Kings beat Clippers!

#61
To me it's a pride thing with having to swap with the Sixers as well. That would influence more derision for our FO and that trade (which may not be negative). It would hurt to see us with the 4th worst record and swapping with the Sixers 8/9. It would mean the Sixers got over on us
A deal's a deal and no. 8 or 9 is not bad. PHI wouldn't "get ome over on us", a deal's a deal. No embarrassment, take our pick and get the best we can.
 
#62
Kings cannot afford wins likes these - hurts the draft choice every on any of them. Of course the Pelicans could stand to lose several but not too many.
Yeah I would've preferred a loss, but if we are going to win I am happy it's because of WCS aggression on the boards and Buddy Hield stepping up in the clutch. You don't want to have a team that gets blown out all of the time. It's horrible for moral.
 
#63
To me it's a pride thing with having to swap with the Sixers as well. That would influence more derision for our FO and that trade (which may not be negative). It would hurt to see us with the 4th worst record and swapping with the Sixers 8/9. It would mean the Sixers got over on us
I'm with you there. I just hate the idea that we would ever have to give the Sixers our pick. If we never convey it, it makes that trade more bearable, long-term.
 

Warhawk

The cake is a lie.
Staff member
#64
A few years ago (2013) we actually lost too many games and it was the team immediately above us in the standings (Washington) that jumped up into the top 3. And we were only separated by a game. Yes, I know that we should maximize all our chances for a good pick, but with a pick swap possibly coming I am not going to get super excited one way or another at this point. We could pop into the top 3 no matter where we land and swap with Philly, and what good did the "yay, losses!" help us? You play to win every game and the results will be what they are after the lottery balls and pick swap (potentially) takes place. Every year good players fall in the draft. We just need to draft well no matter where we end up - that is the biggest concern.

We have no control over where our Pelicans pick will end up and we have no control over lottery balls and the possible pick swap. So just relax, root for the kids to develop and be happy if the GD Clippers choke a game away at our expense.
 

hrdboild

Hall of Famer
#66
A few years ago (2013) we actually lost too many games and it was the team immediately above us in the standings (Washington) that jumped up into the top 3. And we were only separated by a game. Yes, I know that we should maximize all our chances for a good pick, but with a pick swap possibly coming I am not going to get super excited one way or another at this point. We could pop into the top 3 no matter where we land and swap with Philly, and what good did the "yay, losses!" help us? You play to win every game and the results will be what they are after the lottery balls and pick swap (potentially) takes place. Every year good players fall in the draft. We just need to draft well no matter where we end up - that is the biggest concern.

We have no control over where our Pelicans pick will end up and we have no control over lottery balls and the possible pick swap. So just relax, root for the kids to develop and be happy if the GD Clippers choke a game away at our expense.
Any other year I would agree with you -- seeding most often comes down to luck of the draw -- but Philly owning our swap rights means a top 3 pick this year is all but impossible. Put it this way, the only way we win a top 3 pick right now and keep it is if Philly pulls a ping pong ball from the 5 seed and we pull one from a 7 seed. They could re-do this lottery 100 times without that happening. Sure right now it seems like it doesn't matter much if we win a game or two but when we end up at 7 or 8 again and the 4 best PGs in the draft are already off the board those one or two spots are going to feel hugely significant. A come from behind win against the Clippers is always worth celebrating, I wouldn't fault anyone else for ignoring the draft odds and enjoying the moment, I just don't like seeing our future evaporate with 10 games to go. To think that we might not get any of the elite PGs or SFs in this historically great draft after everything that happened this season is depressing. Skal and Buddy could be really good but I remember a lot of "promising" March/April finishes over the last 10 years and only one of them was followed up by a November/December that wasn't completely soul crushing. I'll take young talent over too-late-to-matter wins every time.
 
#67
What happened to the Clips?? All that talent and people just count them out anyways
One reaction - maybe their core has been together to too long. Great players but maybe they have been looking at each other too long. Break 'em up, but I don't want any of their top 3.
 
