Week in review: Monte McNair swings for the fences, lands Domantas Sabonis

Kings add All-Star big man, five others via trade

Author

James Ham
February 12, 2022

The Kings Beat Notes

The Off the Record with The Kings Beat virtual Happy Hour part deux was a huge success! Over 60 members of our growing community attended and it went into overtime. We have pushed episode 3 of the Happy Hour to Thursday, February 17 from 5:30-7-ish and our special guest this time around is Kings legend Jerry Reynolds.

The Happy Hour is only for premium subscribers to The Kings Beat and it is more than worth the price of a subscription. 

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This is an exclusive add-on for premium subscribers only and gives you an opportunity to have access to the show before anyone else has a chance to view. We are hopeful there will also be a way to leave comments in real time, which will allow premium subscribers the opportunity to be part of the action. 

Lastly, a huge shoutout to Jim Espinosa at Brickhouse Industries who created The Kings Beat logos. The Kings Beat merchandise shop is almost ready to launch.

Thanks again for your continued support!

Kings record: 21-36

Kings record on the week: 2-1

Change can be hard. Change can hurt. Change was inevitable. 

More than wins and losses, this week of Kings basketball was overrun with trade deadline news. General manager Monte McNair pulled off two substantial trades that completely reshaped the Kings' roster.

Gone are Tyrese Haliburton, Buddy Hield, Tristan Thompson, Marvin Bagley, Robert Woodard and Jahmi'us Ramsey. 

New to the squad are Domantas Sabonis, Justin Holiday, Jeremy Lamb, Donte DiVincenzo, Josh Jackson and Trey Lyles. 

It was an epic shake up, but one that was needed. A two-time All-Star, Sabonis is the Kings' new starting center and the prize of McNair's haul. Holiday started in his first game in Sacramento, but there may be a competition at the shooting guard spot with DiVincenzo.

The rest of the new additions have a shot to see court time, but nothing is guaranteed. McNair clearly valued veteran depth and bulked up the wing position that has been woefully undermanned all season. 

As for the action on the court, Sacramento began the week with a win over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Haliburton set a new career-high in assists and all five starters scored in double figures in the 113-103 victory.

Hours before the Kings took the court on Tuesday, Haliburton was informed that he was on his way to Indiana in a six player mega deal. After an emotional day, Alvin Gentry's squad struggled, despite the return of De'Aaron Fox, and fell to the Timberwolves by a final of 134-114.

Less than 24 hours after losing to the T-Wolves, a completely different Kings squad took the court for a rare home-and-home back-to-back against the same team. Sabonis and Holiday started after getting clearance to play an hour before tip off.

The Kings looked energized by the additions and despite not practicing together, they finished with 32 assists. Fox and Harrison Barnes combined for 57 points and 16 rebounds and Sabonis hit the Timberwolves for 22 points, 14 rebounds and five assists in the 132-119 victory. 

Injuries

Fox made his return on Tuesday after missing eight straight games with a sore left ankle. He's looked fresh in his two starts, averaging 28 points, 4.5 assists and 7.5 rebounds while shooting 6-for-10 from long range.

Bagley continued to miss time with a sprained ankle, but he cleared his physical with Detroit and is now a member of the Pistons. 

Moe Harkless tweaked his ankle in the loss to Minnesota on Tuesday and was not able to play on Wednesday. He returned on Saturday in the starting lineup against the Washington Wizards.

Player of the Week: Domantas Sabonis

Sabonis only played one game for the Kings this week, but the 6-foot-11 center was spectacular in his debut. He cleaned the glass, led the fast break and found his teammates for open dunks. His passing ability is contagious and he played with a fire and physicality this team desperately needed.

Previous winner: Davion Mitchell

Stats of the Week

  • 6: It's not often that you see a team take on six new players at the trade deadline. Gentry has a lot of work to do if he hopes to get this team up and running. Many of the players acquired via trade are veterans, which will help with the transition.

  • 2: Despite a brutal start to the season and a 21-36 record heading into Saturday night, the Kings are still just two games out of a play-in spot in the Western Conference with 25 games remaining. A week ago, that was a joke. With the new additions, this team could make some noise down the stretch.

  • 1248: That is the total number of 3-point makes Buddy Hield finished with during his 385 games as a member of the Kings before being traded on Tuesday. Hield holds the franchise record and he'll probably keep that for a while.

Tweets of the Week

Haliburton on trade from Kings:

Poorly timed video shoot for Sean:

Game changer:

Deuce Mason has a response:

Cooleys share good news:

Quotes of the Week

“Since the second I came into the NBA, I figured out the hard way that this is a business, I got traded on draft night and then a year later got traded again. I’m just trying to find a home where I’m loved. I want to come out and compete everyday and I feel like I found it here. I love it here and I just want to keep playing and getting wins.” -Sabonis on finding a new home

“The taste of the crowd we had tonight, I grew up in LA, so I’ve seen how this place can get down. We were just talking about it, that it’s sad that we’re only going to have eight more home games, so we need to do something to where we have more home games after that. But to be able to be there in front of that crowd and just hear the passion, and again, just the joy from them, it’s something we feed off of. It makes the game fun.” -Holiday on his first impressions of Sacramento

Videos of the Week

Sabonis finds his NBA forever home?:

Saying all the right things:

Gentry on Haliburton:

Barnes on a tough day:

Weekly Reading

Weekly Podcasts

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What's next?

Kings vs. Washington Wizards, Capital One Arena, Saturday 4PM

Kings vs. Brooklyn Nets, Barclays Center, Monday 4:30PM

Kings vs. Chicago Bulls, United Center, Wednesday 5PM

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