Starting Keon Ellis isn’t an easy move for the Sacramento Kings

Starting Keon Ellis isn’t an easy move for the Sacramento Kings

Keon Ellis now 6-0 is a starter which it begged the question after the Kings moved to 5-0 with him in starting lineup uh Mike Brown got asked at his at his postgame presser like hey is he gonna start is Keon gonna start and he more or less is like no you know it’s

Kind of you know there’s lot that goes into that and blah blah blah blah well Matt George asked last night you know what kind of goes into that and this became a a topic of discussion during the conference here’s what Mike Brown had to say about the process of changing

The starting lineup and the difficulty of that there’s a lot that goes into it it comes down to feel um you know Kevin uh gives us a lot too and you know does it make us better with Kevin or Keegan or HB coming off the bench just to start

Keon I don’t know I I I don’t have that feel yet you know you can always bring Keon in the game early Keon can still average 20 25 minutes a game if need be and so um kind of like the leak just G you know it can give us the

Luxury of hey obviously finishing the way we want to finish but playing different lineups based on the Florida game because we might go out there and the Florida game might be in our favor with whoever starting okay let’s ride with that okay they want to make a run

Or they want to do this you know you got Le you you got Keon you got Davon coming off the bench and it just adds to what uh is already a very very good bench that a that that audio is courtesy audio courtesy of uh James ham thanks

Man oh yeah appreciate you I was there you’re there follow James ham at James ham NBA on Twitter and subscribe to the Kings beat at the Kings be.com and the Kings be podcast whever you get your podcast okay anyways he said two things there one he said I don’t have that feel

Yet I don’t have that feel about you know is it better with Keon as a starter or not I do I have it Mike I that’s where my point that like his six and 0 is over 65 games right yeah yeah I got it’s not like today yeah and and Keon’s

Been in and out of the lineup like it’s hard for him to separate himself from some of the other players doubt and like I look I think he’s done a really good job he’s been with the team the whole year he hasn’t gone to the G League

Mm-hm so they haven’t sent him down he was on a two-way but he wasn’t two-way exactly he only oneway the two-way well he ran out of of two-way games right or he was about to run out like right at the trade deadline and that’s why they converted him after

After the trade deadline so like look this is sort of the when you’re bringing along a young player there’s always going to be like this question about whether what you’re seeing is real or not no doubt there’s always going to be I think some teams do a better job of

Bringing players into the fold than others and you know sometimes it does come down to just having faith in a player and not because you don’t have faith in players it’s that you become really comfortable with what you with the players that you do have faith in I

Mean look this team won 48 games last year with Kevin herder starting almost every one of them yeah like he was a huge piece to what they did he was their third leading score like this was it’s not just some player that like was a oneoff and he was really good and I

Think when I look at Mike might not be as quick to pull the trigger as some other coaches sure so like a guy like Michael Malone he has no choice even though he has a team that won the championship last year he lost Bruce Brown he lost Jeff Green he’s got

To go with you know Christian Brown uh Brown and he’s got to go with uh guys what’s the other pton Watson pton Watson and even Zeke Naji like he’s got to go with those guys because like that’s what happens when your team hits a certain budget when you have star players that

Eat up all of the money then you have to figure out ways to manage the rest of your roster no doubt and so maybe Mike Brown is just a little more reluctant to change that’s okay that’s just a feel thing yeah and I think I I think there’s

There’s another aspect to this and again coming at this from the standpoint of it’s super easy for me or you or the chatty house or somebody listening to see here and go well dude start him like you’re clearly better yeah when ke but one of the one of the things with this

Is and this is this is a conversation we had a lot with with Trey Lance and Kyle Shanahan and should Lance start or not this is a key aspect of this once you do that you’re committed oh you’re pot you are fully there’s no going back from

That so Mike Brown now with again and this is something we touched on yesterday this team’s 11 over 500 this is not like oh my God they might miss the play in panic button do something this is this is hey you might be better with this guy in the starting lineup all the

Stuff that you need in a game he’s providing it and to Mike Brown’s point to kind of argue against myself here and to your point when you say Okay Kevin herder you’re of the starting lineup Harrison Barnes you’re out of the starting lineup whoever it is uh Keon you’re starting

Now that’s it moving forward and if that move doesn’t work if your sample size of Keon Ellis minutes it turns out was not enough and he doesn’t actually consistently provide as a starter all these things that he’s been providing the last couple of nights you’re

