Will the Kings end the season a .500 team?

Will the Kings end the season a .500 team?

  • No, so close yet so far away.

    Votes: 10 20.4%
  • No, we will end the season a winning team!

    Votes: 5 10.2%
  • Yes, on the dot.

    Votes: 34 69.4%

  • Total voters
    49
  • Poll closed .
#32
At the beginning of the season I thought we would be lucky to win like 30 or so games. But to win 40 is huge in my eyes.
Yes they are worn out but this new offensive scheme has worked out pretty well.

I see better results early next year as we know what this team can do. But hopefully we can put teams away and play the reserves more minutes. We need to try and keep the minutes off some players legs in order to sustain the momentum in the second half of the season.

We have gained some nice pieces but adding a few more will make the process for the guys easier.
Vlade was pretty much right but the next 2 years are going to be very important to us before our rookie contracts start coming around to pay them.
 
#39
People called me pessimistic when I said the Kings wouldn’t reach 40 wins a month ago. This team has looked horrible after the ASB. Unmotivated and uninspiring plays across the board. Somethings wrong with this team and I can’t wait till we make big moves in the offseason. This roster just isn’t working imo. They havent taken the playoffs seriously. It’s the way they’ve played that has bothered me. No sense of urgency until the game is almost over.
 

SLAB

Hall of Famer
#40
People called me pessimistic when I said the Kings wouldn’t reach 40 wins a month ago. This team has looked horrible after the ASB. Unmotivated and uninspiring plays across the board. Somethings wrong with this team and I can’t wait till we make big moves in the offseason. This roster just isn’t working imo. They havent taken the playoffs seriously. It’s the way they’ve played that has bothered me. No sense of urgency until the game is almost over.
Word. Post ASB the team has been straight up bottom of the league bad. Puts a damper on what should have been a celebrated coming out party of a season.
 
#41
Now that Portland has secured a 4 seed and can’t improve their position, maybe we have a decent chance at 40 wins. But even if they were to put in a starting lineup of Gary Trent, Meyers Leonard, Anfernee Simons, Skal, Zach Collins (and sitout Lillard), with the way we’ve been playing I wouldn’t place a bet on it

BTW - Enes Kanter has looked good for the Blazers after Nurkic went out. I really thought he would have been a big upgrade for us
 
#42
People called me pessimistic when I said the Kings wouldn’t reach 40 wins a month ago. This team has looked horrible after the ASB. Unmotivated and uninspiring plays across the board. Somethings wrong with this team and I can’t wait till we make big moves in the offseason. This roster just isn’t working imo. They havent taken the playoffs seriously. It’s the way they’ve played that has bothered me. No sense of urgency until the game is almost over.
Word. Post ASB the team has been straight up bottom of the league bad. Puts a damper on what should have been a celebrated coming out party of a season.
Yep. Pre all star break is how this team is for me. No idea what happened after all star break but this was to be our season.

I'm sure next season we'll have fans saying .500 would be a successful season but not me. The target this year was always the playoffs and we didn't make it. I don't care if that was too much, we we're more than capable and had the players and front office gunning for it.

For now we add another season with more losses than wins to the books
 

hrdboild

Hall of Famer
#43
Does anyone else find it ironic that a major point of discussion around here for years has been this team's steadfast refusal to tank post-All Star Break when they had no hope of making the playoffs and finally this season when the playoffs were in reach and there was literally no reason to tank... That's when they fall apart down the stretch?

Maybe they were playing above their heads and came back down to Earth, maybe the pressure got to them, maybe we're still a couple pieces short. A little bit of each perhaps. The good news though is that these guys believe that they're a playoff team. Maybe an off-season spent working on their weaknesses and a renewed focus next season will get these guys where we all want to be this time next year. It's hard not to feel like an opportunity has been wasted here but looking at the seasons that DeAaron, Buddy, and Marvin just had we have every reason to be optimistic about the future.
 
#44
Does anyone else find it ironic that a major point of discussion around here for years has been this team's steadfast refusal to tank post-All Star Break when they had no hope of making the playoffs and finally this season when the playoffs were in reach and there was literally no reason to tank... That's when they fall apart down the stretch?

Maybe they were playing above their heads and came back down to Earth, maybe the pressure got to them, maybe we're still a couple pieces short. A little bit of each perhaps. The good news though is that these guys believe that they're a playoff team. Maybe an off-season spent working on their weaknesses and a renewed focus next season will get these guys where we all want to be this time next year. It's hard not to feel like an opportunity has been wasted here but looking at the seasons that DeAaron, Buddy, and Marvin just had we have every reason to be optimistic about the future.
Sorta.

