The PG Thread

#61
The front office shouldn't be concerned with next year's draft position right now. As for player development, throwing the kids to the Wolves isn't always the best course of action. It can often lead to bad habits and lack of confidence.
I agree. You don't angle for a few spots better in the draft and risk damaging morale and development of chemistry. The latter should the the #1 priority. We won't be getting a top 5 pick anyway. And with Valde's drafting ability, won't really matter too terribly much if we pick 10 vs 15.

Focus on bringing these guys along the right way, that will pay the biggest dividends.
 
#62
The PG has landed bruhs. Angling for the 2018 pick is short sighted, thats not the type of momentum necessary here. Having all the young pieces in place already gain confidence from winning at this stage is more important, especially for like lets say Papagiannis, his emergence will be worth a pretty penny if it materializes in his 2nd season...

I'm not saying the Kings can be a true threat out west but they can show immense improvement, and given all the young talent it'll be huge progress. If the right free agents are brought inthis team can be in striking distance of playing .500 ball, that might sound ludicrous to some but I'm a believer (and an optimist), when I first got to this forum someone said the Kings haven't had a winning season in 10 years, so even if they can approach .500 that'd be a big deal, especially because the average age is gonna be like 24.

As far as next years draft, I really know the players involved very well and can say with great confidence there will be extremely talented bigs on the board in the late lotto and beyond, for sure, it's a much stronger crop of bigs than this year... There should be some extremely tlented SF's on the board as well (one of which is Fox's good friend Jarred Vanderbilt). PG is really the position thats going to have a huge drop-off from the top-2 and Fox is better overall than both of those top-2 (Sexton and Duval), neither are floor-generals, Sexton's a scoring guard and Duval a freak athlete with a nice handle, but overall quite raw and mistake prone...

Look no further than DX's 2018 for proof of what I'm saying about the bigs. The finest example I can cite is Mitchell Robinson isn't even projected in the top-10. He's outrageously athletic/quick twitchy. He wouldn't be some consolation prize, he's got WCS type of athleticism and immense upside.

In this draft there will be a bigtime dropoff in starpower outside of the top-4; Bamba, Porter Jr, Doncic and Ayton are the real studs. In the event the injury bug hits Sacramento, they can pull the plug and angle for those 4, I wouldn't concede that right now, before they spend all this $$$ in free agency. If the plan is to really totank out and angle for a top pick they shouldn't even attempt to get to the salary floor, spread the wealth among the rookies and build up that goodwill.

/end rant. /just my 2 cents.
 
#63
The PG has landed bruhs. Angling for the 2018 pick is short sighted, thats not the type of momentum necessary here. Having all the young pieces in place already gain confidence from winning at this stage is more important, especially for like lets say Papagiannis, his emergence will be worth a pretty penny if it materializes in his 2nd season...

I'm not saying the Kings can be a true threat out west but they can show immense improvement, and given all the young talent it'll be huge progress. If the right free agents are brought inthis team can be in striking distance of playing .500 ball, that might sound ludicrous to some but I'm a believer (and an optimist), when I first got to this forum someone said the Kings haven't had a winning season in 10 years, so even if they can approach .500 that'd be a big deal, especially because the average age is gonna be like 24.

As far as next years draft, I really know the players involved very well and can say with great confidence there will be extremely talented bigs on the board in the late lotto and beyond, for sure, it's a much stronger crop of bigs than this year... There should be some extremely tlented SF's on the board as well (one of which is Fox's good friend Jarred Vanderbilt). PG is really the position thats going to have a huge drop-off from the top-2 and Fox is better overall than both of those top-2 (Sexton and Duval), neither are floor-generals, Sexton's a scoring guard and Duval a freak athlete with a nice handle, but overall quite raw and mistake prone...

Look no further than DX's 2018 for proof of what I'm saying about the bigs. The finest example I can cite is Mitchell Robinson isn't even projected in the top-10. He's outrageously athletic/quick twitchy. He wouldn't be some consolation prize, he's got WCS type of athleticism and immense upside.

In this draft there will be a bigtime dropoff in starpower outside of the top-4; Bamba, Porter Jr, Doncic and Ayton are the real studs. In the event the injury bug hits Sacramento, they can pull the plug and angle for those 4, I wouldn't concede that right now, before they spend all this $$$ in free agency. If the plan is to really totank out and angle for a top pick they shouldn't even attempt to get to the salary floor, spread the wealth among the rookies and build up that goodwill.

/end rant. /just my 2 cents.
Yes to all of this. No need to tank. If we can sign someone good this year that's what we'll do. I'm not as hopeful as you for us playing close to .500 ball next year but I fully expect just that the year after next. This year will be a growing year based on that fact we'll have as many as eight players on the roster with one year or less NBA experience. No reason to force it though... Win as many as we can and build some confidence and cohesion to take with us into the next year when we might actually make a push.
 
#64
Yes to all of this. No need to tank. If we can sign someone good this year that's what we'll do. I'm not as hopeful as you for us playing close to .500 ball next year but I fully expect just that the year after next. This year will be a growing year based on that fact we'll have as many as eight players on the roster with one year or less NBA experience. No reason to force it though... Win as many as we can and build some confidence and cohesion to take with us into the next year when we might actually make a push.

