Kings send out MEDICAL UPDATE on Keegan Murray, Adam Silver is balancing too many plates

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We have injury updates, a reinforcements on their way in Sacramento are the kinks just

doing an excellent job of documenting everything as tanking rules the day.

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 Ham, Kings insider for ESPN 1320, the Kings beat and of course, host of locked

on kings, we got a busy show today, we're going to talk about expansion being back on

the table, what that could mean for the Sacramento Kings and the rest of the NBA.

We're also going to dive into this 65 game rule that is become a bear for Adam Silver.

But before we get into any of that, the Sacramento Kings today gave updates on Kigamory and

Russell Westbrook medical updates are here for you.

And I'm not sure if it's good or bad, we're going to have to dive into this.

So the Kings, according to the Kings guard, Russell Westbrook recently underwent an MRI

imaging on his right foot after missing the last two games to the foot soreness MRI imaging

was consistent with irritation in the joint of the first toe on his right foot.

Russell Westbrook will be listed as out and further updates will be provided as appropriate

on top of that.

The Sacramento Kings announced that forward Kigamory who sustained a left ankle sprain on Wednesday,

February 25th versus the Houston Rockets was reevaluated today.

Murray continues to make good progress in the return to play process and has been approved

to begin contact basketball activities for their updates will be provided as appropriate.

This is really interesting.

I'm going to point this out right away.

We saw injury reports late last week that updated where Nick Clifford and Killian Hayes

were both going through injury process and trying to get back on the court.

I think Nick Clifford was out for a week and Killian Hayes was going to be day to day.

Both of those injury reports had the word MRI right in the middle of it all over it.

We go back to Drew U-Banks week before Drew U-Banks had to have thumbs surgery because an

MRI showed a UCL joint, a UCL tendon tear and his thumb.

What I, my point here is that the Kings right now are doing a very good job of saying look,

we aren't trying to lose.

We are not trying to lose intentionally.

We are not going out and playing a team like the Charlotte Hornets with only eight players

when we have like four other guys that are available and we're just not playing them.

They're not doing what the Utah Jazz did the other night when the Kings and Jazz played

at Golden One Center where Kevin Levin's fee Michaela sat on the bench as healthy scratches.

The Kings are actually documenting and showing teams around the league and the NBA itself that

they do have legitimate injuries.

Now, could Killian Murray have got back on the court earlier than this?

I don't know.

Because the last time he did, he had a grade two ankle sprain.

He came back onto the court after missing nearly two months and the first thing that happened

in like game number three was he came down really hard on the same ankle and re-entered

the ankle.

So that's where he's been this whole time.

When it comes to Russell Westbrook, again, we're talking about a 37-year-old who's played

18 years in the league and plays with as much force as any player has ever played in

the league.

The aches and pains of a 37-year-old are legitimate.

He does use one of the therapy guns on his legs in locker room before every single game.

He uses like one attachment and he literally goes up and down all the way to the end of

his toes.

It's really interesting to watch, but this is telling you that, look, there's something

there.

He's showing exactly what it is that they think that it should show if he's going to sit

out games.

Now, I don't know if either of these players are going to step foot on the court again

this year.

I can say the same thing about Nick Clifford.

I do think they will try to get Nick Clifford back on the court if they can.

I say the same exact thing, Killian Hayes.

It came to love to get Killian Hayes back on the court just to give that last nine games

to sort of see what you have and continue his development.

But when it comes to Russell Westbrook, look, I don't know what the reason is to get

him back on the court at this point in the season.

The Kings are 19 and 53 and 1954.

I think after last night's loss, they're not in any chase for a playing spot or a playoff

spot.

They're clearly looking not to just flat out lose every single game, but they certainly

aren't trying to put their aid team on the floor every single game.

But even if they were Devonus Abonus is out for the season after I'm going surgery on

his knee for a torn meniscus, Deandre Hunter is not going to play.

He had to have eye surgery after getting poked in the eye in his second game with the Kings.

As Aclavine had surgery on his pinky, he's not coming back.

We can keep going down the list because there are so many players who have been ruled out

with legitimate injuries that are season ending and that's just the way it goes sometimes.

But these two specifically, again, I'm not sure the Russ Westbrook makes sense to put

back on the court here in the final nine games of the season.

Maybe there's a couple of games where you're like, okay, there's a good chance the Kings

are going to lose this game either way.

Go ahead and go out there Russ and play your game.

That's fine.

But King Emery is a totally different thing.

King Emery is about to start a new five year 140 million dollar contract next year.

You need him to be healthy.

You need him to be a healthy 100%.

He was super honest when he came back from injury last time and said, look, I'm not going

to be 100% until the summer.

I just, my body needs rest and needs recovery.

