The narrative comes easy. The Sacramento Kings will play a terrible Philadelphia 76ers team on Wednesday, and they might lose to a Sixers squad that is trying to lose. The road trip that started with DeMarcus Cousins saying his team “had to get three” wins in four tries will probably end in “nil,” and the team will fire head coach George Karl. The Kings will play at home against Denver on Friday, try really hard and probably win, and re-take to a run at the playoffs after digging itself a 22-32 hole.

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Last weekend began with former King Bobby Jackson, an integral member of the championship-contending Sacramento squads from the early aughts, diving into Karl on local TV:

“I think i could come off this set and do a much better coaching job right now.” - @TheBobbyJackson NOT holding back on George Karl — Sactown Royalty (@sactownroyalty) February 6, 2016

… and it continued with the embarrassment of fielding an “optional shootaround” in the hours before its eventual loss to Cleveland on Monday.

Rajon Rondo, who is rarely pleased with anything but himself, was not pleased:

Rondo: "With optional shootarounds it’s tough. ... When 3 or 4 guys show up for shootaround this morning, how can you expect to win.?" — Jason Jones (@mr_jasonjones) February 9, 2016

Rajon Rondo, Omri Casspi and Seth Curry were the only three players to attend Kings shoot around this morning, according to a team source. — Jake Fischer (@JakeLFischer) February 9, 2016

Several other Kings, however, denied that fewer than a lineup’s worth showed up to shootaround. Deadspin noted that forwards Quincy Acy and Caron Butler called into question Jones’ and Fischer’s reporting, without tweeting, exactly, how many Kings showed up on Monday morning.

It’s possible that Acy and Butler (and, hell, seven or eight others) showed up for treatment while Curry, Rondo, and Casspi were the only ones to, y’know, shoot around, and in that case we’d just be arguing over semantics, which is apparently what Twitter is for.

Still, it’s not a good look. George Karl is now in his fourth decade of coaching professionals, and he knows when teams a day off. With his job on the line, though, for Karl to give an “eh, your call”-toss off to shootaround right before what could be the last game of his coaching career is astonishing. Karl’s career, even with its ups and downs, has been directed by his pugnacious spirit. Are things that obvious that, in what could be his last week in the NBA, he doesn’t really have the will to walk things through with a full roster 24 hours after a day game?

The Kings feature the league’s best low post center in DeMarcus Cousins and a point guard in Rondo who thrived in an exacting (if not always efficient) Boston Celtic offense, and yet they run like the 1992 Denver Nuggets. The team is led by a neophyte general manager in Vlade Divac whose meteoric rise to the top of the team’s food chain still baffles, as does his decision to deal draft picks for cap space last June. The team hasn’t made the playoffs since 2006 and appears ready to hire its tenth (and then possible 11th, this summer) coach during that drought.

How, in a league that is growing smarter and smarter by the hour, does any of this happen?

It’s as if the Kings are doing all the work for the dozen or so teams marked by backwardness and awful decision-making in the 1990s. Even the Lakers seem to be running a respectable tank job. And if the squad somehow turns it all around and earns the right to be first round fodder for the Golden State Warriors in the playoffs, they’ll lose the rights to their first round draft pick this June.

All because nobody has the votes – the literal votes – to stand up to owner Vivek Ranadive. The boss fancies himself a forward-thinking guy and well-heeled tinkerer, which is just fine, but there are ages-old tenets to franchise building that you can’t ignore. Notching 45 wins, sometimes, just ain’t worth it. The general manager, coach, and star have to be on the same page. You just can’t field a winner with disparate agendas.

The deeper fear through all of this is the idea that Cousins’ personal well might be personally poisoned. That any anger issues he may have entered the league with could have dissipated over time had he joined anything above a laughable franchise. Six years into this nonsense, could you blame the guy for being perpetually salty, even for the rest of his career?

Story continues