Positive Takeaways From Sacramento Kings Summer League Championship Loss

Positive Takeaways From Sacramento Kings Summer League Championship Loss

All right, phone lines are open. 9169-1320 91691320. How do the Kings move forward after losing a championship? It’s a tough tough pill to swallow. It is. It’s really tough. Hard-fought battle against a very good Hornets team and uh the the Kings failed to bring home a third summer league title. Mistakes were made. is devastation. Yeah. Across the board. I mean, traffic and there was no traffic in Sacramento today. City shut down. The despondence is palpable. Well, we were ready for the parade. Yeah. I mean, Champagne was on ice. I don’t know what they do with the all those purple streamers. I I I don’t I I I I have no idea, but uh figuring that out is only step one of uh a rebuilding process leading into a long road to recover leading into next season. Yeah, man. Uh, you know, we’ll we’ll talk about it. We’ll break it all down. What went wrong? Did anything go right? Uh, we’ll we’ll talk about all that. But, uh, yeah, somber mood today on the insiders sponsored by Jify Lube. Again, the Elgrove Kid talk lines open 9169-1320 91691320. If you guys want to talk about the loss last night in the in the summer league final, please do. We’re here for you. We’re all we’re all trying to get through this and we’ll and we’ll do so together. So, um, anyways, yeah, the Kings lost in the summer league final. Oh, no. It’s a Here’s here’s what sucks about it because like legit, it doesn’t it doesn’t matter. The The Kings could win a championship in the NBA this year, right? Like that’s that’s still a thing that can happen to a team that loses in the summer. Like, it doesn’t it doesn’t it doesn’t the wins and losses don’t matter. So, there are summer league aspects that that do matter, and we’ll talk about those, but the wins and losses don’t matter. What s What sucks about it is just it was fun. It was this fun little thing. Uhuh. And then Oh, all right. Well, we don’t get to Oh, don’t get to do a bit where we celebrate a championship today. So, Oh, you just watched that ball bounce off the rim and then bounce twice in the key and didn’t go get the defensive rebound on a missed free throw. Unbelievable. That was one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen. Just like it was like nobody knew how much time was left or what the score was. Yeah. It’s like weird play. Yeah. Like a whole bunch of things just went out the window. Like they they made like countless mistakes down the stretch that just didn’t make sense. And you know that’s what cost him. But they were down a bunch. They made a nice comeback. I I don’t know. I don’t know. I mean here’s Look, it’s it’s on. Yeah. It’s on It’s on right now if anybody wants to relive the misery on Well, it’s an instant classic. That’s why Kyle. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, that’s Oh, I see. Yeah. This is on uh was it ESPN Classic already? Hey, RIP to that channel. What a great channel that was. Look, they were down to bring that back right there. They were down 11 there in the like the beginning of the fourth quarter. It felt like they were down seven or more the entire game and then they were down three or one, whatever it was there at the end. Yeah, it was like 7877. Yeah, they were down one. Then they got the foul line and then um make one miss one. Yeah, rough. Just rough. It’s It’s rough. And again, this is not reacting like, “Oh my god, this the King season is over.” Like, no, no, no, no, no. In the vacuum of summer league, that was a bummer way to lose. Yeah. It’s kind of damn. Well, it was a lack of um I I don’t know, like being present in the moment that that really kind of like they didn’t look like they were right the whole game. Yeah. And then they get to the the end and it’s like, okay, you can’t make mistakes when you’ve been down double digits most of the game. You can’t you can’t continuously make mistakes. Yeah, man. And that’s where, you know, it’s it’s nice they they battled back. I thought Devin Carter played pretty well. Nick Clifford didn’t play great, but again, we’ve we’ve talked about how he established so much through the early part of the the summer that that wasn’t such a huge deal. I don’t know. It just it they lost a game, man. I don’t I don’t have a lot more than that on on the game itself. I I just we we’ll talk about some of the individual performances and stuff, but it again whether they won or lost that game to me was the difference between oh, we’re going to do a bit celebrating the championship or we’re going to do a bit uh mourning the championship. And that’s kind of because summer league like okay the Kings lost in the summer league final. It was still a successful summer league, was it not? Oh, I think it was tremendously successful to not on the court like not score wins and losses. There were significantly more wins than losses for the Kings this summer league. I mean that’s that’s the case too on the scoreboard I guess that because they were six and one five in one five and one five and one. But I think for again removing that Nate Clifford looks great. Yep. Maxim Reno looks like he can play. Uh Mason Jones might have put himself in the mix. We learned a lot about Devin Carter who who I think started to find his his sea legs a little bit. There there were so many more things that could have gone wrong Uhhuh. that have nothing to do with the the the winning or losing in the title game. Well, even like I I think the one player who like we’re going to talk about plenty, but Isaac Jones also just like stood out as like, “Huh, look at that. You are one of the best players in summer league.” Yeah. Especially the last couple games for sure. Yeah. Yeah. And he I I I guess uh like one of the rating systems put him as the most effective player in summer league this year. Yeah. Which is like that’s a really good sign. Yeah. I don’t know what rating system that was. I’d never seen it before. Yeah. Yeah. But the Kings had like three guys in the top. I think it was Devin Carter, Nate Clifford, and and Isaac Jones were in the top 12. