The James Ham Show – Are the Sacramento Kings A Play-In Team?

The James Ham Show – Are the Sacramento Kings A Play-In Team?

Welcomeing our good friend uh James Hammer the Insiders Hammer I’m down not out but I’m down where are you with did did did last night’s law I know you’re not a fan whatever did last night’s loss change your feelings about the Sacramento Kings team at

All actually I I don’t want to say it’s a good loss but I think that there were good things in that loss that gives me some sort of Hope for what the final 28 29 games will look like so like dearon Fox like whatever is going on with him

Whatever has been going on with him for the last six weeks I’m not sure you know we had the media uh like sort of issue with him for a little while but that wasn’t even like a media driven thing that was like a I don’t know if it’s a

Misunderstanding as much as it was just a miscommunication and he like so we had that situation but whatever’s caused him to like slip into this funk and not be the same player for six weeks I’m not sure what it was but to see him wake up

Out of that and to be try to will himself back into the game and try to you know it’s almost like you have those those moments where you you leave a player who’s struggling in in the fourth quarter of a blowout and you’re you’re waiting for them to catch it and all of

A sudden they find their Rhythm and it’s like oh okay cool maybe that will carry over that’s kind of the way I felt with Fox like I don’t at a certain point it was like win or lose I don’t think that really matters the only thing that

Matters at this moment in time for the Kings is that dearen fox finds himself and he seems to be finding himself in this game and if this is how he has to do it then okay that’s fine go ahead and do whatever you got to do you don’t need

He’s gonna get a week off here but I’d rather have him find himself before the week off and not try to find himself coming out of the break so yeah I’m not as down on what happened last night as I think some fans are U you know Deon

Sabonis was incredible Malik monk was incredible uh you know that you now know that Trey Lyles is so valuable that you you can’t have him out for long stretches like those are those are issues that showed up last night but I also look at the the fox saying and go

Okay look if if that’s who he can be part of that part of who we can be in the second half then the Kings got a shot I’m wa I’m withing I’m with you I mean y’all are alone then because I think I think that’s what I

Had asked for going into that game is I needed to see dearon Fox Step Up be a leader lead this team and be aggressive and he did that now he doesn’t have to have 40 points all the time but it’s his ATT attacking mentality that we hadn’t seen in a at

Least a couple of weeks maybe even more and I think if he can bring that the second half they’re going to win a good amount more games than they lose I think I think he’s I think dearon Fox is the key to everything I think if dearon Fox is

Averaging 28 to 30 points a game for the rest of like for the rest the remaining 29 games they’ll be a top 16 I I think it’s kind of that simple you talk about hder and Murray they can play the same way inconsistent at all if dearon is giving you that type of

Aggression and Leadership they’ll get to the playoffs but you got that last night and they didn’t even get a win they’re not gonna win every game okay yeah but I would also say Dame I get your point but I would also say it’s almost like that that thing

Where you’re waiting for a team to learn how to win that’s what it just felt like whatever he was doing it wasn’t perfect it it wasn’t you know he turned the ball over five or six times um he took 31 shots which is absolutely crazy for a

Regulation game all of these things like there were things in that loss that he did he did not do well and like you can point to and say hey look you got to clean this up you got to clean that up but I think the overall like tenor of

What we were seeing was the old fox trying to find himself and in that game where it’s been a while since he’s looked like that I’m okay with him shooting too much I’m okay with the mistakes just find yourself because you can fine-tune that finding yourself over

The next couple of games and you can you know he’ll look better with a with a week off to rest his body especially after uh you know the a very not dirty player in in Grayson Allen I don’t know what Reggie Miller was talking about like a guy without a reputation as a

Dirty player uh clubbed him in the head and took him into the into the uh the back stanion but um yeah I I think this is what he needs he needs to have a couple of games and like look it can’t be just last night and tonight you score

13 and your team gets clubbed and you walk away thinking okay well at least I got one under my belt no no no no like show us who you are because that’s what with this team at this point they need they need somebody show them how they’re

Going to get to the playoffs because as of right now I think they’re a little rudderless rudderless all right well I’m outnumbered so whatever so I mean I well I don’t know if James if you if you heard the whole uh the show or what we were talking about earlier but

Damian thinks and tell me if I’m wrong but he thinks he does not see this team the way they are making the top six I don’t think they’re I don’t think they’re capable of executing in a way that gets them to the top six and I say

I’m not closing the door on that yet I think they have the talent um they have the the Top Flight players on the top of that roster uh I agree and I agree with that I I absolutely agree with that I just don’t agree with the your belief that they can get it

Done no I mean that’s davan because I mean what would make you think that they can get it done you can’t just say well last season I 50 some odd game sample size that makes me feel like see it I don’t you know it’s it’s a magic trick

Now you see it now you don’t so my but my my my point my the way I would look at that is it’d be one thing if they were battling up if they were in this spot for the entire season it’s like they’re not going to be able to get over

To H like if they were in eighth seventh eighth for the entire season like they don’t have enough to get back up there they were just there like three games ago and three games from now they might be right back up there and that would that honestly is more so what this

