Kings lose in Summer League Finals, is the roster set going forward?

Kings lose in Summer League Finals, is the roster set going forward?

I dropped. Are we live? Yeah, we’re live. Sean, sorry. Welcome into the Kings Beat podcast where Sean Cunningham drops fbombs and almost breaks his mic. Yeah, I’m James Hammy Kings and Saturday for ESPN 1320 and the Kings Beat. Welcome in. We’re of course a Blue Wire podcast. Joining me today, we’re just going to skip him because he’s making noise and doing weird stuff. Uh, Brendan Unes for the Kings Bulls podcast and other things. Brendan, Brendan, how are you? Hello. Hello. I’m doing well. Can’t complain. Uh, back from Vegas and, you know, I guess feeling rejuvenated, still recovering. I’m doing all right. Can’t complain. You’re looking awfully pale for someone who just got back from Vegas. I mean, yeah. Yeah. I think it’s just my standard look, you know. All right. It’s rich coming from you, I will say. But Yeah. Yeah. Cuz I I always look pale. Um, actually I called myself buttass white on the radio yesterday. Um, that happens. Yeah, I am. Uh, those are two of the same things. Joining us, uh, is KC3 Sean Cunningham. Sean, what are you doing? I’m making noise. I’m doing fine. I, uh, some people can handle Vegas better than others. Um, we’ll just leave it at that. Uh, I know you’re not talking about me. Well, oh, wait, Brendan, you got to tweet out the the thing, right? The who? Oh, I will. Yeah, the link. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, because if I do it right now, it’ll go start doing weird stuff. Um, yeah, some people have to handle Vegas better. That’s what you’re saying, right? Yes. Um, correct. Although Brendan, to his credit, was there quite longer than I was. Um, but yeah, it was a good time. Uh, a lot of productivity, a lot. got to learn a lot about pieces that are new to this team and including the front office and coaching staffs and players and things like that. And then even getting closer getting kind of learning more about players that have maybe were new last year and you’re just getting uh getting the hang of familiarity with some of those news pieces that were new last year. Now they almost look like veterans to this team. So uh yeah, it’s good time in Vegas. um didn’t get to I was really upset. Although we did get a GE kind of concert. I think he was there for like 40 45 minutes maybe. Little um little little appearance there at at the win. But all every concert that I would have liked to have seen there was no chance I would have was going to be able to get to and it was very disappointing. And I didn’t really care to see Backstreet Boys. So I had a bunch of people asked me if I’d gone to that and the answer was no. I was actually surprised, by the way, that even though they that that you two is no longer at the sphere, they still do the show only without the they keep the music, but they don’t have the band in person. And I was like, “Oh, that would be kind of cool like to go see a movie or whatever and and see the what the sphere is like.” And even that was still over $100, so I chose not to do that. All right, Brennan, how did you survive? I did all right. Um, yeah. I mean, I guess like Sean, I think we could have done a little bit more entertainment things, but for the most part, that was a good one by Stephen in the chat talking about my hair. Yeah, it does. He looks like the little Chihuahua with the with the full hair. Yeah, there’s a lot going on. That’s what I’m talking about. I know what you’re talking about. I don’t know what that’s from, but I was looking for it so I could show it. Yeah. But, you know, successful work trip. Uh, I think Sean and I both got the chance to sit down with Scott Perry at separate times. I also did not wear a hat during that interview and a lot of the comments were saying they’ve never seen me in a hat or without a hat. This is apparently a thing. Um, yeah. I don’t know. I don’t know. We’re going hatless a little bit more often, but I would say productive trip overall. Uh, maybe not the Could have been more entertaining some nights than other if we’re talking just Vegas life in general, but a very productive basketball work trip. You’re saying you could have been more entertaining? just Yeah. Yeah, that’s fine. I mean, more energy. I I Yeah. I don’t know. I didn’t have the You know, I think my problem is when when I go to Vegas, I think my problem is I’m too inclusive trying to bring everybody together and and hey, everyone come hang out. All these different people. There’s really not anybody I don’t hang out with. So, or I wouldn’t hang out with. And so, I was oftentimes trying to bring a lot of people together. And often times, maybe it’s me, they just don’t like uh how I do Vegas. Maybe. Um I I’m a fan of that. I’m a fan of that. Typically, I was there. You’re talking like I never showed up. Like I was some old man like like somebody else I might work with. Sean, what is wrong with you? Who likes who’s a big fan of the Titanic. It’s true. We saw the big piece. And another another one of your co-workers that really likes to admire art and that was uh Joe. That No. Who? Oh. Oh, no. That’d be Allan. Allan. Really? Admirer of art. That was a That was fantastic. I don’t even want to know what you’re alluding to, Sean. It It’s not as creepy as you might think it is. Literally him looking at a piece of art. Actually, big big art guy. Yeah. Who knew? How was uh how was your week, James? Um pretty low-key. I sending out a tweet right now. We have a live Kings podcast right now. Join us. You can just type. It’s fine. We’ll we’ll you finish your job over there. We’ll we’ll take it. Here’s the link. I also just got one up. I forgot to press send. Oh, that’s why. Okay. Yeah, my fault. Sweet. All right. Okay. We’re live. How about this weather? Huh? I literally just d I was telling James before Brennan jump on. This is crazy crazy weather. I mean, it was hot as hell down in Vegas for sure. Um, but up here it’s like unseasonably cool. I literally just drove through rain coming from downtown. Uh, there was 3 to four minutes of solid rainfall on my commute. That’s That doesn’t make any sense. I up here right now, I have it at 70°. Whatever is happening right now, I’m here for it. Um, you know, like if if people across, especially in the middle of the country, uh, don’t care about the environment and this is what happens and we get 75 to 85 degree summers, I’m here for it. Like, okay, it is what it is. Like, I I I hope we all like do our part, but if they’re not going to do their part, it’s fine. I’ll just live in in a much better climate for some reason because clearly we’re damaging the world. So, yeah. Uh, so you guys just got back from Vegas. Well, uh, Brennan, when did you you got home the latest, right? Did you stay all the way for the finals? I did not stay for the semifinals or the finals. It was a little I was booked through Friday. Wasn’t sure if they were going to make it at that point. I didn’t want to book two more rooms on the off chance that they get knocked in the semis. Um, so I stayed, but I was already there for I think like 11 12 days or something like that. So was long enough. Okay. Yeah, I’m with you. I don’t even enjoy going down there at all anymore because it’s just so hot. Yeah. Um Okay. Uh we do have lots to talk about though. Uh Sacramento Kings of course lost the finals uh in Las Vegas um to the Charlotte Hornets. It was a good game. They made a lot of mistakes uh which cost them any chance to win. And uh I think there’s still plenty of things we can take away from it, but more like globally, like what do we see from players that that actually might translate to what we’re seeing um with the parent club this year? Uh is what was your uh we’ll just start we’ll start with Sean. Uh first of all, do you guys have your podcast candles? I’m going to assume I don’t have a candle today. You’re at somebody’s house and they don’t have a candle and it’s a female’s house, so she definitely not nearby. Wow, Sean. Wow, Sean. No, not nearby. That’s Wow. Wow. Sorry. Let’s uh let’s start with Sean. Let’s let’s get a uh we’ll start it this way. We’ll just do give me your your number one takeaway from what you saw. Not like multiple players, but your number one maybe who played the best or or what did you like the best about what you saw on the court? Yeah, I mean it would be I don’t think uh you have to go much farther than Nick Clifford. Um to me he’s plug-andplay right away. Uh he fits instantly into this team. Shows the ability to be a two-way player, can hit a big shot, can defer to teammates. Looks like he has some playmaking to him. I’m still pretty curious about the point guard skills main mainly because Sacramento could clearly use some point guard help. But um with his size uh and some of the athleticism, his vertical quick his lateral quickness, his verticality, uh there’s a lot of things that just leap off the page to me when watching him play. Um, interestingly to see I kind of want to see him uh be a little bit more aggressive. And I think it’s funny because I even mentioned it to him when I was talking to him. I was like, I think I pissed you off with a question about being aggressive. And I know uh Dip Mystery, the the summer league head coach and one of the Kings assistant coaches on the staff talked about that first game wanting to see him a little bit more aggressive. At first, I didn’t totally agree with that because, you know, Maxim Reno had just an incredible start to that first game and, you know, then Devin Carter the next game was really, really, uh, efficient, 11 of 13. So, he kind of deferred to some of those guys. Um, but I think in some of the games, uh, particularly toward the end, um, you could tell maybe he hit a little bit of a wall or just a little bit of a a fatigue, him maybe just picking up different areas of his game, but the scoring aspect wasn’t really there. And, um, but that’s okay. Hey, I mean, look, it’s it’s summer league, so for me to see him checking a ton of boxes, being able to just really fit in almost three posi three positions really well. Um, I I’m curious to see what that looks like through a training camp and then early portion of the NBA grind. But, um, yeah, I I I I think he stand he’s leaps and bounds just off the page for me is is the number one biggest takeaway. Yeah. What do you got, Brandon? Yeah, I mean, I think it has to be Nick. Um, there’s definitely other guys that we can talk about and I’m sure that we will, but Swiss Army knife, I think, was the most common term that it felt like was used with him. And you see him, you see the playmaking, you see the rebounds, uh, multiple games where he has double-digit rebounds, nearing triple doubles in some of these games. And I think to Sean’s point of the aggressiveness, I think you don’t realize how much he’s not being aggressive until you see the moments where he is, right? Like the second half of that first game, I want to say he scored something like 17 of his 18 points in the second half. um the game in the semifinals where he just recognizes the moment of a other team’s getting a little bit of momentum I think to the Cleveland game as well and he’s like all right I’m gonna you know kind of take matters into my own hands here and whether that’s scoring for himself in the mid-range or getting to the basket or creating an advantage and pass it to his teammates um I I think you really saw his ability to create a little bit and I I’m like Sean mentioned kind of curious to see the caliber of playmaker that we’re talking about when it comes to setting up your teammates. I think the handle still needs a little bit of work before