Matt George, Locked on Kings – Feelings Surrounding the Sacramento Kings

Matt George, Locked on Kings – Feelings Surrounding the Sacramento Kings

I’m Matt hello Matt George sorry my my time management is about as good as the Sacramento Kings played last night so wow oh my God this is maybe he’s with us us yeah with you you with me what do you mean with me so let me let me just be

Clear this has been a testy day like like these two and I want to be clear what me these two these that that one right there in that little booth and this one sitting directly across me there talking about Keegan they’re they’re just they’re just tired of all

Matt where are you after it happened you can rewind the show or we’ll run it back right we’ll run it back next on Sacramento sports League we’re gonna run back all this nonsense for two hours after so they lost to Denver last night without dearen Fox your feelings Matt

George well first off Jesse I can say I I relate to someone being on the other side of the glass that Damen Barling wants to kill and I’ll just warn you the Glass isn’t thick enough run um that’s that’s the first part happen once or

Twice a day um I I need to go back and listen to the show because I’m really curious about what’s been going on but like I was I wasn’t that upset about the Kings getting blown out last night truth be told I went into the game with the

Expectation that dearon fox was going to play and that the kings were going to lose like the I the maybe this is more of a narrative thing than anything else but I think this matters like a defending Champion losing being swept in the regular season by a team like the

Sacramento Kings that matters especially to a team coached by Mike Malone who still has a bone to pick with this organization and takes every opportunity that he can to kind of rub it in the organization’s face that they made the absolute wrong decision in firing him so

I went into the expectation even if dearon played that the kings were going to lose that game that being said there were aspects of last night game that did not sit well with me and I’ll run through them really really quick like there was one play in the third quarter

When I asked the question kings are down like 18 at this point Mike Brown calls a timeout I said okay Mike literally the the a couple nights before before the Miami game I asked Mike what do he learned about this team and his answer to that question was like their resolve

Their resiliency there’s been plenty of times this season where this team could have folded mid game and they didn’t they kept fighting and he praised that and I question okay were they going to keep fighting or were going they have fold on the road in elevation no dearon

Fox defending champs blah blah blah blah blah were they going to fold or not and there was a play where Aaron Gordon got the ball and jogged past three kings Defenders and dunked like it was a a pregame warm-up line that that moment pissed me off because the kings are

Already getting up like beaten up they’re getting embarrassed right they’re their their 15-point lead completely evaporated now they’re down 18 they can’t score the basketball and now on the defensive end you’re not even going to put a put a body on a guy or make a guy feel you fum I don’t care

Like that that play is not the reason why they lost but to me that was a visible sign of quitting there was that there was Keegan Murray shooting the ball really well to start the game and then for the entire third quarter only taking one shot and this is a consistent

Issue with this team and now I’m looking at Keegan I’m going damn it Keegan speak up like dear’s not playing damanda sabonis isn’t scoring you are the guy tonight demand the ball tell Malik get me the ball tell Mike drop a play for me take that ownership of that

Opportunity and I don’t think Keegan did a good job of that last night and then I was I am concerned about with this king’s team how quickly they lose leads like they blow double digit leads almost on a nightly now a 10-point lead or a 15-point lead this season is not what it

Was five 10 seasons ago we know this scoring is at an absolute premium right now no lead is really safe that being said for the Kings to lose a 50 point lead in four minutes and three seconds of game time and then for the Kings to

Go up 15 to down 10 in less than a quarter to me is is an issue with this Kings team when when other teams go on runs Sacramento spirals out of control and that’s even with dearon Fox so those were the things that I was concerned

About or not happy about last night DLo but in total like I wasn’t too bothered by the Kings getting blown out and losing to the Denver Nuggets so even with all that said does this say anything about to you about this team moving forward were you all the things

That you you you mentioned are those things that give you concern or give you pause about this team closing out the season some of them do I’d say two out of the three of them for sure I think the runs and this team’s inability to hold on to leads is a consistent problem

Not a one night problem so I’m concerned with that I think if the kings were to let’s say let’s say they make the playoffs at the six seed and they have OKC in the first round because I heard you guys talking about the the Thunder

If the Kings build a 12-point lead or a 15-point lead at home against the Oklahoma City Thunder in game three like I should feel more confident about their ability to maintain that lead than I have over the course of the season and I do at this point in time now I’m not

Saying that they have if they’re up 13 they absolutely have to win that game at home because again basketball is a game of runs and any team can explode at any given time but the Kings cannot spiral out of control the way that they have done so consistently with leads

Especially at home this season so that part is a concern for me Kenny and then I would say the Keegan Murray thing too because we directly saw in the playoffs we saw game five here in Sacramento Keegan Murray get off to a RedHot start in that game and the Kings completely

