Do The Sacramento Kings Have 2 Top Shooting Guards?

Do The Sacramento Kings Have 2 Top Shooting Guards?

Um, we talked about this a little bit yesterday, but Hoops Hype came out with their uh they’re going through their top 26, which is always weird at, you know, their top 26 at every position, right? And I’m not quite sure why they chose 26 because there are 30 teams in the league. Um, and of course that doesn’t mean that every team is represented by each of these lists. Those last four point those last four players are just really bad, I guess. Yeah. Um, so I I always like to uh to to go through sort of their what it is that they believe, you know, sort of their parameters for making these lists. And uh this is from Hoop. The way we ranked these players was through a team vote so any biases could be put aside and also the results could be as as fair as possible. But it’s also a futures list, right? So um they’re just predicting. They’re not pred uh going off of last year’s stats. They’re predicting what they think will happen this year and where players will rank this year. Um so we’ll start first with the shooting guards list because uh there are two Sacramento Kings on this and Malik Monk is number 24 on the list. Uh I don’t have third from the bottom. Yeah. But I mean first of all Zack Lavine is number 10 on the list, right? So number 10 on the list that seems about right for Zack Lavine. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Zack Lavine is one of the most efficient scorers in the league without any question. I I don’t, you know, again, I can have problems with his defensive ability. I can have problems with the fact that some games he decides that he’s not going to play uh and not shoot the ball, and you’re like, what exactly is happening? Yeah, I feel like general over his career, the issues with Zack Lavine have been less about his ability to play basketball and more so his ability to be the guy on the on the team. Yeah. I mean, last year he shot 51% from the field and he shot 44.6% from three. Yeah. He’s one of the best shooters in the league. And not only that, but he’s he’s not a primary catch and shoot guy. So, he gives you something different. He he’s able to pull up off the dribble from 27 ft. And and when he gets hot, we all saw it last year, it’s absolutely incredible to watch. And the other thing I’d point out too with when it comes to Lavine is just how consistent he was last year. And for me, when you have a player who, you know, steps into a new team in a new situation midseason, um, you you don’t know what you’re going to get, right? And I I think when it came to Lavine, I was super impressed that in his 42 games with the Chicago Bulls, he shot 44.6% from three. In his 32 games with the Kings, he shot 44.6% from three. He shot 51.1 51.1% from the field with the Bulls and 51.1% from the field with the with the Kings. Consistency. I’ve never seen someone who’s so consistent across two teams in one season. Um if anything is his free throw percentage jumped to 87.4% from with the Kings where he was at 80% with uh 79.7 with the Bulls. but everything else was just like extremely consistent and uh and and efficient. And so for me, that’s why like I get him being number 10. Um I also think that, you know, if you’re looking at this season, that’s probably the the rumors about Monk potentially being on the table. Um you know, whether he’s going to be a Sacramento Sacramento king or not, that is probably impacting where he is on this list as well. I’d imagine so. And stay sticking with Malik Monk real quick. That whole thing is kind of just fizzled out like like how do I he he’s a perennial sixman of the year candidate. I don’t get why everyone and just whether it feels like it’s from the Kings or from teams not just wanting to trade for him or anything like that. This list it seems like everyone is just down on Malika. Yeah, I don’t I don’t agree with him being like a worse player than he was a year before. And like I don’t I understand the financial ramifications of Malik Monk’s contract and why he doesn’t make sense for the for a new management group in Sacramento. I’m asking you asking a question here with that like have we hit a point where just this new CBA the apron stuff has made it where $18 million per year is just like yeah that’s a little tough to keep around. I think that there are a lot of I think the NBA middle class is going to go away. And that’s what like I know it sounds weird to say he’s middle class, but in the NBA standards like 18 to 22 million is kind of the world players that are in between. Yeah. You have your your young players and your league minimum guys and then you have your like your sort of lower middle class which are like around the 10 to 14 million. Then you have this other range from like 15 to 25 million. And then from there you go to the like you know not the rich folk. