How The Sacramento Kings Can Emulate The OKC Thunder

How The Sacramento Kings Can Emulate The OKC Thunder

Welcome back into the insiders. I am James Ham. Jesse Tapia joining me. Joe Brazil behind the glass. Uh we are the insiders brought to you by Jeffy Luben hanging out with you until noon today. Send it over to DLo and Casey and we’ll have the handoff a little while. Uh Jesse, I’m I’m watching this um this Thunder team, right? and mention a little bit, but like they have a big three and to me like first of all, Sam Prey is an absolute genius. Yeah, it worked out. He got it right. He did. Okay, so this is the the second or third time he’s built a team like this. And to me, it’s always interesting to watch because he’s able to build through the draft. Now, he’s able to build through the draft in a different way than anyone else that I’ve seen where he accumulates so many assets that when he does go and start drafting, he’s got like, you know, there’s he’s not throwing three darts at the dart board. He’s throwing all kinds of darts at the dart board and some one or two or five will hit, right? So, it’s a different way in which they collect assets. They do a lot of like they get well below the cap and then they’ll take on bad contracts and first round picks. They’ll take on, you know, bad contracts and take on a second round pick. They just start accumulating assets in such an interesting way. But it the thing that I wanted to point out is that like when he built the the Kevin Durant, uh, Russell Westbrook, James Harden like trio before that, you know, probably if they would have kept them together, probably would have competed for a championship. Oh yeah. Not probably. They definitely competed for championships. The matter if they would have won it or not, I guess, right? Yeah. Yeah. That would have been the big question. And they would have gone up gone up against, you know, the Golden State Warriors during their their heyday, right? Um but first he was able to build that one and now he’s come back and he reset and they made the playoffs but then reset again because that team wasn’t good enough with Russ and with uh with Paul George. Then they they’ve rebuilt this thing again. And to watch the way that not only has he got himself to a point where he has a big three but his big three is so distinct this time. the number one, it’s all two-way players. Um, you know, with Shay, Chad, and Jaylen Williams. Jaylen Williams made second team allNNBA defensive team, right? Yeah. Um, like the way that he’s like rebuilt it this way as opposed to having James Harden and Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant was a great defender, but you know, Russell Westbrook was an okay defender. Uh, he had a good steel guy, but not a great like man-on defender. Uh, and James Harden’s always been a horrific defender. It feels like he keeps learning and he keeps building this different thing. And I think the way that the Thunder this time are built is unique and in the way that even salary structure-wise, I think you’re you’re going to be able to sustain this because you have a legitimate number one, you have a legitimate number two, and you have a legitimate number three. And it’s almost like they understand the pecking order. And sure, Chad is going to get paid at some point, but I don’t think he’s going to get paid like a legitimate number one or number two, which is what they ran into the first time when it’s like, hey, we’ve got three legitimate number one guys here. Well, yeah, because you mentioned that like our Hartstein’s not even on a bad deal. And then Lou Dort I’m pretty sure is on a team friendly deal as well. Well, that and all the other guys, they’ve locked up like Yeah. Like everyone, like you said, just no one is overpaid or they’re not in a Celtic situation where two guys are the highest paid in the league. Derrick White’s making 30 or Drew Holiday’s making 35 and now you got to kind of get guys out of here so you can not get tied up in all your picks and all that. Like yeah, everyone’s paid what they need to be and like that’s why this this this kind of feels more sustainable just because like you said, I don’t think Chad’s going to get the supermax or anything like that. Jaylen Williams is not going to get a Shade Gil Alexander type of deal. Like it’s something they could probably keep around for a while. Yeah, I think so too. And and I think we looked at it. They’re at 172 million in dedicated salary for next season with 13 roster spots taken and they still have first round picks. Yep. And like just the way that they’ve been able to maintain like the luxury tax this season is at 172. The regular I think the salary cap is at uh I want to say it’s 155 or it’s going up to 155. Um, but either way, like the they’re going to be a good, I don’t know, 10 to 15 to to 18 million under the luxury tax again. So, they can continue to do this thing where they take on other bad contracts. Yeah. They can take on a $10 million contract without blinking an eye, use their mid-level exception, and take on another first round pick. Like, it it’s just it’s incredible the way that they’ve they’ve built a sustainable winner. And my question is like number one like can is there a way for the kings to do something like this? You want me to answer that now or? Well, go ahead. Yeah. No, I