rpa wrote:RipPizzaGuy wrote:simonbampfield wrote:Yep it’s time to make the move. Trade the vets and get the tank on. Currently we’re not far off the 4/5th worst record so let’s get a good draft pick and see what flushes out in the off season.
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This is what needs to happen. Unfortunately we will go on a bit of a run, get some hope, trade for a few harkless/davis types. Then finish 11th seed! Yay
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Probably. Team's only 1.5 games out of the play-in game dream (which is like your dream car being a Civic LX). They need to be further out for management to truly give up. The good news, though:
26 games until the allstar break and I count 5 where the Kings will be favored: 2 against OKC, 2 against HOU, and 1 against DET. A 5-21 run would put them at 18-42 heading into the break and on pace for 25 wins. If the Spurs kept up their pace as the 10th seed the Kings would be sitting 6-7 games out by the break. At that point they've gotta see the writing on the wall, right?
That said, I don't even know what they should do (at a high level) if they finally realize they need to rebuild. It's easy to say "trade everyone" when like 2/3 of the roster are JAGs. Trade Buddy and Bagley? Sure, but that doesn't move the needle. Trade Barnes? You'll get assets, but he's just a complimentary piece. You could try trading Holmes, but given that he seemed happy to be here that's a kick in the balls. You obviously aren't moving off Haliburton or Mitchell and that brings the question back to Fox. He's your best player, but he should be your 2nd or 3rd best (which is the team's biggest issue--lack of talent) and there's an argument that he could be a better player with a remotely competent coach*. So do you really trade him for a bag of assets that have little to no chance to return a player of his caliber? That'd suck. But if you don't trade him you're stuck with a core of 3-guards with some extreme weaknesses.
* Side bar: I feel like people forget now just how good Fox looked in year two before the Kings fired Joeger and brought in Walton. That year Fox:
a) Shot 37% from 3 (the best season of his career by 5%)
b) Averaged 10.8 assists per 100 possessions (best of his career)
c) Had 2.5 DWS (highest in career by 1.1) and a positive DBPM (only time in career).
d) Had the 11th highest ORPM in the league at 4.24. He hasn't eclipsed 3.0 in the 2 seasons since.
I'm not trading any of the young 3 guards until I've seen a team put around them. Or until Mitchell makes it clear and obvious Fox is expendable. Right now I see 1 scoring guard, 1 defensive guard, and 1 playmaker. All 3 play fast paced, and there should plenty of room for all of them.
Barnes, Buddy, Tristan, Harkless, Len and in a sense Bagley are counter productive to this team. I want fast defenders who can shoot. Or at least give me consistent effort.
Buddy tries about 10% of the time. Hes got to go.
Barnes is not built for a fast paced team. We need to send him to a half court veteran team. If I have to watch him drive 3x a game getting stripped, I can't stand it. He shouldn't be doing that but hes forced to because this team has no identity.
Dito for Metu. Just constant mistakes and playing similar to how we all complained about Bagley. Selfish.
Tristan sucks
Harkless sucks
Len sucks.
The way I see it,
You have
Holmes/Jones
------
------
Hali/Davis
Fox/Mitchell
That fits what you are trying to do as a team. Just run. Become fast paced and athletic. Get some floor spacers who cut to the basket and try on defense.
Hope you draft a stud with a top 5 pick to fill out one of those positions long term. Hope you can use Barnes to get a Cam Reddish type. And just put a fast young athletic team out there. Hire on a good young coach who isn't some rehash.
The way this team was constructed makes zero sense. Our best players like to play fast. Our veterans like to play slow. You have a complete mismatched team, and a coach who doesn't know how to call a single play. A team sniffs out the Hali/Holmes pnr and suddenly we just ask Fox/Barnes to go 1 on 1 all game. Then Fox doesn't get calls, and we wonder why hes "regressed".
I couldn't agree more about going from Joerger to Walton. It stunted everyones growth on this team. Bagley/Fox being the 2 main guys who got crushed from that decision.
Its mind blowing to me that we can be such a bad team every year, but not be developing any players at the same time.
You look at Houston buying Sengun in the middle of the first. Finding Tate undrafted. Taking a risk on KPJ for nothing.
You look at the Spurs who were good not long ago. And you see Murray, Vassell, Keldon, Walker, Primo.
Look at Memphis. They were bad for a little bit, and now they are staring at Bane, Morant, JJJ, Melton, Williams, Konchar, Clarke, Tillman. Funny they actually built a team around a scoring point guard, but with only guys under 30 who play fast, can shoot, and are all good 2 way players.
Sure I wish Fox was a superstar. But I'm not going to pick on our young guy when we can't put a halfway decent team around him. This team is rotten to the core, and its way beyond a few players. He shouldn't be asked to be the best scorer/defender/closer/leader and when a 24 year old fails we scold him. Get him better than a G-League roster construction/coaching staff and lets see what happens.
