The Sacramento Kings Fail to Showcase “New Identity” in Preseason Opener | Locked On Kings

Tonight, I came into the Golden One Center eager to see this new identity, but instead it was a lot of the same old Sacramento Kings from last year. The Kings lose to the Toronto Raptors in their preseason debut. A lot of their performance deemed unacceptable by new head coach Doug Christie. We’ll break it all down right here for you on Locked on Kings. You are Locked on Kings, your daily Sacramento Kings podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. And now, ladies and gentlemen, it is that time. Time for another episode of Locked on Kings. Hello and welcome into Locked on Kings, your podcast hub for Sacramento Kings coverage all preseason and soon to be all regular season long. Today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head to fanduel.com to get started. My name is Matt George. I have the privilege of being your host here. I’m a Sacramento sports anchor and reporter for ABC10 News. And I will say first and foremost, it’s great to be back here inside of the Golden One Center. It’s great to have Kings basketball to some extent back. I know it’s not the real deal yet, but we got to watch 48 minutes of a Kings game. We got fans here in the Golden One Center. I’m back in my spot here on the second level, the sweet level with the Kings Jumbotron and the Golden One Center floor behind me. I love being here. It’s fun. But a lot of that excitement of being back wore off pretty quickly as we watched what unfolded between the Kings and the Toronto Raptors. Sacramento falling to the Raptors 130 to 122. That’ll be the only time I really reference that final score because it doesn’t matter. The final score does not matter. The fact that the Kings lost this game does not matter other than for pride’s sake or for bragging rights. But what does matter is how you played. And there is a bar that the Sacramento Kings established for themselves, set by general manager Scott Perry and head coach Doug Christie. This year is primarily about one thing. This entire season is about one thing, establishing this new identity and new culture in Sacramento. Since media day and throughout all of the first week and some change of training camp, we’ve heard all these players and coaches say the right things. We’ve seen in the glimpses that we’ve gotten of training camp, of practice, the effort to walk the walk, not just talk the talk, but in your first game against an adversary that is actively working against you to prevent you from doing what you want to do. Because in training camp, even if you’re playing competitive five-on-ive basketball, you’re still playing against your teammates who are working just as hard as you are on the same exact things, just on opposite ends of the ball. Your first opportunity to showcase this new identity against a team that’s actively trying to prevent that, someone standing in your way. and you’ve pretty much reverted back to what we know the Kings to be or what we believe the Kings to be based off of how last season went. Defense, the Toronto Raptors shot 20 of 37, 54% from the field or from three-point range. 23-pointers tonight from the Raptors. Is anybody surprised? Buler, anyone? No. It’s kind of been the MMO of the Sacramento Kings. They cannot defend the perimeter, save their life. They give up far too many wide openen threes. They were doing it in the entire game. For some reason, Brandon Ingram had three or four wideopen three-pointers to start this game. Inexcusable why you allowed 20-pointers to a Raptors team and Doug Christie said after the game, “Hey, they shot terrible the other night against the Wizards. Doesn’t matter because every team in the league knows when they play the Sacramento Kings, especially in this building. They’re going to get a lot of good looks.” And it haunted the Sacramento Kings again. So, defense, what about pace? Hey, you really had very little rim running at all, especially from your main guys, your starters. Why? Because you weren’t generating any defensive stops. Malik Monk told me earlier in training camp told me last week that the speed of which the Sacramento Kings play with, that is what’s going to catch most teams by surprise. We saw next to none of that speed tonight because they couldn’t get any stops, so they couldn’t get out in transition. So, pace, how about physicality? There were good moments. There were good moments of physicality. There were good moments of individual on ball defense. There were times where we saw, okay, the Kings are trying to do what Doug Crusty Christie says. It’s it’s making them feel you. Let them know you’re there. There were some bumps. There were some times where the Kings didn’t shy away from the contact, but ultimately the physicality was not impactful. And what I mean by that is like go back to last year and watch how the