Hosed you could wind up deep in the play in where you’re losing a play play in game and you’re missing the playoffs and now now it gets turned around back on the coach now it’s like hey why would you do that the yeah look at that misstep that

You did and then everybody who’s piled on to start Keon star ke they’re the same people like oh fire him yeah right look at what he did right he screwed up everything right I mean that’s a delicate balance man and and so super is dude it’s not a simple disc uh decision

It’s not a simple discussion it’s something that like it’s an organizational decision and I know DLo and DLo hates it when I talk about that like these are organizational decisions like well he gives you a better chance to win it’s like okay but what does that mean hey hey

Look if like the value of Kevin herder right now probably isn’t at its all well it’s not its alltime high defitely not no but it’s also for some teams around the league M go like look maybe this situation just isn’t right for him anymore and the problem the Kings have

Is like he’s on you’re on the hook for 16.8 and and 18 million over the next 2 years with with Kevin and at some point value does matter like what his value is is summer you have to consider that and what does it mean if if you’re going to

Replace him with a guy who was literally on a two-way contract three weeks ago four weeks ago yeah like that’s that’s what we’re talking about so like look I I think Mike said it best like the knee-jerk re action like yeah Keon’s had a couple of good games and yeah some

Guys have had a couple of bad games but you could also make the argument that up until last night that you could replace keeg and Murray in the starting lineup as well if you had somebody else he’ had a rough stretch for sure I mean he had a

Rough stretch like so so who are you going to point fingers at today and and how is that going to react how is that player going to embrace or not embrace the question and the move forward I mean how many people this season wanted Harrison Barnes replaced in the starting

Lineup uh so many people in the chat that it’s crazy why do you not do it because if you stay the course sometimes it all works out in the end that guys go back they don’t you know there’s regression to the mean and then there’s also like the loss of averages like guys

Figure out ways to get back to their who they were progression to the mean yeah progression to the mean yeah yeah man I I’m I I I think think I that’s a move I would go with but I understand why Mike wouldn’t what I think we will see and

This is what he said a couple nights ago I have to figure out ways to get Keon more opportunities and so I think what we’ll see is a little bit of a tweak rotation going down the stretch here where you do start seeing Keon with with uh running with the starters certainly

But probably not starting games is how I think that’s going to wind up going no that that makes sense to me and you know the other thing I think we could also point to is it Kevin herder usually when he misses a game he rebounds pretty substantially and so again last time he

Missed a game he missed a Philly game um he came back out the next night and had 26 and 10 shot six of nine from three like sometimes like we talked about with ke uh with Keegan maybe sometimes taking a step back for a day clears your head

And gets you right back in the in the right frame of mind look I whatever whatever they decide to do I I’ll keep saying this Mike Brown is a spectacular head coach like doing a great job the Sacramento Kings just for people who who haven’t been listening for the last what

Are we talking 38 years the Kings have been in Sacramento now um in all that time this team has finished over 500 nine times eight of those came in one stretch under Rick Adelman the only other time this team has ever finished over 500 in Sacramento was last season

And they’re going to do it again so anyone out there who like this is a good coach and you need to let him do what he thinks is best for the team right now and then at the end of the day you can go back and disected and write your

Eulogy for the season whatever you want but you got to give a coach some leeway to coach his team the way that he wants Damen Barling in the building everybody he’s not here for the handoff just yet but he will be uh I I’m Daman

I’m going to Loop you in on on the fun game I have to play about the game last night oh all right uh James to finish up that point the Kings won their 38th game of the year last night yep um Mike Brown of course led the Kings to 48 wins last

Year the Kings have hit 38 wins so since their last playoff appearance in ‘ 056 the Kings had gotten to 38 or more wins twice yeah I’ve covered Brown arrives Dave Jagger 39 wins and Mike Brown last year yeah they won 38 in 0708 and they won 39 in 1819 and they won

Their 38th game last night with 17 games to go yeah that’s where this whole Keon Ellis thing is a matter of from Mike Brown’s perspective this is still this is still a team that’s 11 over man this is not this is not dire circumstances uh flip the switch

Everything needs to change uh now if they get in a playoff series that that is where I think we might see the the Keon Ellis button get pushed if they go down you know 02 in a series or something like that but that it’s a much different circumstance than than sitting

Here in the middle of March

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