What Are the Sacramento Kings Doing? | Locked On Kings

What Are the Sacramento Kings Doing? | Locked On Kings

What are the Sacramento Kings doing? It’s a question that’s been asked a lot over the history of the organization and especially in this year 2025. I’ve done my best here on Locked on Kings to try and make sense of the new direction of the Kings. But outside of Sacramento, a lot of people are either shaking their heads, scratching their heads, or rolling their eyes. Josh Lloyd of the Locked On Fantasy Basketball Podcast is one of the best national perspectives that we have here on the Locked On Network and he doesn’t hold back with how he views and sees different situations around the NBA. He joins me to break down the Sacramento Kings and what he thinks or is confused about what’s going on here. It’s all right here on Locked on Kings. You are Locked on Kings, your daily Sacramento Kings podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. And now, ladies and gentlemen, it is that time. Time for another episode of Locked on Kings. Hello and welcome to Locked on Kings, your podcast hub for Sacramento Kings coverage all offseason long. Today’s episode is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com for 50% off of your first year. My name is Matt George. I have the privilege of being your host here. I’m a Sacramento sports anchor and reporter for ABC10 News. And I, like many of us Sacramento, were very protective of our city. were very protective of what’s real and what isn’t about the Sacramento Kings organization and the misinformation or the lowhanging fruit that’s often taken and run with by whether it’s the national media or just fan perspectives around the NBA outside of Sacramento. We know the Kings are a punchline a lot of the times and we know that a lot of people use that in an unfair way to discredit, disregard or straight up ignore what the Sacramento Kings are doing. So when I seek out national perspective, national media opinions on the Sacramento Kings, I’m very intentional about who I look for. And Josh Lloyd is always somebody that I go to because while Josh has his fingers on the pulse of the entire league and tries to watch all 30 teams, he does a phenomenal job on the Locked on Fantasy Basketball podcast giving you just a leaguewide perspective on what’s going on around the NBA and of course how it uh pertains to to fantasy and he’ll help you win your fantasy leagues as well if you are participating in in fantasy basketball uh this upcoming season or any season. But Josh does pay attention. And what I love about Josh is he asks questions right off air. He’ll reach he’ll what is Matt? What is this? Like why why are they doing this? And and how does this make any sense? Like I appreciate that about Josh because he doesn’t just take something at the surface and that’s as deep as he goes and formulates an opinion based off of that. And he’s also of course not afraid to share his opinion. So, every time I have Josh Lloyd on Locked on Kings, he usually brings the pessimism, which is understandable based off of the history of this organization. Uh, but I wanted to bring him back on so we could go back and forth and kind of figure out together and talk about what the direction is of the Kings organization, the moves that they’ve made this off seasonason, if they make sense, if they don’t make sense, what they should prioritize. Uh, and and Josh I think provides a lot of really interesting conversation, a little really interesting opinion context. I don’t think you’re going to agree with everything that he says. Some of you might not agree with anything that he says. That’s okay. It’s meant to be a conversation. If you want to respond to anything that Josh and I talk about, please do so at matte sack on Twitter. Email me [email protected]. or feel free to you or leave your comments in the comment section down below this video if you’re watching on YouTube. But for now, please enjoy my conversation with Locked On Fantasy Basketball host Josh Lloyd. Over the years, I’ve looked forward to having Josh Lloyd from Locked on Fantasy Basketball on so he could share his brutal honesty about the Sacramento Kings and I could fight him about it and back him off and say, “No, Josh, this is national media talk. This is the way it is here in Sacramento.” But Josh, I don’t know if I got anything for you this year, my man. The Sacramento Kings are in a interesting place. I think one of the best ways to describe my feelings towards this upcoming season are curious, and I don’t know if that has negative or positive connotations at this time. But Josh Lloyd from Lockdown Fantasy Basketball joining me here to break down where the Kings are at and share his perspective on the direction if there is one, what the Kings, if anything, are doing that makes sense or is right. Josh, we’ll just go with first impressions. You look at this roster, this organization in an all too familiar position of having a new head coach. They tasted success for one year and then it’s gone up in flames. What like what is first impressions