Sacramento Kings must have urgency to win NOW
bottom line to everything here when we’re talking about the Kings this off season is what you brought up at the end of the last segment they are no longer this team like they were after 2022 and 2023 they were this team on the rise they were the number three seed they won 48 games they had this young core they looked like they were headed to the moon and then this past season happened and they were basically the same team they just didn’t make the playoffs and now instead of because going into last season we were looking at the Mavs like dude Mavs miss the playoffs not buying it not buying the Clippers not buying the Timberwolves but now all of a sudden you’ve seen Oklahoma City prove it and be the number one seed Dallas uh excuse me Denver is going to be around Minnesota has proven like yeah hey they’re a force in the west now uh Dallas has proven that yep they are a force in the west now as Kyrie and Luca have figured out how to play together they’ve gotten the right pieces around them all of a sudden the kings are looking up at a minimum of four teams yeah and then there’s New Orleans who went 6-0 against Sacramento last year who’s also going to be in the mix um Phoenix was a disaster in the playoffs but Phoenix is gonna win some regular season games yeah like this is this is a and and that’s where you know when we talk about the draft and you’re talking about a draft pick there’s there’s a there’s a aspect of it that that where the ceiling matters where like man you can’t just get a player with a super because then you’re not ultimately improving your team you’re just getting another like back end of the rotation guy but at the same time like they just they they they have a long way to go they have to get a lot better they’re not like a draft pick away who’s going to be the ninth or tth guy in the rotation and then oh yeah just just go get a a different backup big and now everything’s fine like they have they they have I don’t want to say Leaps and Bounds because a team like Utah has Leaps and Bounds to make to to get into contention but they have at least a small leap to to get in contention I think that’s where everything has to whether you like Kyle kosma or whether you you want Harrison Barnes around or whether you like Brandon Ingram or hate Brandon Ingram or Zack LaVine or whatever player we talk about mhm like this is this is the point in the king’s rebuild or their Ascension or what wherever at where you have to go compete now you have to take some kind of Swing to compete now de Fox is not 22 Deo sabonis is not 22 and none of the teams ahead of you are like significantly older some of them are much younger well that as well OKC is much younger yeah that I mean that’s a problem you have to figure out a way to it’s like keeping up with the Joneses but like you got to figure it out you got to figure out a way to jump back into conversation that’s it right and so I I definitely think that the Kings like they’re they’re not that far away no I don’t but I also feel like they’re a starter and another top eight top nine rotational piece away so that’s that that that’s interesting that so you say they’re not that far away and I I I tend to agree but I also don’t think that means it’s easy like where they need to get they’re not they’re not way off of it it’s not like you said they they are a couple pieces away but it’s not super easy to just go find an upgrade at the four no or an upgrade over a Kevin herder or Harrison Barnes or whatever whatever it is particularly if you wind up losing Malik monk now all of a sudden you have to try and replace that piece of this as well oh yeah so it’s it’s you’re right they are a couple a couple pieces away from being really really freaking good but it’s the path to get to those couple of pieces might be half a mile long but there might be like a moat maybe like a bear trap or two maybe an actual Bear yeah um like it’s it is it is a it is a tough tough road to to add those pieces that they need even if they’re not considered far off no I totally agree with that and I also think that like if you were to lose Malik monk where that puts you now you’re looking at three rotational pie pieces that you would need to figure out and that’s nearly impossible for them to to handle in this one offseason yeah like you might be able to find a low-level guy to replace one of those guys you might still be able to swing for the fence and grab one guy you might be able to add something here and there uh use your midlevel and stuff like that but like the potential to lose monk would be catastrophic for this team and and like look it’s still an option it’s still a possibility and they could totally reroute how you have to think of your entire summer mhm and so if I’m the Kings I’m like you have to be aggressive and and I also think that like being aggressive and going out and trying to pull off one of these traits if you can whisper to Malik Monk on you know June 29th a day before free free agency officially opens hey we’re bringing in X Y and Z we already got we already have like some sort of momentum to do that that will change what his thoughts are m you can easily like secure what you’re doing with Monk and I also think that like you already took one step the Mike Brown situation is now settled now it’s like you got like three weeks here of what’s going to be wild and chaotic and it means everything I mean it does like this franchise is they’re at a point where you you took you plateaued maybe that’s how that’s the best way to say they they’ve hit a ceiling yeah and now you have one of your Prime pieces that may not be back and you have to find a way to either you know to get him back in the fold but also to improve the roster beyond that because that like everyone can celebrate the day that they if they’re able to get Malik monk back but the next day like you got so much work to do so so I think all of these things they fit into one big giant package