Dejounte Murray-Lakers trade buzz, AJ Griffin’s return, and Hawks-Kings with Greg Wissinger

Dejounte Murray-Lakers trade buzz, AJ Griffin’s return, and Hawks-Kings with Greg Wissinger

On today’s show the Hawks return to action at home on Friday we’ll talk about that game against the Sacramento Kings as well as adj Griffin’s return more rumors on John T Murray and we’ll get into all of that and more coming up you are locked on Hawks your daily

Atlanta Hawks podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every Day Hello friends welcome to episode 1619 of loton hawks podcast I am your host Brad Roland coming to you on a Thursday evening and I’ll be talking to you about all kinds of things on today’s podcast including AJ Griffin including Jon Murray trade rumors and a preview of

Hawks Kings with Greg whinger but first this episode is brought to you by the folks at priz piix the most exciting way and the easiest way as well to put daily fantasy sports go to pr.com lockon NBA it’s code locked on NBA when you get there for a first deposit match up to

$100 check check us out now at priz piix and please subscribe to this podcast and make us your first listen each and every day across podcast platforms places like apple and Spotify and of course YouTube on the video side we’ve been very busy on this podcast in recent days Christmas

Trade stuff as well as a recent podcast talking about the unfortunate loss in Chicago and a full breadth of coverage on the Atlanta Hawks on this podcast and today we’ll dive into a lot of different things but at the end of the podcast probably the last two-thirds of the show

Or so I’ll be talking to Greg whinger of of the Kings Herald about all things with regard to the Hawks and the Kings and draft considerations Etc but first some solo stuff here and the big news on Thursday is that AJ Griffin returned to practice for the Hawks after missing the

Last eight games for personal reasons La Williams of the AJC talked to AJ extensively did a good job with that interview uh and adj said he’s glad to be back and that the team has been supporting him throughout his personal absence um just for those wondering yes

He was asked about why he was kind of not with team and no direct answers no direct details from AJ but Lauren did kind of Chronicle in her interview that a AJ did lose his young nephew over the summer I am not sure how much if at

All that played into things but that’s kind of the only public information that we know and that dates back to the summer but still sort of a TBD or maybe maybe maybe sort of never know as to why AJ’s been gone but he did say he’s been

Getting sort of had a great time getting back on the court today and it was quote kind of like opening a present for Christmas day to be back out there on the court with his teammates he spoke highly of his teammates in that interview with Lauren and for connecting

With him as well as of his family for the prayers and support that he of course AJ is not shy about expressing his faith as he often does and he did so in that interview and seems to be pretty much in a good place from his comments

Obviously it’s just one interview but he seems to be pretty upbeat and Quinton I talked about how he was happy to have AJ back and said it was good to see him smiling on the court today and uh just kind of being out there competing uh Quinn said that quote

Hopefully it’s a given that the team would be supportive of AJ and also that AJ was comfortable and confident enough to communicate with the team in honest fashion about what was going on with them it’s not always easy to do that in the way that Quinn was talking about and

I I would certainly agree with that so I thought it was a good kind of tone struck by Quinn very supportive and of course he kept coming back to being glad that AJ is back with the team officially for the game on Friday he is now off the

Injury report now I don’t know if he’s going to play and we’ll see how that goes he’ll be in uniform I am sure he’ll be active but um I’m not sure if he’s going to be a real option after one practice after being gone for several

Weeks but um if nothing else him being closer to playing basketball is a good thing for the Hawks for good good for AJ Etc and hopefully we’ll have more on that in a positive direction coming up in the near future from there we did get

A uh a trade rumor SL rumbling in the last couple of days thought about this a little bit on my Christmas edition podcast but some more reporting came out after the fact that I got a lot of questions in the last couple days about one particular team with regard to jonte

Murray and trade stuff first Mark Stein reported that quote multiple teams talked about talked to him in Orlando believing that the Hawks are going to explore their trade options with d jonte over the next six weeks not a huge surprise given the previous reporting I talked about a lot on Christmas but

Worth noting there as well and then sham shiria of the athletic made some ways on a appearance on TV with FanDuel TV he was talking about Zack LaVine and the Lakers kind of pursuing Zack LaVine potentially but he weaved de Jon in as a quote potential Target for the Lakers

