What is krack Alakin fellow thermonuclear a efforts. I am Damn Valley coming at
you with i'll call the bonus episode. This week, Greg Whissinger of The
King's Harold follow him at g whist That's at gwi SS back on the pod
to talk about the King's Warriors matchup and why he believes in you know,
areas of concern, but also why the national media at large, including this
podcast, might be underestimating the Kings. Bring on guests for every series that
was is way too difficult. Please check out minding grants, Deep Dive also
Rememderous. Subscribe you I've done that already. Hit subscribe on YouTube, Subscribe
and Apple Spotify. Help us continue to grow the show. Join our discord
link is in the podcast description as well as the YouTube description All that Jazz.
We appreciate word of mouth, recommendations and shout outs on Twitter. It's
always nice when we can get some positive feedback to rather than people always just
being in our mentions or my dms and mad or questioning me about something we
said. I understand it's part of the gig and I like to be accessible,
but it's been a very exhausting a couple of weeks where the feels like
the constant feedback loop is mostly negative. A lot of Discord members are super
nice, so shout out to you guys. But yeah, bringing Greg on
Kings and their playoff drought, so I think it's, you know, Sacramento
fans definitely deserve this, and I do think that there's just been an over
welly number of people picking against them in the Warriors series, so I thought
it'd be interesting to one allow him to come on and shit talk, which
he did not take advantage of enough, I don't think, but it was
still fun conversation, but also too to get perspective from someone closer to the
Kings what we might be underestimating, why they have a better chance in this
series, and just allow you know, Sacramento Kings fans a chance to just
emote over this because it's it's huge and we'll bring Greg back. For some
reason, they keep continue to make it out of the first round of the
playoffs, into the second round and into the conference finals, into the NBA
Finals, who knows. But it was a fun conversation. I think you'll
enjoy it, And yeah, that's it for me. Let's get to this
convo with Greg Whizzinger from The King's Herald. What is krack Alakin, fellow
thermonuclear affors, I am Dan Pavalley coming at you with a Sacramento Kings slash
Warriors specific pod, but it's really a King's specific pod. Before we dive
into the to all the ship talking, I think it's gonna take place.
Greg, how are you doing? The beam is lit? I mean,
we're the three seed, we got a home court game, we are doing
great. You offered, you said that if we want to do any playoff
content that you'd be willing to do it. So you're not yourself to hop
on very quickly after that. I think it's important that Kings fans do get
to be as bombastic as they please, because it's been so long since that
they've been to the playoffs and why. I also think relative to every other
higher seed, I think the Grizzlies and Nuggets are getting us a little bit,
but the Kings feel the most dismissed of any like top three seed in
the even like top four seed in the both conferences in the playoffs this year,
and so I think that's also worthy of shit talking as well, and
so you're here to just let's take this wherever we go about this warrior series
about the King's making the playoffs in general, I will play Devil's advocate wherever
I see fit. But I'm very I've been bracing myself for this all day,
and so I'm just excited to see where you take this. So what
are you just your general thoughts, feelings, emotions, heading into a not
just a playoff berth for the first time in sixteen years, but your third.
This isn't like you had to go through the play in like your third.
Like your third, we have home court advantage, which is huge.
I mean Game one of ending the playoff, Droute will be at home in
Sacramento. I mean that's just it's an awesome thing. And yeah, we're
going to talk our ship just in case all the punnits are right and this
is our only shot at doing it and we're out in the first round,
right, Like that, of course, is a very real possibility. Like
I get why that narrow exist, but you know, there's plenty of reasons
that Kings fans can still be excited and believe that there's a very real shot
to advance past the first round and you know, if luky things happen,
maybe even beyond you never know, right, but yeah, it's just a
really exciting fun time for Kings fans that, after all we've been through,
Yeah, we didn't have to deal with the stressful playing because we all kind
of assumed like, okay, the league put in this play in thing,
and someday we're going to stumble as backwards into the playoffs and call it a
success, right that we finally managed to be you know of you know,
fifteen teams a top eight, right, Like, you know, it's the
lowest of bars to clear, and the Kings couldn't do it for so long,
and so it's so rewarding that when that streak finally ended, it's actually
like legit unquestionable, Like there's no there's no asterisks behind it or anything weird.
It's just no, they're the three seed, they've been great all year,
they've got a historically great offense. You know, they've got a fun
team, a young team. It's also not like when the Grizzlies into their
streak with Jimmy Butler, where it's like, yeah, this is all gonna
come crashing down next year and everyone knows it, like this is something that
could be sustainable beyond a single year, Like it's a great time to be
a Kings fan. Finally, so the many questions I have, the first
one was, regardless of what you actually feel about this series, were the
Warriors a team you would have preferred to avoid? And of course, like
come on, I mean for multiple reasons. I mean one, I mean,
the two teams are so close in proximity that there's naturally going to be
Warriors fans in the building. It happens anytime the Warriors and Kings play,
and that happens at Chase Center as well. I mean there's Kings fans that
are going to be there, so that overlap is bound to exist. But
you know, you don't really want the posing team kind of infiltrading and all
that. But I mean Round one tickets are a lot more expensive in Sacramental
because of demand and kind of the resale prices are through the roof right now,
So I think at least in first round, we're not going to see
a ton of people coming from the Bay Area. You know, maybe is
it the tech people from the Bay Area inflating those prices. I think it's
more the people who have been starved for seventeen years of playoffs, like because
I mean you can get game three for like a quarter of the price of
Game one or two right now. So there's that element. But then there's
also the element like, regardless of the final record, I mean, they're
the defending champs, it's Steph Curry. We know Clay can go nuclear,
like I mean his historic like the famous like Clay third quarter that was against
the Kings, So like we know as well as anyone how he can suddenly
go off. You know, we know that Draymond will get away with absolute
murder, both in what he does to the refs and what he does to
Sabonis. Like we know all these things are going to happen. So it's
definitely not the ideal matchup, but nonetheless, in its own way, it's
fun because the Kings and Wars have actually never been in the playoffs in the
same season, So not only have they not faced each other, the two
franchises have never been good at the same time. Were the wise playoff teams
the first time all the California teams made it too? Was the other thing
that I saw, Yeah, I mean the Kings are a pretty big part
of that. But but yeah, I mean it's it's one of those things.