of like who are you what are you moving forward because if this doesn’t work out this year what are you looking at next year like what kind of step back do you take next year and how do you move forward so you can move backwards so you can move forward and we’re starting to talk about like resetting everything and all that that’s what you’re hoping to avoid here you’re hoping to like jump back into the conversation not not hang around the back end of the conversation like like be be the Wallflower who who’s watching Everybody Dancing Yeah which is what they are this year you got to figure out a way to jump back into that conversation and not only that but I think that they’re it’s not just lengthened athleticism it’s not just like a a a power forward or a small forward that they need they need more than that they need attitude they need someone else who can bring something different to the table it’s why would people uh say oh you know why would the Kings possibly look at yonas Valen chunis and that’s because Jonas is a mean dude and that you will not just go in and do something stupid against the Kings if yonas is standing in the middle of the key correct and if youfor if you want to knock somebody down if you want to do something dirty stomp on someone’s chest just for example yeah just for an example if you don’t think that Jonas Valen chunis is going to check into the game with a a little scoreboard in his head and and go take care of business you’re wrong yeah and so I think that like the Kings need that as much as they need a backup center yeah they need a Jonas valent chunis typee like player that’s why I bring up a Bobby poris like man Bob Bobby poris stares into your soul like there’s not a player in the league that I I think like puts fear in somebody like Bobby poris he literally broke a teammate jaw yeah yeah he did that’s a thing that happened it is it is yeah man no they need no they need that that uh they need teeth man yeah they just need I I brought it up last year a lot I was like man they need dogs and I know that’s overplayed and I know it’s it’s like what the hell does that mean but it’s that it’s like somebody who’s going to get after it I I I think that that’s that that’s partly just on a you know bringing it night in and night out not laying down against inferior opponents you know not laying down when the Suns make a huge run to to come back at the end of a game uh you know digging in in in big spots but also what what you’re talking about like there just needs to be an overall shift toward like some kind of grit yeah that I think they’re they’re badly missing oh I was going to get to our caller uh we had Dawn on the line and he is now gone so uh if if you want to call back 91 699 13291 16909 1320 we will try and get to you as as quickly as we can yeah man um I was thinking about this with the with the Giants the San Francisco Giants that is and I think one of the worst things that happened to the Giants was the TW was it 20 2021 that they won7 games I think it was I think it was the 2021 season they went 107 and they make the playoffs they lose in a in a brilliant five game series against the Dodgers it was so much fun but it offered this like proof of concept that the Moneyball strategy that Farhan zidi employed worked and so it allows their ownership to I don’t want to say be cheap because they have the 10th highest payroll in baseball but it allows their ownership to not to not do things like overpay for Aaron judge and whether again maybe maybe Aaron judge was never going to leave New York the Giants could have offered him3 billion and he would have been like nope I’m going to be the Yankee captain and go to the Hall of Fame in New York and that’s what I’m going to be uh maybe that was always going to be the case but that they continue finishing second to all these free agents and they’re putting in competitive offers but it’s like bro it’s very clear that you got to go above that but they won’t now because they have this 107 wins in their back pocket and they go look it works we just got to find the right pieces and when you’re trying to find the right pieces you’re going to get a really really uninspired in team year in and year out that maybe they win 86 games and maybe they grab a third wild card spot but it’s nothing that fans are excited about yeah I think with the Kings the opposite is true 48 wins was great but I think it’s almost better for them as we talk about this urgency that they took a little slide last year just in terms of results yeah because now it does uptick that urgency where it’s like yo got to do something to compete here yes because if they make the playoffs this year and let’s say they win a round and they go to the second round and they get they get wiped in the second round then you’re looking at the same roster and going oh okay it’s there it’s like man it’s it’s not though like it’s just it it’s not they have to make some kind of significant change and I don’t know if that would have been catalyzed had they you know had the same year but gone to the playoffs had they won their playin game and and made the playoffs so I I I was watching the Giants last night be a just kind of a bummer to watch yeah really bad vibes and I keep going back to the 107 wins it’s like man that that’s the worst thing that could have happened no I get what you’re saying completely and and I think that jumping up to the third seed for the Kings last year it like reset expectations really really high that’s a good point and I think that you know again we kept saying like 48 wins doesn’t usually equal the third seed no doubt and people kept fighting like oh but this is like it’s not usually the way it work that’s why 46 is a nine seed like you won two less games and you’re the nine seed 48 this year wouldn’t have made the playoffs oh yeah yeah so I mean that’s that’s kind of the way it is but at the same time I I hear a lot of people oh the Kings need to spend more they need to do this they