Predict the Kings Record '19-'20 season

[Lost in LA]

Today is looking really ugly

[BoogieTime]

Tank time close at hand, a new GM needed

IMO we’re there, on both accounts. Problem is, GMs that are past due try to win games immediately.

I don't think it's quite the time to hit the panic button just yet. We've haven't been playing well but we've been killed with injuries this year and despite our recent stretch of ugly basketball, we're still two games back from the 8 seed. Our schedule for January is light (on paper) too so if we're going to turn this season around, it will happen in this month. In 2 weeks time we should have a better idea if the season is lost or not.

Even if we can get it together, grab the 8th seed, and play solid ball going into next season, is that better than acquiring top picks this and next season for long term viability?

[dckingsfan]

Tank time close at hand, a new GM needed

IMO we’re there, on both accounts. Problem is, GMs that are past due try to win games immediately.

I don't think it's quite the time to hit the panic button just yet. We've haven't been playing well but we've been killed with injuries this year and despite our recent stretch of ugly basketball, we're still two games back from the 8 seed. Our schedule for January is light (on paper) too so if we're going to turn this season around, it will happen in this month. In 2 weeks time we should have a better idea if the season is lost or not.

This season is lost - we would need to play .600 ball at a minimum to make the playoffs. This team is just too young and beat up right now to do that. Vlade needs to start planning for next season.

I do disagree that a new GM is needed to do that. If he takes this "short" rebuild to heart, he will be fine. He brought us Yogi, Bjelica and Holmes. He needs to figure out who is core is for the next 3 years and build around that...

[bleeds_purple]

IMO we’re there, on both accounts. Problem is, GMs that are past due try to win games immediately.

I don't think it's quite the time to hit the panic button just yet. We've haven't been playing well but we've been killed with injuries this year and despite our recent stretch of ugly basketball, we're still two games back from the 8 seed. Our schedule for January is light (on paper) too so if we're going to turn this season around, it will happen in this month. In 2 weeks time we should have a better idea if the season is lost or not.

This season is lost - we would need to play .600 ball at a minimum to make the playoffs. This team is just too young and beat up right now to do that. Vlade needs to start planning for next season.

I do disagree that a new GM is needed to do that. If he takes this "short" rebuild to heart, he will be fine. He brought us Yogi, Bjelica and Holmes. He needs to figure out who is core is for the next 3 years and build around that...

90% chance you're correct. But why not wait a few weeks and see where things are at? The deadline is not until February. Is there a downside to waiting a little?

[dckingsfan]

I don't think it's quite the time to hit the panic button just yet. We've haven't been playing well but we've been killed with injuries this year and despite our recent stretch of ugly basketball, we're still two games back from the 8 seed. Our schedule for January is light (on paper) too so if we're going to turn this season around, it will happen in this month. In 2 weeks time we should have a better idea if the season is lost or not.

This season is lost - we would need to play .600 ball at a minimum to make the playoffs. This team is just too young and beat up right now to do that. Vlade needs to start planning for next season.

I do disagree that a new GM is needed to do that. If he takes this "short" rebuild to heart, he will be fine. He brought us Yogi, Bjelica and Holmes. He needs to figure out who is core is for the next 3 years and build around that...

90% chance you're correct. But why not wait a few weeks and see where things are at? The deadline is not until February. Is there a downside to waiting a little?

Violent agreement... Vlade should definitely take his time to get the best deal(s) he can. But if something great comes up sooner rather than later - he shouldn't wait.

[bleeds_purple]

This season is lost - we would need to play .600 ball at a minimum to make the playoffs. This team is just too young and beat up right now to do that. Vlade needs to start planning for next season.

I do disagree that a new GM is needed to do that. If he takes this "short" rebuild to heart, he will be fine. He brought us Yogi, Bjelica and Holmes. He needs to figure out who is core is for the next 3 years and build around that...

90% chance you're correct. But why not wait a few weeks and see where things are at? The deadline is not until February. Is there a downside to waiting a little?

Violent agreement... Vlade should definitely take his time to get the best deal(s) he can. But if something great comes up sooner rather than later - he shouldn't wait.

Definitely. If a good deal comes up then sure. But if we're really gonna tank what do these deals look like? Bjelica, Bogdan, Buddy, and Barnes on the block? None of those guys even net a lottery pick I don't think.

Right now our biggest problem is we went away from all the things that made us a fun and winning team at the beginning of last year. Such is life when you fire your coach on a near annual basis.

[BoogieTime]

90% chance you're correct. But why not wait a few weeks and see where things are at? The deadline is not until February. Is there a downside to waiting a little?

Violent agreement... Vlade should definitely take his time to get the best deal(s) he can. But if something great comes up sooner rather than later - he shouldn't wait.

