Should the Sacramento Kings look to “blow it up”?

Should the Sacramento Kings look to “blow it up”?

by the one the only Sam Quinn NBA reporter for CBS Sports And Sam we’ve been kind of having some fun back and forth on social media So I was really excited to try to get you on the show and I know you’re running around with the draft tomorrow and obviously a trade could happen during this during this segment as we’re going So I really appreciate you taking the time Trade could happen I was about to go to bed last night and a trade happened Anytime any place That’s this time of year Let Let’s start here Sam I’m I’m seeing these videos from the from the Oklahoma City parade I want to get your general thoughts on the idea of models out here in Sacramento with Jordie Fernandez who had spent some time in Denver and you had Sabonis who a couple years ago was kind of viewed as a a diet Jokic if you will it was the the Denver Nuggets model and now we have the Oklahoma City model and the Rockets model where you can just tank and it works out even though we’ve seen that not work Then you have the Pacers which is the get the star in the retool model which is kind of similar to the Thunder in a way How do you feel about the models now and let’s say the the Blazers deciding with they you know they kind of semi-tank they go get Scoot a couple other guys but doing the second draft retool thing going to get Drew Holiday Where you at with the NBA as it pertains to quote unquote models to follow I think a lot of that stuff is overblown I don’t think any two roster builds are ever identical I think it’s generally pretty straightforward Your goal is to get a lot of very good players Ideally one or two of them are a star And you want those very good players to do different things right the Knicks didn’t do anything that the Thunder did right like they didn’t draft anybody You know every team you look at the teams that are successful Indiana’s model is totally irrepable right like all they did was pluck guys on rookie deals who hadn’t performed as well as you know their teams had expected And they get to Indiana and all of a sudden they’re the best versions of themselves No two teams are in identical situations No two teams have the same roles to offer guys No two teams have the same coaching staffs I think your general philosophy is like start by getting a couple of foundational pieces however you need to go about that Whether you draft them whether you trade for them sign them in free agency whatever and then just start adding players that make sense next to them after that I don’t think you can ever look at one way of building a team and saying “Oh the Thunder have proven this way is best.” It’s going to be entirely circumstantial It’s going to depend on what kind of players are available to you what you’re in a position to do So I would think that’s overblown Every team is in its own situation Talking to Sam Quinn of CBS Sports And I and I actually want to take it here because you said a word foundational And Sam it’s starting to feel like Damonte Sabonis is just the most confusing foundational piece in the history of the NBA Where are you at with Damonte Sabonis as it in regards to him being a quote unquote foundational player i mean they kind of tried to do the thing like I said the Denver thing and then they move off of De’Aran Fox Demar De Rozan That combo didn’t get a lot of time but this new iteration didn’t work very well either The curious case of Deont Sabonis how do you value him i was of the opinion for a long time that you couldn’t win a championship with a weak defensive center Joic made me rethink that a little bit but I do think we need to be honest Sabonis can be a very good player without being Joic Joic is his own thing I don’t know that I would use him as a barometer for anybody else But you have to go in if you have Sabonis with the understanding that rim protection is going to be a vulnerability for you you have to be totally stout everywhere else defensively if you’re going to be viable with with Sabonas as your center One of the problems the Kings have had is that they really haven’t had good defensive players around him Mike Brown was a good defensive coach I think he’s one of the best floor raisers in the NBA when it comes to just getting bad defensive players up to average up to competence But now Mike Brown is gone You look up and down that roster Keon Ellis is a very good defender I’m very excited about him I think Keegan Murray is a little underrated Maybe not as consistent as you’d hope but good defensive tools and I think somebody you could be a part of a good defense After that Demar’s a mess Malik Monk doesn’t really defend You go up and down that roster and it’s like you’re not doing Sabonis any favors with the ways that you’ve built your team I think Sacramento like it’s hard to build with Sabonis I’m not saying it’s impossible but you go up and down that roster and they have a lot of different guys who present challenges that aren’t really getting addressed It’s hard to build around Zack Lavine too He hasn’t had really any playoff success in his career It’s hard to build around Demar De Rozan And I think all of these guys have sort of been acquired haphazardly and not necessarily placed onto a roster with any thoughtful care I don’t know that any of these guys make sense together I don’t know why they thought reuniting D Rozan and Lavine made sense Yeah they’re calling them the Sacramento Bulls out here Sam talking to Sam Quinn NBA reporter for CBS Sports Let’s stick with Demar D Rosen Now look I’m out here Sam I’m fighting with Miami Heat fans who they want to give you some bubble gum and some sun chips for Demar De Rozan I’m of the mindset that I think Demar Rosen is maybe a little bit undervalued but maybe I have purple purple colored lenses on How do you think these trades from Desmond Bane to Kevin Durant to now Drew Holiday how do you think these trades have affected Demar D Rozan’s value if at all i don’t think Demar De Rozan is going to like net positive value in a trade I think you can use him as matching salary Like we know the Kings want a point guard Sabonis was not subtle about that They obviously could use defensive upgrades as we’ve covered I think that’s like neutral matching salary where you can send him out not have to attach a pick but this is a guy in his mid30s who doesn’t defend and doesn’t shoot threes