Should the Sacramento Kings Begin a Full Teardown?

Should the Sacramento Kings Begin a Full Teardown?

back to the case. I’ve thought more about this tear down thing than we talked about yesterday. Yeah. And I was on the fence because I genuinely I saw both sides of it and just kind of the more I thought about it. I think you if if you don’t reset and you don’t rebuild and we’ve we’ve described this rebuild as being a a if you’re trading Demon Sabonis Mhm. you’re doing so not to acquire like oh hey we need to trade this guy to unlock Zack Lavine and Demard Rosen like no you’re trading him because he has value and you can get assets for the future. Like that’s that’s a same thing. If you’re trading Zack Lavine it’s less about the players you’re getting back. If you can get a nice young player, cool. But it’s more about like the draft picks and the compensation and what you can build out of that war chest, out of that reset. And the reason I think you need to reset is there’s not this is not like a, oh man, they were this close. They were they were one piece away and now they need that one piece to get over the hump. Like no, there’s no hump to get over. they have to. This didn’t work. I don’t think that they can do with what they have available. I don’t think that they can make the leaps that they’re going to need to make to to build around whatever big contracts they currently have. whether whether you whether that’s Zack Lavine or Demonoson or Demart Rosen, I just don’t I don’t think that they have the assets to make the moves they would need to make. Mhm. And so for me, there has to be a reset of of sorts. That doesn’t mean trade everybody, start at ground zero. Like no, like Keegan Murray’s 24 going on 25. Okay, keep Murray. Keon Ellis, same thing. You like you like what he’s got there. Um, outside of that, there’s not a like, oh, hey, just we’re we’re a piece away. We’re one guy away. It’s not. There has to there has to be a wholesale change. And to me, you’ve fired Mike Brown. You’ve hired Doug Christie. You’ve hired Scott Perry. Like, let this be a new era. It’s really clear firing Mike Brown, firing Monty McNair, Wes Wilcox, leaving getting not fired, but leaving. Um, that all said, this is over. This this era of Kings basketball is over. Mhm. Let Scott Perry and Doug Christie do start with whatever they start at the at the at a baseline that’s not Yeah. Can you get us to 45 wins because we don’t want to be bad? Okay. So, I I am never going to advocate for um for running it back with this current group. Like, don’t get me wrong here at all. I I do not think that if you started at the beginning of last season with this roster, this is a 500 roster. You might have two or three more wins. Sure. Total. Now, I I will say that there was a point last season, early in the year, where I do think the Kings were one move away from not being a title contender, but from being a legitimate contender for a top tier Western Conference playoff spot. Mhm. But that team is gone. When you trade De’arren Fox, that team is gone. Right. Right. you you traded you you spent almost eight years calling him the head of the snake and then you lpped off the head of the snake. So now you’re directional directionless. You need to figure out who you are and all that stuff moving forward. Mhm. Um I do see a way though in which the kings can make moves and get right back into this thing. And e even if like I know a lot of people go no that there’s no way like one or two moves is not going to change the direction of this team. But I’m just going to point out like the Los Angeles Lakers I don’t see them getting like way better. Like LeBron James is going to be another year older. He’s going to play fewer games. Luca Donic is great but he also is injuryprone and and doesn’t play nearly as much. And and they didn’t look really good in the playoffs. Mhm. Uh the Denver Nuggets are again in a salary cap situation. They fired their head coach. They’re looking to revamp and maybe be able to reload, but they might not be able to get there either. The Los Angeles Clippers are the Clippers. They they fizzle out every year. Like the Timberwolves, the Timberwolves have three rotational pieces that are huge pieces for them that are all either free agents or can become free agents. Like the Golden State Warriors are just old as a team. They just and you saw what happened when Steph Curry goes out, they’re done. All right. So, when we get to like the the team above the Kings, Memphis Grizzlies, I think everyone sees major changes coming for the Grizzlies as well, especially when you factor in that uh Jiren Jackson Junior is going to have to sign an extension. I don’t I don’t disagree with any of that. Yep. I don’t think you can build or not build your team based on like, hey, maybe those teams will all be ass. Like, are you telling me we just watched the Lakers get Luca Donuch for Anthony Davis in a bag of chips? Yeah. Like just like we can go, oh well maybe they won’t be any good. They could also get uh Kevin Durant. And that’s true. And like you know, so that’s where I don’t think you can base this on what the rest of the Western Conference looks like because hoping that hey, maybe 46 wins get you a top six seed is not that good of a way to go about building your basketball team. No, I I agree. But my point is that this thing is wide open outside of OKC. OKC is the one team that we know is going to be really really good next year. The rest of the teams, we have no idea. And and the Kings aren’t that far away from being part of that group. And but I mean, not in their current build. And so that’s why I first of all, I I’m not I’m not all in on a rebuild because I know the Kings are never going to be all in on a rebuild, even if they should. even even if they should and that’s and I’ll agree like yeah there should be a moment where you have to rebuild everything. I totally agree. Yeah. But they’re not going to. So I live in that world where I understand that like yeah there are potential for them to go trade players and players that people like probably should. Yeah. Yeah. But I I’m also I’m looking at this team going, “Okay, like they there is no way they’re gonna cut ticket prices and there is no way that this team is gonna go all the way backwards.” Just the idea that you might be able to make it is usually enough for people to come out to games. And you know, the fact that you know, again, look at Sutter Health Park emptying out right now. When you lose 19 out of 20 games, nobody cares about you at all anymore. And that’s on you. That’s not on the the