#68
Any other year I would agree with you -- seeding most often comes down to luck of the draw -- but Philly owning our swap rights means a top 3 pick this year is all but impossible. Put it this way, the only way we win a top 3 pick right now and keep it is if Philly pulls a ping pong ball from the 5 seed and we pull one from a 7 seed. They could re-do this lottery 100 times without that happening. Sure right now it seems like it doesn't matter much if we win a game or two but when we end up at 7 or 8 again and the 4 best PGs in the draft are already off the board those one or two spots are going to feel hugely significant. A come from behind win against the Clippers is always worth celebrating, I wouldn't fault anyone else for ignoring the draft odds and enjoying the moment, I just don't like seeing our future evaporate with 10 games to go. To think that we might not get any of the elite PGs or SFs in this historically great draft after everything that happened this season is depressing. Skal and Buddy could be really good but I remember a lot of "promising" March/April finishes over the last 10 years and only one of them was followed up by a November/December that wasn't completely soul crushing. I'll take young talent over too-late-to-matter wins every time.
Understand but history works against you in this - have draft picks helped ? Maybe one in four. Have lottery balls gone our way ? Zilch. Have we any good players now? Maybe and maybe lots. Have we got the three worst PGs in the league? I don't think so. We have Vlade and Joerger and their good staffs. We're in good hands and it will work any way you carve it, though we may fail to win three championships in a row.
 
#69
The Sixers certainly could land 3 or 4 because of the lottery and the Kings winning these filler-games would lift them 2 or 3 positions COMPARED TO OTHER TEAMS which could be a big difference in player-choice. It means something to have the choice.
Having a 5 or 6 position and 11 is much better than 8 and 11. Even one position could mean the difference in personnel choice. Its important for the Kings to tank in case the Sixers do well in the lottery. Losses matter and percentages points matter.
 

hrdboild

Hall of Famer
#70
Understand but history works against you in this - have draft picks helped ? Maybe one in four. Have lottery balls gone our way ? Zilch. Have we any good players now? Maybe and maybe lots. Have we got the three worst PGs in the league? I don't think so. We have Vlade and Joerger and their good staffs. We're in good hands and it will work any way you carve it, though we may fail to win three championships in a row.
Not acceptable! :D
 
#71
I agree with you kingdivac. It's nice to see the kids win, but when you think that every win can hurt the team in the long run, I just can't really enjoy it. Every single win can make a huge difference, and unfortunately we put ourselves in the position where we need to lose as much as possible.
Exactly, there's value in losing now.
 
#72
A few years ago (2013) we actually lost too many games and it was the team immediately above us in the standings (Washington) that jumped up into the top 3. And we were only separated by a game. Yes, I know that we should maximize all our chances for a good pick, but with a pick swap possibly coming I am not going to get super excited one way or another at this point. We could pop into the top 3 no matter where we land and swap with Philly, and what good did the "yay, losses!" help us? You play to win every game and the results will be what they are after the lottery balls and pick swap (potentially) takes place. Every year good players fall in the draft. We just need to draft well no matter where we end up - that is the biggest concern.

We have no control over where our Pelicans pick will end up and we have no control over lottery balls and the possible pick swap. So just relax, root for the kids to develop and be happy if the GD Clippers choke a game away at our expense.
I agree on the Pelicans, all one can do is hope for losing. Out of the Kings hands.

But on the Kings own pick, let the chips fly where they may, and if the Kings win 8 meaningless games and give up the pick to the Bulls, so be it? - I don't like that outcome and you probably don't either, or maybe you do, I dont know. I dont think it'll happen, but I think it would be bitter juice and would certainly blame the coaching and management for such a debacle... I'd rather say "the Kings got screwed in the lottery" than "the Kings screwed themselves in the lottery". And that's what winning would do, screw themselves.
 
#73
I agree on the Pelicans, all one can do is hope for losing. Out of the Kings hands.

But on the Kings own pick, let the chips fly where they may, and if the Kings win 8 meaningless games and give up the pick to the Bulls, so be it? - I don't like that outcome and you probably don't either, or maybe you do, I dont know. I dont think it'll happen, but I think it would be bitter juice and would certainly blame the coaching and management for such a debacle... I'd rather say "the Kings got screwed in the lottery" than "the Kings screwed themselves in the lottery". And that's what winning would do, screw themselves.
What, exactly, would you like to see the team do?

Rest the vets? They're already doing that... I guess you could say rest more of them but they're already down to playing 10 guys.

Play the kids more? They're already doing that, too... yesterday's winning run came largely with a Papagiannis/WCS/McLemore/Hield/Galloway lineup (Tolliver subbed in for Papa with about a 1:10 left). Should they play Skal in there, too, out of position? Doesn't seem conducive to development... If you would have asked me which lineup seemed least likely to cause a comeback, I'd have guessed one that looks largely like this. Should Coach have pulled them to punish them for their success? That doesn't seem like a good way to build up the youngings long-term either.

