Speaker 1: Come on, come on.
Speaker 2: Today's episode of the Heat Check. We've got the co
Speaker 2: hosts of d lo at Casey. You can find them
Speaker 2: Monday through Friday, twelve to four Pacific time on ESPN
Speaker 2: thirteen twenty. You can also get them on the out
Speaker 2: of Sea app on YouTube. You can find them as well.
Speaker 2: Kenny's Instagram or Twitter follower handle excuse me at imk
Speaker 2: Diddy funny little handle, so you can find Damien at
Speaker 2: at Damien with an e Damien Barling, you can.
Speaker 3: Find him and Twitter as well.
Speaker 2: You guys are my my Kings insiders, probably like one
Speaker 2: of the few guys on the what you would call
Speaker 2: like the radio beats, Like you talk to the guys
Speaker 2: on what is the nine eighty or whatever it is?
Speaker 3: Was it nine to twenty?
Speaker 2: You know what I'm talking about? The San Francisco station
Speaker 2: ninety five to seven. They are delusional, absolutely delusial.
Speaker 3: All the time. What is it like that they've got
Speaker 3: like the sports bar wherever it is? I forget what
Speaker 3: they're thinking.
Speaker 1: Those are my guys, shout out Jones.
Speaker 2: They love them, They're phenomenal, but they are absolutely delusional.
Speaker 2: They think Wiseman is the next like great despite him
Speaker 2: having setback AF. They're setback AF, they're setback, like they
Speaker 2: and listen, Kaminga is really good and he could end
Speaker 2: up being something. But like they always overestimate what's happening
Speaker 2: in Golden State Land. You guys, You guys trend probably
Speaker 2: more realist to pessimists, which I love because I at
Speaker 2: least feel like I know the truth of what is
Speaker 2: the out outlying situation of the team. And now we've
Speaker 2: got a million trades. You guys have.
Speaker 3: Marvin Bagley's gone boom. That's a good thing.
Speaker 2: Buddy Heel's gone. That's a good thing. Tristan Thompson's gone boom.
Speaker 2: That's a good thing.
Speaker 3: T T's gone. You got Dante in. That's a good thing.
Speaker 4: White Dante.
Speaker 3: Kyry's Celibrt gone.
Speaker 2: That's a big bad thing, I would say, Dante Devincenzo
Speaker 2: in I think probably trending very good thing as well.
Speaker 2: So State of the Kings, get your feelings out. Tyree's Haliburton.
Speaker 2: We talked about this before our technical issues started to ensue.
Speaker 2: But like the player's tribute article was a mess. I'm sad,
Speaker 2: you guys, are you know, crying in the club? Tell
Speaker 2: me kind of about the range of emotions that you
Speaker 2: guys are feeling right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I think one of the best things that happened for
Speaker 5: the Kings was, you know, you get it. You lose Tyree'ston,
Speaker 5: You're getting to Monsa Sabonis And I think you know,
Speaker 5: you talk about delusional fan bases or delusional radio show. Yeah, Like,
Speaker 5: I think that's all fan bases to a certain degree.
Speaker 4: Like you overvalue your players.
Speaker 5: And Caliburton was one season away from being a Hall
Speaker 5: of Famer here in Sacramento, like this fan base loved
Speaker 5: that dude. He could do no wrong. As Kenny says,
Speaker 5: he had one hundred percent approval rating when exiting office.
Speaker 5: And the best thing that happened to the Kings is
Speaker 5: first two games out the gate, they won.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, no, no, Tyres was cool.
Speaker 5: Thing different here, and I think that was the most
Speaker 5: important part in those first two games. When de monts Moons,
Speaker 5: or I should say the first two games when de
Speaker 5: Montsa Sabonis and that crew from Indiana played, the basketball
Speaker 5: looked a little bit different. You saw talent on the
Speaker 5: floor spread out. It wasn't just in the backcourt. The
Speaker 5: two best players on the Sacramento Kings prior to Tyrese
Speaker 5: Haliburton's or in the backcourt. And then in comes de
Speaker 5: Monta Sabonis and all of a sudden, the wealth is
Speaker 5: spread out through the floor a little bit, and you
Speaker 5: saw a different style of basketball.
Speaker 6: And the interesting thing about Tyre's Halliburn, and they mean,
Speaker 6: tell me if I'm off with this, is you know,
Speaker 6: they loved Tyrese Halliburn, loved tyr They still love him
Speaker 6: to this day, obviously, but they loved him because he
Speaker 6: was a.
Speaker 1: Good ballplayer and he loved us, right like that is
Speaker 1: the thing.
Speaker 6: Now, I say it's interesting because while everybody here thought
Speaker 6: he was a really good ball player and they loved
Speaker 6: and they thought he was good, I don't think anybody
Speaker 6: thought of him the way the national media has portrayed
Speaker 6: him since he left Incremental, Right, you you would think
Speaker 6: that they just traded Magic Johnson.
Speaker 1: I just don't trade a player like that. I don't
Speaker 1: get it. What is it?
Speaker 3: The league should have stepped in?
Speaker 2: This is a Chris Paul to the Lake type trade.
Speaker 4: Adam, You know, right, David Stern would have never.
