Some good questions being asked in the mailbag post, so I thought I’d break it up in to a few answer posts.
Starting off, Bologna&BostonCeltics submitted this question about the Sacramento Kings:
Any chance the Kings falls within the worst 10?
Just because of the tougher western schedule? I mean, I like that team, and coming into the season I hoped they would be better then expected because, you know, we don’t want to swap the pick with philly. But a playoff berth??? Wooooa, calm down Sac town!
For a brief moment in time, the Celtics and the Kings were tied in the overall standings at 10-10 each. The running joke (for non-Boston fans) has been “will the Celtics own pick be higher in the draft than the Kings?” I sincerely hope not.
Slow start or not, the Celtics are likely going to figure things out. Fast start or not, I tend to think that the Kings’ inexperience will catch up to them at some point.
The Kings have already lost two straight (though to be fair one of those losses was to Golden State and it was a nail biter). They play the red hot Clippers and the solid Pacers before a string of games that includes winnable games in Phoenix, Cleveland, and Chicago.
But it doesn’t matter where this team is in November or December. We only care about the final result. Buddy Hield and De’Aaron Fox look like a real deal backcourt and they’ve got a lot of length and athleticism in the frontcourt with Willie Cauley-Stein, Marvin Bagley, and Harry Giles.
Still, there’s not a lot of veteran savvy on that roster (unless you count Iman Shumpert) and this is a league that eats their young. Smart coaches will be able to gameplan to take advantage of that inexperience.
Then again, this team has no motivation to lose games in the Spring and a lot of other teams will be eyeing ping pong balls over the final few months. In short, I’m not exactly sure where this team is headed. Though at least I’m not alone in my indecision.
See this blurb from Zach Harper:
I still think I’m in on this Sacramento Kings team being good. The problem is I don’t know how good I think they are and the losses in four of their last six games has them coming back down to earth a bit...
I guess maybe I’m not in on the Kings like I want to be. I keep expecting the same old Kings to show up at any moment and start tearing down this house of everything good they’ve built through 20 games. It’s not a them problem; it sounds like a me problem.
Clear as mud?
Hey, let’s do a poll!