Season has been as opposed to them completely falling off to the point where they’re they’re out of contention for six the the the story of this season is three games after the All-Star break they’ll probably be six and then four games after that they’ll probably be

Seventh and then they’ll go back up to sixth like that’s probably what’s going to happen where that pulum ends that’s the problem but that hasn’t happened if we’re if we’re going off of what they’ve shown us this year that hasn’t happened this year what they’ve shown us this

Year is they’ll be they’ll win seven out of three and then they’ll lose four out of five and that’s not gonna get you down to 10th that’s going to keep you around where you’ve been at if we’re using the metric of what they’ve shown us this

Season yeah I don’t disagree I mean like look at they’re kind of they got to a certain point they plateaued they needed a push to give them over the the top and that push was you know trading for a guy that you waved in cash considerations

You didn’t mix it up you didn’t give them the jolt of energy that they probably needed and now you got to create it yourself and I think that’s what I believe the dearn fox game was like him creating the energy again to try to get back to who he should be and

You know I I don’t know if he can sustain it but we have seen him sustain it for a second half of the season going into the playoffs I just don’t like that we have this question mark about what’s going on for six weeks and that’s what

It is I mean he’s like before last night he was averaging like 21 and a half a game since calendar turned two 2024 and that just he’s too good to average that and it’s not like he was taking a step back so others could take no he just wasn’t playing well like

Straight up he his three-point percentage was around 33% his shot his overall field goal percent was at 43 point something down five or six perc or eight% off of what he shot last year he just wasn’t playing well so whatever is going on he needs to move past that and

And get um you know this is a group that you’re you’re going to fight with the rest of the season that’s it so make the best of it and let’s see what happens and um maybe this summer they’ll go get the big help that the

That some of these guys need but I think it it really does we always say it begins and ends with dearn Fox I don’t think we could he could have showed us more of that like realistically he just proved it it begins and ends with him and that’s how this entire season has

Been when he’s great they’re tough to beat when he’s not they’re they’re extremely beatable and when he doesn’t like when he’s turned off like the switch isn’t hit at all they lose to bad teams and that’s what we seen all season and James if if if the success of

The Sacramento Kings begins or success or failures begins with and ends with dearon Fox I’m of the belief that this trade market begins and ends with Kevin herder I have a theory that Mike Brown hates Kevin herder not Kevin herder the person Kevin herder the basketball

Player and I feel like what we saw last night just was a kind of a microcosm of what really has been happening uh this season between these two maybe not as outward as that little exchange that they had last night but just Mike is frustrated with something Kevin herder

Does on the basketball floor and he’s sick of it and that’s what we saw last night and you know Kenny made a great he can’t be sick of it there’s no better option he’s these two have to figure out for for Sacramento to get to

Top six or to to get anywhere those two those yes it starts and ends with here no doubt those two they’ve got to figure out their issues it’s Valentine’s Day make love work here you you’ve got to figure out your issues so you guys can move on through these next 29 games

Hopefully 29 games plus together yeah we had someone in the chat earlier um during the Insiders that said something to the effect that you know Mike Brown makes his makes some of these guys afraid to shoot right and that just couldn’t be further from the truth like

Mike Brown is is told all of these guys shoot shoot shoot he I have never seen him yell at a player for taking a shot ever that I can remember the only thing I can remember is him yelling it uh at Keegan Murray for not taking a shot like

The offensive side of the ball they do a lot of empowering with every single player that steps on the court whether it’s you know dearon Fox and Kevin hurder and Malik monk or it’s uh you know Keon Ellis and and Kessler Edwards the the general consensus is

Look if you’re going to step on the court you’ve got to do the job that the guy that you stepped off that you’re that you’re playing for does which means you got to space the floor you got to take the shot when it’s in your hands

You gotta do all of these things that are very basic we’re not asking you to go out there and be Michael Jordan or go out there and be Kyrie Irving and try to take everybody off the dribble we’re asking you to take the open shot and for

The most part please hit it if you can but just take it because that’s all right but on the defensive side of the ball Mike can’t deal with the the frustrating errors and I think it’s really interesting like one of the Hallmarks of last season was Mike Brown

Calling a timeout 40 seconds into a game and we’re like what in the world are you doing this year that’s shifted he doesn’t do that at all like I don’t even know what happened to that because I thought it worked like more often than

Not it was like hey no no no that’s not who we are tonight that’s not what we’re doing tonight now it’s the like what he’s known for is the really really bad uh coaching challenges right but when it comes to the defensive side of the ball they have such basic principles and if

You don’t follow the basic principles and you you slip into these these really easy mistakes he’s going to call you out on it and and I get I get that it was Kevin this time but the last time they played the Suns the entire Focus after

The fact was on the fact that they didn’t defend the three-point line late in the game that when the Suns went small ball that uh that the Kings kept dropping back too far and and acting like they were defending a regular team but realistically they’re defending five

Guards and so they just kept going in scramble mode and giving up these open threes that’s what happened in this game again and so I’m assuming that what Mike was angry with which I’d have to go back and watch the whole tape is that Kevin herder kept doing exactly what they did