That’s not what the NBA is about anymore right the whole like oh he can get a bucket but doesn’t do anything else Those players just aren’t especially valuable We live in a world where male Bridges nets five first round picks in a trade Desmond Bane gets four Right now the thing that teams value more than anything are players that can easily slot onto any roster right that don’t have weaknesses Deamar has strengths They’re pretty significant There’s a reason that he’s made so many all-star teams but he has pretty significant weaknesses too And if you’re trying to win a championship you don’t want to have to cover for those things right so I think teams at the highest level are probably looking at Demar and saying “He doesn’t really make sense He’s not good enough to be a primary offensive engine anymore but he does come with all these weaknesses that we don’t really want to cover.” But then if you look at rebuilding teams it’s like why do we want to give him our minutes and our shots why don’t why wouldn’t we want to just give those things to our younger players so there’s not an obvious fit You know Miami does make some sense after they missed out on Kevin Durant Miami’s just kind of in the middle They don’t really have any obvious move to make here but I don’t know that Demar has a really significant market I think if you’re using him it’s probably matching salary either to get a point guard or to get like a more versatile forward stick next to Keegan Murray They need to balance that roster out It’s way too guard heavy at the moment You’re killing me Sam You’re killing me right now I’m thinking I saw the I saw the Suns shopping Grayson Allen and and Royce O’Neal guys like that I I think it’s interesting but they’ve had defensive problems too Well there is somebody on the squad that can shoot threes and shoot threes at a high level Sam talking to Sam Quinn of CBS Sports Zack Lavine Zack Lavine was dang near a 50 40 90 guy He went through a lot this past season and he still put up some numbers Sam do you think I know the contract is is is tough Okay But do you think there is a team out there that again missed out on KD or you know feel like they are uh in the market for someone do you think there’s a team out there who could talk themselves into a Zack Lavine the same way the the Kings did and the Kings weren’t alone there were reports about the Warriors as well Do you think there’s a team that might be able to talk themselves into a Zack Lavine at some point yeah I think there would be You could move him right That contract I don’t think is quite as ownorous anymore as it was at first You’ve lpped off the first few years He had a good year He was healthy last year for the most part Played well And unlike Demar Roen I think the big difference is he shoots threes So you’re not you don’t have to worry oh what’s he going to look like off of the ball right he’ll at least space the floor for you He’s a very like you can run a bench offense through him He’s not going to be you know somebody who’s going to drive a top five offense but if you have a better offensive player on your team and you’re saying “Oh we really struggle when this guy’s on the bench.” Lavine can carry you for half a quarter for a quarter if you need him to I think there would be interest I don’t know that the value would be especially high but Chicago spent a year a year and a half just trying to get rid of the money I don’t think that’s the case anymore so long as he remains healthy I do think for Sacramento though the danger you run into he gets hurt again and poof all that progress is gone Chicago saw this right you can’t trade a guy like that with that much money when you’re concerned about his health I think he’s become a little bit underrated as a player I think he can help a team win It’s just very very difficult at that price point Sam Quinn before we get you out of here because I I know you’re running around Sam let’s just pretend you’re in Sacramento and your name is Scott Perry what would you do right now going into the offseason what would you do if you were in control of the Sacramento Kings and you were in that front office what would you do yeah nobody wants to hear that especially in in this market but you gotta blow it up right i mean where I’m looking at this is that they have a 500 or so team in a conference with nine or 10 really really competitive like up from championship level in Oklahoma City and Houston down through like Dallas is going to be really good right and Portland just made a trade to improve that that whole Western Conference from like 1 to 10 is so good so deep so strong I don’t know what the win now upside is here I think you could probably get pretty good stuff back if you went for if you put Sabonis on the table If you put Lavine on the table you know put even Murray on the table right it would be so easy And the Kings unfortunately have a lot of experience with this to get to the bottom in the West right now I know in Sacramento in that market there’s not a great history with tanking It hasn’t been fortunate for them in the past I would just say they’re kind of aimless right now right if your goal is to just be competitive and hang around 500 yeah they can do that If you want to take meaningful strides and actively jump into the championship conversation eventually that starts with getting an allNBA caliber player somebody who’s not like Sabonis who’s going to hang around the fringes of it and be flawed Like you got to get a top five top 10ish player And the only way you do that in this market is by drafting them So if I were them I would blow it up I don’t think they have any market any taste for that in that market VCron Diva has obviously experienced his fair share of losing I don’t think he’s eager to go back towards it intentionally but I’m not him I haven’t lived through these 18 of 19 years in the lottery My decision would probably be a little bit different Sam Quinn incredible stuff Thank you so much man We got to do this again Be sure to follow Sam Quinn on social media and check out all of his work on CBS Sports Thank you again Sam and we’ll talk to you soon That was Sam Quinn of CBS Sports

Sam Quinn, NBA writer for CBSSports.com, joined The Allen Stiles Show to discuss where Sam believes the Kings stand asset-wise heading into an important offseason for Sacramento’s future.

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