In a season full of disappointment, Richaun Holmes was one of the few bright spots for the Sacramento Kings last year. Brought in for energy and depth off the bench, Holmes quickly supplanted the disappointing Dewayne Dedmon in the starting lineup. Dedmon was signed to be a perfect complement to Marvin Bagley, someone who could stretch the floor on offense and protect the rim on defense. Unfortunately for the Kings, Dedmon regressed in a major way, and Bagley wasn’t able to stay on the floor either.
Instead the Kings turned to the pairing of Nemanja Bjelica and Richaun Holmes. Bjelica provided the consistent floor spacing, while Holmes brought the energy on defense and was a deadly pick and roll partner for De’Aaron Fox and Bogdan Bogdanovic. Holmes’ efficiency was near the top of the league last season, shooting 64.8% from the field and posting a team-high offensive rating of a ridiculous 131. The Kings were a flat out better team when Holmes was on the floor.
With the season set to start in a few weeks, Holmes is presumably still penciled in as Sacramento’s starting center. The Kings did bring in veteran Hassan Whiteside for depth, and Marvin Bagley should be back and healthy as well.
Whiteside on paper is better at a few things than Holmes. He’s a far better rebounder and shot blocker, but doesn’t provide the same efficiency on offense and isn’t nearly as good of a perimeter defender. He also isn’t as good a fit for a fast paced transition offense.
Bagley on the other hand is someone the Kings need to play. After last season, it shouldn’t be presumed that he gets a starting spot from Day 1. I could definitely see Luke Walton incorporating him slowly to get him back to game speed, but if all is good with his health, he probably will be back in the starting lineup sooner rather than later. While some believe Bagley’s best long term position is at Center, I think the Kings won’t opt to use him that way except in small sample sizes, at least for this year.
Bagley’s fit with Holmes is not as complementary as Holmes’ fit with Bjelica, but it also isn’t terrible. Both would thrive in a fast paced system, and while Bagley does need the ball in his hands, Holmes does not. Holmes has also indicated that he might try to bring his range back out to the three point arc this season. He hasn’t attempted a three in a game for two seasons, but in his second year with the 76ers he made 27 of 77 attempts (35.1%). Holmes also showed great touch from the free throw line last year, making 78.8% of his attempts. If he could add an outside shot to his game, the problems of fit go away for the most part.
Even if he doesn’t though, Holmes still seems to be the best option for the Kings at Center. There’s a case to be made that Holmes was the most impactful player on the Kings last season, even if others put up better counting stats. Regardless of whether or not Holmes starts though, he’s going to bring the same energy and effort every night, and that’s why Kings fans love him.
OT: And here we go….
This is good
Fox
Buddy
Barnes
Bagley
Holmes
I see this to start the season, with Joseph/Haliburton/Robinson/Bjelica/Whiteside as the primary backups to start.
hopefully Jeffries and Woodard can earn time though.
I’d prefer Haliburton starting at SG, with Buddy as the 6th man, but it makes sense to start Buddy to build up his trade value.
My absolute preferred starting five:
Fox
Hali
Buddy
Barnes
Bagley
I disagree. It makes sense to start Buddy as he’s the better NBA player than Halliburton at least as of now. You should be starting your best players, not the players you hope will be one of your best someday.
Agreed, I’m speaking more towards who I’d like to watch play than what makes sense for winning. Prefer to see the young guys and to assist the tank.
Well, I’d like to see Halliburton, Ramsey and Woodard earn their minutes. But that’s a general preference I have for young players.
I think Halliburton should be getting regular rotation minutes from the start, whether they’re “earned” or not. Gotta find out what we’ve got.
The second rounders? Absolutely, they have to win any minutes they get, IMO.
Minutes are not given they’re earned IMO. But we’re not coming into agreement on that. I think he’ll get minutes just because he can handle the ball and the Kings need that.
Whether that’s considered earning minutes, I have no idea. But IMO it illustrates why this team won’t be that good.
Thank you Kings Herald for the Belle Wholesale ads!
Keep looking for the ads for Lexus of Roseville, Diamond & Gold Vault, and La Bou!