Houston Rockets played and how they used physicality to overwhelm their opponents and force their opponents into discomfort. Go back and watch the the Bad Boy Pistons with Ben Wallace and Rasheed Wallace. Now, the NBA was officiated a lot differently then than it is now, but even so, that is a team that is imposing their physicality onto the game to a way that it directly impacts, affects, and knocks quite literally their opponent out of their rhythm and out of their comfort zone. We saw none of that from the physicality from the Kings. Keegan Murray, Deont Sabonis, and Zack Lavine had good moments in that first half. Keegan Murray, we talked about he’s being challenged to be more aggressive. Well, he only scored six points in this game. All six of them were in the first half, but he was looking to attack the basket. He was also not afraid to let it fry from three-point range, even though he didn’t hit a three in this game. He had four blocks and a steal all in the first half. I thought Keegan Murray looked excellent in the first half of this game. Damon Sabonis for the entire game had 19 points, seven of 10 shooting from the field. He was looking to score, looking to attack the basket. That’s great to see from Domomas, who we know his first instinct is to try and get others involved. He was looking to attack the teeth of the Raptors defense and was finding success there. Also had two blocks and a steal tonight. Zack Lavine only played in the first half. He did not play at all in the second half. That was by design. That was already predetermined that Zack was only going to play the first half of this game. And in that first half, he looked exactly like he looked last season in terms of shooting the basketball. 16 points, five of seven from the field, three of five from three-point range. Again, all in the first half, those three guys were were solid and had good individual moments, but ultimately as a unit, the starters were not good at all. Not good at all. Did not set any sort of tone in this game. Did not impose themselves in any kind of way against their opponent. They were pushed around. I’ll be honest with you, Dennis Shruder and Demard Rosen were not good in this game. Not good at all. As my light is is flickering on and off like it’s the pregame. I’ll just turn it off. Demard Rosen, Dennis Shruder, not good. They weren’t. They weren’t. To me, I’m watching Dennis Shruder. I don’t know if he was tired. I don’t know. I don’t know what the deal was. I did not see what the Sacramento Kings expect from Dennis Shruder in this game as the extension of Doug Christie, the captain, the leader in that sense, the point guard. I will say when Dennis Shruder was not on the floor and the Kings were trying to figure out who to run backup point guard, you notice the difference because the Kings don’t have a backup point guard on this roster. But when Dennis Shruder was on the floor, I didn’t really notice anything either. Dennis Shruder was not really impactful in this game at all. And then Demar Rozan just quite frankly had a bad game. Like I’m not judging everything off of this game. Demard Rosen defensively looked completely lost. He’s not alone, but he certainly looked lost field shooting the basketball wise in 23 minutes. Went two of six from the field, scored six points, did have six rebounds, four assists. So the the the numbers are a little more friendly to Demar than I thought they would be when I saw the final box score. But Dear did not look comfortable. Did not look really impactful at all in this game. Now we’re talking about two season veterans in the league, especially with Demar Rosen. This is his 17th year. or am I going to panic and freak out over one bad preseason game for both of those guys? No, I’m not. But again, I was hoping to see something different. I was hoping to see this new identity and I wanted to see it embodied by the main guys, the top guys, and the guys that we would expect to be bad defensively or to not look good defensively, the guys that we had doubts about whether or not you could turn this roster into any sort of defensive unit like Doug Christie wants because of the type of players that they are or they are. the the fears that we’ve had about certain individuals on the defensive end of the floor, those fears prove correct in this game. I’m sorry. Like the the defense was not good. The rotations were slow, lazy, late, far too much miscommunication. There was more miscommunication between guys who have spent the last year together here in Sacramento than the new guys. That doesn’t make any sense to me. I know Doug Christiey’s making changes and implementing some things that are new for everybody, but if Dom and Dear and and Keegan are not all going to be on the same page and two of those three guys are the longest tenur kings on this roster, if they’re having miscommunications and breakdowns