I have been reading a lot of posts lately from Kings fans across the Internet and listening to many podcasts on the team. One trend I keep noticingis how many people are seemingly afraid to let themselves get excited about the upcoming season. Why? Isn’t the whole purpose of being a fan to have hope and anticipation for an exciting year? Are they worried that showing their fandom might show poorly on them. Or be embarrassing? Every summer I get hyped for the upcoming season. Regardless of what the so-called experts or the snarky new-gen Kings fans say. Every year there are teams that burst onto the scene without warning while so-called contenders implode. Its sports, you never really know what is going to happen. I am hoping for a big jump in wins this season, and if it doesn’t happen, maybe next season then. Whatever happens, I am here for the ride.

There was a lot of talk about the Kings already deciding to move their 2022 pick for someone who could help the team right away, but with them moving up to #4, it might be worth waiting to see how this draft plays out first. Power forwards Paolo Banchero or Jabari Smith Jr might fit quite nicely next to Domantas Sabonis, and there is no guarantee that the first three picks will all be big men. A lot can change over the next five weeks. I say we should all wait and see. If the guy Monte McNair is gone by #4, I am sure there will be plenty of teams blowing up his phone to buy the spot and get the Kings the player they need to start winning next season. You really don’t need a squad full of 19-year-olds to be successful.

With all the recent games being postponed due to the league’s Health & Safety protocols, it is only going to get worse and the team that can avoid being decimated with a short-handed roster is going to win this thing. That is, if this 72-game season really has 72 games. I am wondering if the NBA may need to put the season on hold for a couple months in the hope that things settle down, or we will likely see 2-3 games every night being postponed. It will not take long before all those postponements pile up to a point where they cannot be made up. So far, Sacramento and the other California teams have been lucky. Perhaps it is due to the state’s tight restrictions, or the organizations keeping their staff in line. Regardless, it is going to hit the team at some point. Only Jabari parker has been impacted so far and he is not really a key rotation player anymore. But, if Fox, Holmes, Barnes, and/or Haliburton were forced to sit out 5 to 7 games, that would pretty much end the season for us. If there ever was an “*” season, this is likely going to be it.

With the 72-game NBA season kicking off on Tuesday and the Kings opening their season against the nuggets on Wednesday, what is your prediction on a final win percentage? Assuming they play all 72 games that is. Barring a major move (Buddy Hield, Luke Walton, etc.) I think this year’s Kings will be decent. Enough to make the playoffs? Well… I could see a play-in game by the end of the year, but not a top 6 seed. It sounds like many of the top teams will be aggressively resting stars against the perceived weaker teams, and this could give Sacramento a chance to steal a game or two this year that they would not normally win. It is situations like this that could help the overall record more than one might think, but not necessarily an indication that they are better than they are. Probably the most important thing for a successful campaign though is getting off to a good start. The team cannot afford another 0-5 hole to begin the season and then spend all year trying to dig themselves out of that hole. De’Aaron Fox will really need to take a major step up in his game – which he could – and become the elite point guard we all saw glimpses of in the bubble (pre-max contract). He is at his best when he drives through the lanes and forces the action for easy hoops, fouls, or kickouts to the perimeter. Marvin Bagley will need to stay healthy and establish himself as a force down low while learning to play alongside Richaun Holmes and Hassan Whiteside. If the three of them continue to just clog up the middle and prevent Fox from driving to the basket, forcing him to launch bad three after bad three, it will be a long season. Buddy Hield will need to be a consistent scorer every night, as we cannot have 25 points one night and 8 points the next on 3-of-15 shooting. Some buddy defense would be nice too. I would like to see Tyrese Haliburton step up as the clear third guard, but I don’t think it is critical to the immediate success of the team. It would just be a nice surprise to finally have a late lottery steal for a change. He will develop his NBA game soon enough. My 2020-21 prediction: 36-36 and a possible play-in game, but that is about it. There are just too many stronger teams in the West this year. But they are getting older and their days are numbered. Past Kings season records: 2019-20 31-41 (.431) 2018-19 39-43 (.476) 2017-18 27-55 (.329)