And I'm getting back on the court right now, but I'm going to have lingering issues with

this for a while.

And I need to make sure that this thing is 100% healthy.

When we start seeing things like, you know, he's been approved to begin contact basketball

activities.

That means he's going to start out one on one.

He'll go to two on two.

He'll go to three on three.

Eventually, he'll work his way to five on five.

And that's if the Kings have enough practice, I hate to tell you this though, the Kings

don't have enough players to go five on five.

They're playing eight players.

So even if you get King Emery back, now you're going to throw, I guess, one of the training

stuff in there, one of the basketball guys that, you know, we're sitting here working

with the players, the development staff to say, hey, we need to try to get five on five.

Again, you're not going to do that.

And the reason why you're not going to do that is because if you're going to play the

only eight guys you have, and then King Emery, so now you have nine, and you're going to

play them full on five on five out of practice, what happens if someone gets hurt there?

You have to have eight players to play an actual game.

And so I don't know if that there's a way that they're going to be able to get King

in all the way back and back on the court.

It's possible.

I don't know the advantages to doing that though.

Like, look, I think we all know that King Emery, if he had the final 26 games of the season

after the All-Star Break, just sort of build that he might have been able to gain some

momentum for next year.

But at this point, we're literally talking about, you know, seven games, six games.

Can he get back for game five or five games remaining?

And I don't know that there's value in that.

Now, again, if the Kings believe there is, and he's on the court, it is what it is.

But as far as like concerns and development and going into the summer healthy and trying

to get him back to 100% as quickly as possible so he can have a full season, you know, a

full off season, that's, it's actually really important that that happens.

You do not want him to have prolonged ankle injuries and this to linger into next season

or, or beyond.

So, all right, we're going to step aside when we come back.

And Adam Silvers got so much on his plate.

I don't know what he's doing, but he's, he's adding more.

He's adding more to his plate.

We got to talk about the 65 game rule and why it's under attack and why now we'll be right back.

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All right, let's jump into this situation that's brewing with the MBA.

And I said it, coming into this, Adam Silver has so much going on right now.

The MBA, which we're going to discuss in the next block, they're talking about expansion.

And that is like a tremendous process because it's not just finding the right cities,

which I think they already have, but it's also getting 30 other owners to sign off and say,

yes, it's managing where those teams will play in what conference and what teams will have to move

to the Eastern Conference if you're adding to Western Conference teams.

Like this is a town of stuff, but there's also this other situation that's brewing.

And that is a couple of years ago, the MBA decided to institute this 65 game role.

The 65 game role basically in a nutshell is that if you want to be eligible for postseason awards,

you have to play 65 games.

You also have to play a specific amount of injuries in each of those 65 games or they don't count.

So you have to place a full, you have to play 20 minutes in each of those games.

And if you don't, the game doesn't count.

And so now what we're getting to is players are sitting here on the verge of being all MBA

selections or MVP candidates, and they don't have the prerequisite amount of games or

enough games with minutes played. The minutes played thing is weird and it really came into play

a couple of years ago. Yeah, a couple of years ago with Dante, David Chinzo.

David Chinzo was just absolutely incredible for the New York Knicks.

And he'd actually played in plenty of way more than 65 games or at least a few more than 65 games.

But at the end of the day, he only had a bunch of games early in the season where he hadn't

played 20 minutes. He played 18 or 16 minutes. And so he was in eligible for postseason awards,

which would have meant potentially like a six man of the year, most improved or come back

player of the year, that type of stuff. Now we have this situation with Cade Cunningham.

And look, I get it. There are a ton of people out there who are pulling for the Detroit

Pistons because they are now the number one seed in the Eastern Conference. But Cade Cunningham

is stuck at 61 games and he might not get back on the court and be able to play the four games

to make him eligible for postseason awards. And this is a big deal. So the MBA

players association put out a statement. And here's what that statement said. Cade Cunningham's

potential in eligibility for postseason awards after a career defining season is a clear

indictment on the 65 game rule. And yet another example of why it must be abolished or reform to

create to create an exception for significant injuries since its implementation far too many

deserving players have been unfairly disqualified from end of season honors by this arbitrary

and overly rigid quota. Adam Silver responded. I'm not ready to say it's not working.

It is working. It is working. I'm not ready to say because there is a sense of unfairness for

one player that the rule doesn't work. Now look, I feel for Cade Cunningham. I do. He's got a great

season. I also have been at an NBA arena for a ton of games this season. I haven't missed

a single Sacramento Kings game. What we're watching on the court is not good basketball.

