Advertisement - scroll for more content
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement - scroll for more content
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Donovan was asked about Dosunmu’s comments – which he said didn’t see – and in a roundabout way said he was not anti-midrange, he was anti-midrange for players that weren’t efficient at it, which is basically the entire roster that his front office has given him. “To me, I think we let the guys play freely,” Donovan said. “I think when you look at some of the analytical stuff and I was on board with probably this a couple years ago; Zach (LaVine) played in the midrange, Vooch (Nikola Vucevic) played in the midrange, and obviously DeMar played in the midrange. And as great as all those guys are offensively we didn’t necessarily have an elite offense. Their shot making, all three of those guys, had the best shot making of their careers while they were together at different points and time. So I’m not opposed to the midrange. “I think you have to play to players’ strengths, so I’m a believer in the first part of the shot clock you certainly want to try and get something downhill to the basket, and generally what happens is when the ball gets into the paint and the ball gets sprayed out that’s when the threes are going to go up. Most of the time the midrange stuff is coming off iso situations. It’s late clock, a guy is stuck with the ball, and at that time you’ve got to manufacture and generate shots.”
Yossi Gozlan: Kings now down to 12 active players including two-ways. They have an open standard & two-way roster spot to fill for help. They'll also qualify for a hardship extension soon with Zach LaVine, Domantas Sabonis, & De'Andre Hunter out for the year + Dylan Cardwell out for a while.
Shams Charania: Meanwhile, Kings guard Zach LaVine is currently undergoing season-ending surgery to repair a tendon injury in his hand, sources tell ESPN.
Chris Haynes: BREAKING: Sacramento Kings guard Zach LaVine will undergo season-ending surgery on his right hand after the All-Star break, league sources tell me. He averaged 19.2 points, shot 48 percent from the field and 39 percent from beyond the arc.
Roland Beech: We know Salary ≠ impact. Yet among the NBA’s 25 highest-paid players, one stands completely apart in On/Off history...
Advertisement
Sacramento has not had much success generating interest in veteran wings Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan. DeRozan is a strong candidate to be bought out after the deadline while the Kings will likely try again to move LaVine in the offseason, should LaVine pick up his player option. There is interest in Domantas Sabonis—Toronto is reportedly in the mix, if the Raptors can find a team to take Jakob Poeltl—but it may only result in a salary dump.
The Kings’ minimal interest, for quite some time now, has been directly tied to the idea that Morant's price point might drop so low, they’d be crazy not to do it. Especially if it meant getting off of a contract — like, say, Zach LaVine’s — that has long since been deemed undesirable. (The Grizzlies' willingness, or potential lack thereof, to take LaVine back is unclear.)
Sticking with the Kings, a league source indicates that veteran guard Zach LaVine fully intends on picking up his player option for next season ($48.9 million).
Eddie House: I'm with Brad Miller, what he said. It's not about rebuilding, but you retool. Right before the All-Star break, you find a couple guys that you could piece together and bring in maybe some young players to play with a few older players and then you start creating that culture and changing that culture because if it's just older players, they're already stuck in their ways. We know that and it's a lot of times that's not going to change. You get guys that are 10-year vets. They going to play like how they play. But you get somebody that's starving, like we were saying that's starving, looking to make their bones in the league. I think that's what they got to do and they're going to probably have to part ways with somebody that's on that team whether it be Zach LaVine or whether it be DeMar DeRozan. And it might be a mutual thing for everybody. They get a breath of fresh air.
Advertisement
In addition to Morant, Milwaukee was linked with trade interest in several notable names on the trade market, including Morant, Michael Porter Jr., Zach LaVine, Andrew Wiggins, Jerami Grant, Miles Bridges, Malik Monk, Keon Ellis, and other players. However, with Antetokounmpo out for a significant amount of time, there’s less urgency for the Bucks to act immediately.
League sources say that the Bucks, frankly, were already struggling to generate difference-making trade discussions by making the likes of Kyle Kuzma and Bobby Portis Jr. available. Brooklyn's Porter, Sacramento's Zach LaVine, Cleveland's De'Andre Hunter, Portland's Jerami Grant and Charlotte's Miles Bridges have all been mentioned as potential targets, but the Bucks' lack of available draft capital to sweeten trade offers has clearly complicated the search for reinforcements.
Meanwhile, the Kings have inquired about the price tag for Morant, but internal questions about whether the franchise is ready to give up assets and add him while focusing on developing their young talent (Keegan Murray, Nique Clifford, and Maxime Raynaud) and gauging the market on potentially moving their veteran trio of Domantas Sabonis, Zach LaVine, and DeMar DeRozan.
