Sacramento Kings: Complete grades for the 2019 NBA offseason
By Phil Watson
Signing Cory Joseph
The Sacramento Kings made a solid veteran addition in the backcourt by signing combo guard Cory Joseph to a three-year, $37 million deal.
Joseph, who will turn 28 next month, will never wow you with his dazzling stats. He’s never averaged double-figures for a season in his eight NBA campaigns and has never started more than 22 games in a single season.
What Joseph will do, however, is be there, every day. He’s missed just four games in the last four seasons and is coming off a two-year stint with the Indiana Pacers during which he played in every game.
The 29th overall pick by the San Antonio Spurs in 2011, Joseph is coming to his fourth team and he brings with him 82 games of playoff experience. Considering there is not a single player in the NBA who has played in a postseason game in a Sacramento uniform, that’s important.
Joseph’s shooting fell off a bit last season for the Pacers, as he averaged 6.5 points, 3.9 assists, 3.4 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 25.2 minutes per game, hitting 41.2 percent overall and 32.2 percent on 2.1 3-point attempts per game.
A career 32.7 percent shooter from deep, that’s not a strength of Joseph’s game. Instead, he’s a drive-and-kick style of point guard who can also play at the 2 for short bursts.
What Joseph brings to Sacramento is valuable reserve minutes and a veteran voice in the ear of young De’Aaron Fox. For a team trying to take the next step and contend for a playoff berth, that can be significant (think Jared Dudley with the Brooklyn Nets last season).