The king is almost there

If you are not a fan of either team, you don’t need to make up the video.

The Kings lost this game by 41 points. The Grizzlies are known for causing tragedies. We have seen this in the past few years. It may be because the Grizzlies' substitutes are also very strong, or it may be because young people are not serious about their attacks. But the Grizzlies' starting five today are: Aldama, Eady, Wells, Coward, and Vince Williams. If you are not a Grizzlies fan, you may not recognize all five of these guys. The Kings gave up Sasha, and the Grizzlies gave up even more. The Kings have a bigger lineup, but the Grizzlies are a bunch of unknowns, which is in line with the lack of sense of propriety among young people who lack experience in playing tricks.

Of course, the last time a certain team failed to beat the Kings and lost the quality of its stars, that is another story.

So far this season, the Kings' defensive efficiency ranks 28th in the league. It is not surprising to score high points against the Kings. But Wenwei played like Kidd, Aldama transformed into Markkanen, Landale and Edie scored 37 points together and only missed one goal. They took turns to wreak havoc in the paint like Shaq and Yao Ming. This scene is somewhat unjustifiable. The Kings are not good at defending, and they don't seem to want to defend. They rotate slowly, leak people frequently, retreat to the defense, and lead the defense in the air. The whole team has no energy, and they look like they won't fight if they don't want to. This seems to suggest that a change is not far away.

You'd better not expect a coaching change to save this Kings team. We talked during the vacation. The Kings' configuration is too weird. If a team starts with all ball carriers, the ball must not be enough. In fact, the fact that the ball is not enough is not a problem in itself. There are five all-round players, and when one person holds the ball, the other four switch positions smoothly. When it comes to the defensive end, they are all good at it. This kind of lineup is invincible. The key is still the technical characteristics of your five ball handlers. Is there no awareness of the ball? What do you do when you're not holding the ball? Are there teammates who can coordinate with each other in their respective strengths? And, very importantly, what can they do on the defensive end?

It seems that it is difficult for the kings to answer the above questions.

All of Savoy's teammates can score, but Savoy, who averaged 8.2 assists per game in the 23-24 season, couldn't get any assists. Isn't this a story of a monk with too many drinks and no water to drink. His ability to hand-off three-pointers from the top of the key and slide to the baseline has declined significantly, making it difficult not to weaken Sam. Keegan Murray returned today, but Sasha is recuperating from his injury.

Without Sasha, we saw the combination of Eubanks + Achiuwa. With two blue-collar insiders inside, the ball should be enough to score, right? There is always defensive energy, right? It's time to get the rebound, right?

OK, the offense is even worse.

Achiuwa is an awkward player who is embarrassed to play 4-on-5. His limitations have been discussed many times before, and it is difficult to perform well offensively without him. The strength of Eubanks is somewhere between the NBA and the G-League. The amazing thing about him is that he often has relatively good key statistics for a blue-collar finisher. The efficiency at the basket, the block rate, the steal rate and the rebound rate look good, but the content of the real game often makes the home team fans brain-bleed. I believe Suns and Clippers fans understand this deeply.

So, in an atmosphere where you don't know what the Kings can do inside, Estee is very Lauder, OMAX has also fulfilled his talent, and Wenwei scored 15 assists with a high throw. None of this is important. What is important is what to do next? When Savoy comes back (the injury will be re-evaluated in 3-4 weeks), put Murray and Ellis back into the starting lineup, form a starting lineup of Westbrook + LaVine + Ellis + Murray + Sasha, and let Monk and DeRozan form a luxurious substitute backcourt. Is this going to lead? Damn, I forgot about Schroeder. Even if this change can make things better, the start of 3 wins and 13 losses and the reality that Sasha will be available a month later all imply that the Kings may not have much hope this season.

