The Sacramento Kings offseason has been regularly labeled as a summer of running it back. This narrative persists despite the additions of Sasha Vezenkov, Chris Duarte, and JaVale McGee (among several other backup centers), but I can understand it. After all, the Kings kept their primary core together. Their biggest offseason departures were Terence Davis, Chimezie Metu, and Richaun Holmes, who were 9th, 10th, and 11th in total minutes played for the Kings last season, respectively.
Overall the idea of running it back has been discussed in mostly positive terms. The Kings finally were good, so don’t disrupt a good thing, right? But along with that praise there has been a consistent caveat in discussing Sacramento’s prospects for the upcoming year.
Health.
“The Kings were abnormally healthy last season.” “The Kings can’t expect to be as healthy again this year.” It’s a common refrain.
But is it actually true?
Harrison Barnes played 82 games. Keegan Murray played 80. Domantas Sabonis played 79. 77 for Monk, 75 for Huerter, 74 for Lyles, and 73 for Fox. The Kings core played a lot of games.
That is different than the core remaining healthy. These discussions always seem to forget that Domantas Sabonis suffered an avulsion fracture in his thumb in December and simply decided to play through it for the remainder of the season.
It was also revealed this summer that Keegan Murray played through an avulsion fracture early in the season:
Keegan Murray said that he had an avulsion fracture (lower than a grade 1) and torn ligament in his left thumb early in the season. Very similar to Domantas Sabonis injury.
— James Ham (@James_HamNBA) May 1, 2023
De’Aaron Fox recently spoke about this with Deuce Mason and Morgan Ragan (in an absolute must-listen podcast for any Kings fan, trust me it is worth the nearly two hour runtime), sharing how he also played through a foot injury much longer than he should have:
In that same conversation Fox spoke about Trey Lyles playing through an injury, and about how Mike Brown’s culture and the complete buy-in from the team made guys play through injuries they otherwise might have missed a few games for.
And while it doesn’t show up in regular season totals, Fox also played through a fractured finger in his shooting hand in the playoffs. Sabonis also played through a bruised sternum following Draymond Green’s chest stomp. The Kings suffered plenty of impactful injuries last season, even if the game totals don’t reflect it.
Now, there are injuries that can impact your play, and there are injuries that you can’t play through. The Kings could suffer some injuries that players simply can’t play through. But outside of that, the Kings last season were simply the antithesis of the load management mindset that most teams have employed in recent years.
The Kings had their core players play more games than average relative to other teams in the league. The Kings also have a younger core than most other playoff contenders and I would fully expect them to miss fewer games than older, injury-prone cores like the Lakers, Clippers, Suns, or Warriors.
Any season can be impacted by bad luck with injuries, but I reject the premise that the Kings were unusually lucky with injuries last season. They were simply tough enough and determined enough to play through them.
I agree that contextualizing the nuances of injuries do show the Kings as being injured, and I appreciate that the culture of the team pushes players to play when they can, and play hard — that creates a type of mental toughness and overall chemistry that will serve you well (see Miami).
I think we can also see the team as lucky for only fielding the types of injuries that can be played through. On the flip side, there can be some benefits to injuries that force guys to sit out, in how it leads a team to be more malleable.
If, for example, Sabonis misses a month at some point this season, the Kings are going to have to adjust and find new ways to be effective in his absence. Yeah, they could go on a 12 game losing streak, but most likely it’ll actually lead to the team finding more balance and confidence in their lineups without the big man — something that they never quite found last season.
I submit for your consideration, that a big factor was the we have a high quality training and medical staff, to go along with the youth (or “Yute” as Vinny Gambini would say to Judge Chamberlain Heller.)
“Two whut?“
I’ll just repost what I posted a few weeks ago in terms of the Kings health last season with some added emphesis:
I’d lean on the side of “YES” the Kings were abnormally healthy last season. Could it be durable players, excellent training staff, and/or youth? Sure, but no other team was within 20 games of a healthy core. Even Fox played a higher percentage of games (89%) last season than over the past 3 seasons (average of 73%) . There is something definitely “abnormal” about that.
The Kings might just be well built. Like somebody thinks and does stuff about stuff.
My mental was abnormally healthy last year.
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