we’re um even entertaining much of the point guard thing in my mind. Even if there’s uh nice playmaking moments and passing that we saw uh just within the flow of actions, I think it’ll translate really well to this isn’t the guy that’s going to have his ball in the ball in his hands um initiating actions at the Sacramento level. So, I think the playmaking that we’ve seen at summer league will translate well to that next level. Um he’s also shot above 45% from three throughout his time out there. Take the sample size for what you will over six games. Um but I I think that he looked comfortable. He was doing everything playing with pace like more so at his own pace. Never seemed very rushed I would say for the most part. Um so I think he was he was definitely a highlight that looked even better as as time went on. And again, I think that he will be even more optimized when he’s the fourth, fifth guy on the floor on Sacramento’s roster in this rookie year compared to being one of the primaries like he was here in Vegas. Yeah, I I kind of like what Dip did with uh with Nick because it’s, you know, first and foremost, you’re like, okay, we keep seeing like this ability to, you know, distribute and to playmake for himself and for others. and so let’s see if we can check a box and see if he can actually play the point guard position. And they put him at point and it was like, hey, look at that. He can bring the ball up just fine. Uh people pestered him and maybe he’ll have a little bit more trouble at the NBA level. Um, but then I thought he did a really nice job of not just bringing the ball up and passing it off, but actually getting into an offensive set and all of a sudden he’s running like a high pick and roll with with Renault and and he’s hitting the lob and then all of a sudden he’s hitting the corner and you’re like, “Oh, look at this. He’s he’s actually distributing and showing you that he’s got like at least capable of being a playmaker, which I I don’t know that you ever think a player is going to come into the league uh and just like step on the court and be able to do. I I wouldn’t make him like the second point guard at this point. And like be honest with you, the Kings still need him to play the three and that’s about it. But I I do think that like the versatility of what we saw was really really nice to see. uh especially, you know, his ability to score at all three levels. Like his ability to create space for himself on his shots was was really nice. Like he had people off balance. And so for me, like I really enjoyed watching him play and he just stood out as a player who first and foremost went way further in the draft than he should have gone. Um but also as a player who uh probably will play rotational minutes, whether it’s 12 or 16 or 18 minutes um like out of the gate. And maybe we’re wrong there, but I don’t think so. Like the way that this team is built as of right now, he does look like he is the number two uh small forward on this team walking into the season. Um you’re so you’re you’re already ready to say that he went too low in the in the draft. That was pretty that was that’s quite a hot take right there. I like that. I mean, he he was an all summer league performer. Like he’s first team all summer league performer. He doesn’t but well no it doesn’t it doesn’t I mean Cooper Flag wasn’t and everyone would take him still number one so well well yeah and I’m not saying he should have gone number one but what I’m saying is at number 24 he he probably at least should have been where he was slated in most mock drafts around 15 um and either way you’re looking at a player who looked highly competent like and and I get it he’s he’s a fifth year like senior and so he should look good um But that doesn’t really matter as long as it translates to the pro level, you know, like if he gets a 12- year career in, he’ll be 35, 36, uh, when he finishes up and, you know, and won’t have all the NBA mileage on him. Uh, so I I was super impressed. Like, he just looked like he had a cool head. Yeah. No, I I’m not saying I disagree. I just um there’s a lot of I do, it’s funny. Maybe you were just the the latest in the long line of uh jumping to conclusions based off of summer league that I’ve seen. Um, not even necessarily that it comes to to Nick, but like people being disappointed at like Cooper Flag and um, you know, seeing the likes of, you know, just so many just a lot of the hot take machines and and making conclusions off of that. But I was giving your I was kind of giving you a little a grief there just because it was the most recent one I’ve seen. But, um, certainly I think guys can be products their environment too. Um you might see some of these players especially 18 19 years old um not knowing where they’re going to come and like you mentioned he’s going to be a he’s a fifth year senior in a way 23 years old a little longer in the tooth understandable um but gets in a situation where I think he’s going to be able to play right away and be able to contribute at least at some sort of level and if you contrast that to just a couple years ago with someone like Kobe Jones like Kobe Jones was still he had a nice summer league at one point and then it was people were hoping to see what maybe he could contribute at the NBA level and it and it fell flat and it his opportunity also the roster changed a little bit and opportunity was just taken away. Um and so no just bearing that in mind it’s just I I it was some of those conclusions that I’ve heard and um I don’t even necessarily disagree with you James. Uh I just think it’s uh it’s interesting how many people come to a lot of conclusions based off what they see in summer league. I think what one of the other standout things about and I think this can kind of lead us into Max as well, but about Nique is the positional versatility. Like you you talk about Kobe Jones, I think he was kind of lacking that a little bit and obviously a little bit later in the draft. But even Devin Carter, like they’re trying to push him to the one. I almost wonder if that’s because they don’t feel like he can play the two um because he doesn’t quite have ball handling skills. But Nick, you know, maybe there’s a little bit of one like we’re talking about. Maybe you can grow into that eventually, but I think pretty comfortably a two and a three right now. Uh maybe better at the two. I think he guards on ball a little bit better. Like good at getting through screens and all that stuff. Um but I think there is some versatility there that makes it easier to imagine how he’s going to fit into this Sacramento team year one because you know you get options on where you can play and shoot. I mean some teams go small enough that you might be able to roll them out there at the four sometimes. Yeah. I I mean I definitely I I think at the NBA level two three like I’m not putting him as even my third string point guard. Although I’ll say this, I thought he handled the position at a lot better than than Devin Carter. And I hate to like make again like leaps off of summer league, but like most of a good percentage of Devin Carter’s assists came on uh really really nice outlet passes. And and that’s a great skill for him to have, especially to mix with his rebounding. But if you know, if you can’t set up an offense, you’re not going to play point guard. And you know, at this point, I think uh Oh, Brennan disappeared on us. Oh, Brennan’s flashing us with the wrong button. That was awesome. That was not good. For the audio listener, it’s not what you think. It’s not what you think. Just for people who aren’t watching, could have been anything. Yeah, it could have been anything. His place of employment uh avatar that popped up. Not a flash for the audio listener. Good clarity. Yeah. Yeah. Uh but you get you know to that to that to that point James like like it’s interesting because you you you see someone like you know I say product of their environment but you see someone like Nick who obviously can address a need at several different positions. He’s not someone who has to learn a position like like Devin Carter, right? Devin Carter you’re looking at right now and you’re going where does he fit on this roster from a rotational piece? And the reality is he just doesn’t a as the roster is currently constructed. Now that’s not to say he can’t play in any different place. We’ll see what training camp, you know, sets up, see what the roster looks like. But at present time, because he doesn’t really play the point guard position and Malik Monk is ahead of him in the depth chart. You could probably name Keon Ellis. I mean, all these other players that are ahead of him, like opportunity doesn’t really exist for Devin Carter right now. That’s not to say six months from now, three months from now, a year from now, whatever that that it doesn’t. But I think that’s what makes Kings fans and and us so encouraged by his fit with Sacramento is because you can see him impactful at definitely three positions, especially on the defensive end. Yeah. As far Yeah. With Nick, that’s I totally get it. Yeah. I mean like I’m watching a player that I get like and who who instantly when you watch him you’re like hey that looks like an NBA player straight up. What’s that? Oh comments in this chat are fantastic. Said I look like a Mexican Hallebertton. Oh that’s what Sean’s laughing at here. It got me Come on now. Come on now. That’s ridiculous. [Laughter] I still got both Achilles, so I’m doing all right. Oh, sick. Too soon, Brandon. Too soon. Too soon. Um Yeah. Yeah. Like, look, I think there’s another thing that I’m going to point out about uh about Nate Clifford, and that is that um you know, we’ve talked about this a little bit. uh a couple of us have talked to like his college coach and the way that he went to Colorado State and started to build himself up as a player, it kind of lends itself to the ability to like, hey, you know, we know that you can do certain things, but hey, we’re going to try you a point guard today and see how you do. And it’s like, okay, he just goes out there because that’s what he’s done the last two years. It’s just quietly added things to his game at every step. And I I really do feel like at playing five years in college allowed him to develop in a way that he probably wouldn’t have developed at all. and he would have got to the the NBA level and, you know, kind of got stuck as just a three and D guy and not have this ability to get to the basket, this ability uh to get to the free throw line or to, you know, playmake for others. So, I think that playing um an extra year or two at the college level really did help him and helped him sort of transition during this week where they started to ask more of him and ask him to do different things. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, another comment in the chat just gets my attention. You guys are just totally getting distracted by the chat today. The chat is hilarious today. I’m down. Keep it going. Yeah. Tuesday in the chat is where to be evidently. So, did someone really just call you Kh Leonard? Kh Leonard. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t see the resemblance, but I I think props for the name, the creativity of the name. It’s happening. I feel Brennan’s coming in tomorrow with the next next week with a new hair, dude. That’s for sure. Nope. This happened last time, too. Facial hair is still here. I got crap last time. Keep it coming. It’s all right. Can you go Can you go full beard? I can’t. So, I can’t go full beard, but Are you Are you able to? I mean, I don’t really know to be honest. Like, you had a full beard. I do. Okay. I do. Okay. Me or him? I have not. Not you. No, Sean. No. No. I can’t grow a full beard. This is what I can grow right here. I get patchy on the sides, but this is it. We got work to do. We are just like we’re just all over the board tonight. We’re all over the board. I will I will say like uh if there was a second place for what caught your eye in Vegas uh that surrounded the Kings to me it would be Isaac Jones so much. I know the second team, but it was so interesting to hear and I forget the it might have even been you Brendan, so if I’m not giving you credit, I’m trying to do so now. Um, someone asked him about Isaac and uh, Depes Mystery talked about how if he’s going to succeed in the league, he needs to be able to be a stretch four. Um, and so oftentimes we’ve seen how he runs the floor, he rebounds, he can block shots, he can be a physical presence. teams should have that. Kings don’t. And so he really stands out. But all throughout last year, we were hearing so much about how much he can stretch the floor. And I was kind of like, “Yeah, right.” Especially early on, it’s like, “This guy is so raw. You’re just not seeing it. He doesn’t demonstrate it.” In practices, sure, that’s one thing. But him getting some time in the G-League and being able to show that part of his game, um, you could kind of see it because there’s no It’s a clean release. It’s a It’s a quick shot. like he’s he’s able to it looks believable. Um and you got to see it in a few stints and I thought was really great in that in the finals against Charlotte where he hit that that shot to pull them within one. Um, unfortunately, you know, for them there, you know, the the rally came a little short, but a big moment for him, you know, and when you couple that with the success he had last year, getting a roster spot, winning a G-League championship, um, you know, just all these little steps that he’s taken, if you’re Sacramento and you’re the Kings, like these, you got to be really proud about some of the some of these players on your team, Keon Ellis included, who’ve been able to come up for nothing, rise through the ashes, so to speak, overlook all these things and be able to um there’s so many things going on in the chat. Uh but ju just to you know these are the things you hang your hat on as an organization to show that you have development that you have a pathway of success for people who are undrafted and who have different pathways to the NBA that are outside of a lottery pick. So yeah, I’m with you. Go the the chat is killing us tonight. So, if you’re listening to this on audio, um they are all over Brendan’s haircut tonight and or his lack of haircut. Um they’re just absolutely killing it. So, chat, go ahead and keep going because we’re laughing along with you, but uh go ahead, Brendan. Yeah, feel free. I can make it look worse, too. We can go fully in front. Cover the eyes. Um can you give it a try? Is that like a My Chemical Romance thing if you like brought it all down? I mean, you really want to Yeah, go Bieber style on it. Oh, this is this is great audio. This is great for the audio side. He’s He’s looking more like Mosh at this point, man. I’ll answer one question like this for you guys. Okay, appreciate that. I thought the Isaac Jones thing uh playing Who’s the character in Sorry. I’m sorry. No. Who’s the character in Napoleon Dynamite? Uh Pedro. He looks like Pedro when when Pedro wore a wig. Yeah, Pedro. We’ll just do the rest of the pod like this. Go ahead. Um, I thought the Isaac playing the four thing was kind of interesting because he only went three of nine from three. You mentioned the big shot he hit against Charlotte. I feel like people can’t take me seriously for some reason. U, he only went three of nine throughout summer league uh, from distance. There was the big one that he hit against Charlotte, but I thought for the most part it was really the fact that he was just a monster around the rim. He shot almost 65% from three or from the field. It was doing all your work at the rim. And even towards the back end there, we saw uh coach Dip adjust and sometimes Maxim was going to the bench there and Isaiah Stevens starting and going more small to where Isaac eventually was playing more of the of the five. And so this there was a lot of talk of eventually moving him to the four. I see the logic there. I think that he had most of his success still playing as a five though throughout this. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. You can get some flexibility to where maybe we can still try to stretch him out um to playing the four. But I I thought for the most part he was very successful when he was playing the five alongside other ball handlers. He just gets to finish plays, rebound, run the floor, and nobody was able to stop him around the basket. Yeah. So, I see him being able to play both the four and the five. Like, I do think he can he can play the stretch. Uh you would like to have him out on the floor if he is playing the four with another guy who can shoot. Um I I think but the way I look at it is like look if you’re not going to retain Trey Lyles and at this point it doesn’t look like the the Kings are going to retain Trey Lyles and you traded for like the ghost of Dario Sarich. Like who else is the backup for at this point? Ghost of Daario Sarich. Yeah. I mean who is the backup for? I hope you tell that to him to his face if he makes Doug Mcder James. Doug Mcder is the answer. No, I I mean, realistically, the Kings don’t have a a power forward. Like, because even Keegan’s not a power forward. He’s a forward and he can play the four, but when we’re talking about guys who can go in, you it used to be that teams that had stretch fours like had a huge advantage over everybody. Now, it feels like the teams that don’t have a person who can go in and like set picks and run into people and rebound are at a at a disadvantage. So, I kind of like the Isaac Jones thing. You know, I you know, I was comparing him the other day to like look, you know, he said he’s been watching a ton of Aaron Gordon. He’s been watching a ton of John Collins, and he just flat out, like to be real, he doesn’t have the 40-inch vert that those two have, right? Like the incredible hops or 38 inch vert. Um, so I I don’t want to compare him to him, but like look, he can go out there and he can be like a Lawrence Thunderberg, you know, a guy who can just put up points in a hurry at the power forward spot off the bench, you know, like even Darius Singala, uh, like when he played with the the early 2000 Kings, like a dude who just goes out there and like when he’s on the floor, he’s very productive. And I don’t know if it’s going to equate to a rotation spot or not, but I mean the Kings clearly have like a hole at that position like behind Keegan Murray. And if Keegan Murray gets injured, I’m not sure who plays who’s the starting four. It’s probably Isaac Jones at this point. Um because I mean again, we don’t know if Dario Sarge can even play. He played what 16 games last year for Denver and we don’t even know if he’s going to make the roster. Denver had depth issues. like they if he could play they would have put him out there I would think. Well, especially when they lost Aaron Gordon in the playoffs and and didn’t have anyone to fill the spot and Dario Sarge sat on the bench and didn’t get a minute. So, I I to me it’s um like I’m excited for Isaac Jones. I loved what he he did on like the the semi-final game where he went for what 30 36 34 36. Uh and then, you know, the big three-point shot put him up to what 24 and 11 in the finals. Um like look, I I thought he was tremendous. He would have been the the finals MVP if the Kings would have somehow won that game. You guys are just dying at the chat this whole entire time. How many of those books behind you have you read? Yeah, you might have to answer that question. There’s a little someone called you out with the book accusations. How many books? I’ve read most of these books. I have a degree in US history. Fair. Take that whoever said take that whoever you are. Yeah. Yeah. So, actually over here if anyone uh is uh interested, needs a good summer read. Uh spectacular book. Uh huh. Confederates early 2000. In the attic. Confederates in the attic. No, it’s it’s absolutely tremendous. No, it’s it’s uh yeah, it it it’s a very very good book about the way that history is viewed today versus, you know, the way we look back at things. Is it a feelood? Uh, no, it’s not a feel good. It’s it’s uh it’s real. It’s it’s not uh it’s non-fiction. So, yes. So, I have read most of these books, if not all of these books. I mean, I I don’t know what to tell you. Uh anyway, does I was curious if this back of four conversation was going to be a segue into Maxim RO who has seemingly a little bit of versatility. I don’t know that uh not to get hopes up, I don’t think that we’re talking about that in year one, but I think that’s part of the intrigue at least with Maxim at probably 72 with shoes on. I believe it’s 7 foot and 3/4 without shoes. Um, and you know, I I talked to coach Smith from Stanford a little bit and he thinks he’s a four. He he, you know, optimistic outcome. He was like he’s more Lori Markin than Luke Corett. And Lori Markin again, high-end, but like Kelly Ool type, right? Um, so that’s high praise. Yeah, definitely high praise. And again, keep in mind, it’s his collegiate coach. it it helps him out obviously to make him look good. But obviously you saw the versatility from Max being that size, being able to put the ball on the floor, shoot the way that he does um attack closeouts, finish around the rim, a little bit of passing, like good I I would say good foot speed defensively at shuffling and defending the four is where I’m like don’t know quite about this. Maybe if we’re if they’re playing Cleveland or Minnesota or New York or one of these big teams, that’s where you can get away with it. And I think having the optionality for Doug Christie could be a benefit. Um, but we we’ll see if that even is the case in year one. But he’s a very interesting player to me. I I don’t want this to sound like I’m dismissive of of Max, but like uh I I’m looking forward to seeing him in Stockton, right? Because like to me, he’s going to get minutes there, especially early on. And I’m not trying to say he’s not going to be a rotational piece, but I just don’t envision that happening right away for him. And I’m really curious to see what his um his development is like. Like to me, I can envision Nick as a plug-andplay right away. I can see where somebody like Max Reo where he can contribute, but I don’t see it as consistently and as um bulky of minutes and regular and consistent as I do with with what neat can provide um in some of the being able to play like two or three positions. So, um, that one’s the most, uh, pro I wouldn’t say question mark, but it certainly captures my curiosity and I do want to see him at that Stockton level give him reps there and really I think he’s not he’s not lacking for confidence, but getting that confident that that confidence at the G-League level and taking that next prog that progression for him would be uh, would be nice to see. A lot of what you’re seeing Perry do, sorry James, is just bet on the person. And I think that’s obviously the skill set here as well. But with Max, I think you are betting on the person, like an extremely smart um individual from all accounts, computer science major. Um, coach had joked that he could probably make more money outside of basketball if he really wanted. Um, and this was a guy that was told not to foul on defense at Stanford because he was their primary guy offensively. So coming to the