just of the Sacramento Kings how they are right now today on August 14th when we don’t even think their roster is finalized still going into training camp. Yeah, that’s the thing is that I I hope that some of the rumors that we hear are not going to come to fruition because that would make even sort of less sense than some of the things that they’ve done. And it’s it’s always a delicate balancing act with a team like Sacramento because obviously there were different goals like we haven’t made the playoffs for so long, we got to get there and they did it right and they did it with great great success and unbelievable hype and all that energy that was around the team but the moves after that we sort of like yeah to me from an outside top down perspective I could sort of see exactly where that was going at trying to make this a continued or or or build for actual real long-term success. Like that was fun. Can we do sort can we try maybe that again and then like but sacrificing some of the things that you had that made it good to push ourselves from okay that’s good that’s a start now let’s go to the next step and now let’s go to the next step and now I I think you would talk about like where the direction is like I know that you’re probably aware of this Matt but to me the direction just feels like whatever Vivc wants and I don’t know that he knows what he’s doing in this sphere of like business basketball it’s like I’ve got a team I’m going to play with it I’m going to do fun things and his instincts all all generally appear to be wrong and that seems to be the problem and then it’s the thing you well I’ll fire this guy and bring the guy in who’s going to agree with me and let’s see what he does and then we’ll move on from the next guy and we’ll move on from the next guy but you could all trace it I think back to like Vivec’s idea of like I I like Zack Lavine so should we get him one year then maybe we don’t get him that year and we try it the next year then we eventually get him and like okay so now what and like it’s just let’s get Vivc’s favorites in on the team and honestly like sometimes the people that we might place the blame on, players, coaches, management, or they’re just going to be like, “What? What are you going to do?” Like, “This is I’m being told what to do. I’m being overridden in my decision- making.” And it all again, just it all just filters back to VC. I I fear. I feel like it’s been made pretty clear at this point what what became of the the De’arren Fox Zack Lavine trade that as much as we can say it was Monty McNair’s move as the general manager I think it’s been made perfectly clear that one Zack Lavine’s been a name that has been on the radar of ownership of Ecron for a long time and number two Monty was for lack of a better term and it’s kind of disrespectful but Monty was a dead man walking and I I think everybody kind of knew that and it was very made very clear by the second that the Kings were embarrassed by the the Dallas Mavericks in the playin game. Literally the second that game ended, Monty was saying his goodbyes and the announcement came out that the Kings were moving on from Monty McNair. So I I I say that to ask you this. There is a concern and I know I’ve shared these concerns too. They’ve quieted down for me since hearing the press conference of Scott Perry and hearing the press conference of of of Doug Christie. But there’s been a concern that the Kings hired Perry without even doing a search. They reached out, asked for Perry, he took the job. No search. They just went out and got Perry. That’s who they wanted. And they clearly had been talking to him before Monty was fired. Y then you have Doug Christie who is named the head coach by Perry. And they did do a search to be fair. However, Doug has been here in Sacramento for a while and there was a question of is Doug being groomed or primed for for that position. Was he always the plan? So, do you from your perspective again th those concerns have quieted down for me a little bit now that because I already know Doug and I’ve talked to Perry a little bit and I understand who Perry is and how well respected he is around the league. But from your outside perspective, was the way Perry was hired and the way Doug was hired, does that send up any alarm bells or red flags for you? To me, like again, just the reality of the situation, Matt, is that look, when the Kings do something and VC does something, I’m and if I’ve got any sort of like, oh, I’m not sure, I’m going to lean to like, yeah, like you don’t have the track record that I’m going to trust this this process, right? because why would you like we could say this is an unequivocal home run which I think most people did when they hired Mike Brown right okay we love that idea um but again when we talk about Doug Christie who was there last season I don’t know that he changed a huge amount from when Brown was fired he was already on the staff but again when you go hey like maybe there is a process here but let’s bring in a legendary Kings player who was I believe a Kings announcer at one