consistently, how the heck are we going to expect this entire roster to be on the same page? It just didn’t it wasn’t it wasn’t motivating. It wasn’t inspiring in any kind of way what we saw from the starting unit. Offensively, it just looked like, and I’m I’m borrowing this phrase from Frankie Cardelli cuz he’s 100% right. Frankie Cartelli from Sacktown Sports 1140. The offense was like, “Your turn, my turn.” There was not a lot of cohesiveness on offense. We’ve heard so much about they’re going to use Domas away from the basket. And I do like that Dom was in attack mode and did did start at the top of the key, but put the ball in the deck and attack the basket more. I’m glad to see Dom doing that. I can’t tell you one time. I’ll have to go back and look at the film, but I can’t tell you one time that Demard Rosen or uh Demand Sabonis did a DHO, a dribble handoff to anybody. We thought we were going to get back to that. Didn’t see it at all tonight. I’ve been calling for over a year to see a twoman game between Demand Sabonis and Demard Roen. We saw none of it tonight. I’ve been calling all summer to see a twoman game develop between Zack Lavine and Deonta Sabonis. We know those guys spent time working together this off seasonason. We saw none of it tonight. I don’t get why. I don’t get why. So, if there were any like alarm bells or red flags flying for me tonight, it’s from this starting unit. It’s just they just didn’t they didn’t look good. They looked exactly like they looked last season. They looked exactly like they looked when they got embarrassed on their home floor against the Dallas Mavericks here on the plan. Maybe not that bad, but that was the last taste we had. And this taste didn’t left a lot to be desired. Now, is it time to hit the panic button? Is it time to freak out? No. It’s one preeason game, but I wanted to see something different. I wanted to see embodied on the floor what I’ve felt in training camp this week. And Demand Sabonis after the game said it best. That is not how we’ve been playing in training camp. That’s what he said. Well, I’m I’m glad you’re not playing that bad in your own practice facility, but you ought to at some point bring it to that court and show us, and this was their first chance to do that, and they didn’t. Also, the defending 94 ft, we’ve heard that be like a buzz term in this training camp. I thought the defending 94 ft wasn’t good. It wasn’t good. You’ll hear Doug Christie in a little bit talk about how unacceptable it was from the starters, but I felt more often than not when the Kings did defend 94 ft when whoever was the on ball defender when either they got beat or they got screened off. It resulted in an opportunity for the guard to attack the basket that sucked the defense in drew the defense in. Rotations were late and it resulted in like a wideopen wing or corner three almost every time. It’s one game. The Kings have three more in preseason to make some tweaks and fix some things, but disappointing. For sure disappointing. This episode of the Lockdown Kings podcast is brought to you by Monarch Money. Most people can’t name all of their financial accounts, or even what they’re worth, whether it’s 401ks, properties, or investments. And when you don’t have the full picture, you can end up leaving money on the table. That’s why there is Monarch Money. It’s an all-in-one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean, easy to use interface on your laptop or on your phone. Monarch is built for people with busy lives. If you put off organizing your finances, Monarch is for you. Monarch does the heavy lifting that so you don’t have to. You can link all of your accounts in minutes, see clear data visuals, get smart categorization of your spending, and finally feel in control of your money without ever touching a spreadsheet. Maximize your investments, increase your savings rate. You can easily review finances with your partner and or financial adviser and keep a clear view of your financial health week to week, shortterm, long-term, does not matter. These are just a few of the many perks that Monarch Money offers and makes easily available to you. Don’t let financial opportunities sleep slip through the cracks. Use code locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com in your browser for half off your first year. That’s 50% off of your first year at monarchmoney.com with code locked on NBA. I’ve said this before. One of the many things that I love about Doug Christie is how he speaks, how he articulates his point. And while I would rather have a much happier Doug Christie than what we got in postgame today, while I would rather hear Doug Christie talking mostly about what the Kings did right, not what they did wrong, I really liked a lot of what Doug said after the game. Now, I understand a lot of you are probably listening to this podcast and going, “Matt, I’m