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Hope everyone had a good holiday!

Shaedon Sharpe and Deandre Ayton both out tonight for Portland, need to come out and take business against a team we should beat even when they're at full strength.

Looking for a blowout and for the starters to play less than half of the fourth quarter.

Fox dumb turnovers, mcgee dumb turnovers, why is mcgee still playing with Len available?

Well maybe we won't get a blowout but hopefully we can at least come out with a W.

Our defense is pitiful though and really exposes itself more when our threes aren't falling.

And yeah, I'm over Javale minutes.

the tv off, and I will have a lot to say about this loss if I see it at the end

At least Fox came to play. Domas also feasting inside but we'd rather keep putting up bricks from deep. Fox kept it a game but we need to clean things up coming out of halftime.

Down 7 entering the half.

I think once the Kings clean up their TOs and start hitting their 3s, the Kings will be able to take over the game.

I cannot wait to see Huerter and Barnes shipped out. Huerter is the most streaky guy I've ever seen, will fool us all by having 2 good weeks, to be useless for a month. If he's not traded by the deadline his minutes should go to Keon. At least Keon can defend.

Ugliest loss of the year. Simply unacceptable. In a game where Domas is absolutely feasting on anyone in the inside and Fox is going off for 40+ only to get 15 total points to the bench and no other starter to hit double digits is just awful.

We absolutely need to make a big move with this roster.

Kings lose.

Barnes simply doing cardio out there.

Huerter with another invisible night.

Is there another real team in the west with worse depth than us? All this talk all offseason about how much we grew, when realistically we have 4 real players, and a few guys who could probably be 8-10th men. Need to do a lot. Hope Monte can work a miracle.

LightTheBeam wrote:Is there another real team in the west with worse depth than us? All this talk all offseason about how much we grew, when realistically we have 4 real players, and a few guys who could probably be 8-10th men. Need to do a lot. Hope Monte can work a miracle.

I wasn't aware how bad the bench has been this season. I knew the starters had been one of the league's top units for a lot of the year, but the bench has been bad outside of Monk. Vezenkov? What is he? Why is McGee playing? Ellis should improve. Duarte is just bad, and a bad pickup of the extension. Lyles has even been subpar

Murray has played better recently, but its nights like tonight where if Utah calls up and offers a one on one deal for Lauri, along with making it a wider deal so the team can clear some cap and renegotiate and extend him, Murray would probably be gone. Ofcourse Utah would want a lot of picks also which would kill the notion, and I don't see anyone else on the trade landscape save a possible Donovan Mitchell, but I'm not sold on Keegan quite yet. He hasn't really exhibited a killer mentality, whenever I focus on him live it doesn't scream defensive stopper (though he has improved quite a bit here), and his rebounding/playmaking isnt there, and he may be the only chip we seriously have to concretely get Sabonis/Fox help

Glad I missed this one

The most disappointing loss of the season for sure. They came out like they were playing pick-up except Fox and Sabonis. But it's on them two to not accept that.

Why the hell isn't Sasha playing 20+ minutes per game. It's not because of his D because everyone except Fox and occasionally Keegan suck at D. Get this guy into an actual role on the team. He should be starting in front of Barnes at the moment. He provides far more to the team in activity alone. Barnes is a better positional defender and one on one, but not a team defender. Neither are going to help Domas and that is where real problems lie.

Now, the elephant in the room. Keon Ellis needs to take a seat. I know he is the new darling and all, but apart from the 3 hot shooting nights from 22 games, he is terrible. He is shooting 8/40 from 3. Teams are daring him to shoot and it's working out for them. It stalls the offense and puts everyone out of rhythm.
Having said that, the 9 minutes Keon played didn't lose this game for the Kings. It's on all the starters and Brown. It just meant Brown couldn't go to him.
Trey Lyles, ditto. After a solid return from injury, he is shooting, 12/40 from deep. The bench isn't shooting well outside Monk.

If Brown wants defense put Edwards in, put Duarte in. Give them plenty of minutes and a chance to do something, but it's simply not going to work trying to keep Barnes, Huerter, Lyles at the minutes they're playing.
At this point, I would prefer to go with Fox/Duarte/Keegan/Edwards/Sabonis if Brown wants D. Put the shooting to the bench.
Edwards is a lot better than we think. His 3 ball isn't great, but hey, who's is at the moment right?
Bench is Monk/Huerter/Barnes/Sasha/Lyles.
Play Lyles where he should be and that's as a small ball 5. Teams are scoring at will anyway.