NBA, you’re going to need to be able to play some defense. And it’s intriguing to me that if he can put full effort into that end of the floor, he’s going to have a different position. To to Sean’s point, I think Stockton will be beneficial for that. But it’s a guy that, you know, everybody’s talking about how much he’s talking when we’re out there in Vegas. I don’t know how much you can hear over the broadcast, but I’d imagine that you can because he is hear all over the gym. Yeah. It’s crazy. The entire time, even when he’s not playing, sitting there in street clothes. Um, he said he gets a kick out of pissing off the other team by calling out their play coverages. So, I I think he says all the things that make you want to bet on him, but you definitely there there’s some growth that needs to be done. Yeah. So, when I’m watching him, I do see his ability to get out and defend in space and like there is an outside shot that they can create him uh like more of a a four five out of him than just a straight five. And so I like I’m okay with like I think that like the next 10 weeks where the Kings aren’t playing and and we haven’t got to, you know, uh to media day and and training camp, but this is when a lot of players like you just got a taste for what the league looks like. You just the Kings just got to go look at a player that they drafted but not in Stanford system, in their own system a little bit. And like there were some things that he did that I thought were just off the charts. Like the passes that like came out of nowhere. The the bounce pass he hit to Isaac Jones was crazy. Like there’s plenty of things that I saw that I’m like, “Okay, I I want to see where this goes.” Um, but I also think that the Kings training staff are going to get with him and like try to figure out ways to uh work on his footwork. They’re going to figure out ways to get him tougher, but I don’t think they’re going to bulk him up quite yet because I kind of have the same feeling that that his coach at Stanford does that there’s a possibility he can play a stretch four. And if you can, you know, somehow figure that out without bulking him up, figure out how to for him to be tougher, without bulking him up, then it gives him an opportunity to play alongside Domomas at some point. Um, I don’t like again like Drew Eubanks is a backup center right now and I’m not over the moon excited to see Drew Eubanks play a play a bunch of basketball. Um, just because you know Drew Eubanks is a perfectly fine player but he’s usually uh in if you’re looking at your roster number 11 through 15. He’s not usually number six through 10. And as of right now he’s 6 through 10. And I think one of the reasons why they traded Valenunis because if they didn’t, it would basically landlock uh Reo where he wouldn’t play at all his whole rookie season. I think by making a move and bringing in Eubanks, Eubanks will will likely get the looks early in the season while you’re trying to figure out how good your team is. But once you figure out where you are as a team, they’re going to shift gears pretty quickly to Reno and because I, you know, again, I don’t know how competitive this team is going to be. Um it’s possible that they they’re in it. Uh but I also think that there’s going to come a point where you’re like, “Okay, you know, we’re not going to sit uh you know, what could be a promising young player uh for a guy who is career like either in the rot the back end of the rotation or out of the rotation completely like Eubanks. Yes. the Drew Eubanks uh doesn’t doesn’t doesn’t uh capture your curiosity there, right? Doesn’t uh I mean Phil’s fills the position like I I think that he has been a solid backup center, whatever that may mean to be honest, meaning like 12 minutes a night, you know, he’s backing up uh your one of your best players is your center. like when Domos is healthy and more often than not he usually is. He’s playing 35 minutes and you have another 13 that you got to figure out and I think that having Eubanks fill that having the optionality of Isaac Jones to fill that um maybe you see Max like you’re talking about there as well James down the line I think you give that an option um or give it a look and at least you just have somebody there that I think you know what you’re getting with Drew Eubanks even if that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re getting a whole lot. I also don’t think that he’s the backup center if I’m being honest. Do you James? I mean, you know, you identified him there, but I don’t know if that’ll shake out. Who is then? I mean, I’d rather play Isaac Jones than Drew Ebanks. Okay. And and and to be honest, then who’s your backup for? I think if I mean I’m not expecting much from Dario Charich but if I I think he’s a better player than Drew Eubanks if I’m being honest like if between the two of them uh I I like Eubanks activity. Charich is more skilled and if Scar if Charich is healthy then that’s always Yeah. What I’ve been told about what I’ve been told about Eubanks is they like his ability to get up and down the court and that, you know, realistically, you have a couple of players that are going to be on this team that aren’t going to they’re not going to block the growth of a of a young player. And so when I look at, let’s just say like Zack Lavine is going to block the growth of Keon Ellis because Zack Lavine’s going to play 32 to 34 minutes a night, right? But I think that even having a guy like at this point in his career Demar De Rozan going into his 36-y old season, I don’t know how much he’s blocking Nick uh Clifford. He’s going to a little bit, but I also look at when they they just signed Doug McDermott uh today. Like Doug McDermott’s not going to block Nick Clifford from playing. Well, he’s also he’s those guys are not going to play. I think that’s what I was getting to is your your backup center like they’re not going that deep into the rotation consistently. And so if you think of the triad of Eubanks, Charich, Reo, if you add a third, I mean Jones, those three, like there’s one there’s Yeah, there’s really only one person that’s coming out of that consistently, right? But somebody is going to have to back up Keegan as well. Is there a world where it’s tomorrow? You could go small, you know. I Oh, boy. Everybody, I mean, yeah, where we’re at. Yeah. Yeah, I guess. No, I mean, look at your look, just look at your numbers. And again, this the season is far from starting, you know, it’s but you just look at your numbers right now. What’s your rotation look like? I mean, Keon’s going to play a three quite often. You think so? Would he not? Well, on the team. Yeah, because that’s where like we were talking about this today, me and Kyle on the insiders and like let’s just say that you have Shruder and um and uh and Monk are both going to play like 26 to 28 minutes, right? So, let’s just be conservative and say that’s 54 minutes of point guard. So, you’re already at six minutes of shooting guard that you have to steal. So then like how are you going to steal minutes when you know Keon Ellis is a guy who should be playing 26 minutes at a minimum probably 30 but let’s just say 26 but then on top of that you’ve got a 32 minute per game uh Zack Lavine. So now that position I’m at 58 minutes. So what? Now I’ve got to steal 10 minutes from that position from somewhere. I I got to steal 10 minutes somewhere else from that position and I got to steal the other six minutes from the the point guard position. So now I’m like 16 minutes that I’m going to have to steal from the small forward spot and that means that Nick Clifford isn’t going to play at all because you know that you were already looking at biting into Demar De Rozan’s minutes and like so I think it is complex, right? It’s gonna it’s gonna be difficult to figure it all out. And I I I get, you know, the the comment, it’s a long season and people get hurt. Yeah. Sure. Sure. But that’s that’s not going to like if you’re writing out a pre-season, this is what we hope is going to be our rotation. um like I I think you know again having a guy like Doug Mcderman on the bench who has one elite skill um and is a great teammate and is willing to just play to his strengths and just do his one elite skill. That’s a good thing because you know what you’re going to get and sometimes you’re going to need it and you’re going to be like, “Hey Doug, we some no one can hit a three tonight. Go help us.” And then other times you’re just not going to play him for three weeks. seems hard to get him on the floor. I mean, I think it’s going to be the same dilemma that they faced last year when it came to Doug McDermott is putting him on the floor and and like are they better defensively to withstand what he doesn’t offer on the defensive end um than they were last year? Does that make sense? Like are they more physical or are they more of a team that can see I think they’re so much of the same that I just don’t see where he totally fits. But obviously shooting is at a premium and you definitely need it. But I just don’t I question how much rotational minutes he’ll get. Yeah, Brandon, there’s no face behind me for what it’s worth. The chat is freaked out. The chat has successfully gotten Sean and I to turn around in the last five minutes here. Um yeah, that’s my smoke detector and it does flash. It doesn’t beep. That is one of that’s I wish it beeped. It’d be really funny. No, it works. So, I’m just saying it doesn’t you know how people have it like in their in their house and they don’t change their battery. Yeah, it might change. I’m very on top of battery. Yeah. While we were on vacation, the um the 9volt battery died in my youngest son. So, they just let it beep for the entire time we were gone because they didn’t know how to change a a light didn’t know how to change a battery. Yeah. Anyway, go ahead. Yeah. I mean, I I just don’t think that it’s not exactly doing Doug Christie many favors. I I would say like, as we’re going through here, there’s not a black and white, hey, this should be your top nine guys. You know, I think it’s going to be dependent on a game-to-ame basis. It’s going to be matchup based. It’s going to be who’s rolling a little bit. And you’re going to try to see have to see like does Dario Sarich give you something? Does Isaac Jones be able to play the four or you gonna have to do like is is Nate Clifford gonna have to slide down to the four a little bit which is a crappy thing I think to kind of ask him in his rookie year. Um but maybe there’s certain lineups where you can get away with that a little bit more when you’re talking a bench unit. Um maybe it’s Zack Lavine Demard Roen. you’re pulling Demar early and maybe Demar still starts but he’s the first guy you pull four minutes into the game and then you’re putting him back out there and you know there’s a lot of times where it’s like you know we do prefer to put Demar D Rozan on the Aaron Gordon of this team you know and he is a little bit of a stronger more physical guy even if the foot speed is not quite there so not exactly the most ideal scenario with all of this stuff um but I I guess they have option maybe optionality is not the thing, best wording for this, I guess, but things to play with based on who they are matching up with on any given night in that second unit. Yeah. I think it’s funny, too, cuz you’re like, “Oh, they might have to force Nick Clifford to go play the four.” It’s like they’re forcing Ke Murray to play the four 38 minutes a night for the last two years. Like, sorry, bro. We ain’t got nobody else. You’re going over there and playing it. Yeah, it’s tough. Um and and someone does bring up a point too, like they