Kurtenbach: The Kings used the Warriors’ blueprint to break their curse,
but it’ll take more than imitation to beat Golden State
Golden State Warriors – Sacramento Kings: The Kings built their team in
the image of the Warriors. Is this a rivalry that's here to stay?
>Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown shares a laugh with Golden
State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr after receiving his 2022 NBA
Championship ring before their game at the Chase Center in San
Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, Oct. 23, 2022. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area
News Group)
By DIETER KURTENBACH | dkurtenbach@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News
Group
PUBLISHED: April 13, 2023 at 5:30 a.m. | UPDATED: April 13, 2023 at 7:44
a.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/04/13/kurtenbach-the-kings-used-the-warriors-blueprint-to-break-their-curse-but-itll-take-more-than-emulation-to-beat-golden-state/

You need to know two things about Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé:

The first is that he, despite never playing basketball himself, coached
his 12-year-old daughter’s Redwood City team to the national
championships by utilizing a full-court press the entire game.

The second is that he loved being a co-owner of the Warriors before he
sold his share of the Dubs to buy the Kings and keep the team in Sacramento.

These two things are not unrelated.

While the Kings broke ground on Golden 1 Center under Ranadivé’s
leadership, the Warriors broke the code of the NBA. (And then they built
their own arena in San Francisco.)

And while Ranadivé has been smart enough not to go on the record and
say, “I’m trying to emulate the Warriors,” his actions have spoken
louder than words.

Ranadivé’s first move as the Kings’ owner was to hire then-Warriors
assistant Michael Malone as head coach. His first free-agent signing was
former Warriors forward Carl Landry. Over the last decade, the steady
migration of people from the Bay to the Valley has included countless
former Dubs, as Ranadivé has searched for the right executives, coaches
and players to recreate Golden State’s success in the capital city.

After a decade of failures and follies, Ranadivé’s Kings are now the
worthy scions of the Warriors. A first-round playoff matchup between the
two teams — one the established dynasty, the other the league’s
feel-good surprise — will show us just how far the Kings have come.

>Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry #30 shoots a basket over
Sacramento Kings' Domantas Sabonis #10 in the fourth quarter of their
NBA game at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, Nov.
7, 2022. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

This is the first time these two franchises will meet in the playoffs.
This, even though the Kings are the NBA’s oldest team, boasting a
five-city lineage that goes back to 1923, and the Warriors were one of
the NBA’s original franchises, moving to California from Philadelphia in
1962.

The two teams have been Northern California neighbors and division
rivals since 1985, yet this is the first time the two teams will meet in
the playoffs.

In fact, the lineage of ineptitude for both teams was so long that the
two franchises haven’t even been in the postseason at the same time
since the Warriors won their first California title in 1975. The Kings
were Kansas City’s team that year and for another decade after.

Before the Dubs’ recent run of greatness, whatever success the Warriors
and Kings had was fleeting. That success also served to make the other
Northern California team jealous.

The Warriors’ late ’80s, early ’90s run was juxtaposed by some sorry
basketball in Sacramento. Then the roles flipped in the late ’90s, early
2000s, when the Kings repeatedly knocked on the door of winning a title,
but came up tantalizingly short each time.

Then came 16 seasons of missing the playoffs for the Kings, punctuated
by the constant threat of relocation.

And while the Warriors weren’t much better early in that stretch, when
the team was sold to Joe Lacob, Peter Gruber, and Ranadivé in 2010,
things started turning around in the Bay.

That said, it must be noted that buying a team that employed Steph Curry
was a massive boost to the group.

Ranadivé — like Lacob — is a tech entrepreneur. He still lives in
Atherton. He believes in data, collaboration and moving fast.

>Sacramento Kings owner and chairman Vivek Ranadive talks with Kings
forward Vince Carter after the Kings defeated the Atlanta Hawks 105-90
in an NBA basketball game Thursday, March 22, 2018, in Sacramento,
Calif. After the game Ranadive, surrounded by players, coaches and
management, addressed the fans to express their "deepest sympathies" to
the family of Stephon Clark, an unarmed man who was shot and killed
Sunday by Sacramento police. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

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The 12-year-old girls team was the perfect encapsulation of his values.
There was a market inefficiency in how the game was being played — why
weren’t teams using the whole court? — and he unrepentantly exploited it.

The Warriors did the same thing with Curry. Why weren’t teams shooting
more 3-pointers?

The Kings have been looking for their own Curry since Ranadivé took
over. Too many players, including Steph’s brother, Seth, have been
blasphemously cast in the role to count.

But it wasn’t until the Kings brought in former Warriors assistant coach
Mike Brown that Ranadivé’s vision of Golden State 2.0 came to life.

The Kings might not have a Curry, but point guard De’Aaron Fox, with his
blazing speed and penchant for hitting the clutch shot, has proven
worthy of the faith the organization has put in him to run the show.

And you can see the similarities with the rest of the squad. Center
Domantas Sabonis isn’t the all-time great defender Draymond Green is,
but he, like Green, is the hub of the Kings’ offense, using his smarts
and passing ability to break down defenses.

Kevin Huerter is the Kings’ Klay Thompson facsimile — a catch-and-shoot
savant. Malik Monk is their mercurial but incendiary reserve giving
shades of Jordan Poole.

And then there’s Harrison Barnes, who was cast away by the Warriors when
they signed Kevin Durant, only to find his way to the Kings in 2019 and
re-signed with the team the following offseason.

By utilizing those players and putting them in an offensive system
predicated on constant movement, cuts, and screens — the Warriors’ way —
the Kings posted the best offensive season in the history of the NBA.

And while the offenses are a bit different, and only the Warriors
possess the ability to play solid defense, in a league where play can so
often be rote, the Warriors and Kings both play with joy, making this
playoff series an uplifting experience for casual fans across the world.

For the partisan crowd and the players themselves, the pace of this
series could prove exhausting.

>Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry #30 is guarded by Sacramento
Kings' Domantas Sabonis #10 in the second quarter of their NBA game at
the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, Nov. 7, 2022.
(Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

Following the Warriors’ blueprint, with the right pieces seemingly in
place, the Kings are on the path to perennial success after decades of
failure.

Pair that with the Warriors’ “win forever” mindset, and this rivalry —
which took the entire history of professional basketball to develop —
could be a consistent presence for years to come.

But if the Kings want to upset and upend the mighty Warriors in the here
and now, they’ll need to do something bold and brash.

Might it be time to bust out the full-court press?

--
Dieter Kurtenbach | Sports Columnist
Sports columnist Dieter Kurtenbach analyzes the amazing and roasts the
absurd in the world of sports for the Bay Area News Group. He was
previously a national sports columnist for Fox Sports and a staff writer
at the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can also be heard on KNBR
(104.5-FM, 680-AM). He graduated from the University of Missouri in
Columbia, Mo., with a BA degree in journalism.