Jalon Dixon
Although some of the top free agents like Zach LaVine, Bradley Beal, and James Harden all chose to re-sign with their teams, the 2022 NBA offseason has still been pretty eventful.
First-time All-Star Dejounte Murray is teaming up with Trae Young to solidify the Atlanta Hawks’ backcourt.
In a massive trade, former Utah big man Rudy Gobert became the second half of the twin towers in Minnesota alongside Karl Anthony-Towns.
Jalen Brunson left the Western Conference finals runner-up Dallas Mavericks to join his father with the New York Knicks in the Big Apple.
Not to mention the Brooklyn Nets drama and the potential tragic demise of Charlotte forward Miles Bridges.
But amongst all the craziness, one team has been quietly wheeling and dealing in free agency: the Sacramento Kings.
Now it is easy to not get excited about Sacramento doing anything. It gets even easier if you factor in that the last real move they made before the offseason was sending a potential franchise cornerstone in Tyrese Haliburton to Indiana. A trade that many NBA fans still cannot wrap their heads around.
But what if I told you that the Sacramento Kings may actually be building something that makes sense? That for the first time in over a decade, the Kings just might enter the season with a competent, well-formulated roster?
As hard as this may be to believe, what Sacramento has done this offseason just might be the catalyst to helping them make real strides toward breaking their record-setting 16-year Playoff drought.
In order to see the vision, we first have to look at exactly what they have done and who they have acquired this offseason. The Kings’ moves this offseason are the following:
- Drafting forward Keegan Murray out of Iowa with the 4th overall pick
- Signing former Los Angeles Lakers guard Malik Monk to a two-year, $19 million deal
- Trading for former Atlanta Hawks guard Kevin Huerter for Moe Harkless, Justin Holiday, and a future first-round pick
- Signing veteran guards Matthew Dellavedova, Kent Bazemore, and Quin Cook to one-year deals
Now if you look at the names alone, outside of maybe Murray who balled out in Summer League, you probably do not see any real difference makers on this list. But if you focus less on the names and more on the value they bring, the picture will start to become a bit clearer.
There are two main things that Sacramento seemed to have been targeting this offseason: Shooting and Defense. Last season, the Kings had the 6th worst three-point shooting percentage at 34.4% and they only took 33.2 threes a game which ranked in the bottom 3rd of the league.
They also had the 4th worst defensive rating in the league ahead of only the Indiana Pacers, Portland Trailblazers, and Houston Rockets.
With this being the case, it seems pretty apparent that these two things were arguably the team’s biggest deficiencies last season. Well with these moves, they were actually able to address both of these issues in a relatively cost-effective way.
Starting with the three-point shooting, a theme amongst all six players acquired is that they all are 35% or better shooters from beyond the arc. Murray and Huerter lead the group as Murray shot 37.3% from three in his two seasons with the Hawkeyes and Huerter is a near 38% career three-point shooter.
Surrounding De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis with legitimate shooting talent will create more spacing for the two to operate within. Meaning more opportunities for Fox to use his speed and play downhill. More room for Sabonis to work in the low post and abuse passing lanes to hit cutters and shooters for easy assists. Just having more shooting alone will significantly help this team’s young duo by simplifying the game and creating easier opportunities to score.
Then when you look at the defensive end, they’ve got real tone setters in Dellavedova and Bazemore who you can play next to any point guard on the roster.
Despite being in and out of the league, Dellavedova has made a name for himself by carving out a role as a defensive specialist on the perimeter. Then there is Bazemore who already is familiar with the Kings as he was traded there by Portland back in 2020 and has embraced his role as a “Three and D” journeyman at the guard spot.
They can be secondary ball handlers, shoot the three a little bit, and can guard the opposing team’s best backcourt player.
Rookie Keegan Murray at 6-foot-8 with a 6-foot-11 has also shown promise as a smart, active wing defender. With his strength and size, Murray has shown that he can be effective as a power forward that can block shots, step out and guard on the perimeter while also being a real contributor as a help defender.
Then alongside some of the personnel, they have that could show out on the defensive end, you have new head coach Mike Brown. Brown was the defensive coordinator that helped the defending champion Golden State Warriors finish the season with the best defensive rating in the league (106.9).
Since becoming the head coach, he has made it abundantly clear the Kings’ roster has a lot of growing to do on the defensive end. But he has also expressed that he believes the team has the capability to do something special and that he is excited to see how it all comes together.
“People look at Steph Curry, [Nemanja Bjelica], Otto Porter, Jordan Poole, [Andrew] Wiggins in Minnesota, I mean I could go down the line of the personnel that we had with the Warriors and people did not think they could defend,” Brown said in his introductory press conference. “And somehow, someway, we ended up with the No.2 defense in the league. Now, will we be that next year? I don’t know. Probably not. It’s going to be a process but I’m excited about all the guys.”
“The potential here, I truly believe the potential is off the charts,” Brown added in his interview with NBC Sports California’s Kyle Draper. “It gets me excited thinking about it…The players here, I’m excited about.”
“There’s just a lot of opportunity here for this place to explode, and I want to be a part of it.”
So, when you look at the framework of what Sacramento is working towards, one thing you can say is that they have finally picked a direction. For better or worse, they are committed to trying to win as opposed to rebuilding and they want to do so through building around De’Aaron Fox.
By acquiring guard depth, veteran leadership, defense, and shooting the hope is that General Manager Monte McNair has finally built a roster that can maximize Fox and help him finally unlock the All-Star potential many believe he still has.
When looking at the roster now, this may actually be the best roster the Kings have started a season with in quite some time. Fox, Huerter, Harrison Barnes, Murray, and Sabonis are in the starting lineup. With a supporting cast of Dellavedova, Monk, Richaun Holmes, Davion Mitchell, Kent Bazemore, and Terence Davis.
That is a natural ten-man rotation that could potentially make some noise in the West. If so, McNair just might earn himself a heap of praise at the end of the season, especially if this team can break through and make the playoffs.
Make no mistake, this is not a championship-caliber team by any stretch. At least not yet. But for once in a long while, we might actually have to say, “Watch out for the Kings next season.”
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