Doug Christie

Stein/Fischer’s Latest: Kings, White, Grimes, Mavs

March 31st, 2025 at 1:29pm CST by Luke Adams

A number of people around the NBA view Wes Wilcox‘s decision to leave his position as the assistant general manager in Sacramento for a college job with the Utah Utes as a sign that the Kings‘ front office is on shaky ground entering the 2025 offseason, according to Marc Stein and Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link).

Whether or not the Kings make major changes to their basketball operations department could depend in part on how the rest of the season plays out, Stein and Fischer note — a number of scenarios remain in play in Sacramento, ranging from the team claiming a playoff spot to missing the play-in tournament altogether.

However, there’s “considerable angst in the air” in Sacramento, given how the team’s season has played out, Stein and Fischer write. Interim head coach Doug Christie is a favorite of team owner Vivek Ranadive, but after winning 10 of his first 12 games on the job, he’s just 13-18 since then.

At the very least, Stein and Fischer say, the Kings’ front office will likely operate much differently without Wilcox in the picture, since he frequently communicated with agents, as well as with rival teams during trade talks. His personality and his experience as a front office executive were among the reasons why Sacramento initially wanted him to pair him with McNair, Stein and Fischer add.

Here’s more from The Stein Line:

Coby White generated a significant amount of trade interest prior to last month’s deadline, according to Stein and Fischer, who say that the Bulls “swatted away” that interest. That decision has paid major dividends, as White has been on a tear in recent weeks, averaging 29.1 points per game on .496/.377/.875 shooting in 14 March outings. He’ll be extension-eligible this offseason, but without cap room available, Chicago may not be in position to make him a competitive offer prior to free agency due to restrictions on veteran extensions.
Quentin Grimes didn’t explicitly request a trade out of Dallas last month, despite some rumors to the contrary, Stein and Fischer report. But the move from the Mavericks to the Sixers has certainly worked out for Grimes, who was among March’s standouts along with White, averaging 26.6 PPG on .504/.403/.738 shooting for the month. Despite the team’s high projected payroll, Philadelphia is hoping to re-sign Grimes this summer as a restricted free agent, per Stein and Fischer.
Unsurprisingly, Stein and Fischer say the Mavericks would “love” to promote two-way players Kessler Edwards and Brandon Williams to their standard roster immediately if they had the ability to do so. Both Edwards and Williams have reached their two-way limit of 50 active games and Dallas doesn’t have enough room below its hard cap to elevate either player and reactivate them at this point.

California Notes: Luka, LeBron, Goodwin, Kings, Dunn

March 26th, 2025 at 11:55pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Following the Lakers‘ seventh loss in 10 games, a 118-106 defeat to Orlando on Monday, All-Star guard Luka Doncic took some accountability for the club’s recent struggles. As Dave McMenamin of ESPN writes, Doncic believes that it falls to him and fellow All-Star LeBron James to lead the Lakers out of this stretch.

Both players missed multiple contests during this 3-7 run, which also included a rough slate of six games played in eight days. Doncic sat out two games due to an ankle ailment, while James was shelved for seven with a groin issue.

“I think me and Bron, think we should be the guys to do that,” Doncic said. “That’s on me. Obviously, I’ve got to do better, I’ve got to talk more. I talked in the first half, then just kind of [let my] voice down and I shouldn’t do that.”

Los Angeles got back in the win column on Wednesday, defeating Indiana 120-119 on the road with a buzzer-beating James tip-in off a Doncic miss. They’ll face off against Chicago on Thursday night in the second game of a back-to-back slate.

There’s more out of California:

