Can the Sacramento Kings Maintain Stability Through Adversity
We asked before we we we were talking about a scenario where you know the Sacramento Kings kind of kind of get into this season and h how long would it take for them to break? How difficult would it be to break them? And you know we have landed on this I think most people agree the individuals I think not everyone agrees. I think a lot of people agree the individuals on this team are talented. I think a lot of people are of the belief, understandably, that the collective doesn’t work as a basketball team today. You need to take a piece here and turn it into a piece that works on a different part of the floor. Uh Scott Perry has done that to the best of his ability so far. Probably hasn’t done it to a lot of Kings uh fans satisfaction, and I currently understand that. I’m of the belief that this team is going to play well to start the season. I am like, but Jesse asked a very fair question and it’s like, well, what happens when they don’t? And do they break? Do they splinter? Do egos uh start taking control? Do you know frustrations about roles start emerging? And I told you I don’t I do not have any fear with Demar D Rozan leading this team. Your leader doesn’t have to be your best player. Your leader doesn’t have to be one of them ones that we always talk about. But Deamar is a pros pro. He’s a future Hall of Famer. He has one of the best reputations in the league. He is going to play hard every single night. I think the same is true for Keon Ellis. I think the same is true for a guy like Keegan Murray as well. I think those guys are going to play hard every single night. Zack Lavine I just don’t know about and it’s not that’s not shady. That’s not questioning I like I’m when I I’m not qu Zack Lavine. No, what I’m saying is I don’t know like I do not know how I don’t I don’t know how he’s going to respond in a situation like this. I felt for him last year because, you know, of the situation he was in with the trade, you know, and and and and things that were going on in his personal life, which were well documented, the pregnancy, and then maybe some things that weren’t as well documented that we learned about later. And all that he was kind of going through in that stretch, it’s like, man, this is all I really just felt for Zach in that moment like this is just got to be such a brutal situation as a man, as a husband, as a father. This has just got to be difficult. But I never questioned whether he was playing hard. You know what I mean? Like I wondered if he was playing well, but not if he was trying, not if he was like engaged. Like I didn’t I didn’t wonder that. And to continue the summer of hate. I don’t know what to expect from Damonte Sabonis. Domas is like I’ll add in Mark too, but like Dom is a still here. I don’t want to say left over because it’s a harsh word, but it’s left over from a failed regime. Yeah, it was supposed to be him and Fox and now we’re moving on to this new group. Malik Monk has had his name in trade rumors and all that. Now he’s just kind of ling around still. We like talking about Keegan and Nick and and Keon and all of these guys who we thinking rise up. It’s going to be really difficult looking this man in the face this coming season. I need him to show me something. Well, he was like he’s the one that I want to see. Hey dog, what do you have? He was supposed to be franchised and then now it’s like are you number three on this team right now? Yeah. Just asking questions. No. And it’s I think it’s a fair question. And and these are the things James is throwing something across. James here at 3:00 by the way. James just threw a bottle across his bar right now. Pal McCrae right now. But James turned over a chair. But here’s here’s the deal and this is the way I think all of us look at it. No disrespect to these guys at all, but are we having discussions and saying Keon Ellis needs to step his game up? Are we having discussions saying Keegan Murray needs to rise to the occasion? Are we sitting up here saying, “Well, I want to see Keegan rise to the occasion, but I think I know what you mean.” Yeah, we we’re not I don’t even think we’re not even looking at Zack Lavine and saying, “Zack Lavine, step your game up and step your leadership abilities up.” Mhm. We’re talking about Damonte Sabonis because he’s supposed to be that guy. Yeah. If he wants to blend in, and I’m not saying this, he’s worried about this. I’m mostly talking to people not trying to fit out. Oh, never mind. Go ahead. I’m mostly talking about the people who like, “Oh, you guys are turning on Domas.” Look, if he wants to say, “I don’t want this responsibility.” And just blend in and not be a leader, he can do that. That’s fine. But I’m also not gonna look at him as a franchise guy on my own personally because that’s not my franchise guy a lot of the times is all-encompassing. He is the leader or one of the leaders. He is a guy that looks to lift and elevate his teammates. He is a guy that looks to lift and elevate his own game in certain situations. And if Dom doesn’t want to do that or anything else like that, that’s understandable, too. We’ll be in search of that type of guy. I’ll go back to what we talked about. I think it was yesterday with the insiders or sometime earlier this week during the handoff