Where is it the matchup I would have picked absolutely not. But you
know, if if the Kings can beat the Warriors in advance, I think
it also would do a lot to kind of start to shift some of the
narrative around the franchise and shift expectations of what that team is pot is capable
of. So in a way, it could be a blessing in disguise,
depending how it goes, I would think, just because I don't there's not
really like an easy season the West, but I probably subscribe to their notion,
unless you're missing a key player, get it out of the way as
early as possible. So Andrew Wiggins is just coming back. Harry Painting the
second hasn't played a ton to get the Warriors now, and that's probably better
than getting them in you know, a later round. I would completely agree
with that. Yeah, I mean they've already said that Wiggins is likely to
be limited as far as minutes. He hasn't played in a while. I
mean, I know he's been saying he's been staying in shape, but you
can stay in shape and that doesn't mean you're in game shape. Everyone,
especially played at Kings, who are just a blur. Yeah, they play
fast even in their half court sets. They move a lot, They're they're
very fascinating. I mean, getting Wiggins back is huge for the Warriors.
It's I'm curious to see, you know, is it ninety five percent of
Wiggins? Is it ninety eight percent? Is it eighty percent? Like I'm
curious to see kind of where he's at and how much he influences it.
But getting him back is still a big X factor for the series. I'm
also interested in this series. I mentioned this when Grant and I did our
preview of like every first round series. For people who think, and I
do disagree with this, but they think that NBA offense is just so homogeneous.
Now the Kings and Warriors are like the two that maybe deviate the most
in the league based off how they run their sets and all the off ball
actions that they're implementing. What do you make of just specifically that chess match,
And I'll start on the offensive end. Are people like what are people
discounting where they think, yeah, because the Warriors have the bonus, because
the Warriors have green excuse me, that they're going to be able to blow
up what the Kings are doing more so than the Kings being able to blow
up with the Warriors or dream What do you just sort of make of that
notion, given that, again, a lot of they're not running like the
exact same stuff. There's different personnel here, but they do kind of subscribe
to the same principles a lot of the time, which is not really surprised,
you know, and Mike Brown came from Golden State, right, I
think that's really the going to be The interesting part is like Steve Kerr and
Mike Brown obviously know each other extremely well. Mike Brown was there for like
five years, and so they are intimately familiar with what each other is going
to be trying to do and how each team adjust encounters and all. That
is going to be really fun to watch as far as what the Warriors can
do. The part that I don't know if it necessarily concerns me, because
I think the King's offense is so potent that even if it takes a slight
step back from where it was in the regular season, it's still going to
be a great offense. I'm not really worried about their ability to score.
That has rarely been an issue this season. I do think that the Warriors
are a smart enough team, an experienced enough team, and a switchable enough
team that they can really work on disrupting passing lanes. I mean, that's
really been where the Kings have struggled at times this year, is when teams
can really disrupt their flow as far as just getting in the passing lanes and
you know, disrupting the dribble, handoffs and the things that the Kings like
to run. It doesn't necessarily stop them for a full game, but it
can disrupt them. It can throw off and in a playoff series, you
know, that can make the difference of a game or two. So that's
what I could see the Warriors disrupting. Now. The on the flip side
of that, the challenge for the Kings on defense, you know, and
they are often a challenged team on defense, is just that you know,
with the Warriors, they you know, they go so small so often that
it's really easy to you know, kind of pick on Sabonus or pull him
away and negate some of his strengths as far as his defense rebounding, Yeah,
he's also I mean, he's not a wing defender, and he's not
a switchable big in that way. So you know, I wouldn't be surprised
if there's times when the Kings, you know, instead of turning to Alex
Len, you know, if they go with a more traditional center, they're
going with JIMSI met two who's a little bit more versatile, a little more
switchable, or just go super small and kind of match the Warriors by playing
Trey Laos at the five, which they've had some success with throughout the year.
The King's defense is interesting because they finished twenty fifth and points lout purpose
and you look at the personnel on paper and you're just like, yeah,
that tracks. But like they they're not without defensive fundamentals. You and I
talked about this semi recently. They grab their defensive rebounds, and if you
pull some bonus away from the basket, yeah, that could be an issue.
But you know, by also making a ton of shots, you're able
to set your defense in the first place. They don't foul a ton.
They're among the best teams in the league get forcing opponents to go through their
offense deep into the shot clock inside seven seconds you look at their shot profile
and on the expected field goal percentage that cleaning the glass has sacramental ranks eleventh,
but they finished twenty seven, so it suggests that there's some unluckiness there.
And then I knew of the road versus home splits, but I was
digging into it more. They're eleventh, and this isn't necessarily like germane to
the defensive argument, but they're ninth. Excuse me, in points alot per
possession on the road. I'm investigating opponent shooting percentages. It's not because of
like super cold three point shooting. They're limiting opponent percentage at the rim better
than normal on the road. There want any explanation behind that, But is
the King's defense what are you most worried about as it goes up against the
Warriors offense? And is there a chance that it's better than the raw numbers?
