Sacramento Kings: Playing The Lottery
With the NBA Draft Lottery less than a week away, fans of lesser regular-season outfits embarking on a rebuild or a refresh will have a chance to see their teams take a critical, and sometimes all too familiar, step.
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As the Sacramento Kings approach their ninth consecutive trip to the lottery, they are faced with the likelihood of once again picking mid-table, and with that comes the perennial choice: how to spend their solid but not all too obvious pick.
For the last couple years, ownership and the front office have focused on loading up their backcourt with offensive production (or at least offensive potential). In 2014, the Kings spent their No. 8 pick on a Canadian-born Michigan Wolverine named Nik Stauskas.
The 6’6″ shooting guard spent nearly the entirety of his rookie season coming off the bench (i.e. starting only in the season finale against the Lakers’ depressed bench and some D-League call-ups), averaging about 15 minutes and four points per game.
As yet, it will take a Summer League experience for the coaching staff and front office to see whether or not the 2014 pick was well-spent. Following that, it will take another season or two for Stauskas to really hit his stride individually, let alone with a team that’s sure to be in a changing state.
Prior to the crowdsourced pick last year, the 2013 draft saw the Kings take a 6’5″ Kansas shooting guard named Ben McLemore. Over his two Sacramento seasons, the Missouri-born McLemore has averaged nearly 30 minutes per game, with just less than 13 points. His second-season growth was promising, and his VORP is now in the black, at 0.8 for 2014-’15.
With a 21.5 percent chance of being awarded a top-three pick in this year’s Draft Lottery, the Kings have to keep in mind the possibility of being able to snag a Karl-Anthony Towns, or a Jahlil Okafor. That said, the likelihood of their ending up with a sixth or seventh pick in the first round is a predictable 74.4 percent.
While the tantalizing idea of the obvious top-three choice is to be kept in mind, the Kings will need to plan for their annual middle-of-the-pack choice.
The temptation to go after a guard like Emmanuel Mudiay or D’Angelo Russell (190 and 180 pounds, respectively; both 6’5″) may be strong, especially given the continued offensive weaknesses which came to the fore as much as any defensive issues this season.
It is time, however, for the Kings to look beyond alluring guards during their NBA Lottery visits. It is time to build around their franchise player, to bolster him while covering for his vulnerabilities.
What this means is that they must develop a frontcourt matchup to complement the versatile and dynamic DeMarcus Cousins.
While Cousins is as capable of dishing out disheartening blocks as he is scoring more than 20 points per game, he does not need to be an archetype for the rest of the roster.
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Cousins can certainly be the well-oiled joint on which a balanced and effective team hinges. As they’ve recently focused on building their offense at the cost of their defense, the Kings should be looking almost exclusively at bigs who live to hoard boards, stifle opposing shooters, and feed their own scorers while being able to provide adequate spacing.
As to who can tick those boxes, some names come to mind: Kentucky’s Willie Cauley-Stein, Arkansas’ Bobby Portis, and Latvian Kristaps Porzingis, currently playing in Spain. All are listed between 6’11” and 7’1″ and all are rather versatile, but defensively competent.
Cauley-Stein, who just legally became Willie Trill Cauley-Stein, most recently featured in Kentucky’s almost immaculate 2014-15 season. He is known for having a wealth of quickness, versatility, and an ability and propensity to go after opponents with intensity enough to satisfy George Karl‘s defensive and transition fantasies.
His offensive skills trail behind his defense, but this is something which may simply help to define his role and give the Kings’ coaching staff a clearer framework than a middling two-way prospect. Should Sacramento still have the option to pick him sixth, conventional wisdom says Cauley-Stein may be their man.
Razorback power forward Bobby Portis, who was this season’s SEC Player of the Year, is notably more balanced than Willie Trill. It’s true that he can provide some extra rebounding security for the team, but Portis would provide the bonus of distance shooting at his position.
His long twos and occasional threes are high release, feathery efforts, but his starting point is encouraging considering he’ll be entering a league which finds the stretch 4 to be more and more a fashionable piece. His passing game is solid, which would keep Andre Miller from being more of a workhorse than he ought to be during what could be his last season.
There is a case to be made for Portis being a 40/60 offense/defense switch-off player with Cousins, and it could make for some of the tempo Karl would favor.
The most eccentric pick of the aforementioned three would be forward/center Kristaps Porzingis. At 220 pounds with a 7’1″ frame, the lithe Latvian would need to bulk up for the NBA’s rigorous play — while not sacrificing the Euro qualities which make him an interesting prospect in the first place.
Porzingis’ novel fluidity for his size and genuine defensive drive make him attractive to those who want to see a sort of European showcase come to Sacramento, but it seems that much would need to be added to Porzingis to make him a threatening player. Frankly, the Kings already have too many project players (some of whom they’ll likely shed in the coming months).
Add to that the likelihood of Porzingis’ necessary additions taking away from all that would make him worthwhile, and he seems an unwise selection.
There are some options for the Kings in this year’s lottery, regardless of how high their pick may fall. Really, truly, though – the team’s revolving door of backcourt players needs to squeal to a halt at some point, if only for a year or two; let’s hope DeMarcus Cousins isn’t left to boogie by himself next season.
Next: The 30 Best Shooting Guards of All-Time
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