Category: Sacramento Kings

Kings grab opening night win in blowout over Suns

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By: Eric He

The Sacramento Kings notched their first opening night win in three years on Wednesday night with a 113-94 thrashing of the Suns on the road.

DeMarcus Cousins led the way with 24 points and six rebounds, while Rudy Gay chipped in 22 points. Matt Barnes added 14 points off the bench with Gary Temple scoring 12.

The Kings jumped out to a double-digit lead at the end of the first quarter as a monster dunk by Willie Cauley-Stein put them up 28-18. Sacramento extended its lead in the second quarter, taking a 20-point lead early in the frame and a 57-38 lead into halftime.

Phoenix cut the lead to 10 in the fourth quarter, but a 12-1 run by the Kings put the game away for good.

Devin Booker’s 18 points led the Suns, while Eric Bledsoe had 16.

It was a positive start for new head coach Dave Joerger’s debut in Sacramento.

“They got after it on defense,” Joerger told ESPN. “The key for our defense is to set it. We executed offensively and didn’t turn it over. When we did that, we were able to set our defense.”

The Kings are back at it Thursday at home against San Antonio.

Sacramento Kings podcast with Charlie O: Analysis on the release of Cousins and Farmar and how it impacts the Kings

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AP file photo: Los Angeles Lakers Jose Calderon defends against the Sacramento Kings Jordan Farmar during Thu Oct 13th’s pre season contest in Las Vegas. Farmar was released by the Kings on Monday.

The Sacramento Kings released Jordan Farmar, Isaiah Cousins and kept Ty Lawson. They did like Cousins and Farmar and with Farmar he used to play for Kings head coach Dave Joerger last year in Memphis. Farmar is a nine year veteran out of UCLA who knows what he’s doing on a basketball court they just couldn’t find a spot for him. The other thing that plays into that is the fact that Darren Collison wouldn’t be gone as long as they thought.

The guy I was surprised about was the release of Cousins he was a draft pick in the second round they got him 59th overall a point guard out of Oklahoma. Cousins never really seemed to get traction with the team didn’t get a lot of playing time and only got into a couple of games and only got to play 12 minutes but he didn’t read too much into that because he’s a young guy but the Kings cut him loose.

Charlie O does the Sacramento Kings podcast each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

 

Kings waive two and set the opening night roster

Published on by Charlie O. MalloneeLeave a comment

sac3

by Charlie O. Mallonee

SACRAMENTO–Monday was the deadline for all teams in the NBA to trim their rosters down to 15 players in preparation for the start of the regular season this week. The Kings still had 17 men on the team as the day began so two players had to be released.

Sacramento vice president of basketball operations and general manager Vlade Divac announced Monday afternoon that guards Jordan Farmar and Isaiah Cousins had been waived by the Kings.

Farmar is a nine-year veteran of the NBA who played his college basketball at UCLA. Farmar spent the 2015-16 season playing for Kings head coach Dave Joerger in Memphis. He averaged 6.5 points in four preseason games for Sacramento.

Isaiah Cousins was drafted by the Kings in the second round (59th overall) out of Oklahoma in the 2016 NBA Draft. Cousins appeared in two preseason games playing a total of 12 minutes.

The Kings opening night roster will feature three rookies. Center George Papagiannis, Forward Skal Labissiere and Guard Malachi Richardson were all added to the team via the draft in June. Expect to see the three rookies log some time in Reno playing with Kings D-League team to go along with working out with the big club in Sacramento.

Ty Lawson will be a point guard for the Kings when they open the season in Phoenix on Wednesday night. After a turbulent 2015-16 season, Lawson ran into controversy with the Kings over being late to a workout and missing a flight in Las Vegas after a preseason game in “Sin City”. Lawson met with team officials and was kept on the roster. With Darren Collison lost to suspension for the first eight games of the season, Lawson will probably be the starting point guard versus the Suns in the season opener.

Sacramento native Matt Barnes will be a key member of the Kings as they open the 2016-17 campaign.  The 6-foot-7 forward/guard will be counted on to bring some much needed floor toughness with offensive aggressiveness that will add fire to the Sacramento game. Barnes played for Dave Joerger in Memphis last season so he is already familiar with his system and coaching style.

Three additional NBA journeymen will be new to the Kings roster this season. Guard Arron Afflalo, guard Garrett Temple and forward Anthony Tolliver all bring solid experience to the Kings. It appears that the Kings will really depend on Tolliver to be a spark plug off the bench with the second unit early in the season.