Trading may be inevitable, but the question is what is the meaning of trading? Reinforce or rebuild? If it's a reinforcement, they have to send away a defender who can hold the ball and replace him with a forward who can play. The Kings are now the lowest rebounding team in the league, and this is when they have Sasha and Westbrook. There are too few forwards, too many defenders, and few who have the energy to rush rebounds. DeRozan is faltering, LaVine, Monk, and Black don't do this. The Kings are interested in Kuminga coming during the vacation. Thinking about it now, well, if it happens, this team's game will be more interesting.

It is true that we cannot have too high expectations for the Kings management. Even if the assets are sold, the king will not be too pleased. The team in the league that is most suitable for the Kings' veteran group should be the Kings themselves, because there are indeed very few teams that will acquire players with big contracts just with the goal of touching the playoffs. The last team to do this was the Bulls?

LaVine's offensive ability is good, but his annual salary of 45.9 million is still too expensive. He has player options in the summer, so he is in a superimposed state where his contract is not expiring and he cannot completely rule out running away. If it weren't for very special circumstances - such as the King himself who had previously sent Fox away - you wouldn't be able to think of a particularly suitable buyer for LaVine. I could have asked the Lone Ranger, but unfortunately Nico said goodbye.

Sabrina Jr. is better than LaVine. His 42.3 million annual salary and 3-year contract are not high quality, and he will still be attractive to teams in urgent need of a core center. And which team is particularly in need of this type of center? It’s so hard to guess. It's a pity that they can't put together such a big contract with their scraps of chips, and there are also questions about the spatial compatibility of the frontcourt.

Azan's statistics have declined, but his ability to solve hard problems is still there. It is cheaper, but has big age and compatibility issues. To be honest, unless Azan is willing to stand up from the bench, and there happens to be a playoff team that can scrape together more than 20 million worth of useless contracts, there is no suitable landing place. The narrowness of the need means the Kings would be wise not to expect too big of a return from a potential DeRozan trade.

Schroeder, judging from his performance this season, an annual salary of 14.1 million + a three-year contract may be too much. However, the King's environment is such that it is normal for Xiao Hei's state to have ups and downs, or there is room for improvement in his performance.. If you urgently need a ball-handling point on the bench to develop offense, then - based on practical experience, don't try Schroeder randomly.

Where's Munch? His ability to come off the bench and score points is always impressive. Yes, but for the Super Six to get a three-year contract with an average salary of 20 million, a prerequisite should be that he has playing time that is only slightly lower than that of the starting players, which means that he should often play in the closing lineup. Friends who are interested in Monk can first consider whether their team has such employment conditions. If you're building a team with an old guard, it's best to err on the side of caution. Although, I do admire his development capabilities.

Keegan Murray is a rare, high-quality asset for the Kings so far. The reason for his high quality is that he is relatively young, a tall forward who can throw three-pointers and lead defenses. Together, these few keywords can be included in the ranks of rich and handsome players in the NBA. Adding "so far" means that Murray has to prove that he is worthy of a new contract with a starting salary of 24.1 million. In the past two seasons, his three-point shooting rate was less than 36%. In fact, Murray has just completed an early renewal of his contract, and is subject to the poison clause. There is still trouble in balancing it, so it is not easy to worry about.

With such a selection, it is no wonder that the media will say that some league management is interested in Ellis - it seems that the easiest person to be interested is Ellis. Ellis is useful as a 3D wing, and more importantly, the contract is small and easy to operate. If the Kings don't want to play anymore, it's not a bad idea to exchange for some bits and pieces of silver before letting this small contract expire. But Ellis is not the kind of player who can change the status quo of some teams. He is a small role, really just a small role.

It was a little uncomfortable to see the king like this. Hey, the pace of the NBA is too fast. It really only takes one stupid operation to go from vigorous to sluggish. If it has happened several times... it is no wonder that they have to work so hard to get into the playoffs. It's not easy to predict how high Haliburton will reach. At least back at the time, it was difficult to judge that Haliburton's prospects were much higher than Sasha's. Fox's departure was due to a combination of factors.

But no matter how he explains it, the king has finally reached this point.

This is 2025. In the cruel West, we can still see Master West play with tears in his eyes every night.

With this in mind, it seems that the king can be forgiven.