they lost Jake Larravia and they lost Trey Lyles and they did not bring in anyone to truly replace those players. No one at 68 69 unless you want to count Darios Arch. Um which again I’m not convinced is going to play all that much. And again, there’s a possibility after looking at their salary over the last couple of days. Um, like the Doug McDermott like addition, it ate up the rest of their cap space. They’re at the luxury tax. They’re right below it. um like within a million from my like math because you have to count the bonus money for Sabonis and uh and Demar de Rosen which accounts for like 3.7 million and it puts him right at the luxury tax. So yeah, not a not a great look. Trey Lyles hasn’t got traded Manny too little. Um Trey Lyles is uh is a restrictive free agent. I think it’s too legit if I’m not mistaken. I think you called him too little. Oh, my bad. Too legit, Manny. Too legit. My bad. Yeah. Sorry. Sorry, Manny. James, question with the um like you’re saying, right up against the luxury tax. Obviously, they can bring more guys into training camp and on some non-g guaranteed deals. How does that sort of come into play? Like Terrence Davis only becomes guaranteed if he makes it through. I believe Drew Eubanks is another non-g guaranteed Yeah, I mean that’s going to be the problem. Like you’re going to have to figure out who makes a team and who doesn’t, but um like they are really really close to luxury tax. So if they’re going to give a guy like 150,000 to show up to training camp, that counts against your luxury cap uh your luxury tax bill, uh like the again, we always talk about this gray area between salary cap and the luxury tax, right? the kings are right up against it. But the luxury tax for the purpose of going out and using something like the mid-level exception right now those uh those potential bonus dollars count. But at the end of the season, if they don’t get those that bonus money, then that money falls off your books and it doesn’t count towards your luxury tax. Right? So you got to remember your luxury tax is at the end of the season. But keep this in mind that the Kings are hardcapped at the first apron which is I think 10 million above the the luxury tax. So the luxury tax is 88 million. The first aprons at 98 million. So if the Kings are really close to the luxury tax counting those three four million bucks and and bonuses um then they only have 10 million to play with. And so that’s where, you know, again, it’s com it’s complicated and the Kings are not going to pay the luxury tax for a team that may or may not make the playoffs. Like that’s at least what I’ve I’ve heard from them. So, nor should they. I mean, nor should they. I agree with you 100%. Like I I’ve always been the same way. Yep. Anyway, what did we um what do we think of Devon’s performance? I I kind of want to start with uh Devin Carter obviously we’re talking about but Ryan Caulk Rener guarding him in that championship game sevenfooter above seven foot from Kraton uh actually picked a little bit before Maximo in that second round they clearly could care less if Devin was shooting the ball. Um the fact that you’re putting a big on him was really like a wo moment for me at least. Um, and especially cuz he didn’t really do that much about it. I I think uh he dip rest of the team, whoever it may have been, did a good job recognizing it and then they started to go to it a little bit specifically in that second quarter. He knocks down one three and then he’s able to attack uh after um Cockrunners closing out a little bit in some scenarios. But I thought it was a very up and down perform uh just summer league in total for Devin. Obviously, there’s the 30-point performance in game two. There’s game one where he says his shoulders hurting. I’m sitting there, I don’t know how much you saw this, too, Sean, but I remember if it was game three or four, but he was in pain on the bench. Like, at one point, I see him mouththing to an assistant. It hurts like bad and every time I play, something happens, he said. Right. Like, and this is I I feel bad for the guy. And I really, you know, not to tell people how to fan. I think it’s unfair to be on him for being injured. I will say, um, but it’s a frustrating thing and it makes it tough to evaluate him and, you know, like I don’t know how much I can always have the caveat of, well, we don’t even know if he’s healthy right now. Like, you have to evaluate what he’s doing performance-wise. And it was very up and down. There was the one good game, and I honestly thought he still was forcing a little bit in that one. The team had a good flow for the most part. And I thought he took them out of it a lot to be honest. I was going to point that out because I honestly wasn’t too concerned about how he shot the ball cuz honestly I think he did that to kind of give himself a little bit of grace and a little bit of comfort and confidence after coming out of that first game. And yeah, he goes 11 of 13 and that’s tremendous. I know he shot like the rest of the basically the entire summer league. But taking that aside, like what else are you doing? Are you rebounding still? You playing defense? I was looking more as some point guard roles like how you move the ball, how do you handle, how quick are you? Um, and I think he looked, look, I know people are going to harp on the three-point shooting and they don’t like the way that looks. That’s fine. Set that aside. I thought he actually played pretty tough uh in that in that final game. I think he helped bring the the really lead the rally in the charge um in the in the early portion of that of that comeback. Um, I think his defense was was pretty solid. Um, but I still wanted more. He left me really wanting more out of it, um, for certain. And I think often times we’re going to look at him, and I think this is how he looks at the game, too, is that in order for him to be successful at the NBA level, that he has to be a guy who’s scoring at a high volume. And to me, I don’t think that’s the answer. To me, there’s other areas that he impacts the game very well without even really like it just comes naturally to him. defense, rebounding, all that stuff. If he could pick up his his pace, if he could pick up uh some of the ball handling and and playmaking duties that they’re trying to add to his evolution as a player, I think that’ll be fine. I think the the way he can get into the paint and kind of get creativity, get a little creative. I think oftentimes a lot of his scoring was coming off of leakouts. Um that I think that’s heads up play for for sure, but that’s also why I don’t really take too much of his scoring into effect. Like I I’m not impressed. Yeah. I mean, I’m not I’m not really too impressed of whether he’s going to score the ball or not. Like shooting whatever you’re dealing with with your shoulder. I mean, get that fixed, get that going. But I I do think that there’s things that he can bring to the game. And I think he did display some of those things, but in my mind, it wasn’t enough. And if you couple in the the shooting struggles that he had, certainly there’s some concern there. Yeah. I think one of the problems that I had too and and I think we you know we can’t keep saying hey it’s just summer league it’s just summer league it’s just summer league and then roast a young player who didn’t have a summer league it’s rookie season and played sparingly the whole second half of the season so I think it’s tough to roast him for it but at the same time when you have someone else that is coming into the league basically the same age and you want to sit there and and compare well you’re forced should compare him and Nick Clifford, right? Because all a sudden you ask Nick Clifford to go run the point and he’s out there running the point and he’s setting up the offense and he’s getting everything going. And so I think there is like a a major issue with what we’re we’re instantly able to see and the fact that he doesn’t have natural point guard skills. And I always I’ve hated this forever because you know Sean and I have covered so many pre-draft workouts over the last 15 and like 20 years for Shawn. But like so many pre-draft workouts when a kid comes in and tells you, “Oh, I can play the point guard. I can play the point guard.” It’s like, “No, you can’t. you’re 6’2 shooting guard and we all know it. Like stop trying to say that you can do something that you can’t. Well, I felt like like the buildup to summer league was the same thing. It was Devin Carter sitting here telling everybody how he played point guard in high school and how he played point guard his first two years of Providence. And you’re like, “Okay, man.” Like, you may have played what you thought was considered a point guard position, but it was just because you’re the shortest guy on the court. you did not play a point guard position. You didn’t set your teammates up. And so I I watched him the whole time like struggling with who he is as a basketball player and wanting to score score. And then when it dawned on him that he wasn’t actually setting up his teammates at all, he would get to the lane and normally he would try to score and then he was like, “Oh no, I got here. Now I don’t know what to do. I’m stuck.” And so it wasn’t crisp. It wasn’t part of the offense. And I felt for him because like the honest truth, he’s an undersized like combo guard and that’s okay. Like combo 6’2 combo guards play in the NBA, but you’re not going to play with the Kings when you know sort of the way that the the roster is set up is you already have two, you know, two major minute point guards, you’ve got two major minute shooting guards. Like where are you going to fit? And it just for me it made it really tough. I will say I think that he has said many times that he has never played point guard in his life. What? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I I it’s funny though because I do feel like I remember very early on him mentioning the idea of playing point guard a little bit in college, but more recently I remember him multiple times saying that he has never played point guard in his life. Um, and I swear I heard him say that. And they’d put him in position at Providence to be a leak out like where just grab and go and push ahead. And if if he could even do that like that would be a step in the right direction. There’s I thought he did fine with the lead out pass. Like again I thought like he was grabbing rebounds and firing him up the court. I thought okay that’s fine. I I mean I don’t want this to be a whole all over Devin Carter because I know a lot of people are because I’m not trying to either. the the the I think there’s a lot of positives that came from it and realizing that he’s being asked to play something that’s different from what his comfort role is. Um like I think you’ll see something different like his competitive spirit is always there. Um and I like that and and yeah, he’s trying to play through um pain in the shoulder that may always just be there. Uh I know he talked about it uh after you know injuring going over the recovery the second time after he had the on his other shoulder um talking about just feeling discomfort and as someone like myself even in high school football stuff just you know hurting and dislocating your shoulder when it gets cold or you utilize it a lot you feel it and he’s had surgery I never had surgery so there’s there’s discomfort and I think you’re just going to have to that’s just going to be part of it I don’t think it’ll ever be 100% but that being said like I still think that there’s a path pathway for him. Certainly for this year, he’s odd man out. And if he’s on the roster, you know, as someone mentioned earlier, injuries are part of it, trades are part of it. Like the landscape can change very, very, very quickly. But if it doesn’t, he’s got a whole year to try to develop at the NBA level, try to make the most of the opportunities when given to him, and his games become practices. And there are he does scratch uh check boxes on this team in terms of defense rebounding um things like that which would be a would be a lot of fun to that you could use. He’s just buried on the depth chart and the be honest and to be honest I want to caveat that he also may not be an NBA player and so all those are taking into account right now and how his development comes it doesn’t mean he has to be ready for this year but maximizing opportunity when he gets it we’ll see where he’s at. you don’t usually grade a a pick until three years down the line and wherever your team is at. So, I think their patience will will have to be a part of his evolution as well. Yeah, they say point guards take a while in the NBA. I would say they take even longer when you never played point guard before. Um, but I I think the main reason that I point to the shooting initially is because I do think a lot of the other things are there like you mentioned the rebounding, the effort level. You never have to question the defense. He He has good length for his size. Even if he is a 6’2 guy, I think he has good length. He’s a 42 inch vertical. That’s the same vertical that Malik Monk recorded. 