fans. Like it doesn’t matter where this team plays. They were in Oakland, they’d be drawing 3,000 fans. Yeah. Nobody wants to watch a team that that does not compete. Correct. And it’s the same exact thing for basketball. Like if you’re not going to be competitive at all and go do what you know, some of these the Utah Jazz, the the you know, and I guess Blazers. And I guess that’s where we separate here. Yeah. Is because I I understand what you’re saying completely. To me, just being competitive enough that you don’t have to slash ticket prices is brutal. Oh, I totally agree. That is just brutal. Yes. I What? I’m not telling you that that’s my idea. No, I know that. I’m telling you that that’s where they’re at. I That sucks, dude. And I get and and to be to be totally clear on this because I don’t want this to to I think you’re right. And I think that there are 30 out of 30 teams that feel the same way. There are just some teams, Charlotte, Washington, they get backed into a corner where Yeah. they just can’t get good, right? And they they make they accumulate the draft capital, they make the wrong picks, and now they’re just in this death spiral of being bad. Yeah. or even if you make the right picks that it you just nobody cares. Nobody cares about what you’re doing and and you just can’t get out of your own way and you know inconsistency of management, inconsistency of coaching and all that stuff yet like that’s that’s when the death spiral is like it’s bad like and I’ve seen it so many times here in Sacramento. I just I I wonder if not to say not to say that oh man if the Kings rebuild people would be would be stoked about it. Like, no, because it would it would mean a lot of losing. It’d be at least a couple of years where where you’re winning 20 to 30 games and it’s it’s pretty brutal, but it would be in service of ideally climbing to a tier that they’re not presently set to get to. Yeah. Uh, on the other hand, I don’t think that uh Kings fans or or really any fan base would be cool with not running it back, but being in a position where we’re going into this year like, yeah, if things break right, maybe they’re a top six seed. I think there there’s a after breaking the playoff drown, it feels like there’s now this aspiration of like okay now next now the next thing now deep playoff run now championship run. Yeah like some level again it’s not the that that line is not linear but the which I think doesn’t make sense cuz line and linear are the same thing that path is not linear. Okay. Um, I don’t think they can get to that path without a tear down. And that’s why that’s why I landed on that side of the fence because I don’t think people are largely going to be cool with like being pretty mid for the next couple of years in service of well, at least they get to keep the ticket prices high. Well, no. I I I think the struggle that you have here too is that you’re watching two teams that are so far ahead in their build in the the Thunder and Houston. And so you’re always looking at like, hey, where is my window going to be? Sure. And I think there are a bunch of teams that their windows closing. We can see it. you know, the Clippers, the Lakers, the the Lakers might extend their because of Luca, but um but the Warriors, like you’re seeing the runs come to an end. Even even the Nuggets, you can see that, okay, like look, they keep losing pieces and they’re getting to a point where they’ll have an MVP caliber caliber player, but do they have enough pieces around him? So, we’re watching that there is this window where you can get right back into it, right? and you’re trying to to beat teams, but if you step back, you can see that the window is closing on the Kings just like it is on all those other teams. It it just straight up is like that’s why going out and getting a 35-year-old Demard de Rosen, it just like pushed your window open and put like a pebble in the place like, “Oh, it’s still open. You see the window? It’s still open.” It’s like, yeah, it’s open about like the width of my pinky. Like that’s where your window is. And oh, look, your window closed. you got bounced in to play in. So, it just it’s uh it’s a weird situation to be in. Um but again, that’s why you don’t let people who you don’t have faith in and that you don’t believe are the the right people to make the decisions moving forward and you know you’re going to fire these guys. It’s why you don’t have them make trades on the way out the door. Yeah. You just don’t. De’Arren Fox was perfectly fine waiting until this summer. Perfectly fine waiting until this summer to get traded. Mhm. And there you you basically gave up a a 30game window with Doug Christie as his head coach to say, “Okay, is there any way we can convince you?” Mhm. You you just gave that away. You just you you just punted and you traded him. And again, you traded away a major position of of need in the NBA. The most crucial position in the NBA, you traded that piece for a score that can’t play that other position. And that’s where again like your your build just takes a huge step backwards. Like how do you get out of this? Yeah. So tough. Yeah, man. I I I just I I keep going back to young players and picks acquiring those and figuring it out. Yeah. Down the road. because I don’t I don’t think a team with Zack Lavine and Demon Sabonis on it as the two best players. Mhm. Is is going to get where people ultimately want to go is that that’s that’s where I stand as of today. Maybe they do that this year and Scott Perry’s the best GM in the league and they put the right pieces and oh my god, they’re in the conference finals and I would be stoked to sit here and go, “Wow, super wrong.” But man, it is hard to see it again on June 4th, 2025, that formula working just because I don’t I don’t think there’s really a precedent for it. And I think when teams get to this point where they hit a ceiling, they either fire Tom Tibido to try and get a different coaching and get this group over the hump or you restart. And that’s that’s why I’ve now fallen on the restart side of the fence. Um, you mentioned point guards. Yeah, we have a report from Hoops Hype about one of the point guards the Kings are interested in. Get fired up everybody. We’ll talk about that and we’ll talk about another report. The funniest report of the day about the Kings and the players they want to trade. We’ll talk about that next. That’s James Ham. I’m Kyle Matson. He’s Joe Brazil. Jiffy Lube is omnipresent because they sponsor the show on ESPN 1320 at Sacramento Sports.

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