Speaker 1: We loved the guy.
Speaker 6: But we were sitting here here and stuff afterwards, like, hey,
Speaker 6: did we not watch him.
Speaker 1: Did we watch a different diaries Alibert and the rest
Speaker 1: of the league because he's a good ballplayer.
Speaker 6: But I don't know, the outrage across national media in
Speaker 6: the league was a little excessive.
Speaker 4: And we traded twenty ten Lebron James the other day.
Speaker 6: Apparently that's what it was, you know what I mean.
Speaker 6: But the like Damien said, the first two games Sabonas
Speaker 6: comes in, they won.
Speaker 1: And then there's this other little sneaky thing.
Speaker 6: Around here about in Sacramento about the early two thousands
Speaker 6: style of basketball, and Sabonas came in as a big
Speaker 6: man passing the ball around, and it was whipping around
Speaker 6: the perimeter and everybody was getting involved. They had like
Speaker 6: thirty plus assists in both games, and it triggered an
Speaker 6: emotion for us.
Speaker 1: Of the early two thousands. She's like, that's like Vody,
Speaker 1: that's like Weber.
Speaker 6: And then all of a sudden, he just loves the
Speaker 6: bonus and everything he brings now, so.
Speaker 1: It's actually it's actually a lot.
Speaker 6: More fun times right now than it was maybe a
Speaker 6: week and a half ago.
Speaker 1: Out here. People are kind of excited.
Speaker 4: Absolutely.
Speaker 2: Do you think that, uh, the emotional response would have
Speaker 2: been the same if it would have been Foxy that
Speaker 2: ended up getting traded instead of Alley.
Speaker 6: No, no, well there's a segment, there is a segment
Speaker 6: that would be just as upset. But fox after well,
Speaker 6: he's not the new shiny toy number one, number two.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 6: He had a slow start to the year. He had
Speaker 6: some bad body language. He frustrated a lot of people.
Speaker 6: He doesn't have the one hundred percent approval rating. That
Speaker 6: and the money you're on a hundred percent of right
Speaker 6: name and you don't have the one hundred percent approval
Speaker 6: rating that Tyres had. His approval rating is probably I
Speaker 6: don't want to jump out the wind. I don't want
Speaker 6: to go overboard. It's probably like eighty percent like it
Speaker 6: used to be one hundred.
Speaker 1: But some of the.
Speaker 5: Things is getting really noxious. Part y'all treating this dude
Speaker 5: like he's Cleaves or something like it's freaking Dan aeron
Speaker 5: Fox Like, man, this dude a good ball player, like
Speaker 5: he can work, like what are you talking about? And
Speaker 5: some of his body language, some of his feel like
Speaker 5: he's approta bate weird this year and you know, we
Speaker 5: couldn't quite put our finger and you had the two
Speaker 5: week absence.
Speaker 2: Because of its losing when you've been a consistent winner
Speaker 2: at every other level of your well.
Speaker 5: Losing from what we hear or what we're ankles like
Speaker 5: this is this is a brand study. Like you lose
Speaker 5: long enough, you get a sore aim and it keeps
Speaker 5: you out. And then there was the there was the awkwardness.
Speaker 5: The day before the Tyrese Haliburton trade, Dederon was a
Speaker 5: full go at practice. He was still listed as the
Speaker 5: game time decision for the next night. But you wake
Speaker 5: up the next day, Tyrese Haliburton gets traded and all
Speaker 5: of a sudden, we're looking around like it's gonna be
Speaker 5: weird when Dearons just returns to the lineup out of nowhere, right,
Speaker 5: And so we learned through some social media interactions as
Speaker 5: the day went along, Yeah, the Arran's coming back tonight
Speaker 5: and it's going to be awkward. And he came back
Speaker 5: and he was smiling, and he was running up and
Speaker 5: down the floor in playing thirty five minutes. And then
Speaker 5: Sibonis is able to debut, you know, two nights later,
Speaker 5: or it wasn't two nights later, it was the next night.
Speaker 5: It was the back to back against Minnesota at the
Speaker 5: gold One center. Sabonis was able to debut the next night,
Speaker 5: and all of a sudden, oh, we've got something cooking here.
Speaker 5: There's this great still shot of de Aaron holding on
Speaker 5: just clutching Debont's i mean, eyes closed, chest to chest
Speaker 5: embrace and you can almost see the exhale in the
Speaker 5: still photo.
Speaker 4: After that first win against Minnesota, the air.
Speaker 6: Of Fox's fiance posted something on a text message sent
Speaker 6: to her and with the picture of foxhold and Sabonis
Speaker 6: and whoever since it.
Speaker 1: Was like, damn recent, he don't even hug you like that?
Speaker 2: So do you think, like I guess that there was
Speaker 2: some level of internal competition between Fox and Tyres or
Speaker 2: just like guys who play the same position that maybe
Speaker 2: like don't fit nearly as much as maybe the King's
Speaker 2: organization thought that they might. That maybe brought down the
Speaker 2: vibes for Foxy or what do you think that is?
Speaker 5: I think it was two guys at the same position
Speaker 5: and playing different roles. Like we look at you know,
Speaker 5: we I think we take for granted the term positionless
Speaker 5: basketball and we just think that it applies to everything,
Speaker 5: and it's like, that's fine positionless basketball if you want to.