Lakers two-way guard Jordan Goodwin reached his active game limit on Tuesday vs. Indiana, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link). Marks observes that Goodwin’s deal will need to be converted to L.A.’s standard roster if the contending club wants him to suit up in any more regular season or postseason contests. All 15 standard roster spots are occupied, meaning the Lakers would need to cut a player to promote Goodwin.
After losing four straight and eight of their last 10, the Kings are struggling to finish their 2024/25 regular season strong. Pricey new trade acquisition Zach LaVine called out the energy in the team’s locker room earlier this week, per Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. “The vibe is not good,” LaVine said following a Monday defeat to Boston. “It shouldn’t be. We’re not happy with the way we’ve been performing individually and as a group.” Interim head coach Doug Christie disagreed with LaVine’s characterization of the vibe in the locker room. “He was incorrect,” Christie said. “I think when you ask a question like that when you go through a little bit of a losing streak, it’s more about not being happy that you lost, like I’m upset that I lost.”
Clippers reserve guard Kris Dunn is bringing the same acumen he displayed as an on-ball defensive specialist with lottery-bound Chicago and Utah clubs to a fringe West contender, as he tells Grant Afseth of Sportskeeda. “I think it’s probably just being on a bigger stage,” Dunn said. “I’ve done this in Chicago, I’ve done this in Utah. I think also me being healthy plays a part in that — from my earlier years to now, I’ve been doing the same thing for sure.”

Kings Rumors: Sabonis, Fox, Ownership, Ranadives, Christie

March 7th, 2025 at 11:11pm CST by Luke Adams

After trading De’Aaron Fox to San Antonio last month, the Kings no longer have to worry about whether or not the star guard is confident in the direction of the franchise, but Fox wasn’t the only player in Sacramento with those concerns, according to Sam Amick and Anthony Slater of The Athletic.

League sources tell The Athletic that Kings center Domantas Sabonis is expected to “seek clarity” this offseason about the team’s plans going forward.

Sabonis still has three years and $140MM left on his current contract after this season and won’t become extension-eligible until the 2026 offseason, so the Kings likely won’t have to make a decision about his future this year, like they did with Fox. However, like Fox, Sabonis and other members of the team’s core have questions about whose voices are loudest when it comes to key personnel decisions and whose counsel matters most to team owner Vivek Ranadive.

As Amick and Slater explain, Ranadive has frequently leaned on advisors outside of the standard front office hierarchy for advice on major team decisions. Former head coach Alvin Gentry is one such advisor, while John Calipari has also served as a sounding board. Veteran executives like chief operating officer Matina Kolokotronis and president of business operations John Rhinehart have had significant influence as well.

“What is the vision here?” a league source close to one core Kings player said. “It feels like it could be headed toward chaos.”

Here’s more on the Kings from Amick and Slater:

While Ranadive’s son Aneel Ranadive was heavily involved earlier in the earlier days of Vivek’s ownership, his daughter Anjali Ranadive is believed to have had more say in recent years, leading to speculation about whether she may be the “heir apparent” as the team’s governor. Anjali’s input was one reason why the Kings hesitated to sign head coach Mike Brown to a contract extension last offseason, team and league sources tell The Athletic.
Anjali Ranadive no longer has a formal basketball operations role in the organization after stepping down as the Stockton Kings’ general manager in January 2024, but she’s still believed to have influence throughout the organization, per Amick and Slater. She and former NBA player Jeremy Lamb “became a more visible part of the Kings’ decision-making tree early this season” after their relationship went public, though Lamb no longer seems as involved in organizational decisions as he was a few months ago, according to The Athletic’s duo.
It’s not yet clear whether Doug Christie, who was 19-11 in his first 30 games as Sacramento’s coach entering Friday, will have his interim tag removed and become the club’s permanent head coach. Team sources tell The Athletic that if the Kings continue to win at this rate, Christie would have a strong chance to land the permanent job. If the Kings go in a different direction, they’d be hiring their 14th head coach since Rick Adelman‘s exit in 2006.
Amick and Slater also dig in a little to the circumstances surrounding Fox’s departure from Sacramento, suggesting that the longtime Kings guard was worried about spending his prime years with a franchise that would be mired in “mediocrity and instability.”

De’Aaron Fox Talks Kings Exit, Loyalty To Mike Brown, More

March 7th, 2025 at 9:32pm CST by Luke Adams

Ahead of his first game against his former team on Friday night, Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox spoke to ESPN’s Michael C. Wright about his final days in Sacramento, telling Wright that he “never asked for a trade” and “loved” playing for the Kings.

“I truly wanted to play for one team my whole career,” Fox said. “I really did. … Everybody bled purple (in Sacramento). It was always great just going to the grocery store, going out to a restaurant. Everybody there was extremely kind. And when we started winning, then it was ‘light the beam’ everywhere. You really felt it around the city. So, it was definitely a great place to be for as long as I was.”

