Sacramento Kings: Another Lost Season?
At the midway point of the season, the Sacramento Kings are in a familiar situation. They’re eight games behind the surging Suns for the eighth seed in the Western Conference and it’s looking like another disappointing year.
After a close loss to the Blazers, the Kings are now 16-25 and the playoffs are looking more and more like a long shot. In a game where the Blazers were missing their starting center, Robin Lopez, and with LaMarcus Aldridge leaving with an injury, the Kings failed to take advantage of their favorable situation.
After a promising 5-1 start to the season, the Kings looked like they might be on their way to the playoffs. For a team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2006, a postseason appearance even as the eighth seed would be an impressive accomplishment in the loaded West.
The frustrating part for the Kings is that at a certain point, they need to realistically assess their expectations, instead of finding fault with a quality head coach. Unrealistic expectations in the daunting Western Conference and an unproven coach in Tyrone Corbin are a recipe for disaster.
They have a formidable big three with DeMarcus Cousins, Rudy Gay and Darren Collison leading the way but they lack the role players all the other playoff teams in the Western Conference have.
The Kings don’t have any reliable shooters who can space the floor consistently and they lack a defensive strategy under coach Tyrone Corbin. A 23rd-ranked defense, especially in the “Bestern” Conference, isn’t going to get it done.
Much like how the Pistons seemed lost last season defensively until Stan Van Gundy came and turned things around, the Kings don’t have a proven leader to implement a defensive system with the right personnel.
It was unfortunate to see coach Mike Malone get fired after an impressive start. After the Kings lost Cousins for 10 games in a stretch where they went 2-8, Malone was on thin ice and he was the easiest scapegoat for owner Vivek Ranadive. Malone was a defensive-minded coach who didn’t have much to work with once Cousins went down.
Under Malone, the Kings were the 19th-ranked defense in the league, but are really struggling under Corbin, only ranking 27th.
Ultimately, there are a few glaring shortcomings for the Kings. They lack role players who can shoot threes at a high clip and defend. The Kings rank 22nd in three-point percentage and 30th in three-pointers made. Every other team in the playoff hunt in the West has reliable three-point shooters and can space the floor effectively.
The Kings also don’t have any continuity either in their personnel and especially when it comes to coaches. It isn’t easy to coach a fledgling team in the hypercompetitive Western Conference. Coaches need to be given time to implement their system and it could take a few seasons to develop a winning culture after so many seasons of mediocrity.
Fortunately, being a small market in Sacramento, the Kings have locked up a transcendent player in DeMarcus Cousins. He’s averaging 23.9 points, 12.6 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. Only two other players have ever put up these numbers by their age-24 season:
| Per Game | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rk | Player | Season | Age | Tm | PTS | TRB | AST |
| 1 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar* | 1971-72 | 24 | MIL | 34.8 | 16.6 | 4.6 |
| 2 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar* | 1970-71 | 23 | MIL | 31.7 | 16.0 | 3.3 |
| 3 | Kareem Abdul-Jabbar* | 1969-70 | 22 | MIL | 28.8 | 14.5 | 4.1 |
| 4 | Elgin Baylor* | 1958-59 | 24 | MNL | 24.9 | 15.0 | 4.1 |
Provided by Basketball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 1/20/2015.
The Kings may need another season or two to realistically contend in the West, but the good news is they have the foundation in place to be a good team for many years to come.