Under-siege Sydney coach Andrew Gaze has brutally branded the Kings the worst team in the NBL and described their current plight as 'scary'.
Gaze delivered an old-fashioned, paint-stripping post-match spray at his team, shortly after their humiliating 114-84 loss to the Adelaide 36ers on Saturday night - two days after New Zealand thumped the Kings by 17 points in Auckland.
"In this early stage, I think there are three clearly really dominant teams (Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide), the rest are very good and then there's us," said second-year mentor Gaze.
"That's how the rankings are right now.
"It's a scary proposition because there are some issues there that you can't fix quickly.
"There are a lot of elements to it that you look at and say we're well below being able to compare with the better teams."
Gaze - indisputably the greatest player in NBL history after scoring a record 18,909 points across 612 games with the Melbourne Tigers from 1984-2005 - has found the coaching caper tougher, his team's plight compounded with Kevin Lisch (torn calf) sidelined for the next two months, robbing the Kings of their captain, floor general and a dual NBL MVP.
Gaze knows club management will make any decision they deem necessary - on him or the roster - but the five-time Olympian believes any short-term improvement will have to come organically rather than by making wholesale changes.
"To go from where we are to the top teams, that's a much tougher proposition unless you bring in a couple of Captain Marvels and then it can change pretty quickly," Gaze said.
"Through my experiences as a player and going through these very tough times, there is no simple wand, unless we bring in four new players - and we're not going to do that.
"Management will go about their decision-making and do their thing but you've got to look in the mirror.
"Until such a time that you acknowledge your problem, it takes a hell of a lot longer to fix it.
"Hopefully we've got some evidence now that the players don't see this as an aberration, they see it as an area in need of urgent attention.
"If we go into our shell and start pointing the finger and blaming people, we're doomed for the rest of the season."
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