However, Fox wasn’t entirely convinced the franchise was on a path toward title contention and was put off by the number of head coaching changes that had occurred since he was drafted in 2017.

After playing for Dave Joerger, Luke Walton, and Alvin Gentry, the eighth-year guard liked what the Kings had in Mike Brown and says he advocated for the franchise to sign him to a contract extension last offseason in the hopes of establishing stability going forward, even as “some guys in the locker room” wanted Brown fired over the summer, according to Fox.

“I was like, ‘Yo, I’ve been here for going on my eighth year. If Mike gets fired, I’ll be going on my fifth coach,'” Fox told Wright. “And I told them, ‘I’m not going to play for another coach. I’m going to play for another team.'”

When the Kings got off to a 13-18 start and fired Brown, there was some speculation that Fox may have had a hand in the decision, which was made shortly after the veteran coach publicly criticized his star guard for a mistake that cost Sacramento a potential win.

But Fox, who says he still talks to Brown regularly, wasn’t in favor of the move and didn’t appreciate the way the Kings handled it — no one from management or ownership discussed the coaching change with reporters until more than a month later, after the team had traded its star point guard to San Antonio.

“You fire the coach, and you don’t do an interview?” Fox said. “So, all the blame was on me. Did it weigh on me? No. I don’t give a f–k. But the fact y’all are supposed to be protecting your player and y’all let that happen. … I felt at the time the organization didn’t have my back.

“The energy shifted and what’s understood doesn’t need to be explained. If I finished my contract there, then they knew what was going to happen next and it was because y’all fired another coach. That’s why I said in the interview after Mike was fired and we were in L.A. [on Dec. 28], they knew where I stood and there was nothing more to be said.”

Fox had turned down multiple contract extension offers from the Kings last offseason, according to both Wright and Sam Amick and Anthony Slater of The Athletic, but interim head coach Doug Christie wondered after the team got off to an 11-4 start under his watch if the guard’s thinking about opting for free agency had changed at all. On January 27, he spoke to his agent Rich Paul – who also represents Fox – to get a better sense of the 27-year-old’s position, per Amick and Slater.

Paul informed Christie that Fox’s stance was unchanged and that his preference to spend his prime years elsewhere was perhaps even stronger following the coaching change. Christie let management know about that conversation, and the front office in turn told Paul later that day that it would listen to trade offers for Fox, according to The Athletic and ESPN.

On January 28, before the news broke publicly, Kings management sought out Fox to inform him of their decision, per Wright. Fox didn’t reveal which member of the front office he spoke to, but suggested he felt like the conversation happened later than it should have.

“We’re sitting there trying to have the conversation, but I know what he’s about to tell me because Rich had already told me,” Fox said. “A reporter calls trying to break the story, but mind you, our GM hasn’t told me yet. So, it had already been told, even before I was told by our team.”

Here are a few more items of interest from Fox’s interview with Wright:

While San Antonio was framed in some late-January reports as the team atop a wish list of preferred destinations, Fox says that’s not quite accurate. “There was no f—ing list,” Fox told ESPN. “There was one team. I wanted to go to San Antonio. So, a lot of people are mad at me, saying I handcuffed the team by giving them a destination. Well, this is my career. If anybody else is in my position, you’d do the same thing. It’s not my job to help build your team. I’m not about to just go where they want me to go. I wanted to have a destination.”
Fox wanted the Kings to pursue dynamic wing players while he was in Sacramento, noting that most of the NBA’s best teams have high-level wings. “That’s all I ever asked (the Kings) for,” he said. “I told Keegan Murray, and I don’t know how many people would agree with me. But I’m like, ‘Yo, the best teams in the league outside of Steph (Curry and the Golden State Warriors), their best player is usually a wing. Wings win in this league.”
While Victor Wembanyama isn’t really a wing, he’s the kind of player Fox believes can be an exception to that general rule. Fox told Wright that Wembanyama’s superstar potential is “why I wanted to come” to San Antonio. The reigning Rookie of the Year, who is out for the season due to a blood clot in his shoulder, flew with the team on this road trip to support Fox in his return to Sacramento, Wright writes for ESPN.com. Team doctors deemed it safe for Wembanyama to fly due to the blood-thinning medication he’s taking, Wright adds.