Last game that cost him the game and that’s really frustrating as a coach if you’re going to go into a contest against a very specific team that you know exactly how they beat you last time and we’ve got a a game plan to stop that and then you start giving up those same

Exact things it’s got to kill you as a coach and so that’s what I think happened with Kevin again I’ve got to go back and watch the tape and see exes that was the third yeah that was the third fourth quarter stretch where they hit those threes that eliminated the king’s

Uh lead and then they they took a lead of their own so that and he called the the it was it was clearly something on the defensive end that he was pissed off about so yeah just looking at the play there’s a screen at the top of the key

First of all the the first three Kevin’s guarding the ball and I don’t know whose decision it was to go double there was an asinine decision if you ask me I don’t know if it was Mike I don’t know if it was one of the players but Kevin’s

Guarding the ball he’s guarding Kevin Durant Harrison leaves Royce O’Neal for no real reason to go double Kevin Durant who’s looking right at him and Kevin passes to Royce O’Neil Royce O’Neil passes to Eric Gordon there’s a three that’s your first one the second one Kevin uh herder’s guarding KD again

There’s a screen and roll Kevin doesn’t fight through the pick or whatever and Harrison is playing this or excuse me um herder’s Garden Royce O’Neil there’s Kevin Durant is being guarded by Harrison Barnes KD sets the screen herder goes under and just kind of Fades and looks for a switch Harrison

Doeses whatever he does leaves Royce O’Neil wide open that’s the three Mike Brown’s clearly upset with Kevin Kevin didn’t do his job Kevin herder and I it feels like if I’m Kevin herder if I’m Kevin hder what I think the argument would have been was all right number one we got our

Signals crossed but it’s not okay to just let this guy shoot a walk up three look at the play I have no idea what Harrison Barnes is doing and how that’s okay that I I don’t know what defense that is even if is supposed to um is

Supposed to like fight through that and stay with Royce O’Neal Harrison Barnes going from the three-point line to the free throw line as a Defender that that’s not that that’s nobody’s strategy like what the hell was that and Kevin is probably like well what the hell was that what was he

Doing and to your point earlier Kevin’s always the one getting yelled at in those situations that’s right I can’t imagine whatever Harrison was doing on that play I just watched it twice I can’t imagine that’s the plan whatever Harrison was doing that is not what Mike Brown teaches or anybody else and but

Kevin herder is the one that gets yelled at and Kevin probably had enough was like go talk to him what is he doing and I think there’s a disconnect there they need to get on the same page one way or another and we’ll see we’ll see if that

Ever happens that’s part of like what you talk about some of the things they need to do to become a top six team like talking to each other like having these hard conversations and meeting in the middle and coming together I don’t know if they will I

Don’t know when I say I don’t agree with you it’s not to say you might not be right like what you say might actually be the C they may not have enough I just think they can overcome that but there’s no guarantee we’ll see yeah well then and

I’ll tell you the I mean like what it looked like to me real specifically last night was the idea was to send a second body at both Kevin Durant when he was at the top and Devin Booker when he was at the top and get the ball out of their

Hands and if you’re gonna lose with a royce O’Neal 3 who’s shooting like who who hadn’t been shooting well at all coming in like over a stretch um if it’s gonna be Josh aogi that beats you if it’s gonna be even at this point Grayson Allen that beats you

Then that’s who it’s going to be you’re not going to get beat by Kevin Durant and by uh again Devin Booker hitting a hitting a top of the key a open jumper or breaking you down and creating something at the basket for someone else that’s so I do think that that was part

Of it the problem that you have Kenny is that I mean just look at the numbers like every single one of those guys hit a three that mattered so you look at Grayson Allen goes two for five and Royce O’Neal goes two for five and Josh

Aogi goes one for one and then the other one was nir little so you have these four guys who are not like known as great they’re not what Mike likes to call Hot Shooters Grayson Allen yes but the other guys are not what you call Hot Shooters and when Grayson is on the

Floor with like three other stars then of course he’s not going to be someone that you pay a lot of attention to the the difference is is that the king’s got nothing out of the guys that they had in those situations so they didn’t even take any shots your Keon Ellis your

Kessler Edwards you’re uh your Davon Mitchell Davon Mitchell goes one for three but Keon Ellis Alex Lyn Kessler Edwards they didn’t even take a shot when they were in the game and you you also look at you know Keegan Murray Harrison Barnes those are hot Shooters

Those are those are like the the like guys that you key on that you don’t allow wideopen threes if you’re the opposition they combine to go one of six you know and it’s not even the the one of six that’s the problem it’s the six that’s the problem like those guys

Needed to shoot more Threes And while you got these other guys for the other team that are marginal three-point Shooters impacting the win and loss the Kings other guys didn’t at all and that’s that’s where number one I I think Fox maybe could have pulled back a

Little bit but again I’m okay with him trying to go get his and game but it’s also where everyone else has to be more conscious of what the offensive is uh what the offense is and how open some of these guys are and how you know it just can’t be one guy every

Time and so again I think that the the Suns they did a really nice job of making the king scramble and then the guys that you wanted shooting shots they hit them that’s it and you lose by a couple of points and it’s because you just take away start taking away one or