To jest, which is you look at it and they were twenty fifth,
Like that's not good. The road home split, as far as how
they played on defense, has been a thing like the entire year. It's
been consistent. It's not like an end of the year fluke or a weird
schedule thing. Or anything like. It's been consistent and we cannot make rhyme
of reason of it. For whatever reason, they just play a lot better
defense on the road. I have no idea why. And the hope is
that maybe they can just play a little bit better even at home in a
playoff series. And you know, some of it also, when you break
down the defensive stats by quarter, the Kings are a lot better in the
fourth quarter. So you know, there is kind of that question of how
much of it is that they do run such a fast paced, high powered
offense even in their half court sets, you know how much it is just
their attention and their devotion to that side of the ball in can they step
that up in the playoffs? Now, I'm hesitant to put all my stock
in a team ranked twenty fifth defense, even with those good roads stats,
you know, overall, they're still really bad. I'm hesitant to say like,
well, that team can turn it on like that. That there's some
hesitation there on my side, But I do think that they are capable of
being a little bit better than what their regular season numbers look like. The
other part of it, though, the other thing, just as far as
their issues on defense and you mentioned the shop profile expected field goal percentage.
I think if it's over eighty two games and the opponents are consistently hitting that
much better than expected, you have to point to the defense. I don't
think you can't write it off as luck after that mini games. Just from
watching pretty much every game the season, what I see is the biggest issue
and what le leads to those kind of outlier shooting percentages, is that the
Kings really struggle with stopping penetration from the outside, and then they kind of
collapse to help, and the opponents can swing the ball around and there's usually
an open shooter in the corner, which I don't know how much you've watched
the Warriors this year, but that's a less than ideal thing against the Warriors.
In my humble opinion, I think if they let the Warriors shoot open
threes from the corner all game, they could be in trouble. Yeah,
and they shouldn't look. The King's best form of rim protection in this series
might be the fact that the Warriors are reversed to getting there in the first
place, and so there's not really you don't need to overreact in those situations
when they do get in the lane. But yeah, you're absolutely right.
If that turns into just like, oh, they're gonna need to whether it's
drive or short roll Draymond to kick out, like they need to not overreacting
those situations. Otherwise you're gonna be given up a ton of high quality looks
to don't take e Vincenzo or you know, I guess Steph Curry Oviously,
Klay Thompson has been pretty good this year. And look, I mentioned Steph
Curry and that's just like an unsolvable a quandary for every single team who is
just like the the natural answer would be, okay, well, davey On
Mitchell needs this needs to be a davy On Mitchell series. I don't know
if there is such a thing as a Davey On Mitchell series right now,
based on how much I trust him on offense, who is like the what
are how are they going to go about defending Steph Curry? Actually, do
not think that I saw any of the Warriors Kings games this year, to
be honest with you, and so like, I don't even know many Steph
played in for that matter, but like, how are they going to go
about defending him? Who's the primary defender. They're gonna try some like anything
like Hijinksia, gobox and one or something against him. What do you expect
with that matchup? So the Kings did have a lot of success this year
when they used zone defense. When they went zone, it was actually a
very effective defense. They didn't do it a ton, mostly because Mike Brown
spoke openly about this that he is concerned that it put them in a bad
position for defensive rebounding. And so I don't think that we'll see, you
know, just like a traditional two three zone against the Warriors very much.
Especially, you know, if they've got someone like Looney out there who's a
really good offensive rebounder and has an act for finding loose balls a boxing one,
I wouldn't be surprised to see him throw that at him. But yeah,
I think we'll see a lot of different looks. I mean, Mike
Brown has been a guy who's not afraid to experiment and try things and just
kind of see what works. I think Fox has stepped up in a big
way defensively this year. It's not that he's ever going to be a shutdown
defender, but he's been much better than he's ever been in years past in
the NBA. I wouldn't be surprised if there's times when he's guarding him.
I wouldn't be surprised if we see some extended run for Davion Mitchell because he
is such a good defender. But I mean, Davion's talked in the past
that Steph is a really hard defender for him because the Vian sometimes gets a
little lost off ball and Steph moves so well off ball. So I mean
that was something like last offseason Davion Mitchell was talking about publicly that it was
a challenge for him to guard a guy like stuff and that was something he
had to improve on. Another big thing I could see him try would just
be trying to throw some disruptive length like Kessler Edwards. They acquired him at
the trade deadline. You know, he's had some good games. He's had
some you know, played some minutes, but didn't do much games. I
think he's a guy who could potentially have a big impact because he does give
them more length on the wing and could help counter some of what the Warriors
will bring to the table. But he's also a very inconsistent offensive contributor,
which makes it a challenge to play him a lot. So I think the
long answer is basically just that they're going to throw a lot of different work,
a lot of different looks, and at the end of the day,
you're hoping to keep him to like thirty instead of Forge. You know,
is there another matchup in this or player on the war It's like whether it's
an actual head to head match up or just something about the Warriors that you're
going to be watching intently during this series. The other big one's going to
be Pool, and and Pool is kind of an odd one because if you
look at this year, he had two games against Kings where he did basically
nothing and two games where he absolutely went off. And I wouldn't be surprised
if the series is the same way right where. I mean, he's kind
of that way anyway, where you'll have a quiet game and then he'll go
off for thirty. You know, like that's just kind of who he isn't
but I he's a guy who worries me. You know, he's talented enough,
and he's really kind of their biggest depth piece behind their their main like
core group of guys, right and you know, the King's bench has been
kind of hit or missed this year. If the King's bench steps up and
plays well, the Kings usually win. If they don't and they let the
other teams by go off, then the Kings usually lose. So a guy
like Jordan Poole Bull just coming off the bench is a big thread. I
think, how do we feel about Keegan Murray going into this matchup? After
this season? This would be your time to talk some shit about Keegan Murray.
I know you mentioned to me something about the Rookie of the Year honors
in cases that are being made for specific rookies, but not for Keegan.
