The Athletic’s Jason Jones on the Sacramento Kings’ 2023-24 Season
ah nice enough to join us from the athletic the one and only Jason Jones Jason I apologize you stepped right in the middle of Dres telling us about his how close he came to working with Will Smith back in the day well I don’t blame him for not doing that my first taste of manual labor I said I’m GNA stick with this college thing I this my back hey Jason you remember back in the day when you were in college like some of your friends maybe might have worked at UPS or something like that back in the day I tried that too for a day and I was like you got to lift the boxes and everything dude that’s why we stayed in school right there so we didn’t have to lift boxes or B bag ice or anything like that yeah somebody I knew was doing some Roofing and they like you want to make a little extra money I’m like sure a day in the in the sun on the roof I said yeah this really isn’t for me My Little summer job is gonna be just fine you guys keep this I like I don’t care I can’t no no no I don’t like P this much no I can’t do it right hey we were just talking about Mike Brown and there’s been a lot of speculation about what’s going on as far as you know do you expect the Kings to get the Mike Brown deal done sooner rather than later you would think you would going to get something done sooner rather than later it doesn’t make sense for me to to drag this out or make it a distraction or the longer it goes the more the speculation keeps going that you know maybe something is wrong maybe someone isn’t Happ happy what’s going on here I think what I what I would hope is that if you’re if you’re the Kings or the Kings fan you don’t you didn’t you don’t take the previous season and then say that meant this season was an absolute failure because you didn’t make the playoffs I mean I went going into the season saying they could be GRE from three to 10 the West is just that Compact and I don’t think that they fell off so much as more more so the other teams were healthier and they got a few bad they had a few bad losses but you know the difference between four and 10 was about what six games yeah so I mean I don’t think this should be an indictment on Mike Brown at all I mean it wasn’t like in the off season the Kings went out and made these drastic re know overhauls to the roster brought in all these new guys and said okay Mike your roster is 25% better now go you know now go win 55 games so I think if you take the everything in the consideration I I don’t think how anyone could really be mad at Mike Brown after for last season yeah Jason I I remember when we had you on earlier uh during the season you talked about how each season is its own individual season not a whole lot of carryover we were talking about well they won 48 games maybe they should win 50 51 and you cautioned us against that now that they’ve won 46 games now that we’ve seen what Dallas and OKC and Minnesota look like give me some optimism for Kings fans next season or do they got got to go out there and make some wholesale changes to compete in the West I don’t know if you I think it’s a mix of both I don’t know if you need wholesale changes if I’m looking at the way they’re constructed I think I don’t know who the player would be but if they could get one of those like rangy type four men that go next to sabonis a guy who can be a shot blocker a guy who can you know still space the floor a guy like that I mean you can add a piece you and what Minnesota is showing you you can never have enough three and D guys you know the more guys in that 6668 you can throw out there I think if they can do some things like that you’ll I mean I think the other thing is you’ll expect some you know some improvement from Keegan year three it’s kind of I I don’t want to say it’s the show andove year for Keegan but you want to see him be solidified as that’s our you know we have a a big three not a big two and you know kind of 2.2 2.5 you want to be able to say okay Keegan we can pencil you in for what 21 22 points x amount of rebounds whatever every night I think if you get a combination of internal Improvement and get a couple you know I really think they would benefit from getting you know another another fourman defensive type guy to go next to sabonis because right now you’re basically playing two small forwards with him Y and some of their losses they had you know some of their worst matchups you had you know you look at the Pelicans they were able to beat them up because they had more of those guys yeah it’s going to be hard to win in the west if you’ve got two small forwards and the Center who’s not like you know 71 72 Jason Jones with us of course from the athletic I want to ask you about Keegan and just to clarify on what you just said in your view do you think Keegan for the most part here is little behind schedule ahead of schedule or pretty much where we reasonably could expect him to be I think he’s pretty much on schedule I don’t think he regressed or anything last year I don’t think he watch his play and go oh wow they made it like what were they doing this is terrible but I if you’re talking about the way the West is and trying to take that next leap you know you’re going to need him to take a leap with you to get there because it’s not like the Kings have like a Max salary SL you know slot available you’re not g to go out there and just get another star you know you’re not going to go I don’t know outright sign Paul George and drop him in you know you can look at the trade market you can do all those things but we think we see with teams that are left