First he referen to jante and having a very reasonable contract which is certainly true especially in comparison to to Levine’s deal which is kind of underwater right now but he also said that the Hawks direction is quote in flux at this point not a h surprise

There as far as the liquor Direction uh and sort of that connection is to be seen there’s a lot to unpack there I’ll do the F minute version versus the half hour version of that but the big thing is that the Lakers don’t have a ton to offer for jonte Murray obviously there’s

A whole separate subject about whether the Hawks are even going to trade Dante or seriously explore trading Dante and again I talked about that a lot on Tuesday sorry Monday and Tuesday of this week but put that to the side for now and talk about the Lakers on on this

Instance they don’t have a ton to offer they have one first TR pick they can offer right now and they could wait till the draft itself this summer and be able to offer more than that but right now it’s only one they also have some prospects that are not like nothing um

Jaylen Hino first round pick from this year Max Christie a couple years ago some pretty intriguing guys but neither one of those guys are like what you build a deal around they’re sweeteners and then they also don’t have a lot of expiring contracts so the Hawks have to

Take take on some money uh long term to move Deon in a two team deal with the Lakers um Jared Vanderbilt by the way is intriguing but he can’t be traded at all until the summer because he’s not extension too late in the game this summer they have they have D’Angelo

Russell who is a controversial player not always my favorite guy he has a player option for next year they have Ru haimura they have Gabe Vincent um the Lakers could make Austin Reeves available who’s their third best player right now probably and other than Reeves

There’s not really a lot of appeal in my opinion to the guys I just referenced um Beyond like filler um Reeves is on a good contract I will note that he’s even a worse defensive fit than Murray is next to Trey young Reeves is a pretty

Bad Defender um just say that out loud a good player certainly and certainly won on a good contract but um also sham said in in his reporting that the Lakers do not want to move Reeves which is not a surprise that wasn’t about Murray in particular but I think the Lakers would

Like to add to Reeves versus trading Reeves out in a deal like this so it could be a three team deal that’s always possible but also very complicated especially if Murray gets involved here there’s that obvious connection that people have kind of referenced already that Deonte is is represented by clutch

Who of course has lots of um let’s just say Intrigue with the Lakers across the years and bronze there a lot of lot of clutch guyss on that roster that doesn’t mean that does not mean that that deal is going to happen but lots of photoshops will be taken probably in the

Next couple of days and weeks so broadly speaking I would say a two- team deal is not impossible with the Lakers but it’s fairly difficult for me to see a one that makes a lot of sense between just the Hawks and the Lakers I would be

Asking for Reeves for sure if I was the Hawks in a deal with the Lakers because of the valuable contract I don’t love the fit with Trey but Reeves is a quality player even if he’s a pretty poor defender in a lot of ways um Russell would be a no-o for me doesn’t

Fit with tray at all as a player option that you don’t want to pick him to pick up honestly um haimura is fine but he’s making a good choke of money and I don’t think he’s a game changing player defensively he’s kind of you know if so

So Gabe Vincent’s been hurt all year long for the most part on paper a pretty useful third guard making decent money but um the injuries are a little bit scary they have old friends torian Prince and cam reddish which are not like needle movers for me in a trade C’s

Defense has been good this year but offensively has been very shaky so that’s the short version I don’t see a deal that’s super obvious to me although it certainly could be uh in play if they were to get Austin Reeves in there but beyond that we’ll have more if we need

To in the near future I got I least want to talk about it for a second because I got a lot of questions in the last few days and lastly before we get to Greg whinger who’s coming up in a second from from the Kings Herald talking all things

Hawks and kings on Friday uh Kobe buffin made his G League debut on Wednesday and looked very good now it’s important to note the g- league numbers are not are not comparable to NBA numbers in a lot of ways ways but he looked very good he

Had 34 points in that in that debut five assists he got to the rim a lot in that game he was 126 on twos and got to the line several times as well only one of eight from three which is a little bit shaky but he was confident shooting the

