Training Camp 2024
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This is off topic, but since the Kings and Lakers play a week from today, in the last preseason game: Bronny James has to be the most overhyped draft pick in years. He played 6 minutes against the Bucks, missed all four shots, and was -12. Against Phoenix, he missed his only shot, had 4 turnovers and 3 fouls in 13 minutes, and was -16 on the night. Yikes.
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I don’t think most people have hyped him up at all. It’s been the other way around. Anyone who remotely knows basketball understands he’s only there because of who his dad is. Most people have called for him to go to the G league and rightfully so, he’s not even close to ready. If you ask me, he’s not an NBA talent.
Trying to view Bronny objectively (which is tough) I'd say he's definitely an NBA talent, but that he should have returned for his sophomore year. Undersized SGs who aren't elite shooters generally have a tough road to carving out an NBA career. James is an above average athelete and with the tools and mindset to be a good defender, but if he were any other prospect he would have been told by his college coaches and NBA front offices to go back to school and work on his ballhandling and shooting.
Whether he can develop those in the G league and NBA to the point where he can hang on an NBA roster after LeBron retires remains to be seen.
Whether he can develop those in the G league and NBA to the point where he can hang on an NBA roster after LeBron retires remains to be seen.
I am trying to stay even-keeled, knowing that preseason games do not count in the standings, but there are some definite areas of concern thus far: 1) Three-point defense, a carryover from last season 2) Three-point shooting, at only 28.4% 3) End of the bench 4) Turnovers against Portland 5) Reintegration of players who were injured or absent--McLaughlin is an exception.
According to Jason Anderson, this was the first winless preseason since 1991. They have another week to get ready for prime time.
https://www.modbee.com/sports/article294149129.html
https://www.modbee.com/sports/article294149129.html
The team not only missed Kevin Huerter and Trey Lyles for all of preseason up to this point, but Malik Monk only played two full games. In the first game against Golden State, he left after ten minutes. That was also the only time he looked good on the court.
The Kings have eight games in just the first two weeks of the season, including a back-to-back. Mike Brown is giving them tomorrow off, then they have a scrimmage before the season starts. Let's hope by the end of two weeks, they start to look like an NBA team again. Fortunately, the schedule during that period is not too difficult.
The Kings have eight games in just the first two weeks of the season, including a back-to-back. Mike Brown is giving them tomorrow off, then they have a scrimmage before the season starts. Let's hope by the end of two weeks, they start to look like an NBA team again. Fortunately, the schedule during that period is not too difficult.
And other dominoes are starting to fall. It must be a trick these days to fill out your G-league roster or something because Skal got waived so they could sign Timme, Davis, and O'neal. lol. Monte is either tricking that exhibit 10 thing to stack the Stockton team or the new CBA is just that ridiculously complicated.
There are some legitimate worries...
I didn't like the way Keon Ellis played at the Vegas Summer League game that I attended and he's followed that up with a very quiet pre-season. I trust his defense but he has to give us something on offense or he's going to end up back on the bench.
With Huerter, Lyles, and Monk out the lack of bench production in pre-season was predictable but I'm concerned that these guys are all scorers. Other than McLaughlin and Len (who are limited to defending 1's and 5's respectively) do we have another plus defender in the bench rotation? Are we just going to chuck 3's and pray every time the bench unit is on the floor?
Fox usually says all the right things and I'll take him at his word that he was bothered by his ankle most of last season and that impacted his driving game and partially explains the dip in his efficiency when trying to finish near the basket. Here's the thing though -- he can't just be ordinary for this team to make the playoffs, he needs to be All-NBA caliber and he needs to be more than just an outside shooter. I believe that he's one of the 15 best players in the league right now but does he believe it?
This team lost 6 games to New Orleans last season because there's nobody on this roster who can guard a physical PF near the basket. They also got bounced in the first round in 2023 because 6'9" center Kevon Looney was allowed to grab 21 rebounds (10 of them on offense). We keep getting teased that "something" is going to happen to address our Charmin-soft interior defense but as of today nothing has actually been done. And no, I don't believe that "Pace" is going to solve this problem for us.
That's a whole lot of negativity before the season has even started -- I've had a pretty tough week and my mood is a little sour right now so I apologize for being overly blunt and atypically pessimistic. I could probably find nicer ways to phrase these observations if I were in a better mood but the level of play we've seen in pre-season from these Kings has done nothing to inspire confidence. If these guys continue to play that way when the actual season starts in 6 days they're going to get eaten alive.
I didn't like the way Keon Ellis played at the Vegas Summer League game that I attended and he's followed that up with a very quiet pre-season. I trust his defense but he has to give us something on offense or he's going to end up back on the bench.