Went away from him in the playoffs now it’s a rookie I understand to some extent but that you lost that game and I think that was a major reason why and again last night offensively you were struggling to score the only guy that seemed seemed to have a pulse

Offensively outside of the first couple of minutes in the first quarter shooting Was Keegan Murray and you went away from him I guess credit to the Denver Nuggets defense but for God’s sake in a third quarter where you’re getting beat down and can barely score 10 points you can

Find more than one shot for Keegan Murray even if he’s being quadruple teamed every time down the floor does Keegan have the personality to demand the ball and that and and and I joke about Casey and and and Jesse and that wanting to trade Keegan and all of

That really it’s entering next year and how crucial this offseason is going to be for this front office and how important Keegan Murray is going to be to you know the ceiling of this basketball team does Keegan have the personality to in moments like last night in moments

Like we saw I think again in in in the previous Miami game where I think he had 33 in that one to demand the ball like hey it’s me I’m the one I’m the one right now to to to demand the ball through the course of a be it a five minute stretch

A 12 minute stretch a half a game does he have the the personality to do that the answer right now I think from all indications is no but that doesn’t mean that he can’t develop it the same way he’s developed as a Defender like to me

A lot of the the personality that we’re looking for in those moments is confidence now Keegan will tell you that he’s confident going into every game and he’s confident shooting the basketball and he has faith in himself but for a naturally quiet second-year player to come out and start making demands of get

Me the basketball I I think that’s I think that takes more than just having a personality that takes a confidence just in yourself a confidence of what your team is doing so again the answer I think short term is no but the long-term answer is he better start developing it

Or he’s going to be a role player in this league like that’s the we think Keegan is way too good just to be a role player but if he’s going to settle for being a guy that just poaches on the perimeter and plays good defense he’ll

Have a big role an important role but he’ll never realize what the Sacramento Kings need him to realize now at the same time too the Kings know what kind of personality Keegan Murray has Mike Brown and that King’s coaching staff and that King’s uh locker room they know Keegan literally better than anybody

Else in the league so they should know too okay if he lacks the personality to say get me the basketball then I’m going to call a timeout which Mike Brown called two timeouts in the span of three minutes to start the second half I think during one of those timeout say let’s

Get Keegan Murray the basketball or even getting in Keegan’s face and saying Keegan I give you the green light go out and get it and you know Mike has shared stories before of calling Keegan out or cursing Keegan out and then Keegan will go and do something on the floor and

Turn to Mike Brown and give him an give him an exploitive right back and Mike loves it so Keegan has has the personality to respond to being coached Keegan has the personality to respond to having the pressure and the heat put on him a little bit enough to turn around

Hit a big shot and then go right back at the guy that was going at him so Keegan is capable of doing that Keegan’s capable of hitting big shots we saw him try to single-handedly lead the Kings back in that Heat game we saw him Dan near put up 50 points earlier this

Season we saw him get hot against the Golden State Warriors in the playoffs on multiple occasions Keegan is capable of doing it it is on him and it’s on the Kings to recognize the moment recognize the situation and get him more involved but yes a lot of that has to do with

Keegan’s willingness to say move my ball and I also think it also falls into his limitations still as an isolation score in comparison to dearon Fox dearon Fox last night does I’m not saying the Kings win if dearon Fox plays and that big run doesn’t happen but Midway through that

Run dearen fox goes everybody get the hell out of my way I’m going and scoring myself the Kings did not have that last night no man and when when you talk about Keegan the thing that the fact that people have told him that multiple times over the first two two years um

That makes me a little less confident that he’s just GNA develop it now 24 years old we talked about basketball Damen but as a man 27 years you know old like you find your voice a little bit you be able to do things so know he can

He can develop that I think maybe I was dismissed of it a little earlier and saying he is who he is um but no he can develop that the older he gets as a man and in this league um but but also this year like at the same time I kind of

Feel like man like why we got to keep telling you this you know if it’s you know a situation where multiple times have said hey Step Up be assertive look to shoot all this other stuff and we got to stop having to tell you that like you

Got to know I thought he came out in that game like with a purpose almost like he was upset that he didn’t get the ball enough at the game on Monday and he said all right I’m about to I’m kind of pissed off about that I’m about to turn

Up a little bit then he was phenomenal in that first quarter and a half and then he just kind of uh faded to Bolivian as Mike Tyson once said I I believe we do we have Mike over here oh I don’t know that oh there’s Mike I

Don’t know man I might just fade into Bolivian hate it when hate it when that happen hate when you Fade Into Bolivia so I think what they’re going to need from him not just moving forward but the rest of this season is more of that first quarter Keegan Murray and less of the

The third quarter and I I think he can provide that on a consistent basis but I’m just not sure I completely agree with you Kenny because I thought I actually made comparisons with how the kings came out against Denver I made comparisons to heat culture and how the