need to do that like I looked at their roster this year and I didn’t see a pathway for them to start someone different and come up with a different result right so we can talk about what Mike Brown as a coach and what people love what what people don’t like you know about what he does but at the same time what was a clear-cut answer that would have improve this roster and we it doesn’t always work that way because when Kevin herder goes down and Keon Ellis steps in I think the kings were were different and like you could see an outline of something different but also I don’t know what the overall record I think he started like six and0 as a starter or 7 and0 as a starter I don’t know what it ended up what his overall record ended up but when you’re looking at that you’re like okay that’s something different but there was no like hidden move that the Kings could have done that would have increased their win total by five or six like injury sure hitting free throws sure but there wasn’t like they didn’t have another option outside of their starting five really yeah and it’s for me it’s revisionist history to go back and say oh they they shouldn’t have there were people who argued that they needed to change the roster up last year but I I was of the mind that like yeah if you’re going to run it back unless there is a Surefire definite going to get better move I think you had to run it you had to run it back like you have to see what Keegan Murray is going to become you got a that Kevin herder was awesome again um you bring back Harrison Barnes and you just kind of had to to see it and then like you said at the deadline this year with the way their their picks were tied up because of the Kevin herder deal it wasn’t like we’ve tried we’ve tried to make the the PJ Washington trade work for the Kings and it’s like two rotation players and a first round pick no they didn’t have they didn’t have that option they did not have the the ability to make that trade they didn’t even have the ability to make the gaffer trade they didn’t so like I understand that I also look at last offseason and you just you’re left with the question of like what happened and why you weren’t able to make the improvements like last off season the Kings didn’t do nothing they they signed de mon sabonis to a massive extension like uh and they they negotiated his salary up like 9 million bucks and then signed him to an extension M like that’s something that that is Meaningful and that we’re not dealing with this offseason because if not that’s what we we would be dealing with today is what whether damus sabonis and Malik monk would walk away right now and what that could look like for the Kings not the situation you want to be in no not even a little bit Yeah but it was once they got done with that and they still had upwards of 25 to $30 million to spend and it was that they they weren’t able to go out and get a big fish and the problem is that was going to be that is the last free agency period that they’re going to have I don’t see another free agency period in the next five years that they’re going to have because sabonis salary goes up Fox’s salary goes up you’re gonna have to pay Keegan Murray like all of these things are happening right um so even when herder and Barnes if you were to hold on to them and they fall off the books even then you’re not going to have this huge amount of of salary cap space so had this one time right and I think what they did is they used they used Harrison Barnes as a salary cap hold like hold spot they know that they can still go get value for him but this the fact is you still need that $18 million salary to trade right and and so for me they’re they’re kind of in this weird position where again we keep tying up their draft picks forever we’re acting like they’re just going to be able to trade four draft four first round picks well then you don’t have a way to get better in those Summers you don’t have a first round pick in those Summers you could already be over the luxury tax or over the first apron or pushing the second apron so these are all things that you have to consider when you’re building out when you’re building out a team and it’s not just simple as like swapping pieces out and thinking it’s going to work you also have chemistry to worry about all of these things so I don’t think it’s as cut and dry as like hey we know where we are and we know where we have to get to like what is the pathway and and how difficult is that pathway and how much do we tie up our our future everything in order to make this move and it it’s tough and it’s why I think at certain times we’re really hard on Monty McNair for for being inactive and I would continue to say when the Kings got to December and January you knew your team wasn’t good enough no doubt you thought that there might be some switch that could be hit but it wasn’t hitting that like no one was flipping the switch Yeah so you got to that point and you should have done everything in your power to try to make a move then to keep yourself back in in that top four conversation you didn’t and now you’re sort of at this point where how do you do it right now and how much work have you created for yourself but that we’re acting like Monty McNair didn’t try and he did and there just nothing materialized that made sense for him in in January and February and sometimes that’s the way it works as well and you just kind of have to bite the bullet and hope for better things next year and next summer they were deeply involved in Pascal seak stuff oh yeah and if they had traded Malik Monk and other stuff to get Pascal zakum that would have gotten panned widely yeah and then we’d be sitting here unless the Kings made some kind of run to the finals which I don’t think they would have we’d be sitting here going man is Pascal seak gonna resign like that and and then what yeah so um no I I I I think I I think I in in general am on board with that with that line of thinking but I care I care