Mark Jones, ESPN – What Does This Kings Offseason Look Like?
voice of the Sacramento Kings Mark Jones the Sacramento Kings you hear them all over ESPN um joining us now Mark how’s it going man outstanding outstanding man enjoying uh this time of the summer I get a chance to really uh be a fan and plan my days around the playoff games and now the finals and uh when the NBA is not on enjoying watching the WNBA and um it’s a good time to try to just kind of exhale a little bit get out and watch some guys uh work out in around the city of Miami different gyms bunch of NBA players a couple of our own guys so yeah it’s been fun it’s been fun yeah it’s kind of a bummer it looks like uh tonight might be our last NBA game though not sure how many more we’re gonna get sure is trending that way it sure is trending that way and I’m I’m thinking Minnesota’s got to be kicking themselves right now I get the feeling that they’ve exhaled a little bit too much after beating Denver you know that 20-point comeback game seven on the road and before they knew it they were down two games to nothing against Dallas and it was over but um you know Boston Boston proved during the regular season they’re the best team in the NBA and you know I think Dallas’s problems are this is not a news flash exacerbated by the fact that you know you got a couple of weak links defend defensively and they’ve got Five Guys the Celtics that force you to guard them all the way out to the three-point line there’s no bear there’s no Josh giddy there’s nobody that they can cheat off of and uh that’s why you’ve had you know the Uproar of late too about Luca’s defense when we uh you talk about the Uproar over Luca’s defense were you taken back a little bit by Wendy like not I know he’s a colleague and everything else but I thought that the moment the the stage it was like whoa that’s coming in hot and and I I was okay I think everything he said was honest and truthful and it’s something that we say on radio all the time but just where it was the the timing and everything else it was like it was a bit jarring yeah you know what because it’s on the final stage I think if you know I think if more people James and Kyle were um more people in the media were honest with themselves about what we had seen from Luca during the course of the regular season the previous season and the one before that this is not a departure from the way that he’s played defensively uh I think because the state are a lot higher now uh it’s a little bit more visible but you know Wendy said everything that was true he just said the quiet part out loud I mean he set Lucas set a historically bad blowby rap in game two and you don’t need analytics if you don’t basketball I mean there’s there’s no defense that says okay just let them run drive by you I mean you there’s a thing called you shade toward towards help or you tilt the floor towards the help but there’s no defense that says stand straight up and down and let the guy go around you that there’s nothing there’s nothing like that and I can remember Jason kid telling me uh going back to last year in a game that I did with the Mavericks he said you know Mark we we asked we asked Luca give me two and a half three seconds of effort and after three seconds we’ll send help if you need help mhm and I don’t think he’s getting to three right now I don’t think he’s getting to two right now um I’m not sure that they’re getting past one and a half and uh the video kind of tells the story there and Boston’s got all five guys that can score number one historically in offensive rating number two in defense and they just come at you in waves and all it takes is one guy to compromise the defense and you activate the blender and you got him in rotation like rotisserie chicken it’s over you know Mark Jones voice of the Kings Yeah you mentioned like help defense implies that you’re doing something first like if what Luke is doing is you do it defense I’m not gonna I’m not gonna do anything and what was the frustrating part to to me the other night was he had all the bad frustration fouls where he’s picking up four in the fourth quarter but with five that’s with four minutes left in a in a in a tight ball game that’s when he decides he’s going to try and draw a charge it just it’s uh yeah it’s ugly was not in position almost it was weird like it it felt like it felt like and I it felt like the moment was a little big for him there you know the the the Poise that we’ve seen from him throughout the years uh down the stretch was not there it felt you know if you’re going to relate Luca to a certain player it felt kind of hard Andes in some of the ways that um you know James hasn’t had great fortune in the PO post season T times especially at that end of the floor and um when they most needed him for those last four and a half minutes he wasn’t on the floor and I’m not sure how you remedy that you know maybe it’s just maturity and maybe he turns the corner at the defensive end but you know you see all the cups on the internet now of him getting blown by and um the best thing is not to put yourself on the film like that and I know Jason kid is honest with him you know there I I think that this has to be like Wendy alluded to a little bit of a reckoning for him you know you know Mark I feel a little bit bad about the way that uh that all of the blame well everything is kind of shifted to Luca and it’s not about Luca as much as is I think it’s taking away a little bit from just how good the Celtics are oh and you know the debate here we keep seeing it change and now the the latest debate is like not whether uh Tatum and brown or are uh Batman and Robin who’s Batman man who’s Robin but maybe they’re both superheroes like I think that this entire debate just keeps changing but I think that the Luca distraction has taken away from the greatness that we’re seeing from a team that they were better than everybody all year long we just didn’t give them the respect and and now we’re seeing it play out like in front of all of us like this is the best team in the league Bara and they might be the best team for two or three seasons yeah I agree James I I the thing that really appeals to me about Boston is the fact that their ability to not just score at an historically High offensive rating rate but defend number two in defense you’ve got at one point during the last couple of games I saw a sequence where you know Drew holiday was sticking Luca and Dallas got a switch and then Derek white the other all defensive team member is picking up Luca so when you look at what we’re trying to do in Sacramento right really kind of Institute a defensive culture mindset uh it give when you look at Boston and the success they’ve had on that side of the basketball at that end of the Court it really gives Credence to you just can’t lean into offense and expect to win because it doesn’t work it doesn’t work because if you’re not guarding people you’ll ultimately get exploited now ultimately you want the best balance and Boston has it in Spades I mean all of their guys they’re so good they’re at the point where you can’t figure out like you said who their Alpha is