So, I get being disappointed about the pick considerations. But, practically, it seems like they're doing everything short of missing baskets on purpose to position themselves for high pick.
 

Warhawk

The cake is a lie.
Staff member
#78
Any other year I would agree with you -- seeding most often comes down to luck of the draw -- but Philly owning our swap rights means a top 3 pick this year is all but impossible. Put it this way, the only way we win a top 3 pick right now and keep it is if Philly pulls a ping pong ball from the 5 seed and we pull one from a 7 seed. They could re-do this lottery 100 times without that happening. Sure right now it seems like it doesn't matter much if we win a game or two but when we end up at 7 or 8 again and the 4 best PGs in the draft are already off the board those one or two spots are going to feel hugely significant. A come from behind win against the Clippers is always worth celebrating, I wouldn't fault anyone else for ignoring the draft odds and enjoying the moment, I just don't like seeing our future evaporate with 10 games to go. To think that we might not get any of the elite PGs or SFs in this historically great draft after everything that happened this season is depressing. Skal and Buddy could be really good but I remember a lot of "promising" March/April finishes over the last 10 years and only one of them was followed up by a November/December that wasn't completely soul crushing. I'll take young talent over too-late-to-matter wins every time.
I get all of this, but we lose more than the 76ers we likely lose the pick with the swap. Highly unlikely one or both of us jump into the top 3. Odds are not in our favor no matter how many games we lose.

As for the bolded part - our future evaporated over the past decade with crappy pick after crappy pick and then trading our couple of stars for peanuts. Even if we all get lucky and the 76ers get #1 and we get #2, our can't miss, generational talent pick could be a Greg Oden. You do the best you can, but I'm more depressed about our decade plus of futility than the possibility we might get a very good instead of great PG in this year's draft. We've had horrible luck with lottery balls and generally horrible talent evaluation (until last year). And our GM was roundly criticized for the moves he did make last year that appear to be paying off now. I'll trust him to make the best decisions with what he has to work with. And yes, I do hope we get #2. But the players we have now need a taste of success once in a while too. I'm not going to be mad if they get it.
 

Warhawk

The cake is a lie.
Staff member
#79
What, exactly, would you like to see the team do?

Rest the vets? They're already doing that... I guess you could say rest more of them but they're already down to playing 10 guys.

Play the kids more? They're already doing that, too... yesterday's winning run came largely with a Papagiannis/WCS/McLemore/Hield/Galloway lineup (Tolliver subbed in for Papa with about a 1:10 left). Should they play Skal in there, too, out of position? Doesn't seem conducive to development... If you would have asked me which lineup seemed least likely to cause a comeback, I'd have guessed one that looks largely like this. Should Coach have pulled them to punish them for their success? That doesn't seem like a good way to build up the youngings long-term either.

So, I get being disappointed about the pick considerations. But, practically, it seems like they're doing everything short of missing baskets on purpose to position themselves for high pick.
Exactly. The kids are getting big minutes. Let them revel in a spoiler role if they pull off some wins without someone telling them they should be tanking.
 

Warhawk

The cake is a lie.
Staff member
#80
Frankly, if the Kings win tonight (currently up at the end of the 3rd), that will be two wins against western playoff teams led largely by our very young players. I would think that is also something we need to know before the season ends - can this young group compete against legitimate playoff contenders as they get used to playing together. That is just as important to me as one or two spots in the draft. What do we truly have? How do the pieces fit? What are we missing/what holes do we need to plug? We don't know that if they don't get time to play together. And if they win by playing together, well, that tells us something important too.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#81
Frankly, if the Kings win tonight (currently up at the end of the 3rd), that will be two wins against western playoff teams led largely by our very young players. I would think that is also something we need to know before the season ends - can this young group compete against legitimate playoff contenders as they get used to playing together. That is just as important to me as one or two spots in the draft. What do we truly have? How do the pieces fit? What are we missing/what holes do we need to plug? We don't know that if they don't get time to play together. And if they win by playing together, well, that tells us something important too.
Amen.

It's a deep draft. We're gonna have a choice of good players. Building the confidence and camaraderie of the kids we have right now is gonna pay huge dividends.
 
#83
People need to chill a bit with the tanking here. Nothing actually changed in the standings last night as we still get the 7th pick and Philly gets the 6th pick, even with our win and their loss. Same with the Pelicans win as they're still in the 9 spot.