Kings’ Christie Meets With Starters After ‘Unacceptable’ Loss

February 22nd, 2025 at 1:53pm CST by Luke Adams

The Kings‘ post-All-Star push for a playoff spot got off to a rocky start on Friday, as they lost at home by 24 points to a Golden State team that entered the day tied with Sacramento in the Western Conference standings.

Within his recap of the game, Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee noted that Doug Christie took over an hour to come out for his post-game media session, writing that the Kings’ interim head coach had “delivered an impassioned message to his team” during that time. According to NBA insider Chris Haynes (Twitter video link), Christie met with Sacramento’s starters – Domantas Sabonis, DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, Malik Monk, and Keegan Murray – during that time.

“First and foremost, in that meeting, I was told that Christie reiterated how he’s in the fight with them,” Haynes said. “But there were some issues he wanted to address, such as making sure that everyone understood the gravity of the situation right now. He addressed ball security. He talked about how they’ve been compromising on defense. He wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page. He spoke on learning how to communicate with each other, and he challenged his players to challenge each other in a positive way to yield some positive results.”

Speaking to reporters after Friday’s loss, Christie didn’t specifically mention meeting with the starters, but he referred to his team’s effort vs. Golden State as “totally unacceptable.” According to Monk, the Kings’ coach made it clear that “we can’t get punked like that at home” again.

“I get down in a certain way and I expect you guys to represent that,” Christie said of his message to the team, per Anderson. “I know what these fans appreciate and what they want, and I know what our organization wants, and that ain’t it. That ain’t ever going to be it.”

The Kings are still adjusting after making some major roster changes at the trade deadline. De’Aaron Fox, Kevin Huerter, Colby Jones, Alex Len, and Jordan McLaughlin were all dealt during the first week of February, with LaVine, Jonas Valanciunas, and Jake LaRavia added via trade, while Markelle Fultz later signed as a free agent. As Anderson writes, the new-look roster showed some growing pains on Friday by turning the ball over a season-high 24 times and being outscored 38-5 in points off turnovers.

“Twenty-four (turnovers) for 38 points won’t win you a game, I don’t think, anywhere in the world,” Christie said. “… We can keep saying we have a lot of new guys and we’re trying to find our way, but that excuse, no one checks for you in this league like that. People will just run through you and beat the hell out of you, so it doesn’t matter what the excuse is.

“Take care of the basketball, play together, move the rock, and if we do that at a high level, we give ourselves the opportunity to win. We’re not even giving ourselves the opportunity with 24 turnovers for 38 points. It’s just not acceptable. It will never be acceptable. I said that to them man for man.”

The Kings are still in a play-in position in the West — at 28-28, they hold the No. 10 seed in the conference, with a 1.5-game lead over the No. 11 Suns. But after winning one play-in game last season and losing the second, they know how challenging it is to earn a playoff berth from that position and would like to move up in the standings before the end of the season. They have the fifth-hardest remaining schedule, per Tankathon.

“The bottom line is we have to come out and play with a sense of urgency, aggressiveness and physicality,” Christie said. “We have to want to win more than we want to breathe.”

Pacific Notes: Richards, Russell, Christie, Ballmer

January 18th, 2025 at 10:12am CST by Tristan Tucker

The Suns addressed a position of need by trading for Nick Richards on Wednesday, Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports writes. According to Bourguet, the Suns value the Kentucky product for his athleticism, defense, rebounding and size, along with the fact that he’s under contract for next season at a team-friendly price (a non-guaranteed $5MM).

In recent games, Phoenix has been at a disadvantage on the offensive glass, which Richards will help address. The former Hornet is averaging 8.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.2 blocks while shooting 56.1% from the field in 21 games (nine starts) this season.

Suns players and coaches expressed excitement about being able to add Richards into their organization, according to Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic. Head coach Mike Budenholzer said Richards was expected to meet the team Friday in Detroit and that he foresees the center making his Suns debut Saturday against the Pistons.

