well out there.