Ball which is good to see and then defensively I thought he looked pretty good he looked athletic he looked springy and uh like to see that kind of all of what I saw from Kobe on paper in that game was uh was certainly very solid so that’s one game but it’s a good

Sign after he had not been playing a lot of basketball over the last couple of months and as for the Kings game no huge injury news for Atlanta Seth Lundy is out with the ankle that he sprained against the Bulls on Tuesday also Hunter still out Mohamad gay still out but AJ

Off the injury report no Jaylen no Trey Young on the injury report so positive stuff there only three guys out for Atlanta so no like huge Intrigue or uncertainty heading into the game on Friday we we all know the Hunter’s going to be out but other than that the rest

Of the usual cast of characters should be available for the Hawks in TBD on how much Jaylen plays how much AJ plays if it all etc etc but pretty there and the Kings by the way have a very clean injury report so some pretty healthy teams other than Hunter being out and

We’ll get into all of that in a second oh last thing by the way the folks at FanDuel our sponsors and our good friends over there currently make the Hawks as a record this podcast one point underdogs in the game at home they were actually one point favorites I saw

Earlier tonight it’s kind of going back and forth but basically another coin flip game for the Hawks and that they have kind kind of not been playing very well in those games but anyway we’ll get into all that and more in a second when I talk to whinger but first it work from

Our sponsors on today’s podcast Today’s Show is sponsored by eBay motors and our partners over there eBay Motors been team up with lockon fantasy basketball host Josh Lloyd bring some of the best fantasy Basketball picks each week all season long and whether preparing for daily draft or scy

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Of the week and as always he has a lot of guys to highlight but this time we’re focusing on a very familiar name to Hawks fans and that is of course Jaylen Johnson is on Josh’s list this week Josh has been saying that jaylen’s been uh was dropped in some leagues and if

That’s the case make sure to pick him up right now as he’s coming back from the injury and basically I have to agree with that tactic jayen is very undervalued nationally it seems like and still applying to fantasy basketball as well he’s averaging 14 points per game

This year more than seven rebounds about two stocks steals plus blocks per game shooting very efficiently from the field as well plus 6% from from the field this year and he’s going to be playing more and more mineses he back up to speed plus with the yandre hunter out even

More usage for Jaylen you would think on paper he probably won’t shoot 41% from three all year long if I had to guess but um still can give you some three-pointers in fantasy basketball as well again points rebounds assists even he’s a good passer stocks and very good

Efficiency so he’s a very strong contributor to your fantasy basketball team and certainly to the Hawks at this point in time and again Josh l l that fantasy basketball is going to help you out with winning your championships this year in fantasy and eBay Motors knows a lot about championship teams and they

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The Kings Herald hello sir how are you I’m doing well how are you I’m well I appreciate you doing this uh you been a guest multiple times on this podcast uh obviously not going to generally talk Kings but with the Kings coming up on the schedule for the Hawks on Friday a

Couple days between games good time talk about the Kings so uh obviously we’ll talk about the draft pick at the end of the podcast so if everybody’s worried about that it’s coming up later we’re we’re 30 Games is in on both sides the kings are currently in the playoffs

Pretty good start for the Kings all things considered as we record this they are 17 and 12 six seed in the west as we’re recording uh big picture how are Kings fans and how are you feeling about this start considering how last year went you know it’s funny because overall

The kings are doing better than they were at this point last season and yet Kings fans are mostly unhappy with it expectations baby we’re back how quickly expectations shift you know we’re we’re no longer just happy to be there uh so it’s a bit of an adjustment

You know I mean like you said 17 and 12 right now currently the sixth seed in the west which isn’t a bad place to be and it’s kind of in line with what we expected going into the season season we expected the Kings to you know be

Similar maybe a little bit better but also maybe be a little bit worse seed because last year was kind of a weird year in the west as far as kind of how the standings All Shook out and the Kings finished with 48 wins last year that’s normally not going to be a three

Seed uh so you know even if they’re on track for a similar win total this year probably a little bit lower seed but I mean overall they’re they’re firmly in the playoffs they’ve had some really high quality wins they’ve also had a lot of really bad losses that’s kind of been

The issue is that when they lose they lose really bad um you know so right now if you look at their um you know their their net rating and differentials and all that they project to be a little bit better than 500 as opposed to where they’re at