I do get infuriated when the FO does stupid crap, but I don't blame the players for tossing in the towel too much when it really didn't matter much.

Season in some Shumpert, I really think we are close to 45 wins this year, sure still miss the playoffs.

We need a dog next season.

Beverly?

Shump?

Somebody, it's missing now.
 
#46
Does anyone else find it ironic that a major point of discussion around here for years has been this team's steadfast refusal to tank post-All Star Break when they had no hope of making the playoffs and finally this season when the playoffs were in reach and there was literally no reason to tank... That's when they fall apart down the stretch?

Maybe they were playing above their heads and came back down to Earth, maybe the pressure got to them, maybe we're still a couple pieces short. A little bit of each perhaps. The good news though is that these guys believe that they're a playoff team. Maybe an off-season spent working on their weaknesses and a renewed focus next season will get these guys where we all want to be this time next year. It's hard not to feel like an opportunity has been wasted here but looking at the seasons that DeAaron, Buddy, and Marvin just had we have every reason to be optimistic about the future.
They can believe all they want, but as a team they still must PROVE it. Making in the playoffs would've been the perfect barometer for them. A good year for the franchise, average for an NBA team. I'd be more optimistic if they took it to the wire and missed, but they didn't.
 

hrdboild

Hall of Famer
#47
Sorta.

I do get infuriated when the FO does stupid crap, but I don't blame the players for tossing in the towel too much when it really didn't matter much.

Season in some Shumpert, I really think we are close to 45 wins this year, sure still miss the playoffs.

We need a dog next season.

Beverly?

Shump?

Somebody, it's missing now.
I think the idea is for the young guys to find the dog in themselves and want it more. I've always been a fan of Shumpert but he's not the reason this team fell apart in February and March. We were on an upward trajectory and hit a speed bump. My assessment of the situation is that the kids felt like they'd already arrived when they (briefly) got to that 8 seed and gave the Nuggets and Warriors all they could handle. Then they were humbled a bit when they found out that it doesn't get easier, it only gets harder. And we know only too well how losing can fracture a locker room.

We go as far as Fox, Hield, Bagley, and Barnes can lead us. We could find another veteran to be their new Yoda but the lion's share of the minutes will be going to our young core and it's on them to step up and demand better of themselves. Harry Giles needs to grow into an impact guy next year, Bjelica and Bogdanovic need to be consistently productive. If Caley-Stein is still here he needs to stop trying to be whatever superstar he sees himself as and just be a hard worker. And we need someone on the bench who can guard 3s and 4s and push the other guys to try harder on the defensive end.

I've been away on vacation these past couple weeks so I don't know who specifically has been getting blamed for the team's spiral out of playoff contention. You could see this as evidence of deeper problems and you might be right. I eee it as a lack of maturity catching up with them. Playing fast and loose is fun when it's working but they also need to value the ball better and force the other team to take tougher shots. That's not a lack of coaching... every coach asks for these things. It's more a matter of maintaining focus. The players have shown me this season how much they care. If they truly hate losing they'll figure out in time how to maintain that focus for the full 48 mina because that's the only way they're going to be able to win consistently.
 

gunks

Hall of Famer
#48
The league adjusted to the cheapo runzo offense and this team didn't have a counter.

Also tired legs.

I actually enjoyed the fast paced offense, and with Fox and Bags on the roster it's playing to this team's strengths, but you can't hang in the West with a gimmicks alone (unless you're Houston) and zero defensive effort.

Joerger was always talking about how this team only ran like.... 5 percent of his offense or whatever. Maybe next season we'll be up to 10 percent.
 
#49
People called me pessimistic when I said the Kings wouldn’t reach 40 wins a month ago. This team has looked horrible after the ASB. Unmotivated and uninspiring plays across the board. Somethings wrong with this team and I can’t wait till we make big moves in the offseason. This roster just isn’t working imo. They havent taken the playoffs seriously. It’s the way they’ve played that has bothered me. No sense of urgency until the game is almost over.
Im annoyed too by the post trade deadline performance. Not sure where to put the blame but if its connected to the loss of Shumps and jacksons humor and energy or the williams drama, i hope not, but if it is then hope this team matures more for next year and finds their big boy pants
 
#50
The league adjusted to the cheapo runzo offense and this team didn't have a counter.

Also tired legs.