“We’re excited about adding Nick and what he can bring to our team and how he can impact the game defensively around the rim,” Budenholzer said. “On the boards on both ends of the court. Screen setter. Just that kind of seven-foot size, athleticism can always be impactful.”

We have more from the Pacific Division:

On Friday, ahead of his first matchup with the Lakers after being traded back to Brooklyn, D’Angelo Russell expressed that he was appreciative of his time with Los Angeles, but that he was ready to move on, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin (Twitter link). He called his second stint with the Lakers a “blur.” Russell scored 19 points, six rebounds and eight assists in the matchup on Friday night but missed a potential game winner.
Kings head coach Doug Christie is a massive part of the franchise’s history, having been a key starter and contributor for the 2001/02 Sacramento team that fell in the Western Conference Finals to the Lakers. Now, under the interim Christie, the Kings have climbed from 13-19 to 21-20 and are firmly back in the postseason picture following the departure of coach Mike Brown. The Sacramento Bee’s Jason Anderson explores Christie’s journey from his tenure as a player to his time as an assistant for the team beginning in 2021.
Clippers owner Steve Ballmer and his wife Connie Ballmer, co-founders of the Ballmer Group, pledged an initial $15MM to help combat the Los Angeles wildfires, they announced on their website. “We love L.A. and are committed to supporting the communities affected by the devastating wildfires,” the statement reads. “In coordination with our local partners, Ballmer Group will contribute to addressing immediate food and shelter needs in the community and supporting our first responders.  … We’ve dedicated an initial $15 million in emergency funding for the many people impacted by these fires, particularly in the historic, racially diverse community of Altadena.” The full list of organizations and efforts they’re providing support for can be found on their site.

Pacific Notes: DeRozan, Christie, Green, Clippers

January 13th, 2025 at 11:00am CST by Arthur Hill

DeMar DeRozan had a typical fourth quarter performance Sunday night in Chicago, but this time he beat the Bulls instead of helping them win, writes Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic. Playing at the United Center for the first time since being traded to the Kings in July, he scored nine of his 21 points in the final 12 minutes as Sacramento pulled out a five-point victory.

DeRozan punctuated his final three made shots with a stare and a few comments directed at the Bulls’ bench, but he said there are no hard feelings and he enjoyed the three years he spent with the team.

“The first moment I came here, I tried to give my all to this organization, to this city. And I think it showed,” he said. “You can’t fake it when you’re genuinely putting everything into representing the Bulls. I embodied the culture of Chicago, everything. I think when people see that, you get the genuine reaction in return.”

DeRozan received a warm reception from the Chicago crowd, which cheered him in pre-game introductions and again when a tribute video was played during a first quarter time out. After the game, Bulls players spoke about the difference DeRozan made for the franchise.

“A guy like that always leaves a big impact, more so for the kind of guy he is, how he carries himself,” Nikola Vucevic said. “You always respect people like that. It was great for everyone to have him here for all these years, but especially for the young guys, they were able to learn a lot from him about the game, how to carry yourself on and off the court, what to do and how to prepare, the mental aspect, a lot of things that we can all learn from him and carry on throughout the rest of our careers.”

There’s m0re from the Pacific Division:

The Kings picked up their seventh straight win on Sunday as they continue to benefit from the simplified offense Doug Christie installed when he replaced Mike Brown as head coach, observes Chris Biderman of The Sacramento Bee. Sacramento had just seven turnovers and allowed three points off of them. “(Christie is) calling basically three or four plays,” Domantas Sabonis explained. “One for DeMar, one for Foxy (De’Aaron Fox) and one for me. He’s trusting his main guys to create the advantage and then everyone plays off that.”
The counseling that Draymond Green received during last season’s indefinite suspension has helped him learn how to control his anger, according to Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. Green also confirms that he contemplated retirement last season, but that’s no longer in his plans. “He’s always been so passionate,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “And when he goes wrong and his passion gets away from him, it turns into anger. … He’s in a good place family-wise; he’s a great dad. He loves his kids. He recognized last year how much his actions impacted his young kids. He doesn’t want his kids seeing him in that light. And it’s easy for everybody on the outside to say, well then don’t do that stuff. But he is a force of nature and as competitive as any person I’ve ever seen. His game lives on the edge of passion and rage, and he has to find that balance. And he’s found it this year.”
The Clippers have to put aside a major distraction to concentrate on tonight’s game with Miami, per Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times. Many of the players and coaches were directly affected by the massive wildfires that hit Los Angeles and the surrounding area last week. “At the end, we’re pros,” Nicolas Batum said Sunday. “We have a game to play. We have to win so we have to get back to it. We had two great practices the last two days. Basketball-side, we lost four of the last five so we need a win tomorrow. We got a stretch at home that we need to take care of so it’s going to be a big one against Miami tomorrow so we got to focus on that and try to win the game.”

