Tag: Sacramento Kings

by Charlie O. Mallonee

The Sacramento Kings will open the the 2015-16 season at Sleep Train Arena on Wednesday, October 28 versus the Los Angeles Clippers. This will be the Kings final home opener at Sleep Train Arena before moving to the new Golden1 Center next season.

The Kings will play eight of their next 10 games at home which will feature a season-long six game homestand. That homestand will include games with Houston, Golden State, San Antonio, Brooklyn and Toronto.

For Kings fans who would like to see their team play the Warriors in Oakland, the teams will meet on Saturday, November 28 at Oracle Arena.

The Kings will play a game in Mexico City as a part of the NBA Global Games 2015. The Kings will host the Boston Celtics in Ciudad de Mexico, D.F. on Thursday, December 3.

Sacramento will be featured on national TV four times during the season. The Kings will play twice on ESPN – November 6 versus the Rockets and February 24 in San Antonio. They will also broadcast twice on TNT – December 10 against the Knicks in NYC and January 7 versus the Lakers. The Kings will be televised on NBA TV nine times this season.

The Kings longest road trip of the season is a five game slate that begins in Atlanta on Wednesday, November 18 and ends Wednesday, November 25 in Milwaukee.

Sports Radio Service will bring you complete coverage of all 82 regular season games and any potential playoff games on sportsradioservice.com. There will also be a weekly Kings podcast posted on the website.

by Charlie O. Mallonee

The Sacramento Kings have revealed their 2015 preseason schedule. The Kings will play six preseason games – four on the road and two games at Sleep Train Arena.

The Kings will open the preseason with the Portland Trail Blazers at the Moda Center on Monday, October 5th. That game will be followed by a contest against the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday, October 7th at the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix.

The Kings only two home exhibition contests will feature games with San Antonio and Portland at Sleep Train Arena. The Spurs will face the Kings on Thursday, October 8th at 7:00 p.m. The Trail Blazers will play the Kings on Saturday, October 10th at 7:00 p.m.

The Kings will travel to Las Vegas on Tuesday, October 13th to play the Los Angeles Lakers at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Sacramento’s final preseason contest will be a reunion game as the Kings will play the New Orleans Pelicans at the University of Kentucky’s Rupp Arena in Lexington on Saturday, October 17th. DeMarcus Cousins, Willie Cauley-Stein and Rajon Rondo all played their college basket at the University of Kentucky. Anthony Davis of the Pelicans also played for Kentucky.

by Charlie O. Mallonee

The Sacramento Kings have terminated the services of Dean Oliver. Who you say? Dean Oliver – the director of player personnel and analytics. Is that a big deal you ask? Yes, it is a big deal.

Dean Oliver is the inventor of APBRmetrics – a statistical method of tracking players, devising game plans and selecting personnel for professional basketball teams. Dean Oliver is to basketball what statistician Bill James (sabermetrics) is to baseball. Oliver puts a mathematical value on all elements of the game to determine what areas of the game are more important than others. For example, is a quick 3-point shot more important than working the ball to the basket for a higher percentage shot?

APBRmetrics attempts to remove the intangibles from the game of basketball. Its goal is to quantify the game and make logical decisions based on solid statistics.

Billy Bean and the Oakland Athletics have famously used Sabemetrics as their guide to help them find success as a “small-market baseball club”.

Former Kings general manager Pete D’Alessandro recruited Oliver to leave the Denver Nuggets and come to Sacramento. Kings majority owner Vivek Ranadive fully supported the hiring of Oliver as a part of his NBA 3.0 initiative. Oliver represents the new 21st Century decision making process.

Oliver was working with the Nuggets when George Karl was the coach in Denver.

D’Alessandro, former advisor Chris Mullin and now Oliver are all gone from the Kings front office. Vlade Divac is now the man in charge and its not good to have been associated with D’Alessandro regime.

There have been reports that Divac has little or no use for analytics preferring to use a more traditional approach to selecting players, game planning and game management. The only problem with that approach is that the NBA is becoming a league driven by analytics.

Every arena is equipped with special cameras to capture the key elements of APBRmetrics so statisticians can review the plays and break the game down into many different elements. The fact is the game can be quantified and teams are gathering that information to make plans to defeat their rivals. Analytics is only going to grow in its importance to NBA teams in the future.

Sacramento had the man who invented the science on their staff, and they just fired him. It is like firing the Wright Brothers as your airplane builders to go with an individual who has never built more than a paper airlplane. The move just does not make any sense.