69 wingspan. Yeah. Yeah. There there’s there’s tools. The rebounding is phenomenal. He was getting more rebounds than Donovan Klingan in college. Um he had really good touch around the rim in college and I think that you see a little bit of that sometimes. So there’s pieces there. I just I don’t know about the whole point guard thing. Personally, I think I side more with you, James. I think he’s a combo guard. I think that’s fine, but I think the shot does have to get there is the biggest thing for me. Well, he’s a combo guard on he’s a combo guard on a team that already has two combo guards that are going to play major minutes. So, and that’s going to bring me to uh to my next my next uh topic uh which will just make the business of basketball. Wow, we got a good one. Uh, what do you think the people in that house are thinking when they hear that noise? They’ve already heard it. Look, it seems they’ve already heard it. Oh, have they? H true. Okay. Uh, it brings us to the other issue. Um, I I we’re going to talk about position battles and all that stuff and, you know, we mentioned stuff like Dario Sarich versus, you know, Isaac Jones and, you know, Drew Eubanks and like Maxim Mareno where they might fit into all of this thing, but we kind of got into a a discussion on the radio about this uh in the last two days. And I I think people look at me when I’m crazy. Uh but if I’m the Kings, if I’m Doug Christie and I’m going to hold an honest to goodness uh training camp where you know the old iron sharpens iron and and make players go out there and fight for their position. Um I’m going to roll the ball out there and tell Malik Monk and Dennis Shruder whoever plays the best wins a job. And you guys, you guys both went to the Dennis Shruder uh you know, press conference. Um but like look, Dennis Shruder has played like 842 games in his NBA career and 420 of them 24 of them have come off the bench. Like you didn’t go out and and sign a frontline starting point guard, not even a guy who started last year on most of the teams he was on. Um and he was on three of them. And and so I don’t quite like I think there’s a problem starting Malik Monk at point guard when you don’t have another Malik Monk to come off the bench and light a fuse and lead your team. But when you’ve got two Malik Monks, which is basically what you have with Shruder and Monk, I’m kind of of the opinion that like, hey, roll the ball out there and see who wins because like why not? I I mean Monk is four years younger than Dennis Shruder and he makes more money than Dennis Shruder. Like he’s shown to me that like he started what 45 out of 65 games last season. Like sure he started at the two, he started at the one. Like again I I think he’s a combo guard, but look at their assist numbers. Look at their like their turnover numbers, their shooting numbers. Like these two are very very similar as players. And so I’m more of the in the camp of like I I don’t really care who starts. I think they’re both going to play 26 28 minutes a game. Um but I I also don’t understand why we would just like all just believe right off the bat that Dennis Shruder is should be the starter when you know again half the games in his career he hasn’t started. I just don’t think that Malik Monk’s a point guard personally. Um, I think that, you know, maybe you could do it a little bit in stretches. Um, and ideally having another playmaker, like if he’s with Domas, then it’s a different story, right? Um, but I think that we saw it tried last year and it didn’t go very well. And even Malik sort of in uh exit interviews said that he felt most comfortable at the two. I I think a little bit of the difference in my mind is I I think that Dennis is more of a table setter than than Malik is. Not that Dennis won’t play out of himself sometimes, don’t get me wrong. Um, but I think that he’s more of a realizing that, hey, Zach hasn’t touched the ball in three possessions. I’m going to go towards that side of the floor. Um, and setting the tone in that direction. I think defensively too, like I asked Scott Perry about Dennis specifically, and like when when you say you’re looking for a point guard, is that about position? Is that a skill set? And he he just talked about how it is the guy that sets the tone on both ends of the floor. It is also the defensive end as he emphasized. You’re guarding the point of attack and Malik. That’s not a strength for Malik. I don’t know how much I would say it’s necessarily like a strength for Dennis. I think he’s okay to slightly like above average in that aspect for the most part. But I think that’s better than what we’re talking about with Malik, uh, personally. And so I I don’t think Dennis is coming in and is like a phenomenal point guard, but I think that we saw Malik not work in that way. And if you’re trying to change the tone and just energy that that group plays with that you can have somebody that’s a little bit more I guess in my mind lowmaintenance at that point guard spot. Low maintenance when it comes to onf floor like usage rate and how much they need compared to catering to other players around them. Yeah, it’s interesting because I think with with Malik it’s it’s they place like I get the whole fascination of will you start Malik over Shruder or vice versa. I think because of the nature of the way each of them play they’re vastly different players. Um, and I think that’s why it never bothers me um with Malik coming off the bench because he absolutely knows his role on the team. And I think I don’t know this to be true, but I think his the the role that he’s played the last two years, uh, I don’t think will be different coming into this year. maybe a little bit more point guard responsibility at times, but I still think they’re going to be asking him to play the same particular role that he’s done those first two years that he had with Darren Fox. Do you guys agree or disagree? Um, I would agree. What with Malik like being like the lightning rod off the bench? Correct. Yes. the the Vinnie Johnson, the guy who can go out there and um and and play that twoman game better than anybody on this team, especially with Deanna Sabonis. I think he’ll understand his role as that six-man and that microwave and that that scorer and being a little bit of a playmaker, but not having to be the sole point guard responsibilities. I think Dennis Shruder, on the other hand, comes in with a more traditional point guard type of mentality. Uh, and I don’t think I don’t think you want to take away from those responsibilities that Malik Monk has been asked to do over those past two years because I do think they equate to winning. I don’t think um putting a a a that type of scoring piece next to D. Rozan and Lavine and Sabonis and Keegan Murray. If that’s what your starting lineup is looking like, I don’t think you put those in a starting lineup. I think you need that contribution off the bench for a little bit more roster balance. So, um, to me, he’s he’s absolutely your six-man if he’s still on this team and you ask him to do essentially the same role you’ve always asked him to do. I love him in the six-man role. I I I’m not disagreeing with that. I just think that you didn’t go out and get a point guard that’s better than Malik Monk. And you guys can like we can look at usage. We can look at assist percentage. Their usage is basically the same. Their assist percentages are basically the same. their assist to turnover ratios are basically the same. One guy is like four years younger than the other. And and so for me, like I I think when you don’t have that type of player off the bench, then yeah, there’s a huge problem. The Kings ran into it last last year. Soon as you move Malik into the starting lineup for those 45 games, you lost Malik Monk off the bench. But now again, now you’ve got a guy who number one knows that role really well because he’s played that role most of his career, at least half of his career coming off the bench and Dennis Shruder, but also like look, I I think we’re discrediting like the passing ability of Malik Monk. He’s one of the best pick and roll distributors in the game like bar none. Like the statistics have backed that up. Monty McNair talked about it all the time. And the fact that Monty McNair talked about it but then didn’t go get him a lob threat was just like right gross negligence. I I will say I think I Yeah, I think specifically in the twoman game passing to the big is where Malik is good in the pick and roll. I think like spraying out to the other shooters on the other side of the floor is where maybe it’s not quite the same. Yeah. No, I I get it. I I’m just my point would be that, you know, it’s not like Shruder is a guy who who averages 10 assists a game and, you know, goes out there. I mean, for his career, he averages 4.9 assists per game, you know. Yeah. And I also think I mean to that point though, like I I do feel I’ve said this before, Malik Monk coming off the bench, great. Like you can still play him starters minutes. He can play more minutes than Dennis Shruder does even as a starter. And I think that might bear fruit there. Like I I think at the end of the day, you’ll probably see that more times than not. And and I’m curious to see what the what what if they go with a similar starting five that they’ve had. Um especially now that they have added that quote unquote prototypical point guard that they’re looking for. And I think James, you made a great point there about what Malik does and how he compares a shooter. But the mentality that they come with as a as they approach the point guard position is vastly different. like one is very much more a spread the floor, set up teammates. Malik Monk is still going to look for his more so than what Dennis Dennis Shruder is capable of playing that role, I think, better in terms of the prototype of a point guard. Um, but Malik Monk can be very much a go-getter and go get you a bucket. Yeah. I I mean, he’s a much better shooter, too. I mean, that that’s undeniable. Statistically speaking, I’m going to tell you they’re almost identical even on twos and threes for their careers. Like there is not a lot of difference there. To be