Oh, just that any argument you make for Jaylen Williams being Rookie of the
Year is an argument that should actually just be applied to Keegan Murray. If
I had a vote, I'd go Polo ben Cara. I think he should
be Rookie of the Year. But if you're worried about efficiency, if you're
worried about contributing to a team that's winning games, like that's Keegan Murray.
He just set the rookie record for most three pointers made in the season on
high efficiency as the third, fourth or fifth option in the offense. Most
games like he has been phenomenal. I mean, when you look at a
rookie coming in and having an immediate impact on a winning team without having to
be a focal point, like, he's done everything you could ask. I
mean, and there's plenty of room for him to continue to improve. I
mean, beginning of the season, he was doing nothing but standing around shooting
threes. You know, as the season's progressed, you know, Mike Brown's
challenged him to do more, like getting more involved with rebounding. His rebounding
numbers went up, get more involved with creating off the dribble. He's doing
that. You know, he attacking the rim, He's doing more of that.
So you know, he's got versatility to his game. I worry that
Mike Brown might keep on a little bit of a short leash just because he
is a rookie still. But then that's kind of been a trend throughout the
season that when things get tight in the game, they really want to win.
If Keegan's out of an off night, he usually heads to the bench
pretty quick. So but if he's on, I mean, he's capable of
giving him a twenty twenty five point night easily, you know, so it
could be a huge factor. But yeah, he I don't think he shouldn't
Ricky here, but he should definitely be more in the conversation than he is.
Something else I just thought of when we were talking about the like the
Warriors defending the King's offense is there. So I was about to ask you
who your biggest is Keegan Murray, like your biggest X factor for the Kings
for the series, or the name that popped in my head who was going
to argue for for it might be Kevin Hurder because I feel like he is
someone based off what he can do with the ball in his hands, in
addition to just the motion and the actual shooting, gives you alternatives within your
offense to where if the Warriors do blow certain things up, you don't have
to abandon it entirely, or you're not all of a sudden bereft of these
secondary options from a Fox or a Sabonus. And so he might be mind.
I thought about Monk too, because I still question the King's bench and
so you kind of want him to. I know everyone says that depth is
overrate in the playoffs, but like you gotta go like six and seven deep
at least so I could pick out like in Keegan Murray could be one.
I could Harrison Barnes could be one for me too. Do you have like
the biggest X factor for the Kings? So you know, when we think
about the starting lineup, it's built around that concept that if option one gets
blown up, you're fine because you've got options three, four, and five.
So you know they're built around you know, Sabonus and Fox, but
then they've got Harrison Barnes, Keegan Murray, Kevin Hurder, any one of
those guys could be having an on night and can destroy a team. I
think the bigger X factor is Malik Monk because the bench unit, you know,
has not been as consistent, and Malik Monk is part of that.
He is not as consistent. Part of what worries me is that he really
always wants to hit the home run when the crowd is amped, and the
crowd is gonna be amped like the entire time in the playoffs, so he's
gonna do some things and when it's working, it's spectacular. It's the most
fun things you've ever seen. And then when it doesn't work, it's him
just like sailing balls into the crowd. Or launching up all advised three.
He's a you know whatever he else like, it's hard to rain him in
when he gets a little too excited. But if he is hitting, you
know, not just his shooting, but also his playmaking, his distributing ability.
You know, when he's really firing on all cylinders, he completely changes
what the bench can be. So I think he's a huge factor. And
then you know, on the bench, it's definitely gonna be a tighter rotation.
But Trey Lyles has been huge for them. I think that he's going
to be a big part of it. And then I mentioned Kessler Edwards earlier.
If he can disrupt on defense and have any sort of impact, a
positive impact on the offensive side, that's huge. I mean, that's a
big swing for any one game. The nice thing about the King's all right,
Just the nice thing about the way that the Kings are built this year,
you know, both with the starting unit and the bench, is that
they're not entirely reliant on one guy having a good night, or even two
guys having a good night. There's so many guys that any one of them
is capable of stepping up and really leading the charge on any given that do
you have any sense or would you guess, like how many minutes that we're
gonna end up seeing Fox and Sabonis playing, Because while I do think there's
there there is some depth to the Kings, and like you mentioned, what
they've been able to do all season and then they're staggering that darn Fox alone
minutes got better as the season progressed, like they are still you know,
I'm just curious how their one star stretches is my point hold up in this
series, because that seems like it could be a bigger turning point for them
than even the Warriors. And it's gonna be really interesting because Sabonus and Fox,
like Fernan Kings fans who watch their games on a regular basis, like
you know, when their breaks are coming. Mike Brown has been very methodical
about, you know, kind of like a couple of minutes into the fourth
Darren's gonna sit for like three four minutes, and sometimes it feels way too
long, and then he comes back in and so I'm curious to see how
he tightens those up, because I do think we'll see them play higher minutes
than they did in the regular season. I mean, sa bonus was a
thirty four Foxes at thirty three, and they led the team. I mean
they have been careful not to overload anyone with minutes, but you know,
in the playoffs, the rotations, Titan, you want your stars on the
floor more. There's more on the line, you know. I would expect
both of those numbers to go up at least a couple of minutes a game,
But it's hard to predict. Mike Brown, like he might just stick
with what he thinks has worked so far. Who knows. He's been way
more flexible in Sacramento than I remember him being in Cleveland, and so I
feel like he will ratchet it up where necessary, would it be my guest?
But again I mean where this is uncharted territory for just the Kings in
general, so that'll be something to watch. Is this is the cliche question?
The biggest reason the Kings win this series would be what Darren Fox?
I mean, King of the Fourth like he's gonna I mean he's deep,
like far and away the most like clutch player, you know, clutch moments.