And it's not just that the Kings aren't good this season. But we're watching so many teams come

through that are legitimately tanking. And I think this rule is put in place and it has nothing

to do with tanking. The rule is put in place very specifically because star level players weren't

going out on the road and playing in games. And so fans are putting good money out to go watch

the LeBron James play or a Steph Curry play. And the next thing they spent maybe a thousand bucks

on tickets for them and their family to sit up close and watch these players play. And they're

disappointed to find out on game day that LeBron isn't playing or Lucas is not playing or Steph's

not playing. And this became like a very big issue for the league. We go back a couple of years

ago. The Kings had this really crazy season where they had none of their top eight players played

less than I think 73 games. They were all playing all the time. But that's it's become a rarity.

And so the league is trying to sort of stop this idea of star level players sitting out games

because like if there's no way you can give fans their money back, there's not. So

you're degrading your product on the court. And I think that that's it's a big deal. And I do

think that having a certain amount of games and players have to play is actually like a good thing.

I do. I've seen way too many times where a Kawaii Leonard decides he's not going to play for 45

games in the season. And I guess as fans, like there are fans out there that you go to a game and

you know the Kawaii Leonard might not play. But it's the other times, you know, I think the

league needs to do a better job of making sure that when teams are on the road that that a lot

of their star level players are playing because that might be the only time that season that

that those fans get to see that player. Where at home, you know, if a guy misses a game, sure,

they're going to be fans. It only gets to go to one game a year. But also there are a lot of fans

that are there all the time and get to see Shay Gilges Alexander play all the time. So I don't

know what the solution is. And I do think that the league has a ton of problems here.

But I also think, you know, they they haven't helped themselves. Like the end season tournament

totally compacts the season early on. And it's led in my opinion to more injuries early in the

season. I also think the 65 game rule, it's force players to go out there and play that maybe

shouldn't. Maybe maybe there are warning signs for players that say, hey, you probably should pull

back a little bit, right? And I've said this a bunch of times, but you know, the King's test

players every single time they come off the game and pregame when they come off the court and pregame.

They want to see if they can start to, you know, they have them jump on these metal plates that

see acceleration, deceleration, vertical leap, how high you're getting off the ground,

what force you're pushing off at. And they're trying to build a database to see what exactly this

means over a long period of time. Can you start to predict injuries? And the answer is,

you can't you can't predict injuries. And I'll just point to this right now. Last season,

could you have predicted that the Damien Lillard would pop as Achilles at age 34 or 35? Maybe.

Okay. Could you have predicted that that Tyrese Halliburne in the finals who went into a game with

a calf strain and survived and then played another game with that same calf strain and didn't

survive, unfortunately popped as Achilles. No, there was no way there was definitely a way to

predict that that would happen. Like anyone who decided to put him on the court, you know, and I know

Halliburne was part of the process, but that still was a huge risk, but bring up the other player.

Like Jason Tatum, it just happened out of nowhere. Like so younger player, you know, 27, 28 years old,

like there's no reason Jason Tatum should have popped as Achilles last year. Could it be because he played

in a ton of games? Maybe. But also, you know, like for years, I know this isn't a good name to mention

all the time, but Carl Malone played in every single game forever, you know, until he popped as Achilles

when he was with the Lakers, really late in his career. Before that, I believe he'd missed more

games in his career due to suspension than he had due to injury. So there are players that have

played forever and, you know, I don't know if it's AAU, I don't know if it's the training process,

I don't know what it is it's forcing players to get hurt more often. But I, the 65 game rule,

I believe in functionality is actually a good thing. I just don't know that being so rigid and

implementing it every single time is the way to go. I think that there we could figure out a way

to do like an injury extension where you might get like an extra five games if you can show that

you had a real injury and that you didn't miss three games early in the season just to rest. And

then all of a sudden you run out of games because you got a legitimate injury. I also think there's

a way that the league could look at the age of players and say, Hey, look, if you have this many years

in the league, maybe that number is lower. If you have this many games played in the league,

maybe it's as if you're a certain age, maybe the number is a little lower. But still, I don't know

that there's a predictability thing that we can start pointing to and saying the 65 game rule is

the problem or, you know, or anything else. Like I think we're going to have to figure this one out

and that's what I mean by Adam Silver has so much on his plate. All right, we're going to step

aside. When we get back, we're going to dive into the other gigantic thing that's happening

and that is the possibility of expansion. And it's something near and dear to my heart as somebody who

covered relocation attempt after attempt after attempt. And so we're going to dive into that next.

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All right, Adam Silver just keeps fighting more of the apple off than he can chew. Expansion is

moving forward. And like again, this is something that is near and dear to my heart when the Sacramento

Kings were owned by the Maloof brothers and they tried to relocate the team to Anaheim after

the first season I covered the team in 2010, 11 season. That was brutal. It was brutal to watch.

