2023 Off-season Thread

[sunsbg]

Very curious to see where Vezenkov ranks midseason in your forwards rotation. Interestingly if Sasha was getting Barnes minutes I would predict him putting the same numbers. Not sure at 31yo HB is a lot better athlete and he's smaller which is a disadvantage for PF position. Hope it works out great for both the team and the player.

[LightTheBeam]

So how does this work? Is that the end of our cap space?

I know Kings fans are happy Sabonis is staying, but I think he was regardless.

IMO this off-season gets a C+. Yes we were good last year, but plenty of holes that we didn't address. And we had huge injury luck that more than likely won't repeat (knock on wood)

We ran it back with the addition of Sasha. One of Colby/Duarte will ultimately take the Davis role. But man, at this point I really would have rather just let Queta go, brought back Len, and had Richaun sit until next off-season.

Sabonis/Lyles/Len/(Holmes)
Barnes/Sasha/Prosper
Murray/Duarte/Edwards
Huerter/Monk/Colby
Fox/Mitchell

Initially I was fine with the Holmes trade, now I think its a big negative. We traded a contract that could have been used for salary matching next off-season, plus our 1st round pick that was an asset even if they didn't make any on floor impact this year. The above lineup is just as good as what we have, only would have had more options moving forward.

Part of me is happy as the team last year was exciting as hell, other part is disappointed we locked into a team I thought overachieved.

[blind prophet]

Any other big man minimum deals we can try?

WCS
Ibaka

Just trying to think of alternatives for coach Brown.

[blind prophet]

Matthew Dellavedova is back in Australia, he seemed ok here. But wondering if there is a vet minimum guy we may want to check out in a similar use case as well this year.

[blind prophet]

Very curious to see where Vezenkov ranks midseason in your forwards rotation. Interestingly if Sasha was getting Barnes minutes I would predict him putting the same numbers. Not sure at 31yo HB is a lot better athlete and he's smaller which is a disadvantage for PF position. Hope it works out great for both the team and the player.

Id guess we use Keegan, Barnes, Lyles almost all of those minutes.

I doubt he plays much initially.

Best case for him would be if we went small and had Lyles at center. That's about 15 minutes a game potentially. I'd say Keegan and Barnes take some of those 15.

Maybe 7-8 minutes?

[City of Trees]

Very curious to see where Vezenkov ranks midseason in your forwards rotation. Interestingly if Sasha was getting Barnes minutes I would predict him putting the same numbers. Not sure at 31yo HB is a lot better athlete and he's smaller which is a disadvantage for PF position. Hope it works out great for both the team and the player.

Id guess we use Keegan, Barnes, Lyles almost all of those minutes.

I doubt he plays much initially.

Best case for him would be if we went small and had Lyles at center. That's about 15 minutes a game potentially. I'd say Keegan and Barnes take some of those 15.

Maybe 7-8 minutes?

Coach Brown likes how Sasha rebounds and gets physical. I bet Sasha gets a chance early

[sunsbg]

Very curious to see where Vezenkov ranks midseason in your forwards rotation. Interestingly if Sasha was getting Barnes minutes I would predict him putting the same numbers. Not sure at 31yo HB is a lot better athlete and he's smaller which is a disadvantage for PF position. Hope it works out great for both the team and the player.

Id guess we use Keegan, Barnes, Lyles almost all of those minutes.

I doubt he plays much initially.

Best case for him would be if we went small and had Lyles at center. That's about 15 minutes a game potentially. I'd say Keegan and Barnes take some of those 15.

Maybe 7-8 minutes?

Coach Brown likes how Sasha rebounds and gets physical. I bet Sasha gets a chance early

I guess his early season minutes will depend on how he does in preseason, which is a time to experiment with lineups and give a chance to unproven players.

[Lost in LA]

Who defends the 4 spot this season?

[OGSactownballer]

I will bet that you see a lineup playing close out or significantly this year against the longer bigger teams (ie - Denver, TOR, Memphis, LAL, BOS) that runs with - Sabonis/Sasha/Barnes/Keegan/Fox - to counter the size those teams wear you down with.

That was a huge problem for us last year in those games and also as was illustrated in the PO’s when you have a big, strong and physical C/PF you are playing against.

[Crimson King]

Any other big man minimum deals we can try?