Speaker 5: But Tyreese is used to having the ball in his
Speaker 5: hands and he's looking to distribute. It's why Magic Johnson,
Speaker 5: on the night of his draft said, this dude looks
Speaker 5: like me. He looks like little Magic. That's why my
Speaker 5: partner for two years called him little Magic because of
Speaker 5: that line right there. But then when you take the
Speaker 5: ball out of his hands, it's like, no, Dearan's really
Speaker 5: good at that too. All of a sudden, you have
Speaker 5: two guys that are trying to figure out different roles.
Speaker 5: There's still guards, They're still supposed to be positionless. You're
Speaker 5: still supposed to do everything you're used to doing. It's
Speaker 5: just you're doing it in entirely different form now. And
Speaker 5: I think sometimes we get in our assessment of basketball thinking, oh,
Speaker 5: it's just a guard position.
Speaker 4: Well it's not. These two have been used to being
Speaker 4: the facility of their entire careers.
Speaker 6: Tyrese Haliburton when he has the ball is a little magic,
Speaker 6: And when he doesn't have the ball, he turns into
Speaker 6: the Robertson and Oka see just standing in the corner,
Speaker 6: not effective at all. And they actually both were like that,
Speaker 6: and from everything that we could tell, it was never
Speaker 6: anything personal with those two. They liked each other, they
Speaker 6: liked playing with each other. They wanted to try and
Speaker 6: figure it out. They just couldn't. Like it didn't seem
Speaker 6: like it was ever going to work with those two.
Speaker 2: That's exactly where I was going because it feels like
Speaker 2: right now and this is not a King specific comment,
Speaker 2: I think this is a basketball specific comment.
Speaker 3: Right now with this era is that if you're not a.
Speaker 2: Ball dominant guard, then you pretty much are I don't
Speaker 2: want to say like voided useless, but like people are
Speaker 2: not moving, players are not moving without the basketball, like
Speaker 2: Allah Steph Curry right, and the Golden State system has
Speaker 2: gotten guys very good at buying in to know you cut,
Speaker 2: you're constantly in motion, whether you have the ball or
Speaker 2: whether you don't, because it wears out defenses, like it
Speaker 2: makes it very difficult for even like a team like
Speaker 2: the Lakers right now because they've got a couple of
Speaker 2: ball dominant, few ball dominant guys on the team, and
Speaker 2: when they don't have the ball, they just it's like
Speaker 2: almost like someone put the controller down on two K,
Speaker 2: like that player is just no longer even like doing
Speaker 2: anything well.
Speaker 5: To stall Dearon and Tyres a bit I think it's
Speaker 5: also you talk about that constant motion in basketball.
Speaker 4: I think they were often playing with guys who maybe.
Speaker 5: Forgot what they were supposed to do defensive end, and
Speaker 5: it would lead you, Yeah, it would lead you into
Speaker 5: some really possessions where you're like, hey, why are there
Speaker 5: four guys over there? Oh, two of them are in
Speaker 5: the wrong spot.
Speaker 2: And I saw Buddy Heal do it his first night
Speaker 2: for Indiana. He was standing shoulder to shoulder with I
Speaker 2: want to say, maybe Chris Dwart.
Speaker 3: I was like, what are you doing right there?
Speaker 4: I think it was in the last four years, Homie.
Speaker 1: I think we're talking about the same play. I remember too.
Speaker 6: I think it was Tyrese Haliburton there and Tyreesee was
Speaker 6: ready for a swing like somebody added up top. Tyresee
Speaker 6: was ready for a swing. All of a sudden, Buddy,
Speaker 6: He'll just runs right in front of Tyrese Haliburton gets
Speaker 6: the ball. You're not supposed to be there. I know
Speaker 6: that's not the play. I know that's not the play.
Speaker 4: What are you doing that? That wasn't for the perimeter?
Speaker 2: He shifts like towards him, Like the whole point is
Speaker 2: to not bring your defender.
Speaker 3: You're the guy with the ball.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was nightly struggle, like multiple times per night struggle,
Speaker 5: and they're in. You know, as great as the additions
Speaker 5: have been to the Sacramento Kings, there's a very very
Speaker 5: good argument that the subtractions have been just as important.
Speaker 2: Do you think that the Kings just back to that
Speaker 2: point about Fox versus Halliburton, do you feel like the
Speaker 2: Kings value Fox more than they did Halliburton or was
Speaker 2: it just the only way that the deal got done?
Speaker 2: Because I saw a lot of stuff like on Hoopsite
Speaker 2: saying that the Kings weren't interested in trading Fox, but
Speaker 2: I also heard that other teams were more interested in
Speaker 2: team friendly deals.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's them.
Speaker 5: That we've tried to evaluate a lot over the last
Speaker 5: you know, week or whatever it's been. Is really if
Speaker 5: you believe there's a you know, the tyree has just
Speaker 5: you know, that's awesome, And if you're a team Indiana's
Speaker 5: looking to rebuild, like, we couldn't figure out why, Like
Speaker 5: Indiana doesn't a team that's rebuilding, dearon Fox doesn't make
Speaker 5: sense for them because why are you gonna read thirty
Speaker 5: million dollar contract when there are still I think Dean.