sick of words. I’m sick of words. I need action.” And the first action we got tonight did not look good. So, Doug Christie can say all the right things. the players can say all the right things. I don’t care. I need to see action. I think Doug Christie would tell you the exact same thing. But I I cut out about two minutes of Doug Christiey’s postgame press conference because I thought every second of this was was really powerful, really interesting. Take a listen and tell me what you think. There’s two games every night. There’s the game and there’s the fight. So we got 164 games. Okay. Every night we gonna win one of them. If we win them both, we doing something. Tonight we lost them both. And I said, “Let that be the last time that we we always going to win a fight.” And unfortunately, and and most people go, “Well, the last team came in.” No, cuz we do it together. It’s all of us. They came back and threw some punches, but it is a group effort from one to the end of the bench and all the coaches and everybody on the staff and in the it’s everybody. So, unfortunately, we lost both of the games tonight. Unacceptable and that will be hopefully the last time that that happens. That was my conversation with them. What do you think of a lot of talk about picking up 94 ft coming into this? What did you think of the job they did and how much do you expect that to have a learning curve as you guys implement that? Who? Whole team, starters, reserves, mainly starters in that first. Um, they were in the first half 30%. So that’s unacceptable and we talked about it. 85 is the number. So that means out of all the opportunities that you get when someone turns around with the basketball, they know what you ate for breakfast. Doug, can you off the top of your head name any specific instances where you saw that identity that you and Scott have talked so much about play out on the court tonight? Um, you know, the starters when they started to get back in the game right before the half ended and then they went on a 9-0 run to end the half before that. There it was. Um, and then that carried into the third quarter. Um, so that that was not it. But all of a sudden those bench guys came in and there it was again identity. So you know out of that whole game you probably got King’s identity maybe two quarters quarter and a half. I I’ll say a quarter and a half. So the consistency of what we expect needs to to be able to be at a higher level for a longer period of time. three thing three things to break down in there. Number one, he talks about there’s two games every night. There’s the actual game which is the basketball game that we see and the Kings lost that tonight 130 to 122. Then there’s the fight and Doug says every single night the expectation of this era of Sacramento Kings basketball, this Kings identity is every single night we will not lose the fight. We might lose the game, but we will not lose the fight. And he said, “Tonight we lost both. That will not happen again. That cannot happen again.” He said, “That’s unacceptable. They cannot lose the fight.” I thought that was a really straightforward kind of simplified idea of what this Kings team should be and what Kings fans should be able to count on and how this fan base, the media, whoever can hold this team accountable, right? every single night. The Kings might lose to a better team, but they should not be getting punched and beaten up and pushed around. Doug Christie is the opposite. Doug Christie didn’t get uppercut by Rick Fox. Doug Christie uppercut Rick Fox. That moment is an example of who Doug Christie wants to be on this floor. He wants to be the one doing the punching. He wants this team to win the fight every night. They got pushed around and did not win the fight tonight. and they did certainly did not win the basketball game. Love that he talked about the the 94 ft like I talked about said this the the expectation for the starting unit is 85% of the time we’re picking up 94 ft and they did it 30% of the time. That’s like that’s that’s not remotely close. I like that Doug said like that’s unacceptable and I talked to those guys afterwards and again if the starters are not going to set the freaking tone if Dennis Shruder and Zack Lavine and Demar D Rozan not that Lavine and D Rozan are going to be doing a lot of defending 94 ft that’s mainly going to be Dennis Shruder and maybe a little bit of Keegan Murray but if the starters aren’t willing to set the tone right out of the gate with that how in the heck should we expect a consistent impact in that area from the bench and third units? how we can’t. If the top guys, the highest paid guys, the leaders, the stars of this team aren’t doing it, then you it it doesn’t it’s flawed. It’s not going to happen. It does not matter. And Doug pointed that out. I also in answer to my question, Doug Doug talked about like look, our new