point and then he was the assistant coach and wow he just happens to be the best man for the job I’m going to sit there and go yeah I don’t about that. Maybe he could be. But again, what I’ve there are a few other things that are associated with that. I’m just going to be like, is it because VC likes him? Is it because VC goes you played very well for the Kings win back in the day? And you worked for me as an announcer and you probably said nice things about me on the TV. Now, can we push you into that job? I don’t know. And then Scott Perry also has a history working with the Kings as well. He’s had some stops in other spots and all that sort of stuff. And I’m not really sure where where that goes with with that idea. Again, I just got to default back to this idea like I don’t know if Doug Christie is the best man for the job. I don’t know what the other options were. I’m not sitting on the interview. It’s really hard to know with the coaches, but when it’s like here is a legendary Sacramento player who was the Sacramento announcer and he was an assistant coach and he took over the job last year and just miraculously that’s just the best guy available. I’m going to say maybe not, but again could turn out great. I don’t know. on the actual court itself. Um, one of the things you first said was you hope that certain things that are rumored to happen don’t happen. The most obvious one that I know you’re talking about is the Russell Westbrook rumor connection that that the Kings are very interested in Russ, but there’s a Jonathan Kaminga aspect of that too because it feels like the Kaminga situation. It’s quieted down recently, mostly just because we’re at a stalemate standstill and we’ve been so for basically a month. But that is the first domino to fall to spark the Kings maybe getting Russell Westbrook and the Golden State Warriors getting like Al Horford and and other guys too. So we’re just waiting for that domino to fall still. I know how you feel about the Russell Westbrook aspect and feel free to say why you feel like that would just not be a good decision for the Kings. But for the Kaminga aspect, are you concerned about that as well from being a target for the Kings, especially with them being willing to include Malik Monk and a as of now protected first round pick to go out and get him? I am. And it’s it’s every sort of thing where we talk about in the NBA and teams moves, it’s it’s all context related, right? Is taking a flyer on Jonathan Kaminga as a team that sort of needs that sort of a player, does it make sense at the right cost? Look, sure, like we can I can make things make sense at the right situation, but him coming in and a guy that’s shown limited ability with his passing or your defensive awareness and positioning and shooting and then you’re going to play him alongside Damont Sabonis and then Demand Rosen is there and like where does that make sense? Plus, you know, of course, he plays the same position as Keegan Murray. So, how’s that going to work out? Like, who’s going to the bench? Does are we going to convince Demard Rosen to go to the bench? Are you moving on from that contract that you gave up an unprotected first round pick swap in 2030 with the Spurs later on? Like, how’s that going to work out? Like it’s all of those things. Like if a team that needed this Jonathan Kaminga situation and it was a fit, it would make sense. But I don’t get the fit. I’ve got Demato Rosen with the ball. I’ve got Damont Sabonus with the ball. I’ve got Zack Cleavine with the ball. So where does Kaminga fit? And we’re just again further pushing back the talent that you’d started to develop like Keegan Murray to a degree like with Keon Ellis what they’ve done with Schroer and the rumors about Russell Westbrook. I just I don’t know what sort of look Kaminga is young obviously there’s room for him to improve and maybe become a good player but the glaring need on this team I don’t think he feels it like he doesn’t fit that need outside of being younger but when the core of your team is all older on expensive contracts like then they all go and then like you’re left with Kaminga being the person who’s like I guess your feature player is that what you want as a guy it just the fit doesn’t make sense it doesn’t seem to address what the need would be on this team. It pushes some of the other players who maybe could grow into those roles further out of the out of the role that they need to be in. And how does it elevate you to be better? I’m not I’m not really sure. I don’t think it does. Like I said at the top of the show, today’s episode of Locked On Kings is brought to you by Monarch Money. Most people can’t name all of their financial accounts or even what they’re worth, whether it’s 401ks, their properties, or their investments. And when you don’t have the full picture, you can actually end up leaving money on the table. That’s why there is Monarch Money. It’s an all-in-one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean, easy to use interface on your laptop or on the go on your phone. Monarch does all the heavy lifting