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The Sacramento Kings are now 1-3 since the Demarcus Cousins trade. While they did show some signs of life, it looks like they are going to try their best to keep their pick this year. If they are outside of the top 10, they owe the pick to the Chicago Bulls. If they get a pick better than the Philadelphia 76ers, then the 76ers get to swap. Luckily for Kings fans, the Pelican’s pick they got for Cousins will probably be a lottery pick as well.
Enough about the Kings’s poor management decisions, let’s talk about how they’re playing. As I mentioned before they are 1-3, they did manage to beat the Denver Nuggets who are in 8th in the West right now. During that game Willie Cauley-Stein shined with 29 points and 10 rebounds and a plus 17 for the game in 35 minutes. Also with a plus 17 was Tyreke Evans who they recently acquired in the Cousins trade. Evans had 15 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assist in 26 minutes. Steph Curry 2.0 aka Buddy Hield had 16 points and 6 rebounds in 26 minutes. Not to mention Buddy went an incredible 1 for 3 for 3s. Enough about poor Buddy Hield, he is a solid player and I was a big fan of him during the tournament last year.
During the three losses, the Kings have looked like the Kings we have come to know these past few years. When they faced the Hornets, all but three players were negative in the plus/minus charts. The only three who weren’t negative played 12 minutes, 5 minutes and Skal Labissiere played 22 minutes with 8 points and 13 rebounds.
Against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Darren Collison was the only starter who was a positive in the plus/minus. All starters scored in double digits, but the Kings high scorer of the night was 3-way tie between Ben McLemore, Kosta Koufos, and Willie Cauley-Stein, who all scored 14 points… Let that sink in. Their top-scoring player for the entire game was 14 points.
The game they just lost against the Brooklyn Nets was more of the same. However, one interesting thing about this game was the play of Ty Lawson, Buddy Hield, and Tyreke Evans. If Dave Joerger is reading this article, I think you should give these three more playing time together. Those three with Willie Cauley-Stein and then pick a player would be their best fourth quarter line-up. They could even play around with Ty Lawson, Arron Afflalo, Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans, and WCS.
So the Kings are looking at another losing season, but they have two young guys with potential to build around in Buddy Hield and Willie Cauley-Stein. They just need to draft the right players, and if there was ever a draft in which the Kings could get the right player, it would be this year’s draft. They can get some more pieces to build around and look to improve next season.
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