The Sacramento Kings fly under everyone’s radar as they enter the Orlando bubble, like it or not. If De’Aaron Fox’s feelings mirror those of the team, it can be assumed that he doesn’t like it.
“For me, I am not a person who will filter me, or hold my tongue or whatever,” Fox said in a conference call with reporters last week. “I think it’s disrespectful that ‘we don’t even have a chance’. Like,” we shouldn’t even be there. “I mean, slow startup is what it is, but in the end, I feel like we have the same chances as these other teams.
“It is what it is. If the media doesn’t cover it, that’s what it is, but we’re going out there trying to win: try to win every game, try to make the playoffs just like everyone else. And if people don’t see us as a threat, let’s drop the chips where they can. “
The lack of national recognition is nothing new for kings. After all, they share the state of California with three other NBA teams and are the smallest market teams out of four with a fairly large margin. What is somewhat surprising is where statistic-based projections had the king’s finish.
For example, last week, ESPN released its playoff projections for the 22 teams heading to Orlando using a predictive version of their true plus-minus, and the Kings have only a 14.5% chance of ending up as a suit. n. 9 and force a tournament game with the Memphis Grizzlies, who have a 66.2% chance of getting seed no. 8. New Orleans pelicans have the highest probability of competing for seed #. 9 (35.6%), according to the model, followed by Grizzlies (20.2%), Portland Trail Blazers (15.8%) and kings.
To some extent, it makes sense. Pelicans and trail blazers have heavier registers with players who position themselves more favorably in the true plus-minus of ESPN. By context, the pelicans have two players ranked in the top 20 in a real plus-minus this season: Jrue Holiday and Zion Williamson. Kings don’t even have one in the top 100.
Injuries have also plagued kings this season, so it’s hard to project how their rotations will look compared to pelicans and trail blazers.
In the end, these projections mean nothing, but it is an excellent fuel for fire. Still another 22 days, all of them.