and it’s the last thing you saw isn’t as good or as bad as you remember. In our case, it’s bad. Mhm. That playing game was bad and it was arguably from multiple different perspectives, Domas’s worst. And it, as Bonte Hill would say, it lives rentree. It’s just there. Every time we talk about every single time we talk about Damonte Sabonis, the image that runs through my head is him throwing his hands up and and and in the context of that game, he wasn’t throwing his hands up because he was frustrated with an official. He was throwing his hands up because he was frustrated with this basketball team. And I don’t I don’t know who you are getting through to when you throw your hands up. Yeah, I get frustrated with you too all the time. It’s taken me a long time to learn throwing my hands up isn’t going to get through to anybody. Dom, you can’t from from one person to another who has made this mistake. Throwing your hands up is not getting through to your teammates. That body language is not going to work if you’re supposed to be the guy. And we can we can pick apart his game and we can pick apart the things that he did wrong in that moment. We can pick apart the things that he did wrong in that in in that playing game. We can pick apart the things that he did wrong all all off all off season. First and foremost, bro, I need you to correct that. Don’t mind Dear doesn’t do that. And that’s why I say and it’s and and a lot of it is rep his reputation too. But that part of it, I do not fear Demar being locked in when this season starts. And I’m going to need I’m I I would like to see Domas correct some things and emerge to that level of respect and and leadership ability that again, this isn’t the De’aran thing. Well, I’m not going to be a yeller. Nobody’s asking you to yell. Yelling doesn’t mean you’re leading. Leading is getting your team to follow you, right, bro? I’m not following you when you’re acting like that, right? And that’s what I need to That’s as much as passing out of double teams, getting more aggressive with the shot, I need him to fix that. Yeah. And it’s it’s one of those things that we’ve talked about a number of different times while we’ve had this show. And you bring it up with Domas and you talked about the story with Tyoo and LeBron the other day. somebody. Hey, do the Christie. Somebody needs to tell them do you can’t you got to stop that. Stop that. You cannot do that. That throwing up the hands and all this look into the sky when when somebody drops your P. That can’t happen, bro. You got to stop that. And he’s got to recognize that. And he’s also got to recognize, hey, I got to step my game up. It may not be fair. Like if I’m doas, I didn’t put myself in this situation. I didn’t make Monty McNair not give me a point guard or, you know, force us to change the offense and all. No, it’s not fair. It’s not anything that you created. But this is what you’re in right now. And you’ve got to look at the situation like where the first thing you need to do. The first thing you need to do and focus on is what can I do to better this situation for myself and my teammates. Not and I think a lot of people do this and it’s frustrating. They just didn’t give me they didn’t give me a point guard or they didn’t run this offense around me day and day and day and day. Yep. What can I do to be better? What can I do to make this team better? That’s how Dom needs to move. Once again, he may be doing that. I don’t know. I haven’t talked to Domas. I don’t know that. He could have he could have He wasn’t in the suite with you the other night. No, your suite. Oh, you didn’t invite him? It wasn’t my suite. Okay. He looked awfully comfortable with this. Well, that’s the guest. They did a good job of making me feel comfortable. Big ups to him. Shout out to my guy Mike. Shout out to my guy Andy. But Dom may have the mentality that we talked about the other day. Mhm. Of, yeah, I don’t really care what DLO and Casey are talking about because whatever they’re saying, I’ve already gone over my head 10, 12 times already. Mhm. So he may be like, “Man, I ain’t tripping about them cuz they can’t be more critical of myself, more critical of me than I am of myself.” Mhm. That may and I hope that is his mentality. But that’s kind of what we’re talking about here. You have to as the leader, as the guy, you have to look at what can I do first and foremost. Where can I be better? And I hope he’s taking that approach. I hope so too. Uh I think this basketball team we’re will will be in a far better approach now. And now we’re not Please don’t like misunderstand this conversation we’re having. Like we’re not naive to think that if everyone just goes into training camp in a good mood that this is a 50- win basketball team. I think there are little things that you have to fix along the way. And I can’t remember Scott Perry’s line, but it’s something like volunteers and not hostages. some like like something like that. Meaning, yo, we want you here. We want you to work. We want you towards a common cause. We don’t want you to feel like you’re stuck here or you’re held hostage because of the contract you’re under. If you don’t want to be here, let’s try to work that out. Now, I don’t know what the result of those conversations were. I have no clue. I do feel like there was not to Scott Perry’s