Also back are the usual suspects. Cousins, Gay, Collison, Casspi, Cauley-Stein, Koufos and McLemore are all names that Kings fans know well from previous seasons. There have been rumors flying that Rudy Gay and Darren Collison could be on the move to Miami or Minnesota, but for now, they are just rumors. McLemore has also been mentioned as a possible trade piece.

The Kings open the 2016-17 season on Wednesday night in Phoenix against the Suns. The team returns to Sacramento on Thursday evening to open the home season versus the San Antonio Spurs in the new Golden 1 Center.

Kings: Trade rumors and roster moves

Published on by Charlie O. MalloneeLeave a comment

 

rudygayinjuryby Charlie O. Mallonee

The NBA preseason came to an end for the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night. Now comes the tough job of setting the final roster to begin the regular season. The Kings must be down to 15 players by October 24 and they have 18 players on the roster right now.

To complicate the issue, many teams are evaluating their personnel and are realizing that they do not have the players they need or do not have the players they want to keep for the beginning of the new season. That has caused an uproar of rumors to rise up as “leaks” from reliable sources are reported and repeated about trade deals that teams would like to make or are thinking about making before the start of the season.

The Kings have figured prominently into some of those rumors. If the rumors are to be believed, the Miami Heat are ready to ship point guard Goran Dragic to the Kings in return for Rudy Gay and Darren Collison. Why would the Heat be willing to make this deal? Miami is now in a rebuilding mode after the loss of Dewayne Wade and Chris Bosh. Gay will opt out of his contract at the end of the season and Collison’s contract expires. The money from those contracts plus the money available from Bosh being off the books would give Miami approximately $42-million to spend in 2017-18 season to spend on free agents.

For the Kings, they would receive a high quality player that they would control through the 2018-19 season. Dragic does have a player option in 2019. Dragic would give them a quality point guard to go with Serbian shooting guard Bogdan Bogdanovic who the Kings anticipate signing before the beginning of the 2017-18 season.

There have also been rumors that a deal with Miami might happen that would send DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay to Miami for Hassan Whiteside and Goran Dragic. Such a deal cannot happen immediately because Whiteside cannot be traded by league rule until December 15 because he just signed a four-year $98-million contract. The Kings are not going to wait until December to move Gay because his value is falling daily because of his ability to opt out of his contract at the end of the season. That is not to say a Whiteside for Cousins deal could not happen but they will not be tied together with a deal involving Rudy Gay.

On Wednesday, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reported that the Kings are pursuing Minnesota point guard Ricky Rubio. Rubio – who is owed $43-million over the next three years – is expected to become the Timberwolves back up point about 20 games into the season when number five overall draft pick Kris Dunn takes over the point. Then, Rubio is expected to become expendable. The Kings are trying to expedite the process.

Roster Move

The Kings officially announced on Wednesday afternoon that guard/forward Lamar Patterson has been waived. Vice President of Basketball Operations and General Manager Vlade Divac made the announcement.

The Kings claimed Patterson off waivers from the Atlanta Hawks during the off-season. Patterson played his first season in the NBA with the Hawks in 2015-16. He was drafted in 2014 out the University of Pittsburgh by the Detroit Pistons and round up playing the season in Turkey.

The Kings roster is now down to 17 players. They must make another two cuts before October 24 to have their roster at the league mandated 15 players.

 

Sacramento Kings Tuesday game wrap: Kings Fall Again 92-89; Cousins 23 in 25 mins effort not enough

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by Tony Renteria

AP photo: The Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins (left) tries to put the pressure on the Los Angeles Clippers Marreese Spreights  whose taking a jumper in the first quarter at Golden One Arena on Tuesday night

SACRAMENTO–The Sacramento Kings (1-3) hosted the visiting Los Angles Clippers (3-3) and fell behind early but battled back to lose by just three as they fell, 92-89.  The Kings have yet to win a game in the new Golden One Center against an NBA team in this preseason.

Tonight’s preseason game had a Nation wide broadcast on ESPN as the Kings continued as a team to have locked arms during the National anthem.  While some professional athletes have made this into  political lightning rod subject,the Kings seem to make a subtle but powerful statement.

DeMarcus Cousins has continued to make his own statement in this preseason by averaging close to a point a minute while on the court and tonight was not exception while he scored 23 points in just 25 minutes.

J.J. Redick tried to match the level of play that Cousins brought by scoring 18 points in his 22 minutes of play.  Both Blake Griffin and Chris Paul failed to live up to their billing as they scored twelve and eight points respectfully.

The Kings need to find the right balance as they approach the start to the 2016-2017 Season on October 27th at home against a now Tim Duncan free San Antonio Spurs.