Two of those those wideopen threes that you gave the uh the non you know hot shooters for them you win the game but they didn’t miss yeah you said there were some um positives from last night’s game James is you know positives in the loss are you where’s

Your confidence level in this team moving forward um I don’t know I mean they’ve got to get through this stretch of games it’s not easy um you know again like tonight on the second night of a back toback you can’t mail this in you need

To go in there and and fight like crazy and and try to come away with a win um but then coming out of the break you know you have the Spurs and then you’ve you’ve got more of the same it’s like the Clippers Timberwolves and and Denver

Again after that you get to early March there’s a a group of like 10 winnable games and that’s where the Kings if they’re going to make it that’s where they they’ve got to put their foot down and say this is who we are and this is

Where we’re going and if they don’t if they don’t go something like eight and2 in that stretch they’re not they’re not g to be they might be a they’re GNA be a playin team but they’re not going to be a playoff team I don’t think and we’re already gotten we’ve already gotten to

The point where even if they win all they they do the exact same thing they did last year they go 16 and nine to finish the season right that still puts them at like 46 wins that to me is like a in this season a seven or an eight seed

In the west which means you’re a playing team and I I don’t think we’re going to see a collapse from all of these teams I mean I still you know there there still could come a point where either the Lakers lose one of their two stars or

The Warriors lose Steph Curry for a stretch of games like they do every year or the Pelicans get hurt like they do every year or k um so there’s always an opportunity one of these other teams has a major injury issue that allows to sneak through but like I’m not putting

My my money up on them being like a fourth seed or a fifth seed or tracking I know I don’t think they’re going to track down the top tier group I don’t know that they can climb to the top of this group either at this point yeah I don’t know there there are

Definitely question marks with this team and you know it feels like I’ve said it at least a couple different times but it feels like a fork in the road feels like a Crossroads a moment for this team where are they going to go they now we’re at the allstar break and how you

Come out of the allstar break you know the first couple weeks May dictate where you end up eventually you know fighting in the playin or you know it’s not comfortable but in a in a playoff series comfortably in a playoff series um we’ll see what these guys got man we’ll see

What they got well the good thing about you know the Kings you some un answered questions it’s not like New Orleans questions are answered right or Phoenix’s questions are answered like Phoenix got dealt you know another question mark last night we we don’t know how long Bradley Beal will be out

If he’ll be out any length of time uh at all but he was was playing really well and was part of why Phoenix was playing really well that’s that’s that’s part of the that’s part of what Phoenix is this year like I don’t all is not well with

Phoenix uh and I’m leaving one team out oh Dallas I think still some question marks about Dallas and in Sacramento you know trying to take the positive approach here for the first time in three hours and 23 minutes Sacramento has a lot of control over what happens

With Dallas and real quick to their point what we talked about earlier ah New Orleans I’ll I’ll hesitate a little bit with them but Dallas and Phoenix they don’t play defense just like the Kings so if we’re worried about like man it’s going to be hard to they’ll they’ll give

Opportunities they’ll have those games where they can’t stop anybody and if you play them again I think they played Dallas twice you got an opportunity at your house to put up points and beat them and win that season series yeah I mean Dallas is a team that

Like again the Kings haven’t had a lot of problems with and actually before last night you could have said sort of the same thing about Phoenix the Kings you know very well could have been three and0 against Phoenix coming into that game um and then Kings have played

Really well against Phoenix every time they played obviously they won two of them they played really well for 41 minutes last time and they didn’t play bad last night you can say the same about uh Denver they played I mean they’re two and0 against Denver they played Denver really really well um

Denver hasn’t had their for full arsenal at at any time against them not our but uh but you look at yeah you look around there’s you know the Clippers and and the Pelicans who just crush the Kings every time they play them but you know you’re you split against Minnesota

Already um well you’re what one one and one against Minnesota like you’re two- one against OKC like most of the other teams around you you’ve played really well you’re two- 0 against the Lakers you split with the the Warriors there is a lot of positives here especially when

It comes to tiebreakers and stuff uh later on in the season but kind of go back to what Mike Brown always says and What mo most coaches say it doesn’t really matter what the other teams are doing it the only thing that really matters is if the Kings can get right

Themselves because that’s the biggest problem right now it’s not who they’re playing or anything else it’s that they just aren’t 100% who they should be and you know again you lose a game to me last night was a totally respect respectable loss that’s a that’s a good

Team it’s a good team in your tier that’s right around with superstars they got hot and hit shots and you lost by a couple of points you know it’s the Charlotte loss it’s the Detroit loss those are home losses you know it’s the the Blazers loss it’s the two losses to

Houston there’s all of these other games where you just point to and say okay like you don’t have a margin of error because of that like if you take out like four of those other losses that they shouldn’t have had you know this team is all of a sudden sitting there

You know playing tonight against Denver battling out who’s going to be like the the third or fourth spot in the west I I just don’t know that we’ve seen the inconsistencies of this team all year long and I don’t know how they fix it

And I don’t know if they can fix it in a week off well we’ll uh talk more about Kings basketball we’ll talk more about the Sacramento Kings and the Denver Nuggets coming up tonight with James Hammer the Insiders when dealing with Casey return here on Sacramento sports leader ESPN 1320

