Matt George is joined by Sactown Sports 1140’s Frankie Cartoscelli to discuss the Sacramento Kings adding European sharpshooter Sasha Vezenkov to the roster this offseason and how that helps the Kings. Plus, could the Kings be competing with the Memphis Grizzlies for Harrison Barnes?
Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!
eBay Motors
For parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit. eBay Motors dot com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.
Gametime
Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Last minute tickets. Lowest Price. Guaranteed.
Built Bar
Built Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.
PrizePicks
First time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That’s PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDON
FanDuel
Make Every Moment More. Don’t miss the chance to get your No Sweat First Bet up to ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in Bonus Bets when you go FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON.
FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)
Does Sasha Vezenkov Help the Sacramento Kings Get From Good to Great?
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCer6XxOVaMbmW2HBLpuLkzQ
WANT MORE DAILY SACRAMENTO KINGS CONTENT?
Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOKings?sid=YouTube
Locked On NBA League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft, WNBA & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNBA
Follow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MattGeorgeSAC
#SacramentoKings #NBA #LightTheBeam
source
Do we need Sasha? All I gotta say we need a versatile wing defender and a backup center who can rebound and rim protect.
I know this may not go over the best, but a cheap deal for a 3 and D guy is out there if we are willing to give another bridges a shot.
The Kings should really consider signing Yuta Watanabe if we are going to part ways with Harrison Barnes. Yuta brings good defense and good 3 point shooting to the team. He is also one of those good character guys. This will be a nice signing for the Sacramento Kings in the off-season.
I love the lord of the rings poster
Good to great os a big stretch…. For one I don’t even see him as a starter. I see him coming off the bench. Also he is good offensively but not great on the defensive end.
So id say he has the potential to make the kings better but from good to great! No…
I like Sasha, but I really want to see them draft some young cheap contributors like Bilal Coulibaly and take a shot on a big like Zach Edey in the second. Both have defensive potential.
I've been watching this from Thailand all season. Good stuff man. I'm originally from Sacramento
My dream offseason move
Bring Sasha in
Sign naz reid
Sasha Vezenkov? NO.
To go from "Good to Great", the current Sacramento Kings core players need to improve.
Fox need to improve his 3P% to around 37% or higher so he needs more touches.
Huerter cannot defend, so he needs to improve his drive to the basket thereby needing more touches.
Murray needs to improve his numbers SIGNIFICANTLY, so he needs more touches.
Sabonis needs to improve his outside shots, so he needs more touches.
The Sacramento Kings need Monk to continue being a playmaker, so he needs more touches.
The last thing the Sacramento Kings need is another shooter, one that cannot play defense, taking away time from the core players.
If the Sacramento Kings loses Barnes and Lyles, then Sasha Vezenkov would be a temporary fill-in for the Sacramento Kings to remain Good but, not Great. Just an insurance for the Sacramento Kings to REMAIN good, not great.
Even the dumb AI knows improving the defense and developing the core would get the Sacramento Kings past the first round. First on its list is a player capable of defending the post. Also on its list, improving the perimeter defense. Still on its list, keep on developing the young core.
A lot of us fans are really warming up to concept of Naz Reid !!!
As savvy fans, we all see the perfect fit !
Personally, I’d like to get Steven Adams but Kuzma , Brooks and any other player with too much ego scare me because it might infect the chemistry
Can’t wait for Sasha
🟣🔦
We can discuss what Barnes means to the Kings and if thats the area to upgrade. It certainly seems like the position thats the most changeable. But those who think an alternative will be fetched in Free Agency or that HB wont get paid i think are underrating the positional scarcity and the Kings flexibility.
3's are the hardest position to fill in the league. If you go down the league position pool Harrison's name appears no lower than in the teens. Because of that Im not as assured as many that the price is going to dip much lower than that he's made in this last couple of years on his declining deal. He gets older but the cap increases.