I actually enjoyed the fast paced offense, and with Fox and Bags on the roster it's playing to this team's strengths, but you can't hang in the West with a gimmicks alone (unless you're Houston) and zero defensive effort.

Joerger was always talking about how this team only ran like.... 5 percent of his offense or whatever. Maybe next season we'll be up to 10 percent.
This is why the playoffs were going to be ugly if we made it. How can you compete with playoff teams with no offense. Especially when you don't have a defense either. 5% of the offense? I mean, if the offense is that complicated that guys who've played ball all their lives need 3 years to figure it out, then maybe it's not the right offense for a league where rosters are always in flux.

Previously, Joerger's excuse was that he didn't have the right players to play fast. Now he has the players to play fast, but not the ones to run his offense.

When we traded for Barnes, Joerger immediately started playing Barnes the most minutes on the team and put him on the block to post up. The pace died down. I think Joerger is just more comfortable with the grind it out type of players. Or maybe his offense requires that type.
 

kingsboi

Hall of Famer
#51
The league adjusted to the cheapo runzo offense and this team didn't have a counter.

Also tired legs.

I actually enjoyed the fast paced offense, and with Fox and Bags on the roster it's playing to this team's strengths, but you can't hang in the West with a gimmicks alone (unless you're Houston) and zero defensive effort.

Joerger was always talking about how this team only ran like.... 5 percent of his offense or whatever. Maybe next season we'll be up to 10 percent.
is Joerger's offense like trying to solve a rubix cube or something? Last season it was "take training wheels off" this time around it's 5 percent of offensive sets being run...what's next years reason I wonder...
 
#52
is Joerger's offense like trying to solve a rubix cube or something? Last season it was "take training wheels off" this time around it's 5 percent of offensive sets being run...what's next years reason I wonder...
Well Chris Mullin is out of a job at St. John's. Vivek may offer him a coaching job
 
#53
Next year is when the real expectations will be:

-Lead core is all fully back with Fox/Buddy/Bogdan having 2 full seasons under Joerger and 1year and a half as the lead cogs of the offense
-Giles and Bagley likely unleashed, a whole off-season to get stronger and continue to get better
-Barnes gets to go through a real training camp with the playbook and not just be thrust into a 35+ MPG role with a bunch of players he doesn't know or a playbook he doesn't know.
-It's more than likely we add a good amount of talent in FA this off-season with our cap space and us being a "team on the rise". Won't be in play for the big boys obviously, but I could easily see the lower-tier guys being far more interested (Bojan, Beverly, BroLo, Noel, etc).

I mean, a good portion of the DC is already filled for next season. Can't remember too many times we could say that heading into the next year:

Fox || ???
Buddy || Bogdan
Barnes || ???
Bagley || Bjelica
??? || Giles

I mean imagine if we could fill those empty slots with PatBev/Noel and Bojan Bogdanovic?

All this is to say that I think next year will be the first we've had since the glory days where the Kings will actually have expectation on them to be somewhat good.
 

Warhawk

The cake is a lie.
Staff member
#54
The league adjusted to the cheapo runzo offense and this team didn't have a counter.

Also tired legs.
I think I said just these two things in a thread early in the season when we were doing well. We caught a lot of folks by surprise and when we got rebounds we were zooming up the court. But teams figure out how to slow that down or make it less effective, and they did. We do need to be able to get buckets in half court and still seem to struggle at running set plays at times. That and defensive improvements would help a lot. We seemed to lose a lot of games by just a bucket or two. Whether defensively or offensively, a bucket or two a game could have been huge for this team. Early on we were winning the games going down to the wire. Late in the season not so much.
 
#55
Does anyone else find it ironic that a major point of discussion around here for years has been this team's steadfast refusal to tank post-All Star Break when they had no hope of making the playoffs and finally this season when the playoffs were in reach and there was literally no reason to tank... That's when they fall apart down the stretch?

.
Yep. Kind of ironic. Our record since March 6th has been abysmal. 7-11 with losses to Boston B2B @ Home no Kyrie, Washington, Lakers with no Ball/Ingram, Pels G-League squad twice.
 
#59
Now that Portland has secured a 4 seed and can’t improve their position, maybe we have a decent chance at 40 wins. But even if they were to put in a starting lineup of Gary Trent, Meyers Leonard, Anfernee Simons, Skal, Zach Collins (and sitout Lillard), with the way we’ve been playing I wouldn’t place a bet on it

BTW - Enes Kanter has looked good for the Blazers after Nurkic went out. I really thought he would have been a big upgrade for us
Got 4 out of 5 of Portland’s starters :) not bad!