Elite oh my God the nasis is the nasis is phenomenal about 5 feet away from theall and he’s got his hands up that is incredible wild the nasis is incredible hey I I am not ham um the Kings don’t turn the ball over too much they last night they turned the ball

Over 13 times and they had way more fast break points than the other team they had all kinds of other points like way more Second Chance points in the other team um and right now they rank 16th in the NBA at like 13 and a half C they’re

Like middle of the road they’re middle of the road in turnovers but they’re also number four in assist per game at 28.8 per game like if you were to say hey the Kings don’t block shots I’d be like yeah the Kings don’t block shots you’re right they’re 29th in the league but just

Saying it feels like the Kings just turn the ball over at the wrong time sometimes that’s probably why people think they turn it over too much yeah well and in their losses they turn the ball over too much but in their wins like there are plenty of games this season where they’ve just

Been really really really good with the ball so like middle of the road in in the NBA when you play one of the fastest paces and you know you’re you’re ninth in Pace and uh and you’re fourth in assists like if you’re a pass happy team there’s a good chance you’re going to

Turn the ball over here and there look it up they just got they gota and I don’t know if they can I don’t know if they can they just need to button things up they button things up make be better at the free throw line have those games

Where they don’t turn the ball over feels like that’s that’s worth five wins alone but we’ll see if they can do it they might not be able to do it yeah here’s a funny stat they actually turn the ball over more in their wins 13.2 to 12.3 and their losses be

Sloppy they also they shoot the exact same percentage from three 40% oh no those are 40% attempts um no they shoot way better their field goal per their problem is when they lose for the most part they’re averaging 125.77 in their losses that’s not great and they’re shooting 40% in their wins

From three and 33% in their losses and that stupid free throw number 74.6 in their wins and 71.2 in their losses yeah they also don’t play defense in their losses that’s always a I find that hard to believe James you don’t believe it don’t do you I do not

Yeah find that hard to believe yeah oh man it’s weird it’s just like expectations it’s not even that they aren’t living up to expectations it’s that they’re finding new ways to like shake your confidence that offensive rebound last night was tough well the the the offensive Rebound in a back-to-back play with

The almost never called out of bounds foul was incredible oh yeah absolutely incredible like like this is how they’re gonna lose sabonis like I know he took that hard I mean you have 18 rebounds and you don’t leave your feet to go get the 19th and that just to me it wasn’t

Even that the ball flew over the top of him as much as it was he didn’t go all the way up because he he thought he boxed out yeah I do not want to Bryce I do not want to be the defensive coordinator for the ners because I like to sit in the

Booth when I am a dis defensive coordinator I don’t like to be on the sidelines do that can’t do that James but I would have fired him I gotta be honest like I think that was the right move I don’t know complained all season long that they defensive line couldn’t

Get to a quarterback that doesn’t make any sense you had too much talent how can you not get to the quarterback and the defensive line coach issue ceric well you’re a defensive coordinator man like you you got a sit there and you got a trillion dollar defensive line there should be no scheme

Needed well they prove that you needed a scheme and they and they also proved that you didn’t have the scheme in your back pocket no Jes yeah they I ain’t gonna do it James is here I I man more highlights no bro W thoughts to the people in Kansas City

Though this country’s so broken man it ain’t never going to get fixed this country is never going to get fixed and it’s going to get way worse over the course of the like next eight months yes laughable was just awful this this the stuff that’s coming out of

Kansas City just absolutely awful um James ham with us we continued the conversation during the commercial break about the Sacramento Kings and how how they can turn things around why they can’t turn turn things around what things are are are are are are are wrong what things can be fixed James do you

Think let’s go with a scenario let’s go with a negative scenario I don’t think they’re falling out of the top 10 like I think that’s a that’s a that’s a drastic falloff that I’m not even like prepared for that’s a great word I’m not prepared for that yeah but um

If they lose in the playin and don’t play a series do you think that changes or heightens anything because you’ve already been vocal about the offseason Monty McNair needs to have do you think not playing in a playoff series uh heightens that in any sort of way for

This front office and this team oh it makes its own New Nightmare I mean it does I mean if this team doesn’t make the playoffs like I don’t know if everyone’s going to have a job at that come summertime like and I’ll just point out this crappy thing that would happen that

Means that you don’t give up your 2024 first round pick if you don’t make the playoffs yeah and that means you’re gonna have like the 14th pick or the 13th pick and a bad draft that nobody really wants one of these picks and it also means that your 25 26 and 27 first

Round picks are now not just wide open there you you go from having four if they do make the playoffs and that the 2024 pick conveys on July 1 they have four first round picks that they can offer in a trade they’ve got three pick swaps on top of that or they’ve got

Seven pick swaps like whatever however you want to look at that grouping of first round picks from 2025 to 2031 they’re all wide open if you don’t make the playoffs you keep your 20 24 and now you you might have to give up your 2025 or your 2026 which means you can’t also

Trade your 2027 and we go right back to where they are today with their draft picks um with just a little bit more leeway because you can go out to 2031 so the best you could do is offer a protected with an asterisk 2027 first round pick uh at 2029 and