It looks clear after just one game that monte McNair envisions the Kings as a pace and space team. The 4-second rule and the fact that 15 of the 16 players who got on the court Friday night jacked up a three-pointer tells you all you need to know. I am sure 50 threes a game will not be the norm, but clearly speed (De’Aaron Fox) and shooting (Buddy Hield) are the focal points this year. But the defense. Oh man, this will be interesting. With so many new young players on the squad and vets who are not necessarily defensive-minded, we could be looking at some really high scoring games. I only hope our team can keep up the scoring with the competition. As I have said before, I would rather lose 125-105, than 95-75. But, I would rather not lose at all.

There are currently 20 players believed to be on the Kings 2020 training camp roster. Of course, this could always change, but who would you pick? Who would you cut? Starting 5 First 5 off the bench Second 5 off the bench The 2 two-way players The 3 cuts The Choices F Marvin Bagley III F Harrison Barnes F Nemanja Bjelica F Vince Edwards G De'Aaron Fox G Kyle Guy G Tyrese Haliburton G Buddy Hield C Richaun Holmes G/F Justin James F/G DaQuan Jeffries G Cory Joseph C/F Frank Kaminsky C/F Chimezie Metu F Jabari Parker G Jahmi'us Ramsey F/G Glenn Robinson III G Quinton Rose C Hassan Whiteside F Robert Woodard II

With Bogdan Bogdanovic refusing to accept the sign-and-trade to Milwaukee, one might think it is because he wants to stay in Sac. Or he doesn’t want to move to cold Milwaukee after being in Cali for the past 3 years. But the truth has got to be that he is aware of a much larger offer coming his way in restricted free agency than the reported $14.5 million offered by the Bucks, and I don’t blame him. Too bad for the Kings though. If they can’t/won’t match the offer, he could walk, and Sacramento gets nothing for him. Or, they are forced to match and then decide between him and Buddy by the trade deadline. That could be messy, and screw up other plans Monte McNair had in the works. McNair is going to be tested right off the bat. Is he a strong or weak GM. He better get it right!

I just don’t see new general manager Monte McNair caving on Buddy Hield’s demands to be moved out of Sac. For too long now the Kings have been viewed by the MBA as having a soft front office that can easily be pushed around and taken advantage of by players, agents, or other NBA GMs. McNair just doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who would allow a talented, but unproven player who just signed a 4-year deal to stay in Sacramento to dictate the terms. If he did, that would open the floodgates and other players and their agents would immediately see that they can get their way without much effort. He might as well then just pack it up and go back to SoCal as his time with the Kings would have been no different than the last two GMs. Buddy represents a skillset that Monte deeply admires. His three-point sharp-shooting is unmatched by most NBA players and there is no way the Kings could get equal value in return in a trade for him right now. Hield can whine and gripe all he wants, but the truth is that there is a new GM in town and he needs to establish his control over the team and show the NBA that the Kings have a front office that will dictate the terms moving forward. I honestly suspect to see both Hield and Bogdanovic in Kings uniforms when the season starts. When the trade deadline comes up, we’ll see...