for you. You can link all your accounts in minutes. See clear data visuals. Get smart categor categorization of your spending. finally feel in full control of your money without ever touching a spreadsheet. Linking your accounts is super easy. And when you do so, Monarch Money will break down everything that’s going on in your daily life. That was a game changer for my wife and I and our spending habits and finding out how much money was going to different areas, breaking down all of our subscriptions and reminding us, hey, you’ve got the subscription that maybe you enjoy, but you could do without and you can get rid of really, really quickly. That’s just a taste of the amazing things that you can do on Monarch Money, including building uh your your savings up for a big purchase in the future, just giving getting back on track, managing joint accounts and separate accounts. Monarch Money does it all. Don’t let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use code locked on NBA at monarchmoney.com in your browser for half off your first year. That’s 50% off your first year at monarchmoney.com with code locked on NBA. the idea or like the selling point of it to which I’ve heard Kings fans kind of talk about. I even talked about it to some extent here on the pod. If you go out and you get a guy who’s younger, I think Kaminga is 22. That is a piece that you can actually build around for the future while because Josh, I have this what’s I’ve the only thing that makes sense to me is like this two-year plan for Scott Perry. Over the next two years, you’re locked into these contracts that I don’t believe Scott would have ever signed or acquired in the first place. I know for a fact Scott would never have made that fox for Zack Lavine trade in his own mind. But you’re locked into these contracts. It is what it is. You’ve inherited this mess. Okay, for the next two years, I’m going to ride out these contracts and try and be as competitive as possible, knowing full well that I’m not close to a championship. I’m not going to make a silly all-in move to try and enter a championship window with this group. We’re going to be a playin team and maybe sneak into the playoffs for the next two years. And then once those contracts come off the books, then I can then I can start to execute my vision for this team. Kaminga potentially provides not necessarily a shortcut, but oh, here’s a guy that I could get and bring in that for the next two years can just kind of fit with what they’re doing, but we can start to build him into the vision of being a core once those two years are up. Again, I don’t know if I’m trying to sell a used car here or if and talk myself into it making sense or if it does make sense, but that’s where I’m curious about your and others perspective on that being a logical plan for the Sacramento Kings to try and execute. I can understand that rationale behind it, Matt. Like I I get that idea of like you know these guys they’re going we’ll ride it out but like Kaminga’s been riding out his career like playing for you the four years in Golden State behind other guys and has very clearly not been happy with it and hasn’t done the things that the coaches have wanted him to do. We’ve seen that stuff come out and he’s you know really pushing back on this idea. I don’t want to be in Golden State. They don’t know how to use me. I’m much better than this. So like while you’re writing out these other contracts like where is he fitting in? Plus, as as you’re well aware, Matt, like in two years, like a million things change. Where was the Kings team two years ago? Like, it’s a very different story. So, you’re waiting two years for all this to happen. And what who knows what happens with Kamingo? Maybe you’ve invested this money. You’ve given up a pick. You gave away Malik Monk, whatever else you did. And then he’s there for two years and go, “Oh, yeah, he’s actually the reason he didn’t play that much in Golden State is because he actually is bad and that development didn’t come and he’s now he’s discontent because he’s still playing with these other players.” Like, making this two-year plan is fine. and having a plan for it. But I don’t know if investing in a a player waiting for the two years to come and then seeing what happens when we’ve already had these levels of discontent with him and his role. Plus, you run the risk of annoying some of the other players on your team who are then going to be pushed into other sort of roles who have been waiting for that opportunity as well. I don’t get what that upside is. Like, so if you want to take the positive, I I get that he’s young. He he might develop into a really good player, but he’s also one of those guys that I fear, Matt, that like we know how an NBA game works. We know there’s certain amount of possessions on either team, right? Everyone’s going to get their shots up. Like players who are bad, not saying that he’s a bad player, but players who are bad if they’re playing on a bad team can get 25, six, and five easily because somebody’s going to take the shots, right? So, we could