Game 64: Kings (33-30) vs Knicks (40-23)

[codydaze]

Sorry for the late game thread. Game got off to a late start and it totally threw me off.

After a rough loss last night at the hand's of Kawhi Leonard, Kings head back home to take on the Knicks who will be without Jalen Brunson.

[BoogieTime]

If I'm emotionally drained from last nights game, I cant expect the team to on a back to back mess with a good team even missing their star player

[BoogieTime]

If I'm emotionally drained from last nights game, I cant expect the team to on a back to back mess with a good team even missing their star player

But, after checking the score, I expected them to do better than they are.. this is embarrassing

[BoogieTime]

we're going to have to talk about Monk, because he's been garbage since the trade, and has probably lost all good will from me at this point.. seems so far away that I was looking forward to him starting.. That Monk/Keon lineup I always wanted to see start, maybe its just Keon at this point (despite that Monk/Keon lineup being the best thing I saw this year when Fox was injured)

[LightTheBeam]

we're going to have to talk about Monk, because he's been garbage since the trade, and has probably lost all good will from me at this point.. seems so far away that I was looking forward to him starting.. That Monk/Keon lineup I always wanted to see start, maybe its just Keon at this point (despite that Monk/Keon lineup being the best thing I saw this year when Fox was injured)

I love when I get a good told you so. Knew kings fans would turn on Monk the second he was mis-cast as a full time pg.

But I agree. Move demar off this team, move monk to the bench, add another forward, start Keon, and pray you can keep laravia

[BoogieTime]

we're going to have to talk about Monk, because he's been garbage since the trade, and has probably lost all good will from me at this point.. seems so far away that I was looking forward to him starting.. That Monk/Keon lineup I always wanted to see start, maybe its just Keon at this point (despite that Monk/Keon lineup being the best thing I saw this year when Fox was injured)

I love when I get a good told you so. Knew kings fans would turn on Monk the second he was mis-cast as a full time pg.

But I agree. Move demar off this team, move monk to the bench, add another forward, start Keon, and pray you can keep laravia

I don't think it has to do with "mis-cast as a full time pg".. Again, the team hasn't had a normal playmaking pg for awhile.. The team was just better in the time he was out the last week or two, with even less of a semblance of a pg than he is..

His play has just been bad.

[codydaze]

I think the biggest thing was Monk was he should have always been a 6th man. I always thought it was super clear that his skillset was built for that role, he could come in off the bench and own a bit of playmaking duties as well as get his own shot. It's a totally different world when you have to run an offense, that's a different skillset. Even if Fox was not necessarily a "pure distributor" and was more of a score first point guard, he was always much better at getting the offense set up and controlling the pace of the game. Whether you want a Rajon Rondo type distributing point guard or more of a Fox scoring point guard, they have to have the ability to run an offense which I just don't think we have right now.

And to be clear I think we can still have moderate success without it but I think the extent of that success will always be a play-in team with the slight chance at a 6 seed. I just don't see how this current roster can take another step forward as constructed without being blessed with lotto luck and having a true franchise guy fall into our laps.

[LightTheBeam]

we're going to have to talk about Monk, because he's been garbage since the trade, and has probably lost all good will from me at this point.. seems so far away that I was looking forward to him starting.. That Monk/Keon lineup I always wanted to see start, maybe its just Keon at this point (despite that Monk/Keon lineup being the best thing I saw this year when Fox was injured)

I love when I get a good told you so. Knew kings fans would turn on Monk the second he was mis-cast as a full time pg.

But I agree. Move demar off this team, move monk to the bench, add another forward, start Keon, and pray you can keep laravia

I don't think it has to do with "mis-cast as a full time pg".. Again, the team hasn't had a normal playmaking pg for awhile.. The team was just better in the time he was out the last week or two, with even less of a semblance of a pg than he is..

His play has just been bad.

The beauty and beast of Monk is that he makes wild/amazing passes. He also has always been a streaky player his entire career. So that month+ period where he was running the show with Sabonis and we were winning confused people what was reality. Then add the trade in and suddenly hes drawing the attention instead of the best defender always being on Fox. Also now we "rely" on him to do it. His past role he could have off-nights and we wouldn't lose. But the 3 guys are such a bad fit together than if 2 are off, and they hold back the other from being successful you have a bad time. Plus all 3 suck on defense, hence the massive amount of wide open 3s we allowed last night.