Add Teague, Joe Ingles, Otto Porter Jr and Patrick Patterson and I think they can play .500 ball..
 
#66
I agree. You don't angle for a few spots better in the draft and risk damaging morale and development of chemistry. The latter should the the #1 priority. We won't be getting a top 5 pick anyway. And with Valde's drafting ability, won't really matter too terribly much if we pick 10 vs 15.

Focus on bringing these guys along the right way, that will pay the biggest dividends.
Look I love the draft a lot myself and in time we might have hit a couple of home runs but I think the hype train is getting out of control. Kings will win 20-25 games next year. They will be in line for a top 3 pick most likely.

The difference between next season and seasons in the past is that direction is now clear. Kings will most likely be the youngest team in the league next season and that means not a lot of wins which is fine. Young players generally start playing at a good consistent basketball in their 3rd season. A lot of youth, a lot of mistakes, a lot of losses but losses with youth are fine. Loses with veterans suck.

Kings will lose a lot of games next season and they might rival that 17 win team even but this team is young, very young which is precisely where you want to be as a franchise that has just hit the reset button.
 
#67
Look I love the draft a lot myself and in time we might have hit a couple of home runs but I think the hype train is getting out of control. Kings will win 20-25 games next year. They will be in line for a top 3 pick most likely.
I expect this (I'll say top 5 pick just because we could get displaced by ping pong balls). But that is no reason not to be excited unless we sign a bunch of bad contracts - something I don't think we'll do - or make some bad trades - also I'm thinking our relatively safe draft-day move suggests we won't be doing.
 
#68
I really like both PGs and especially their similarities. They are both attacking, penetrating types who love to push the ball and put pressure on defenses. This fits really well with the long athletic bigs and shooters that are already here. Both guys show good maturity as well which you always love from your PGs. Still, they're rookies so expect it will take time for them to figure out the system here and get accustomed to their teammates.
 
#69
Kings will win 20-25 games next year. They will be in line for a top 3 pick most likely.
Huh? I agree about the hype train. But 20 wins? That's another kind of hype!
I'm not ready for a thread that asks "how many wins are we going to have next year?" (Please, not yet! We don't know the roster yet!)
But look at what very well could be our starting lineup, at least for the first half of the season, until Fox is ready to start:
Lawson or Collison (or some other FA veteran/PG mentor)
Hield
Temple
Labissiere
Cauley-Stein

Now I realize we wanna give a lot of minutes to 1st and 2nd year players, and that's going to cost us some games. But there's no way we're a 20-win team with that starting lineup, plus Koufos and (probably) Bogdanovic. Obviously any team can be decimated by injuries. But that's the only scenario in which we're heading for a 20-win season.
 

Warhawk

The cake is a lie.
Staff member
#70
Huh? I agree about the hype train. But 20 wins? That's another kind of hype!
I'm not ready for a thread that asks "how many wins are we going to have next year?" (Please, not yet! We don't know the roster yet!)
But look at what very well could be our starting lineup, at least for the first half of the season, until Fox is ready to start:
Lawson or Collison (or some other FA veteran/PG mentor)
Hield
Temple
Labissiere
Cauley-Stein

Now I realize we wanna give a lot of minutes to 1st and 2nd year players, and that's going to cost us some games. But there's no way we're a 20-win team with that starting lineup, plus Koufos and (probably) Bogdanovic. Obviously any team can be decimated by injuries. But that's the only scenario in which we're heading for a 20-win season.
Agreed on the bolded. But disagree on most of the rest (he said 20-25 wins, not "20"). We have SO much youth right now, unless we do hit a couple home runs in FA or trades we are very much likely not to break 30 wins. We can throw youth and speed at whoever we play but rookies often hit a wall, youth rarely plays up to its potential, and we don't have enough vets to help run things (at this point). There's a reason young teams struggle and we are 2/3 of a team of players that should still be in college if this wonderful association didn't throw million$ at 19-year-olds to quit studying and play a game full time. :D
 
#71
Agreed on the bolded. But disagree on most of the rest (he said 20-25 wins, not "20"). We have SO much youth right now, unless we do hit a couple home runs in FA or trades we are very much likely not to break 30 wins. We can throw youth and speed at whoever we play but rookies often hit a wall, youth rarely plays up to its potential, and we don't have enough vets to help run things (at this point). There's a reason young teams struggle and we are 2/3 of a team of players that should still be in college if this wonderful association didn't throw million$ at 19-year-olds to quit studying and play a game full time. :D
He also said this team could match the Kings team that only won 17 games. So "20" wasn't exactly an outlier.
 

Kingster

Hall of Famer
#72
Well Kings shouldnt compromise their draft position next year or the developement (with playing time) of the young players. Signing a vet for 1-2 years is literally very short sighted and stupid
So in your view signing a vet for mentoring and "coaching" purposes is stupid?
 