Reality is, we're at the mercy of the Sixers and Pelicans as several posters have already pointed out. What difference does it make if we finish 4th and the Sixers finish 8th? Obviously I want as high a pick as possible, but we don't control our destiny at this point.
Its a lottery. Position of pick is not predicated on record, only influenced by it....so its percentages. Just because the Kings are 7th, does not mean they will get the 7th pick.

What difference? The picks swap after the lottery. So if the Sixers do well in the Lottery, the wins punish the Kings post lottery, or much much worse, the Kings win most of their games and end up giving the pick (buh-bye) to the Bulls. That's a difference and a big difference on the negative side for some cheese-ball Kings wins.
 
#85
I can't decide what I'd find more objectionable: thinking that you're joking, or thinking that you're being serious?

Where are the "Respect for the Game" police, when these posts come around?!
I suppose if I was just an NBA fan purist I"d agree with you, but being a specific team fan first, call me crazy for denouncing wins that hurt the teams draft and advocating against once the team has failed out.
 
#86
I suppose if I was just an NBA fan purist I"d agree with you, but being a specific team fan first, call me crazy for denouncing wins that hurt the teams draft and advocating against once the team has failed out.
This should read "potentially" hurt the teams draft position. We don't know at this point since we don't know how Philadelphia plays the rest of the year or how the ping pong balls fall. The other thing we cannot measure is the effect of these wins on young players' confidence, skill development and team morale. These are things that you seem to be negating.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#87
I suppose if I was just an NBA fan purist I"d agree with you, but being a specific team fan first, call me crazy for denouncing wins that hurt the teams draft and advocating against once the team has failed out.
You're crazy. (You said to call you that.)

You've said you wouldn't be against teams purposefully missing baskets to lose games. That's way beyond being a team fan. Where do you draw the line? Shaving points to beat the spread? Intentiaonally injuring another team's star so they won't threaten your chances in the playoffs?

Sorry, but you're over the line.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
#88
I suppose if I was just an NBA fan purist I"d agree with you, but being a specific team fan first, call me crazy for denouncing wins that hurt the teams draft and advocating against once the team has failed out.
You're crazy. (You said to call you that.)

You've said you wouldn't be against teams purposefully missing baskets to lose games. That's way beyond being a team fan. Where do you draw the line? Shaving points to beat the spread? Intentiaonally injuring another team's star so they won't threaten your chances in the playoffs?
To say nothing of the fact that it's actual cheating, that would likely result in the Kings having to forfeit multiple draft picks. Not this hypothetical, if-the-Kings-don't-get-that-sweet-draft-position-another-team-gets-their-pick forfeiture, but actual, the-NBA-Commissioner-revokes-the-Kings-picks forfeiture, like what happened in the wake of the Joe Smith scandal. Like, that kind of forfeiture. If Joerger is telling the truth about shutting the veterans down for the remainder of the season, then there's nothing more that they can legally do; if the team still wins playing nothing but the kids, you just have to suck on it and like it, as the saying goes.

And, again, I ask... where are the #RespectForTheGame police, in all of this?
 
#89
I'm all for forfeiture. Its easy, but revenue lost, so won't happen.

Throwing matches in modern sports has been recorded from time to time and has happened. Usually find out long after the occurrence . If it happened, probably wouldn't know anyway.

Yes, how one throws a match matters - injuring an opponent is over-the-top, and I wouldn't advocate that. Missing those last couple shots or unfortunately turning the ball over, no problem - and I dont even need to know about it! Could care less about gambling lines other than score predictors for fun.
 
#90
To say nothing of the fact that it's actual cheating, that would likely result in the Kings having to forfeit multiple draft picks. Not this hypothetical, if-the-Kings-don't-get-that-sweet-draft-position-another-team-gets-their-pick forfeiture, but actual, the-NBA-Commissioner-revokes-the-Kings-picks forfeiture, like what happened in the wake of the Joe Smith scandal. Like, that kind of forfeiture. If Joerger is telling the truth about shutting the veterans down for the remainder of the season, then there's nothing more that they can legally do; if the team still wins playing nothing but the kids, you just have to suck on it and like it, as the saying goes.

And, again, I ask... where are the #RespectForTheGame police, in all of this?
Cheating who though? It's entertainment - or in this case not entertainment......you wouldn't know if they did it anyway unless they win.