Speaker 4: I think we can all agree.
Speaker 5: There are some questions about like, when you look at contracts,
Speaker 5: you put other players who make that money into the
Speaker 5: same category. Okay, he's not Davion or not. He's not
Speaker 5: Donovan Donovan mitt Yet not Davian Mitchell. He's not Donovan Mitchell.
Speaker 5: He's not Jason Tatum either, and so it's like, well,
Speaker 5: but he's good, but he makes the same amount of
Speaker 5: money that they So if you're rebuilding, if you're starting over,
Speaker 5: it's easier to build around a guy who's in the
Speaker 5: second year of the NBA. He's in the second year
Speaker 5: of a rookie contract, which gives you the ability to
Speaker 5: keep him, you know, on your roster for a very
Speaker 5: long time and put the right pieces around him. Tyree's
Speaker 5: for a rebuilding team made so much more sense than
Speaker 5: the Aaron Fox did.
Speaker 6: Right, And one of the things one of our our
Speaker 6: insider Our Kings Insider on ESPN thirteen twenty brought up
Speaker 6: a good point and he talked about when.
Speaker 1: De Aaron Fox was out.
Speaker 6: For two weeks and Tyree's got to play by himself essentially,
Speaker 6: and he played really well. Right He's out there, probably
Speaker 6: averaged twenty plus points per game, seven eight assists. Tonight
Speaker 6: played really well, but they got beat by sixty thirty
Speaker 6: like twenty five twice, like they were getting beat down.
Speaker 1: And it did two things.
Speaker 6: It kind of raised Tyree's trade value because you saw
Speaker 6: what he could do just by himself, So that probably
Speaker 6: was appealing to other teams, but also for the Kings,
Speaker 6: it made it say, well, it's greatest Tyre's Halliburton is
Speaker 6: how far are we really gonna go if he's our
Speaker 6: best piece in that particular case, if we don't feel
Speaker 6: like he can you know, he can transcend what's going
Speaker 6: on here in Sacramento, maybe we put him in a deal,
Speaker 6: get Fox who you know, the contract and everything is
Speaker 6: a real issue. But if we can pair him up
Speaker 6: with another top flight big or something like that we
Speaker 6: call big fish out here, like Sabonis, maybe that's a
Speaker 6: little more of a fast track to where we want
Speaker 6: to get. And I think that time will Fox being off,
Speaker 6: I think it helped a lot for them to kind
Speaker 6: of get a.
Speaker 1: Clear view of what moves they need to make.
Speaker 5: And I think there's one other thing too, Trista sorry
Speaker 5: that Tyrese is a great passer. Dearan's a great score.
Speaker 5: So with Sabonis, Yeah, I don't want to say you
Speaker 5: completely balanced that out a little bit, but you kind
Speaker 5: of did. It's not like a net negative six Sibonises go.
Speaker 4: For five there with the passing big man.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that that's what makes the move interesting
Speaker 2: and I think it showcases how important it's not just
Speaker 2: the two man game that is important. It's where the
Speaker 2: two men are in on the court. But it's like
Speaker 2: all about where the two men game is. And this
Speaker 2: is as a Blazer fan who had CJ and Dame
Speaker 2: for a decade, you realize it doesn't really matter how
Speaker 2: good those two guys are because they literally are in
Speaker 2: the same spots on the floor and they don't compliment
Speaker 2: each other in terms of winning. Uh, And like that
Speaker 2: would be that would be all good and fine if
Speaker 2: we had a big that you could rely on, one
Speaker 2: that could pass like Nurkic is not slowness, Like, let's
Speaker 2: be real, like use of Nurkic isn't that That kind
Speaker 2: of leads me into the rest of the trade talk
Speaker 2: and what happened at the deadline and what you guys'
Speaker 2: thoughts are because we now have.
Speaker 3: An embiid hardened combin nation.
Speaker 2: And now we have Ben Simmons in Brooklyn, Like, what
Speaker 2: do you guys think? And I know this isn't really
Speaker 2: Kings related, but it sort of is in regards to,
Speaker 2: like how you construct a roster?
Speaker 3: Who do you think? And like how what's your.
Speaker 2: Assessment of how they've both constructed their rosters?
Speaker 5: First, Kenny, because you know I'm about to rail on
Speaker 5: James Harden in Philadelphia, So go ahead.
Speaker 1: Let me say for Philly's side, right, I guess you
Speaker 1: got what you were looking for.
Speaker 6: I kind of feel like Daryl Morey got a he
Speaker 6: got screwed in this deal because he reportedly was asking
Speaker 6: for a whole lot and he didn't really get any
Speaker 6: of that except for he got the superstar in James Harden.
Speaker 6: And I don't like the way James Harden plays. I'm
Speaker 6: not a huge James Harden fan, but I know what
Speaker 6: he produces out there on the floor.
Speaker 1: It's crazy.
Speaker 6: I think, you know, everybody's like, oh, James Harden, he's
Speaker 6: trying to play his way out of Brooklyn. He's fat,
Speaker 6: he's in, he's not engaged, and everything else like that.