He can always get to his shot and converts at a very high clip.
I mean, he lives for the big moment, and this is gonna
be the biggest moments of his career. I mean, if there's ever a
guy I have full faith in his ability to step up on a big stage,
it's Fox. I mean he's shown it every time he's been given a
chance, and I'm really excited to see what he can do. And if
the game is on the line, I fully trust having the ball in his
hands, and after all the painful years of being a Kings fan, like
that feeling of the games on the line, it's in his hands and I'm
like, yeah, there's a good chance this ends positively. That's just a
magnificent feelings. They're gonna definitely test his decision making in the lane, and
he's been I think he's been buying large as awesome doing that this year and
like the thirty percent usage, not even eleven percent turn over it, he's
just been I had him on my second team all NBA. I think he's
where he ended up. He's been great, though. I do think the
Warriors pose just a very good test for him because of Draymond one being and
Looney even being there, but then also the guys that are going to be
in front of him initially, whether that's gonna be Wiggins at points, Devincenzo
or you know, Gary Payton a second now playing and Gary Payton a second
will put you in hell like and that's just like, that's a super tough
matchup. And so he's I've I've said, and this is from someone who's
just so far away from the situation. I think everyone often has just said,
well, like Demontesi Bonus is their best player, He's been the reason
they're here, and I've always tramed it as I think he might be either
most valuable, but Danon Fox me is just their best player. And a
part of that is the clutch stuff. And then yes, Domas might unlock
a lot of what they do, I just don't think it means nearly as
much without what it actually unlocks to what Darron Fox is within that, but
then also what he is separate from that, as we've seen, and so
I think he's the player on the Kings. I think a lot of maybe
basketball stake goes are probably more interested in the Domas Draymond Green matchup. I
think I'm just more interested in the Darron Fox versus the Golden State defense at
large matchup. If that makes any sense. Yeah, I mean there's debate
even in Kings circles on is Sabonis or Fox better or more important or you
know, which way it goes, And I don't have a clear answer.
I mean, obviously the team is built around what Sabonis is able to do
as far as distributing the ball, you know, creating space with screens,
you know, the passing and the movement. But i mean Fox and Sabonis
both are on the same page that like, yeah, they run it mostly
through Sabonis and then they get down the crunch time and it just runs through
Fox and he just picks apart the defense. So it's kind of I mean,
they work very well together in tandem. And you talk about, you
know, the different looks that the Warriors are gonna throw at Fox, and
that's definitely a real thing. But it's not like the Kings can't force switches
and you know, you know, use sabonas to give Fox space or get
a pesky defender off. I'm like, there's a lot of different things that
they can throw at him, and you know, ways to still create those
looks for everyone. What if you're so you're the Kings and from an offensive
perspective or even from a in terms of defending the Warriors. And I think
my guests would be the answer to this is two different ones. Do you
prefer, as a again, the Kings going up against the Warriors when they
have both Kevon Looney and Draymond in the front court, or when they're gonna
go with just Draymond in the front court, they might slide pull into lineup,
or de Vincenzo into the lineup, or Gary Payton the second into the
lineup. Which version of the Warriors do you prefer to go up against?
Look, I think pretty clearly on offense, you just rather go up against
the two big version of the Warriors, would be my guess. Maybe not,
maybe you feel differently, but if you're the King's offense, do you
prefer to go after that version as well? Or the smaller version of the
Warriors? Yeah, I mean I think that the bigger version of the Warriors
still isn't very big, and it's still lays into the King's strengths in a
lot of ways, because you know, Luny's not gonna I mean, he's
a versatile big and does a lot of things very well, and I think
in a lot of ways. He's kind of underrated, but is generational.
I know, this season it feels like he just hasn't made his improp of
playoff mode. Von Luney is generational, right, Like, I'm not trying
to sell him short or disrespect him or anything like that. I mean,
I know he's a big listener to your podcast. I'm sure he's putting this
on the bulletin board and all that. But uh, you know, I
feel like Sabonis kind of has that matchup, right, Like I feel pretty
good about that one, you know, the switching and smaller version. I
still feel like Sabonis has that matchup on offense, Like, I don't think
the Warriors have a good answer for Sabonis. And you know, Draymond obviously,
you know, one of the better best defenders of the generation, and
his size rarely holds him back because he is such a smart defender and bates
guys into things. And you know, well he's facing the Kings with playoff
raffs, so I mean he'll get away with everything. So you know,
there's a lot to be said for using Draymond on sabonas but I still think
it's one of those things where the Kings will need Sabonis to really just assert
himself more than he traditionally has, regardless of what the lineup is, because
he should be able to beat whoever they're throwing at, Whereas you know,
the different looks could throw off some of the other guys more than it should
him. I have more narrative driven questions for you, But is there anything
just on the court that we really haven't discussed anything you go into the weeds
that you think we overlooked that you want to hit. I think we've hit
the big like actual pretending we're talking about real bad basketball stuff and not me
just like talking some crap. So I think it's a good point for us
to go ahead and shift this one. I don't know if it's gonna give
you good opportunity, But why aren't we making more of the Harrison Barnes going
up against the Warriors thing? Is it just because the Kings haven't been the
playoffs and forever? So that's just gonna take Prents. Is just like,
shouldn't we expect at least one Harrison Barnes revenge game in this or is it
gonna be? Is it gonna boul the opposite where he's gonna have PTSD and
just miss a bunch of corner threes or something. I think it's I think
it's the combination of the fact that the Dallas stint happened m and so that
really shifted what people thought of Harrison Barnes, and he doesn't play anything like
he does in Dallas with this version of Sacramento. And I also credit to
him because I'm pretty sure I dumped on his play for like the first quarter
or so for the season and he ended up being like really solid by the
end. But he was in the games. Yeah, he was so bad
like the first at like ten games of the year, we were like,
oh God, McNair waited too long to trade Harrison Barnes. He has done
like he is worthless, Like he was awful to start the year and he
turned around and has been great, like he's been a crucial piece. And
and I think it's funny that Yo McNair caught a lot of flack over the
years for not trading Harrison Barnes because there were all these rumors every year and
a lot of us, myself included, who were like, why aren't the
King's just like getting something for Harrison Barnes and like tanking the rest of the
season for a better But you know, like a lot of us were in
favor of some of those packages and you look back at those packages now and
you're like, Aaron Nick Smith probably wasn't a good return for Harrison Barnes.