Definitely. If a good deal comes up then sure. But if we're really gonna tank what do these deals look like? Bjelica, Bogdan, Buddy, and Barnes on the block? None of those guys even net a lottery pick I don't think.

Right now our biggest problem is we went away from all the things that made us a fun and winning team at the beginning of last year. Such is life when you fire your coach on a near annual basis.

On a macro level, the biggest issue might be we still need to widen our young talent pool, the way Fox/Bagley have looked. Not to be negative, just the way it is. Both have been disappointing, and this iteration of the build was built around those two

[bleeds_purple]

Fox looks like our best player and it's not even that close. He gets his teammates involved and is the only player on the roster that can consistently beat his man and get to the paint. His development is gonna be all about getting better at taking what the defense gives him. When they sell out on the drives he needs to take the midrange without hesitation. But it's hard for him to develop those good tendencies when he's been in and out of the lineup.

Bagley you can't really say. Poor dude has been injured all season long and just when he was finally performing got injured again. He is still super raw and doesn't know what he is long term.

[City of Trees]

Richaun Holmes is out and will be evaluated in 2-3 weeks. He is hands down this teams rock. Expect the L's to rain down from above.

[kalenclayton]

Richaun Holmes is out and will be evaluated in 2-3 weeks. He is hands down this teams rock. Expect the L's to rain down from above.

I wonder if this lights a fire under Bagley. It should, but who knows. I really hope that this is the scenario because that would make us better now and in the future.

[dckingsfan]

With 40 games in the books, your Sacramento Kings are 15 25 .375 on track to win ~ still on pace to win 31 games.

Still no winner in the clubhouse.

My "guess" is we would need to go 25 & 17 to make the playoffs. I just don't think this team as constructed can do this.

I think the reasons that we are where we are this season are:
1) Injuries
2) FA signings haven't panned out
3) Team as a whole isn't mature (so many close game losses)
4) Buddy has regressed and Fox and Bagley haven't taken the next step

[kalenclayton]

With 40 games in the books, your Sacramento Kings are 15 25 .375 on track to win ~ still on pace to win 31 games.

Still no winner in the clubhouse.

My "guess" is we would need to go 25 & 17 to make the playoffs. I just don't think this team as constructed can do this.

I think the reasons that we are where we are this season are:
1) Injuries
2) FA signings haven't panned out
3) Team as a whole isn't mature (so many close game losses)
4) Buddy has regressed and Fox and Bagley haven't taken the next step

I think it’s wrong to blame the losses on injuries. This team was winning without Bagley and Fox. Then they come back and the team loses. Those players (especially Fox) should be making the team better. Instead, I think Walton isn’t understanding the players’ strengths and weaknesses. Case in point: in the past, Buddy has been a lights out shooter who plays with non-stop energy and subpar defense. This season, he’s a ball handler who is tasked with guarding one the other team’s best players. The change: coaching. Walton is asking Hield to do different things, which is good for development, but he’s not using him to any of his strengths. This goes for the majority of the team. Walton just isn’t pulling his weight.

Injuries have been a constant issue, but this team should be able to play a full game and we haven’t seen much of that. You could blame that on youth, except a lot of the mistakes are being made by vets (mostly CoJo and, to a lesser extent, Dedmon)

[dckingsfan]

With 40 games in the books, your Sacramento Kings are 15 25 .375 on track to win ~ still on pace to win 31 games.

Still no winner in the clubhouse.

My "guess" is we would need to go 25 & 17 to make the playoffs. I just don't think this team as constructed can do this.

I think the reasons that we are where we are this season are:
1) Injuries
2) FA signings haven't panned out
3) Team as a whole isn't mature (so many close game losses)
4) Buddy has regressed and Fox and Bagley haven't taken the next step
5) Coaching - getting used to how to deploy the players

I think it’s wrong to blame the losses on injuries. This team was winning without Bagley and Fox. Then they come back and the team loses. Those players (especially Fox) should be making the team better. Instead, I think Walton isn’t understanding the players’ strengths and weaknesses. Case in point: in the past, Buddy has been a lights out shooter who plays with non-stop energy and subpar defense. This season, he’s a ball handler who is tasked with guarding one the other team’s best players. The change: coaching. Walton is asking Hield to do different things, which is good for development, but he’s not using him to any of his strengths. This goes for the majority of the team. Walton just isn’t pulling his weight.

Injuries have been a constant issue, but this team should be able to play a full game and we haven’t seen much of that. You could blame that on youth, except a lot of the mistakes are being made by vets (mostly CoJo and, to a lesser extent, Dedmon)

So, you want to add coaching - I think you are right with that (adding it for this post).

I think the last paragraph is covered by 2?

But I think injuries should definitely be up there. Fox being injured created more time for CoJo (also 2)) and that has been a real problem. Add to that the injury(s) to Bogdan and it has cost us games (opinion).