Speaker 6: And I go and I look at his numbers and
Speaker 6: I agree he is having a down year. But at
Speaker 6: Dani Leeers your twenty two points centissist eight rebounds a
Speaker 6: night like he's, the production is unmatched. So I think
Speaker 6: Philadelphia getting James Harden for this year, they're better than
Speaker 6: they were coming into the year. I think they're better
Speaker 6: than they would have been. Ben Simmons would have been
Speaker 6: there all year. Harden and Mbeed give them an opportunity
Speaker 6: to win a championship, and I didn't think they had
Speaker 6: that opportunity, especially with the Ben Simmons there. So they
Speaker 6: got better there on the Brooklyn side than that might
Speaker 6: be for the future. I don't think Ben Simmons is
Speaker 6: going to really help them make a championship charge this year,
Speaker 6: but you gotta look at Okay, it helps for the future.
Speaker 6: I know Kd's going to be there. I doubt Kyrie
Speaker 6: is going to be there. So now you're looking at
Speaker 6: his offer him.
Speaker 3: You don't think they offer him a deal this offseason.
Speaker 1: You know it's up in the air.
Speaker 6: I could see them saying, just just go, Kyrie, just go,
Speaker 6: like'retired at this nonsense, and myself and they mean, we
Speaker 6: talked about it yesterday. Does anybody signed Kyrie you know,
Speaker 6: with everything that comes along with them next year, who's
Speaker 6: the owner that's going to say, yeah, I want to
Speaker 6: take a chance on that. So looking at the future,
Speaker 6: I like Seth Curry. I like Seth Curry a lot.
Speaker 6: I think he could kind of hop into that Kyrie
Speaker 6: role next year. So I think this deal helps Brooklyn
Speaker 6: more next year. I think this deal helps Philly more
Speaker 6: this year.
Speaker 5: I don't think either team got closer to winning a
Speaker 5: championship this year because there's no acquisition that could be
Speaker 5: made that makes Harden all of a sudden he's a
Speaker 5: championship player. He's just he's fall short year after year.
Speaker 5: And you can blame it on injuries, you can blame
Speaker 5: it on injuries to teammates, you could do And I
Speaker 5: said this, I feel like I always have to say
Speaker 5: this now because I've never been a fan of James Harden.
Speaker 5: What he did last year, playing through the hamstring injury
Speaker 5: and playing essentially two straight games without sitting, playing Game
Speaker 5: six and seven, that's pretty incredible.
Speaker 4: But they lost.
Speaker 5: And he has this ability like he's been able to
Speaker 5: push himself out of Houston and Brooklyn and back to
Speaker 5: back years. As the trade goes, I think again, I
Speaker 5: don't think it really is consequent for this season. Next year,
Speaker 5: I I I don't know what we're gonna see when
Speaker 5: Ben Simmons finally takes the floor and you know we've speculated,
Speaker 5: are they going to keep Ben Simmons out? Are they
Speaker 5: going to allow him to ramp up until Kevin Durant
Speaker 5: comes back? And so you got you know, Ben Simmons,
Speaker 5: Kevin Durant, and Seth Curry out there all on the
Speaker 5: floor together, and now you can really potentially see what
Speaker 5: Brooklyn has if Ben everything falls on the shoulders of
Speaker 5: Ben Simmons, Like if he's playing at that at that
Speaker 5: top the that top ball distributed level that we know
Speaker 5: that he's capable of, and that team that maybe they
Speaker 5: could get on a run in the playoffs, get through Milwaukee,
Speaker 5: get through you know, if Chicago winds up being there.
Speaker 1: Nobody mm hmm. We have a we have a we
Speaker 1: have one of our it's not a bit I guess
Speaker 1: it is.
Speaker 6: Whatever we talked about, who has the championship belt in
Speaker 6: the league, not like so in if somebody say who's
Speaker 6: the best player in the league, it's probably Lebron still right,
Speaker 6: Like Lebron is the go maybe even Kevin Durant, but
Speaker 6: that's different because we're wrestling fans than who has the belt,
Speaker 6: right who has the championship belt? And right now Gianni's
Speaker 6: has the belt like he's the champ. He's got the belt.
Speaker 6: He's the best player in the league at this particular moment.
Speaker 4: I don't know what, Sorry, I just I'm just.
Speaker 5: There's a brother in Chicago who is walking down that
Speaker 5: ramp right now.
Speaker 4: His theme music is playing, and he's getting ready to
Speaker 4: go nose to nose.
Speaker 5: With Giannis and Compo right now, because we got to
Speaker 5: stop ignoring what DeMar DeRozan in the Chicago Bulls.
Speaker 6: He is in the middle ring with the belt on
Speaker 6: the shoulder, just one in just one year.
Speaker 5: Right now, DeRozan's walking down to make the challenge. That's
Speaker 5: all I'm saying, Like he's getting ready to go out
Speaker 5: of Ioway.
Speaker 2: And the playoffs, Damien. I need to see my man
Speaker 2: in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Here, respect the bit Trista.
Speaker 4: He can lose the title later. I'm just saying. In
Speaker 4: a wrestling scenario, that's it. He's walking down my.
Speaker 1: Eye like.
