Game 76: Kings (36-39) @ Wizards (16-59)

[codydaze]

Another early (for the west coast) start as the Kings head to the nation's capital to take on the Wizards who are facing a bunch of "injuries" as vets rest for the tank. This is a game we absolutely must win to be still considered a semi-serious team. Lose this one and blow the whole thing up.

[codydaze]

Trailing by three heading into the half. Not great, folks.

[codydaze]

Trailing by fourteen headed into the fourth. Even worse, folks.

[LightTheBeam]

Boogie checked out awhile ago. Could no longer come up with ways to defend lavine and demar! Lol.

This team is awful! Hopefully they lose out and keep the draft pick

[codydaze]

Wow. Every time we think it's the worst loss of the season, Homer Simpson chimes in with, "worst loss so far..." So much for the "win-now" trade deadline.

[LightTheBeam]

Wow. Every time we think it's the worst loss of the season, Homer Simpson chimes in with, "worst loss so far..." So much for the "win-now" trade deadline.

Such an awful deadline. Sold fox for 50 cents on the dollar. Traded for lavine who bulls were begging teams to take for picks a year ago. Traded for an aging backup center who doesn't play defense to make sabinis happy. The best move was traded for laravia who we clearly wouldn't be able to keep anyways.

It's a typical monte deadline. Never actually commit to going all in, just try to shuffle the chairs on the titanic. People said I was a doomer for not believing.

I would have rather tried to move derozan/huerter/lyles + real picks for a real difference maker and see if we could have actually kept Fox. And if we didn't well we move on this offseason and truly rebuild.

[OxAndFox]

Well the positive is...from the opposition TBH. The Wizards showed the Kings how to move the basketball and not be a bunch a chuckers.
But hey, at least DDR got his shots up and went ISO once again in the 4th. Doug Christie hitching his wagon to Deebo is one of the most epic falls that you can have.

You need to realise the Wizards were without Khris Middleton, Marcus Smart, Bilal Coulibaly, Corey Kispert and yet another Kings killer, Saddiq Bey, who average 18.4ppg and 42% from 3 against the Kings.
They're going to have some trade chips to use in those vets next season. Their FO is doing a really good job and the coaching is prioritising ball movement.
You can see the difference on the defensive end too. Although it is easier against the Kings to defend because the only guys that are threats behind the 3pt line are Lavine & Keegan. Keon isn't a threat because he rarely sees the ball.

[kevin44]

The Wizards are garbage. This should have been a blow out win. If Fox was healthy and still here I could still be excited for next season. Will be in the lottery next year and the next.

[KF10]

Nope. This team is not it.

Blow this thing up already.

This loss just makes it clearer what moves they need to take in the offseason.

Blow. It. Up.

[OxAndFox]

Nope. This team is not it.

Blow this thing up already.

This loss just makes it clearer what moves they need to take in the offseason.

Blow. It. Up.

It's actually concerning how slow they looked IMO. On the bounce Lavine is quick, but ask him to get in a defensive stance and keep someone in front of him and his feet are like concrete blocks.
Obviously JV is a lumbering big guy so he struggled closing out, but at least the effort was there most of the time.
DDR gives up 3-4 easy 3s along with a few blow bys for lay ins per game.

I think this is some of the reason why LaRavia has looked good. He definitely looks better because of the lack of defensive pressure coming from many of these guys.

But this is why so many people keep harping on the defensive side of the ball. It's clear the scheme doesn't work and it's in place because you have these guys, Sabonis included. At least Fox kept guys in front of him. Keegan and Keon keep guys in front of them.
The coaching staff is so scared of no rim protection they're allowing guys to sag off far too much in the name of help D, which then makes longer close outs (easy 3s) and blow bys which in turn creates havoc for the limited rim protection.

Anyway, no use in doing anything until they rectify that end of the floor. It seems like other teams have a much better understanding of defensive basics. And that goes a long way.

[BoogieTime]

Doug needs to be removed first

Hard to say everything should go when you have an interim with questionable system/rotations who the team isn’t playing for

But we can see, or should’ve seen Zach/ddr have no business in the starting lineup together

But even with that said the roster is deflating going forward.

Keon hasn’t had a good end to the season

Zach may not be a winning player, but being much better all around in Chicago hopefully means a new coach can do something with him and Domas

[BoogieTime]

Monk being garbage post trade is also deflating… very.. just another I don’t know what you do but hope another coach cleans this up because it’s talent on paper

[BoogieTime]

Doug it was simple, monk/keon was the best lineup seen, but takeout monk instead of ddr will define his short stint

[codydaze]

Just putting this out there, the lineup with the best Net Rating this season that has played at least a full half of basketball together (24 minutes) is:

De'Aaron Fox, Keon Ellis, Demar Derozan, Keegan Murray and Domantas Sabonis with a Net Rating of 20.4 in 80 minutes.

The Monk/Lavine/Demar/Keegan/Sabonis experiment has a -8.4 Net Rating in 196 minutes.

[codydaze]

Just putting this out there, the lineup with the best Net Rating this season that has played at least a full half of basketball together (24 minutes) is:

De'Aaron Fox, Keon Ellis, Demar Derozan, Keegan Murray and Domantas Sabonis with a Net Rating of 20.4 in 80 minutes.

The Monk/Lavine/Demar/Keegan/Sabonis experiment has a -8.4 Net Rating in 196 minutes.

I should add only 18 lineups have played at least 24 minutes together and -8.4 is the second worst, only behind Monk/Ellis/Huerter/Keegan/Sabonis who had an abysmal -45.1 Net Rating in 27 minutes.