Kings FORMALIZE COACHING STAFF, plus Jalen Duren situation won't go away

0:00This is the Lockdown Podcast Network celebrating 10 years of your team every day. This is Jake from Lockdown. When the game's on the line, the best no end to pass. Because the right assist can change everything. And off the court, it's no different. That's where your State Farm agent comes in. Whether it's protecting your car, your home, or helping you prep for the unexpected, they'll help set you up with a game plan that works for you. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Like cover options are selected by the customer, availability and eligibility, vary by state. Running a business shouldn't feel like surviving a software group project. One app for accounting, another for inventory, another for sales, and somehow none of them talk to each other. That's where ODo comes in. And all in one business management software that brings every part of your business together from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing, all in one powerful platform. No messy integrations, no bouncing between tabs and best of all, no spreadsheets. Not managing software and start managing your business with one unified system.

1:02Try for free today at oju.com slash locked on. That's odo.com slash locked on. We have changes. The Sacramento Kings coaching staff has undergone another transformation plus more on Jalen Durin and Kauai Leonard finally got traded. Thank goodness. You are locked on Kings, your daily Sacramento Kings podcast, part of the locked on podcast network, your team every day. Welcome in. I am James Henry Kings insider for ESPN 13 20 to Kings beat and host of locked on Kings list. I've been to today's three keys. And as we do hit the thumbs up button to help with the algorithm of life. I first block we're going to talk about the Kings announcing changes to their coaching staff. Some modern changes, but we'll go through all of that.

2:03Number two, Mark Spears from ESPN decided to jump in on the Jalen Durin conversation and has a very interesting video clip on that. Lastly, Kauai Leonard is now a Toronto Raptor. It finally happened. All right. Today shows a little different. We have a couple of completely different topics to discuss, which should be interesting. The first thing we're going to discuss is again, the changes to the coaching staff that were made official today. It's been a long summer, but for a refresher course, Depeche mystery, dip and Jimmy Alepheg, of course, the legend from the Philippines, legendary Filipino basketball player. We're like go at the end of the season. And then sometime this summer, former six band of the year, slash long time assistant Bobby Jackson departed as well. I don't really know when exactly that happened or if it's still kind of hanging out there,

3:03but Bobby Jackson will not be back as part of the coaching staff this year. We know that Mike Woodson, who was the associate head coach last season, will step in and take over Jackson's duties on the defensive coordinator side of the ball. In addition to his other roles, Mike Miller will also be back. As a team's offensive coordinator. So there is some continuity, especially with the top end of the coaching staff, the front of the bench guys who are the offensive and defensive coordinators. In addition to that, Landor Barbosa and Cristar Nell, Cristar Nell, of course, who coach the summer league team are back in Sacramento for another tour of duty. I did get that confirmed, even though that wasn't part of the press release today. The Kings announced that longtime MBA and college level coach Brendan Sirve, who has over four decades of coaching experience, including stops in Denver, Atlanta, New Jersey, when they were the nets, Toronto Raptors, Orlando Magic and New York Knicks is joining

4:05the group as an assistant. Sirve, who is 75 years old, was part of the Bad Boys Pistons Championship runs in 1989 and 1990, not the second run when the Pistons won again. He was also part of the original dream team staff back in 1992. So in addition to Sirve, DJ Ham, who has worked all summer with Derrius A. Cuff, Jr. as his personal coach, he was elevated to an assistant spot, which is awesome for DJ. Good young coach, promising young coach. Of course, clearly no relation to me. He is the son of longtime assistant and former Lakers head coach, Darvin Ham. And he spent last season as a development coach in Sacramento before getting the upgrade this year to an assistant spot. So good for DJ. He's taking on again, one of the spots left behind by Depeche Mystery or Jimmy Aleveck.