Kings identity, we got maybe two quarters, a quarter and a half. I think that’s friendly. I I’d struggle to find a full quarter, a full 12 minutes where that Sacramento Kings identity really showcased itself. And even then, with the exception of the end of the game when the the the bench unit that or even the third unit like the young young guys when they fought back and got the crowd involved and and started doing the right things like with the exception of them, I saw flashes if that of the identity. Never the whole thing to where it felt impactful really at any point in this game. I’m going to talk about that closing unit because I want to end on a strong note. Also want to talk about uh a guy that came off the bench for the Sacramento Kings. I thought was really impactful with the second unit uh in this game and our final thoughts before we uh turn our attention to the Kings and Clippers on Friday in Los Angeles. We’ll get to all of that in just a second. Like I said at the top of the show, today’s episode of Locked on Kings is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA season is almost here, but the NFL season is very much here. And FanDuel has an offer that you do not want to miss. So, right now, new customers can bet just $5. That’s it. $5 and you will get $300 in bonus bets if you win that $5 bet. So, take those $5 and put on the easiest bet that you can find. When it hits $300 for you to really have some fun uh and and use across the app, there’s so many different ways to play like parlays. You can build these crazy parlays on a football Sunday intermix uh sport parlays like NBA and NFL parlay or MLB playoffs and NBA parlay or however you want to build it. You can try player props. That’s a really fun way to play and even follow the live lines during games. It makes watching football even more exciting when you’ve got a little something riding on the action. Whether you’re a casual fan or you’re a numbers guy, FanDuel makes the game day experience so much better. So, what are you waiting for? Visit fanduel.com to download the FanDuel app today and get started. Shout out to the young guys. Shout out to the third unit, the the unit that played together in Las Vegas summer league. The unit that featured guys that are going to be spending a lot of time on the Stockton Kings like Nick Clifford, Maxim Reno, Dylan Cardwell, Devin Carter, Isaiah Stevens. That five gave us a little bit of something to cheer about and be happy about. Towards the end of this game, the Kings were down by like 20. This game looked very, very over. Those five fought back to I think within like four or something like that. Ultimately were end able to complete the comeback. The loudest this building got was after a couple of hustle plays and a little bit of a run that that group went on and Maxi Marino was fouled and he starts like firing the crowd up a little bit and this was nowhere near a sellout. This building got loud for them. This fan base expresses appreciation for everybody that that works hard. And I understand all of you that are in the camp of like Matt the King should tank. This is a good example. Like play the young guys, just focus on development. If you win basketball games or lose basketball games, whatever. I would rather watch five young guys play hard and just come up short because they’re not good enough yet than watch a veteranladen team that plays doesn’t give 100% and gets pushed around and maybe they’re a playin team but for the most part doesn’t feel like they’re going anywhere. Like I get it and the final quarter of this game is a good support for your argument. I don’t know if I’m there yet necessarily, but it was great to see uh those guys. I thought Dylan Cardwell was excellent. Dylan Cardwell was super aggressive around the rim. This is what this guy does. He protects the rim on defense and he attacks the rim on offense. He’s a rim runner. He’s a dunker. Finishes a lot of alioops. Had a massive poster. Uh in this game, I thought Dylan Cardwell was very impactful. We saw Cardwell and Reo on the floor for the most part together. an idea of what a two center lineup looks like and Reo spacing the floor. I don’t think Maxim hit a three in this game. No, he did not. He went 0 of two from three-point range, but the floor spacing allows it to work. Cardwell was great. Um, so I I was really like I have to shout out those guys and how hard they played and it gives me excitement for how good the Stockton Kings are potentially going to be this year. Uh, at least that gave us a little bit of a good feeling. Like look, that unit was the only unit that gave me a consistent glimpse of, oh, this is how the Sacramento Kings are supposed to play on a nightly basis. If the young guys who are being paid pennies compared to the the the top dogs, if they’re willing to do it because they’re fighting to earn their spot in the NBA, like, who