Sacramento Kings: Considering Emmanuel Mudiay

Mar 18, 2014; Dallas, TX, USA; Emmanuel Mudiay of Prime Prep Academy poses for a portrait. He is a finalist for the USA Today Player of the Year Award. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports /

Sometimes it’s too hard not to delve into the untapped, the unconventional, and the unknown. The Sacramento Kings, whose better angels implore them to stay the course of rational, needs-based shopping, may be looking at finally filling the missing backcourt partner for center DeMarcus Cousins. The tantilizing special offering that seems to be descending into their lap? One-time Guangdong Southern Tiger and no-time SMU Mustang Emmanuel Mudiay, the buzz-baiting, Texas-via-Kinshasa 6-foot-5 guard.

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While much of the Kings’ off-season, pre-draft (always-hyphenated) discourse has been around securing a partner in crime with whom Cousins would share a frontcourt, Mudiay’s falling with the tides of speculation have made him a possible snag at No. 6. This is something no humble lottery team can ignore. Playmakers are in high demand amongst the Kings’ front office and coaching bench, and the pace at which the new player (and his teammates) can execute is as important as to how they do it.

Sacramento’s playmaker in chief, of course, is a man who has spent his life crafting exciting basketball in various small markets throughout the NBA: head coach George Karl. Karl’s coaching career had been littered with guards including Gary Payton, Hersey Hawkins, Sam Cassell, Ray Allen, Chauncey Billups, Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson, and Ty Lawson. He’s seen all types, from ball hogs to ball distributors, and he has stated a need for someone on who is more capable of the latter than the former in order to make Sacramento’s game more effective and entertaining. One might combine those elements into a single descriptor – responsible basketball.

Mudiay’s time with the Southern Tigers saw him providing 18 points per game in just over 31 minutes, shooting .478 overall – with .342 from three-point range. His per-game contributions in rebounding (6.25), assists (5.92), and steals (1.58) were proven to be solid, and given that Mudiay opted to spend his pre-draft purgatory in a professional setting, he has likely been exposed to a test environment more suited to becoming a Karl team draftee than he would have if he’d opted to spend a year with Larry Brown at SMU. The CBA’s style of play is known for showcasing scorers and for shirking defense. Officiating is not up to par with NBA standards by any means, and defense is often left by the wayside to avoid lopsided calls for home teams.

Though this may seem like a negative – a player having already earned over a million dollars at 19 for not having to play with defensive fundamentals emphasized – Mudiay has been unusually endowed with the chance to develop a rapid offensive pace at an early point in his career. Mudiay chose not to spend his time with the Southern Tigers simply darting from baseline to baseline, though that would have been something of which he was capable.

He is a versatile offensive guard who is unselfish with the basketball, seeing opportunities around him and empowering a give and take that would be put to good use with the Kings. When that established sharing is combined with his speed, it encourages his teammates to keep up with him, as they know they’ll be a part of the action in transition play. Ironically, even without the guidance of a professor or principles in Larry Brown, Mudiay shows that he can do what Brown would have asked of him – to “play the right way.”

There will need to be some intensive crash course work on defense, but one assumes that given his advanced skills on offense, Mudiay will be able to hunker down and develop the other side of his court vocabulary with some NBA-level tutoring. His free-throw and perimeter shooting will need work as well, but the simple fact that he is more than willing to find talented perimeter shooters and enable them is a sign that his orientation matches Karl’s.

Karl, a member of Brown’s coaching tree, would be fortunate to have another young guard with the genuine talent Mudiay possesses. He and David Stockton (on whose bandwagon I am firmly affixed) could give some real depth were they to split backcourt duties in the next few years.

Though he chose not to work out for the Kings, and though he’s had a little bout of ankle trouble (a sprain cost him his last four games with Guangdong this past season), Mudiay still represents an honest shot at creating the kind of team atmosphere the organization hopes to foster. Whether another guard is the way to do that remains to be seen, but we’ll know if the Kings’ preferences have shifted in the last year by Thursday evening.

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