One of Monte McNair’s best moves as Sacramento Kings GM was last summer’s trade that brought Kevin Huerter to Sacramento in exchange for a protected first round pick. The outgoing pick will hopefully be conveyed this year, removing the lingering hindrance on future trade opportunities. But Kevin Huerter was such a vital piece to Sacramento’s success last season that there’s not really any debate about whether the owed pick was worth it.
Huerter had a breakout season in Sacramento last year. Despite still not being the primary option on offense, he found great success in the Kings offense. Huerter shot a career-best 40.2% from three on a career-high 6.8 3PAs per game. This led to a career high 15.2 points per game. And yet despite all these successes, it feels like Huerter still has room to grow. Red Velvet is just 25 years old, and despite the solid averages any Kings fan can tell you that they numbers could have been even better without a few slumps throughout the season.
For the Kings offense to continue to fire on all cylinders, Huerter’s gravity and his chemistry in the two-man game with Domantas Sabonis are vital. Huerter doesn’t need to raise his ceiling to have a huge impact on this team, he simply needs to raise his floor. Make those bad nights just slightly more productive. Because when Huerter is on, the Kings are hard to beat.
The nice thing about this roster is none of the core guys are in their prime years yet, perhaps aside from Sabonis. So, so much room to grow with the current roster.
Piggybacking off the previous article, I’d extend Monk right now if it’s contractually possible, I think his value only increases going into next offseason and the CAP continually increasing.
MM will have some trades up his sleeve that could include KH at some point, so having Monk locked in long term makes KH more expendable, not that I want KH traded but it gives MM options.
Imagine if KM, KH and Monk make leaps this season, we’d weirdly be loaded. Even Sabonis at 27, I see improvement coming,
there’s a dependable mid range jumper hidden somewhere there. And goodness Fox is still only 25 even though it seems like he’s been around forever. Imagine a Fox leap from all star to super star.
So much potential this season. LFG!
I believe in Red Velvet supremacy, Huerter will be better this year.
I am sensing that as well.
It looks like he’s worked on sculpting his physique and I suspect his conditioning and stamina as well. Hopefully that will aid his defense and rebounding and in raising his floor as GWiss mentioned above.
As for slumps – we saw Huerter take his game inside for short jumpers and floaters when his 3 just would not fall and that was a nice adjustment on his part. If he brings in more paint area game- he’s gonna draw more fouls – I hope he can elevate that FT%.
And then there’s his playoffs last season – I expect that this too won’t dip to barely playable next post season. He had standout play for Atlanta in the post season and I expect him to rise similarly for Sac.
Last thing – Huerter, for me, is one of the most likable players on this likable collection of Kings. He relates well to the fans as evidenced by his funny T-shirts and clever comments. Can’t help but root for this guy, IMO.
He did have a career best year last year. I am not at all sure what he expected when he arrived, but it did not take long to fit in with Fox and Sabonis. He did slip in the second half of the year. That ASG experience had to be self-deflating.
On the other hand, there was a conditioning issue as well and he admitted to such. I liked how he adjusted his game when the 3 was not falling.
Monk should be 6th man- better role and Kings don’t want 3 short guards.
I think Red Velvet will better this year- better defined role, experience in the stamina realm, and Keegan’s rise will take pressure away from him. Go get some boards!
He can shoot the three.
I only care that he doesn’t crater come play-off time.
It is difficult to expect better output from many players when we have been so great offensively and we added another apparently very good offensive player. Something’s gotta give. Some will play better, some will get hurt in the numbers/minutes crunch. It will be great if all over the board we’ll become more efficient scoring, but the actual room for improvement is at rebounding and defense.
I think a lot of that will have to do with Sabonis’ aggression. He was dared to shoot and wasn’t prepared to be a contributor in that way. Once he is, it’ll open other things up.
He might just be the best value contract on this team, excluding Keegan’s rookie scale deal. He is currently the 104th highest paid player in the league and locked up for 3 more seasons. For perspective, he is making less than what the Lakers just gave Rui Hachimura, who is 6 months older than Huerter.
If/when Monte re-signs Monk to a far more lucrative deal, it would likely make Huerter, who is the 3rd leading scorer on the team, just the 5th highest paid King on the roster. That’s a great contract for the Kings to have.
BTW-
Many pundits are praising Austin Reeves like he should have a Hall of Fame seat already. Compare stats for Reeves and KH: Reeves shoots a better % and may get a few more boards but KH scores quite a bit more per game. Overall, comparable stats.
Yup. Reaves makes half the 3’s that Huerter does and gets half the steals. He’s also a few months older than Huerter. The only real reason we hear about Reaves is because of the jersey he wears. Swap locations with Huerter and we’d be hearing about a Red Velvet shoe line by now.
Huerter’s ability to create was a bit of surprise for me. I don’t think he’s a guy that you want playing the 1 full time but he certainly showed the ability to handle the ball and run the PnR as the ball handler. His gravity forced defenders over screens, opening up a lot of good looks.
Conversely, his on ball defense was pretty bad. The worst of any of the starters and none of the starting 5 could boast great on ball defense. I’m not sure this is fixable because it seems that his issues is primarily below average lateral quickness and strength. He’s not especially long so it’s hard to make up ground when you can’t stay in front or fight through screens. Maybe adding some muscle would help, but I can’t ever see him being a plus defender.
I love red velvet, but I don’t see him as a great starting 2. A better fit would be a true 3-D ball stopper. I’d give up some of the playmaking for better D. I’d love for him to show a jump this year, but I don’t have high hopes that we’ll see anything new from him, and that’s OK I guess.
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