Sacramento Kings Team Review

 

2022-23 Finish: 24-58

 

Season Highlight:

The Kings season was a long and arduous one in the end which yielded little in the way of highlights so for mine the highlight of the Kings is their perennially well loved, super active and all round fun league advocate who creates an atmosphere on his own, Klemm. No matter how the Kings are travelling, Klemm is always tinkering, always talking, always running his mouth and having fun in the discord and you can�t fault a guy like Klemm for the key to everything in this league, outside of making smart decisions, is activity. You fall inactive and the team falls. The Kings are lucky to have this guy at their helm always looking for ways and fighting �til the death.

 

Season Lowlight:

The Kings year was an arduous one that even saw their GM struggle a little for the motivation to get in the discords. They missed their play in goal, they struggled through injury and poor form and the engine just wasn�t what it needed for a backcourt powered team as they slipped behind the teams running the big men. All in all, the lowlight simply has to be the overall performance and failure to make a post season, which is all Klemm ever wants.

 

Best Trade:

Kings send: Malik Beasley and Garrison Mathews

Kings receive: Bojan Bogdanovic

 

Klemm got on the end of this one. Beasley is probably a lot better as a 2k guy than he is otherwise, and was far cheaper, but was always a long shot to not be a jettisoned FA come the end of the year, and so turning him and 2k deadweight in Mathews, into Bojan who has been nothing short of outstanding for the Kings, is a winning move every time.

 

Worst Trade:

Kings send: Nick Richards
Kings receive: Jaylen Nowell

This one was a head scratcher at the time and has only got worse and worse to be honest. In the scheme, it�s reserve guys, but is it? Klemm has been continuously been searching for a young big man who loves a rebound and a blocked shot and can run. He looks every year. He�s ended up with Khem Birch over and over because of it. And finally, he had the man to build around, to anchor that spot�and he sent him away in a straight swap for a dime a dozen low end scoring wing who was always going to struggle for a consistent NBA spot.

 

Other Notable Trades:

Kings send: Timothy Hardaway Jr, Jose Alvarado and Sacramento 2027 2nd

Kings receive:  Malik Beasley and Jae Crowder

 

If I pick a side, I take what the Kings sent out, but it�s negligible.

 

 

Kings send: Kyle Lowry, Derrick Favors and Seth Curry

Kings receive: Russell Westbrook

 

I was obviously very vocal on this deal, as it completely unlocked the Blazers offseason allowing them to retool and lengthen their window, but the actual direct value for Westbrook is sound�it�s just they should have got more for the situation value.

 

 

Kings send: Pick 30 2023, Charlotte 2025 1^st and Sacramento 2027 1^st

Kings receive: Sacramento 2024 1^st, Portland 2026 1^st and Warriors 2025 2^nd

 

If you�re going to flip picks around, it�s a solid one to do it for that Kings pick.

 

 

Kings send: Jae Crowder

Kings receive: Mason Plumlee

 

Pretty top value for Crowder.

 

 

Kings send: Nikola Vucevic and Buddy Hield

Kings receive: Chris Paul and Brook Lopez

 

I�m still not really across why this one was done either, but at least CP3 netted them some more stuff and they won�t have to push too hard to retain Lopez, perhaps?

 

 

Kings send: Cash

Kings receive: George Hill

 

Something for very little.

 

 

Kings send: Mason Plumlee, George Hill and Sacramento 2024 1^st

Kings receive: Cameron Johnson, Naz Reid, Pick 55 2023, Toronto 2024 1^st and Sacramento 2026 2^nd

 

All in all, if you�re going to trade what is a near certainty to be a top lottery pick, you need to get a couple of serviceable role players and a few picks back and they did that.

 

 

Kings send: Kyle Anderson, Joe Ingles, Yuta Watanabe and Pick 55 2023

Kings receive: Bruce Brown, Torrey Craig and Khem Birch

 

This one would have looked a hell of a lot better had Brown stayed in Denver, rather than pricing himself out of the range of what the Kings could pay him and forcing a renouncing.

 

 

Kings send: Troy Brown

Kings receive: Drew Eubanks

 

Solid big guy for nothing wing.

 

 

Kings send: Damian Jones

Kings receive: Xavier Tillman

 

Really like this get, even if Tillman hasn�t stuck around for the long term.

 

 

Free Agency:

The Kings have been the free agency darlings for the past couple of years with their roster gutted of players and their lack of top level talent, and it�s fared them fairly well in filling out a roster each year with some solid veterans for minimal cost. This year though, they�re down the pecking the order a ways which is going to make things interesting with a new random factor that could be a 15 point swing also. They have key UFAs to bring back in Brook Lopez and Russell Westbrook, the latter looking like a top FA target for many with his 2k prowess and his below taxpayer MLE salary, while also meaning they have to hold that massive cap hold through the first half of FA. They have some solid bench UFAs also, in Okogie and Eubanks, who might get some attention also, while they will have a free retain of Cam Johnson before he heads out of town, sign and trade, meaning no taxpayer MLE use in Sacramento. Klemm is always an active FA participant and this year is no different.

Russell Westbrook � UFA, Must retain, has a resign bonus but basically everyone can bid.

Brook Lopez � UFA, might be a fight for one team that has zero Cs.

Cam Johnson � RFA, he�s back to be gone.

Drew Eubanks � UFA, easy cheap retain you would imagine to bolster the big man depth.

Josh Okogie � UFA, would have though easy retain, but NBA play might make someone dive?

 

Star:

Russell Westbrook

He wasn�t their leading scorer. He wasn�t their leading assist man. But, he played the most games of any King and did come off the bench a lot too. His 2k star has dipped a little, but then the engine also killed him a little last year too, so this guy is the star of this team still.

 

Flop:

Russell Westbrook

Yeah you read that right, but hear me out. Westy whom Klemm hunted for years was finally brought in and was meant to be that scoring stud that lead the team to the play ins. It�s what he was destined to do. Instead, he averaged less than 15 points a game and was even brought off the bench by his GM for a chunk of games to try and get something else working as the brick fest continued on it�s merry way. Shooting splits of 38/35/68 are the reason why and this went all sorts of wrong, in that engine.

 

 

Draft Grades:

One thing Klemm does not do, is draft.

 

 

The Future:

The future of the Kings has probably never been further up in the air than right now. They�re bereft of young talent, they�re fighting for their own guys in FA let alone others to help them get wins, and they hold none of their own picks until 2028 when they look like they will be well and truly in the lottery spots over that period leading until then. And, the picks they own are all from likely playoff teams (Philly who knows). Where does this go from here? Can they genuinely retain and then flip their guys and other guys from FA for positive value over and over to build up an asset base from here, after years of going the opposite way from the time they were the highest overall rated team in the land? It feels like they�re on a precipice�but Klemm will always fight to keep them on the high side.

C: Brook Lopez / Naz Reid / Drew Eubanks
PF: Cam Johnson / Jeremiah Robinson-Earl
SF: Bojan Bogdanovic / Amir Coffey / Garrison Mathews
SG: Russell Westbrook / Josh Okogie / Furkan Korkmaz
PG: Mike Conley / Killian Hayes