2031 so again like it could really hurt who they are and what they want to do moving forward if they don’t make the playoffs not just because um there’s going to be a lot of noise from behind the scenes about how this happened and what is the postmortem on them missing

The playoffs this year and why didn’t they make more of a move during the offseason why didn’t they make more of a move during free agency uh I mean during uh during trade deadline like those are all going to be like really really legitimate questions that someone’s going to have to answer

And as of right now again like we talked about it maintain and improve like we got to maintain where is the improve and there has been a conscious decision to move forward this way and that means that whoever made that decision you’re you’re GNA have to answer for it um yeah

So I think there is a big deal um with what happens right now and it’s not just you know oh the fans are going to be really upset man you does anyone out there know how much the Kings jacked up their ticket prices because they made the playoffs one time like all these

Fans have waited for years and years and years you know showing up for a bad team this team wins one time they make the playoffs one time and lose in the first round and they just Nitro their their first their uh their season ticket packages so what are you going to give

It back you’re not going to so again you got to put a product on the floor and sometimes that means you got to make hard decisions you got to you can bite the bullet and make a trade when it maybe isn’t all that uncomfortable and

They didn’t do it and so now you’re in a situation where look if this team fails in the second half that there’s going to be swn in Pace for that failure I don’t know who that is what James is saying is it’s gonna be you I’m

Not saying that I’m not I’m not saying they’re gonna fire the GM or or whatever but they’re just going to be an angry owner if they don’t make the playoffs this season and like where are you g to point the fingers like I don’t know is he is he

Should be angry in this situation everybody should be angry if they don’t make the playoffs but um and not saying that you’re wrong I mean is I would definitely listen to you if you say some you know uh some some heads are going to roll if they don’t make the playoffs but

I also think that would be the wrong move you know what I mean like it’s you you you don’t get anywhere by just drastically changing things all the time yeah you know what I’m saying and um I think I think that everybody should be out there with it you the people that

You have in place to make decisions to coach this team and to play on the court I would the way I would have gone about it when I’ve got any of these guys is there self- motivated to be great they don’t need to be motivated with

Their job on the line to to be better if that’s the the motivation you need for these people that you have in these positions you’re probably not going to win because you can’t have everybody’s job on the line every time so I hear what you’re saying I hope

That’s not the case I really hope we don’t find out you know what I’m saying what that would look like but this whole thing is supposed to it was supposed to be about building something and sometimes when you build something you don’t make a straight line up to where

You’re trying to go there are setbacks and if there are setbacks how they deal with them I hope they deal with them the right way yeah and okay so I’m going to stick with the building mentality there right so the thing about building is sure you know you can have you can get

Part of a house done and it starts raining and you got to wait right and you got to hope that there isn’t too much damage done and all that stuff but if we get to an offseason where they didn’t make the playoffs doesn’t that feel like like you started building a

House but like you didn’t do enough on the foundation and like the whole back corner of the foundation broke and fell off and now you can’t just like go in and repair that you got to tear back and you like you got to make a pretty substantial like adjustment to what your

Plans are and how you’re going to build a house moving forward MH so that’s where I’m at like like this isn’t about you know again I I would even say that at this point they haven’t maintained I don’t care what the record is this team

Is not as good as they were last year just straight up they’re not they’re not as resilient they don’t have the same mentality uh they don’t bring the same energy and effort why do you think that is you got me like I you know like I I

Once uh I once had somebody while I was sitting in front of him they asked Paul Westfall about like trying to control momentum and I I remember Paul said man if I knew how to control momentum I wouldn’t use it to be a basketball coach there’s a lot of things in this world

That you could use momentum for and make a whole lot of money doing I it wouldn’t be doing being a basketball coach like if that’s where like if there anyone knows how to control momentum positive momentum negative momentum like you should be doing like great things and

That’s where I kind of like with this team I can’t tell you what it is but they’ve lost a little bit of who they were and it’s it’s right now it’s that battle to can you find who you were can and that even like who they were we were hoping

They were going to maintain and improve off of that right that’s so we’re still trying to get back to like realistically who they were and after that um you got to you know again we even heard it with Mike Brown and you know Mike Mike has been the defensive guy all year long

Trying to push push push on the on the defensive end and then after the the trade deadline we hear monik mcir talk about how the offense isn’t good enough and it was like okay like we got to be on the same page moving forward here because if your coach is asking for

Defensive players to improve a defense that he doesn’t think can hold up in the playoffs and you think that you’ve got enough offensive weapons to outscore everybody and so you’re not going to make a move then those two aren’t on the same page moving forward and you got to

Figure something else out that’s that’s not like a cohesive unit moving forward and so I don’t know that that’s totally the case that that they’re just like it’s a battle of wills but I certainly would say like when your GM is saying one thing and your coach is talking

About defense there you know you got to figure it out yeah I don’t know how you do it then maybe these two maybe those two aren’t exactly on the same page I’m not sure I don’t know and I’m not saying that like I just know I mean something for some