be in that situation where we wait and then these other guys go and then Kaminga is the league guy and then you win 32 games anyway. So, is he one of those guys that can that can fit into the roles that he needs to? That’s the where I always have that doubt with what he is because putting up numbers is easy on bad or easier on bad teams and it can change the opinion of what a player is. But again, I just the the idea that this is the sort of play again when you’ve got win now players and the sort of player you’re getting doesn’t fill any of those gaps and you’re waiting to see what happens in two years when everything can change in two years time. It just seems like a another one of those ones like VC like I want to be like the Warriors. He played for the Warriors. Let’s get him. And you know, big points. Let’s go. We had a great conversation on the Locked on Fantasy Basketball podcast when we were previewing the Sacramento Kings. And a major topic of that conversation was Keegan Murray. What are the Kings doing with Keegan Murray? How are the players that they’re bringing in or keeping here impacting Keegan Murray primarily in a in a negative way? Yeah. I’m curious about because I I think and correct me if I’m wrong like you’re of the perspective of like give Keegan a shot, see what you’ve got, give him opportunity because if you’re going to have a core beyond these two years, Keegan should be a part of it or at the center of it as a former number four overall pick. I’m curious about optics. Can Doug Christie or Scott Perry or the Sacramento Kings optic-wise ever get away at any point this season? I don’t think it’s going to happen at the beginning of the year. Maybe by the trade deadline or maybe if they’re 10 games under 500. Can the Kings optically get away with Demar or Zack? We’re paying you that much. Zack Lavine, you’re almost a $50 million per year player, but we’re going to cut some of your minutes so that we can give Keegan Murray the green light and opportunity to take 15 plus shots per game. I understand the theory behind that, but optically around the league, does that look terrible? Yeah, I think it does for a number of reasons. That’s why like I look few years ago I came on this show to talk about the Kings and I was you know critical not critical of Keegan Mario I was like I think we need to just sort of watch the expectations cuz I’m not the highest on him but I also think that he’s showed an ability at times when others are out to you ramp his usage up and be solid. I don’t think he’s a number one offensive player or anything like that but I also don’t understand why you would continue to suppress and suppress and suppress any chance of seeing you where that can go in terms of the optics. again last season when when we did a show together you were talking about you celebrating the idea of like hey Demand Roen chose Sacramento this is the biggest free agent signing that we’ve had and then if you one year later you go yeah thanks for that demar thanks for coming here thanks for choosing us um you mind coming off the bench now like we’re just going to push you aside for the last two years of this contract and I know you’re a great guy locker room guy but like yeah you’re a bench guy now and then he’s got his connections and he’s well loved in the league and then agents and all that sort of stuff so I don’t know you’re right when we get to I don’t know how you do it. How how do you like because there is yeah seniority is a thing in the NBA. It’s a thing with agents, with managers, with with coaches, and you that experience that he’s had like D Rozan’s a hard player to to fit other guys around, and the Kings seem to have a lot of those guys there, which is why I’ve always sort of critical of some of the roster construction stuff. Yeah, I I would the easiest way in general to be able to create opportunities for players that you want to see is to not have other players in their way because there is going to be, you know, you can call it locker room politics or what backroom politics or whatever, but people talking across the NBA and I I don’t think that the Kings had would have and their management/ ownership have the greatest reputation amongst other teams because people know what VC is like and the way that he runs that team. So anytime you do something that then pisses off like a a almost universally loved player from what he is as a person and a teammate in like a D Rozan and even like no one ever says anything bad about Zack Leavine. There’s concerns about hey the contract or the the encore player winning or whatever it is but these are not players that are like yeah like don’t worry about that guy he’s terrible. Um we don’t care what his opinion is. these guys hold a level of sway and that stuff needs to be navigated you cautiously because it can do like significant damage. The way optically you could do it in a way that makes you come out looking like somewhat of the good guy at least is hey Demar we’re at the trade deadline it’s not working out here you we want to try and maximize your opportunity. We’re