5:12So that's the main assistant coaches for this year's team. In addition to that, we also, the Kings have elevated Jason MacSeele from the Stockton Kings to a player development coach with the main roster, the former Detroit Pistons, Orlando Magic, Charlotte Hornets Big. Here in high praise for his work with Dylan Cardwell last year. A lot, a lot of talk about his individual one on one work with Cardwell leading all the way through the summer and into training camp. And again, it was projected that Dylan Cardwell was probably going to play most of last season with the Stockton Kings, but due to injury, due to, I don't know, Drew, you banks not really fitting into what the Kings were doing. And then his own injury, but the initial injury to Simone's. Dylan Cardwell played a ton and the rebounding that we saw from him. A lot of that was some adjustments that Jason MacSeele helped do, you know, sort of convert into his game.

6:20And then on top of that, you know, the way that he, the vertical defensive plays and stuff like that, Jason MacSeele just worked with him a ton and he's worked with him a ton this season as well, this off season. And so hopefully that's something that will help Dylan Cardwell grow, but also give Dylan Cardwell an ally on the bench, which is always always a good thing. Sacramento also brought in Joe, a GK, GK, there we go. As the as the head of player development, he spent last season in the same role with a Rio Grande Valley Vibers, G League affiliate for the Houston Rockets. That's usually a very, very good program and a pipeline to the main roster. The Rockets have long used their G League, I think some of the best in best ways in the league or at least they did for a long time. So that's going to be a new upgrade.

7:22So again, Joe, a GK, that's one of the latest hires. And lastly, the Kings brought in Wyatt Low House and Drake Lamont as assistant video coordinators. So what does all of this mean? First and foremost, the coaching staff looks at with lots of ties to Scott Perry over his time in the league. And that's something that I keep coming back to because realistically, most NBA coaching staffs. There might be some holdovers from guys like Doug Christie or Bobby Jackson that were part of the organization. But coaches usually get to hire their own coaching staff. And this one just feels a little bit more heavy weighted towards Scott Perry, the general manager as opposed to Doug Christie. Again, whether that's here or not there, it might not matter at all at the end. But certainly, you know, Scott Perry has long ties to Mike Woodson and long ties to Mike Miller.

8:26And now again, we're seeing Brendan Sir join the team as well. And I'm going to assume that his ties with Detroit and everything else is how we got to this point with him. Anyway, some of the good things about this, Mike Woodson is known as a defensive coach throughout his career. Both at the college level and at the pro level. So hopefully he can improve on the team's defensive rank, which was 28th and defensive rating last season. That would help. Maybe he can. Maybe he can't. A lot of times for me, defenses at the NBA level is not a ton about scheme as much as it is about, you know, having defensive players, number one. And then having a mindset to play defense, you know, having a team that's willing to be forceful to be the team that punches first and all that stuff. So hopefully Mike Woodson can help with that aspect of the season. And again, he's a long term NBA coach and college coach that knows the game extremely well, right?

9:33Mike Miller again is back and he has a lot of work to do because last season, the Kings, according to basketball reference, ranked 26th in offensive rating. And that is a far cry from what we saw a couple of years ago under J. Treano as the offensive coordinator where the Kings were rated number one in the NBA in offensive rating. The next year, they were also high and offensive rating. So to watch this steadily decline has been a huge disappointment to watch the offense kind of go away. And then last season, I'm not sure what I was watching half the time. I think a lot of it was due to injuries to key players like Demonis Abonis and Keegan Murray eventually again, you can point to the Zach Levine injury later in the season. The fact that, you know, they're starting five never once played together. The fact that Demonis Abonis and Keegan Murray never once played together. But even if that's all true, there was just zero offensive continuity on that team last season.

10:38That offense leaves to leads to even worse defense because if you can't force the other team to take the ball out of the basket and go inbounds it, then you don't get any time to set up your defense and it just continues to sort of become a cyclical thing that's just happening again and again and again throughout a game. So all right, we're going to take a quick break when we come back. Mark Spears went on ESPN and talked about the Jalen Dern situation and from Mark Spears, it sounds like Jalen Dern really, really, really likes Scab Harry and maybe even Sacramento and the opportunity here. So we're going to listen to that in just a minute. Be right back. Support for today's episode comes from indeed sponsor jobs when work place chaos hits and you need the right hire indeed sponsor jobs helps connect employers with candidates who match specific needs like skills, certificates and locations.