Currently uh or or right around 500 so not ideal but uh they’ve had a lot of kind of weird things kind of ups and downs and players being in and out of the rotation uh there seems to be an expectation that at some point the kings

Are probably going to make some sort of trade to kind of bolster themselves for the playoffs so um overall the kings are playing well they’re not playing well enough for where Kings fans want them to be and for where they would need to be to kind of

Take that next step from just being a team that makes the playoffs to being a team that can maybe Advance a round or two yeah that makes sense it’s kind of what I tracked you know of course not watching every game of the Kings at this

Point but tracking them as I would say closely as other teams in the league that are not the Hawks uh I I have to lead on a positive note I suppose for those of you that might be listening for the king side de Fox has been playing

Out of his mind it seems like averaging like 30 a game the kings are I believe 14 and N when he plays and what three and three when he doesn’t um obviously the offense isn’t quite as good as it was last year because they were number

One in the league of offense last year but it seems like Fox is not the reason for that and also I looked at the onoff spits quickly pretty good with Fox and pretty bad without Fox on the court even so uh obviously does it feel like it’s

He’s making a leak because on the stat sheet it feels like he’s having his best season by far he definitely is I mean across the board not just in the scoring as you mentioned right now is it just over 30 points a game uh he’s shooting

Well from three which for years was a huge flaw in his game was that he couldn’t shoot to keep defenses honest so now that he’s making his threes currently shooting 39.6% on 8.6 threes per game so I mean high volume and high efficiency on those it’s really just opened it up to where

It’s really hard for defenses to slow him down uh he’s also playing much more engaged and effective on the defensive end where he’s not a complete liability I mean the Kings aren’t going to be good enough and there’s other players just having even more superb Seasons but you

Know Fox will should be kind of one of those down ballot MVP guys you know fifth six somewhere in there you know if vood him was today and we’ll see if he keeps it up but you know I don’t expect him to be a serious Contender for it at

Least not yet but the fact that he’s anywhere close to that conversation is just such a huge leap from where he was even a year or two ago yeah he’s playing great and you know obviously this is a very Broad and I would say obvious preview topic but you know the fox

Versus Trey young matchup is pretty glaringly a big thing to follow in this game Trey finally had a a human game after his uh seven st30 and 10 games he was not particularly awesome on Tuesday but he’s been playing great too and you know two All-Star level guys the same

Position I don’t know if they’re going to guard each other very much but uh certainly will’ll be uh that head-to-head is it’s not it’s too reductive to say that’s going to be the winner of the game but certainly uh the guy who plays better will have a leg up

In the match up you have to you sort of have to guess yeah at the same time though I mean the the Kings so we’re recording this on Wednesday on Tuesday night the Kings lost badly to the Trailblazers in embarrassing fashion and that was despite Fox going for like 40 something

Points and and sabon is having 30 plus points I mean so the problem for this year for the Kings when they have bad games is that the people other than Fox and simonis aren’t always showing up um familiar that’s been the big issue yeah I’ve seen that movie before for sure I

Was while we’re sort of here I mentioned it a second ago but like I was going to just ask you why why broad Strokes I mean on your side why the offense is a little bit more they’re still good this year but they’re not like they were last

Year they’re not number one in the league they’re what like they’re 10 and 12 something like that they’re still good offensively but what’s the difference I mean we talked about Fox being better what what hasn’t gone as well on offense because the defense is always the topic we’ll get to that in a

Second but the offense is kind of more not not pedestrian but they’re more they’re more normal this year than they were last year no they’re absolutely more middle of the pack offense right now and a lot of it has to do uh we actually have an article up on the Kings

Herald uh about about this today that the kings are very much living and dying by the three if you can get them to miss threes everything else is falling apart because they are taking such a high volume they’re third in the league right now in three-point attempts and their

Disparity in make when they make are making their shots in wins they’re shooting around 40% from three in losses they’re shooting around 31% from three it’s a huge disparity and it completely tanks them from being one of the best offenses to one of the worst offenses in