[kalenclayton]

With 40 games in the books, your Sacramento Kings are 15 25 .375 on track to win ~ still on pace to win 31 games.

Still no winner in the clubhouse.

My "guess" is we would need to go 25 & 17 to make the playoffs. I just don't think this team as constructed can do this.

I think the reasons that we are where we are this season are:
1) Injuries
2) FA signings haven't panned out
3) Team as a whole isn't mature (so many close game losses)
4) Buddy has regressed and Fox and Bagley haven't taken the next step
5) Coaching - getting used to how to deploy the players

I think it’s wrong to blame the losses on injuries. This team was winning without Bagley and Fox. Then they come back and the team loses. Those players (especially Fox) should be making the team better. Instead, I think Walton isn’t understanding the players’ strengths and weaknesses. Case in point: in the past, Buddy has been a lights out shooter who plays with non-stop energy and subpar defense. This season, he’s a ball handler who is tasked with guarding one the other team’s best players. The change: coaching. Walton is asking Hield to do different things, which is good for development, but he’s not using him to any of his strengths. This goes for the majority of the team. Walton just isn’t pulling his weight.

Injuries have been a constant issue, but this team should be able to play a full game and we haven’t seen much of that. You could blame that on youth, except a lot of the mistakes are being made by vets (mostly CoJo and, to a lesser extent, Dedmon)

So, you want to add coaching - I think you are right with that (adding it for this post).

I think the last paragraph is covered by 2?

But I think injuries should definitely be up there. Fox being injured created more time for CoJo (also 2)) and that has been a real problem. Add to that the injury(s) to Bogdan and it has cost us games (opinion).

Agreed. I think my initial interpretation of your post was that you ranked injuries at 1. I just read it again and it was just you listing them, not ranking. That’s why I responded with a more argumentative response, for lack of a better term. I think the main issue is the coaching, most importantly the personnel knowledge and use. If that was corrected, I think we would be fine. All teams work with injuries and it seemed like this team was no different when Fox and Bagley went out. It’s the “next man up” mentality and it’s not like the dropoff is as colossal as going from Steph Curry to Ky Bowman.

I thought CoJo had his best stretch when Fox was out. He still made mistakes that a vet shouldn’t make, but his defense was fantastic. His offense has been... stalling and out of place. It was exacerbated when Fox came back. CoJo’s mentality also seemed to change when Fox got back, which was very odd. Hield was the same. He went from the man to 2nd fiddle when Fox got back and his confidence seemed to wane. I don’t get it.

I just wish this team could put together a consistent game. They’ve said it in interviews and it rings true every game: they can’t seem to put together a complete game.
I wish I could see them run like we know they can. Instead their pace is in the bottom half of the league (granted it’s tied at 3 for the last 5 games... maybe we are seeing a change).
I wish this team would get opposing bigs into foul trouble by driving more. Instead, we are the worst team at getting to the line.
I wish Buddy would get used like a Redick with more on-ball duty. Instead, he’s being used like an early-2000s part-time lead guard.

[dckingsfan]

Agreed on most everything except Cory Joseph - he has been awful. Most or the reason for the slow pace is Joseph can't push the ball effectively. His TS is a woeful .473. 3PT% .317. AS/TO ratio barely above 1.

And he is overrated on D. He has a low DRB% even for a PG and his STL% isn't very good. What he does is stay in front of the other player - that's about it.

He really isn't even at a replacement level for a PG.

[bleeds_purple]

Agreed on most everything except Cory Joseph - he has been awful. Most or the reason for the slow pace is Joseph can't push the ball effectively. His TS is a woeful .473. 3PT% .317. AS/TO ratio barely above 1.

And he is overrated on D. He has a low DRB% even for a PG and his STL% isn't very good. What he does is stay in front of the other player - that's about it.

He really isn't even at a replacement level for a PG.

He honestly doesn't even stay in front of his man half the time. Once his current contract is over, he will either be a minimum player at the end of the bench or out of the league. Once Bogdan is back we need to just cut him out of the rotation and play Yogi for spot minutes.

[dckingsfan]

With 50 games in the books, your Sacramento Kings are 19-31 with a winning percentage of .380 on track to win ~ still on pace to win 31 games.

Still no leader in the clubhouse - City of Trees is the closest.

[dckingsfan]

With 60 games in the books, your Sacramento Kings are 26 & 34 with a winning percentage of .433 on track to win ~ on pace to win 35.5 games. Sitting right between two predictions.

37 - City of Trees
34 - FiveThirtyEight.com

[KF10]

The Kings finished 31-41 for the season.

3-5 in bubble games.

This is a terrible season.

[LightTheBeam]

The Kings finished 31-41 for the season.

3-5 in bubble games.

This is a terrible season.

I came into the bubble thinking maybe we had a chance to do what Phoenix or Portland did. We left looking completely outmatched. Burn it down