With Huerter, Lyles, and Monk out the lack of bench production in pre-season was predictable but I'm concerned that these guys are all scorers. Other than McLaughlin and Len (who are limited to defending 1's and 5's respectively) do we have another plus defender in the bench rotation? Are we just going to chuck 3's and pray every time the bench unit is on the floor?
Fox usually says all the right things and I'll take him at his word that he was bothered by his ankle most of last season and that impacted his driving game and partially explains the dip in his efficiency when trying to finish near the basket. Here's the thing though -- he can't just be ordinary for this team to make the playoffs, he needs to be All-NBA caliber and he needs to be more than just an outside shooter. I believe that he's one of the 15 best players in the league right now but does he believe it?
This team lost 6 games to New Orleans last season because there's nobody on this roster who can guard a physical PF near the basket. They also got bounced in the first round in 2023 because 6'9" center Kevon Looney was allowed to grab 21 rebounds (10 of them on offense). We keep getting teased that "something" is going to happen to address our Charmin-soft interior defense but as of today nothing has actually been done. And no, I don't believe that "Pace" is going to solve this problem for us.
That's a whole lot of negativity before the season has even started -- I've had a pretty tough week and my mood is a little sour right now so I apologize for being overly blunt and atypically pessimistic. I could probably find nicer ways to phrase these observations if I were in a better mood but the level of play we've seen in pre-season from these Kings has done nothing to inspire confidence. If these guys continue to play that way when the actual season starts in 6 days they're going to get eaten alive.
These are all legitimate concerns and I appreciate that you listing them.
One thing I would hope, for the sake of Fox's potential All-Star involvement and his future MAXIMUM extension, that by adding DeRozen, he won't be as beaten up throughout the season and hopefully that'd give him the extra room from closing games and such to really play defense with Keon Ellis and form a dynamic defensive back court.
For Monk, I'll chalk it up as post-depositing check sloppiness (Haha it's a real thing, I hardly like to work after I deposited a check) and once his engine ravs up he'll be going. It's crucial for the team's success that the Monk/Len 2nd unit is still competitive and by last 2 season's record, I don't see why it wouldn't. On top of all that, they'll have one of Dougie/Huerter and Trey in the 2nd unit with them to spread the floor.
It's clear to me that McNair is determined to have a great offense and hope for the best for a passable defense to be competitive through the seasons and on. So there'll be enough firepower to not lose to the teams that are lower than us like last season, even though we might scrap by them scoring 155 points... haha
One thing I would hope, for the sake of Fox's potential All-Star involvement and his future MAXIMUM extension, that by adding DeRozen, he won't be as beaten up throughout the season and hopefully that'd give him the extra room from closing games and such to really play defense with Keon Ellis and form a dynamic defensive back court.
For Monk, I'll chalk it up as post-depositing check sloppiness (Haha it's a real thing, I hardly like to work after I deposited a check) and once his engine ravs up he'll be going. It's crucial for the team's success that the Monk/Len 2nd unit is still competitive and by last 2 season's record, I don't see why it wouldn't. On top of all that, they'll have one of Dougie/Huerter and Trey in the 2nd unit with them to spread the floor.
It's clear to me that McNair is determined to have a great offense and hope for the best for a passable defense to be competitive through the seasons and on. So there'll be enough firepower to not lose to the teams that are lower than us like last season, even though we might scrap by them scoring 155 points... haha
I agree with a lot of this.
My three biggest criticisms of the move to bring DeRozan in was…
This is why I floated the long term idea of at least having DeRozan come off the bench if we don’t end up moving him down the road since that would allow us to move Murray to his ideal position (SF) and start a 3&D PF in DeRozan’s place.
Again, this is longer term thinking as I don’t know if DeRozan would be open to a bench role considering the current roster, but he does seem to be an egoless vet that wants to do what’s best for the team so I could see him in a year or 2 being open to that change. But I think it’ll be important for Murray to continue developing offensively for that to happen so we have another legit scoring option in the starting lineup.
The other thing we’ll have to figure out long term is the guard rotation. I’m really high on Carter but we obviously need to see if he will become a quality nba player. If he does, we then have 4 guards (Fox, Ellis, Monk, & Carter) who really should be logging the majority of their minutes at PG or SG (which makes minutes tight very quickly). There will also be cap reasons to sort out those 4 guards as it likely won’t be ideal to keep all of them knowing how much they’ll cost and how much we’ll want to spend elsewhere.
Personally, I love the idea of having a Fox, Ellis, and Carter guard rotation long term and moving Monk for value elsewhere (especially if the plan is to have DeRozan come off the bench since he can take over that 6th man scoring role). However, I also understand the optics of moving Fox’s best friend after he chose to not test FA and sign a reasonable 4 year deal with us. Trading him a year or 2 later wouldn’t be the best look for the franchise.
