After digesting their Thanksgiving feast, the Portland Trail Blazers host a Sacramento Kings team that follows their franchise’s generational MO and has been disappointing yet again this season.

Portland Trail Blazers (7-12) vs. Sacramento Kings (9-10) – Fri. November 29th – 7pm Pacific

How to watch via antenna or cable: Check out your options on the Rip City Television Network

How to watch via streaming: BlazerVision in Oregon and Washington; League Pass everywhere else

Trail Blazers injuries: Robert Williams III, Jerami Grant, Kris Murray (daily); Donovan Clingan, Matisse Thybulle (out)

Kings injuries: DeMar DeRozan, Isaiah Crawford, Trey Lyles, Mason Jones (Out of)

Sacramento is 2-5 in its last seven games, completely blowing a 12-point lead in the first half to the Timberwolves by a total of 12 points in the third quarter. To put it bluntly, this is not the season they expected or hoped for.

In contrast, the Blazers may be winning a little TOO much for the franchise’s liking, but a recent injury to Donovan Clingan (and another injury to Matisse Thybulle) and continued shambolic play from Anfernee Simons could hinder their ability to outperform Expectations. To his credit, Simons has had some flashes over the last few games… and as Mike Richman of the Locked On Blazers podcast recently quipped: Whether you want Simons to stay or be traded, you want that he plays better.

Whether he and other Blazers players can take advantage of the Kings’ mediocre defense remains to be seen (see the “What to Watch for” section for more on why that might not happen).

Reader questions

Before most games, we ask all of you to improve our preview by asking us questions that we can answer! Look out for posts like this to add your questions and have them (possibly) answered right here in these previews! Full disclosure: I also reached out to my own circle of friends to lighten the question a bit.

From Grady W:

What do you think is Toumani Camara’s ceiling?

A solid starter, but if he adds more dribbling, he could be a sub-All-Star or better. While his usage increased slightly in his second season, his true shooting decreased. Yes, he passes a bit more, but he still doesn’t have enough offensive power or respect from defenses to open himself up more to his teammates. Someone much smarter than me, our own Adrian Bernecich, created a profile on Camara last month suggesting that his three-point shooting needs to improve in order for him to reach his peak performance. Bernecich also warned that “given his age, the gap between Camara’s current play and his ceiling isn’t all that great.” However, I rate Camara a bit higher and have seen enough NBA players blossom later in life to hope so The same could apply to him, although Camara is shockingly old (my age minus 16 years).

From Ryan W:

What is the direction of the team? Why do veterans play so much when it’s a youth movement, or why do the young guys see time when the team thinks they can compete?

Because the veterans have to play well to achieve trade value in the league. None of Anfernee Simons (who has been conspicuously bad this year), Jerami Grant (who has been sneakily bad), or Deandre Ayton (who goes by Deandre Ayton) is playing well enough to command neutral trade value, let alone positive value. One could argue that Robert Williams III is, but he still has a long way to go to prove to other GMs that he can stay on the court (in the meantime, he probably won’t be allowed to play back-to-back games at any point this year ). Season). And besides, young players need SOME structure to develop, so that’s not the absolute worst thing in the world. Unfortunately, it feels more and more like Cronin will be forced to cut his losses and accept less than he hoped for most of these players, or keep them and close the team with them on the roster let whatever it does.

From James G:

My question is: Where will Chauncey Billups train next?

…JAMES!

From James G (as an addendum):

If the Blazers were to surprise everyone and make a trade to be considered a contender, what player would they need to add to enter this discussion?

As much as the delusional Blazers fan in me wants to seriously consider it… the Blazers are more than one player away from keeping up. The closest trade that would get them all broken and stars aligned, if everyone got healthy and every young player took a step forward, would be trading Deandre Ayton and his contract for a player The one that fits the Blazers better, but the other team doesn’t want it anymore. How much closer would, say, Brandon Ingram make the Blazers a scary team? Not very. And if you look at the list of players with similar salaries (CJ McCollum, Julius Randle, Khris Middleton, De’Aaron Fox of the Kings), you’ll find somewhere at the end of the spectrum from “unrealistic” to “uninspiring.” If Joe Cronin wanted to be fired immediately and mortgage his future, perhaps the Blazers could trade Shaedon Sharpe, Donovan Clingan and future picks for more immediate help, but the chances of that happening are as high as the chances of Portland being chosen to host the All-Star Game in the next decade: barely there.