That's probably a good call there. If you like offense, maybe not be
a pretty good defensive season in Indie. If anybody cares about AARONI Smith talk,
have you seen the Kings? They don't care about defense we need,
you know, So it's that whole like, Okay, maybe there's a reason
that that guy's in the chair and not me, But no, I mean,
Harrison Barnes has been great for the Kings this season. Just veteran presence,
reliability. He is a guy who can just kind of still bully and
slowly eurosteps way into the pain and get a bucket when you need it.
And yeah, I think there's gonna be some some key moments for him in
this series. I think it's also just it's been so long since he was
with Golden State, you know that, you know, I mean most Warriors
fans took a year or two to kind of get on the bandwagon, so
they don't even remember that he was there. You know, there, we
are, there it is, I told you we were shifting gears, all
right, go ahead, no I I wouldn't be surprised if we get a
little bit more of the chatter as the series goes on, but it's obviously
been a long time. But also like part of it's just that Harrison Barnes
is like the nicest guy in the world and is not gonna like talk trash
or yeah he had polite yeah, like he had some kind of like hurt
feelings about the way that things went down with him leaving, but that's all
in the past, and he's obviously not the type of carries a grudge.
That's another thing for me, by the way, not related to the Kings
as a total tangent, but whenever players talk about like we Lebron is an
example like getting player X and you're just like a guy in that locker room
who knows that you would be one of the people traded for player X.
And it was just like that way with the Warriors and Kevin Durant, where
it's like that chatter's existing all year and they're like yeah, of course,
we'd love to play with Kevin Durant. Harrison Barnes is just sitting there like
it's upcoming free agent, Like, yeah, okay, I just that's so
awkward to me. The dynamics of, yeah, these players are smart enough
to know who's gonna cost you to get so and so. And I mean
it's a credit to Barnes that, like he was in the trade rumors with
the King's year after year after year because he's on a nice contract, good
contributor, and every year he's in the rumors, but didn't end up getting
traded and he never made a fuss about it. Never. I mean his
play dipped a little. I mean, he was still putting up good numbers,
but just kind of watching the games, you could tell he was kind
of tired of being in a losing situation year over year. But guy's a
consummate pro, and I mean he's got he's a free agent this summer.
There's been no talk, but also no drama around a new deal or anything
like that. Like he's just kind of playing it out and we'll see what
happens this summer. But like I'd like for the Kings to be able to
keep him, but I also wouldn't be surprised if he's like, this year
was nice, but the last few years have been hell and I gotta go.
Is there any level of the playoff berth that is or there is?
How vindicating is the playoff berth? Or I think them that's made not just
about this season's Kings, But I do find and I'm doing it now,
but I'm doing it on purpose. I'm not using as the crux of my
analysis. Everything that's related to Sacramento is almost invariably brought back to this a
bonus Haliburton's trade. And while Haliburton's youngest on his rookie scale, YadA,
YadA, YadA, there's so much left to play out. Is there a
level of vindication here for that? Because you didn't just backdoor your way into
the play in and maybe the playoffs? But you are, as we said
it that like it's the third seed. I don't care what you say about
the Westward like there's actual separation between like the Kings and a huge chunk of
the conference. It feels so good because the Kings have been on the the
degraded end of so many trades over the years that you know, as a
King's fan, you try to talk yourself into like, yeah, well,
you know, I mean it could work out because I mean, look at
this and look at this and look at this right, And there was a
lot of that with the spons trade, It's like, okay, well,
I mean the guy's you know, been an All Star a couple of times,
like he's young, like, but there was still very valid concerns like
that you gave up all the years of team control for Haliburton, you gave
up you know, all of that that you know, he could become all
that potential for a guy who, you know, it was even debatable if
he'd been the best player on Indiana's playoff teams, and he probably tops out
at what he is now, which I would say it's third team All MBA,
which is not an insult, like it's just no, it's just I
mean, it would be a surprising leap if he takes a next step to
be in that next tier conversation, which is then you're in like MVP conversation.
Rich. I mean, I think some of the totals have him like
fifth or sixth in like betting lines and stuff like that. But it's a
three person race, Like I don't really pay too much attention to who's been
their sixth and MVP conversation this year, but you know, kind of the
wonderful part of it is that not only has it worked this year, but
I kind of mentioned how it's something that could be sustainable, right, Like
Sabonis is only twenty six, Fox is twenty five, Keegan's twenty two,
Hurders twenty four, Monks twenty four, Daveen's twenty four, Like they have
a core of guys who are all in their early to mid twenties kind of
just entering their playing prime to where if this works and it's good, it
could be good for a number of years. And if next season is like
this season, there's not really a big concern that Sabonis isn't going to resigned,
Like he seems very happy here, his family loves where they live,
Like, I mean, all the good things are happening, right, Like
that was one of the other big concerns at the time of the trade,
Like he only had last year, I'm sorry, this year, and then
one more year under contract. That risk seems very minimal at this point.
Like no Kings fans are like panicked that he's going to leave after next season
anymore, which I think also changes the dynamic of that trade because it was
a valid concern at that time when he's coming to a thirty win team.