Heat played against the Sacramento Kings it looked very much like a next man up we missing our star but we can still go out and we match up well against this team or we have had success against this team let’s go out and let’s get it plus

We’re coming off of a loss in a game that we probably feel like we shouldn’t have lost or at least at home against a short-handed team and I thought Keegan Murray was the guy that stepped up and said nobody’s making up for the 27 points per game that dearen fox scores

But I’m going to do my best to take a lot of that load on my own shoulders and hope my guys can follow suit I thought that’s how Keegan approached the game and it was it was great to see the problem is that can’t disappear once things start going rough right

Because filling dearon Fox’s shoes is not just replacing 27 points per game it’s becoming the guy that can help stop the Avalanche when everything is spiraling out of control and I thought like there’s been elements of different guys doing that at different times I thought that’s been a role of Harrison

Barnes a lot over the course of his time in Sacramento and the Kings have needed a bucket to stop a run look how many times they go to Harrison Barnes in the post they didn’t do that last night so I think this team just got blitzed like I

Think they were playing well and I think it also kind of speaks to DLo I talked about this on my podcast and I know you’ve talked about this a lot on DLo and KC this season like I I I think there’s still just a sense of entitlement with this team just they get

Up and they’re like man we’re rolling we’re good we’re vibing and it just disappears quickly and they get punched for lack of a better term and they just it’s like a standing eight count they’re just they’re they’re dazed and they’re like on the back foot trying to gather

And teams see that they smell the blood in the water and they attack it like the fact that the Denver freaking nuggets had 20 fast break points in the at halftime 15 of them in the second quarter like that is a team that smelled blood in the water and just went after

You the reason why Nicol yic felt like he could get away with Reaching Across the body of deus sabonis and creating that steel which was a ridiculous non foul call crazy was because this king’s team was reeling and he thought you know what we could probably try and get away

With this it’s kind of the same way the Sacramento Kings reacted on the second night of a back-to-back when the Nuggets were reeling when they were pissed off at the referees and the Kings struck at that moment to help them win that game so teams recognize when you’re kind of

Dazed and this this Kings team kind of gets a little full of themselves or gets kind of kind of into themselves a little bit and then when they get punched they have not reacted well to getting punched and I throw Keegan Murray’s disappearing act kind of into that mix you were the

Guy early on Denver answered and then your aggressiveness your desire to score your you’re feeling like I have to be the guy vanished as well and then danda sabonis at least he put up shots but at the same time too like sabonis this is why people I guess scoff and

Roll their eyes which I thought was ridiculous and I ranted about last night on the podcast but sabonis if if Fox is out like I need more than 12 or 14 points or whatever you gave me like at that that’s where you need to step up

There in that spot too and again it’s concerning that repeatedly we’re talking about offense we’re talking about this king’s team slowed down offensively which is supposed to be their primary strength and it and it we’ve been questioning that all season long too which to me speaks to another kind of hidden issue

Of this Kings team or maybe not so hidden anymore what’s that just the this I think this Kings team is offensively not the same as they were I think offensively they just don’t have the same consistency they don’t have the same Rhythm and they are over on the

Three-point shot it’s it’s sink or swim by the three there seven of 10 from three-point range in the first quarter 0 of nine from three-point range in the second quarter a 15-point lead becomes a 10-point hole if they’re not hitting shots with or without dearon Fox they

Fall apart I’m I’m glad you there’s a there’s a lot there I’m glad you mentioned that thing with about dear do you think last night’s game would have been any different without or excuse me do you think last night dumped this three two and do you think last night’s game would

Have been any different with the Aaron Fox I think the Kings still lose like I said early on I don’t think the Kings allow that massive a run and I don’t think the wheels fall off as much as they did at all I think I think dearon

Fox recognizes in that moment we are completely falling apart I’m going to stop the bleeding and I’m G to get us back on track and the biggest area that I think would have been different is not the Kings going from fif down or up 15 to down 10 at halftime I think think

It’s not going from down 10 to down 18 the first three minutes into the third quarter I think that’s where dearon Fox kind of comes out sets the tone regroups and says okay like let’s let let’s go let’s refocus here I think the Kings lose last night I think the the final

Score didn’t end up being that bad because of kind of the fourth quarter garbage time I think this game is a lot closer than it was and the avalanch that the the Nuggets rain down on Sacramento I don’t think happens with dearon playing I still thought they were going

To come back with about four minutes to go well not because I was watching the game but because of circumstances I’ll tell you guys one day Kenny had a tough night last night Kenny didn’t know what the hell was going on last night there’s no way she would have texted me they lost

Kenny Kenny had a tough but they’re down 25 with three minutes to go it’s what’s going on here yeah not not pretty I just most have been all over the place what do you so I had I was like you Matt I had kind of my feelings