11:43So less time gets spent searching and more time gets spent finding the right fit people are finding quality hires on indeed right now in the minute I've been talking to you companies like yours have made 27 hires on indeed according to indeed data worldwide. Whether it's deadlines piling up too much on one person's plate or trying to scale something quickly the right person can completely change how a team operates and that's why getting in front of qualified candidates matter while we're discussing the coaching staff, which you're looking for in a qualified coaching staff. You never know sometimes is just that they all were together saw that with Dave Jager and his staff, which was mostly guys that he had coached in the minor leagues with. Again, we look at Mike Brown staff and that staff was very, very close they had all worked with Mike Brown in the past or had connections to each other, so you're hoping that this staff that Doug Christie is putting together is not only qualified, but they fit together in the right way.

12:47Again, this is a lot of how the team can actually find success without having you know a huge free agent signing so spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes less stress less time more results when you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for indeed sponsor jobs and listeners to this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves. At indeed dot com slash podcasts just go to indeed dot com slash podcasts right now and support our show by saying you heard about indeed on this podcast indeed dot com slash podcasts terms and conditions apply need to hire this is a job for indeed sponsored jobs. For the first time ever in the US, the best you 23 wrestlers in the world descend on Las Vegas for the 2026 galaxy you 23 world wrestling championships at the UNLV Thomas and Mac center from October 12 to the 18th.

13:49Don't miss your opportunity to see team USA's wrestlers battle for gold on the world stage right here in the United States tickets are on sale at UNLV tickets dot com get 20% off by using code team USA. Lockdown Kings is part of the locked on podcast network now the number one sports podcast network thinks for making us your first listen in the day. All right, it's been a little while since I've done this. Let's see if I can figure out how to put this video up quickly from Mark Spiris. Perry ain't playing around neither is BJ Armstrong Scott Perry has a relationship with Jalen during dating to when he was trying to get the next to draft them what they did, but they traded them to the pistons. The pistons Scott Perry also NFL ties from his father during agent is an NFL agent. So he has connection with him and during likes Scott Perry a lot. He likes Sacramento a lot, but the pistons. They're focused on bringing them back. They have some optimism, but it's complicated. I just hear that Jalen. It's not about money right now. He feels disrespected and.

14:58The can't but the pistons they need them back as soon as possible to try to heal this. There's a black cloud going into camp, you know, Tobias is gone. Durance not there like that they're not moving forward with the momentum. They got to try to fix it. And I don't know if they can in time. Alright, that's a pretty crazy clip by Mark Spiris. There's a lot to impact there. So first up, let's, let's clear up a couple of things. Number one, Jalen Durn is a restricted free agent. That means that if another team gave him an offer sheet, the pistons would have the right of first refusal refusal for the 22 year old all star slash all NBA player, right. So here's the thing though, like we all understand that restricted for the agency can be really bad for a team. It can be really bad for a player. It's usually bad for the player, right, because you're stuck in a situation like or seeing from Durn right now where he would like to go out and shop himself and there just isn't any money in the league right now for Durn to go out and sign a qualifying offer or an offer sheet. Sorry.

16:09So that's why we keep hearing all this stuff. But I also want to make sure that people understand that as a restricted free agent, he also has the ability to talk to any team on the market. And Scott Perry was quick to fly out to Miami and get in a visit early in free agency. He's shown Jalen Durn that this is a player that they really want the Kings really want. Why we're starting to see things like will Jalen Durn play for the qualifying offer, which is only $9.6 million, which I don't think he will because even that's super complicated. If he plays for the qualifying offer, the pistons really can't even trade him during the season. They can bring a trade to him and ask him for his permission to trade him. But because of the fact that if he does get traded, it ends his Larry bird rights. Jalen Durn has the right to refuse a trade to anywhere. And so that's something that that you should consider as part of this, right.