I’m excited to hear there is a realistic possibility of the 2020-21 season starting as early as December 22. Sitting here in late October with no Kings games to talk about is weird. But of course, these are weird times. As for the proposed season timeline by the owners, it doesn’t really surprise me. There is just too much money on the table to delay it any longer. Television revenues will take another hit if the season runs too long into the summer again, and they need their 72-game schedule to meet the contract mandates of the regional sports networks. We should expect more back-to-backs again and a more compact game lineup. I have also heard talk about more inter-conference games to avoid long cross-country travel. Who would suffer? Owners would lose gate and concession revenue if they were forced to reduce or eliminate fans at the arenas. Players likely would complain about the lack of “necessary rest”, or the shortened season impacting their stats and incentive bonuses. These are pretty much all related to millionaires and billionaires losing out on some money, nothing to do with the fans of the game. Sure, it would be nice to go to a Kings game again, but let’s be realistic, that’s not happening soon regardless. As for the Kings, the quick turnaround to the new season would likely impact a couple major decisions for the team. Continuity will be key to any team’s success next season, and making rushed decisions is not advisable. I would see Buddy Hield staying with the team to begin the season. New general manager Monte McNair would likely want to see what he has before he goes out and makes major changes to the squad. I would also expect to see both Bogie and Belly back with the team as small markets like Sacramento can’t let assets just walk away for nothing. Maintain all three of these valuable assets and make smarter decisions at the trade deadline when you have more relevant data to work with. Remember, McNair is a data-driven guy, and needs his data to decide. The only major change this season will likely be the addition of Alvin Gentry as associate head coach. He’ll be introducing some new offensive concepts, but the bulk of the squad has been together for a couple years now, so it’s not like they don’t know how to play together. I am curious to hear about Gentry’s and Hield’s relationship when they were together in New Orleans. Just over 3 weeks until the NBA draft. Free agency about a week after that. And training camp a couple weeks later. Can’t wait. I just hope the Player’s Union doesn’t balk and push this thing back to February.

I will be honest, I am extremely disappointed that Vlade Divac was forced out of the GM role before he had a chance to see if his vision would work, but not at all surprised. When he took over the job from Pete D’Alessandro in 2015, the franchise was in such disarray that I doubt anyone would have wanted to step into that dumpster fire. It would have been a career killer for sure. Pete was clearly in over his head and had shown that he really was not loyal to the city and fans of Sacramento. Cue the dude on the white horse. Vlade was one of the few guys who loved the team, the city, and the fans enough to take the role and put his heart into it. Unfortunately, the NBA world was not interested in an awkward Euro with a thick accent who appeared bumbling and confused when trying to hold a simple press conference. The NBA fraternity of cookie-cutter GMs dismissed him as a clueless joke and stopped taking the Kings seriously whenever dealing with them. Divac was far from clueless, but the optics did not look good and the prejudicial opinions had already been established. Bringing in Brandon Williams to be the public face of the front office did not help much as it was still known that Vlade called the shots from behind the curtain. After Williams was fired in 2019, Joe Dumars was brought in as the new "face with street cred" in the front office, but Vlade would not relinquish his power and the struggles obviously continued. I can only hope that Dumars is willing to fully embrace this team, this city, and this fan base, or he too will be tarred, feathered, and run out of town just like Pete D. At least Vlade brought this city the glory years of the early 2000s, and he will always be loved for that. Joe has not done anything for Sacramento, so he will be entirely judged on what he does moving forward from here. Good luck dude. This is Sacramento, it is a different game out here.

For the first scrimmage, I caught Gary and Doug’s call on League Pass to see how these Bubble games would look on TV. While I have been listening to the G-Man for some 35 years, the game was kind of disappointing. I think it was more due to the distraction of an empty gym, those flashy video boards, and the lack of any excitement when something spectacular happens on the court. Not to mention the camera angles and production quality of the game was rather limited. Kind of looked like a Division II college broadcast. I know Gary and Doug really have not worked together before and calling a game from nearly 3000 miles away is just weird, I can only hope it gets better when the games really count, or viewers are going to tune this experiment out. For Saturday’s game, I listened to Jason and Henry’s call on the League Pass audio broadcast. While it had some of the same issues as the TV call, not seeing an empty gym and those distracting signage boards allowed one to imagine something a little closer to a real NBA game. They still sounded some 3000 miles away from the action, but I am hoping the audio feed levels can be increased a little to make it sound like they are closer to the game. I will admit, I do enjoy Jason’s call of the action and he plays off Henry well from their years of working together. I have not caught an ESPN or TNT game yet and am very interested to see how they attempt to make the broadcast more like what we are used to seeing. Of course, it will never be the same as the experience in a packed arena, but the NBA should be able to get creative and bring the fans something new and exciting to the game telecasts.