WCS
Ibaka

Just trying to think of alternatives for coach Brown.

Bamba
Hernangomez
Biyombo
Harrell
Noel
Dieng
Leonard

[LightTheBeam]

I'm guessing 3rd string pg a bigger need then 4th/5th center. But jones I guess can play some 1?

[OxAndFox]

Was good to hear Luke Loucks talk about what they're working on with Keegan. Getting some wiggle in his game. It will help him defend the top wings better and also expand his offensive game.

This is where I see the rotation. Not sure they go and get another 5. Len played well when given minutes so when you need the size put him in, otherwise go small.

On a regular night, I would think something like below: It's still a 10-man rotation which Brown went with much of the time last season.

Sabonis (34)/Lyles (14)/Len (0)
Barnes (20)/Vezenkov (22)/Keegan (4)/Lyles (2)/Edwards (0)
Keegan (26)/Barnes (6)/Duarte (12)/Huerter (4)
Huerter (26)/Monk (14)/Mitchell (4)Jones (0)
Fox (33)/Mitchell (15)/Dozier (0)

[City of Trees]

Colby Jones signs to a 4 yr $8M deal. First two years fully guaranteed. Since it's 4 years that means the Kings should have full bird rights at the end of 4 years. Good news if Jones develops.

[City of Trees]

Read on Twitter

[OGSactownballer]

Colby Jones signs to a 4 yr $8M deal. First two years fully guaranteed. Since it's 4 years that means the Kings should have full bird rights at the end of 4 years. Good news if Jones develops.

Talk about serious cost control!

That’s a fantastically team friendly contract!

[LightTheBeam]

This was my favorite move of the offseason.

I know I'm reading way too much into it, but this offseason just feels weird. Just so many rumors, and then right before free agency.. run it back. Except not exactly. Bring in two shooting guards when we already have 2 that soak up 52mpg?

I really have a feeling Montes play within the next year is to move Huerter + Barnes for a real upgrade. See if Duarte or Jones can become the Huerter replacement, while the other one takes Davis role.

He didn't love any of the available forwards. Paying kuzma was risky and he's not super tradeable on that deal. Grant obviously got insane money. Some of the other guys had arguments, but not necessarily better players just better fits. So take the better player, run it back, and set yourself up to make a play if George, Siakam, Jaylen Brown, or some player like that becomes available.

[codydaze]

This was my favorite move of the offseason.

I know I'm reading way too much into it, but this offseason just feels weird. Just so many rumors, and then right before free agency.. run it back. Except not exactly. Bring in two shooting guards when we already have 2 that soak up 52mpg?

I really have a feeling Montes play within the next year is to move Huerter + Barnes for a real upgrade. See if Duarte or Jones can become the Huerter replacement, while the other one takes Davis role.

He didn't love any of the available forwards. Paying kuzma was risky and he's not super tradeable on that deal. Grant obviously got insane money. Some of the other guys had arguments, but not necessarily better players just better fits. So take the better player, run it back, and set yourself up to make a play if George, Siakam, Jaylen Brown, or some player like that becomes available.

I feel like the rumors probably came from other front offices leaking stuff, Monte and his staff have seemed to be pretty tight lipped so far in his tenure. I can't think of any move that had rumblings leak out before it actually happened.

Continuity goes a long way with a team and so I think that was definitely the plan. The core is still young so we should expect some improvement internally and if we look ready to take the next step or things start to go south we have very moveable contracts. Monte always preaches flexibility and we don't have a single bad contract on the books any more, we can definitely put a package together for someone like Jaylen Brown, for example, if he should become available.

[BoogieTime]

This was my favorite move of the offseason.

I know I'm reading way too much into it, but this offseason just feels weird. Just so many rumors, and then right before free agency.. run it back. Except not exactly. Bring in two shooting guards when we already have 2 that soak up 52mpg?

I really have a feeling Montes play within the next year is to move Huerter + Barnes for a real upgrade. See if Duarte or Jones can become the Huerter replacement, while the other one takes Davis role.

He didn't love any of the available forwards. Paying kuzma was risky and he's not super tradeable on that deal. Grant obviously got insane money. Some of the other guys had arguments, but not necessarily better players just better fits. So take the better player, run it back, and set yourself up to make a play if George, Siakam, Jaylen Brown, or some player like that becomes available.