Speaker 2: Middle comes in with the chair as he's in the
Speaker 2: ram and he's like, no, this is my house.
Speaker 1: But who does he hit.
Speaker 6: Middleton and Drew Holliday played a role of the usso's
Speaker 6: in this situation?
Speaker 5: All right, all right and and and and you honest
Speaker 5: acknowledge me.
Speaker 1: I'm with it.
Speaker 4: I'm with it.
Speaker 5: Somewhere there's fire you gotta be you gotta have fire,
Speaker 5: you gotta that's the heat.
Speaker 1: Fire. There you go.
Speaker 4: That's right.
Speaker 2: So back back to the Kings because that's kind of
Speaker 2: like what I want to finish the convo on.
Speaker 3: It's like where where are they? Like where are they in.
Speaker 2: The development and the ascension? Like optimism some level from
Speaker 2: one to ten this year obviously you're not going to
Speaker 2: do much besides maybe fight for a plan seat, But like,
Speaker 2: where do you guys rank the optimism for the future
Speaker 2: of this franchise? Because I think it's actually probably and
Speaker 2: you're in a better spot right now than probably we are.
Speaker 3: Portland.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was weird to hear you say had when
Speaker 5: you were referring to CJ and Dame.
Speaker 4: That was like, oh, that's right, they had wild.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think you're right in Portland. I think this
Speaker 5: year and this is the frustrating, you know, consequence of
Speaker 5: being a Kings fan. Or someone who covers the Kings
Speaker 5: is you root for good things to happen, but you
Speaker 5: realize what we saw over the course of the last
Speaker 5: week or so won't be able to be measured until
Speaker 5: and obviously we hope Mini mcnahir has a successful off
Speaker 5: season and is able to add a couple of more
Speaker 5: pieces that desperately needs.
Speaker 4: They're still really bad defensively. Maybe a shooter. Who would
Speaker 4: the target? Who would the addition be? I I don't know.
Speaker 5: The guy who just got traded to Brooklyn would be
Speaker 5: really ideal. Who I don't know that he know. Seth
Speaker 5: Curry has a Sacramento Kings Jersey somewhere. He would be
Speaker 5: ideal here because he's smart and he can shoot like
Speaker 5: he has a high basketball like you. He could run,
Speaker 5: he can and this is a phrase Kenny and I
Speaker 5: are so sick of hearing.
Speaker 4: But he gets spread the floor and open things up
Speaker 4: a little bit.
Speaker 5: For Sabonis and Harrison Barnes, who has played pretty well
Speaker 5: with the exception of that Brooklyn game, and acquisitions have
Speaker 5: come over. But I think that you know, if the
Speaker 5: Kings wind up getting to the tenth spot, that's cool
Speaker 5: because it means they've played better since the trade. It
Speaker 5: means they're on an uptick. But really the measurement of
Speaker 5: all of this is going to be how they start
Speaker 5: next season, And of course you don't want to face
Speaker 5: plan either the rest of the way. Like we know
Speaker 5: there are shortcomings on the Kings, but we also think
Speaker 5: that they got better over the course of the last week.
Speaker 5: So they need to finish with They need to finish
Speaker 5: with a over the course of the last twenty some
Speaker 5: odd games, and they started the first fifty something and
Speaker 5: what we've seen is all about next year.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the level of optimism for the Kings in the
Speaker 6: city and with people that follow this team like myself
Speaker 6: and Damien, I mean, it's done a complete one pint
Speaker 6: eighty over the course of the last week and a half.
Speaker 6: I mean it was looking dreadful with the group that
Speaker 6: they had, with the prospects of you know, probably being
Speaker 6: in the top seven again in the draft and not
Speaker 6: being bad enough to be top three or something like that,
Speaker 6: needing a miracle.
Speaker 1: It was looking dreadful.
Speaker 6: And then they make a deal, they get a guy
Speaker 6: like Sabonis, and like Damiens just pointed out, this year, yes,
Speaker 6: you want to compete, you want to play well because
Speaker 6: it's there for you. But it's really gave so much
Speaker 6: optimism for next year. This summer. You have Sibonis, you
Speaker 6: have dearon Fox, You've got Harrison Barnes who's rejuvenated and
Speaker 6: put into a different light with this particular trade with
Speaker 6: Sabonis coming to Fruition, and now you've got situations where
Speaker 6: we got a little more spending money, we have assets
Speaker 6: to trade. We love him out here, but it doesn't
Speaker 6: we don't know if it fits Rashaun Holmes. You pair
Speaker 6: that with the first round pick that I don't want
Speaker 6: to say you don't need to use. But because you
Speaker 6: have somebody like Sabonus who's only twenty five years old
Speaker 6: and you can look at him and Fox, you could
Speaker 6: pair that first round pick, which could be a top
Speaker 6: ten pick, with the Rashawn Holmes to get another possible
Speaker 6: big fish. So you ask who some people have talked about,
Speaker 6: like Miles Bridges, you know, see if you could work
Speaker 6: out a sign and trade with Charlotte for them and
Speaker 6: boast of the roster that way. And there's something that
Speaker 6: people talk about with Chicago and I it just stays
Speaker 6: in my head.
Speaker 1: My partner probably tired of me talking about it every day.
