RealGM

After watching the first 4 games I thought we might be in for the worst season in Kings history. But after the last 3 games, and the return of Brad Miller, I am thinking a little differently.

I think we have a shot. We are currently in 8th in the West and honestly the West looks pretty bad right now with both SA and Dallas playing bad and having injuries. I think if we keep everyone we have now (no trades) and maybe start Spencer at the 4 and get starter minutes we can compete for the 8th spot. Think about, we will have Thompson, Garcia, B.Brown coming off the bench first, plus some limited minutes for Jackson, Moore, S.Williams, we would actually have a decently deep team. If we can continue to win at home and beat up on crap teams, and steal some W's on the road and from better teams, we could finish around .500 which i think might get you in this year.

Am I way off base here?????

*If Brad would have played the opening game in Minn, we would have won and would 4-3 (6th in the West). Plus our 6th man Garcia has not even played yet.

We still have yet to play over 90% of the 82 season games. It is still early to tell. But then again, we are projected (and rightfully so) in the lottery. We are a 30ish winning team. So, we are not making the playoffs. It seems harsh but its realistic. Up to this point we have one of the easiest schedules in the NBA according to the Sacramento Bee, we can rack up some wins early on but eventually the powerhouses of the league will win against us and will balance our record out.... Hopefully, we can make the playoffs though. :p

It doesn't hurt to be cautiously optimistic, but a lot of things have to go our way for that to happen.

First of all, the Spurs have to continue to suck. Now, I know that they are running Duncan with a bunch of nobodies right now, but Manu and Parker will be back eventually, and when that happens, who's to say that they won't make some mega-run to end the season.

Second, the Mavs have to continue to suck. Right now, Kidd looks just about finished, but he's still one of the best playmakers of all time. You add all of the weapons that the Mavs have on paper with Terry, Howard, and Dirk, you have to give them the edge talentwise over the Kings. If they can manage some chemistry over the course of the season, watch out.

Third, the Clippers have to continue to suck. On paper, Baron/Mobley/Thornton/Kaman/Camby is more proven talent than we have right now. I don't know what's going on with them, but like the Mavs, if they can put together some sort of team effort, they can leapfrog us pretty easily.

Fourth, we have to stay relatively healthy. If Brad goes down again, we're screwed. If Kevin goes down for an extended period of time, we're screwed. If Salmons goes down, we're screwed. We just don't have the star power on this squad, and we're going to have to win games with depth. We're looking like we're at least two deep at every position, which is solid, but the starting lineup doesn't have the oomph factor to make up for any loss in depth.

A draft thread after the losses and a playoff thread after the wins
I think highly of Brad Miller and Kevin Martin, Thompson is exactly the kind of PF that we needed, and we're finally deep (with quality) upfront with Hawes, Thompson and Shelden off the bench.
We''re more likely missing the PO than making it, In a last year kind of west we have no chance (50 wins to enter), but we do have a small chance if a LOT of thing go well (No injuries, Beno wakes up, win double digit number of wins away, not losing at home games we should win, and win few home games against the odds).

I was waiting for this thread to pop up as soon as we won 2 in a row.

Are people really that short sighted? Like SRV said, draft threads popping up immediately after we lose, and playoff threads popping up immediately after we win. People's opinions can't really change THAT fast can they?

Sheesh

Well, to be fair, the Kings' record DID change that fast. We went from the worst record in the league after getting blown away on a road trip to being slotted as the eight seed in the West after blowing out some pretty bad teams.

Haha, no. We will be tough at home, we were last year. Our offense is much better without Ron and our defense is still horrible. If we play the vets 40 minutes a game, squash all the available development time we may get all the way up to the 10th pick in the lotto. yay....

Lets see how we do the next 3 games. Things get a little bit tougher, but the Pistons and Clippers are struggling so don't be surprised.

Looking at the quality of the teams the Kings have beaten and the quality of the teams that are coming up, I would suggest that you should wait until the end of November and reconsider your question then.

To be perfectly honest, I hope we don't make the playoffs this year.

I want us to be in a position where we're competitive in most every game but lose the majority of them. With another bad season, and subsequent high draft pick, during next season is when the Kings are in range of major positive changes is when they should really start to ramp up.

I think that puts the timing just right to entice either a major trade or a free agent signing.

The answer is no more profound than this:

NO

Bac2Basics wrote:To be perfectly honest, I hope we don't make the playoffs this year.

The KINGS have yet to prove they can win a road game and people are talking play-offs? Are you kidding? Have people forgotten how bad Miami made the KINGS look. I don't think we stand a chance to make it this year. The Clippers, Mavs and Spurs will get things right soon and push the KINGS further down the rankings. although the Spurs will have a tougher time because of Manu and Parker being out for over a month. The Spurs are looking a little old without them.

I have to agree with Bac2Basics. The KINGS will be better off in the long run if they don't make the playoffs and they get a higher draft choice next year (KINGS also get Houstons #1 draft pick next yr) Lets face it if they did make the playoffs they would get pounded by the Lakers anyways. We need one more good draft pick to go along with our 34 million in cap space to secure the future of the KINGS and the KINGS becoming an elite team again.

Cruel_Ruin wrote:Well, to be fair, the Kings' record DID change that fast. We went from the worst record in the league after getting blown away on a road trip to being slotted as the eight seed in the West after blowing out some pretty bad teams.

Small portion of data provide big margin of mistake, and the fluctuation is a product of the schedule, in normal circumstances teams don't start with 4 road games.

We have beaten 3 teams that are all likely lotto teams at this point !
We have not beaten any of the elite teams or even good for the matter !

To answer this question we have a very slim to no chance of making the playoffs

lets beat the jazz,rockets,lakers,hornets,suns,celtics etc. then we can talk about this subject better with a greater chance for making the playoffs.

The west just doesn't have many dominant teams other than the Lakers, and they are a team we will match up with ok. We held our own against Detroit with no Martin or Garcia and with Miller having the worst game of his life. I think we will do ok. I predicted .500 as long as Moore is not on the court when we need to win. I like Moore but Hawes/Thompson have out produced him in every game but Moore is a role player. JT hit a clutch jumper and Hawes hit a big layup down the stretch. I was impressed. We will not be an elite team for a couple years but the playoffs are a great goal. We do need a #1 PG maybe that is our goal of free agency.

cdt3 wrote:The west just doesn't have many dominant teams other than the Lakers, and they are a team we will match up with ok. We held our own against Detroit with no Martin or Garcia and with Miller having the worst game of his life. I think we will do ok. I predicted .500 as long as Moore is not on the court when we need to win. I like Moore but Hawes/Thompson have out produced him in every game but Moore is a role player. JT hit a clutch jumper and Hawes hit a big layup down the stretch. I was impressed. We will not be an elite team for a couple years but the playoffs are a great goal. We do need a #1 PG maybe that is our goal of free agency.

Well let's make sure we tell the whole story. I mean Jason played great, but his foul on that jumper by Prince basically sealed our fate.

The three teams we beat - they suck (TWolves, Memphis (is alright, but not playoff worthy) and the Warriors). We beat three BAD teams at HOME, and until we start beating decent to good teams (like Detriot), we have NO shot at all to make the playoffs.