I feel like the rumors probably came from other front offices leaking stuff, Monte and his staff have seemed to be pretty tight lipped so far in his tenure. I can't think of any move that had rumblings leak out before it actually happened.

Continuity goes a long way with a team and so I think that was definitely the plan. The core is still young so we should expect some improvement internally and if we look ready to take the next step or things start to go south we have very moveable contracts. Monte always preaches flexibility and we don't have a single bad contract on the books any more, we can definitely put a package together for someone like Jaylen Brown, for example, if he should become available.

Do we know that he didn’t try to go after the big fish but was unsuccessful?

[LightTheBeam]

This was my favorite move of the offseason.

I know I'm reading way too much into it, but this offseason just feels weird. Just so many rumors, and then right before free agency.. run it back. Except not exactly. Bring in two shooting guards when we already have 2 that soak up 52mpg?

I really have a feeling Montes play within the next year is to move Huerter + Barnes for a real upgrade. See if Duarte or Jones can become the Huerter replacement, while the other one takes Davis role.

He didn't love any of the available forwards. Paying kuzma was risky and he's not super tradeable on that deal. Grant obviously got insane money. Some of the other guys had arguments, but not necessarily better players just better fits. So take the better player, run it back, and set yourself up to make a play if George, Siakam, Jaylen Brown, or some player like that becomes available.

I feel like the rumors probably came from other front offices leaking stuff, Monte and his staff have seemed to be pretty tight lipped so far in his tenure. I can't think of any move that had rumblings leak out before it actually happened.

Continuity goes a long way with a team and so I think that was definitely the plan. The core is still young so we should expect some improvement internally and if we look ready to take the next step or things start to go south we have very moveable contracts. Monte always preaches flexibility and we don't have a single bad contract on the books any more, we can definitely put a package together for someone like Jaylen Brown, for example, if he should become available.

This could definitely be true. I think this off-season was going to go very similar regardless.

It came down to Barnes or one of the other guys. And then trading for Duarte being the surprise.

Sasha/Lyles/Len IMO were always gonna be here.

The part that led me to believe he was considering another route, was that I believe Ham reported 2 days before free agency "Barnes upset that Kings aren't prioritizing his return, extension talks are off". Or something to that effect. Then 1 day later, Kings and Barnes extension talks back on.

If Ham is right and we still have 6 million, that's pretty close to Barnes vs Kuzma. Maybe he considered Kuzma, but Kuzma wanted closer to 30 to leave Washington, and we decided to pivot back to Barnes so we could give Sabonis the extension and trade for Duarte.

[LightTheBeam]

Was good to hear Luke Loucks talk about what they're working on with Keegan. Getting some wiggle in his game. It will help him defend the top wings better and also expand his offensive game.

This is where I see the rotation. Not sure they go and get another 5. Len played well when given minutes so when you need the size put him in, otherwise go small.

On a regular night, I would think something like below: It's still a 10-man rotation which Brown went with much of the time last season.

Sabonis (34)/Lyles (14)/Len (0)
Barnes (20)/Vezenkov (22)/Keegan (4)/Lyles (2)/Edwards (0)
Keegan (26)/Barnes (6)/Duarte (12)/Huerter (4)
Huerter (26)/Monk (14)/Mitchell (4)Jones (0)
Fox (33)/Mitchell (15)/Dozier (0)

Monk getting 14 minutes would shock me. He got 22 last season, and I think proved his worth in the postseason. He will probably always be a 22-24mpg guy with us, He's the kind of guy when he's on he gets 30, and when he's off he gets 15.

My guess in the most simplistic way

Sabonis - 34
Barnes - 28
Keegan - 32
Lyles - 16
Sasha - 16
Huerter - 29
Monk - 24
Mitchell - 18
Fox - 33

Obviously this will change game to game, but this leaves 10 minutes. Those minutes will either go to Duarte or Len depending on the matchup. I think when we play Memphis, Lakers, Denver, (bigger teams) we will end up using Len. But if we play someone like OKC, Clippers, Mavericks, we will use Duarte.

Really a very similar distribution to last year, slight decrease for Barnes, slight increase for Keegan. Sasha taking all the random TD/Edwards minutes.