Speaker 6: But they talk about Chicago last year when they got Vucevich,
Speaker 6: they got him, missed the playoffs, and they had him
Speaker 6: in zach Lavine, and they talk about how having two
Speaker 6: guys was a better presentation for somebody like Damar DeRozan
Speaker 6: to say, hey, you're not gonna have to come in
Speaker 6: with it on your shoulders. We got two guys already.
Speaker 6: We just need you to complete that triangle. And now
Speaker 6: it's the bonus of Fox. Whether it's with free agency
Speaker 6: or through trade. The Kings may be able to do
Speaker 6: that this summer, go to somebody like a DeRozan type
Speaker 6: player and say, hey, come here, you know, complete this
Speaker 6: triangle and then help get us into a legitimate playoff
Speaker 6: spot and not just the play in situation. So it's
Speaker 6: a long way of saying, like you, they've kind of
Speaker 6: changed the outlook on everything in about a week.
Speaker 4: In point guard.
Speaker 5: You can literally see everything before you do right, like
Speaker 5: just an extraordinary passer, like he sees the court, like
Speaker 5: they set table so beautifully for free agency this year.
Speaker 2: And a guy who we've stolen from LA because they're
Speaker 2: so intent to not pay the luxury tax on him
Speaker 2: and Alex Crusoe, and he's going to be the heartbeat
Speaker 2: and the soul of your team and you're gonna just
Speaker 2: absolutely call him.
Speaker 3: The goat as a role player.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think that it's an interesting and exciting time.
Speaker 2: Especially I think, like I really like some bonus. But
Speaker 2: the fact that you don't have to deal with Marvin
Speaker 2: Bagley and Buddy Heal anymore is just like you get
Speaker 2: rid of so much drama. And you're seeing that with
Speaker 2: the nets too, right, Like you got rind Of Harden,
Speaker 2: who's one of the best scorers and playmakers in the league,
Speaker 2: but everyone hated him, like he was doing dumb shit
Speaker 2: on and off the court.
Speaker 3: He did not want to be there.
Speaker 2: I heard a story that he was in the hotel
Speaker 2: either in Utah or Denver. I always get him confused
Speaker 2: and had all kinds of shenanigans going on when he
Speaker 2: wasn't playing. And so you get guys who are off
Speaker 2: the team and Tristan Thompson who have had their share
Speaker 2: of drama, Like nobody wants to see their teammate in
Speaker 2: the headlines like that like just adds like a level
Speaker 2: of gray clouds to the party that's already not like
Speaker 2: doesn't have a lot of drinks already, you only have
Speaker 2: one kind of chips.
Speaker 3: You know, people aren't really trying to come to that
Speaker 3: kind of a.
Speaker 2: Party, you know what I mean, unless they're down for
Speaker 2: what Tristan's down for.
Speaker 6: And look, I've been I've been somewhat critical of the
Speaker 6: Air and Fox's leadership skills throughout the course.
Speaker 1: Of the season. But I'm gonna stall them out a
Speaker 1: little bit here.
Speaker 6: And everything that you talked about with Badley Buddy not
Speaker 6: running plays and doing stuff like that, and TT and
Speaker 6: the tabloids every week, somebody like the Aaron Fox is
Speaker 6: probably saying, they're like, what the hell is going on here? Like,
Speaker 6: what the hell is going on?
Speaker 5: So yeah, when Mary, when Mary saying no more drama
Speaker 5: at the Super Bowl, she did that for us, No,
Speaker 5: she was she was speaking directly to Sacramento Kings fans,
Speaker 5: no more drama.
Speaker 1: And ridiculous a love problema. Not treat me well right now?
Speaker 3: It's wild.
Speaker 6: No.
Speaker 2: And I think for me, as like someone who watches
Speaker 2: the Ear and Fox, No, I wouldn't say like decide
Speaker 2: to kind of just chuck the deuces in the middle
Speaker 2: of the season and say you guys need to sort some.
Speaker 3: Things out before I come back. But like I get that,
Speaker 3: Like you're a winner.
Speaker 2: You won at every level to a degree, right, Like
Speaker 2: you've been the man, and you come to a place
Speaker 2: that you probably didn't want to go to to begin with,
Speaker 2: and then it sort of deteriorates, and then you're like,
Speaker 2: I don't even know how how this could get better?
Speaker 2: You know? And uh, I guess the one The final
Speaker 2: question that I have for you, guys is what's your
Speaker 2: prediction for who coaches this team any year?
Speaker 4: Can we just I don't.
Speaker 2: Prediction and and uh like greatest hope or like your wishless.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we so I this is where, well, look, Damien,
Speaker 7: I'll say this, I don't know if it's Damian's hope.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's people's hope.
Speaker 6: Now that they got now they got some players in here,
Speaker 6: you can sell it on not being a disaster.
Speaker 1: I think it might be Doug Christy.
Speaker 5: So yeah, because I love Doug and I have a
Speaker 5: just endless amount of respect for Alvin. I felt like
Speaker 5: this a couple of weeks ago. I still feel the same.