I must admit, I am tepid at best about the NBA restart next month. While I miss Kings basketball desperately, is what we are going to get starting July 31 really going to be Kings basketball? Or NBA ball at all? The games will be in empty arenas/gymnasiums. The camera angles will be different. The lighting will be different. The sounds will be different. The announcers will be different. The energy will be different. The hardcore basketball fan will tune in for that 10:30am Thursday morning game between the Kings and Pelicans, but the casual fan will not. All this so that owners, players, and TV outlets can make a little extra money. Is the product being put out there for our consumption worth our time? Is it going to be NBA basketball, or glorified street ball? Think about it. The only people in the stands are going to be other NBA players. They are there to see their friends connect on 20 three-pointers, or throwdown that windmill dunk. We risk this turning into a bunch of highlight real attempts. I am sure it will not be as bad as the All-Star game, but players want to impress their peers more than the fans and that could greatly impact the quality of the play on the court. Coronavirus health concerns aside, what are we going to see on our TVs in a month?

Sacramento Kings forward Harrison Barnes joins “The Full 48 with Howard Beck” to discuss the resumption of the NBA season and how he’d like to see it happen, the campus/bubble scenario, coronavirus health concerns, the Sacramento Kings season, Marvin Bagley’s injury status, and Kobe Bryant. He also weighs in on a possible NBA schedule shift, mid-game trades, and playing in empty arenas.

The Sacramento Kings are working to complete a contract buyout with forward Anthony Tolliver prior to the march 1 deadline. Tolliver was owed $2,564,753 this season, and the team should be able to negotiate terms that will save them a little money for the rest of the year and give Anthony a chance to sign with a contender where he might have an opportunity to see some court time. With the Kings’ so deep at the forward spot, it was unlikely that he would see much, if any meaningful game minutes the rest of this season.

The team is struggling right now, but I don’t see any reason to panic and blow it all up. Unlike past seasons, Sacramento has a young core (aka young assets) that they can continue to try to build around. If not, plenty of other teams would love to get their hands on them and pay Sacramento a rather pretty penny in exchange. It wasn’t too long ago that the Kings had only DeMarcus Cousins and a bunch of old C-level assets with no realistic hope for a future. Now that was a time to panic and blow it all up. And they did just that. Today, I can’t read a Kings blog, listen to a podcast or the radio without being bombarded by all the noise coming from Kings fans. Sure, things are tough right now, but this isn’t 2017. Not even close. The Kings have a lot of questions that need to be answered during the second half of the season, and that is what I will be focusing on. And I’m sure Vlade Divac and his staff will be too. What I’m looking forward to finding out… Can De’Aaron Fox rise to an All-Star level of play by the end of the season? Can Marvin Begley and Richaun Holmes co-exist in the starting lineup? Can Buddy Hield find his shooting touch again? Will Bogdan Bogdanovic accept his role with the Kings and return next season? Can Harry Giles secure his spot as the fourth big man on the team? Is Harrison Barnes the Kings’ long-term solution at small forward? Can Marvin Bagley stay healthy for the rest of the season? Did I miss something?

36 percent of Kings games this season have been decided by 3 points or less. In those contests, Sacramento is 5-4. The team is still above .500 in one-possession games, but at that rate, can we as Kings fans handle 21 more nail biters this season? The margin of error is just too great. Three wins or losses either way could have already sealed the destiny of this team. Playing to the level of their competition is the only way to describe the 2019-20 Sacramento kings. Except for those first five games, the team has basically played themselves to near draws with every team they have faced since. They have yet to build a big lead early and run away with a game. At this rate, Kyle Guy will never get a chance to make his NBA debut!

Kings fans are definitely looking forward to De'Aaron Fox's birthday this year. The guard is targeting his return to the court by his 22nd birthday. December 20.