He's streaky so he will have his good weeks and bad weeks in the future, but best case is getting a real pg and putting Monk back in his real role.

[BoogieTime]

I love when I get a good told you so. Knew kings fans would turn on Monk the second he was mis-cast as a full time pg.

But I agree. Move demar off this team, move monk to the bench, add another forward, start Keon, and pray you can keep laravia

I don't think it has to do with "mis-cast as a full time pg".. Again, the team hasn't had a normal playmaking pg for awhile.. The team was just better in the time he was out the last week or two, with even less of a semblance of a pg than he is..

His play has just been bad.

The beauty and beast of Monk is that he makes wild/amazing passes. He also has always been a streaky player his entire career. So that month+ period where he was running the show with Sabonis and we were winning confused people what was reality. Then add the trade in and suddenly hes drawing the attention instead of the best defender always being on Fox. Also now we "rely" on him to do it. His past role he could have off-nights and we wouldn't lose. But the 3 guys are such a bad fit together than if 2 are off, and they hold back the other from being successful you have a bad time. Plus all 3 suck on defense, hence the massive amount of wide open 3s we allowed last night.

He's streaky so he will have his good weeks and bad weeks in the future, but best case is getting a real pg and putting Monk back in his real role.

If the other teams best defender was on Fox it’s on Lavine now

I think we’re co founding separate issues. Whether he should be starting, or whether the team needs a “real pg”..

He may not be starting material, though I guess we never replicated the Monk/Keon lineup that showed a lot of success.

Obviously the team could use a strong ball handler that can’t be pressured off the ball up too, but with Domas and/or other offensive talents on the team it’s debatable if the team needs the traditional quarterbacking pg archetype. Has the nba been going away from that? I think wanting Monk to start at one point didn’t have to do with anyone thinking he is a traditional pg. Not sure there are many available anyways. Dejounte Murray had questionable impact before his awful year/injury and I don’t like him as an option. Maybe Keon/Zach start without a real pg still?

[OxAndFox]

I love when I get a good told you so. Knew kings fans would turn on Monk the second he was mis-cast as a full time pg.

But I agree. Move demar off this team, move monk to the bench, add another forward, start Keon, and pray you can keep laravia

I don't think it has to do with "mis-cast as a full time pg".. Again, the team hasn't had a normal playmaking pg for awhile.. The team was just better in the time he was out the last week or two, with even less of a semblance of a pg than he is..

His play has just been bad.

The beauty and beast of Monk is that he makes wild/amazing passes. He also has always been a streaky player his entire career. So that month+ period where he was running the show with Sabonis and we were winning confused people what was reality. Then add the trade in and suddenly hes drawing the attention instead of the best defender always being on Fox. Also now we "rely" on him to do it. His past role he could have off-nights and we wouldn't lose. But the 3 guys are such a bad fit together than if 2 are off, and they hold back the other from being successful you have a bad time. Plus all 3 suck on defense, hence the massive amount of wide open 3s we allowed last night.

He's streaky so he will have his good weeks and bad weeks in the future, but best case is getting a real pg and putting Monk back in his real role.

The problem this team has is getting a real PG means you don't start Keon and if he isn't starting next season, and Monk is coming off the bench, then that limits his minutes significantly enough to where you need to feature him now and trade him in the off season.
What I see more of an issue at the moment is Keegan playing the 4 nightly and being on the teams best player, whatever the position, isn't going to cut it. If the oppositions best player is a 2/3 then it leaves the bigs exposed.
It leaves an even bigger mismatch every time until Doug and his crew switch things around and put Keegan on whoever is scoring the most. It just doesn't work. And it works in reverse now too.
Look at last night. Keegan starts on Towns and then goes to McBride and then onto OG.
At the start it wsas Keegan/Towns, JV/Hart, DDR/OG. Is it any wonder the last 2 Knicks went 7/13 from 3?

That's the main problem on this team at the moment. A defensive 4 needs to be bought in and while we can't get him, Naz Reid would be perfect. This off season Monte needs to start putting fitting pieces next to one another instead of continually adding offense only players that are routinely guards.
Keon 2
Lavine 2/3
Keegan 3
3 guys just don't fit into 2.

In the meantime Doug had the perfect opportunity to slide Keon into the starting line-up with Monk off the bench and paint it as coming back from injury and he didn't do it. Keon for the rest of the season needs to start next to Lavine and they need to just go with what they have at PG, because Keon might just be a better option given that both Monk and Lavine don't look after the ball very well.