honest, I don’t think either one is a really good answer. Like I think that the team both of them are great answers. Yeah, Brandon, they’re both great answers at the at the Malik Monk six-man role. Yes, they are. They’re both great answers. And that’s where I’m like, “Hey, look, you know, are we going to just say Malik Monk can’t play the point?” I I’d rather give him, you know, at least a fighter’s chance going into camp, say, “All right, man. If you think you’re still a starter on this team, that’s fine. Go ahead and prove it. Let’s see it.” But the way the Kings have set themselves up with potentially, you know, with Malik Monk’s name being mentioned in in so many different trade scenarios, um I do think that that would make it difficult as well. Um, and it doesn’t help when your coach, your GM, your star center all come out and the first thing they say is, “We need a point guard.” Um, but again, I I just don’t know that the Kings they didn’t fully address the position and certainly didn’t get a long-term answer uh at the position. So, interesting stuff. I I figured it was good food for thought and and discussion because again, you guys can look at the numbers side by side. I I will say Dennis Rutder is a he’s a better defender. Um but by how much leaps and bounds I I don’t think, you know, it’s it’s it’s not huge. I will say I don’t think the stats tell this the whole story when it comes to Shruder in in this regard. Malik has had the benefit of being on the same team for the past few years. Dennis Shruder has not. So, the role he plays on all these different scenarios, particularly playing on five different teams over the last two seasons will definitely screw up what you’re doing if you’re looking at his stats because the role he played in Detroit was vastly different than what he played with the Warriors, which was vastly different from what he played with with Brooklyn. Yeah. And the role he’s gonna play in Sacramento none of them, right? Yeah. Yeah. And and if you go through his career, it’s been a lot of that. You know, he went from being the starting point guard in 1617 and 1718 of the Atlanta Hawks, starting 78 and 67 games. Every game he played, he started for two years. Then he ends up at OKC and and only starts 14 out of 79 games. And and again becomes a 15 and a half point and four assists per game guy. He basically became Malik Monk. Uh you know, and was in the running for sixth man of the year. one year he was eighth, one year he was second. And so, like, look, I get it. But that’s that’s kind of my point. Like, we’re talking about a a placeholder and you don’t have the guy who’s holding the place for at all. And so, for right now, I like I have no idea what they’re going to do at that position. But I’m not just instantly writing it off and saying, “Oh, let’s just, you know, it’s Dennis Shrutder’s team cuz that to me like he doesn’t just instantly like what we both said coming into this off season, Sean, they needed a top 15 point guard. They didn’t get one.” And so at this point, like it’s a coin flip to me which one of these guys is better. And and again, I think that Monk like he l him him moving into the starting lineup exposed the fact that the Kings didn’t have another player like him to fill his role off the bench and they they now have two dudes who do the same thing. And so you’re not going to have that big of a drag off the bench. Um so I’m intrigued either way. I also had to remind myself too cuz as we were talking about the two of them, I was like, did they cross paths when they were at the Lakers? And I know Shruder was there the year before and then Malik gets there 21-22 and then Shruder returns to the Lakers after Malik dips. So they’re like ships passing in the night. Really? Yeah. Did they Did Dennis ever play for Charlotte? He’s played everywhere else. I don’t think so. No, he did. He’s played everywhere else. No, he didn’t play there. He has. This is team 10, right? Crazy. Yeah. Yeah, it’s crazy. It’s crazy. Um All right. Let’s uh do you guys have any questions? Uh you guys throw us questions. This chat has been among my favorite. I don’t know what is happening. We might not want to take all time chat. We might not want to take questions from the chat tonight. You guys have been ridiculously funny but also ridiculous. Uh that hell of a question. You you cannot get a media credential. I don’t know what where do you what media outlet do you work for? Just wondering. Don’t Don’t give him the time of day. J, to be honest, hold on. To be honest, I know some people that I question that all the time, what media outlet they they work with. Um, word a friendly bet on the Keegan Murray $30 million over. I mean, no, I don’t want to make a friendly bet. I don’t want to make a bet, but okay. Yeah, I still think he’ll get over 28.5. I think you put that in the chat earlier. Um, yeah, I think they’re going to pay a little higher than that. I could be wrong. I think there’s a lot of bad contracts out there and those were some contracts that predate the aprons. But and also someone asked if I’d rather see the Kings win the championship or get a kiss on the cheeks by Rihanna. Not just a cheek. She He could be talking about something completely different. Hector, I don’t care what it is. I’m always taking the kiss by Rihanna. Are you out of your mind? Do we get a clarity on your answer though? Like I don’t know if I want. If you had to pick two of your four cheeks, Sean, which two are we picking? [Laughter] Jesus, Brendon. That’s wild. Asking the important questions here. Uh, make me blush. Make me blush. Uh, let’s hope that’s not true. Uh, that local guy. Uh, what happened? It’s not true. It’s not true. You know him, James. You’ve met That’s Drew. You’ve met him. I know who it is. I know who Sure. I’m making sure. Hey, uh, for what it’s worth, uh, NBA guru show, I’ll take the under as well on the 28.5. Um, just because the market the market is not good for anybody at this point. Uh, we have not set up a a live show. Uh, we’re not going to do a live show. We’re going to do a live meet and greet. I’ve had a busy summer, man. I’ve had a I’ve had a busy summer. Where’s the Where’s the I’ve got a kid who’s about to be a senior in high school. I’ve got a kid who’s about to move away to college. I’ve had a busy summer. Um, Cabo boats. Yeah. No Vegas. Gotcha. Um, let’s see this question. Um, Andrew, where is Nick getting uh his 25 minutes? Malik is 25, Keon 25, and Shruder, Lavine, Dear all get 30. to be honest with you. Um I I’m going to put D Rozan’s minutes closer to like 28 this year. Um Lavine at 34. I mean 32. Yeah, I don’t know. You’re going to have to figure uh find a spot for him. I I 12 to 16 minutes is what he’s probably going to start early in the season and see if he can grow from there. But that’s a good start. Yeah. I mean, a rookie is not coming in and playing 25 minutes right away, especially just with the the con construct of this roster currently. But this could this team could look really different by the deadline passing and NE could look a lot more comfortable by then too and maybe it’ll all work itself out in that way. Yep. Oh no. What happened? Uh I don’t like when James goes, “Oh no, it’s typically really bad.” Yeah. U Okay, what else we got? Uh Chris Choya, yeah, your Angels lost to the Mets. I have a question about the Angels. I’m like 40 minutes from the stadium. Have either of you been there? And is it horrible or is it worth it at all? Like they’re also like I could spend like $15 to go to a game. So, well, that that’s the thing. The team sucks, but if you can see someone like Trout, the the the setup for the stadium sucks. Uh but I’d go. You got nothing else to do, go check it out. You never been there? It’s baseball, man. I have not. Like water feature they got sucks or cool. Yeah, it sucks. But but it’s a ballpark. It’s Look, it’s it’s major league baseball. It’s cheap. It’s not that expensive, you know. So, and it depends if you’re going to have like a a bucket list to like hit every Major League Baseball stadium. So, if you’re right there, you might as well go go to a Dodgers game when you’re down to San San Diego. No, you don’t need to go to the Dodgers game, but you could go. I’ve already been to Dodgers. Dodgers is fine. If if San Diego were to have been playing this week, I would have gone because I haven’t done that one and everybody says PCO is beautiful, but didn’t work out. It’s cool. Um, let’s see. Uh, we do have this from Manny in the chat. Um, there are a lot of free agents still out there. Any chance the Kings take a swing at someone? U, we talked about this earlier, Manny, but man, the Kings are out of cash. Like, so unless they start waving people, um, they’re going to have a difficult time making a bunch of additions at this point. So, um, you know, again, I think, you know, someone asked about Precious Aua. Uh the other one I think um is uh Chris Buchet who would actually kind of fit because they don’t have that that long athletic shot blocking stretch four five. Um you know again they don’t have a third point guard. So uh you know they’re not spending the MLE on Westbrook but um you know they’re again how are you going to play Westbrook if you already don’t have minutes for other players? So, uh, odds of a Keon extension. What do you guys think on this one? Yeah, it’ll get taken care of. Wow. Oh, I mean, yeah, I don’t think that’s I don’t think that that’s out of the out of the question, like soon. No, I mean think you’ll they’ll do it maybe within the season whenever that thing becomes uh eligible to maybe December. He’s eligible now. I think he’s now they’ll figure that they’ll figure that out. Yeah. Yeah. There was a reason why he might not be eligible for it now, but I think that that was debunked. I think he is eligible now. No, I think it’s a you know, they want those guys around and I don’t think that there’s anything, you know, I think both sides that both the organization and his people, they they all understand that they kept him out of restricted free agency, which I would argue is a good thing. I think the markets are showing that right now with all the players that are in restricted free agency. So they I think they did right by him and they’ve got his ultimately his best interest at hand. They they want to keep him in a Kings uniform. So Keon I think Keegan that thing will be a little bit more figured out, but we’ll see. I know Drew, you’re just you’re just being funny, but so they need to clear cap space. They don’t need to clear cap space this season to sign Keon. Any deal they give him would be for next year’s contract, not this year’s contract. Um he there’s no way for the Kings to get low enough below the cap at this point that they could renegotiate and extend his contract. Um so that would be a very very difficult situation. Someone asked about I did not go to Rakim by the way. Didn’t know that that music venue was operating and bringing in some acts. So, I’m excited to see what they have on their calendar. Um, I know it’s off Del Paso over there by I think like rodeo joint. It’s called The Rink. It’s a It’s a music venue that’s on Del Paso. Um, he had they had Rakim in there and usually it’s Eric B and Rockim. That’s all. They’re always together, it seems like. But no, this was just Rockim. So, um, I did not go to that concert, but it would have been cool. I actually heard about it way too late. There was no way I was going to make it. Okay. Um, I I uh I did go see on Sunday. On Sunday I went to see You’re going to laugh because it’s old school, but I went to go see uh Toad’s Wet Sprocket. I would not laugh. That’d be fun. Uh it was a it was actually a great show