DeMar DeRozan’s Impact: Team Discusses Offensive Boost and Leadership for the Kings

DeMar DeRozan brings a lot to the Sacramento Kings: offensive versatility, clutch scoring, experience. There are many positives and a lot of questions about how he will fit, but the bottom line is the Kings have added one of the premier NBA scorers to an already offensively potent roster; and last time I checked scoring is an important part of basketball.

Monday marked Media Day for the Kings, and we got to hear a little more about how the team views DeRozan fitting into the Beam Team’s system. Of course, the rosy outlooks on everything are at their peak this time of the season across the NBA, but it is still good to hear the team’s thought process.

The general consensus from Mike Brown, Monte McNair and teammates is DeRozan should fit into the offensive side of the ball seamlessly, take pressure off De’Aaron Fox and make them more dynamic overall.

“I think we’ve got a chance to be one of the best offenses in the league,” McNair said. “I think one thing is it’s going to be harder for teams to guard us, especially down the stretch of games. I don’t know, you’re going to put somebody on De’Aaron [Fox], somebody on DeMar. You’ve still got Keegan [Murray], Kevin [Huerter], Malik [Monk], Domas [Sabonis], all guys that can score. So, I think we’ll be able to put units out there where all five guys can be tough to defend.”

Head coach Mike Brown, however, cautions against changing too much.

Let’s dive into it.

General Team Fit

Brown and Domantas Sabonis, who the offense has pretty much run through the last two seasons, shared how they think DeRozan’s integration will be smooth: still using dribble hand offs, pick and rolls, and scoring in transition.

“We’re a scoring offense, and he can score on every level, so I think he’s just going to fit in easily,” Sabonis said. “I don’t think it changes anything. If anything, [DeRozan’s presence] it is going to get us more open looks. The defenses are going to have to throw a lot of attention on him, which frees up everybody else a bit more.”

Brown will have to balance executing on that theory, while not changing too much so that things don’t go the opposite direction. Here is what he had to say:

“He’s going to fit in fine. Now, we tweak some stuff to try to enhance his abilities. … You see that he brings the ball up in transition. You see he’s able to play pick and roll and make the right read off of it. You see he’s able to play the DHO game. There are some things that I’m like, Well, okay, we do that, too, because our one through four are interchangeable. We play a lot of DHOs with Domas. We play some pick and roll with our five as well. I think he’ll fit in fine with a few adjustments from us to make sure we try to put him in spots that will enhance or showcase his abilities,” Brown said. “You just have to be careful because we’ve had some success. In year one, we finished first offensively; in year two, we finished seventh offensively. If you’re finishing top 10 on either side of the ball, you’re doing something special there. … We just have to be cautious that we don’t change too much or add too much because we already have a way that we like to play.”

Fox highlighted how him and DeRozan will draw similar defenders, which will reduce the pressure on each other while sprinkling in a new dynamic.

“Nine times out of 10, I’m being guarded with some type of wing. I think we take the pressure off each other in that aspect,” Fox said. “He’s one of the best ISO scorers in the league. He’s been that for a long period of time. … I think his playmaking is a very underrated part of his game and I think whenever you’re actually in a gym with him and you understand his thought process, you see it.”

The best part out of all this is DeRozan has a reputation of being able to fit into the system of whatever team he is on, and reiterated that mentality.

“I’m simple, man. I always let him [Brown] know, whatever you need from me, however you need it, just let me know,” he said.

McNair spoke about improvements in the offensive pace:

“This should be a top five unit in the offensive pace, not the pace that maybe some websites have, we’re concerned with our offensive pace. We actually want our defense to slow the other team down, so sometimes that affects that number. But we have the fastest guy in the league in De’Aaron, so that’s going to be a big part of what we do. We’ve got guys that can score at all three levels,” he said.

Leadership and Impact on Team Mindset

DeRozan views himself as a lead-by-example type of leader, willing to bring it every night – his team is going to know what they are going to get out of him. His ability to bring a winning mentality and setting a positive tone in general is what Brown and Sabonis highlight.

“You’ve got a guy like DeMar walking through that door, it adds to the belief of everybody, more importantly, the players. But everybody, as you can tell, the organization and the city. The city is excited about him, and everybody’s got their chest puffed up a little bit more because of him,” Brown said.

Sabonis says his new teammate’s presence will help them win more games they should win: “He’s going to come ready every game. I feel like for us, that was our problem last year. We won against the best, lost against the lower seeds. I feel like him and his leadership, he’s a veteran, hall of fame career. He’s going to make sure we’re all showing up to take care of all those games.”

McNair said, “He’s learned how to win. And I think he’s going to bring that.”

And Fox likes the fact DeRozan came to Sacramento at this point in his career, which shows he recognizes the team’s recent success.

“That’s a great feeling knowing that you have a guy who is at the stage in his career where he wants to win and he chooses you because he feels like he has a chance to win,” Fox said. “So, you have only a select few teams that can really be considered contenders, and you want to be one of those teams.”

Defense and Matchups

DeRozan has his limitations on defense, it is no secret. Fighting through screens and guarding the quicker players in the league is a struggle. Brown addressed that side of the ball:

“I think he’s a more than capable of a defender. Now, is he 6’11? Does he jump out the gym? Is he the strongest guy out there? No, but he’s extremely smart, got a fantastic feel. Similar to HB [Harrison Barnes], he’s going to be able to guard certain guys very well in this league just based on … old man strength. You know what I’m saying? I got some old man strength, too. My grandson, in about six, seven years, he’s going to feel it. He’s going to look at me and think I’m a little out of shape, which is fine. But if he tests me, he’s going to feel that old man’s strength because I’ve been around for a while. It’s the same with the DeMar. It’s the same with HB. Those guys have been around for a while. They’re strong. They know about leverage. They know about angles. Now, I’m not going to put the DeMar on Ja Morant. I’m not going to put HB on Ja Morant. So, we have to make sure that we match them up with guys that fit the mold of who they are capable of defending. But I think he’ll be fine within the system and what we’re trying to do,” Brown said.

McNair was asked about dealing with teams that have a length advantage over the Kings roster like the New Orleans Pelicans and if he thinks he addressed that in the off season.

“The Pelicans have some length that they can throw at us. I think one thing is now they’ve got one other tough offensive guy that they’re going to have to throw somebody at. And so that may free up De’Aaron to have a little more space or whatever. But we certainly have some guys that I think you’ll see that are a little bigger, longer. Jalen McDaniels certainly has some length. Obviously, Alex Len coming back is a big seven-footer in the middle. But at the same time, we’re going to have to go to our strengths, and teams are going to have to adapt us as well,” he said.

Overall Excitement and Expectations

You wouldn’t expect anything less than great excitement at Media Day, and it was on full display.

“Any time you add a Hall of Fame guy to your roster, I think everyone is just excited for the season to come,” Sabonis said.

Fox knows the team is going to be even more difficult to guard.

“If you don’t run a double at him, then he has a field day. I think for us as a team, for me as a player, he gets you open shots. He gets guys open shots,” he said.

Brown said: “To be able to add a guy like DeMar gets everybody’s juice is flowing.”

As for DeRozan himself, he is excited to be a part of it.

“These guys are extremely talented. They want to win from top to bottom, from the fan base to everybody. When you see something like that, you want to be a part of that,” he said.