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. They had some good performances for sure. They did. Um, do you feel better about the Kings this season? I I want to I want to ask this question in two parts. Okay. Just focusing on 25 26 just this year. Do you feel better about the Kings now than you did on July 9th, which was the day before they started Summer League? You know what? Strangely, I do because like number one, I think Meek showed you that he can step in and play on day one. There’s a good chance that he’s going to be a rotational player. It might be 12 minutes. It might be 16 to start. Mhm. But I do think that he showed you that he has the composure. He has the I don’t know the versatility to go out on the court and help you on day one. So that’s that’s the first thing I I think also when we we see, you know, that the Kings go out and and trade Valenunis and they go out and they sign Drew Eubanks, that’s definitely not something that like moves the needle. Right. Right. But then you see Maxim Reno step on the court and you’re like, “Oh, okay. I might be okay with this.” Right. And then I think you just kind of go down the list and you start checking things off. Like again, the Kings have chosen at this point not to resign Trey Lyles. Trey Lyles is still a unrestricted free agent. He’s just sitting out there. Hey, he’s going to be a vet minimum guy, and that’s kind of wild. Well, yeah, but I mean, he’s going to help a good team. No, I think so, too. Yeah. I mean, there are teams out there. I mean, we’ve heard the the Warriors might be looking at him. There’s a couple other teams might be looking at him, but um started center for the Warriors. Yeah, maybe. But when you watching Isaac Jones step on the court and number one, he hit some threes, but number two, he was so active, such a big body, just doing such good work that you’re like, you know, every time you put him in the game last year in his rookie season, he was impactful, you saw him on the court. And so I I think that he may have um you know there for me when Mike Brown left and and Doug Christie took over that was a big blow to Isaac Jones because Isaac had started to build some sort of trust with Mike Brown and that I never felt like that trust really happened with Doug and so if Doug did put him in the game you know it was spot time at the end of games. It wasn’t any type of rotational play. It was, you know, he ended up playing, I think, five and a half minutes a game over the last, you know, 40 something. Mhm. And it was it was junk time most of the most of the his minutes. And I really think that he’s a player that has an intriguing skill set, you know, like is he Chris Weber? No. Mhm. But could he be Lawrence Thunderberg? Okay. You know, that that third big off the bench that comes in and scores and and gets a couple of rebounds and tries, does some dirty work. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He hits people with some screens, a little bit of nastiness to him. Yeah. So, like if you’re walking into the season and your only true power forward is Keegan Murray and maybe the ghost of Dario Sarich, I like the idea of Isaac Jones like coming in and playing some minutes. All right, I’ll say it. I don’t want Dario Sarich to play one minute ahead of Isaac Jones. Okay. I want I don’t I don’t need to As far as this year, summer league did nothing for me. I feel the exact same about the Kings as I did before summer league started. Yeah, I I I they’re they’re depending on the way the ball bounces 35 to 43ish wins. No, I’m with you there. Like the the the season totals haven’t changed. Yeah, but I do feel like they have a little bit more depth than I thought they might. That’s fair. I I I think for me I’ll feel better if some of those younger guys are are playing over some veterans or maybe getting additional minutes over some veterans, but that’s something we’ll we’ll figure out as the season goes on. With I with Isaac Jones specifically, that’s a perfect example of Okay, Nate Clifford isn’t going to start over Zack Lavine or DeMar Rozen. We’ve got that. Yep. And and Keon Ellis is not going to start over Zack Lavine or Demard Rosen. We got that. Uh, which is fine. The Sarich Isaac Jones thing fits in the Reo Drew Eubanks thing. Yeah. Where I don’t need to see I if if you’re trusting at the beginning of the year like I’m going to trust Drew Eubanks like man come on. There’s not We’ve talked about this. There’s the the the a maxim a 15minute stint in a game for Maxim Reno, you know, spread out over not a 15-minute stint, but a 15-minute uh performance versus Drew Eubanks 15-minute performance is not going to win or lose you games. I I I don’t think