the heck are you at the top to not try and replicate that energy? And hopefully maybe that was a little bit of a wakeup call uh for the top guys to some extent. I do want to shout out Drew Eubanks, though. I thought Drew Eubanks came in off the bench. He was actually the first guy into the game because Deam Savonus picked up two fouls in the first quarter. Got in a little bit of foul trouble. Drew Eubanks came in and what blocked I think he had three blocks in this game. He came in and was aggressive on the defensive end. Immediately impactful. Had three blocks in this game. Also had a steal, four rebounds. Like he got the opportunity at that backup center spot and he delivered. I thought Drew Eubanks was really, really good. Wanted to make sure to give him some love, too. Here are my final thoughts. It goes without saying the Sacramento Kings have a long way to go. A long way to go to truly become the team that Doug Christie wants them to be and talks about them becoming. Long way to go. And who knows if this roster as constructed will ever be able to fully get there, but they can get a lot closer than they showed tonight. I have faith in Doug. I think Kings fans should have faith in Doug and his messaging and his ability to hopefully get this group to buy in. But buying in and executing are two different things. And if you lack the faith in this roster to actually execute, not the faith in Doug, but the faith in the roster as constructed to execute because there are massive questions of how this hodgepodge of talent works together and like everything that we’ve been talking about really since like February, since the trade deadline of last season. If that’s you, I don’t blame you at all. In fact, a lot of me agrees with you. The Kings do have three more preseason games to figure this out. They get back to work tomorrow. They’re back in action on the road on Friday. But there are two weeks, two weeks from tonight, the Kings will be playing in Phoenix to open up their season. Two weeks from tonight, that is not a lot of time at all. And while I didn’t expect everything to look great tonight, while I didn’t expect there to be a tremendous amount of progress just in day one, or I don’t even expect a tremendous amount of progress between now and the end of preseason, the start of the regular season, but look at the Sacramento Kings schedule. Their first 20 games are brutal. This team could get buried in the time that it takes for them to figure everything out. So, while there is no reason to panic right now, there’s not. I mean, you can if you want to, uh, based off of what happened last season and what we saw tonight, if you want to, I’m not You can do what you want. Like, do do your thing. I don’t think there’s a reason to panic, hit the panic button, and and and freak out and make rash decisions based off of one preseason game. But, it’s very clear a lot needs to be done, and time is not really on the Sacramento Kings side. It would be if they had a young team that was just in the realm of developing, but the Kings don’t. They’re one of the oldest teams in the NBA with expectations of still trying to win right now while also giving us something more than empty calories of a season. Give us something in terms of development of Keegan Murray or Nick Clifford or some of the young guys so the Kings actually have a little bit of a future. Just give us something something every single game. Hold the Kings to the same individual bar. This season is about establishing that new identity. And Doug Christie says they need to win the fight every single night. hold the Kings to that standard yourself and ask yourself, did they meet that standard or did they not on a nightly basis? That’s what we’re going to be doing here on Locked on Kings. We will do that for each individual game on its own. And then, of course, we’ll judge pockets of the season and we’ll judge the entire preseason as a whole once we get there. So, from where we’re at right now to the end of preseason, that final preseason game, this Sacramento Kings team should look better than than they do right now. They God I hope they will. We can reconvene as a whole then. But every single night, Friday night, next Wednesday, next Friday, we will judge this team individually based off those two things. That new identity and winning the fight every night. It’s all we can do. Share with me your thoughts, your thoughts on this uh this game. If you’re freaking out, if if you saw things that you liked, let’s talk about it. Hit me up on Twitter, Matt Georgeack. You can email me [email protected]. Leave your thoughts in the YouTube comment section down below. Appreciate your support as always. Can’t wait to have you join me on the next episode of Locked On Kings. Until then, my name is Matt George. You’ve been listening to the Locked On podcast, part of the Lock On podcast network.