At the end of the day, I wouldn’t be surprised (long term) if the Kings looked to trade one of Ellis, Monk, or Carter + pick(s) to find that allusive PF that has above average size/length for his position, is a good/versatile defender, and can knock down the 3 ball at a good rate.
I could see a long term roster like…
PG - Fox (34) / Ellis (14)
SG - Carter (30) / Ellis (14) / DeRozan (4)
SF - Murray (24) / DeRozan (24)
PF - 3&D PF (30) / Lyles (18)
C - Sabonis (34) / Len (4)
Again, I don’t know how realistic that is since I have Monk moved in the scenario above but…
It sucks because we know we have glaring holes that will prevent us from being a top team/potential contender this season, but looking at it optimistically, I still see paths for us to build that roster we’ll ultimately need. It’ll just require tough decisions (just like how we decided to trade Jason Williams back in the day).
My three biggest criticisms of the move to bring DeRozan in was…
- It likely makes our floor spacing worse for Fox & Sabonis which makes it a bit easier to slow down those guys in crunch time/the playoffs.
- It doesn’t address our size/length issues and forces us to start 3 frontcourt players with average to below average length for their position
- It doesn’t address our need to try and surround Sabonis with as many good defenders as we can and find some interior defensive help
This is why I floated the long term idea of at least having DeRozan come off the bench if we don’t end up moving him down the road since that would allow us to move Murray to his ideal position (SF) and start a 3&D PF in DeRozan’s place.
Again, this is longer term thinking as I don’t know if DeRozan would be open to a bench role considering the current roster, but he does seem to be an egoless vet that wants to do what’s best for the team so I could see him in a year or 2 being open to that change. But I think it’ll be important for Murray to continue developing offensively for that to happen so we have another legit scoring option in the starting lineup.
The other thing we’ll have to figure out long term is the guard rotation. I’m really high on Carter but we obviously need to see if he will become a quality nba player. If he does, we then have 4 guards (Fox, Ellis, Monk, & Carter) who really should be logging the majority of their minutes at PG or SG (which makes minutes tight very quickly). There will also be cap reasons to sort out those 4 guards as it likely won’t be ideal to keep all of them knowing how much they’ll cost and how much we’ll want to spend elsewhere.
Personally, I love the idea of having a Fox, Ellis, and Carter guard rotation long term and moving Monk for value elsewhere (especially if the plan is to have DeRozan come off the bench since he can take over that 6th man scoring role). However, I also understand the optics of moving Fox’s best friend after he chose to not test FA and sign a reasonable 4 year deal with us. Trading him a year or 2 later wouldn’t be the best look for the franchise.
At the end of the day, I wouldn’t be surprised (long term) if the Kings looked to trade one of Ellis, Monk, or Carter + pick(s) to find that allusive PF that has above average size/length for his position, is a good/versatile defender, and can knock down the 3 ball at a good rate.
I could see a long term roster like…
PG - Fox (34) / Ellis (14)
SG - Carter (30) / Ellis (14) / DeRozan (4)
SF - Murray (24) / DeRozan (24)
PF - 3&D PF (30) / Lyles (18)
C - Sabonis (34) / Len (4)
Again, I don’t know how realistic that is since I have Monk moved in the scenario above but…
- Fox, Carter, Ellis, Murray, and 3&D PF is a hell of a lot of defense to put around Sabonis. And that defense would be spread out 1-4.
- Carter (assuming his shot transfers from college), Ellis, Murray, 3&D PF, & Lyles is good spacing for Fox & Sabonis
- Fox, Sabonis, Murray (assuming he’s continued to improve offensively), Carter (assuming his scoring transfers from college), and DeRozan is a lot of go-to scoring options
It sucks because we know we have glaring holes that will prevent us from being a top team/potential contender this season, but looking at it optimistically, I still see paths for us to build that roster we’ll ultimately need. It’ll just require tough decisions (just like how we decided to trade Jason Williams back in the day).
You are thinking about this correctly. Keegan isn't a PF, his game is far more SF-like. I understand that basketball is now position-less, but he would fare better in a more traditional 3 spot, where he has good to great size and can defend well. We need an actual PF, like the one you described, to unlock the full potential of this team. I remain optimistic that we can work something out before the trade deadline to get us a player that fits that PF mold or at least, checks off most boxes. We need some size there, that's for sure. We can have DeRozan slide over to the 2 spot and all of a sudden we would go from being undersized to having decent to good size. There aren't a whole lot of physical players remaining in the league, but when we face one, we have absolutely no answer for them. Lyles is as close as we can get along with some Keegan, but neither of them are suited for that.
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