going to try and send you to a contender so you can play some meaningful basketball. Problem is now I’m taking pennies on the dollar from a team that knows I’m just trying to move on from DeMar Rosen and that contract. We don’t even have to talk about Zack Lavine’s contract to know nobody in the league is going to want to trade for it except for the Sacramento Kings for some reason. Do you think Do you think Okay, here we go. Do you think that Portland and the hund00 million of Jeremy Grant would take Zack Lavine back in exchange to get Jeremy to get Grant off their books and bring in Lavine? Not that Lavine makes a ton of sense in Portland, but like to like Grant’s a worse player, but he’s probably a slightly better fit. I don’t know. Like because they’re both like maybe that’s what you have to do. You have to trade an untradeable contract for untradeable contract. It could be and and then in theory you could put Grant to the four, move Keegan to the three finally and get a look at that. But again, you’re you’re trading I mean that’s something that’s going to be hard to sell even your own fan base on, let alone let alone the league on it being a good move. But again, like that’s where Scott Perry like I one of the things I said and I was not obviously in the negotiation room when Perry took this job. Um but I imagine Perry says, “I’m only accepting this job if you give me two years to clean up this mess without any judgment. like you just have to give me the green light and accept that I’m going to trade away fan favorites. And there’s there’s positive and negative ways of going about that. I think the thing that fans are the most critical of Perry so far is the decision not to extend or give Keon Ellis an extension and or not to um yeah decline the option and make restricted. Exactly. So and now there’s the risk of did you piss Keon Ellis off to a point where he doesn’t like he leaves an unrestricted free agency next year. You also have a Keegan Murray extension to to to worry about. I understand the theory behind we need to find a point guard now. We need as much flexibility as possible. Keon, we’re going to kick this can down the road a little bit, but does that potentially burn a bridge and you lose one of the good young things that you have going for you here in Sacramento? I mean, you could pair that decision with um like his decision to bring in Dennis Shruder and offer Dennis Shruder the three-year deal. And like I’m I’m just very curious about like how much how much of a leash does Perry have to clean up this mess and how much is he willing to sacrifice fan favorites to do? I mean it’s public knowledge that the Kings are trying to move on from Malik Monk and Monk is beloved here in Sacramento. So I think it’s good that you have a GM that’s willing to move fan favorites to make the team better, but you got to make the team better. You do. And like the I think the last sort of GM maybe this is some someone else that I’m sort of missing in this regard but like the the team that was sort of always a treading water sort of a team and then new GMs came in and they very clearly convinced ownership that like you know we’re we’re tearing this thing down and we rebuilding it the right way was in Washington right where they would constantly chase the eight seed and they’d signed terrible contracts to their players that were there and then they got the guys in like winger from the Clippers when the Thunder background on a lot of those guys as well and I said right We’re going to be one of the worst teams you’ve ever seen. We’re tearing this stuff down. We’re building up with young prospects. We’re cycling guys through. We got some veterans in here. We’ll try and recoup that. We’re going to build up an asset chest and it’s going to take a lot of time. And you see how bad they are. Like they’re terrible. Like at times it’s unwatchable. And they’re just going to cycle through guys to try and build it back up. But that’s not saying that the Kings are going to necessarily be that way. But that is that last GM who came in and said to ownership, give me these years. like give me the opportunity to actually rebuild this thing in the correct way and get all of these past mistakes off the books. You can have your demand roen is your Bradley Beal analog not the same but you know like this older player respected player incredibly large contract Lavine sim whoever whichever player you want to do and then they find ways to get get off of them and they trade them for nothing in the end and you know it’s very limited stuff that comes back in these deals and they make themselves deliberately worse in order to clear out the mess and create these things because the thing you mentioned also before about Demard Rosen and like maybe you talk to him and say well at the deadline we’ll move on from you tend the contenders. The problem is is that do those contenders, you know, want him? Like how like he’s a tough fit. Like how do you get all this stuff to work? So in a lot of these cases, you’re just going to have to be in order to build this stuff in this