Sacramento Kings
The 2020-21 Sacramento Kings season can be defined by having an outside chance at the West play-in but missing the playoffs for a 15th consecutive season, the longest such streak in the NBA.
What did we learn?
The Kings were consistently inconsistent — so damn streaky once again.
A four-game winning streak to start the month of February was followed by a nine-game losing streak.
A five-game winning streak towards the end of March was followed by another nine-game losing streak.
No team in the league has a harder time getting out of a funk than the Kings. To us, that has a lot to do with coaching. But over the last few weeks of the season, the Kings won six out of seven games and eight out of 11 which included not one, not two, but three wins against Dallas. This is the end of the season stretch that ultimately saved Luke Walton’s job as GM Monte McNair says that Walton will return for year 3 of his 5-year deal. Walton also appears to have a full endorsement from his players which undoubtedly goes a long way.
De’Aaron Fox did take his game up another level, averaging a career-high 25 points per game to go along with 7 assists as the Kings floor general and leading scorer. His hair is missed, but this is no Sampson situation. It actually looks like the game is getting easier for him. Fox likes to sneak by you with his speed and then next time stop on a dime, keeping defenders off balance and trying to keep up. He still loves the behind-the-back dribble and his step-backs are slicky slick.
As Fox’s scoring has increased all four years he’s been in the league, fellow Dash Bro Buddy Hield’s scoring dropped for a second straight season. However, Hield did finally crack the double-digit three-point attempts per game mark, averaging 10.2 three-pointers while still shooting 39 percent. He became the fastest player in NBA history to reach 1,000 three-pointers in his first 350 games, breaking Steph’s previous record of 369.
Here is another stat for you: In his five-year NBA career, Buddy Hield has missed three games total. THREE. Hield is as reliable as a player as it gets but while his shooting and dependability are profound, his game seems rather one-dimensional on the court. The Kings need to find a way to unlock more from him. If only they had a fully competent head coach.
Tyrese Haliburton was the steal of the draft, taken #12 overall, absolute highway robbery! It was so clearly evident right away that Halliburton was NBA-ready. He could pretty much do it all: space the floor and shoot, pass and set his teammates up, and defend with length. The fact that Halliburton averaged 53-41-86 shooting splits as a rookie is just absurd. Even more absurd is the fact that it took Luke Walton three months to finally put him in the starting lineup. (Are you sensing a theme here?)
Marvin Bagley had some games where you could see the light of day with him, it was starting to click here and there. And then he got hurt AGAIN. It’s becoming exceedingly difficult to keep track of all of his injuries, but it’s forever impossible to forget who he was drafted ahead of. For the record, the injury was a broken hand, his fourth major injury in just three seasons, incredibly bad luck.
Friend of the blog Richaun Holmes didn’t power dunk nearly as often this season. Probably because he was the only true plus-defender on this team that couldn’t stop a newborn deer from scoring. Holmes always brought intensity and fight onto the court with him, but he’s just one guy and the Kings finished last in the NBA in defensive efficiency. Up until the last two weeks of the season, Sacramento had the worst defensive rating of all-time. In May, they managed to keep four opponents (including the tanking Thunder twice) under 100 points to save their ass from certifiable infamy.
That’s where it starts for this team going forward. GM Monte McNair has to find a new coach and some defense.
Since he doesn’t want to do the former, he’s going to have to do the latter.
#KANGZ
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Did our preseason Over/Under prediction hit?
Under 27.5 wins, but this team should hopefully be more fun to watch this season.
Kings 2020-2021 Record: (31-41)
Nope, our preseason Over/Under prediction did not hit.
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What’s Next?
Find a true sense of direction and game plan tailored to your strengths with everybody on the same page. Luke Walton did at least have the Kings playing faster this season, up to 9th in the NBA in pace from 19th the season prior. Even higher would be great, let that Lambo loose!
If you paid attention to this piece, you won’t be surprised that we suggest the Kings use the #9 pick in the draft to take some defense. The very astute KOC suggests Keon Johnson from Tennessee, a versatile and explosive athlete and active on-ball defender sounds pretty, pretty good.
Free agency has been a disaster for Sacramento for quite some time and the Kings had one of the worst benches in the league. The Kings did look friskier after the deadline, though, with Moe Harkless and Terence Davis adding some punch. Both Harkless and Davis are free agents in addition to Richaun Holmes, Kyle Guy and Hasaan Whiteside. Holmes was by far the biggest contributor of the bunch.
The rumor-mill has floated the idea of Buddy Hield for Ben Simmons and if the Kings can find some additional shooting, we’re here for it. Fox and Simmons in the open court would be brazenly explosive. Simmons would surely help the defense and… he probably wouldn’t have to worry about the playoffs. Or how cool would it be if he was a part of changing the tide in Sac-Town.
Sign Mark Jones to a lifetime deal! Mark Jones is a great play-by-play announcer when he’s on ESPN, but when he’s on the local NBC Sports California with Doug Christie, it’s lights out fantastic.
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Favorite Kings Highlight from the 2020-2021 Season:
The Kings have several buzzer beaters over the last few seasons, but this one by The Black Falcon with a Grant Hill baseball inbounds pass from Fox and subsequent slap of Collin Sexton’s ass by Barnes is #1 in our book.