The league so it’s really just that at least early on in the season they haven’t displayed an ability to overcome when the shots aren’t falling you know they aren’t getting to the rim they aren’t taking mid-range they aren’t getting on fast breaks they aren’t getting stops on defense like their

Defense cannot keep them in a game if they’re not outscoring the opponent uh which may also be familiar to Hawks fans right yes very similar yeah no it’s it’s uh you know we’ll just talk about that now I guess the the parallels are striking clearly the Kings have had more

Success this year but net rating wise these teams are actually kind of almost exactly the same except for and I talked about this a lot on my last show but the Hawks have been just horrific in close games they can’t win a close game um lots of blown leads all that stuff and

The Kings have been it seems like a a little bit more fortunate and like you said earlier when they lose they lose badly but when they seem to win these close games more often than the Hawks are at least but um it is so obvious to

Me and so interesting to me I think when we talked last even over the offseason it was kind of the same thing like these teams are kind of mirror images in a lot of ways like they’re very similar to each other it’s just the kings are having more success and um hopefully

That will flip if you’re a Hawks fan but it is what it is at this point in time and uh with that said let’s go to the defense because the kings are not great defensively once again now the signs are a little better I mean I can’t tell by

Your reaction I think they were a little bit better than they were last year defensively to kind of offset the offensive dip but um what are you seeing on the end of the floor because clearly this is going to be a battle of two teams that are uh struggling to get

Stops on the ho this year yeah it is interesting that they are actually better on defense they’re not a good defense by any means but they’ve been hovering some around 20th to 22nd as opposed to you know 28th to 30th where they were before so they have made some

Improvements on the defensive end uh I haven’t looked at the standings on where they’re at currently so I don’t know exactly where they’re they’re currently ranking but it it’s still in the bottom half of the league pretty comfortably uh the biggest things that we’ve seen I

Mean Fox as I mentioned before has been playing some good defense uh sabonis actually has been playing really solid interior defense he doesn’t get the blocks he doesn’t get the The Flash but he’s a very capable interior Defender uh more so than he tends to get credit for

And the other big development has been Keegan Murray uh Keegan has actually turned into a really good Defender there’s certain guys that he still struggles to contain but for the transition from his rookie year to a sophomore year I mean it it’s really encouraging for the long-term future of

The Kings and What he’ll be able to be as a two-way player he’s already way better at defense than I ever expected him to be U even just based on what I watched last year but after that there’s not a whole lot to talk about defensively um the Kings do a decent job

Of disrupting passing Lanes but their on ball defense is really a struggle which leads to them collapsing and rotating and trying to recover and and make up for someone else’s mistake which uh you can only do for so long against a good passing or good scoring

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Schematically I wanted to ask you me I know I’m you thought about this so far because the game hasn’t happened yet and they haven’t seen the Hawks this year but when you’re facing if you’re the Kings facing a team like the Hawks that’s obviously riing on their point

Guard sized ball handler a lot um a lot of pick and roll stuff probably less than previous years like how do you expect them to sort of contain not not only Trey but just the Hawks in general like who do you think is g to be the

Primary assignment that kind of stuff as like what you’re expecting to see on defense so I do you think Fox will get a decent share of it I he a lot of times will get tasked with guarding one of the the you know better players on the other

Team wouldn’t surprise me if they are happy to trade and do switches and and have Keegan guard him because Keegan has taken on some defensive assignments for smaller players like he did a really good job uh in their matchups against the warriors with guarding Steph Curry

Uh which doesn’t sound like it would go well but it went about as well as you could hope you know uh so I wouldn’t be surprised to see that and then once they start working in the bench units and bench play players Keon Ellis is another guy that will’ll probably get some time

On him he’s a player on a two-way contract he’s from the the G league and he’s worked his way into essentially the backup point guard minutes sometimes he’ll play alongside Fox he’s not the best on ball Defender but he’s got a huge wingspan and really can give

Especially small guys he can give him trouble just you know kind of with the arms being everywhere yeah I was going to say you know Hawks fans may not watch the Kings a lot might expect Davon Mitch who just isn’t playing very much that was kind of the role he was supposed to

Be in I’ll just say that prob you can correct me but feels like he was the guy that kind of had a lot of a Trey assignment last year when they played and he’s just not he’s not playing not not necessarily not at all but very very