If we do look to upgrade I think it's likely by trade and with firsts attached along with Holmes and cap space. That makes you look at Toronto in Siakam and OG but both come with risk as they are on essentially 1 year deals (OG a player option he surely will decline). Can the Kings split the difference by trading a pick or two but saving some room to spend on other areas? Maybe Dorian Finney Smith, a really nice fit but is that worth a first in exchange to retaining Barnes? Maybe so if a some cap space is created at the same time but we are talking thin margins at this point.
The short of it is the alternatives I think come with volatility and major caveats. Doesnt make them not worth considering but bird in the hand is maybe not a bad approach for another year. We shall see in the offseason.
I think Sasha could be a good addition to the team. Although it hurts, I think maybe Keon and/or Neemi could be relegated back to just being in the G League to develop more since they're still young and have potential, while Sasha is already developed and is fairly older at 27 years of age and also fairly experienced competition wise (albeit not at an NBA level). I think he can replace one of their slots and he could get his role found out accordingly by the coaching staff during training camp before next season starts. As for Keegan, I'm still keeping my fanatic phase of believing and hoping he can be our version of the Big Fundamental, maybe the "Small Fundamental/Fundamental 2.0". Either way, our team is good, but I know we can get to that great level with the right moves, but it'll have to be made with tough decisions on Monte and the front office's part of getting us to that point business wise.
How about throwing another big into the conversation. Can you see Monte trading up a few spots in the draft to get Kris Murray?
Jerami Grant could be the prolific scorer the Kings need when Fox is out. He could even start if Barnes leaves.
Grant is a Free Agent. Then Sasha could begin by coming off the bench at small forward while Liles can back up at the power forward AND/OR backup at center. Murray can play the small forward.
Seems like a high scoring front court with Jerami Grant and Sasha Veznikov making all the difference, giving Sabonis more room to operate.
That's right Olympiacos Piraeus won. Sasha had 17 points. Sasha averages 28 minutes per game. He definitely wants to play at least 20 minutes a game in the NBA. Does he get it? That's a different story
No defense no titles. You mofos..
Kyle Kuzma is an upgrade in many ways over Barnes. The one part of his game that worries me is his efficiency. I know after all of the struggles in DC with guys not being healthy and the losing, there is a good chance to get him.
I think there has to be upgrades on the bench no matter what. Trey Lyles being brought back, needed. Sasha…if he wants to come, let's see what he can do. But, after that, it is finding a backup big and seeing how they upgrade the defense from the bench.
If we want to improve the defense from the starters…we need to move on from Barnes. Be it Kyle Kuzma or Jeremi Grant or Kris Middleton.
Now, if they want to just grab more and more shooting, bring back Barnes and Davis and see who else is out there.
I love Barnes but it is time to take some sort of action on Barnes to be a better team than now
I think winning Game 6 at Golden State by 18 points with Barnes scoring zero points and playing like 12 minutes then having Barnes completely vanish for Game 7 told the Kings Front Office everything they needed to see and hear.
Lots of times players become stars in their roles. They don't try to do more nor are expected to do more because of another starting player.
If Brown and the Kings have A talk with Keegan and tell Him that they need Him to do more because Barnes wasn't coming back He most definitely would.
I also think Kessler Edward's could blossom.
3 of the best players this post season are 2nd rd draft picks
Jokic
Jimmy Butler
Jalen Brunson
Don't let the late first rd pick tag fool You. I liked what I saw from Kessler Edward's.
Call Me crazy but for whatever reason I can EASILY see Bradley Beal both being in Sacramento and being a GREAT fit.
He's going to be so hungry when He gets back to the playoffs and has zero issue deferring to A one. He prefers it even. He's not A one. He's A two.
Call me crazy but I think There could be a great chance Bradley Beal ends up in Sacramento
I suspect the market value for HB isn’t very high given his age and ability. He isn’t a top tier free agent, not even for his position and is on the latter half of his prime. A contending team could use him but none have the money to fork over 10-15mil/yr. I think you can get him for relatively cheap and let him transition to the bench over the next year or two. I would like to see the kings maintain flexibility and maintain assets to go after another superstar when they become available, ie jaylen brown
I would trade him.