17:14Here's how I look at this. Perry is being opportunistic and this is one of his basic principles and team billing. It's also completely allowed by the league to go and meet with players like this and see if you can figure something out. We still don't know if this will work or not, but hearing that Durn is no longer so concerned with the final dollar amount is something. I have been pretty pessimistic about the possibility of Durn leaving tens of millions of dollars on the table, but sometimes that's the way it works out. It's just not very often. So again, I want to make sure we're on the same page here. The latest rumor from our friend Sam A make over the last couple of days. And of course, it was co-written with Hunter Patterson, who was in Sacramento for a couple of years as a backup writer for the athletic. So hundreds of great kid. The latest rumor from those guys is that the pistons have gone to a five year 190 million dollar contract.

18:15And a lot of people in the outsider like, man, why are you fighting over this? Because, you know, the rumors are that he wants a five 200 million dollar contract. So only 10 million dollars more. But it is a lot more complicated than just that. So we're again all on the same page. If you sign with your own with the franchise that you're a restrictive free agent on, you can sign up to a five year deal. If he was to get signed and traded, the most he can do is a four year deal to go to Sacramento. There's also all this craziness about base here, compensation, all that, right. But also there's this if you sign if he waits until next summer and he signs with the team that's not the pistons, he can only get five percent raises each year. And if he signs with the pistons, he can get an eight percent raise. So they build these things in so teams can retain their own young free agents. And I've always thought it's a very good thing. They're restrictive free agency thing every once in a while. It becomes a major hang up in a transaction. And we might be in that situation right now.

19:21But again, the Kings don't have a way to sign him just outright the only way to get him into Sacramento is through a sign and trade. So let's just back up here. It's a five year one 90. That's an average salary of $38 million. But here's the thing. If again, the pistons are playing hardball with him. Maybe they're saying, hey, we'll give you a five year one 90. But the final year is going to be a team option. So that team option is when the big money happens. That's that's at the end of the deal where you've gotten these eight percent raises every year. So that final year is looking more like, I don't know, $44 million not $38. And if you pull that out of the deal and he's only really getting a four year contract, it would be a lot less than what people think it would be a four year like $145 million deal, which would be an average salary of 36.4 million.

20:21And not the 38 or the 40 or even the higher number of that he could possibly get. That team option, it could change things. And again, we don't know one way or another at this point. It's just something that amic and Patterson brought up in their their piece at the athletic. And I want to make sure that people understand that the other thing is the Kings as a team, you know, again, if they were somehow to work out a sign and trade here with the pistons, they could offer up to four years. And 177 million in as part of a sign and trade, that's an average salary of 44.3 million per season. So I'm not sure if the Kings are going that high. I'm not sure if that's where they're at or if they were closer to, you know, I don't know, 40 million a year. So a four year 160. But again, we'll have to wait and see if we ever get to that point because I'm not sure that we will. So there's also a couple of other things here.

21:22This is a sign and trade. If you're going to make a move for him, it would have to be a sign and trade with the Kings have offered in the past was Domonas, some bonus and some sort of draft capital and exchange for Jalen Dern. But because Jalen Dern would be a base here compensation player, it adds another wrinkle and another bit of confusion to this entire puzzle because he only counts as something like 20 million coming in and you know, a different amount going out. So you have to actually make a lot of cited trade in order to get him in order to match salaries. The pistons would have to do something like throw Duncan Robinson $16 million contract in on the deal in order to them to make the money work. And Duncan Robinson has the strangest contract I've seen in the league. The only one that I ever remember being this odd was maybe Jonathan Isaacs, which a lot of his contract just wasn't guaranteed.

22:25So Duncan Robinson has a $16 million contract this season. And then he has another year, I think it's 17, but only two million of his contract is guaranteed this season. So if the Kings and pistons were to come up with a trade that sent Dern to Sacramento, it would likely include someone like again, Duncan Robinson and then the Kings would buy out Duncan Robinson at $2 million and send him on his way, not the Duncan Robinson's a bad player that he wouldn't fit because I think both I think he is a good player and I do think he would fit in Sacramento. Just another shooter that could give you another more optionality. The problem is that the Kings would be well above the luxury tax because then once you get those guys on your books, Dern's contract and Duncan Robinson's contract would both count. And so now all said, it would push the Kings way into the luxury tax and that's just not where they're going to go. So anyway, that's just something to kind of detour us and show us like I want to make sure you understand all the dynamics of this trade.