right is it Tatum is it brown you know Drew holiday I would argue for the first uh couple of games of that series was just as important beyond the stat sheet and the points and the rebounds and assists as anybody else here’s a guy that defends the ball at one end of the floor and on the other end of the floor he’s in the dunker spot who else does that I mean when you put together a conglomerate of versatile players the way they have they’re virtually beautiful yeah talking with Mark Jones TV voice of the Sacramento Kings you also hear him all over ESPN yeah man that’s the thing with with the Celtics is not only not only do they do they execute their defensive game plan almost perfectly on a possession byp possession basis but then they just also have the perfect group of players like we were talking about hey how can the Kings replicate a little bit of what the Celtics are doing it’s just it’s impossible because there’s not that many dudes in the league who can do all those things that they do you just can’t reconstruct this team yeah I I I saw um I spoke to a buddy of mine that sent me some video of uh he he worked with Drew in the summertime and you know you get a guy like Drew holiday he’s not in the gym getting up you know 500 threes every day he’s in the gym working on defense he’s got guys playing he’s playing one-on-one against practicing his angles moving his feet fighting over screens throwing his hips out um it just takes a special uh type of player and a group of those type of players to to be impactful and I I like the model that the Celtics are creating in the NBA right now where maybe we’re getting away from the super team model you know maybe it’s more about having three four five guys that are all in double figures you know uh scoring and and can contribute at both ends of the floor and uh roster versatility I would hope at this point replaces you know the old Case Model that we’re coming from yeah I agree with you 100% um you broke some news yesterday uh it looks like Sacramento Kings uh Power Forward Trey lyes is going to trial for has been invited to team you uh Team Canada Camp yeah yes yes yes you know I have two passports still right I have a Canadian passport and an American passport so when the USA beats Canada it’s yay USA Canada beats USA y Canada I admit I’m the ultimate Homer it doesn’t get any better f you can do that when you have two passports that’s fine that’s right do a citizenship is a is a great thing but yeah Trey’s uh you know he’s been in the gym in Sacramento for the last three weeks prior to that been working out in Los Angeles um and he’s really familiar with uh the offense that basketball Canada is going to run because Jordy runs pretty much the same stuff that we run in Sacramento with the the five out the four that they call the base offense and you know now there’s James you you know this too they they’ve got a part of the offense that we have in Sacramento called a Canada cut when the guy cuts through and on the dribble handoff dribble towards the wing the guy cuts through that’s called the Canada cut so now there’s literally going to be a Canada cut in the Canadian team offense uh but the competition at his spot is going to be pretty pretty tight when you look at you know Ken bur alen um you know they they’ve got some pretty talented stretch bigs even though um I I think that Trey should make it he he would have played last Year too except for the fact you know he had the pending free agency and sometimes guys don’t want to mess with that kind of situation just like Valen chunis he’s not playing for Lithuania this year um and it’s going to be a deal where you know Kyle’s he’s going there with uh TR LA’s going there with a clear head great body healthy and I would guess that he’s going to make the squad kennada is in a a very tough group but uh you know the familiarity that he has with Jordy is is really going to pay off for him I can’t wait for this summer I’m so excited for the Olympics oh yeah I’m I’m a sucker I want to I want to watch this Team USA team so bad yeah I know there there are people who want to see the younger guys and and whatnot but no I’m I’m here for it give me give me all these Legends one more time I’m with you I’m with you I want to see Steph has never played in the Olympics I watched him play in the World Championships uh once before watched him play on the FBA under 19 team once before but never in the Olympics and um you know I think they’ve got a really good blend of guys I’m not sure I haven’t heard anything about him beat I would expect that he’s going to play and uh I think that was our weakness the last time out in the world championships we didn’t have a big That Couldn’t could compete with some of the other bigs and you know guys that could stay in front of other people uh you know that’s why Drew holiday was so important in the last Olympic gold medal that uh USA Basketball won so I’m like you man I’m I don’t care what the time zone difference is I’m up watching those games at every every moment yeah all right Mark we can’t keep you all day but uh we do have this sabonis swapping numbers uh story um he’s going from number 10 that he’s worn Sacramento for the last couple of years to number 11 uh certainly it has a great deal of of meaning to him and his family his dad War number 11 his daughter’s name his daughter’s named 11 just what do you make of this and you know uh even maybe the idea of retired numbers and how they should be treated man it’s interesting you know under David Stern’s uh older NBA you remember you had to file an application to change your number and I’m not sure they they’ve given a lot of uh you know levity to that sit they they’ve bypassed that procedure and kind of overlooked it of late guys of you know Dame Lillard last year got to wear his number in Milwaukee and you know you have guys exchanging numbers now sometimes at a price uh so I think the NBA’s backed off on that which I have no problem with that I I understand the whole merchandising uh argument with the league and you know you’ve got certain licenses that you have to stick to a certain formula but I’m happy for domas and I think it’s fantastic that he’s doing that to to honor his family in particular his dad you know who uh Hall of Famer legend of the game and uh I know that domas is uh you know overseas working out getting ready for the World Champ for the uh for the Olympics you know putting in work getting ready Foria training camp yeah he’s hanging out with Doug in Spain yes yes tough life where can we get one ofs eating some good PA after training right oh that sounds so good right now I am I you know what I will fall on this sword I will go to Spain and play basketball for money I I will I will do that I’ll go there and just be like their social media guy like okay that sounds good to me I would love that I would love that Mark Jones thank you so much for taking some time out of your offseason to uh hang out with us we’ll do it again soon all right appreciate you guys thanks a lot see you
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1 Comment
Fire mark jones, he is absolute cancer for the kings organization.