iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
One way smaller guards are out of style apparently
[NBA] Trade Deadline Season 2026 Open Thread
- Thread starter Tetsujin
- Start date
Joshyjosh31
Starter
lol that fine really gonna hurt them
Interesting sidenote on the Zubac I don't think I saw...
OptimusRhyme
Jive Turkey
so perrys big move was fixing his offseason mistake that everyone knew was a mistake before he did it
This is the same Pacers front office that we basically settled on 1-1 swap without FRP compensation on the Hali-Domas deal, right? Seems like even in this new pick era they are happy to move them around and we should have gotten a pick in that deal. I know I will beat that drum to death because I really like both players but feel ultimately we are now here.
Told you, there were 2 camps, Fox and Domas. I suppose we know what side Monk was on. The losers in all of that fiasco was the fans but also the players at the time. They had something relatively good going if they could build on it but it all went to crap and the fans now have this to watch. Just sucks
I've never disputed the two camps, what is wild to me is that the one we bent over backwards for is the one who burned the whole campsite down.
That’s a different story. The whole organization from owner to players to coaches to GM all had a part. Doesn’t even matter anymore. Wished they could have fixed crap instead of the organization being here at this moment. Maybe the organization will get it right but does anyone have faith in that? Really hard to have hope they get it right
I don't have much faith but that's also largely because we kowtowed to the disgruntled player we spent 7.5 years catering to, brought in another player who stinks and broke the roster, and now are catering to a bunch of other disgruntled players. When we buy them out so they can sign on good teams for free over the next 2-3 weeks it will just make it worse.
Honestly its just the small sniff of a chance I'll get to see a championship parade in my hometown before I shuffle off that keeps me hanging on and the less likely it is to happen means it will be even more special if it does.
Maybe I should have taken a gap year and I could have seen the Surge parade..
Dime Dropper
All-Star
Clippers get a haul for Zubac. Meanwhile people would be happy to accept RJ and a second for Sabonis? Absolutely non-sensical.
The NBA is certainly strange. I get that Zubac is a better defender but he's not exactly a rim protector and Sabonis is better in literally every other facet of the game. Doesn't make sense that he can't get a similar or better return.
The NBA is certainly strange. I get that Zubac is a better defender but he's not exactly a rim protector and Sabonis is better in literally every other facet of the game. Doesn't make sense that he can't get a similar or better return.
sactowndog
Hall of Famer
Even with the worst record in the league they are likely to fall to 5.
sactowndog
Hall of Famer
Because Monte routinely acquired people undersized for their position.
Define "happy."
sactowndog
Hall of Famer
The fact we could not move Sabonis just shows how many teams feel about him and the thoughts of many on the Hali Sabonis trade.
Toronto tried to tempt us to take on the Poeltl death contract and we rightly said no.
Monte saddled us with a raft of expensive and/or undersized players with the exception of Keon. Funny enough Keon was the only one with value.
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ShastaKingsFan
Hall of Famer
I think the question is, can you really be a contender with a starting 5 who is not a known as a defender?
Padrino
All-Star
I suppose it depends on what you mean when you say "contender", but Houston is going to be an upper-tier playoff team for years to come with a Domas-like in Alperen Sengun. They're just far better built around him than the Kings have ever been around Domas.
ShastaKingsFan
Hall of Famer
I got to thinking about a team like Indiana last season. If we swap Sabonis for Turner, with everything else the same on the roster,...do they still get to game 7 of the Finals? I really don't think so.
Maybe there is a single exception in the league, but it seems that most organizations would not choose to make that investment and bet
sactowndog
Hall of Famer
Sengun is longer 7” wingspan versus 6’ 10” and averages 1 block a game versus .2
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Padrino
All-Star
That thought-exercise isn't particularly compelling, because if the Pacers had decided to keep Sabonis instead of Turner, everything else would not have been the same with their roster. Keeping Sabonis would have necessitated different follow-up moves than the ones they ultimately made.
That said, you roll with the talent you get in the NBA. It's not always your choice. Not everybody can luck into an NBA Rushmore-encroaching Nikola Jokic or a gravity-defying freak of nature like Victor Wembanyama. If Sabonis is one of your central pieces, you work around his flaws. Same for Sengun, or for any other All-NBA talent that isn't in the superstar conversation.
Houston's 4/5 combo of Smith Jr. and Sengun is hilariously similar to the Kings' 4/5 combo of Murray and Sabonis. The Kings' problem is not that they traded for Domantas Sabonis; their problem is that they traded for Sabonis without possessing enough assets in the cupboard to keep their "win now" push going. Indiana, for the record, could be making a similar mistake, depending on how the ping pong balls bounce in the upcoming draft lottery.
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Padrino
All-Star
This kind of hair-splitting is... silly. Sabonis is not a good defender. Sengun is not a good defender. Let's not pretend otherwise. Their on-court impact is also similar, though Domas' impact on winning has been a bit more pronounced at his peak. I expect Sengun is going to be much closer to Domas as a talent than, say, Nikola Jokic, as much of the hyperbole would have fans believe.
sactowndog
Hall of Famer
Sengun averages 5 times the number of blocks per game in terms of rim protection. That is hardly hair splitting. I don’t know because it isn’t posted but I would guess he has greater than 4 inches standing reach which is also not hair splitting.
Domas is significantly undersized. The fact he does what he does is a testament to his extreme skill level. I think Domas will actually be a better coach than player.
Padrino
All-Star
Rim protection! 5 times the number of blocks! To the tune of 33rd in the league, right behind known defensive maestro Deandre Ayton. I swear, man, sometimes I wonder if you're an NBA parody Twitter account disguising itself as a human being.
