Westbrook Signs with the Kings

Good Move or Bad Move?

  • Total voters
    38
SacTownKid said:
True. And also, we might not be seeing that Perry just signed two vets that specifically Carter can look to as influences. Both Schroder and Westbrook have similarities physically and skill wise so it could be a learning thing that could help in the end. The problem is it's hard for Kings fans to see questionable moves and see a vision of long term clarity. That clarity hasn't come in almost any facet on a consistent basis pretty much since Petrie was sitting in that chair. The test is success. If this now 3rd oldest team post trading your younger franchise player (which again, so against the grain of almost ANY other teams rebuild so why wouldn't it work right? lol.) doesn't come out of the gate hot, it's time to transition. That's the key. What happens if... This isn't a bad move on it's own, Monte probably would have signed him to a 4 year deal TBH. lol. The idea however will tell us exactly what's to come based on it's initial returns. 4 years, 8 years, 10 years. How long does the team spin in the vacuum of space this time if there isn't a clear plan?
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You learn by playing not sitting on the bench waving a towel
 
SLAB said:
Carter is always injured and when he isn’t injured he’s awful. Westbrook taking his minutes is the least of my concerns. Just a wasted pick there.
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While I previously expressed a growing affinity for your particular coping mechanisms... this is just silliness. Carter is a wasted pick if he goes undeveloped. His shoulder injury doesn't portend a career beset by DNPs; he's not 6'11", 250 lbs, with knee and ankle problems. He's played 36 games of NBA basketball, and only averaged 11 mpg in that span. To write him off before the 25-26 season starts is some next-level catastrophizing. Carter hasn't even begun his sophomore campaign yet. He hasn't even been given a minute of playing time during the preseason!

If we want to understand why the Kings are consistently bad, it's largely because they're short-sighted. They're always aiming for the playoffs now, even if they're not ready, and even if it means they're capped at the play-in. They try to shortcut the process of scouting, drafting, and developing young talent. Sometimes, they just give up on them altogether and watch them blossom elsewhere.

They've currently got four intriguing younger players in Keegan Murray, Keon Ellis, Devin Carter, and Nique Clifford. None are very likely to become future stars, but all are talented, particularly on the defensive end. For the first time in years, the Kings have a young nucleus that can help the franchise forge a legitimate defensive identity. They should be casting off just about everyone who's not Murray/Ellis/Carter/Clifford so they can prioritize minutes for 25-and-unders, and lose a ton of games in an attempt to draft one of those franchise-level talents whom Murray/Ellis/Carter/Clifford would perfectly complement. More to the point, they should do it soon, before they have to decide if they want to commit money to Murray/Ellis/Carter/Clifford in the long-term.

But my guess is they're just going to do what they've been doing since the mid-2000s: take shortcuts, ship off veteran talent in exchange for veteran talent, punt on developing their youth, watch some number of the four names above depart in free agency or via trade while committing long-term money to others without any kind of definable plan, trot out mismatched rosters held together by duct tape, all so they can compete for that Glorious 10th Seed year after year.
 
Joshyjosh31 said:
You learn by playing not sitting on the bench waving a towel
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And that's up to the guy sitting in the coaching chair. We'll know who Doug Christie is on the quick. Is this another Joerger year where you had VC, Zbo, and Hill gobbling up minutes? We shall see. I hate to say it but the worst thing that could happen for the long term is this team is extremely competitive. The reality is if it's on the backs of Schroder, WB, and DeMar the window is literally non-existent. There is literally no longevity there. It's the definition on not building towards anything.
 
Carter is still a semi-rookie as far as I'm concerned. I understand the frustration with his lack of consistency, but I don't think he's had the opportunities to gain consistency yet, and with the Westbrook signing it's not even close to a given that Carter will ever get those NBA development minutes either (at least in Sac).

It's a bummer, and I won't be surprised if he's shipped out this season and blossoms into a solid rotation player elsewhere.

What's funny is that Westbrook does seem like a great vet mentor for him. Spotty shooting, aggressive play style, elite rebounding from the guard position... I just don't think this franchise/owner has it in them to plan ahead further than one panic move at a time.
 
TheMobb said:
Even if Carter doesn’t get consistent playing time this season, he’s still going to be working with the player development guys, working on his skills, body, and learning the game which is probably what he needs at this point. His opportunity could still be here down the road.
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What he needs is playing time he can do that other crap in the summer like everyone else. No other team is doing this y’all are making up phantom excuses it’s embarrassing
 
Joshyjosh31 said:
What he needs is playing time he can do that other crap in the summer like everyone else. No other team is doing this y’all are making up phantom excuses it’s embarrassing
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Again, that's up to what the intent from management is, result, and then what the coach does with those results. If the Kings are finally going to be patient with development then this is perfectly fine. The Kings issue has always been a lack of patience when it came to development. Or anything for that matter. They give away those rookie contracts rather than seeing them as a cap asset. One of Monte's biggest problems was always overpaying for role and rep. Players like Lyles getting far more money than they would have on the open market. Giving up 1st rounders to have to dump salary or for need guys like Huerter. Needlessly paying more money to Domas when he was under contract and likely not going anywhere to begin with. Perhaps overpaying for 6th men like Monk now.
 
No offence to Russ, seems like a good dude and I do like some of the intangibles he brings for his teams .... But I'll be forever trying to understand how you could possibly look at this roster and think this is the area we needed to address.

