Kings beat Mavericks!

Jason Jones‏Verified account@mr_jasonjones 2m2 minutes ago

FINAL: Kings 98, Mavs 87 McLemore 22 pts, Hield 16 pts, WCS 12 pts 16 rebs, Papagiannis 13 pts

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I know the tank battalion is out on the ledge, but ... I LOVE THIS TEAM!

The entire arena gave them a standing ovation at the end of the game. These kids are gonna be something special.

#GoKings

With this win we are now actually ahead of NOLA. So even though our own pick suffered, we put NOLA a little further back in the standings. Plus, nice to see the kids coming together.

Edit: I am wrong about the standings. Nice to see the rooks win, regardless.

A loss tonight would have done double duty and moved up both of our picks from 7 and 10 to 6 and 9. If ever there were 1 game to make sure we lose, this was the game. But it was in our arena and Dallas just wanted it more. What can you do? Not sure there's any great accomplishment in beating a team that is doing everything in their power to let you beat them, but somebody had to win. I just hate that we're in this position year after year. Counting off the games at the end of the year that we really ought to lose is the worst part about being a fan for me. I wish I didn't care but my damned logical brain won't let me ignore it. Almost over now...

What standing are you looking at?

Doug made a good point in the post-game. He and Koz pointed out what some of us have started saying, that the Kings might be ahead of the plan considering the improvement we're seeing in our rooks. Doug said with the addition of the draft picks, summer league should be a lot of fun and next season could be interesting.

#GoKings

Lakers, Houston, Phoenix, Clips.

Bet we win all of them. This is gonna get interesting! HAHA!

And it's not like the Kings weren't also trying to minimize their ability to win the game. I mean, coach rested every vet not named Temple (who we needed to play PG minutes), Reke (who, let's be fair, can contribute greatly to a team's tanking efforts at times), or Ben McLemore (still just 24 years old).

Yeah, what makes it worse is that the Knicks actually won and the Kings would be tied with them.

The Ben McLemore draft pick just continues to bury the team in every way possible. Good kid, but only plays well when the other team really isn't trying to defend him.

I wasn't that impressed with the first half, but the second half of this game was just pure fun. And it's honestly been a very long time since I've said that. The kids played their hearts out. The coach and the veterans were all mentoring to some extent...this is kinda why I fell in love with the game in the first place. I didn't have to hold my breath even once worrying about dramatic sub-context... It's a good night to be a Kings fan.

The tank was strong with us tonight. Very strong. Ben didn't get the memo, but I think he's more than earned a couple "eff you" games on his way out the door. Any player who's been on this team for the last 4 years has put up with a lot. I'm glad the fans in the arena cheered these guys at the end. We all know what's up. Losses help us more than wins right now but it's still just a damn game. We can still have fun with it. I'm going to try to make it out for the Clippers game at Staples next week and I'll give my own one man standing ovation for the kids, win or lose.

Carmichael Dave‏Verified account@CarmichaelDave 2m2 minutes ago


Massive props to the coaches and players on the floor. Nothing but pride to play for and they're showing a ton of heart.

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This warms my heart. Dave is totally pro-tank and yet he finally addresses the one point I've been trying to make. The guys out there in the jerseys deserve our support and credit for the job they're doing.

I've moved the posts about our picks and the tank to the Art of the Tank thread.

Kings beat the "Mavericks" only in the sense that the guys in blue on the court are on the Mavericks roster

Woops! I must have misread nba.com. I am incorrect!

Wasn't he singing a different tune last week?

Heard on his show he got a lot of backlash for his pro tank tweets. Maybe he is pleasing his fans. But he also was adamant that players were paid to win and he in no way was mad at players or coaches. Probably making sure it was known by giving them props.

KingsHoldTheKeys.

Oh well. We needed this loss and it would have gone a long way to securing the #7 spot for us, but it's hard to be too mad when the kids got most of the minutes. As much as we need and want high lotto picks, these guys are just as much a part of the future as them. Great to see them have success playing together and be the reason for the win.

Eh... We beat a bunch of no-names who won't be in the league next season and ****'d our draft position. Yay.

I'm not hard core into tanking. The T-Wolves win was kinda fun.

But taking it to a bunch of apex scrubs on the back of a dominant B-mac performance is just straight irksome and Kangz.

I posted this on 3/13 and Grant said it tonight, didn't have to wait long

> I'm waiting for the game when Grant says, "Papagiannas, you can't stop him, you can only hope to contain him"

But it wasn't just Ben though. Our three young bigs had really really nice games and Buddy gave us his usual 15 points. You can try tanking but when the "sucky" guys you put out there to lose end up playing well, there's only so much you can do.

How about building a roster with a goal in mind? You want playoffs? You build a roster for it. You want to tank? You build a roster for it. You do this before the season in a controlled and thoughtful manner and not with blind actionism right at the deadline, by trading your star player but refusing to trade any of the left over vets even those with expiring contracts.
This is one of the most difficult to swallow seasons for me as a Kings fan and I'm used to drama and disappointment. But the likely fact, that we come out of this mess only with two picks around #7-10 and once again have to go BPA with almost no chance for any of the consensus potential star players in the draft, is just frustrating beyond believe.
Once again it's most likely the C or D solution for the Kings in the draft.

No, I completely agree.

I just find the argument that the Kings should be tanking harder stupid when they're already sitting all of their vets and being forced to feature Ben McLemore at the SF slot because Vlade traded all of the ones that were on the roster. Aside from the entire coaching staff taking the next couple of weeks off, there is pretty much nothing more the Kings can do to "tank harder".

Now you're onto something!

Coach Joeger- OUT (REST)!!!

He can get the first:

DNC (Did Not Coach) - GM decision

in NBA history!!!

Well they could have rested their vets vs Memphis.
But whatever. Ultimately I don't blame the players nor the coaching staff for trying to compete.

So tell me again how we would be better off we kept Cousins till end of the season and then decided we wanted to rebuild?

You want a successful rebuild? Get young guys who play well. That's what our young guys are doing, and you're complaining that we somehow don't have younger guys who suck more so that we can get better draft position. Again, vets who played in this game: Temple and Evans, who combined for a grand total of ... 9 points. You want to protest the Wolves/ Grizz games then by all means, but this one?! Also, the vets that we have kept are doing a great job at mentoring the young guys. On a team like ours that might be even more valuable than losing a few extra games.

Honestly I think you are missing the point of my post.
What bothers me is the lack of foresight and the lack of a cohesive long term strategy (and the negotiating of trades, but that's a moot point now). And that even when we make a strategy change mid season, we don't go all in on our new strategy.
We went into the season without really commiting to one strategy. We didn't trade Cousins to catalyze a full scale rebuild, despite the fact, that there were some really good arguments for starting over, like you and a few other posters pointed out at that time. We didn't get Cousins enough help and didn't fix the obvious weaknesses of our roster to really make a serious playoff push.
It was a little bit of both. That's why we are once again looking at a draft without the hope for top picks and are now no longer able to hope for a good complimetary player for DMC to bring us to the Playoffs next year.

Of course we have to keep the 76ers trade in mind. But the GM, who negotiated that trade, is still in charge, so I don't feel like giving him a pass for the strategy of the current season just because he pretty much handcuffed himself earlier.
To turn it around, we finally need to go all in on something and be patient and smart. We can't keep changing our approach twice every season and expect good results.

Leave it to the Kings to win games down the stretch only to end up with a 9th pick and missing out on most of the BPA. That said, the Kings only played 8 players in total and most of them were young players so not much you can really do. The Mavs waived the white towel when they sat Dirk, Wesley & Seth. Two more wins coming in our future.