Pacific Notes: Fox, Kings, Warriors, O’Neale

January 12th, 2025 at 2:28pm CST by Luke Adams

Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox is available to play on Sunday against Chicago, tweets Chris Biderman of The Sacramento Bee.

Fox, who last suited up on January 3, rejoins a red-hot Sacramento squad that has won six straight games in total, including the past three without him. James Ham of The Kings Beat considers whether the team’s recent run of success is sustainable.

Here’s more from around the Pacific Division:

The Kings are spending far less time scrimmaging so far under new head coach Doug Christie, which has been well received by the players, Biderman writes for the Sacramento Bee. “Talking to some of the guys who play heavier minutes, they definitely feel more fresh to start games,” Kings sharpshooter Kevin Huerter said. “I think even mentally, just the grind of the season, we’re already in January, and you get to this point in the season, you play a lot of games. As much as it’s a physical grind, it’s a mental grind. Being halfway there and needing every win, in some ways we pump the brakes a little bit, but still trusting us to get our work in.”
After missing games on Thursday and Friday for personal reasons, Andrew Wiggins will be back in action for the Warriors on Monday in Toronto, head coach Steve Kerr told reporters today (Twitter link via Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN). Stephen Curry and Draymond Green practiced on Sunday and are also set to return on Monday after sitting out Friday, while Gary Payton II (calf strain) is listed as questionable to play for the first time since Christmas Day. Brandin Podziemski (right abdominal injury) will remain out, Kerr said.
Suns forward Royce O’Neale (left ankle sprain) appears on track to return from a six-game absence on Sunday vs. Charlotte. He has been upgraded to probable, tweets Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic.

Kings’ McNair Talks Christie, Goals, Trade Deadline, More

January 10th, 2025 at 11:07pm CST by Luke Adams

Speaking on Friday to NBC Sports California’s Mark Jones, Kings general manager Monte McNair briefly addressed the team’s decision to fire Mike Brown, stressing that he appreciates the veteran coach and has the “utmost respect” for him.

However, as Tristi Rodriguez of NBC Sports California writes, McNair was more focused on discussing the job that Doug Christie has done since taking the reins from Brown, praising the interim head coach for the love he has for the organization and the “passion” he has brought to the role.

“What I think he brings to the table is his optimism, his playing experience and what he feels he needs to give to those players because that’s what he needed when he played,” McNair said. “And right now, I think the guys have really responded to that.”

The Kings won their sixth straight game on Friday and are now back to .500 at 19-19, putting them firmly in the thick of the postseason race in the Western Conference. In his conversation with Jones, McNair made it clear that getting back to the playoffs after missing out last season is a priority for the team.

“I would say our goals haven’t changed,” McNair said, per Rodriguez. “We want to get to the playoffs. We want to continue to make noise there. I think what we’ve done is we’ve put ourselves in a bit of a hole. We’ve started to climb out of it but there’s more work to be done. We’re really right now on the fringes of the play-in, that’s certainly one way into the playoffs, we’ve seen teams take that path away and make some noise in the playoffs, so if that’s the pathway we have to go through, we’ll do that.

“But ideally, we’ll find a way to get into the top six and get a little rest going into the playoffs. But that’s what our goal continues to be, both this year and going forward.”

Here are a few more highlights from the Kings’ GM:

On the front office’s thought process with the February 6 trade deadline nearing:

“I think the first thing we’re looking at is we made a big change, so what does the team look like? We’ve seen a little bit of that, but we want to see a little bit more about how this team responds and exactly what we have. We’re always looking, that’s our job in the front office, we always got to find ways to improve this team especially in the Western Conference where it feels like every year there’s 10, 11, 12 teams that you got to compete with.

