Kings beat Utah Jazz team in FULL TANK MODE, pick up win No. 18

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Somebody had to win.

Unfortunately for the kings, there are lottery chances that took the last tonight, even

though they came away with a victory.

You are Lockdown Kings, your daily Sacramento Kings podcast, part of the Lockdown Podcast

Network, your team every day.

Welcome in.

I am James Hamm, your Kings Insider for ESPN 1320, the Kings Beat, and of course your host

of Lockdown Kings.

I have, of course, have covered the Sacramento Kings for the last 16 seasons as a credential

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All right, we're going to finish today's show with six quick dots, which is what we typically

do.

Of course, six quick dots is something that I do on social media, each and every Sacramento

Kings game.

You can find it on Twitter, you can find it on blue sky at James underscore ham NBA.

It's just a different way of doing a game recap and we'll go through those with fine, fine

tooth comb in the final segment in the second segment.

We're going to talk about Killian Hayes and precious to Chua making good, figuring out

a way to make an impact on the Sacramento Kings.

But before we get into that, we're going to get into the tank.

The tank is on in Utah and I know the league is already all over these guys.

They need to be further all over the Utah Jazz and we're going to dive all into all of

that tonight because the Kings just beat the Jazz 116 to 111 in a battle of two wins,

of two teams with only eight players.

Both teams had eight players actually only eight players played the Utah Jazz actually

had 10 players that could have played and probably a lot more than that to be honest

with you.

Sad on the bench as a DMP CD, of course, you know, for a former All-Star player.

Sfi, Michaela also sat on the bench and Kyle Filipowski, who is young and just needed

to rest at 22 years old.

He also sat the bench tonight and didn't play and that's a problem.

Like again, it was a close game, 116 to 111.

The Kings, they have their own issues.

Drew Ubank today was ruled out for indefinitely with a thumb issue.

He tore UCL ligament and he's probably done for the season undergoing hand surgery.

We can say the same about Demonis Abonus out for the season.

Zach Levine out for the season, legitimate injuries that are keeping them out.

Kigamari's out in another two weeks with an ankle injury.

Again, Russell Westbrook did not play tonight, but he did play yesterday in the first night

of a back-to-back and at 37 years old, sometimes a guy like Russ needs a break.

Malik Monk has been nursing an ankle, so he's been out and of course, you know, there's

one more.

Oh, Deandre Hunter.

Deandre Hunter is out for the season after undergoing eye surgery.

So the Kings are shorthanded, again, this same thing goes for the Utah Jazz we can get

through their list.

When you're watching the caliber of players that are on the floor, I think that there's

a bigger issue at play here.

And again, this isn't a knock on Cody Williams or Bryson Sabah or Isaiah Collier.

All of those guys, maybe even Elijah Harcless.

All of these guys may or may not be in the rotation for the Utah Jazz next year.

It's sort of this next layer that we're looking at and when you walk into a game and you're

starting a six foot seven guard at center and his name is Anderson Garcia, a two last

name guy.

You know, it was here, two first name guys, but there's a two last name guy Anderson with

an extra S Garcia.

Not only did he start, but he played 47 minutes, 43 minutes tonight, he goes one of six from

the field, one of six, one of six from three, one of seven from the field, three points,

10 rebounds, you know, and he's not the only one.

He's on a 10 day contract.

They just signed him.

This is his third NBA game.

Another player, Bez in Bang, he played 31 minutes, 33 minutes.

This is his second NBA game.

He just signed a 10 day contract.

So two guys with a combined coming into tonight, combined like three games of NBA experience

are going out there and not just playing, but basically playing two thirds of the game

at least.

And it is wild to watch a team that does this, Isaiah Collier, of course, is a good ball

player.

He plays 25 minutes tonight and he's at most of the fourth quarter.

Oscar Shibwe.

Yeah.

Like, I didn't even know Oscar Shibwe was stolen in the league.

And I like Oscar Shibwe coming out of the draft, but at this point, it's tough.

You know, he's not living up to NBA player status.