From RipCity47:

What “good for both teams” trade could we make with the Kings to help them compete this year while also helping us capture the flag?

I’ll leave it to someone else in the comments section to grab this one. From Bfan40: “When I watched their games against us, I thought they were missing big substitutes. They could use a healthy RW3 or maybe Ayton (but his high salary is hard to match). We could use one of their shooters (Huerter, McDermott), maybe even Trey Lyles or Keegan.”

The problem is that the Kings seem to be trying as hard as they can, and I don’t think losing valuable depth pieces is something they would be particularly interested in unless it was for a true difference-maker.

From jtkerr791:

Kris Murray seemed like a more competent player this year. His brother Keegan appears to have regressed. Is this a Dorian Gray-esque situation in which one brother improves by draining energy from the other? At what point does Kris have the strength and quality of two NBA players, and will this lead to his brother’s death or just a sustained recovery?

The most likely outcome is that both brothers will eventually start flickering like a dying lightbulb, playing equally well and equally badly at the same time, leaving both Sacramento and Portland enjoying aggressively mediocre wings for the duration of their careers.

From conspirator5:

Did you know that the Kalua Pork Nachos at Kamaaina at Moda Center are a much better value than the Pulled Pork Nachos at Courtside BBQ?

I didn’t! Good view.

From Tiparillo:

Are you more surprised by the Kings or Blazers’ record?

Honestly, Blazers! The Kings always disappoint.

From zigzag:

When are we launching Scoot over Ant?

Maybe never… as mentioned above, Ant needs to play better, and it seems unlikely he would be OK or at his best on the bench even if it were worth a try.

What you should pay attention to:

The ball goes through the basket…or not. While Sacramento ranks 6th in the NBA in field goal percentage, Portland ranks last. While the Kings rank 2nd in effective two-point field goal percentage, the Blazers rank last. There the team from California is in 10th place in the offensive rating, the team from Oregon is… oh! 29th out of 30! Take a look at this. The Blazers’ offense was pretty pathetic, and while the Kings aren’t a defensive juggernaut, there’s a pretty big difference between these two teams’ ability to score, even if their records aren’t all that different.

About the opponent:

Chris Biderman of the Sacramento Bee writes about how Sacramento survived a turbulent game and pulled out a win against the Minnesota Timberwolves:

But the game turned around in the third quarter and the lead was lost just as quickly. Sabonis picked up his fourth foul midway through the third period, stayed in the game and picked up his fifth foul 35 seconds later. It came as the Wolves went on a game-changing run, outscoring the Kings 29-12 in the frame and 14-4 after Sabonis’ exit. Their 12 points were their lowest total in a quarter of this season; They scored 12 goals in the first quarter of last Friday’s loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. But the Kings came back in the fourth after trailing by as many as 10. Monk tied the game at 102 after hitting back-to-back threes, then found Fox for a 3 to give Sacramento the lead again, and Fox hit another triple after that off the dribble against Jaden McDaniels. Fox then said a few words to a fan who was sitting next to the Timberwolves bench on the way back across the court.

Athlon Sports’ Mark Medina shares how Kings guard De’Aaron Fox is enjoying a successful year:

Fox has already reached record-breaking milestones in the 2024-25 season en route to a possible second NBA All-Star appearance. This coincided with the Kings’ uncertainty over their postseason ceiling, not to mention their candidacy. Fox ranks among the NBA’s best players in points per game (28.1, seventh), deflections (65, second) and points scored in the final five minutes of the game (50, first). With outstanding scoring performances against the Minnesota Timberwolves (60) and the Utah Jazz (49), Fox joined Wilt Chamberlain and Kobe Bryant as the only players in NBA history to combine for at least 109 points in consecutive games, according to the Elias Sports Office. In his eighth NBA season, Fox has shown that he is one of the best point guards in the league. “Right at the top,” Los Angeles Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “I don’t understand how you can stop him at his speed.”