don’t know. No. Nope. I don’t think so. You don’t think so? No. It’s just the timelines don’t work. You don’t have a first round pick this year, so we probably have to skip another year. It’s just I need to be I really need to be talked into what the Kings are doing going forward. truly. Okay. Where I see it, the team really needs a rebuild. But like if we’re tying it into can they do what the Thunder did? No, I don’t think so. Honestly, I don’t I don’t see it. Like are we like if you’re sticking around with Domas and Zack Lavine because like I’m assuming that’s the case and all that. Like I just don’t see it I just don’t see it happening given the timelines and all that. Okay. So I think that there is a problem with timelines certainly and you know like two years from now the Kings look totally different. you know, whether they extend Zack Lavine or his contract just expires. Um, but you’ll have the same thing like by two years, Jonas Valenunis won’t be here. Uh, Demard Rosen won’t be here. Um, you’re even going into the final year of of a four-year deal for Malik Monk and he’s got a player option. Yeah. So, like there is a possibility that two years from now, this team looks completely different than it does today. I’d also say this this summer there’s a total possibility this this thing gets reset and not like I don’t think that the Kings are ever going to be in a position where they reset all the way back like the 201617 Kings right at the midpoint of the 2016 season is when they trade well it starts with Rudy Gobear I mean Rudy Rudy Gay uh popping his Achilles but then they they end up trading um Demar Marcus Cousins, they end up trading Omry Caspby. They wave to Matt Barnes. All these things happen at the trade deadline and they they just tank the whole last half of the season and it doesn’t like that draft ends up being one of the biggest disaster drafts ever. Um, but they did pick up Buddy Heield on that in that trade. Uh, and they did pick up a future first round pick which they used in 2017. um to me like they tried the whole rebuild thing and and the start young and tried to build that way and you know again between 2016 and 2017 they had six first round picks and and a couple early seconds and of that you got your goianis you got Malachi Richardson at number 22 you got Scallabisier at 28 you got Fox who you hit on but you swung and missed with Justin Jackson at 15 Harry Giles you swung and missed with a 20 and at you know like 32 you got Frank Mason which you so of all of those players one of them yeah you just named the Kings prom right there it’s not even the fact that they haven’t fully tanked or rebuilt or throw in whatever process you want to throw in it’s the fact that they don’t pick the right guy ever that you’ve had the 28th pick you’ve had the second pick you’ve had the fifth pick you’ve had them all 10th blah throw them out you’ve had them all you they just don’t pick the right guys that’s that’s why they are where they are not because of a rebuild or because of a tank. It’s cuz they just never picked the right yaks. And that like that I don’t think that’s why they can’t be like the Thunder, but you’ve kind of got to a point here where you’re stuck with a Sabonis and now you’re stuck with a Lavine and you’re just kind of makeshift the whole time now where you can’t do what the Thunder do are doing because you’re trying to build around Sabonis. So you’re still trying to get to the playoffs and all that. Like there’s no It’s just That’s why it can’t work. I feel Yeah. Trying to put yourself in this position now. It’s it’s interesting because you talk about they they take the wrong guys because we didn’t I didn’t even talk about 2018 draft. Yeah. And that’s where they pass on Luca Donic and and draft Marvin Bagley. Um like it it’s just been a like one mistake after another after another. And then when they do hit, you know, they they hit on Hallebertton with the 12th pick. They end up trading him. But then again after that, you know, the DaVon Mitchell pick, like this isn’t a knock on DaVon. was a the wrong pick for the Kings. Yeah, Davon’s a fine basketball player. He found his home looks like in Miami where he’s thriving in the right role. Like it’s not DaVon’s fault that the Kings picked him and there just a spot where it just didn’t make sense. No, totally. And and I’d say the same thing about Devin Carter. Like you drafted Devin Carter to a team that already had number one at star level point guard playing 35 36 minutes a night. He’s not going to play point guard. You had your backup in Malik Monk who was also your star, you know, sixman. you’ve you’ve already got a young guy in Keon Ellis, you know, you’ve got a a veteran in in Kevin M uh Kevin Herurder. Like you have all these pieces already in place. Like there was no pathway for Devin Carter to play this season even if he was healthy on day one. Like so so there’s always this question of like what exactly are you trying to build? And I’m glad that there’s a reset. Yeah. And we get to see what Scott Perry can do. Um, of course, he is uh one of the orchestrators of the 2017 draft, which just went, you know, again, the reason why it went sideways is because you had the 10th pick, you traded for the 15th and the 20th. If you were to stay the 10th pick, which is where Zack Collins goes, but Malik