If the choice for starter is between 2 guys of near equal level the one with the more consistent production wins. That would be Holmes. Whiteside’s effort ebbs and flows, that makes him a bench guy.
He was our starter last year. It’s should be his job until someone else comes in and plays better.
Holmes has earned the starting spot. He is exactly what the Kings need there. Unless he comes in and completely blows everyone away, Whiteside should be the back up.
considering the first game is 3 weeks away and they haven’t even had one practice together, Holmes BEST be the starting C.
unless it’s MBIII and Luke is embracing the small ball lineup.
If there is even such a thing as camp competition these days, it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see Holmes beat out everyone for the starting C spot.
As an aside, I’m curious what Holmes B Ref ORtg would be if he played close to 2500 minutes next season. I wonder if it would stay anywhere near the 130 range as did last year in about 1250 minutes. My feeling is it wouldnt be that high but because Holmes has a high IQ it would still be in the low to mid 120’s. And that’s damn impressive.
I like Richaun Holmes. In case you couldn’t tell.
What’s not to like?
There may be a training camp battle brewing for the starting power forward spot:
No, no, no. That’s not the controversy today. The controversy is that the media members like Jason Anderson, Jason Jones, James Ham and Sean Cunningham all said this AT the same time.
Freak out now. Isn’t it freaky Friday?
LOL, keep ringing that bell, R. I suppose it’s not impossible – but if Parker is the starter, I’ll finally agree that we’re tanking the season.
I don’t actually think he’ll be the starter. I do think it’s possible he’ll earn a bigger role than people realize
IMO, Parker’s talent was never in question, the problem has always been his acceptance of what his role should be. He thought he was a star player when he should’ve been happy with a simple role to play.
His mental awareness might be catching up to his talent and if he can accept a stretch 4 role off the bench, he could be pretty useful.
Watch yourself NKF. Agreeing with Fake Bratz is a slippery slope. One day you’ll be nodding in agreement with something basketball related, the next you’re sneaking into AMPM at 3am with syringes trying to inject nacho cheese into your veins.
There’s still room on the Jabari Parker bandwagon folks!
(and yes the bandwagon will make a stop at the ampm)
Alright. I’m in. But they’d better have Crystal Geyser Mineral Water.
The olde english 40s served on the bandwagon are like 90% water, so you should be good.
Yeah, no.
If he can shoot threes then he’s the perfect big on a perimeter team in today’s game.
If you guys don’t follow richaun on Instagram, go check him out. That jumper looks like silk. I’m really excited to see Holmes w/ Woodard as the 4/5 combo. Neither one can put the ball on the deck but they both play a similar bully ball style. Woodards, when he dunks, leaves you wondering how the board didn’t shatter. I haven’t see that kind of power behind a dunk since peak Howard. Now if they can both space the floor as well, we might just be looking at our front court of the future.
The season is mainly about getting Bagley up to speed, and hopefully see some of the rookies take the huge step of becoming solid NBA players.
To the first point, I don’t really know who should necessarily start at the 4 & 5. You can base it around matchups, say if you’re playing the Pels, and Adams is starting, then you’d want to have Whiteside out there for the tip.
The main thing, I think, is determining what lineup combinations are going to best allow Bagley to succeed. I don’t think that there’s a single more-important item on the agenda than Marvin getting his (hopefully healthy) legs under him, and him becoming a solid starter. I’m hoping that Marvin has improved his shot sufficiently to at least force his defender to be dragged out to the arc. That’s a big if, but it would open up the other aspects of his offense in a major way.
As of this writing, Bagley and Whiteside offer no threat to stretching the floor, but on the other hand, until we actually see it, neither does Holmes (I do think that he will be able to step up).
So to my mind, having Bjelica playing considerable minutes with all three of them might be the key to Bagley’s improvement, and very possibly Holmes’. Winning games with Bagley on the bench would be entirely counterproductive. If it isn’t obvious to Lose Walton, and so few things seem to be, I do hope that McNair will be crystal clear as to what Walton’s job is.
Besides, he’s halfway there. He already excels at losing games.
Badge Legend