About last night’s game going into it I don’t feel that way about Friday’s game though I know Minnesota’s very good I know they’re a really really frustrating matchup Atman listed is questionable by the way but I thank you for that I expect Sacramento to be in a different

Position than they were headed into last night’s game I think you have Minnesota who’s probably not in the same position that Denver was and I do think there’s a lot of obviously basketball’s a sport it’s physical that’s what it is I think there’s a lot of mental stuff that goes

Into this game as well and I think there was a lot of mental stuff on the Denver side last night and maybe some not in the most positive way on Sacramento side especially when things turned for them so quickly in the second quarter but I have a different feel for tomorrow’s

Game not predicting a win or a loss or anything like that but I expect Sacramento to look significantly better tomorrow night than they did last night I’m completely on the same page with you and I think a lot of it also has I’m glad because you were looking at me in a

Way where I was the biggest idiot on the planet Matt had this look on his face like this dude lost his mind the king’s about to lose by 90 tomorrow no I was trying to unpack because I was like I think we’re saying the same thing but I

I I was waiting for you to turn it around and go yeah I think the kings are gonna get BL blitzed I’m like oh well I I wasn’t on the same page um I think it’s I I mean it’s the I think it’s the moment or the situation more than it’s

The game and I maybe I think some people were so bothered by last night’s blowout loss not because it was a blowout loss but because it came after you didn’t get your job done at home against Miami on Monday and that’s where I’m looking at like this four game stretch which

Started out with the in my opinion the hardest win to get that win in Los Angeles to me was the hardest win for you to go out and get and you got it like you you did your work ahead of time to me the goal was always go two and two

Over this four game stretch 500 survive and put yourself in a great position for this six-game home stand coming up and a lot of games you have games against Memphis coming up you have a road game against Washington which based off of the past maybe we shouldn’t feel too

Confident about those games but like I was thinking go 500 during this stretch put yourself in a f good position to really attack this home stand that you have coming up and that’s where you can really move yourself up the standings and hopefully put yourself in a position

To lock down five or six and create a little bit of Separation with seven eight nine and 10 10 beneath you you lose to Minnesota now you’re going into that stretch kind of barely holding on to eighth with the the shark circling of the Lakers and their comeback last night

The Golden State Warriors at any point like you lose tonight and it’s not out of the realm of possibility you get hot during this home stand you could be right back up to fifth in two or three games that’s how quick it is but you don’t want to put yourself in a position

Where you have to play very very very good basketball during this home stand or you’re kind of in the same spot you were and now that home stand is behind you and you got tough matchups against the Dallas Mavericks and things like that I I think the Kings want and need

To go into these Dallas Mavericks matchups because both of them are in Sacramento if I’m not mistaken you want to go into these matchups ahead trying to keep the Mavs back not trying to catch Dallas because I think Dallas is in a a more comfortable position on the road with a

Little bit of a lead on you to where they could split those games and uh we split with Sacramento but we’re still on top versus Sacramento having the position to where they could split and still be on top out of those games so full circle going back to your your your

Question dowlo tomorrow’s night’s game I think is whether dearen Fox players or not I expect better and I expect more engaged locked in for a full 48 because of the circumstance not the opponent got you I hear you I sure hope so yeah uh have you looked at Dallas’s

Schedule by the way no uh you you don’t it’s not something we just noticed an interesting little note they play The Warriors three times and given the way the Warriors are playing I I found that interesting we they play The Warriors three times in the final 20 some odd games of the

Season that doesn’t make me feel good go dubs that the funny thing about that is though and and it’s only go dubs right now because the the the the Warriors are behind Sacramento but like beating the Mavericks three times pulls yeah Golden State right into that oh wait now

They’re competing for a top six spot yeah now they’re right there no I feel that’s lose lose because either the the dubs are Petty enough to not help the Sacramento Kings out at all and let the the the Mavericks win all three of those games and I’m convinced it’s for

Pettiness and has everything to do with the Kings and nothing to do with the Warriors well I mean the top 10 is already set right we know what the 10 is so the Warriors lose those three games they finish in the 10th seed does it really matter that or sorry yeah they

Finish in 10th does it really matter that much to them I think the Warriors know that there’s still a chance for them to get to six I think the Warriors know they’re play inbound they they know they can win just so just like the Lakers do that’s why the the the play in

Is so terrifying to me from a Sacramento King standpoint because whether they have homecourt advantage or not the Kings I think we we all feel confident saying the SA kings are a better basketball team than both the Lakers and the Warriors and the standing I’m really sorry Matt you sound like you’re about

To cook and Jesse’s making us in the show yeah Jesse said we have to end the show go Dubs well we’re gonna clip that and that’s gonna live on social Med Matt George lock on Kings ABC 10 thanks for being with us you

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