 

 

 

Sacramento Kings podcast with Charlie O: Lawson might be off the hook for oversleeping and missing the flight to Lexington

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AP file photo: Ty Lawson (10) of the Sacramento Kings drives on the Los Angeles Lakers Jose Calderon (5) during an exhibition game Tue Oct 4th the same two teams meet again Tuesday night at Staples Center

The situation concerning the Sacramento Kings Ty Lawson’s missing the flight from Las Vegas to Lexington might be all forgiven Lawson and the Kings played the Washington Wizards last Saturday in Kentucky and on Thursday the 13th the Kings were in Vegas playing the Los Angeles Lakers and apparently Lawson overslept and missed the plane to Kentucky. It was to a point where the Kings were considering cutting Lawson from the team.

After much soul searching the Kings reconsidered and will keep Lawson around a little longer, he’s listed as active for Tuesday night’s game in Los Angeles with the Lakers. It looks like everything is going to be okay. The Kings are kind of taking the stance “move along, move along, there’s nothing to see here.” This is not a total surprise one of the reasons why Lawson and a guy with his kind of skills was available to the Kings was the fact that he had a horrible year last year and one of the reasons why he had such a horrible years was it was based around some very bad behavior. He needs to get back on track and help this team out and get in the community to improve his image.

Charlie O has all of the very latest on the Sacramento Kings at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

 

Ty Lawson misses the plane and now may miss a roster spot

Published on by Charlie O. MalloneeLeave a comment

 

ty

by Charlie O. Mallonee

Kings guard Ty Lawson did not play in the game on Saturday night in Kentucky against the Washington Wizards. His reason for not playing was listed as “personal reasons” not “coach’s decision”.

It turns out that the personal reason was Lawson had missed the plane in Las Vegas and he never made it to Lexington. This came on the heels of him being late to practice on Thursday. This story was first reported by Marc Stein of ESPN.

Trouble has followed Lawson in recent times. He has been arrested four times for driving under the influence including two arrests in 2015. Lawson did not last the full season with the Houston Rockets who released him in March. Rumor had him headed to Sacramento then but Lawson ultimately finished the season with the Indiana Pacers.

Lawson’s past is what made him available when the Kings went looking for help while Darren Collison served his suspension for the domestic assault incident. At the time Sacramento signed Lawson, they did not know how many games they would be without Collison which they now know is eight games. Many people felt Collison was facing a suspension of 25-plus games.

Lawson was signed to a one-year, non-guaranteed contract in hopes that Lawson would put his past behind him and return to being the player he was in Denver when he was star for the Nuggets. Kings head coach Dave Joerger has been full of praise for Lawson especially for his speed going north to south on the floor.

The Kings will meet with Lawson and decide what his future will be with the team. The team did sign veteran point guard Jordan Farmar as a potential fill in for Collison. Farmar played for Joerger in Memphis last season. The Kings also have rookie Isaiah Cousins who they drafted in the second-round and has a partially guaranteed contract.

The Kings will probably keep one veteran point guard to run the second unit and if they are happy with Cousins, keep him on the roster and shuttle him between Sacramento and the D-League team in Reno. Who plays and who is not present at the final preseason game on Tuesday night versus the Los Angeles Clippers may answer some of the questions that now exist because of Lawson’s situation.

Kings beat the Wizards 124-119 to wrap up “Big Blue Madness Weekend”

Published on by Charlie O. MalloneeLeave a comment

 

wcs-dmc-wall

Photo credit: Charles Bertram Lexington Herald – Leader

by Charlie O. Mallonee

The Sacramento Kings and Washington Wizards met in a NBA preseason game to wrap up the “Big Blue Madness Weekend” which kicks off the NCAA basketball season for the Kentucky Wildcats. The game featured four former Wildcats – DeMarcus Cousins, Willie Cauley-Stein, Skal Labissiere and the Wizards’ John Wall.

The Kings won the game 124-119 for those who care and there were many people in Kentucky who did not seem to care. The Rupp Arena where the game was played has a seating capacity of 23,000 for basketball. Basketball fans in the Lexington area have to drive three hours (192 miles) west to Indianapolis to see a NBA game, so you would think a game in their own backyard would be a big draw. You would be wrong. Just 8,472 people showed up to see a game that featured four former Wildcat professional players.

The score will tell you that the game was not one that featured much in the way of defense. In fact, the final score has more in common with the 2015-16 Kings than it does with the new edition under the guidance of Dave Joerger.

The Kings were led in scoring by DeMarcus Cousins and Darren Collison who put up 22 points each. Before getting too excited, do not forget that Collison will not be with the Kings for the first eight games of the season while he serves his NBA mandated suspension.