Klye kuzma is a free agent?
There’s a fine line between winning and losing in the NBA. We were a Harrison Barnes 3 away from being in the same situation as the lakers up 3-1. I feel like the kings match up better against the Lakers but we will never know.
Doesn’t matter how good of a shooter you are because in playoffs with brown as coach he will always shoot horrible like rest of team did and always will because brown forces them to play “rush ball” where he demands extreme “effort “ meaning rush rush rush , run run run , shoot shoot shoot ! And doesn’t allow players to play with balance like Kerr does , kerr specifically asks his players to play with effort and pace but also find balance and flow In order to have smart shots and have good shooting because the players are playing at the right flow state where they get into a groove and catch fire by 3rd quarter ..
By third quarter the kings players will always be starting to get exhausted physically and mentally and get worse and worse .. fox crashed hard by game 7 third quarter especially. Most of our players couldn’t shoot at all from game one because they have to play rush ball .. only a few are sometimes able to hit shots and play rush ball
King will be up in a series
Tbh I don’t think he’ll fit. He’s gotta work a lot on stamina and workout more becuz the kings move a lot. And I haven’t seen any Defense from him so I don’t think it’s much of an upgrade from Barnes.
Release HB and bring in Vezenkov. Now we just need a legit center. Give Kessler more minutes to develop.
It's completely stupid to trade a very talented rookie for OG because he has an expiring contract
If Keegan, Lyles or Sasha is our starting PF next to Sabonis then this team will always be below average defensively.
I'd move Keegan to SF and get a defensive rim protecting/switchable PF to complete the starting group.
Vu-zen-cough
don’t resign barnes, move keegan to three, vezenkov goes to four sign a good backup center with barnes money and draft a small forward
Frankie Cartoscelli: The Keegan dunk at Iowa you made reference to where he let out a primal scream and flexed, was his spot-on best Luka Garza imitation, because Luka was a spectator that night, sitting close by on floor seats, and you can see Keegan do his little chin/head lift acknowledgement afterwards towards the unseen Luka, so don't expect that to ever happen again lol!
I think Keegan should take on Barnes’ role. I like Barnes a lot, his leadership especially, but he is too expensive for what he does, we won’t be able to get over the hump unless Barnes takes on a smaller role with less pay. Keegan can develop into a much better scorer, having him at the small forward position and bringing in a stretch 4 with a little more size that can rebound well, or be an enforcer, would do wonders for the team. Keeping Barnes for less and bringing him off the bench with the second unit would take the Kings to the next level.
Something off about your web cam or is it just me.
Love the videos though. Thx
Vezenkov is Euroleague MVP this season and as a person that watched Euroleague consistently, believe me when I say he's really good
Imagine we got vezenkov, keegans twin, and deangelo russel….lefty killa squad 🤔
Thing that sticks out to me most in this west semi series is curry not just getting to the rim willy nilly. AD really changes looks at the basket plus lebron lurking around the paint blocking shots too. Exactly why we should of played Metu in our 1st round series to rim run the floor and change the looks on curry in the paint or on the perimeter switches. But if Metu goes we need a rim protector stretch 5 that can hit 3s. Brooke Lopez is the obvious choice but idk who else is comparable.
Watching this laker-warrior series, I think adding vezenkhov and brooke lopez would put us in contention to win the western conference. Especially if we keep barnes and lyles on team friendly deals.
More shooting definitely can't hurt. Gather the talent and sort through it in the offseason to see who actually fits this team best.
I have watched many videos on vezenkov. he would be perfect with keegan on the court. Both of them at the corners would have to be covered. Fox or monk penetrate the paint and spray out. Omg it could be magic.
Nike has too many dudes but I think New Balance or under Armour really got to pick up Foxy on a shoe deal. Swipa, foxy, clutch accolade, beams; all sorts of marketing and design they could sell.
First one here 🎉