You know that if we hadn't turned it around, if the Kings were still
bad, it would be perfectly reasonable for him to walk away. Now that
risk seems very low. The offense is working, you know, and some
of that is credit to the offseason moves around, you know, getting shooters
around him, what you know, Keegan Herd her Mong. I mean that
was critical to a Fox and Sapona's parent working. It was just the trade
got graded very much on based on what the King's roster was at the time
of the trade, not and realistically I didn't expect him to pull off the
turnaround this quick either, so I understand the criticisms. Yeah, it's very
vindicating scene how well it has worked, and knowing that it's not just a
one and done that this could be a good thing for years to come,
which soften it's the blow of maybe losing the player like Haliburton and his future.
There's almost because you mentioned the sustainability factor. To me evaluating this,
the stakes feel higher than they normally would not in the sense of, oh,
the Kings are going to blow it up if they perform poorly. But
because this feels so sustainable, where if you had just entered here and a
lot of it seemed like a fluke, or maybe some of the players were
older, you look at it as just sort of happy to be here,
enjoy the moment, kind of like what the thunder are going through now,
but you're old and like it's not going to last. But because it's going
to last, do you or could like in theory, seems sustainable. How
much do you balance like actually just being happy to be here and enjoying this
versus can we actually use this as a litmus test for where we do stand
in the larger Western Conference for then how we flesh out this team around who's
already here moving forward. It's definitely a balance of both, because I mean,
you look at the Western Conference this year and it's a weird ass year
for the Western Conference. Are editor in chief The King's Herald made a comment
on Twitter the other day that I think the spot on like he's like,
my hot take is that next year the Kings are going to end up with
more Winds and a lower seed than this year, like which believable because the
West is still like it's drunk on mediocrity right now. But even I'm using
the Lakers as an example, I don't have them winning against the Grizzlies like
they were forty one and twenty nine after they started two in ten, Like
that's not and that was like they weren't great, and that was with the
Lebron missing a shit ton of time, the whole d Loo miss time once
he got traded Anthy Davis miss time. So the West is still even if
it doesn't have the same higher tier level of contenders, it is still just
a blood like the Intracontra Intraconference blood bat is still very much there. Yeah,
I mean, it's been a weird year, and some of these teams
are starting to slip and are going to fall off next year. Some are
gonna emerge and rise, Like we would expect Phoenix Right to have more wins
next year than they did this year. Like yeah, I mean, there's
there's gonna be some balancing that happens probably next year that wasn't there because this
year, everyone, like I said, was just kind of cannibalizing each other
the entire year. But I think that what this playoffs gives us an opportunity
to see, you know, one Kings fans, even if it's a first
round to exit, as disappointing as that would be as a three seed,
we're still gonna be a thrilled this was a one successful season. No matter
what happens, we are playing with house money at this point in time,
and that's a fun feeling because, yeah, I want to beat the Warriors.
I'd love to see the second round. If they don't, though,
I'm just fine. This is still the best King season I've experienced in nearly
two decades. Like it's fine, So there's definitely that happy to be here.
But at the same time, like I want to see how far they
can go. I also think it's good that they're going to get the chess
matches and their weakness is really highlighted, because that's going to really pinpoint.
Okay, what do we need to target in the off season, because I
think that it you know, if you put hooked him up to a lot
detect your test, Monna McNair would probably tell you that this team is better
than he thought it would be This year too. Like this team was not
the finished product, like the fact that it has done this well. It's
like anyone can tell you the bench needs some work, but like you know,
the defense needs work, Like there's things that you need to improve on
to be more successful going forward. But playoff basketball is really going to highlight
what are the issues and what's just noise? You know, what are the
parts that you can build around and focus on, and what are the things
that you absolutely have to address. What is it going to be? Like
how loud is it going to be on Twitter or social media general? If
the King's win Game one? Block me? Now, like just I mean,
honestly, will any of that's, like any of that flame flicker if
they lose Game one for you? Or will you still commit to the just
fall on? Okay? Good? I mean I've out a tweet that I
retweeted the other day. It was from twenty seventeen where I was telling one
of my friends who writes about the Lakers, I'm like, listen, if
the Kings ever win thirty six games in the season again, I'm gonna be
insufferable, So like look out that. It's like I am not responsible for
anything I say or do. This week, like and through the first round.
It is. It is pure joy and losing will not hamper that because
I've had fun you know on basketball Twitter as a Kings fan throughout all of
the losing streaks, Like, what's a playoff loss gonna do to me?
Damp in my spirits? No? Like, yeah, you can't. You're
at the point where you can't be hurt because like you've just seen it all
at this point. This is you're You're like you're on the mountaintop at this
moment. If you fall from the mountaintop, who cares. Yeah, I
mean I've died so many times I can no longer be killed. Like what
is is? Do we have any Like what is gonna be the go to
ship talking point for the Warriors entering this Like is it their road splits?
Like I think people kind of not dismissed those, but they're like they're game
planning for the same opponent yard paying a seconds there. Now Wiggins is back.
We don't you know. They went four and seven on the road over
their last eleven games. That's a good sign. Never mind that the only
teams to win fewer games on the road this season. We're Detroit Houston and
San Antonio, who are all Victor Weiben Yama obsessives. But what is what
can you already see a lot of it obviously is in the moment based off
what the game happens or where you're going to see social media. But what's
the what's the ship talking point for the Warriors that we need to be on
the watch for. I mean, it's the same as it's always been.
It's just yo, it's who they have and it's what they've done. I
mean, they're they're very much living in the past instead of learning about where
their future is going. And this could be the last gaps for this franchise.