less about what has happened to this point because are there things that could have things they could have done you know on the margins a little bit differently sure but in general it was always going to to land at this spot where you have to go like it’s now yeah and that’s why that’s why I thought Damen put it perfectly the Mike Brown contract is done okay they have their coach locked in but now eyes turned to the front office and to me you that’s their like that’s their their jobs and that’s that’s the goal of the front office is to make the team better every single year yeah and that’s why at this point like everything has to be on the table you cannot just sit on your hands and that’s not to say um oh they should go make a super lopsided deal where they’re getting hosed in a trade just to say they did something no but it’s exploring every single Avenue which I’m sure they are and taking every single Street turning over every Rock Leaf pick your metaphor and ensuring that they’re doing something that’s going to make this team better this offseason if you can’t well then the conversation changes a lot yeah but uh it it’s it’s now to me and I think everything has to be on the table every player has to be on the table every asset has to be on the table every player within reason um there’s just if if it’s Kyle kosma and Brandon Ingram or one or the other or Jonas valan chunis and one of those two guys the the roster just has to a be different but B be better yeah and that’s that’s like that’s the the front office’s gig like that’s their whole thing so I think to to me eyeballs go to them now yeah and I think that being able to honestly assess who and what your team is I mean that’s so crucial at this point do% like I know that like coming up through the the Houston system like one of the the real basic T is just never overpay your own players right never overpay and it’s something that the Kings have done so many times here right like I don’t know how many times how many different people I could point to where the king’s overpaid whether it’s you know go back to Francisco Garcia or you can like there’s all of these points in history where they overpay their own free agent or whatever because they have so much value and I I know somebody said in the chat um hey you know like Monty always talks about the flexibility but he never uses that flexibility and this is one of those moments where you have to use your flexibility the fact that the Kings have you know again two $6 million players in Chris warte and and Davon Mitchell that are on expiring contracts that can be traded for they can you can bring back twice as much as goes out so each of those players could be a $6 million player can be traded for a $12 million player you can agregate those two those two together can be $12 million player you can trade for up to a $24 million player in theory they could trade Chris DTE and Davon Mitchell and the 13th pick for Kyle kosma without touching the other stuff that they have now you’re taking back 12 million you’re going to end up paying the luxury tax or you’re going to have to create some other space another way but that’s where again Trey lyes one year 8 million Sasha fenov one year 6.5 million with a with a team option for year number two these are all you’re you’re in a moment where you do have flexibility and this is a moment that you might have to use that flexibility and even the contracts of Harrison Barnes and and uh Kevin herder both of them are two-year deals and everyone can look at those and go okay those aren’t those are reasonable rotational players no matter what in the NBA and at what do I have to give up in order like would I take those back in a trade to send out something bigger MH might and so I think it’s a like it’s it’s a fun exercise for us to sit here and talk about it all the time but it’s also a such a complicated puzzle that Monty is dealing with and how do you put it all together this is not like if you you seen the thing on on Facebook where it literally shows you how to fix a Rubik’s Cube there’s like literally there’s like four motions that if you just keep doing it the Rubik’s Cube will be fixed hilarious right so when you see people go super fast it’s because like literally specific things there is no four moves that to fix a Kings and to make them the NBA champions and if there was there is well maybe but if there was like every team in the league would be doing the same thing they would all understand how to do it and they would fix their team and make their their team an NBA championship as well Contender or whatever but that’s just not the way it works and so I think it’s interesting and I I think think kings are in a really really interesting spot because they do have the assets they do have the the value of expiring contracts in a world where all of a sudden we have a second apron and teams are looking at that at that going I don’t want my 2032 first round pick Frozen like so there are going to be teams out there that are giving away things for Less salary like good teams yeah Gooding teams yeah yeah and the Kings need to aggressively pursue players uh or teams that are in a situation like that but they also you got to start throwing draft Capital you got to start doing whatever it is you can to get better and that’s I and and honestly thousand per I am right there with you and that is why I see this online a lot and this is not just to Kings this is not exclusive to Kings fans this is every fan base in every sport when you start talking trades and picks it’s like well I wouldn’t give up multiple first round picks for that guy it’s like bro is that guy going to make your team better right now yeah then punt the pick and could that pick be the 25th pick because you got good exact that’s and and and then what are we talking about that pick’s not even worth the Marco banelli yeah of the world that sty that level of player yeah it’s tough
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