Alperun Sengun is a very, very good basketball player. He's an All-NBA level talent. He should be in many All-Star games, and like Domas, there might be a season or two where he cracks the top-10 in MVP votes. But let's not pretend that little extra length from Sengun is offering the Rockets a great deal more defensive potential from the center position. You're just not watching if that's the case. Houston's my #1 watched team this season; they're actually my favorite NBA team currently, and a top-5 defensive squad in spite of Sengun's deficiencies on that end.
However, Houston has done a much better job compensating for Sengun's deficiencies than the Kings ever have with Domas. Their length and aggression on defense at every other position makes them a suffocating presence to deal with, particular in Udoka's unpredictable every-possession-a-different-defensive-look kind of scheme. That is a well-coached team playing well beyond their limitations.
Houston may be locked into 3rd and 4th best in the West finishes unless something unthinkable happens to OKC and San Antonio but they really have built a team that works around their strengths.
This ship long sailed but it still bums me out to no end that the initial Fox and the Ox could not be built upon and we decided to just make it the Fox show. They seemed to genuinely have fun together through the playoff run when Domas looked exposed (but was also dealing with a first degree assault on the court and questionable officiating thereafter) and Fox looked like a star in the making and so somehow the decision was made to move away from a co-star approach. We never had the assets to make that move, and if we did we were too chicken to use them until we blew it all on the ill-fated DeMar acquisition.
It still blows me away that it all went from there to here in 18 months.
This ship long sailed but it still bums me out to no end that the initial Fox and the Ox could not be built upon and we decided to just make it the Fox show. They seemed to genuinely have fun together through the playoff run when Domas looked exposed (but was also dealing with a first degree assault on the court and questionable officiating thereafter) and Fox looked like a star in the making and so somehow the decision was made to move away from a co-star approach. We never had the assets to make that move, and if we did we were too chicken to use them until we blew it all on the ill-fated DeMar acquisition.
It still blows me away that it all went from there to here in 18 months.
sactowndog
Hall of Famer
I’m not arguing your point about Houston doing a better job of surrounding Sengun but Sengun and Sabonis are not the same defensively.
Rim protection! 5 times the number of blocks! To the tune of 33rd in the league, right behind known defensive maestro Deandre Ayton. I swear, man, sometimes I wonder if you're an NBA parody Twitter account disguising itself as a human being.
Alperun Sengun is a very, very good basketball player. He's an All-NBA level talent. He should be in many All-Star games, and like Domas, there might be a season or two where he cracks the top-10 in MVP votes. But let's not pretend that little extra length from Sengun is offering the Rockets a great deal more defensive potential from the center position. You're just not watching if that's the case. Houston's my #1 watched team this season; they're actually my favorite NBA team currently, and a top-5 defensive squad in spite of Sengun's deficiencies on that end.
However, Houston has done a much better job compensating for Sengun's deficiencies than the Kings ever have with Domas. Their length and aggression on defense at every other position makes them a suffocating presence to deal with, particular in Udoka's unpredictable every-possession-a-different-defensive-look kind of scheme. That is a well-coached team playing well beyond their limitations.
Sengun has a much better defensive win shares and yes the 36 isn’t great it’s still much better than Sabonis sitting at 92.
ShastaKingsFan
Hall of Famer
I don't know man. I don't see it...and I wish I did. It seems the league shares the view and maybe they're not envisioning Sabonis having much more impact in a tough series against a high iQ game plan, than he did against the Warriors
sactowndog
Hall of Famer
The turning point was when we didn’t trade Barnes to Boston for Nesmith and a 1st and tank in the Davion draft.
“...to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee.”
Padrino
All-Star
It's a lot more likely that the current CBA just disincentivises teams from trading for flawed big money players. TOR clearly valued Sabonis enough to want to trade for him, but there's always risk trading for contracts of that size if the player attached is not a superstar. TOR wanted to mitigate that risk by limiting the draft capital offered in the trade. Reasonable, from their perspective, but it's also why the Kings said "no deal".
What a lot of Kings fans don't seem to grasp is that, outside of the top-10 talents in the league, there's not a lot of surefire "win a playoff series on their own" types. Wander over to other fanbases' message boards and subreddits, and witness the wailing and gnashing of teeth over the flaws in their own team's big money talents who aren't superstars. When healthy, Domantas Sabonis is a top-25 player in the NBA. That's enough talent to have a huge impact on winning, but it's not enough talent for him to win a playoff series on his own (especially if his costar is playing injured).
Here's a more interesting thought exercise for you. Put Alperen Sengun (I'd say the 20th-best player in the NBA today) on this iteration of the Kings. Are they any better than a bottom-4 team in the West? Probably not. Really awesome player. Love his game. But his impact stats suggest he wouldn't move the needle any more than a healthy Domas would if he had been playing all season. Not with this cast of characters. Unless you're a top-10 guy, it's tough to move the needle in the NBA. Even then, it might only be the top-5 who can really change the course of a season by themselves.
All that happened before we traded for Sabonis. We could have just selected Sengun as a Domas-lite hopeful and traded Fox for anyone else and rolled with Sengun and Hali. Or not lost the coin flip that cost us Franz, although for the love of god I bet just because we all wanted Franz knowing Monte something tells me we pick someone else.
Whatever really happened with that deal it has nothing to do with Beam Team as we knew it.
sactowndog
Hall of Famer
In my opinion Toronto wanted to exchange a horrendous contract for just a kinda bad contract.