Warhawk

The cake is a lie.
Staff member
#74
He also said this team could match the Kings team that only won 17 games. So "20" wasn't exactly an outlier.
True, and he may be right. At this point we have no indication one way or the other. Heck, the only FA we may be able to sign are the ghosts of John Salmons and Ralph Sampson. At this point we have no idea. But we don't have the talent and experience to win much this year I think. Not yet. If we start signing some talented vets, then we can start looking at how this team may do this year.
 
#75
Huh? I agree about the hype train. But 20 wins? That's another kind of hype!
I'm not ready for a thread that asks "how many wins are we going to have next year?" (Please, not yet! We don't know the roster yet!)
But look at what very well could be our starting lineup, at least for the first half of the season, until Fox is ready to start:
Lawson or Collison (or some other FA veteran/PG mentor)
Hield
Temple
Labissiere
Cauley-Stein

Now I realize we wanna give a lot of minutes to 1st and 2nd year players, and that's going to cost us some games. But there's no way we're a 20-win team with that starting lineup, plus Koufos and (probably) Bogdanovic. Obviously any team can be decimated by injuries. But that's the only scenario in which we're heading for a 20-win season.
The second team would be:

Fox
Bogdan
Jackson
Giles
Koufos

That team could challenge your starters in a game!
 
#76
You freaks keeps stammering on predicting a sub 30 win total for this year and we still have about 40 million in contracts to give out before we even hit the league minimum.

I'm not predicting anything except a great effort every night. I'll wait till we sign a 3-4 more vets and possibly a big name free agent, and THEN I'll predict my usual 50 wins. ;)
 
#77
You freaks keeps stammering on predicting a sub 30 win total for this year and we still have about 40 million in contracts to give out before we even hit the league minimum.

I'm not predicting anything except a great effort every night. I'll wait till we sign a 3-4 more vets and possibly a big name free agent, and THEN I'll predict my usual 50 wins. ;)
Lol I'm with you... 50 might be conservative this year!
 
#79
I'm as exicited as anyone about this draft, but lets be honest here... The Kings don't have a single player that you could rank in the top 20 at any position this year. The Kings will have probably a bottom 5 starter at every spot.
Luckily, the team is young and likeable, so its not so bad. But this is a team that as is will have to fight it's way to 20 wins.
 
#80
I'm as exicited as anyone about this draft, but lets be honest here... The Kings don't have a single player that you could rank in the top 20 at any position this year. The Kings will have probably a bottom 5 starter at every spot.
Luckily, the team is young and likeable, so its not so bad. But this is a team that as is will have to fight it's way to 20 wins.
Bold prediction:

Skal will finish the season as a consensus top 20 PF.

Hield too.
 
#83
I'm as exicited as anyone about this draft, but lets be honest here... The Kings don't have a single player that you could rank in the top 20 at any position this year. The Kings will have probably a bottom 5 starter at every spot.
Luckily, the team is young and likeable, so its not so bad. But this is a team that as is will have to fight it's way to 20 wins.
Without going into detail I have Labissiere in the top 20 of his position. Sorry for nitpicking.
 
#86
Actually Thomas came 2-3 years after Evans
Yeah, I effed that up pretty badly. I was actually thinking of the Jimmer/IT draft in 2011. I remember when they came to the airport and Jimmer-mania was in full effect. IT was an after thought, but obviously ended up as the far superior player.

We don't want history to repeat itself with this draft.
 
#87
For those who are into signing Collison or Teague... im curious, but how would you split minutes in that case? Collison and Teague (especially Jeff) are both starting PGs with at least 25,30 minutes per game. So....basically, 25/30 minutes for one of them, 15 for Fox and 5 for Mason? I would be dissapointed with that scenario. Fox is one of the best players in very strong draft class, he is 20 years old (there are younger rookies) and probably the most talented player in the team. Kings won't have Play-off pressure, their goal is to develop young players so why spending big money from cap for players who would probably prolong and slow down Fox's development. I know we still didn't see him at NBA court, but im sure that only things he needs are, chance and good system.
 
#88
I'm as exicited as anyone about this draft, but lets be honest here... The Kings don't have a single player that you could rank in the top 20 at any position this year. The Kings will have probably a bottom 5 starter at every spot.
Luckily, the team is young and likeable, so its not so bad. But this is a team that as is will have to fight it's way to 20 wins.
I'd like to know the formula that helps people predict our number of wins - when we don't even know the roster yet. Is that something I can find on yahoo?
 
#89
I think a Veteran PG is needed. I offer Milos a fat two year deal with the 2nd year being a team option. He can prove himself in the NBA then become a Free Agent in 1/2 years and rake in the dough. If Milos signs with the Spurs or Jazz I go after Lawson or Collison. This gives the Rookies a chance to watch a little and then play but not shoulder all the pressure.
 
#90
I'd like to know the formula that helps people predict our number of wins - when we don't even know the roster yet. Is that something I can find on yahoo?
People are just going off the assumption that were Sacramento so we won't be signing anyone better than fringe starter/solid backup at best. I think its been about 17 years since we signed a free agent that was even a middle of the road starter.