and it was at the quarry in Rockland which I had never been to but they have like a ropes course and it’s literally like an old functional quarry rock quarry and um and they’ve made like a really cool small amplitheater there. Uh and like it sounded great. It was super cool. Uh we had a great time. I’ve seen Glenn Phillips or Toad the Wet Sprocket in concert like 10 or 11 times at this point, but um one of my favorite bands from like the 90s. Brendan has no idea who that is. No clue. Like a Wet Sprocket. What? What’ you say? You would hear like a couple of songs and know them. Um but yeah, I’ll take your word for it. I’m jealous if somebody saw Shakira at Oracle Park last month. I didn’t even know she was there. I know she was, but I didn’t know she was there. Did you actually use your hoy tickets? I did. Yes, I did. How’d that go? Uh, it was uh I don’t know if they were in the house or anything, but they were they were up there, but there is there really a bad seat in No, that Thunder Valley venue. Um I’ve seen her a lot of I’ve seen her several several times and uh I’ve seen her both at the Hard Rock in Sacramento. I’ve seen her at um music festival. Now I’ve seen her at uh Thunder Valley. That was a lot of fun. But there was it was cool because like her her uh show is never quite the same in terms of set list. I mean obviously she’ll have her hits that she’s going to get to, but she plays a lot of bides, which is somebody like me who likes Hoy very much. Um very very fun. So and she had like audience members come up and do these like choose your own path kind of thing. I can do any one of these four songs and they kind of choose which one they want her to do and it’s pretty cool. Oh, that’s cool. Yeah. What a what a great venue. You know what? Um like 10 15 years ago, there were no good venues here in Sacramento. Like like Sean and I grew up with Cal Expo and Arco Arena being like the only venues. Now having Golden One, having um you know again the Toyota Amphitheater out in Wheatland, having the Hard Rock, having like all of these venues are super cool. So you got more coming too. You got the one that just opened up down uh channel 24. You got another one coming to the rail yards. There’s like another one supposed to be by SAK State. There’s we’re we’re we’re taken care of here in this region. So, it’ll be Yeah, it’s ab absolutely crazy. I don’t know why Brendan’s in the chat now. I’m Yeah, I struggled. I accidentally pressed send twice. It’s embarrassing myself out here. I’m I’m I was trying to respond to Chris without just taking over the conversation. He asked when is the last next time in the 805? I’m near now is what I’m attempting to say. How long are you down in Southern California? Uh through this weekend. All right. Are you going to the the uh lake again this year or thinks uh at some point at some point during the offseason, but not like this week necessarily? We have to have a lake day. You guys need to come up here. Um hey, we’re getting close to the end here. Uh tons of people still in the chat. If you guys don’t mind, uh, we’d love it if you hit the thumbs up for us. Let me see if I can actually make it happen. Um, no. Oh, you got it. Little bubble. Yes. Uh, so, uh, that’s number one. Uh, number two, subscribe to the channel. Uh, set the little, uh, ding, uh, the little bell next when you subscribe. Get alerted so much. That’s it. That’s it. Uh, let’s see. Uh, what else we got? Uh, let’s get to final thoughts. Uh, what do you guys got? Brennan, final thoughts from Brennan Nunees. Um, I just a fog of There’s always a lot going on up here and it’s just hard to figure out like what there’s so much hair. Yeah. Yeah. There’s a lot going on under here. Um, I got to sit down with Scott Perry in Vegas. So, I would uh say go check that out. I was It was a fun moment for me. I mean, just like even outside of, you know, the um conversation with Scott, it’s the first time I’ve gotten to do a sidebyside sit down like that. So, a little bit of nerves and I’m sure that you can notice some of that in in parts of it, but I thought it went out. It went all right. So, would appreciate people checking that out. And if anybody has, you know, two cents on how I can do it better moving forward, feel free to let me know. But, uh, I thought summer league was a good time. I also will say that I really enjoyed interacting with, uh, coach Depes Mystery. I think that he was really well spoken. He was a super nice guy. I thought that they did a good job of making adjustments throughout the course of summer league for what it’s worth. It’s only the six games, but um like mentioned the matchup with Kulkr Brener and Carter. I thought that those guys it’s a it’s a close name. You got to tow that line a little bit there. Um but maybe we should just call him Ryan. Yeah. But yeah, Ryan and Devin Nick Curts. Yes, exactly. So, uh, yeah, I thought I was impressed with the job that Dip did as well. And, um, yeah, I I just thought that it was a a pretty good time. But check out the interview with Scott. I will say in that interview, uh, I did enjoy it and I always applaud when somebody takes my approach, which is no notes, no note card for your interview. So, well done for that, Brendan. Oh, yeah. No notes. No notes. I had a note card and then it just went out the window. Scott sat next to me and there’s eye contact going on and my note card’s on the other side. I’m like, well, I can’t just like touch this thing anymore. Now we’re here. No. Have some bullet points you can glance at every once if you need to. And then extemporaneous speech. Yeah. Yeah. Don’t eat that. Listen. And and and you you listen to what the person has to say and oftentimes build your best questions off of a retort or anything like that. So, yeah, I think that’s that’s great. All right, Sean, what do you got? Final thoughts. Final thoughts. Um, I too sat down with Scott Perry. I got something with uh Nick Clifford. You can find those on the KC website and uh case and their YouTube channel or even on my stupid Twitter uh or X, whatever we call it these days. Um, also, God, I’m I’m having to switch to football mode very quickly. Um, I’m going to Niners camp tomorrow bright and early. I don’t like the 10:25 early morning sessions. I wish they would have the afternoon 1:00. Maybe that’ll change when the uh pads get on, but first 49ers training camp session. Will Jawan Jennings be there? I think he will. Um sounded like he would. Yeah. Yeah. And then what is it? Equinaneous. Equinim. Equinimius. Equinimus. Equinimius. Brown. Brown. Um Almond Raw St. Brown’s brother. But doesn’t Yeah. One of them. Almond Raw has the hyphen, right? Equinimius doesn’t. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. is one word. Yeah, but they got problems in the wide receiver core. I think they need uh I don’t know. I have some thoughts. I don’t uh I don’t love I would sign Keenan Allen. I would go out and sign somebody else. I wouldn’t What about What about Amari Cooper? I didn’t like that one. Okay. Odell Beckham. No, definitely not. No. Just don’t bring back River Cray. If I see him on the 49ers roster sheet again, we don’t need they don’t need that. I love River Cray. I don’t know what you’re talking about. Yes, I do. He played for Miami the last couple. Like I I I dig River Cray. Yep. Him. And then there’s another guy that played for Miami with a whackadoodle name. I take him on the on the 49ers, too. Um all right, let’s see. Final thoughts. Uh I I don’t think I have a bunch. Um, I did not get a sitdown with uh with Scott Perry because I was on vacation, but that doesn’t mean I may I didn’t speak to Scott Perry. So, we’re all even here. We’re all even in the game of life. Um, we should try to get Scott Perry on the podcast. Uh, Brennon, how would that work? We got like a Brady Bunch for Yeah, Brennan would have to make us a one of us just has to get out of here. Yeah, we just kick one of you guys out. Like I don’t know which one. By the way, can I just shout out Weezy’s comment because I think this is great comedy. He says he was considering Aman Ra for his son’s name, but he ended up picking Will instead. So good. That’s fantastic. Okay. Hey, how did I miss that one? The the kids they they have great names and that’s not like their first name, their second name. I think uh Equinaneius has like four names. Um like they they’re they’re interesting dudes. Yeah, that’s all one word. Equinimmus. It is one word. Yeah, it’s one word. Yeah. Well, yes, I know. I was like he has four names though. Like middle name. His name is actually actually Equinimmius Tristan Moteep Moteep J St. Brown. Okay. Yeah. Like EQ EQ. I Yeah. I don’t We also like I we like to do um uh nicknames look at basketball reference nicknames. Um Kyle and I and uh do you guys know Dario Sar’s uh nickname? Oh god, I forget. I did see this. I don’t remember though. No, I have no idea. Uh it’s ridiculous. Um the homie, he also goes by Super Dario or Oh yeah, I knew that part. I actually called him that Super Dario on our podcast when we Okay. Super Dario, but the homie. The homie. I did not I did not know. That is what Joel Embiid uh decided to call him and it stuck. So, it it also gets up on He also kind of has like a 70s porn star looking kind of look to him, you know? He’s got the stash. He’s got he he’s And not only he like he’s aware like he steered hard into this look. So, yeah. I think Stop laughing. Brennan’s trying to steal his look. Yeah. Yeah, that’s crazy. You shave that beard. Just leave the mustache Brendan. I’m good. You got it. We’ll call you Super Brendan. Um or we’ll call you the homie Brendan. Uh and we’ll just steal that nickname. Um all right, sweet. Uh that’s going to do it for this edition of the Kings podcast. Thanks for hanging out with us. I know it’s late. It’s 10:20 on a Tuesday night. Uh probably ruined a couple of people’s nights sleep. Uh but thanks for chilling. Thanks for hanging out. Uh, we’ll see you guys next week. We’ll have another episode. Um, I don’t have any more vacation set up. I don’t know if these guys do. So, we’ll be around. We’ll be around all summer. Uh, Sean looks like he’s got some sort of vacation that he wants to talk about, but we’re not going to let him. Uh, so, thanks for tuning in. Uh, again, uh, Kingsbe, go to the Kings Beat. Uh, become a sub subscriber. Uh, you know, give us a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel here on YouTube. All of those things help us. We ask a lot. Uh yeah, we do. We do ask a lot. Uh so for KC3, Sean Cunningham, and Brandon Nunes from some whatever podcast thing that he may have flashed up on the screen earlier. Uh I am James Ham, Kings Insider for ESPN 1320, the Kings Beat. See you very soon.

KCRA 3’s Sean Cunningham, Brenden Nunes from the Kings Pulse Podcast and The Kings Beat’s James Ham join forces for coverage of the Sacramento Kings.

Topics include the Kings’ Summer League Finals run, the development of Nique Clifford and Maxime Raynaud, what to do with Devin Carter, the addition of Doug McDermott and an episode of The Business of Basketball discussing the point guard position and whether there might be a camp battle.

Thanks for joining us on this adventure! Big shoutout to Paul Jinkerson (@paulitition) for creating a new intro and outro for the podcast and to Brenden for creating our new overlay for the podcast.

The Kings Beat merchandise shop: https://thekingsbeat.myshopify.com/

Jump on board with a premium subscription to The Kings Beat:
https://kings-beat.beehiiv.com/upgrade

Or start out with a free subscription to The Kings Beat:
https://kings-beat.beehiiv.com/subscribe

#BlueWireVideo

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