Reason their offense is off and maybe that’s something that M and and Mike can’t pinpoint you know I mean obviously they’re a lot closer to the team than we are but you know you see the same guys out there for the most part domas is having a

Phenomenal season lost in all this man had a 30 some odd Point triple double last night 50th triple double of his career what what are we up to James 16th or 17th of the Season 18th 18 the season three in a row five in the

Last six 10 in the last 15 30 some odd consecutive double double like dude is having a phenomenal season and it’s getting lost by deficiencies on the offensive end in other places uh the ups and downs a little bit of of dearon fox the strange stretch that that Keegan

Murray is having the disappearing act of Harrison Barnes through 40 games the reemergence uh you know for for a 10 game stretch and now the now he’s like right in between he’s right between oh my God Harrison Barnes and oh my God Harrison Barnes he’s like right in the middle and then

Herder who’s just up and down and and Malik is phenomenal right now yeah this team wins some games that dude could be six man at a year what I mean that’s what it looked like last night he just went out and auditioned for Sixth Man of the Year I he was so good

He wasn’t auditioning for a six man of the year he was auditioning for how much money this league willing to pay me yeah how much how much money is this league willing to pay me I know what Sacramento can pay me what’s the rest of this league gonna be willing to

Pay me well and I don’t know the answer to that to be hon like I really don’t every every time he has a big game oh my gosh he’s we’re not GNA be able to afford him it’s like all right what does the rest of the league

Think of what what Malik’s doing though that the rest of the league has decided defense is not a thing they’re going to do anymore maybe maybe maybe Malik’s 20 points and this upscale NBA offense maybe that’s what they want maybe so like what what it really comes down to

Um with with all of this is in my opinion is winning winning cures all you know and The Vibes will be right back uh to how we had them last year if they can start winning some games and win games on a consistent basis and stay there um

Will they be able to do it I don’t know I don’t know we’ll we’ll see we’ll see but I think the I keep saying I think the the pieces are there I do think the pieces are there they just got to dig deep you know

They got to dig deep and and figure out uh who they are and who they want to be and we’ll see what they got man yeah that Detroit game was a killer wasn’t it yeah yeah that that was the ultimate VI gut punch killer yeah

Because even if you if you win that game then it’s okay to lose to the Suns it’s okay to lose to OKC and it would even be okay to do like these three in a row but if you would have won that you would have been what six and two then you go

On to win the next one seven- two over n game stretch if you have a little bit of a slip up right before the deadline right before the the All-Star break but against three really good teams okay no big deal but that you throw that uh Detroit loss in there and it just

Magnifies everything that’s why again the margin of of error for this team is nothing at this point yeah and you just start looking through the schedule and starting to find like heightened importance and we keep pointing to those two games against Dallas how big those will be those game

I mean that games this is a month away already looking at those coming out strong against San Antonio on the 26 second uh hoping to set the tone you know for what they could do moving forward and then you still you know I I didn’t realize I knew there was one left

I didn’t realize till KC pointed it out the Phoenix games the last game of the season that probably isn’t going to have as much emphasis on it as it would have if it had taken place like four weeks earlier where winning the series might not matter by the time you get to the

Last game of the season yeah yeah or could matter for everything well it could yeah yeah there’s a flip side to that the shout out flip side rest uh but so so you look at it like this shout out to Kamar he sent us um a text saying

They got to go 18 and 11 to finish with the same record that they had last year okay looking at the schedule the easiest opponent toughest was or whatever one with Washington two with San Antonio one with Portland one with Memphis one with Toronto one with Brooklyn that’s one two three four six

Seven seven and0 there seven and0 there means you gota softly softly kind on your part for a team that lost to Detroit last week I’m just saying I’m just saying I’m not I’m not no I’m telling you this is what they have to do not what they’re going to I

Hear you all right this is what you have to do y even if you even if like in a season you even if in a season you get two or three where you trip up against teams like that they’ve wasted that yeah all right so they you don’t get anymore

Yeah you don’t get no more It Go seven know there that means you’ve got to go for the rest of your schedule that has quote unquote tough teams mid teams or whatever what’s that uh what’s my math looking at 11 and 11 yeah because you had them seven and a0

18 and 11 yeah 11 and 11 500 outside of the B the bad teams but that gets you so did that gets you to where you’re at which probably gets you six so I was going to say the follow-up question is what is that gets you in the

Standings what does last year get you in the standings I think that gets you six 48 gets you six this year it might not but I is up in like someone has to play different right and that’s what we were talking about with Sacramento Sacramento’s go a they got to up it a

Little bit 18 and 11 really isn’t upping it there seven games over 500 right now it’s the same it’s the same thing um of course at this point in the season now Phoenix could play the same New Orleans could play the same like if those teams

All play the same the kings are e right Dallas play the same um that’s probably not happening for all four of those teams right uh who’s going to take advantage you know Dallas is they’re they’re working with their new lineups they’re cooking for sure Phoenix will

Remain a question mark to me all year they have the toughest schedule in the league and New Orleans I just I gotta I don’t I don’t I don’t understand New Orleans at all I I don’t I don’t know I can’t describe that bad basketball team no I think laen could be potentially