Monk’s next pick, number 13 is uh is Donovan Mitchell. Number 14, Spam Adabio. You had an opportunity to bookend Dear Fox and and have a backcourt maid in Donovan Mitchell or have his college teammate uh front court star center and bam, out of bio. You had that opportunity, right? Um but when you miss there, then you missed again on John Collins at 19. Then you missed again on OG Anobi who was the I think the 23rd pick in that draft. You missed on Kyle Kosma who’s the 27th pick in the draft. It’s like so many times you missed. But again, I’m I’m kind of intrigued to see because at this point, I don’t think the Kings are that far away from a complete blowup. Like if you you might be able to trade Zack Lavine in at at mid-season because he’ll have an expiring $49 million deal on the backside, you know, one year left on his deal. I think they will be able to move away from Demard Rosen this summer. And it it’s just what can you get for those players? Can you can you move your timeline back? Because that’s where I I think the biggest issue is is that not only did did they change the direction of their team when they traded Deer and Fox, but they also messed up their timeline. There’s a big Yeah, go ahead. It’s it’s it’s I feel they need to go backwards in order to go forwards first. I think they need to rebuild. I’m not saying you need a 10- win season and just tear it all down or anything like that, but you probably need to look at what you have there and see what you can get for it rather than building off of it. like Dom is Sabonis. I’ve been a big trade Domas guy. I don’t think he’s a bad player, but I just for what they have and how they’ve built around me just it doesn’t work. I feel and all that. I just I don’t buy into the whole we’ll trade for a player kind of build around this still and try to be better than a playin team and get into the playoffs and all. I don’t think what they have is sustainable beyond maybe one or two years if that’s the plan to try and win now still and all that. I do think you do need to look at trading guys and kind of like I said, taking a step back. doesn’t have to be, oh, we’re the process Sixers or anything like that, but I just you’re going to do this for two more years and then just restart again or like I just don’t see the long-term vision here with what what’s going on. I I maybe we talked into it as well, like maybe you bring in a John Moran or a Trey Young because if you do bring in someone better than Domos and Zack Leavine, maybe I can start to buy into that a little bit better. But again, that’s all just kind of pie in the sky, I feel like, at this point. No, I’m with you. I mean, I I I see the the fault in it, but I also I’m on the other side of the coin when it comes to Domas. Like, I I look at Dom as like a very simple player to build around. And the fact that they can’t build around him or that they didn’t build around him, I I just don’t think that that just wasn’t good front office play. I said it before the show when we were talking um about what we had going on today. It’s like you could have won playoff rounds with Dear Fox and Damonte Sabonis. Like I don’t know if you would have won rings or anything like that, but I could have seen you get into the Western Conference finals, second round, all that if you just built the team the right way. And now it’s at a point where last season that was just a big old mess that you just, oh, cheers, guys. It’s a big old jump mess. Throw it out there. See what happens. It didn’t work. And now you’re just kind of picking up the pieces. You lack wings. You lack a point guard. And it’s just it’s a lot. It’s a lot of just I guess unfinished puzzle pieces if you want to put it that way. Yeah, it does feel like um it feels like a puzzle without the corner pieces. You know, you you’ve got one or two of the corner pieces, but you don’t have the other two. And like if you build puzzles, the first thing you usually do is frame the thing out, right? So dog chewed up on one of the other puzzle pieces, so that looks that doesn’t work here. Yeah. It’s like someone kept stealing one of the puzzle pieces and you kept getting to a certain point, you couldn’t find that piece that you were missing and you’re like so frustrated by it. It’s just a big old mess. I I do think like you you brought up like the way Sabonis if Sabonis is your third best player. Let’s just say again if we’re trying to look at different builds if he is your version of Julius Randall and he’s your third best player which is what Julius probably should be and I agree with you there. I think you can build this thing like and and I don’t think again being the third best player I mean the third leading scorer. Yeah. like he can be the guy who’s averaging 1920 a game like he does every other year. Um, but I I do think you need two other topline scorers to go with him because he is a player that can be shut down and can have difficulty scoring in the post on occasion. Yeah. Yeah. Like like I don’t think he’s a bad player by any means. He’s an allNBA player and all that. It’s just for what you need in the playoffs. You just need a better scoreer than Domas. Yeah. I I I think you do. And so I I think the other thing that you need to do is you need to establish a system where a guy like Keegan Murray might be able to to try to reach some