Speaker 5: You have to rid yourself of the entire coaching staff
Speaker 5: and it's where the Kings are this season. On Luke Walton,
Speaker 5: though I didn't think he was a good coach, and
Speaker 5: on Alvin Gentry. I don't blame it on Rico Hines,
Speaker 5: Doug Christy, Stacy, Mike anyone else who's here.
Speaker 4: It's just it doesn't work.
Speaker 5: Hire a head coach, allow that head coach to hire
Speaker 5: their entire from top to bottom without the organization stepping
Speaker 5: in and saying, oh, now, we're gonna need you to
Speaker 5: keep this guy around though, because that's immediately gonna put
Speaker 5: this thing in the Kings.
Speaker 2: That's what happened with the Pacers when he kept Yorkrin
Speaker 2: kept a couple of guys in and one of them
Speaker 2: ended up leaving in the middle of the season to
Speaker 2: quote unquote mental health issues and basically say that Nate
Speaker 2: Jurkrin was hated by all the players he's talking to Wolje.
Speaker 2: Now Nate Yorkin ends up losing his job because you've
Speaker 2: got this whisper campaign that wasn't even close to true.
Speaker 2: And now Nate Yorkin is back in Toronto as an
Speaker 2: assistant coach instead of doing what he should be doing,
Speaker 2: which is running the Pacers. Now you have an old
Speaker 2: school coach like Rick Carlisle in who's great like but
Speaker 2: isn't the biggest players coach either.
Speaker 5: You know, I need I need some behind the scenes
Speaker 5: footage of Rick Carlisle and Buddy Healed, Like, give me that.
Speaker 5: That's that's that's what I'm here for. Give me that
Speaker 5: on inside the NBA. Let me let me see Rick Carlile.
Speaker 1: You got.
Speaker 3: So who is it you want to see?
Speaker 2: Like a young gun like David Vanderpool come in, or
Speaker 2: like ken Yatkinson who like gets guys to develop and work.
Speaker 4: Kenny Atkinson is definitely going to be a name.
Speaker 5: Kings Fan Pool is someone that I've you know, I
Speaker 5: wanted in the last hirings. Those are all like I
Speaker 5: think those are probably the top two on the list,
Speaker 5: Kenny Akinson and David Vanderpool. But outside of that, I mean,
Speaker 5: I feel like Sam con Sam Cassell is now kind
Speaker 5: of morphing into the Eric b Enemy category where it's like,
Speaker 5: I guess this dude just isn't getting a job. I
Speaker 5: guess he's just going to continue to be like a
Speaker 5: high end assistant across the league. So I don't really
Speaker 5: know how that works. But right now, early early, early
Speaker 5: Delo Coaching power rankings. Kenny Atkinson's probably second. Sam Cassell
Speaker 5: will still be on the why that's taking so long
Speaker 5: and and the.
Speaker 3: Know it was number one right now on your power ranking.
Speaker 4: David Vanderpool David Vanderpool, Yeah, he's number one.
Speaker 3: Yours, Kenny is Doug Christie.
Speaker 6: I think that's who's going to get it. I wouldn't
Speaker 6: I wouldn't mind seeing Doug Christy there. I like Damian.
Speaker 6: I've been a big fan of Sam Cassell. I think
Speaker 6: he should get his opportunity with one of these teams
Speaker 6: in the league. So I wouldn't mind seeing Sam Cassell.
Speaker 6: That'd probably be my favorite if I had to pick
Speaker 6: number one.
Speaker 5: A lot of people will see that higher. A lot
Speaker 5: of people here will see that higher and believe that
Speaker 5: it wasn't made by Monti McNair. Yeah, and if it
Speaker 5: wasn't made by Minum McNair. The King's just they're continued
Speaker 5: the same issues that they've had for the last seven
Speaker 5: or eight years.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm looking forward to seeing what ends up happening. Uh,
Speaker 2: it's always a pleasure. I will see you guys Friday. Well,
Speaker 2: I'm sure we'll have plenty.
Speaker 6: To discuss Christ when we when we get you a
Speaker 6: Sacramento man, come on, you gotta come to go to
Speaker 6: one Center. You got to pull up, you know, Champagne
Speaker 6: and campaign have a good time.
Speaker 1: Come out here.
Speaker 3: I would like to do that.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you guys know this, but I'm
Speaker 2: I'm locked into a studio and they just like make
Speaker 2: me stay there.
Speaker 4: I believe it.
Speaker 3: Hopefully soon, hopefully soon.
Speaker 2: How about we planned for summer league, because the Sacramento
Speaker 2: one is first, go.
Speaker 3: From that one to the Vegas one, you know, so
Speaker 3: I would live then.
Speaker 4: That the league. I'm with it.
Speaker 3: Dlo and Casey here with me on the heat check.
Speaker 2: Will have to do this again.
Speaker 3: Guys.
Speaker 2: You can find them on ESPN thirteen twenty from twelve
Speaker 2: to four pm Pacific time, so that's three pm to
Speaker 2: seven pm Eastern Standard time. Because that's what I'm rocking at.
Speaker 2: Make sure you follow im K Diddy on Twitter and
Speaker 2: Damien with an E.
Speaker 3: Barling B A R L I n G on Twitter.
Speaker 3: Anything else you guys need to plug.
Speaker 6: No, Trey Lance is good. On that note that