He played 22 and almost 23 minutes, including sit at the entire fourth quarter or a good

portion of the fourth quarter.

That the Bez in Bang played the entire fourth quarter.

So here's the problem.

It's that the Kings aren't playing this game.

And I know a lot of fans are upset about this, but you have a guy like Demar to Rosen

at 36, future Hall of Famer.

He just keeps moving up the all time scoring list.

I think he's up to 16th on the all time scoring list.

He plays 38 minutes tonight, goes 11 to 21 from the field scores, 41 points, grab dishes

out 11 assists, 41 points on 21 shots, got to the line 21 times, 18 to 21 from the line.

Like look, I don't know what to say about this, except for like when you're getting to

the end of a season and the King should not be winning, you know, should not be six and

five over the last 11 games.

These wins are actually actively hurting them.

They're now up to 18 and 51.

They're just two games behind the jazz who are 20 and 48 who have a ton of good players

who are just like shut down or aren't playing anymore.

And so it's kind of a situation, but in post game, I asked Doug Christie about it a little

bit and then a minute or two later, we had a follow up shout out to Jeremiah who had

to follow up and ask to follow up question with Doug Christie.

And I want to play that right now because I think that there are a lot of people out there

who are super frustrated with the King's winning games at this point.

So let's listen to DC's sort of thought on tanking and all that stuff.

So this isn't about the King's tank here and like that, but the league has made it quite

clear that they think there's something that they need to do about it.

Obviously fine teams so far this year for certain games.

Do you think just as a basketball guy, it's something that is hurting the game or do you

not really have any opinions on it?

Doug, do you get fired?

No, not exactly.

No, not about you guys as a league general.

You know, everybody does something different.

I mean, we had a process.

We've had different things.

So it's not for me to judge somebody else's house.

I just know what we do here and they ain't that.

So they ain't never going to be at a loss in here.

When we go out there to play, we go out there to win.

Now they beat you, they beat you.

And I think last year was a starting example of a team that was supposed to give the

number one pick and not the team that got the number one pick.

We played them in play.

So we, you know what I'm saying?

So it's not that that's actually going to work.

So in just my personal opinion, this is not casting nothing on anybody else.

I think that it hurts, and I'm not here to hurt, I'm here to know that young man help

him to help our city do what we know we can do.

All right, there's Doug Christie explaining his thought process on tanking and, you know,

it's admirable.

I don't know that it helps long term, but I do think it is admirable.

The one thing for Doug, and I'll say this right now, versus a guy like Will Hardy.

Like Will Hardy's coming off a 17 win season last year.

And right now they're sitting at 20 and 48 and they're fully the tank is on, right?

But here's the difference.

After posting a 17 win season, and he's got a bunch of seasons that are around that.

Not good at all over the last couple of years.

He sent a massive extension with the Utah Jazz.

He's going to be the head coach of the Utah Jazz through the 2030 31 season.

And so he has, like he can go out and do this because this is what their franchise wants

him to do.

It's what Danny Ainge wants him to do.

Where Doug Christie's on a two year deal with the third year team option, and it's for pennies

on the dollar compared to most NBA coaches.

And so Doug has to go out there and do what he's doing because number one, he believes

in it.

But number two, like he's being judged on wins and losses like every other coach should

be.

And it just sets up a really, really weird precedent for again, a guy like Doug versus

a guy named Will Hardy.

And I think Will Hardy's an excellent coach, but we haven't seen that.

And I know they've been collecting talent, but now they have talent.

And they're still shutting guys down like the list of players who did not play tonight

is so long and crazy, but that's what they do in Utah.

So all right.

We're going to step aside.

When we come back, the Kings have two players that one of which that just signed a deal and

another that might want to this summer.

And we're going to dive into those two players here on Lockdown Kings.

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All right, let's dive into this, this idea of precious to Chua and Killian Hayes.

Both of these players had extremely good games tonight.

Again, precious to Chua goes for 20 and 11 and he just continues to do this.

It seems like every night, Killian Hayes, 16 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds.