correct way. I have like Yeah, here’s a second a second round pick swap or something like I mean like that sort of thing that comes in. You go just the the benefit for us is not having the player there and not having the salary on our books to open up other opportunities. not like we’re going to trade him, we’re going to get this high potential 25 year old future allNBA player and that’s going to be the swap and you know there’s a small down tick now but it’s this huge uptick. It’s you got to go really down to be able to push it back up and then some of the moves that happen you mentioned the Schro one like if you’re having this two-year plan and we need to get a point guard. Don’t get a guy who’s like a your bottom third starting point guard at best who’s already older who I don’t know that helps you win now but also doesn’t help you build anything for the future. So you’re so you’re sitting in a middle area where you’re also limiting opportunities for younger guards like Carter and Alice. Not that they’re necessarily guys that are point guards that can run the team. It’s just I feel like there’s just a lot of mixed messaging about some of the decisions that get made. Josh, you’re a genius on the fantasy basketball side as well. So of course you’re looking at the Kings and every team through that element. You’ve got, I think, three players, two of them for sure in Sabonis and Lavine that are capable of putting up at least big fantasy numbers. So that might be a reason for people to pay attention to Kings basketball. But again, the word that I used at the beginning of this podcast was curious. I think there’s a lot of curiosity around the Sacramento Kings with a skepticism. I think a lot of people are going to tune in to watch Kings basketball when they play one of their nine national TV games and and get ready to kind of laugh and mock and chuckle at, oh look, here are the Chicago Bulls West fumbling along again. Like the curiosity comes with I’m curious to see what it looks like, but I don’t have great expectations or good assumptions about this team. But for you in terms of if you’re sitting down to watch a Sacramento Kings basketball game, in addition to the fantasy analysis that you do, what is it you’re watching for? What is it that draws your intention or attention intrigues you? Or are you, for lack of a better term, watching to watch the dumpster fire? I I think the way that I watch a lot of these things is a little bit different. Like I’m not going to I don’t want to watch something to sit there and laugh at it. Like I want to see how things get figured out and then what that means for what happens with Kalis. Is he playing like 16 minutes a night for some reason because Russell Westbrook and Dennis Schroeda and Zack Lavine are taking all the back court minutes? Like is Keegan Murray’s usage down again? Has he completely forgotten how to shoot? Is he broken mentally? I I don’t know what it is that’s happening there. Yeah. Can we see changes in games? Like we we Yeah. To Demar De Rozan’s credit, he decided he was going to take more threes last season. And he did. Like he hit I think over one a game for maybe the first time in his career. It’s it’s close to that anyway. So yeah, there was changes in those games. It’s more about how do you when I’m watching these sort of things and watching because there’s always something interesting on any team, right? From from my perspective in my job as a fantasy analyst and someone who’s watching the entire league, there’s always interesting things that are happening at all points. I’m not going to sit here and go, “Oh my god, I can’t believe that, you know, Lavine did this on defense. That’s so like weird.” It’s more like, “Okay, how are they approaching playing these guys together? What combinations work? How does that extrapolate across to other teams in the league? What could shake free here? Which guys do they need to move on from? Are they hidden gems on the bench that could have opportunities in different situations if they happen to shake free?” Like, what are they doing at backup center? What’s going to happen with Nick Clifford? Is he going to find a rotation role? Is Maxim Ray know? Could he play at all next to Deonta Sabonis? Like they’re the sort of things that you I want to see. Like does Ray know if he Yeah. actually profiles or or translates into a guy that maybe protects the room and shoots threes. Does that give you an archetype? Although we’ve seen archetype, we’ve seen Miles Turner play with the Montto Sonus, but you know, Sacramento decided we’re never trying that again. But like, can you find that? Is that sort of a player able to work at all in this sort of a situation? And where are these roles? like is Clifford someone who beat up on kids in summer league or is he going to be a a rotation player and play 20 minutes immediately like they’re the interesting things and because then like we you circle back to before I talked about like in two years time if you don’t have answers to these things I don’t know what Raino is going to do what’s Clifford going to