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then you have like maybe a layer of people who are rich but they’re not wealthy. And then you have your wealthy. Yeah. You have your $35 million players out there and stuff. But uh I do think that that middle is is totally being affected. And especially in a season where there aren’t um there there’s no free agent money, right? So I still think Malik Monk has a tremendous amount of value. I just think as a management group, if you’re assessing your your team, I can see them going, “Okay, number one, Malik Monk should be like what you said, you should be able to trade a 27year-old guy who who averaged, you know, 17 points and 5.6 assists last season. You should be able to trade that guy.” Yeah. Any other season, you should be able to trade that guy with no problems. You even like talk about a guy like Cam Thomas who’s sitting out there. Cam Thomas is a higherend scorer than Malik Monk. Malik Monk’s a better player. Yeah. Like at least in my book, he’s he’s just a better player with that, too. Yeah. I mean, he’s more versatile. He can play the one, he can play the two. Um, but that’s where I kind of look at this list and I shake my head because if you’re just predicating this off of the fact that, you know, Dearan Fox might not be I mean that, uh, sorry, that Malik Monk might not be on the Kings next year. So, you’re going to, you know, sort of downgrade him. That’s one thing. I I I don’t get it. But okay. Well, looking at the players they have ahead of him at number 23, local favorite, Buddy Heield. Um, yeah, that doesn’t make any sense. I mean, Buddy Heield averaged 11 points per game last year and he shot 41% from the field. And I like I don’t get it. Like, how would you think that that you’re going to project out that Buddy Heield is going to have a better season than than a guy like Malik Monk? Now, we get to the next guy. The next guy on the list is Bradley Bill. Okay, I buy it. Bradley Bill I I believe is a better player than Malik Monk. Um there are some quirks to him that don’t make any sense and that people don’t like. Uh but then you know that every player has some some things that are a little different. Right. Number 21, Alex Caruso. Again, I get it. Yeah, Alex Caruso is an like one of the top defenders in the league. And if you want to compare him his defense against Monk’s offense, okay. But you’re talking about a guy who’s on a championship winner and like a really good player. Uh number 20, Ty Jerome. I don’t agree with that one, James. Got to say, um I I don’t understand this at all. Maybe that’s one where they’re really putting an emphasis on Tyrone maybe taking a step this season or like you talked about it kind of be in future rankings as well. That’s the only way I can kind of see that. But even then, uh it’s kind of tough. What if I told you that Ty Jerome is older than Malik Monk? Then everything I know is a lie. I would have just guessed that Ty Jerome was like 23 or something. No. No. And he just signed a three-year $28 million deal with Memphis. So maybe his opportunity is going to be different. Yeah. I don’t I don’t then. No, that’s even worse for me. Yeah. I’m I’m very confused. So Malik is 27. He won’t turn 28 until until February. And Ty Jerome is, I believe, 28. Uh, yeah, he’s 28 and in July he’ll be 29. So, I mean, he’s a And I’m not That’s not a big deal that he’s a little bit older. But again, show me where Tai Jerome has proven that this is a player who he is. He hasn’t reached what Malik Monk has yet. Nope. Okay. So, let’s get to number 19. Aaron Wiggins. You mean Andrew? No. Yeah. Yeah. No, I don’t. Aaron Wiggins, too. Like that’s he’s not better than Malik Monk. Not even Aaron Wiggins at number 19. I don’t even see him taking a step ahead of me Monk this year. Look, I I think Aaron Wiggins is a good defender. Um but I I’m I’m confused by the Aaron Wiggins being this high on the list. So, um I again, it’s a it’s a little weird to see this uh after we get past that. I I think that you know, again, Christian Brown I think is like again a better two-way player after that. Uh Shaden Sharp. Uh Shaden Sharp had a much better season last year than I thought. Um Anthony Simons at number 16, Boston Celtics legend, sixman bee feel like him and Malik are around the same type of player. Same type of player, but I think Malik is a better distributor and I would probably take Malik Monk after that. I I think CJ McCollum is a better player. I think Jaylen Green is a better player. Uh Dyson Daniels is a better player. Like so I get the list. Kobe White is a better player than Malik Monk. uh Desmond Bane at number 11. So, I’m okay with the list. Uh I’m even okay with all the guys that are ahead of uh Zack Lavine, except for maybe Austin Reeves at number nine. Um but Austin Reeves is always going to be higher on these lists than he should be. Yeah. And he’s expected to get a decent little payday, too, coming up. Yeah. All right. Well, when we step aside, uh we’ll take a look at the point guards just a little bit. Uh but then we’ll dive into

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