Little it seems like yeah this year has been very rough for for Davon Mitchell um he is essentially out of the rotation he will play in garbage time minutes but that’s it and a lot of it was just that he’s kind of failed to develop as anything more than just an on ball

Defender you know on ball he can lock a guy down but he is a complete zero on offense at this point to where defenses just completely leave him alone and he can’t punish him for it um and he I think more than anything he’s just a

Really bad fit for the way that the Kings operate I think he could still have success in the NBA but I think it’s going to end up being somewhere else and I think he’s very likely to be moved at the trade deadline you know if he doesn’t it’s just that the Kings

Couldn’t find a taker yeah that makes sense I just want to Le throw that out there because that’s that’s one of the one of the notable changes that you might see if you are a Hawks fan not seeing the Kings play this year and you know on the other

End of the floor we talked about it a little bit but just just want to say this out loud the Hawks are going to have trouble defending the Kings that’s probably pretty obvious to me um I would say controlling either fox or sabonis would be helpful probably can’t stop

Both of them but keep not not letting both those guys go nuts and of course I have to just say the name of Kevin herder old pal uh he’s been up and down this year it feels like but he’s been fine it seems like I don’t know you can

Correct how’s he playing short short version how’s Kevin playing this year uh short version is I wrote an article two days ago about how bad his December has been yeah I did I did I did see that actually and for this podcast I was like Hey Kevin’s not playing very well Cory

Greg so yeah know I mean we’ve seen him go through long like prolonged slumps before like he’s had complete off months and then he’s back and he’s fine so I’m I’m not completely out on Kevin herder the way some Kings fans are but it’s been a very difficult start to the year

He he had a decent November but then uh he he’s really really been bad in December and seen his minutes dwindle because of it but um um you know we’re we’re hoping he busts out of the slump and maybe he can do it against his old

Team I was gonna say it would not be at all surprising if he hit six threes on Friday at least to me given the way the Hawks defense has playing also just the the general tone of the Hawks season so far that would not be a shock to me uh I

Appreciate the time before we get out of here we have to talk about the the the ever-looming draft pick that the Kings owe to the Hawks if you are under aaq the Kings if if the kings make the playoffs this year they will send the first- round pick to the Hawks if they

Miss the playoffs they will keep it for another year and that’s protected rolls over um I looked this up before we started recording it’s only one metric but ESPN BPI is giving the Kings currently a 54.4% chance to make the playoffs so a little bit better than not right now

They’re in better shape than that but as as we discussed earlier their net rating is a little bit shaky which probably why ESPN does not love that um where sort of are you at in terms of your confidence level on the ks back in the playoffs

Because if you’re a Hawks fan I say this before you acknowledged it too earlier in the offseason the Hawks should want the to be the seven or eight SE that’s that’s where they want the king the kings to be um and it seems like they’re

They’re kind of on track to kind of be there so what do you what are you sort of projecting for the rest of the season I know it’s still I should say it’s not early anymore we’re 30 games in but um what do you see for the next 52 games

And where they might end up no I it I’m sure a big part of it’s just the Homer and me but I I do believe that the kings are gonna comfortably be you know in that playoff mix I I’d be very surprised if the pick doesn’t convey now whether

They’ll end up as you know a five seed six seed seven seed eight whatever it might be I I do feel comfortable that it’s likely to convey um and Kings fans actually are rooting for it to convey as well because it opens up future trade possibilities there’s ways they can

Trade with that in place but it complicates it and makes the the pick less appealing right so so yeah um or the trade assets I should say so everyone’s rooting for that pick to convey over to you guys this year I feel like I feel like um the the draft die

Hards are maybe constructing a take that they don’t want if you’re a Hawks fan that they don’t want because this is supposed to be a bad draft and I’m I’m not quite all the way there on the draft yet but I’m leaning that in that direction too on the flip side it’s kind

Of like a future proposition where if you think the kings are going to be better next year than this year then you want the pick to come now because what obviously there’s not a ton of downside for the Hawks other other than if the Kings become the Kings again the Old