23:29If it were to ever happen, I'm still not convinced that Dern will play for the qualifying offer, which is only 9.6 million this year. I'm also not convinced that the pistons will trade him for subonus because that is not something that they have been up for doing at all. But here we are in mid September and Dern and the pistons are in some epic like standoff and it seems like it's getting personal and I'm not going to say that there's a chance, but like this is when weird things happen. We're getting very close to a drop dead deadline of October 1st. Pistons have an option to push that deadline out all the way up until like a March 1st and as long as Dern were to sign the qualifying offer at any moment, he could step on the court and would get his years of service and would still be an unrestrictive free agent next summer. So all of that is pretty crazy, but we're going to have to wait and see how it all plays out.

24:30This is, it's not a good situation, but it's also one that seems to have a lot of like hang ups in it from the other side. So we'll have to wait and see if Jalen Dern somehow eeks his way out of Detroit and somehow eeks his way into Sacramento where apparently he loves Scott Perry and he loves the opportunity in Sacramento and would welcome something like that according to reports from people like Mark Spiers. All right, let's take one more break when we return. Kauai Leonard is out of the Pacific division. What does it all mean for the Sacramento Kings? We'll be right back. Welcome to your most rewarding NFL season ever. Only on Fandall. How rewarding are we talking? We're talking more rewarding than a touchdown with time expiring or it's more rewarding than an 18 point come back. It's more rewarding than an offensive lineman catching a touchdown. This season, Fandall is making the excitement go beyond what happens on the field with the all new Fandall rewards club featuring exclusive offers, surprises and more every week.

25:43Check the Fandall app to see what's waiting for you. Touch down with time expiring to beat to beat the clock. Amazing. 18 point come back even better. And again, if you get one of those offensive lineman or defensive lineman, even catching ball, we saw it from, I don't know, I think it was the 49ers this weekend. We're an offensive lineman also and had the ball and was running and trying to get back to the line of scrimmage. Absolutely crazy. So for me, what I love about watching the NFL football every single weekend is like these moments where Ash and Gentie goes crazy. And then all of a sudden we get to Monday night. I'm in this massive me and my son were in the massive competition against my brother and it's bonics for my brother and Patrick Mahomes for us. Patrick Mahomes comes out on top. We win our first first game of the season, which is absolutely tremendous. That's what all this is about.

26:43So make this your most rewarding season ever with Fandall visit Fandall.com to get started today. For the first time ever in the US, the best U23 wrestlers in the world descend on Las Vegas for the 2026 galaxy, U23 world wrestling championships at the UNLV Thomas and Max Center from October 12 to the 18th. Don't miss your opportunity to see team USA's wrestlers battle for gold on the world stage right here in the United States. Tickets are on sale at UNLV tickets.com get 20% off by using code team USA. It was only a matter of time, but the Clippers and Raptors finally consummated the Kui Leonard for brandening Grim Grady day to unprotected first and some other stuff trade. Right to make the trade work or maybe to make themselves feel better. The Clippers got littered to wave his 15% trade kicker that would have yielded the wing another 7.45 million that would have been on the Clippers books good on the Clippers for holding him hostage for like a week here after you know all of the crazy stuff with public.

27:57The Clippers are now only out 22.55 million in fine money because they just got a nice coupon from Kui Leonard right in addition the Clippers and owners Steve Palmer announced at the franchise will accept the league's ruling and stop any attempts to litigate the situation which was beyond a long shot. So what does this all mean for the Clippers and more importantly what does this mean for the Sacramento Kings who also play in the Pacific division with the two L.A. teams. First and foremost the Clippers just got brand an Ingram who played extremely well last year in Toronto, the average 25 at 21.5 points 5.6 rebounds 3.7 assists and he played in 77 games. And Dick who is kind of a throw in for salary matching purposes. He also played in 76 games last year for the Raptors averaging just 6 points per game.

