14 Comments
User's avatar
Charles Parker's avatar

Mike, not even the potential of Keegan Murray’s return to league average 3-pt shooting could make me watch the sad Sac Kings ;)

Mike Shearer's avatar

I completely get that ha. I suspect they won’t fare well in my forthcoming League Pass rankings lol.

Dan Smith's avatar

You guys are just sleepin' for no reason...we will surprise a lot of people! lol

Aaa's avatar

If Kings fans can remain optimistic then no one else has any excuses.

Dan Smith's avatar

Haha, that is definitely a good way of putting it!

Dan Smith's avatar

Keeg's gonna have a big year, 15/7/2.5 + 3 stocks on 47/38/85 shooting splits....I can just feel it!!

Plus he will emerge as a top 20 defender, LFG Kings!

Mike Shearer's avatar

I hope so, I like that line a lot!

Stanislas's avatar

Really liked this article and the fact that you picked players that are on the real verge of establishing what their prime will be. Recently i read an equivalent article on soccer from a supposedly respected media where they copped out by picking players that were 16-17 years old, and that by definition can not NOT develop more. I hated that article and was dreading this on when I readout it was about breakout players. But you stayed true to form and instead tackled a reasonable and intriguing challenge. Well done!

Aaa's avatar

Poetl aside, long term how do you feel about the barnes/CMB fit?

Mike Shearer's avatar

What do you think?

Aaa's avatar

Building a front court without height or shooting is quiet a feat, and a very nice tribute to their former GM. I'm of the belief that Jimmy Butler is a 1/1 player, so I think generally you're gonna need a lot of shooting if you're gonna build around these two, but I suppose it could definitely be good enough if the Kawhi trade goes through and he stays healthy.

Mike Shearer's avatar

Yeah I'm not saying they're gonna reach the finals like bam/butler did, but that sort of dynamic is the main way I could see them scraping together enough offense to be dangerous.

Mike Shearer's avatar

It’s a great question. I wasn’t super high on it in the regular season, but both Barnes and CMB looked so good in the playoffs (until Barnes’ injury anyway) that I feel much better about it now, particularly if they do land a real sharpshooter like Kawhi instead of Ingram at the 3

It probably won’t ever be the snuggest fit offensively, but the defensive upside is so high, and both players are good enough passers to pull off some Jimmy butler/bam Adebayo tiki-tika passing inside that will probably scale better in postseason than regular season.

I might be too rosy with the optimism. But we’ll see!