There are two very prominent NBA teams that do not rely on analytics – the Los Angeles Lakers and the New York Knicks. How well is that working out for those teams?

The world is changing. There will always be a place for evaluating love for the game, motivation and hustle. There is also going to be a place for solid analytics that show what moves are valuable and what moves do not contribute to putting wins up on the board.

Divac is trying to build up his own executive team. Rumors have Peja Stojakovic and Bobby Jackson taking jobs in the Kings front office. It is always good to have trusted teammates on the front line with you, but the Kings also need new, highly trained warriors to help lead them out of the “valley of despair” into land of the playoffs.

Bottom line – letting Dean Oliver walk was not a good basketball move, and it only creates an increasing vision of chaos when it comes to the Kings management team.

by Charlie O. Mallonee

The Sacramento Kings signed a third player on Wednesday. Forward Duje Dukan signed a free agent contract.

Dukan is 6-foot-10 and weighs 218 pounds. He played his college basketball at Wisconsin where Dukan was a part of the NCAA National Championship team. He played four seasons at Wisconsin.

Dukan played for the Kings in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. He averaged 9.2 points and 2.4 rebounds per game. Dukan led the Kings’ summer league team in 3-point shooting percentage at .417. He averaged 18 minutes of playing time per contest.

Dukan was one the college players the Kings brought to Sacramento for a pre-draft workout.

by Charlie O. Mallonee

Forward Luc Mbah a Moute has signed a free agent contract and will once again be a member of the Sacramento Kings. Mbah a Moute was with the Kings in 2013-14 and was sent to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the trade that brought Derrick Williams to Sacramento.

The 6-foot-8 Mbah a Moute averaged a career high 9.9 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game in 67 appearances for the 76ers in 2014-15. He shot .395 from the field, .307 from 3-point range and .589 from the free throw line.

Mbah a Moute is really known for his defense. Bill Herenda of KFBK Radio reported on Twitter that some within the Kings organization see Mbah a Moute as one of the top five defenders in the NBA. For a team that has lacked a defensive identity, the addition of Mbah a Moute and Willie Cauley-Stein goes a long way in helping establish a new attitude about defense for the team.

Mbah a Moute has been in “the association” since being selection in the second round of the 2008 NBA Draft by the Milwaukee Bucks. He has played for the Bucks, Kings, Timberwolves and Sixers in his seven year in the league.

by Charlie O. Mallonee

The Sacramento Kings have added small forward Caron Butler to their roster according to Yahoo Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski. The Kings have not yet confirmed the signing, but there is no reason to question the unnamed source who leaked the information of the transaction.

Butler is a 6-foot-7, 228 pound, forward who has been in “the association” for 13 years. He was drafted in the first round out of UConn in 2002 by the Miami Heat. Butler has played with eight different teams over those 13 seasons.

Butler played for the Detroit Pistons last season. He appeared in 78 games (21 starts). Butler averaged 5.9 points in 20.8 minutes of playing time. He shot .407 from the field and .379 from beyond the 3-point arc. Butler averaged 2.5 rebounds and 1.0 assists in those 78 games.

The 35 year old Butler will provide some much needed veteran presence in Kings locker room that features players mostly in their 20’s. Butler – who has been to the playoffs seven times in his career – will be able to impart what it takes to be a playoff contender to his younger colleagues.

You can look for Butler to come off the bench with the second unit when Omri Casppi needs to come out of game situations. He will probably play 15 – 18 minutes per game.

International Players Identified

The Kings released the names of the two international players whose draft rights they procured in the five player trade with Philadelphia. They are Arturas Gudaitis and Luka Mitrovic.

Gudaitis is a 6-foot-10, 254 pound center who plays for BC Lietuvos Rytas of the Lithuanian Basketball League. In his 20 Euroleague games last season, Gudaitis averaged 6.5 points and 2.1 rebounds per game. He played an average of 15-plus minutes per game.

Scouts like his muscular size but say he needs to use how to use his size to its fullest potential. The Sixers drafted Gudaitis in the second round (47th overall).

Mitrovic is a 6-foot-9, 225 pound forward who plays for Crvena Zvezda Belgrade of the Basketball League of Serbia. He averages 8.6 points and 5.2 rebounds in 24.7 minutes of playing time. Mitrovic appeared in 24 games (20 starts) last season.

Mitrovic helped his team – Crvena Zvezda – win the Adriatic League championship and the Serbian League championship as well as the Radivoj Korac’ Cup.

Philadelphia drafted Mitrovic in the second round (60th overall).