Omri Casspi scored 16 points in 22 minutes on the floor while Willie Cauley-Stein put up 12 points, grabbed five rebounds, had four steals and added one block shot in his 22 minutes of playing time. Lamar Patterson scored 14 points in 12 minutes of playing time coming off the bench.

Ben McLemore got the start at shooting guard in the game and played a team-high 29 minutes but had a tough game. He scored just eight points- five in the first half which came with less than two minutes to play and three points in the second half. McLemore shot just 2-for-6 from the floor and was 0-for-1 from beyond the 3-point line. He was a perfect 4-for-4 from the free throw line. Joerger is giving McLemore the playing time but young guard does not seem to be giving the needed production back in return.

Sacramento shot an impressive 60.0-percent (42-for-70) from the floor and were an outstanding 9-for-19 (47.4-percent) from 3-point land. The Kings went 31-for-38 (81.6-percent) from the charity stripe. They had 26 assists but turned the ball over 27 times. The Kings out-rebounded the Wizards 40-32.

The Wizards shot 48.5-percent (47-for-97) from the field and went 8-for-31 (25.8-percent) from beyond the 3-point line. Andrew Nicholson was their leading scorer with 19 points. John Wall – who is recovering from knee surgery – played 22 minutes and scored 11 points.

Kings head coach Dave Joerger started all three of his former Kentucky players – Cousins, Cauley-Stein and Skal Labissiere. Labissiere went scoreless in 16 minutes on the floor but did haul in four rebounds, block two shots and got two steals.

The Kings Rudy Gay, Ty Lawson, Arron Afflalo, Isaiah Cousins and Matt Barnes were held out of the game by head coach Dave Joerger for rest and to give others playing time.

The Kings are now 3-2 in the preseason and will play their final warm up contest on Tuesday night in Sacramento against the Los Angeles Clippers. The first game of regular season will be played on Wednesday, October 26 in Phoenix.

Sacramento Kings-LA Lakers post game wrap Thursday: DeMarcus-less Kings pull out a shocker over Lakers in 116-104 win in Vegas

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AP photo: The Sacramento Kings Rudy Gay (8) drives down the court defended by the Los Angeles Lakers Brandon Ingram (14) at the T-Mobile Center in Las Vegas on Thursday night

by Jessica Kwong

Sacramento Kings dominated the Los Angeles Lakers in the first half, lost almost all their ground in the third quarter but managed to pull away in the fourth for a 116-104 win at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Thursday night.

 As with the preseason opener in which the teams faced each other in Anaheim, the Kings took an early lead and the Lakers caught up. But unlike the Oct. 4 game, the Kings were able to fend off the Lakers’ second quarter push.

 DeMarcus Cousins and Ty Lawson had the night off.

 Sacramento led at the end of the first quarter, 30-26.

 The Kings widened their lead to 18 points at the half, and Darren Collison had 14 points.

 The Lakers rallied in the third quarter and the Kings gave up 36 points, reducing their lead to 82-80 at the end of the quarter.

 But in the fourth quarter, the Kings held the Lakers to 24 points to take the victory.

 Tolliver finished with 21 points, from making all three of his three-point attempts off the bench. Collison finished with 20 points on 8-of-13 from the field and 7 assists, while Rudy Gay finished with 19 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists.

 Sacramento’s three-headed attack at the guard was effective on the Lakers.

Arron Afflalo contributed 16 points and former Laker Jordan Farmar had a solid night as well, posting 14 points off the bench.

 Kings guard Garrett Temple remains on the injured list with a sore back.

 With Thursday’s victory, Sacramento is 2-2 in the preseason. The young Lakers team holds a 2-3 record. The California teams do not face each other again in the preseason.

 Tip-off for the Kings’ game versus the Washington Wizards at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky is 4 p.m. on Saturday.

 

Sacramento Kings podcast with Charlie O: Kings new Golden One Arena a new splash for downtown Sac; plus look at new players

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AP photo: The Sacramento Kings Omri Casspi (left) drives to the basket against Maccabi Haifa’s Orlando Mendiz-Veldez in the second half at Golden One Arena Monday in the first NBA pre season game in the new arena

On the podcast with Charlie O:

Monday was the first day of the Sacramento Kings played at Golden One Arena in downtown Sacramento and what a first impression it was for the fans, players, media, sponsors and the organization. The Kings opened up their home pre season schedule against the Israeli team. The Kings also have some new players on the roster that were going to take a look at. Also a look at the rookies and who might make the roster and who impressed most on Monday night. Also a look at Kings new head coach Dave Yeager and what’s coming up for the Kings.