Matt George reacts to the good, and mostly bad, from the Sacramento Kings’ preseason debut loss to the Toronto Raptors.

Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!

QuoSee why over 90,000 businesses trust Quo, formerly OpenPhone. Get started free and get 20% off your first 6 months at https://www.Quo.com/LOCKEDONNBA.

PrizePicksDownload the PrizePicks app today and use codeLOCKEDONNFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup.Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNBA

PelotonLet yourself run, lift, flex, and push forward. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread+ today at https://www.onepeloton.com.

Monarch MoneyTake control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNBA at https://monarchmoney.com/lockedonnba for 50% off your first year

FanDuelRight now, new customers can bet just FIVE dollars and if your bet wins—you’ll get THREE HUNDRED dollars in bonus bets to use across the app. Download the FanDuel app now by visiting https://FanDuel.comto get started

FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

The Sacramento Kings Fail to Showcase “New Identity” in Preseason Opener
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCer6XxOVaMbmW2HBLpuLkzQ

WANT MORE DAILY SACRAMENTO KINGS CONTENT?

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOKings?sid=YouTube

Locked On NBA League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft, WNBA & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNBA

Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MattGeorgeSAC

#SacramentoKings #NBA #LightTheBeam

33 comments
  1. never gonna have a new identity until they get rid of this "playing fast" crap. like kobe said.. that's accidental ball. learn some fundamental half court first. playing like it's nba 2k rec..

  2. How can we ask for identity when your franchise player is Lavine? Better enjoy Markkenen is open for business and try to bring him to have a 4 to develop better Murray. Apart from that…it's gonna be all the same.

  3. First, it was only a preseason game and i only saw the highlights. I am not satisfied with the defense. It is not competetive. A lot of unnecessary turnovers.
    I did not understand the role Schroeder played or had to play. Where was DeRozan ? Until now the kings are not a team and the starters did not fit together.

  4. "A square peg in a round hole" is basically what we are seeing with Demar and Zach in the DC defensive system and the reaction offense. They are great superstars at their individual skill sets, however in the DC system we have heard about, Demar and Zach are severe liabilities. Compare the performances/efforts of starters versus reserves (young/rooks). One was the identity the other was not, it appears the square pegs in this round hole of the Kings identity are more like the old adage of doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

  5. When the third string guys beat the starters in practice in OT the other day that told me we were in trouble. That’s about efforts and attitude. It’s gonna be a long season

  6. while I like some of the raging, the main fact was never mentioned – this team is too small!! Sabonis is NOT A Center! I was kinda shocked how small both his body size and his muscles are. With this size there is no offensive rebounding and no rim protection – so everybody sinks and 3s are open.

  7. Why expect them to play any differently than last season when the roster was basically ran back from last season?

    All the rah rah, pick up full court, play with space, "dawg" mentality stuff is just words. This was a repeat of so many games last season.

    Buckle up for another ride to struggle making the 10th seed.

  8. I was excited at the start watching Keegan attack so much as well as all his defensive plays. I also thought Drew Eubanks did decent. Although DeMar had a bad game, it honeslty looked like it was because he was trying to fit the team's identity which imo was nice to see. He was moving the ball more and saw him try to play defense well. I am with you on Dennis though. Only one game, but not all that impressed yet. The last quarter with the rookies was hell of a good time to watch.

  9. The winners this yr. Coach Brown getting fired and hired by the Knicks. While I loved coach Christie for his legacy as a past Kings player. We downgraded from a good coach Brown to one unknown Christie. To expect any dramatic changes from this team for the better. NOT HAPPENING!!!

  10. Psychologically, the kings are in a Double bind, as in, "when did you stop beating your wife?" In other words, there is no good answer. That's the kings now. Whole starting team was on trading block this off-season, they are fundamentally unloved by the franchise. And these are the guys expected to make maximum effort and make the franchise look good? Not happening. Young guys are loved, and have no double bind. Different results.

  11. The defense is a roster problem not a coaching problem. Defensively, DeRozan is a shooting guard. Keegan is a small forward. Sabonis is a power forward. They don’t have the length to defend taller opposing players shooting 3s. And they have no one to defend the rim. Changing the GM and coach didn’t fix anything because they weren’t the problem.

  12. They need to get rid of Vivek. I appreciate it him for being a huge part of the Kings staying in Sac but come on. He has to realize that he can't be making the major decisions anymore because it hasn't been working for years now. And please don't let him chose the draft picks because he's the reason behind all our draft bust since he's been in office

Leave a Reply