I mean, I mean if they fall to the Kings of all teams,
can you imagine what that must do for morale? I mean, it
would just be devastating that. I feel like the pressure's all on them,
even though we're the three seed. They're they're favored in the betting odds,
like they've got steph they've got Clay, they've got tram On, like they
they should be able to put us away in four, right, I mean,
all the pressures on them, and if I was a Warriors fan,
I just can't imagine how bad I'd feel if I even dropped one or two
games to the Kings, the lowly Kings of all teams. I mean,
come on. I do agree with you though, that the pressure is all
on them, and I saw the serious prices. I think the Kings are
actually favorite in game one, though right it keeps moving back and forth,
it shifted. I think they are now, but so now would be the
time to one and get anything else off your chest that we haven't talked about.
And then two, I would like your what's your series prediction? Right
now? So I am predicting Kings and six. And it's almost surprising to
me even that I'm packing the Kames because where I got to there is that
I spent all year waiting for the other shoe to drop on this team,
because I've had the rug pull out from me so many times as a King's
fan that at the end of the day, I feel like, if you
took away the franchise name, if you put the players, the stats,
everything, if you took all of that and put any other logo on this
roster and this stats and this matchup, there's no way that even with the
Warriors experience, they would be considered the favorite. I just don't think it
would happen. And I get it because it's taken me all year to come
around of the fact that I can buy in and enjoy and kind of count
on this team to step up and do what they should do. But that's
kind of my hotache is that people are still blinded by the logo next to
the team name, and I'm excited for the opportunity for the Kings to start
changing that narrative. This is terrible Devil's advocating by me because I mostly agree
with you, but I think it also applies to the Warriors, where people
are having they're not ready to move on from what this And look, the
Warriors won the title last year with basically this core, So I get the
reluctance, and I think I'd feel more impassionate about like, oh, let's
not dismiss the Kings, and I actually so I have the Warriors in seven.
I think the Kings are built to make this serious. I just have,
Yeah, I figured, I just have a lot of concerns about how
they're how the Warriors, who like they can wear them down on defense and
just seem a little bit better built to disrupt Sacramental's offense and vice versa.
If it was another team though, if they had like played the like even
the Clippers, especially without Paul George, if it was the Lakers or the
Timberwolves or whatever, I still think the Kings and some of those like Clippers,
Lakers, they probably wouldn't have been favorites. And that's just this team
is good. It's not just fun, and I think the people who like
they're not just they are happy to be here because of just like everything all
the ship the franchise has gone through to get here, but the actual talent
on this team when when you watch them as I have choppering in throughout this
seams like they are good and they have good top ends out their offense is
just so synchronized, and I'm I'm actually still not sure people generally him not
un showing how good Daron Fox is and so like, I'm very excited to
see like darn Fox and high stakes basketball games. So that's what I'm looking
forward to. This was fantastic, right though. I'm glad that you were
agreed to come on and it's I'm excited. I'm thrilled for Kings fan.
My advice to be talking your shit someone who doesn't like to be shit talked
too, because I'm super sensitive. I'm a very fragile ego. Talk your
ship. You've you've earned it, and that's part of what the good nature
ship talking makes it fun. And like Kings fans just you guys deserve every
bit of this and so it's exciting to see and I actually think it's It
probably would have been a compelling matchup regardless, but I really do believe that
this is going to be a super compelling, like playoff series. I'll be
shocked if any of these teams just rips off a four or five game victory.
Yeah. I mean, Draymonda's podcast was talking about no matter how bad
the team is, like it's hard to win for in a row against any
women. I thought that was a really smart who by him to kind of
try to temper expectations before they went up against the Kings. So look,
a free shit talking advice is if the Kings do win game one, you
have to start talking about how you're really going to be analyzing that four or
five matchups, so you you know who you prefer the Kings to face in
round there or no, they get two seven excuse me in that two Steves.
So you're really gonna want to know who the Kings get the face in
round two. That's got to be your game one slant. If the Kings
win, we might they make that our game one preview is just kind of
breaking down who we want to face in the second round. That's perfect,
right. Are you able to tell everyone where they can find you the work
that you put out slash edit and where they can just find all your shit
talking in general? Yeah, So the biggest thing is Kings Harold dot com.
We're totally fantastic website and the stuff that is it. Will Griffith I
don't want to get his name wrong follow on Twitter that he did after the
losses with the Charities was just absolutely stand that fan base is you guys will
eventually hate me again because I feel like I get I'm friends friendly with people
on social media like you who like Grant fired me into like you know,
some of the fan base members follow me and they seem to like me when
I'm high on them. But I will invariably have a descending opinion from the
fan base. They will hate me again. But for now, I mean
they're good graces and it the King's fan base has really been a joy.
I mean, I'm also not like Lakers Twitter, so like I'm clearly gonna
feel differently, but it's been a joy to just follow the social media aspect
like that stuff Kings Harold is fantastic. That was my long winded way of
saying those five words. Well, thank you. Yeah. So we're we're
independent website Kings Harold dot com. We have podcasts, we have you know,
previews, commentary, interviews, we have you know, people in the
arena as credential reporters. We do a little bit of everything. Can follow
us at the Kings Harold on Twitter and I'm on Twitter at Gwiss and you
know there's some basketball ship talking and then a whole bunch of other random stuff
that it has nothing to do with basketballs. Been a little light on the
Blakin eighty two content of late, but I will forgive you. I'll see
what I can do. I can do. This was great, Greg.
As you know, maybe we'll be talking again next time. We would normally
talking would Norman would typically be the uh, the season outlooks, But who
knows, maybe we'll be talking off to bring you back on when it's the
Kings versus whoever in the Yeah, so I'll talk again, like, uh,
well, no, we should probably do like a round two periods week
and a half, right, so four games from now, yeah,