doing, not even to Dear’s doing, more to everyone’s opinion that there was this idea that Dear was gone. There was a joke the sec, you know, when the season ended. So, we’re just so Demar’s just gone. Like, we talk about Demar Rosen back in in in in in April and May. We talked about Demar De Rozan like he no longer wore a Sacramento Kings jersey. Then Scott Perry got here. Scott Perry talked for a little bit and all of a sudden that conversation seemed to change again. There was no noise about other than the fan base and media people, you know, just talking about the fit and oh, it doesn’t work. So, it makes sense that we’re going to move on from him. There was no, oh, this report said his agent said this, this was that. Like, there was none of that, right? But what we did hear was I think Scott likes Dear, huh? And then like a couple of days go by and it’s like, hey, I get the feeling Dear is going to be here. And so while there was no noise on on Demar’s not here front, there started to be a little bit of sound about Demar actually being here, which leads me to believe whatever conversation those two had, Scott Perry was very happy with it. This is all an assumption on my part. This is us putting multiple pieces of a puzzle together and trying to figure out the picture. And to me, being naive, that feels like a good thing to me. I I think so, too. I think so, too. And we’re And I know And I know Kenny and I, we’re alone on this island. We We were alone most of last year and and we’re we’re just the plane crash and lost, but it’s it’s just us. Just me and Kenny and that’s it. The thing trying to find the others. the the the thing that I think makes us feel like it’s a good thing is the level of trust we have in Scott Perry or I I won’t speak for you level of trust I have in Scott Perry if Scott is assessing this situation and he looks at Demar De Rozan and was able to convince Demar De Rozan and I’ll even throw Doug Christie in there as well. Scott and Doug Christie, I trust both of those guys in the way they approach team building, the way they approach the game of basketball. if they had a conversation with Demar De Rozan and one felt like he would be good for the plans that they have for this franchise and number two were able to convince Dear Dear that this they have a plan. It’s good that he at least considers being a part of it then let him go out and think about what he wants to do. I trust that process with those individuals and and we have fun with it. I’m not trying to kick his back in, but like I wouldn’t have the same type of trust if Monty came to this conclusion. For sure. You know, I that doesn’t mean he’d be wrong. It just be like I don’t know about your decision- making or or how you look at team building. Scott Perry, I do. That doesn’t mean I’m right. That doesn’t mean he’s right or anything like that. But I’ve chosen I think we’ve chosen to, hey, I’m going to give this guy an opportunity. I trust his basketball acumen and he’s a winning basketball player. He might not have won on the level in which you personally prefer, but Deamara is a winner. Yes. And it’s f like you you have a lot more I don’t know if evidence is the right word to criticize Zack Lavine. And and I think a winning basketball player is kind of a silly term. You know, people will make the argument that Trey Young isn’t a winning basketball player. And that’s fine because if he’s not, neither is De’ar Fox. Neither is Demarcus Cousins. Like, we’re like we we we throw that term around when the team doesn’t win. But I don’t hear those types of things about De’ar Fox, right? I don’t think I’ve really heard that about Demarcus Cousins. What I’ve heard is Demarcus Cousins doesn’t win, but I didn’t really hear him being classified as a non-winning ba like he’s not a winning basketball player. Like we we just like to pick and choose when we don’t like a particular player’s game and you have a kid like a young man like Trey Young who’s averaging, you know, 28 and 12 and you go, “Well, what why don’t you like Trey Young?” He’s not a winner. I don’t know. Atlanta was ass and they have one of the worst front offices in the league. But maybe that had something to do with it. But I’m not labeling that to Demar. I’m not giving Demar Rosean that label. I don’t like that label on any player cuz truthfully, I don’t understand it. I don’t know when you use it, but it’s usually, “Oh, Zack Lavine puts up stats, but he doesn’t win.” All right. I guess I guess that’s all his fault. I don’t know. I I agree with you. I I and we always talk about like circumstances being so important to um a player in any sporting situation like the organization you go to or injuries or the roster and all this other stuff. I don’t know how one player can get labeled as not a winning player um with so many different variables that go on. Demard Rosen has won in this league, one game, has been on a winning team. Did they win a championship? No. But that is not what we’re now classifying as a winning player as a championship because then you got to call a bunch of people not winning players in that respect. Um, same thing with like a a a Zack Lavine and anybody just anybody when you talk about that when you say he’s not a winning player, point to a team that these people have been on that should have been good but they