in the playoffs they’ve all got guys they drafted who became really really good yeah you know you know I think Indiana’s the exception maybe but you know outside of Miles Turner but they traded for Tyrese as a you know a young player so you know you know so you had him on a rookie deal so you know if you’re going to get to that next level it just can’t be especially with with the way the salary cap is now you just can’t load up and you know you don’t do you do you want to be Phoenix where you’ve got what 150 and three guys right you don’t want to be in that situation so bonus help helped you last year with the way he structured his extension so you got to be smart and make you know some smart moves to upgrade and then maybe you know if you can’t retain Malik that’s going to create another situation for you but you you know and that’s where you’ll also need like a set a Keegan to get better and you kind of just you know and find some gems in the draft all these teams that are playing they’ve made some moves not all those you know Derek white was not a blockbuster move you know TJ McConnell was not right you know you look at what Minnesota has yeah they have two number one overall picks but you know when they got some of those guys and that other that big trade they got you know Nel Al you know getting McDaniels guys like that those weren’t you know Blockbuster deals Derek Jones Junior you know Gafford so you go it’s a combination of what you’ve got those young guys you get becoming really good and just finding those right guys to plug in you know what you’re echoing something that LeBron and JJ reick talked about recently on it’s no longer you know get a big three it’s making sure your role players play at a high level and are stars in their role I felt like that was one of the issues the Kings had this past season Jason you look at some of their role players my boy Chris dwarte Sasha VZ zenov you know even a guy like Kevin herder Harrison B they didn’t have the kind of Seasons that we expected out of them how much can we say that was an issue for the Kings last season and how do they address that this year well he didn’t care for your question I was about to say that’s a great question like a question Hall of Fame right there you know close the laptop I’m not talking about that that’s I know right no but that’s a that’s a really good point though you look at the previous season Kevin herder had an you know you know probably his best no all around know guys really played really well and a lot of times when a team breaks out part of it you know Malik monk you know kind of you know I think we saw what Malik did in LA and you knew he could do it but to see him know break out the way he did it I think he got robbed six man of the year but that’s you know I didn’t have a vote this year but I thought he got robbed but you know but you know that’s that’s a big part of it is that you look at the te I said the teams that are left and some of the teams that had success you look at the Denver round one Michael Porter Jr Aaron those guys were stars the next round you couldn’t find them most of the time and they lose right and the Kings really you know that that was a big part you know I think out I think outside of sa bonis Fox and monk most Knights you didn’t know what you were getting from everybody else and it’s hard to win in the NBA like that and even leak you know would have his kind of es and flows to the season but but for the most part you knew what you were getting from Malik but I mean there were too many games where you know you might get a you know 20o game from Harrison then you know he might play 12 minutes the next game there was just so much inconsistency around those guys that you’re now asking dear and sabonis to be Superman every night you know and you’re asking them to get you know you know and you know and a double double streak is cool but if when your team is that inconsistent around says a bonus he can’t get 18 and 10 you need 30 and 20 yeah and that’s you can’t expect that every night from anyone Jason we appreciate your time as always uh have a great weekend and uh listen hope to talk to you again soon if you need any ice this weekend we know who’s got the connection for you right yeah I’ll drive up 80 and get I’ll drive up to 80 you know I got some friends Park and Sack and I’ll get all that ice you know I’ll only charge you double real quick Jason real quick because Jason’s a Lakers fan he had Lakers fan I didn’t want to bring that don’t tell me hey y’all really going to hire JJ reck is that what y’all really going to do big it it appears and I I’ve had to just kind of say you know what I I don’t know what to say I really I mean gota be the worst Optics like I mean just you think couldn’t get any weirder a guy starts a podcast with one of your players and then a month later he could be a trend setters those Lakers are Trend Setters I I I have no words for the situation I’m going to focus on baseball season we go there we go hope that works out for me thank you Jason Stu man thanks Jason you next time a great weekend
Kevin “Whitey” Gleason and Kyle Draper, play-by-play broadcaster for the Sacramento Kings, are back with another Friday edition of The Drive Guys on Sactown Sports 1140. Today, the guys discuss Jaylen Brown’s huge game two, preview tonight’s MIN/DAL series, good news on the Mike Brown extension front, and more.
Also, throughout the show, they will be joined by Jason Jones, Evan Sidery, and Imran Pouladi.
Thank you for watching. Don’t forget to hit the thumbs up and subscribe!
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