of the heights that a Jaylen Williams is reaching. And you talked about that earlier where it’s like you almost need to force feed the guy. Yeah. My big old plan for Keegan Murray is literally buddy, we have no one else here to take the shots. You better get 18 up or we are not winning any ball games this season. Yeah. Like if I’m like it’s kind of at this point it’s like I’m tired of come on Keegan. Come on Keegan. No, just go do it. Like just you have no choice but to kind of be productive here. Like Keegan Murray has all the potential in the world. It’s just they got to figure out a way for him to realize it. I don’t know if it’s going to happen truly because he’s not an aggressive player or anything like that. But like I said, I’m at the point it’s like, “All right, you have no choice here. Like we need you to get these shots up.” Yeah. I don’t even know if that’s a good plan or anything like that, but it’s just extremes I think at this point with them. I I hate that they wasted a year of his development by bringing in a player who like and this isn’t this isn’t you know the fault of Demar de Rozan. Demard de Rozan is exactly who you thought he was. Yeah. Demard D Rozan did what Demard Roen’s done for his Hall of Fame career. Yeah. But if you’re a good GM, you know that that’s what he does and that that doesn’t fit with what you’re trying to build. And I guess like desperate times call for desperate measures. And I think that that’s what that kind of was. You’d swung and missed on two other maybe three other options at that point. Yeah. Dog chewed up on one puzzle piece and Monty McNair said, “Hey, there’s a puzzle piece from this other one. Try to make this work.” No, Mont. It’s not this doesn’t work for this puzzle. No. Exactly. Yeah. You’re like the color scheme is wrong. Yeah. It’s just completely different. We don’t play this way. That’s right. Uh yeah. Like you can see the error in the ways. Like I think that the thing was going the right way and then when they lost a little bit of control of what was happening and they swung and missed then it it was like all right well we we’ve got to bring in somebody you know we can’t just run it back again because people are going to complain that we ran it back again. I I’ll make the argument again. I honestly believe that this team this season would have been better with Harrison Barnes on it than it would have been with Demar Rosen. I won’t even fight you on that because they what 46 or whatever 46 46 year before. Yeah. And and I know that’s a matter of fit and rhythm and playing just on the same page. Yeah. And we we both saw this clip. Who was that? Was that Jeff Teague? Jeff Teague’s podcast. Yeah. Yeah. Jeff Teague was going off about Jaylen Brunson uh dribbling the ball for 17 or 18 seconds of the shot clock and how it just kills the flow and the rhythm of everything and it’s really horrible as a teammate to sit there and not know. like you might get a shot, but chances are you’re not getting a shot and it just ruins the flow of everything. Yeah. And that’s what I feel like with Demar so often. And it’s probably because I’ve covered the Western Conference for so many years that I’m used to flow basketball more than what the Eastern Conference, you know, usually provides. Well, yeah. Go ahead, finish. No, go ahead. I say you bring in a guy like Demard Rosen. You have to realize too as a whoever in the front office we have to make other moves as well to make this all work. It’s not even more so like Demar De Rozan just killed everything. You just you didn’t do anything after that. So of course you can’t just hey Demar we play basketball this way so we’ll see. Like no you needed to make other moves to make it all work rather than just bring Demar like all right we’ll see. Yeah. Like you like maybe it could have worked with Dear if you made the moves necessary too. You mean trading three second round picks to acquire Jaylen uh McDaniel uh Jaylen McDaniel Daniels trading one of the McDaniels and then trade him that wasn’t the plan that you’re talking about. I don’t know what the hell last year was. James, I’ll tell you that much. It’s disappointing because they were so close and now they’re so far and I I think that that’s where everyone is like so shocked and like taken it back like it didn’t feel like this is where it had to go. Yeah. But that’s where we are. That’s where we are. Um, all right. Well, we’re gonna step aside. When we come back, um, we’re gonna add in the Indiana Pacers into this conversation because I think that they are another team that the Sacramento Kings could try to emulate a little bit. Um, but there’s just a long ways to go to get there. Um, we are the Insiders brought to you by Jiffy Lube. I’m James Ham. Just tappy over there. Uh, Joe Brazil behind the glass. We’ll be back in just just a second.

Thank you for watching. Please subscribe and hit the thumbs up.

The Insiders
LIVE Mon-Fri 10a-12pPST
ESPN 1320 Sacramento, CA

D-Lo & KC
LIVE Mon-Fri 12p-4pPST
ESPN 1320 Sacramento, CA

D-Lo & KC Merchandise
dloandkc.com
shopthedopeones.com

Subscribe to the Podcast:
https://omny.fm/shows/d-lo-kc-1

ESPN 1320:
https://www.audacy.com/espn1320

🎙️ New to streaming or looking to level up? Check out StreamYard and get $10 discount! 😍 https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5657035977261056