We have one of the oldest, smallest and unbalanced rosters I can remember seeing in my 30 years of watching NBA
 
Joshyjosh31 said:
What he needs is playing time he can do that other crap in the summer like everyone else. No other team is doing this y’all are making up phantom excuses it’s embarrassing
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All that “crap” in the summer is where players actually take leaps and get better. Yeah reps in the game are valuable too, but in terms of player development that happens outside of the actual games.
 
TheMobb said:
All that “crap” in the summer is where players actually take leaps and get better. Yeah reps in the game are valuable too, but in terms of player development that happens outside of the actual games.
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You’re talking about him working with coaches during the season not the summer when you’re supposed to do that. Work on your game during the summer play during the season
 
And here I thought I was going to spend this season unhappily brooding alone in the Cassandra Complex corner of Kingsfandom. Welcome to the party ya'll! I hope someone brought snacks.
 
Joshyjosh31 said:
You’re talking about him working with coaches during the season not the summer when you’re supposed to do that. Work on your game during the summer play during the season
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Soooooooooo...what you're trying to say here is that no professional athlete should be working on their game during the regular season???
Soooooooooo...what you're trying to say here is that practices and shootarounds during the regular season don't matter???
Soooooooooo...what is it that you're actually trying to say here???
 
QWERTYLICIOUS said:
Soooooooooo...what you're trying to say here is that no professional athlete should be working on their game during the regular season???
Soooooooooo...what you're trying to say here is that practices and shootarounds during the regular season don't matter???
Soooooooooo...what is it that you're actually trying to say here???
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Where did I say that I said the summer is where most of the work is done he needs game experience. Why not just send him home all year and have him work on his game that 2-3 hours he could be practicing instead of watching the game then
 
Since I don't think I've see this one posted here, this is the Amick article on the signing: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6719780/2025/10/15/russell-westbrook-sacramento-kings-nba-news/

For those who don't subscribe, here's a fair-use set of quotes that may illuminate a bit of the thinking behind this signing...

Several of the Kings’ veterans had been campaigning for Westbrook to be added since free agency began, per team sources.
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For the Kings, who spent months contemplating bringing Westbrook in, the need for a more impactful backup point guard was deemed even more glaring after a training camp where none of their current players impressed enough to win the job.
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Capt. Factorial said:
Since I don't think I've see this one posted here, this is the Amick article on the signing: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6719780/2025/10/15/russell-westbrook-sacramento-kings-nba-news/

For those who don't subscribe, here's a fair-use set of quotes that may illuminate a bit of the thinking behind this signing...
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So basically the org doesn’t believe in Carter and it sounds like the vets maybe share that opinion too. Interesting.

I’ve not been super high on him but didn’t think he played bad enough to give up on him for the backup pg spot in a gap year season.

I’d imagine Sabonis is the only vet with that much pull to influence the FO to make a move.
 
Joshyjosh31 said:
Where did I say that I said the summer is where most of the work is done he needs game experience. Why not just send him home all year and have him work on his game that 2-3 hours he could be practicing instead of watching the game then
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I mean...Since you insist...
Joshyjosh31 said:
What he needs is playing time he can do that other crap in the summer like everyone else. No other team is doing this y’all are making up phantom excuses it’s embarrassing
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Joshyjosh31 said:
You’re talking about him working with coaches during the season not the summer when you’re supposed to do that. Work on your game during the summer play during the season
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Capt. Factorial said:
I want to see the Venn diagram that shows the overlap between people who want the Kings to tank this season and people who are mad that we brought in Westbrook.
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I mean, a lot of the pro-tank crowd are also pro-play the youth (myself included). I reckon a lot of the overlap comes from that group of fans.

I'm in that group myself, but I'm also becoming a pro- **** show SLABsian sicko for the lulz since this franchise will never be serious under current ownership.
 
Capt. Factorial said:
I want to see the Venn diagram that shows the overlap between people who want the Kings to tank this season and people who are mad that we brought in Westbrook.
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My hope was that some proactive dismantling would result in a less bumpy transition from the dead "Fox and the Ox" era into whatever we want to call a lineup built around Ellis, Carter, Clifford, Murray and some real defensive muscle in the frontcourt. Moves could have been made which may have avoided the need to tank entirely. But I'm not seeing anything proactive about getting older and even more guard-heavy or pushing the young defense-first guys out of the rotation, off the team entirely (not retaining Ellis' restricted status) or treating them as trade-fodder (Carter) in search of another play-in bid.
 
QWERTYLICIOUS said:
I mean...Since you insist...
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Shut Flagg down he won’t get better playing in games

Srzly said:
So basically the org doesn’t believe in Carter and it sounds like the vets maybe share that opinion too. Interesting.

I’ve not been super high on him but didn’t think he played bad enough to give up on him for the backup pg spot in a gap year season.

I’d imagine Sabonis is the only vet with that much pull to influence the FO to make a move.
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What about monk was he not the backup guard
 
ESP47 said:
If we actually needed a backup PG and we we're about to have to roll with Pooh Jeter, then I'd get it. Westbrook is a decent backup at this point.

But we have a 2nd year lottery pick that needs to develop and a rising SG defensive standout that needs minutes. It just makes zero sense. Killing the value of your young developing players so you can hold on to the weak hope of making the play in? It's been 5 years since Westbrook was a needle mover. I don't get it.

The only thing that will keep me from jumping off a cliff is a fresh Scott Perry motivational tweet.
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'Weak hope' is putting it nicely.....
 
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