Good they lost I I think they could too like I I don’t understand why New Orleans isn’t better right that’s the crazy thing especially the way we see them against Sacramento and then you look up and they’re just a game better than them you would think the way that

We’ve seen them play like man that’s probably team that’s five games better than Sacramento but for whatever reason they got 20s something losses themselves and they also they haven’t been hit fully by the entry bug they just lost tyon Daniels you could see them easily having more I I guess Alvarado’s been

Hurt uh on and off throughout the season but you could definitely see them having more injury issues between now and the end of the season because that’s who they’ve been forever and I mean if they stay healthy I I would be surprised if they didn’t at least like Trend up to

Like the 46 to 48 wins that we’re talking about and I looked at I think I’ve got the Kings at right around like 11 games against what you consider sort of non-playoff teams and that’s a lot like and they if they take care of those games and then the games that you you

Know the tough games that you got to split if you if you can come away like 500 um with the rest of the games you got a shot the the the other thing um about the kings in the second half is they just went through basically a

Pretty tough month and a half two month schedule where they were barely ever at home yeah that’s going to change yeah in the second half they’re going to be home a buch prettying and in a good amount in April and they’re what is it 15 and nine

At home yeah look at the other Home records for the teams in the western there’s a it’s like there’s there’s it feels like some teams might have played all their home games already and then you’ve got Sacramento yeah they’ve got 11 home games in March who have been

Here twice since Christmas yeah they have 11 home games in March and four and four in uh in April so I think it’s 11 home games four Road games games in March got a cook at g1c starting with HBC unite James where you going to be HBC Unite with the

Deltas have you picked the fraternity for the 22nd James we’re getting to that James we’re get into that game early James gonna need you to pick a fraternity uh what I’m not doing is I’m not wearing uh Jason Jones’s uh yellow and purple like no I’m not wearing his Laker colors

Out there my fraternity choice that ain’t happening right color choices is important yeah that’s for sure that’s for sure yeah all right yeah James James is hyped James is as hyped as we are for HBC oh you know he is see David Dr David I got you Lambda Lambda lamba y so

Believe that’s a Revenge of the Nerds reference yes very good reference I know that yeah yeah it’s a Revenge of the Nerds reference yeah so uh buckle up buckle up I mean we talking like we’re gonna do this all again tomorrow that’s what I’m saying buckle up we’re gonna do this all again

Tomorrow I think we all like well I don’t know I forgot about injuries but like we feel like they’re not winning huh everybody I don’t know it’s just hard like I don’t know I’d be I’d be a little I’m not gonna say Yeah they ain’t

Winning I’d be a little I’d be a little surprised if they won tonight they gonna be Denver again I’d perk up I see like however you know maybe Denver just wants to get to the break too it’s not like Denver’s you know incapable of just wanting to chill

Right and they’re potentially no Murray no kcp and they’re at they’re at home they gotta go nowhere yeah yeah they also they’ve added uh Julian Strather to their injury list um as questionable with the left ankle sprain and uh Trey lyes is still questionable yeah I don’t like that

I heard um Marcus Burton might be available make his King’s debut tonight I read that oh the guy the two-way guy they signed he’s been elevated I think I think J who had that who is it like no what’s his name though uh Marcus Jones right oh Marcus Jones what I say Burton

I’m think of DeAndre Burton uh yeah it is mar Deontay Burton yeah it’s not Deontay Burton what I Marcus Jones yeah I don’t think it’s Marcus his last name this is good this is this is no this is fantastic we’re we’re talking about a player we can’t get his name right hey

Make sure you guys turn into our Mason Jones there it is it’s good this is good Mason Mason Jones he’ll save the day yeah it’s very good terrific this was this was high quality radio here hey hopefully Chris hey Chris DTE like you can’t get any scoring Off

The Bench throw Chris forte in like you can’t go another game no no what’s Chris G gonna do just play I don’t know no no no I don’t know I’m not saying over Kevin hurder I’m saying like look if you can’t get more than three points out of everyone not named Malik

Monk off your bench you gotta find points somewhere that’s like and I go ahead probably more likely probably more likely we see Alex Lynn tonight for more sustained period of time than we did last night oh totally no no we’ll see Alex Lent tonight against joic um you

Didn’t see Alex Lenn because you know you can’t really run him out there only played two minutes and like well we don’t need to do this and also let’s point out that the Kings completely fell apart when damont sabonis tried to catch his breath for a couple of minutes you

Talk about the center of an offense good Lord they died last night all right we’re leaving this science I’m I’m I’m I don’t know if I’m gonna be in a better mood I’ll be in a different mood tomorrow hopefully a man the same only better how about that yeah

The same only better yeah there you go we are headed over to 1025 to do some giveaways here in this four o’clock hour come check us out if you’d like uh we’re going to run it back next here on ESPN 1320 and of course we got the purple and

Black it’s just such a great name the purple and black pregame show yeah it rolls right off the tongue what time is that 5:30 be there very good Happy Valentine’s Day everybody we’ll see you tomorrow at 10 A.M beginning with the Insiders on Sacramento sports leader

ESPN 1320 B Kings like the beam we still love you

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