“Early returns have been good, we want to continue to see that. And then we’re about three or four weeks out from that decision point, and we’ll see if there’s a way to improve the team and keep climbing the standings.”

On whether the new CBA will make it difficult for the Kings to find a deal they like:

“I think teams are looking to improve, and there’s a lot of creative folks out there. We have quite a few in our front office. So it certainly puts some constraints on how you can maneuver, but I think we are well positioned with our current position and I think other teams continue to be creative to find ways that they can do it. You can’t stand still in this league for too long and you got to continue to find ways to make your team better.”

On the desire to add more talented defenders without sacrificing offense:

“I think we’ve seen Keon (Ellis) take some tougher assignments, so when he’s out there he can do it. At the same time, we’re continuing to look for two-way guys because what we don’t want to do is just solve one issue and open up another. So we want guys like Keegan (Murray), like Keon, like a lot of the other guys on our roster that can produce on the offensive end and then go and guard these tough guys on the defensive end. So we’ll continue to look for those guys. We’ll continue to challenge the guys that we have here to take on those responsibilities.

“And I think, certainly of late, we’re top five in defense over the last 10 days or so, and 15th or 16th on the season. Our goal is to be top half of the league and we’re right there.”

Pacific Notes: Durant, Kawhi, Kings, Warriors Injuries

January 10th, 2025 at 10:18pm CST by Luke Adams

Speaking on Friday to reporters, including Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic, Suns star Kevin Durant was asked about the team’s roster-building philosophy under new team owner Mat Ishbia. A series of aggressive roster moves since Ishbia’s arrival, starting with the acquisition of Durant in 2023, has left Phoenix with few draft assets and a limited ability to seek out additional upgrades, but the veteran forward lauded the team’s owner for his aggressiveness and willingness to spend big.

“I appreciate people that want to put in the work to try to get on that road to a championship level,” Durant said. “It’s hard. As we’ve seen, it’s tough, but just putting yourself in a position to try to do something. A lot people don’t even try to do stuff out here to be great. So I can appreciate somebody like Mat and the rest of the staff and the whole organization trying to put the players in successful positions to see what it’s like to go on the road to win a championship. Not a lot of franchises do that for their players.”

Durant also addressed teammate Bradley Beal‘s recent move to the bench, as Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports relays (Twitter video link). Durant noted that Beal’s playing time as a sixth man (31.3 MPG) is similar to what he was seeing as a starter (33.4 MPG) and suggested that the new role should give him more scoring opportunities.

“I feel like he’s just comfortable and understanding where his shot’s gonna come from,” Durant said of Beal, who has a pair of 25-point outings in his first three games as a reserve.

Here’s more from around the Pacific:

Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard has rejoined the team after taking a brief leave of absence to be with family affected by the Los Angeles wildfires, tweets Law Murray of The Athletic. Leonard would have been available to play on Saturday vs. Charlotte, per Murray, but that game has been postponed, so the Clippers won’t be back in action until at least Monday.
In a pair of stories for The Sacramento Bee, Jason Anderson explores why the Kings‘ fortunes have changed as of late under new head coach Doug Christie and Chris Biderman recaps the team’s latest impressive victory, a convincing road win over the defending champion Celtics that included a franchise-record 28 rebounds from center Domantas Sabonis. Sacramento is now back to .500 after falling to 13-19 on December 28, a day after Mike Brown‘s dismissal.
Warriors guard Gary Payton II (calf strain) has a chance to play on Monday for the first time since Christmas Day, head coach Steve Kerr told reporters after Friday’s loss to Indiana (Twitter link via Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN). However, Kerr isn’t sure whether Brandin Podziemski (right abdominal injury management) or Andrew Wiggins (personal reasons) will be available for that game in Toronto.
As for Stephen Curry (bilateral knee injury management) and Draymond Green (back soreness), it sounds like the two veteran Warriors will be able to return on Monday, but Kerr cautioned that the team will continue to manage both players’ health, adding that Curry has had some fluid build-up in the knee (Twitter link via Youngmisuk).

Load More Posts