weren’t good because this player was here. And I think that’s a little bit more nuanced than people want to do like to work for. I do understand. Yeah, it’s too difficult. It’s easy to just repeat what uh Kendrick Perkins said on ESPN. Simple as that. I do think there’s there are players that like are bad for a locker room or bad for um chemistry of a team just by their demeanor, their attitude and all this other stuff. So those those things exist and those players exist, but I wouldn’t look at a player that didn’t make the playoffs the last three years and be like, “Ah, he’s not a winning player.” That’s just not not fair without going into the context of the situation. and Demar, I don’t think he fits that case at all. Like you could you could maybe convince me on Zack Lavine just because he doesn’t have a lot of playoff experience and all this other stuff, but not Demard Rose. Yeah. Not him. And like you said, if you want to use We did this when the trade happened. Dear Fox’s resume looks so very similar to Zack Lamine’s. Mhm. Very, very similar from their production to games played and missed to playoff appearances, all-star appearances, all this other stuff. But one is looked at, I don’t even know if they call him a winner, but they don’t look at him as a problem. The other one is a guy that you can’t win with. I choose to look at both of them be like, “Hey, these are two good ball players. Maybe they get in the right situation and things can change.” De’arian is a winning basketball player and we’re going to maybe if if people didn’t believe that before, we’re going to learn that now. Like circumstances matter. Let me ask a question because we’re talking about Demar a lot because of the you know he is a he’s a in my mind at least he’s a very high level player. He’s obviously very very well respected but he’s a very high level player. Not you because I I don’t feel like I have to ask you this question. So, I’m gonna ask everybody else. Do you consider Dennis Shruder a winning basketball player? I wouldn’t say you looking for an answer now or no. Absolutely. Yeah. I wouldn’t say Yeah. No, I wouldn’t. Dennis Shruder has played in 74 playoff games. He’s see I wouldn’t call Dennis Shruder is absolutely a winning basketball player. I’ll go a step further and people may or may not like this or think that it factors in. They’re not going to like anything we say that’s even remotely positive. He’s the engine for what’s been going on the last eight years in Germany. Germany’s basketball team. Oh, sure. He’s the He’s France Wat the Wagner. They’re doing a great job, too. But Shrutder is the one. I won’t fight you on that. But as far as like in like with this if he’s I don’t even I wouldn’t consider him a losing basketball player either. It’s just to me it’s like Dennis Shruder’s This is going to sound harsh, but like he’s like just a guy, I guess, like like he he contributes and all that, but I wouldn’t be like, “Oh yeah, Dennis Sher like contributes to winning. He has that impact or anything.” Like he’s a very good basketball player, but I don’t know. I wouldn’t put that label on him, though. I think winning or losing though, he does though. I think he’s not the best player. He’s not necessarily the reason why, but the things he brings to the table, the the the grittiness of his game, um his skill level, I think bringing that into a locker room and bringing that out on the floor, I think affects winning. Well, it depends who with like Dennis because like in a spot with LA with the Lakers, like that worked, but as I saw him in Boston, that didn’t work. So, it’s like a lot of it depends on what you surround them with where it’s like I can’t call him Golden State either. Yeah. Like they it depends. They can’t label him a winning best player. There’s a lot of circumstances around him, I guess. Yeah. And I that’s the other like that’s the point though. Like circumstances are involved everywhere. Golden State hasn’t worked for too many people outside those guys that have won rings. If you’ve come in after the fact, it hasn’t necessarily been great. Which is why I think they’re such a fascinating team this year because Jimmy was like, no question about it. Jimmy was great the second he walked in the door for the Golden State Warriors. But the question I asked all off season, was that adrenaline or was that real? And that is a story that I am very very anxious to watch play out this season. Not of hate, but of admiration. Like I’m I like Jimmy Butler. I love Steph Curry. I’m very curious to see if what happened at the at the second part of last season translates into a full really productive dangerous season from the Golden State Warriors because so far that hasn’t really happened with, you know, it’s a weird term, outsiders, especially of that caliber. Circumstances matter, fit matters. Uh, we’ll come back. I don’t think we solved anything.
Subscribe for the latest Sacramentos sports news & videos!!
Listen live: https://www.audacy.com/espn1320/listen
Visit our website: https://www.audacy.com/espn1320
Subscribe on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/espn1320
Follow us on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/espn1320
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/espn1320
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/espn1320