He had two personal fouls, he had three turnovers, but he also had two blocks.

He goes four or six from three.

So pretty awesome to watch Killian Hayes start to develop.

We'll get into him in a sec, but I want to talk about precious to a first.

He's been on an absolute tear over his in the month of March coming into the night before

the the 20 points and 11 rebounds.

He's averaging 16.1 points, 9.6 rebounds and just absolutely giving the Kings a monster

at the power forward position.

I love his positional versatility.

He can play the four and the five.

He probably can play a little three if you go big.

He can defend probably three through five and on top of that, he's even defended all

the way up to point guards.

I can't wait to see what he might look like alongside guys like Kigamurri, guys like

D'Amonis to bonus, guys like Deandre Hunter.

We're not going to get to see that this season most likely, but I think it's really interesting

to see what precious Achoa looks like with the current roster and you're letting him build

a bunch of confidence here during post game tonight.

I was actually able to ask him about whether or not he would be interested in sticking

around Sacramento when he's contract expires.

He's on a one year deal with the Kings and I thought it was a very, very interesting

conversation.

We're going to play that clip right now.

I know this is going to season sort of losing, but at the same time you've really started

to build something.

Do you feel like this is a spot that you would mind staying in that one term?

Absolutely.

I love Sacramento.

The City of Embracement.

It's one of Embracement.

The organization from the front office sort of to my teammates and the coach and

staff are my truly, truly loved being here and I hope and I would really love to be

here.

I hope more is the option to come around and be able to really willing to have me come

back.

All right.

There we go.

That's precious Achoa talking about whether or not he would like to be a member of the

Sacramento Kings moving forward.

I think that's really a nice thing to hear if you're a Kings fan because he has been

absolutely wonderful and again, positional versatility.

He shot that three ball pretty well lately.

He's a big time dunker and he just keeps showing more and more and more.

He's not the only king that's kind of in an interesting situation and the other one

is Kylian Hayes.

Kylian Hayes also spoke to the media tonight after again, 16 points, 8 to 5 rebounds, two

blocks and again, he played 38 minutes starting at the point guard spot.

He goes four, six from three and look, I think the biggest problem for Kylian Hayes throughout

his career.

The reason why he drafted as a number nine player out of Germany, he's French, but he played

in the Bundesliga.

But one of the things about him, he's a big guard.

He's a point guard.

He's got great court vision.

He's left handed.

He can really sling the ball around the court.

He's got a great court vision, absolutely phenomenal court vision.

Him and Malik Monk have hooked up on some of the most dynamic dunks that we've seen in

a while.

And so he's showing promise, but the problem is he can't shoot and coming into tonight,

again, really struggling on the season and you're hoping that he figures it out.

Well, this morning he got a contract extension.

So he's basically working on the final day of the second 10-day contract, talked about

this before.

He can only sign two 10-day contracts.

Once that 10-day contract expires, he either becomes a free agent and can go somewhere else

and sign with whoever he wants, or he can sign with the Kings for the rest of the season.

The Kings still have their one open roster spot, which is what Killian Hayes 10-day contract

had been under.

But today he actually got the full-fledged contract.

And I think a little bit of it is about the injury.

So the Kings have had whether it's Malik Monk or Devin Carter getting injured here

down the stretch.

He kind of opened a door for a need for the Kings to go out and sign a point guard to

stick around.

The second he stepped on the court tonight, he looks so much more confident.

And so I'm starting to think that maybe some of his shooting was at least this year with

the Kings, not in previous years, but he was really good at the G-League level shooting

this year.

I think some of the issues that he had coming up and playing for the Kings was just nervous.

It's trying to make a good impression.

He's trying to go out there and do his thing.

But same time, when you're looking over your shoulder, it's tough.

And he talked about that.

And Doug Chris, you talked about it like, look, I just keep telling him, just go out there

and be you.

You're fine.

We're not going to pull you.

Just go out there and relax and try to figure out the game of basketball.

And I think Killian Hayes is doing that.