do where is Alice going to go because Clifford might come out and you go yeah this is just like he’s actually unbelievably good he’s shooting 40% on threes he’s defending at a high level and then if we move on from Demato Rosen for a second round pick swap Yeah, as a as a joke sort of a deal that I’m talking about. But like Clifford can step in and he’s good in that role and he’s there, but like what if he’s not and we don’t know the answers to those. They’re the sort of things that I want to find out where a team where there’s so much confusion about roster construction, management, direction, and all that sort of thing. I want to see if they’ve got pieces in place that make sense moving forward and then what that can or for the future of the franchise and hopefully you create a little bit more direction because like it’s fun when all when teams are good. I want teams to be good. I want teams that have been starved of success to have success. Anytime there’s an NBA Finals match up, someone go, “Who do you want to win?” I go, “The team that hasn’t won a championship.” Like, I want everyone to experience that success. So, I want to see the pathways to that. And then also when teams do stuff that makes no sense, I call them out for because in the end, like even though it feels like it’s anti- team or anti-fan base, it’s like, no, I’m actually saying the things that I think that the team is doing, it’s a disservice to the fan base. And I actually want the fans to have a better experience rather than sit through this Matt like, you know, 16 out of 18 years or whatever it is. Well, let’s end this conversation like a a preschool therapy session. the the father of a four-year-old is going to come out of me here, Josh. But let’s let’s end like is like a compliment or something that for for this team that you are positive about or encouraged about or like, man, if it’s it’s a lot of nonsense, but I’m latching myself onto this thing about I think the Kings did something right here or this is good and hopefully they can figure out how to make more of it. If I was going to give a funny answer, I’d say, well, at least I don’t have Jay Crowder on the team again this season. Although, they do they do have Doug Mcderma back so you know, we’re not going to fully go there. Um what I I I want to I want to see what like if there is a an extra gear to what Keon Ellis can do like can he do something different cuz he shot the ball well Matt but like is that the limited sample is that able to ramp up? How are they going to use him in that situation? Where does Keegan fit in? Also, there are players that are fun. Like Zack Lavine when he is going on offense is fun, right? As much as people criticize I think he shot what 46% from three last season. It I believe it led the NBA and no one talks about it. Like everyone just talks about him like he’s a disaster because the contract is bad and he defends at a poor level. He was I believe the highest three three-point percentage guy in the entire league last season and that is that’s fun. He can go off at any point but you when you’re replacing franchise favorites like Darren Fox, it’s always going to be a hard thing to get into. Like Sabonis is going to do fun things. We’re going to see Lavine do those things. And whether it all turns into wins or not, at times it doesn’t. But there are fun things on this team to to watch. There are fun young players. I think they killed it in the draft. I love what they did. I want to see these guys get playing time. I want to see how they work some of these guys into certain situations and hopefully they can make it make sense. Let’s I can’t wait to watch 16 straight points from Zack Lavine and the Golden One Center to cut an opposing team’s lead down to 12. Can’t wait. It’s going to be great. It’s going to be great. Fans, I’m kidding. I’m kidding. We actually like Zach put on a show a couple of times for us in the limited time that he was here last year. So, there’s a there’s a hope of that. There’s also, knock on wood, a hope that he played, I think 72 or 77 or something like that games last season. You hope that he can do that again because we know about the injury history, too. Josh, you’ll keep us from the fantasy perspective, the leaguewide. If you want to if you want to win your fantasy league, listen to freaking Josh Lloyd. I can attest to it. I finally did halfway decent in fantasy last year because I took Josh’s advice and stopped being stubborn. Uh so check out the Locked on Fantasy Basketball podcast. Josh, he does not hate the Kings. He just is real about the Kings. Josh, I appreciate you making the time as well, my friend. And uh one day I’ll bring you on after a championship and you can still find what’s wrong with the championship. Once once we get that success, I’ll be I’ll be all about it. I’ll be celebrating along with you guys.

Matt George is joined by Locked On Fantasy Basketball host Josh Lloyd to discuss the national perspective on the Sacramento Kings, their direction, and their offseason moves.

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