Kings the ks and they and they suddenly start going into the lottery every year that’d be bad because then it becomes second round picks but um I’m don’t think that’s that’s probably likely to happen and my I’ve been on record the whole time if I am if I am the Hawks

Franchise I am rooting for the Kings to to send it this year but also to be in that seven eight kind of 678 range and that means the pick will be something between 15 and 18 and that’s not a great pick in this draft but it’s that’s a

Valuable asset and to your point also it’s just easier for like Clarity purposes to just like if you’re for planning I know it’s even better even more so for the Kings because that way just for not Bo one with this with the steppan rule but you have to be there’s

There’s all kinds of rules and what picks you can sort of sort of trade out there and the Hawks are already kind of weird on picks so it’d be just nice to know what’s what’s coming and what’s not coming that’s a little bit of content preparation I suppose but um we’re all

Following I I I told this before before we started recording I think the Kings pick tracker is getting less attention this year than I thought it was going to because the Hawks are having so much trouble yeah I think maybe later in the year people will start paying paying

More attention be like hey by the way this is actually something you kind of have to follow because that pick’s going to be important for your future potentially but you heard it here first Greg’s confident so you’re more you’re more confident than the SPN is can I say

That by by BPI I should say 54% is too low in your in your opinion well I mean you could say it it’s okay you’re allowed to you’re allowed to be uh on on the bandwagon here it’s okay well I was just I always find it funny he’s like

They’re saying a little bit better than 50/50 which I mean slightly less than 50% make the playoffs every year so it’s yeah that’s also true I mean and look I I I would imagine that look I I don’t have the BPI algorithm but I would guess

It probably has to do with their net rating and they’re probably overachieving a little bit so far based on that and um and that’s kind of where like I thought the kings are going to be in the playoffs this year if I had to guess we talked about that back in I

Think it was July when when you and I talked last or maybe August but yeah I I I wouldn’t change my opinion very much on this I mean even as an outsider I’m not watching every Kings game but from what I have seen from what the numbers

Say like it feels like this is going to be a team that’s somewhere in that 5 day8 range in the west and you know that’s not a bad out for the Hawks I think that’s not awful for the Kings I know like you said no one’s going to be

Thrilled and look I I covered a team that re rebuilt for a while and the first year it’s all gravy man and then the next year it’s not all gravy anymore and you’re you’re experiencing that now yeah I mean I I would say the the entire Kings organization would consider it a

Massive failure if they didn’t make the playoffs this year and bet you know I I fully expect them to make some moves to kind of bolster the roster and and hopefully kind of address some of their flaws as they prepare for the playoffs I mean the the mindset of the whole team

And the organization is everything they’re doing now is to prepare for playoffs so I I think they’ll get there they’re having some struggles but I mean a lot of their Lo recent losses probably look a lot different if herder breaks out of a slum just easy example or

Murray or you know any of these guys so I I think there’s a pretty good chance still that that pick can base for you yeah and uh I will obviously on this podcast track that as we get going the Hawks and Kings play again in about a

Month after this first match up it’s like in late late January the the late late night game is always out in Sacramento we’ll touch on that one again when we get there but Greg thank you for all the time I appreciate it you referenced Kings Herald before I would

Recommend that at the highest level but working folks fine all of your fine work covering the Kings because again Hawks F should want to at least follow along with the Kings pretty well right now I’d say yeah so best place to follow us is Kings herald.com we’re completely

Independent Kings website uh we have you know full range of coverage and then uh you can also find us on Twitter atthe Kings Herald and I’m on Twitter at gwizz there you go follow GRE follow Kings heral great stuff I appreciate you uh doing this as always on short notice and

Thank you for your time on this fine evening for everyone listen to the podcast please subscribe to this show as well Spotify Apple YouTube Etc and we’ll see you after the game against the Kings on Friday evening

Brad Rowland (@BTRowland, DIME on UPROXX) hosts episode No. 1619 of the Locked on Hawks podcast. The show touches on AJ Griffin’s return to practice and recent trade rumblings around Dejounte Murray and the Los Angeles Lakers before welcoming Greg Wissinger of the Kings Herald to break down Friday’s game between the Atlanta Hawks and the Sacramento Kings.

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