And now not only do the Kings get to look at him right now till the end of the season,

the final, whatever it is, 14 games of the season.

I think is what's left, maybe 13 games of the season, that's what's left.

But on top of that, you get him in your building all summer long.

And he might be able to play for your summer league team.

He certainly will have an invite to training camp.

These are all good things for the Kings when it comes to Killian Hayes.

And it's on a very affordable non-guaranteed contract for next season.

So the good thing is he gets to be in Sacramento.

He gets to sit here and work with Max Reno and Dylan Cardwell as a point guard and

help them develop as pick and roll players.

He gets to play with Nick Clifford, he gets to hang out and work out in the gym and

know that he's got health insurance and he's covered if anything happens.

So good for Killian Hayes, a good day for him.

And also it kind of feels like while this season has been a struggle,

the Kings are sifting through players who might actually be impactful going forward.

Again, precious to chew is a really nice find.

Killian Hayes, former lottery pick.

Former, I think number nine overall picked by the Detroit Pistons.

Only 24 years old just found his way out of the league.

Precious to chew, only 26 years old was sitting at home in November.

Just doesn't make a lot of sense.

So really good stuff as far as some positives that are happening right now with this

Sacramento Kings team.

All right, we're going to step aside.

When we come back, we're going to dive into six quick thoughts and

talk about the Sacramento Kings 116 to 111 victory over the Utah Jazz.

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All right, let's dive into six quick thoughts.

This Sacramento Kings.

This is just exactly what the jazz true up.

It is.

They made it look competitive.

They hit a couple of big shots late.

Then they pulled anyone that could actually like put them over the top.

And they they allowed the Kings to come away with a win.

116 to 111 Kings moved 18 and 51 on the season.

Again, now they're getting into danger territory.

They have two more games against the nets, which is not good.

The nets are now a game behind them in the standings,

which is actually by lottery standards a game ahead of them.

So in now we have teams of 15, 16, 17 wins and the Kings are at 18.

So if everything were to end today, they'd be the four spot going into the NBA draft lottery.

But again, they just moved within two games to the Utah Jazz.

And they have plenty of games here in the coming weeks that they might actually be able to win,

including, you know, again, this one against the Jazz, but then two against the nets.

Kind of a foregone conclusion that they were going to beat the Jazz tonight,

because that's what the Jazz are looking for.

And the Kings just aren't buying into the tank 100%.

But let's get to point number one of six quick thoughts, which is what are you doing here?

In a game filled with young players, many of which, you know, again,

there's a couple of guys that are on 10-day contracts at the end of the season

that are starting or that are playing major minutes for the Utah Jazz.

We already talked about that.

This Anderson Garcia plays 43 minutes in its third NBA game after signing a 10-day contract.

Six foot seven guards starting its center.

So what are we doing here?

DeMarna Rosen is going out there and doing his thing.

But 17-year vets, of course, 41 points on 11 of 21 shooting,

and adds 11 assists in 38 minutes.

I'm confused.

Like 38 minutes is what we're doing in, you know, this is deep into the season.

And this isn't a knock on anyone realistically.

It's just like, I'm not sure that the Kings understand what they're up against.

And I get Doug Christie wanting to win games and all that stuff.

But even still, this is a game where you need to start.

Even if it's, you know, again, DeMarna Rosen's going a bunch of points,

but he also 38 minutes.

That's where you need to start seeing some other players.

Now the problem is the Kings only had eight players.

And I don't know who should have played more.

So they come out and played 31 minutes, 29 minutes off the bench for Doug McDermott.

And 16 minutes for Dylan Cardwell on the second night of a back-to-back

after he just missed 11 straight games with an ankle injury.

The Kings really didn't have any extra bodies.

The one thing they could have done, again, pulled up Patrick Baldwin from the G-League.

But that team is also trying to win games at this point.

They're in a playoff hunt.

And they come out in this here in Sacramento and not helping his team in Stockton.

So maybe that's why.

But still, it's an interesting situation.

And we've got to keep talking about it because there's only 13 games left in the season.

And you're going for wins.