and I feel the same way about Isaac Jones and Dario Sar at this point. I don’t know that Dario Sar is is an NBA player anymore. So, if they’re just like, “Yeah, we need vets cuz they know what to do.” Okay, for the first week. All right, but I need I need Isaac Jones. I want to see him on the court. And if you give him two months of legit playing time and you know what? Hey, he’s just not He can be at the end of a bench, but he’s not a rotation player. Cool. We’ve learned. Yeah. Even if it’s 10 games. Yeah. Right. There’s no need to drag him along on your roster not playing him. He’s 25 years old. Yep. Like put put him out on the court. see what he can do and and give him give him real run that not okay he’s going to play 3 minutes here and 5 minutes here oh Domas is in foul trouble tonight all right he gets 18 minutes here like no man give him extended playing time and I want to see the same thing for Maxim Reno to open the year there’s no there’s no outside of uh might be an eight or nine seed there’s no reason to not do that in my opinion I think there is a reason to come out of the gate with veteran players playing basic minutes because you need to see if what the other guys on the court have like we can we can think about the idea of Dennis Shruder Mhm. and say, “Okay, well, we’ve seen enough of Dennis Shruder over his 10 stops to know that he’s going to give you XYZ, but that doesn’t mean that when you put him on the court with Demon Sabonis, when you put them on the court with this specific group of players, that you won’t somehow catch some weird lightning in a bottle.” And that’s what you have to at least give yourself an opportunity to do. Like, there’s a possibility, there’s potential for a lightning in the bottle moment. Now, if the Kings are who they are and we get to December and you know they’re three, four games under 500 or right around 500 and nothing is really flowing and then it’s just like, okay, we just got to get we just got to get to 2027. Mhm. That’s a moment where you’re like, okay, it’s time. It’s time to start phasing out some of these tertiary players and players who are either on one-year deals or are, you know, like minimum deals. Like that’s when you start to look at, okay, we need to start moving these guys into the into the rotation. We need to start seeing what an Isaac Jones has now. Like look, Isaac Jones could just beat everybody in in training camp. Sure. And and earn a a rotational spot. Sure. But there’s also that potential that they’re going to slow play it just a little bit. And and I also think that there’s a possibility that you’re not going to put, you know, all of them on the court. Like, so Nick is is going to play. That’s my opinion right now that Nick uh Clifford will play minutes stunned to be like out of the gate. But sometimes that means that Reo or like an Isaac Jones that you might not play them together. And then if you’re not playing them together then you can’t really play them at all because Nick is coming off the bench. You have three guys coming off the bench who have very little NBA experience. He’s throwing a Devin Carter. Maybe he gets some of those minutes, too. And you’re like, “Okay, this is getting a little I mean, a little summer league-ish.” You were you you do run the risk, and I and I and I’ll argue against myself a little bit here. You do run the risk of you’re trying to build a culture, right? That’s what all of this is, all of this season and next season are about, according to according to Scott Perry, at least that’s the plan right now. Establishing culture, establishing the team they want to be. You do run the risk if you start just just playing young guys. Uhhuh. Devin Carter, Maxim Renault, Nick Clifford, Isaac Jones. You just start throwing those guys out on the court for quote unquote too many minutes a game, you run the risk of losing Sabonis or losing Lavine or losing D Rozan where they’re like to hell with this. Oh yeah. Like I’m not and and when your veterans are are doing that, your your really high quality veterans are are doing that, uh that becomes much harder for those for those younger players that you’re relying on to kind of establish that that winning culture. So So I do get it. Yeah. That’s where the culture comes in. That’s where it’s going to be the clash of, you know, who are we today versus who are we going to be two years from now. Yeah. And and you’re already making those plans and you might have to expedite things and and at some point you might have to just pull the plug on on a season and that means that those players are going to get a lot of minutes. Yeah. And so we can see a like a seismic shift here, but it probably won’t be in the first two weeks of the season. It might take till December. It might take till February. uh the trade deadline, you know, like that’s where we might see major changes in roster and major changes in rotations. We got a ton of stuff coming up for you in the next couple hours. That’s James Ham. I’m Kyle Mads and we’re thrilled to have Joe Brazil with us back behind the glass. We’re sponsored by Jiffy Loop. We got some NFL stuff coming up. We’ve got more Kings summer league coming up, but the best point guard option for the Kings is no longer available. We’ll talk about that next. He’s James Ham. I’m Kyle Madson. That’s Joe. Uh Jiffy Lube, ESPN 1320. We’re gone. I

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