28:59Ingram is very talented but like Leonard he's missed a ton of time during his career including playing just 18 games not last year but the year before. The difference is that he just isn't the in the same stratosphere when it comes to Leonard as a defensive player on the court. He's also he's not really the shooter that the pure score that that Kui has become either so in my book this is not a net neutral trade. The Raptors got the best player and now the Clippers without their without their GM for six months without their owner for a year they have to find a way to make all of this work on the fly so following this transaction I looked it up this evening. So the Clippers are now projected to win 30.5 games this season which is fourth worst in the fourth worst projection in the Western conference. This is according to bet GM so in the world of relegation the teams that are around you getting worse is good news for the Kings and I wouldn't be surprised to see the Kings and the Clippers kind of in the same win percentage range when it's all said in the game.

30:13When it's all said and done they do have some talent they've got you know again a derriest garland at point guard but they also have stripped out a lot of their what we knew as the Clippers you know James Harden's gone. If it casu bots has gone John Collins was there last year he's no longer there they did add Keaton Wogler in the draft but that Clippers team is not looking all that great and they also like as of right now they don't have the deep pockets or the future draft capital to go out and make major improvements. This is why I think it's a very good thing for the sacrament of Kings that the Kings can figure out this whole Durham situation or even just stay with the Montess of Onus as they're starting center. I do think that the on paper at least the Kings have pretty solid look especially compared to some of their Pacific division opponents so we're going to have to see if it really matters but again you get to play the Clippers first including you know opening night that that's going to be a great deal.

31:17That that's going to you get to play him first game of the season you get to play him four times the season and that October 21st game in LA you know maybe the key maybe the the Clippers come out with some sort of like angst because of their their crazy off season and the penalties and trying to prove everybody wrong. But also there's a good chance that this team is just a shell of itself and realistically it doesn't have a bright future in front of them either so Ingram is a younger player than quite Leonard they got about six years younger in that transaction but still 29 year old not exactly something that you're going to build around for long term especially when you have a prize to working in keeping wagglars only 19 20 years old so. All right we'll have to wait and see I do think again this is a good thing the Clippers being bad is a good thing for the Kings the Golden State Warriors not really doing a whole lot this off season it's also great for the Sacramento Kings those teams in the Pacific that you're going to play a ton you are going to you know you need to pick up wins there even I'd say the sun so just like lost Mark Williams for a huge portion of the season with the shoulder issue I believe the shoulder issue.

32:35So those are good things for if you're a Sacramento Kings fan hoping to see them avoid relegation and maybe win a couple extra games alright thanks for tuning in make sure to follow me on social media at James underscore ham NBA make sure to subscribe and follow locked on kings so you get all the latest episodes hit the notification button so you get alerted when we post jump in the comments section all that stuff we talk about every single show so thanks for making locked on Kings your first list every day for your second list and. Find the locked on NBA podcast where no there is no off season West Matt and Hayes keep you up to date on contract negotiations rumors and everything you need to be the most informed NBA fan find locked on NBA on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcast it's part of the locked on podcast network your team every day see you tomorrow. Car salesmen are annoying.

33:36Sign here please never talk to one again with Flex car the first and only month to month car. Oh no get a great car switch anytime Flex car you drive everything every game day you show up for your team now it's your time. We go. We go. Ask your prescriber about we go V some agglatide injection 2.4 milligrams a G. O. P. one call 1 8 3 3 4 we go V or visit we go V dot com to view the medication guide and to learn more about we go V. Why wait. We go. It's Halloween time at the Disneyland resort and many began to brew up delights and spine tingling fun Halloween time August 21st through October 31st visit Disneyland dot com a contact your travel advisor for important details. There is so much NFL on ESPN right now Monday night football plus pregame and postgame NFL live NFL prime time everything you

34:46need to stay on top of every game every week. Unbelievable. And now NFL network is on the ESPN app more football more coverage more ways to watch footballs on all season law on ESPN and streaming on the ESPN app. Thank you for making locked on your first listen every day for your second listen find the locked on NBA podcast where there's no off season West Matt and Hayes keep you up to date on contract negotiations rumors and everything you need to be the most informed NBA fan. Find locked on NBA on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Part of the locked on podcast network your team every day.