It was brutal to be part of. It was brutal to watch the final moments of what people thought could

be the last game ever in Sacramento at the Los Angeles Lakers behind Kobe Bryant came back and

the Kings battled and forced over time and then lost and over time and you have five minutes of

free basketball. But then this ensuing doom that maybe basketball in Sacramento was over,

you know, people crying in the stands. This sign off by Grand Jerry, one just iconic, iconic.

I covered all of this in small market big heart, which is a film I produced years ago.

Relocation is something that I think should happen. It is something like the good people of Seattle,

it was a battle to go back and forth, Kings fans, Sonics fans going at each other. There was a guy

who actually made death threats towards Mayor Kevin Johnson in Sacramento at the time. It got out

of hand and I know that there is a lot of bad blood. I also know that Sonics gave while a brilliant

you know documentary on what happened up there. It also didn't do Seattle a whole lot of favors,

especially with David Stern, former commissioner that's now passed away. But when you really get

down to it, like the league has the capability to expand. Expansion drafts are crazy, they're wild

and all that stuff. We're years away from worrying about that. But I do want to read this what

happened today, which is that the vote has moved forward. So this is Adam Silver talking. Today's

vote reflects our board's interest in exploring potential expansion to Las Vegas and Seattle. Two

markets with a long history of support for NBA basketball. We look forward to taking this next step

and engaging with interested parties. The initial conversations are centered around an expansion team

between $7 and $10 billion. That's wild. Part of that will go to the league, but over arching

amount of it will go to the teams. Owners on top of a $7 to $10 billion expansion fee,

they'll also have to have a new building. And so there's another billion, maybe two, depending

on who the owner is and what kind of building they want. You know, again, Steve Balmer spent a

couple of billion and I think mostly on toilets to build the Clippers, New Arena. But then I also

we had this question about interested parties. Now, I do think that these are the right two markets. I do.

Las Vegas, I know this is slightly contradictory. If you ever hear me talk about baseball,

I don't think baseball is a good fit for Las Vegas, even though they have support of the Las Vegas

stars over the course of the last, you know, 30 years, whatever. But I just don't think the demographic

there, the television market, all that stuff is great for baseball. It's such a city that you

fly into. You do a bunch of fun things and you leave, right? It's a, it's not even a computer city.

It's a destination location. People aren't going to show up and watch an entire series of baseball,

three nights, four nights of a series, especially when you got Blooming Group or you've got some

sort of, you know, Cirque du Soleil or you've got the sphere or you've got a bajillion other things

to do in Las Vegas. Now, I do think the MBA has been sort of cultivating this market for years and

shout out to Warren Ligeri, one of the great agents, but also someone who is helped to build summer

league up to what it is in Las Vegas. It's a thriving basketball community because they have been

not only do you have the running rebels there, the UNLV squad, college basketball team, but on top

of that, you always have basketball every summer in Las Vegas. So between a market that you left

in Seattle and a market that you've been cultivating in Las Vegas, I do think that there's plenty here.

I wonder about who will buy a team and I think Las Vegas is probably a little bit easier to find a

buyer, but you know, Steve Balmer was part of what was supposed to be Seattle's bid when they're

trying to steal the Kings in the 93, the 2013 season. So I don't know if that they have like a

person ready, but I also know like look, that is one of the most rabid fan bases ever, not just for

basketball, but you see it with football, you see it with the storm, you see it, they got hockey there,

they are an incredible famous MLS has been so successful there. It's a sport city and I get it

and I don't think the league should have ever left there. I get all the dynamics of it. I understand

all the dynamics of it, but at the same time, this would be huge. It'd be huge for the league. The

owners need to decide if they want to split up the pie that is the national television deal and if

they want to add those two teams, but that's where that 14 to 20 billion dollars will come into sort

of buffer some of that expense. I think it's really cool as somebody who again went through real

location. I would love to see basketball back in Seattle. I think it's an absolutely spectacular

city. I would love to see it in Las Vegas. I think it's a great city for basketball and we're

just going to have to see how the league handles this. I also think if you bring those two in,

they're both going to be West Coast teams. It will actually help with those late night games on

Tuesday nights because right now there's just not enough West Coast or Pacific time zone teams,

so it'd be nice to see at least one or two more, but also it could mean that a team like Memphis

moves to these during conference, which might be a good thing for them as well. We're in the

cursory just learning phase of expansion, but it's going to be a topic of discussion. I'm sure this

summer something that we might dive into once or twice just because of the knowledge that I have of

all this stuff from years of covering potential relocations. All right, thanks for tuning in. If you

don't mind, give us a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, a rating and review wherever you get

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link in the description below. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you tomorrow. Kings have another game.

They'll be in Orlando to face the magic.

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