Sacramento Kings: Crowded frontcourt complicates 2019-20 outlook

Predictions

De’Aaron Fox’s 3-ball hovers around league average, which is just enough to eclipse 20 points per game. He builds on a successful sophomore season, cements his status as the franchise player, and validates his No. 33 ranking on Sports Illustrated‘s Top 100 players list.

Buddy Hield continues to be an excellent second option, maintaining a good scoring output on fewer shots than last season. Some of those shots go to Harrison Barnes, who brings a mix of heroics and frustration and polarizes the fan base.

Marvin Bagley benefits from all three of those guys. Since he’s not tasked with running the show offensively, he exerts more energy on defense and becomes a passable stopper. Rim protection is still wonky due to his recklessness and mediocre positioning, but overall he gives the team hope for the future.

Bogdan Bogdanovic solidifies a role as a spot starter and secondary playmaker. When Barnes slides to the 4, he takes minutes on the wing and complements the core four better than anyone else.

The offense is fine for the most part. Fox pushes enough to get a ton of transition buckets with Bagley and Harry Giles and the trio of Barnes, Hield and Bogdanovic do enough otherwise to keep defenses honest.

Conversely, the defense is poor. Bagley plays through his mistakes and Dewayne Dedmon can’t cover for all of them. Every non-Dedmon option at the 5 is a negative on the less glamorous end, putting the impetus on the offense to be productive for 48 minutes.

This team is better than last year’s iteration, but not by enough to catapult into the top eight. That’s not a bad thing though; the West is just freakin’ loaded. Between Golden State, Denver, Portland, Utah, Houston, both Los Angeles teams and San Antonio, it’s difficult to see one of them doing worse than Sac-town.

Take the Thunder, Pelicans and Mavericks into account too and suddenly the playoff race is more cramped than the Kings’ frontcourt.

The Kings finish around the same record as last year, only moving down in the standings because of an arbitrary conference system.