All right, let's get to, let's get to number two, which is new contract energy.

I thought, again, fresh office to his two-year deal,

which is the final games of this year.

And then a non-guaranteed contract for next year.

Killian A's just, he went to work.

His confidence was brimming.

I thought he ran the offense really well.

He had 16 points on four, six from three, eight assists, five boards, two blocks.

Turned the ball over a few times, but that's to be expected.

He's got to clean up some of those things.

He does leave the ball exposed in a weird way that I think the Kings are already trying

to key in and try to figure out.

But he's also, he's not a guy who gets into the pick and roll all that much.

And so the Kings are going to have to work with him on that as well.

Let's get to number three, another day at the office.

That's just precious attua.

He just continues to shine at each and every game.

This jazz team, if it was a standard roster, maybe precious attua would have had more time

dealing with use of Narkich or a lorry market in or Jaron Jackson Jr. or Walker Kessler.

But none of those guys played tonight.

Even Kevin Love, if Kevin Love played, maybe precious attua would have had a little bit more difficulty.

But he ends up with 20 points, 10 rebounds, just a really impressive night.

Again, for a player who's really finding his stride here and precious attua.

Let's get to number four.

And he needs more looks.

Man, when the Kings are depleted, the one thing that I've noticed is at Max Rayno,

is the first one to lose shots.

And that's because guys like Russell Westbrook and guys like Malik Monk are excellent in the pick and roll.

And they're finding him again and again and again and just making his life super simple.

It's a night, Max Rayno, he plays 29 minutes, it goes for eight points, 12 rebounds.

But he's only four of eight from the field.

The Kings need him to shoot 12, 15 times right now.

They're developing him, you know, he leads all rookies and double doubles.

He's had a really strong season.

But you can't let off the gas this late just because you don't have a pick and roll guy.

You got to figure out that situation.

So again, it's kind of interesting.

But when you see 11 assists for De Marta Rosen and you see 8 assists for Killian Hayes

and the Kings finish with 28 assists as a team, that's really good.

But if they're not getting him into these basic actions, it really does limit his effectiveness.

So that's something that I'm going to keep monitoring and watching for.

The Kings do need a natural point guard.

They also again, Killian Hayes is a left handed point guard.

So even that, he would have to adjust if he's completely ball dominant on his left.

We'll have to see how it all plays out in the end.

Let's get to number five, solid, but against his team.

Nick Clifford had 10 points.

He grabbed four rebounds.

He dished out to assist.

It's solid numbers.

It's fine.

But he also picked up five fouls early and he fouled out after 26 minutes.

He needs to be aggressive without fouling and he needs to be aggressive on both ends of

the court.

This is a moment for him to shine.

Four of nine shooting, one of five from three, but the nine is all I care about.

I need to see more than nine shots from him at this point in the season because he is

one of the few things at your few players that you're really realistically trying to develop

and see what you have.

Let's get to number six, which is getting his legs under him.

Dylan Cardwell survived his first game back on Saturday and he looked even better in this

game.

He scored a bucket.

He did his celebration.

He waved at the fans, everyone cheered.

He hit the glass for seven rebounds in 16 minutes.

He just looks still a step slow.

It's going to take him a little while to play into shape and by the time he plays all

the way into shape, this season will be over and that's just kind of the way it goes.

He had an opportunity tonight.

He had a rebound.

He started bringing the ball up the court.

No one stopped him.

He kept dribbling.

He gets all the way to the key, jumps off the wrong foot.

Looks like he doesn't have any gas left in the tank and then passes the ball to the corner

for an open look.

He's 6-11.

He should have just dunked the ball, but he didn't clearly have any push.

That's going to be what we see from him here as the season winds down.

You're hoping that over the next couple of days, maybe the next week, the next week and

a half, he starts to get his bounce back and once that happens, I'm sure he'll be just

fine.

He's probably going to play around this much, 16 to 20 minutes per game and then as he

gets in full-fledged playing shape, he'll get that number bumped up.

All right, that's going to do it for this edition of Locked On Kings.

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