The Kings have been here before and it doesn't end pretty

The Kings Beat is a reader-supported newsletter/blog that currently allows both free and paid subscriptions. 

For those generous souls that jump on board for the premium edition, you are providing the means to continue this endeavor into independent coverage of the Sacramento Kings.

The moment is coming when much of the content on The Kings Beat will become gated. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to continue to have full access to all future podcasts, features and columns.

When DeMarcus Cousins wanted a private conversation, he would beckon you to his locker stall and quietly ask a question. Sometimes it was about a play on the court that went the wrong way. Other times it would be about something that I had written.

On one of these occasions, Cousins summonsed me to his locker to ask why I always wrote about all of the technical fouls he had received. I told him that they provided context for his latest tech and I made a deal with him. “If you don’t get any more technicals, then I won’t write about them or mention the previous ones.”

He smiled. I smiled. He continued picking up techs. I continued writing about techs.

I bring this story up because context matters. There is a reason why we as writers tuck in a note in nearly every piece that mentions the Kings’ 15 season playoff drought. It’s not a dig. It is part of the larger narrative about the Kings’ franchise and its inability to find and embrace success.

Alvin Gentry has been clear that he has been here for less than two seasons and he feels he should be judged on that time frame, not the previous 14 years of ineptitude. Tyrese Haliburton has said similar things.

The problem that you have when you land in Sacramento is that your clean slate is never clean. It won’t be clean until the sins of the past are washed away and the team moves forward in a positive direction.

That may be unfair. It might have been unfair to ask Cousins not to get technicals. But when you see the same pattern year after year, it is part of the job description to call it out.

Sunday evening was such a case. While Northern California sports fans were enthralled with two incredible football games and the return of Klay Thompson in Golden State, Kings fans were treated to a January lay down.

Sacramento dropped their fourth straight, this time to a Portland Trail Blazers team missing Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum and Norman Powell. It wasn’t just about the loss, but the way the Kings lost. 

There was no heart. There was no compete. There was no fire. 

It was a team coasting to the finish line of the season. In game 42.

As someone who has covered the Kings for the last 12 seasons, I’ve seen this dance. It doesn’t usually come this early in the season, but the quit-o-meter has hit red. This feels like the 2014-15 season, when Vivek Randivé fired Michael Malone, burned through Tyrone Corbin and then landed on George Karl all in the span of 82 games.

You can see the body language and media members don’t need to be in the locker room to understand the vibe of this group. This is “basketball hell” all over again, which is why it was time for a more blunt approach to the media session.

“Tyrese, that looked like a game 75 from a team that’s not heading to the playoffs,” I stated. “Where was the competitive fire from you guys tonight?”

“I don’t know,” Haliburton responded. “I think we had spurts. It’s not good enough. We’ve got to be a lot better.”

In all fairness, Haliburton, the second-year guard who has been nothing but a breath of fresh air, was the person put in the chair. This line of questioning should have gone to one of the veterans on the squad. They didn’t make an appearance.

When it was De’Aaron Fox’s turn at the mic, he got a similar line of questions.

Fox handled the question differently. He’s also been in this situation before and while he may not have rehearsed his lines, he has plenty of practice in his fifth season in Sacramento.

This is what happens when the talent on the roster is not living up to expectations. And let’s be honest, expectations in Sacramento are about as low as they come by NBA standards.

16-26 is unacceptable. Losing to an Atlanta Hawks team missing most of its roster or the Blazers missing their three leading scorers is unacceptable.

You don’t need to live through 12 years of covering this team to feel this way. While the current version of the Kings has similar traits to so many others in Sacramento, they are all disappointing in their own way, just like how Cousins’ technicals were different.

Something has to change. It starts at the top, with Ranadivé. He’s been the man in charge for the last eight seasons. That means that he’s missed the postseason in more consecutive seasons than the Maloofs did and they ran the lowest payroll in the league for their last 2-3 seasons in control.

It also falls on management. Two offseasons and one trade deadline are enough to make changes. There is no reason for general manager Monte McNair to continue to assess this team. It is broken and the pieces are ill fitting. The question isn’t whether a trade is needed, but how many players need to go. 

It’s tough to blame Gentry for what is happening, even if he is the one that is currently in charge. Interim head coaches rarely turn everything around midseason and even he seems dumbfounded by the turn his team has taken.

The core of the team needs to shoulder a huge amount of the blame, but they aren’t exactly the first core to fail and they won’t be the last. Having your pride questioned on almost a nightly basis shouldn’t feel good. If that doesn’t bother this group of players then they shouldn’t be in the NBA. 

To sum it all up, we’ve been here before. Sometimes it’s 60 games into a season. On occasion we don’t get to this line of questioning or this level of play until game 70 and by then, a group of try-hards doing their best to make it in the NBA have taken over for the standard rotation.

Are we already at that point? Is it already time for Jahmi’us Ramsey, Robert Woodard, Louis King and Neemias Queta to get a shot? 42 games into the season?

A half game out of the play-in picture and this team has lost its fighting spirit. That’s almost unheard of, even in Sacramento. 

Changes have to happen. It starts at the top, but every person associated with this franchise needs to look in the mirror and be better. That includes the media, which is only going to get more and more aggressive moving forward.

If not, the storyline will be more than about 16 straight years of missing the playoffs. It will be about a completely empty arena and more people losing their jobs. I know this because I've written that story more than once as well.