Kevin Huerter has had a rough go of it over the last year. Huerter was not playing well last season, struggling with his outside shot and often seeing a short leash from Mike Brown. It was obvious that Huerter was in a funk, struggling with his confidence and unhappy with his performance. Kevin then suffered a dislocated shoulder and torn labrum, requiring surgery and a long layoff from basketball. During his recovery Huerter watched the Kings thrive with Keon Ellis in the starting lineup, and a summer of fans (myself included) dreaming up scenarios to trade Huerter away from Sacramento. Huerter was able to minimally participate in training camp, but had no preseason appearances to regain his rhythm or timing. To add even more pressure, Mike Brown returned Huerter to the starting lineup right away, despite last season’s success with Ellis and much to the dismay of fans and pundits (again, myself included).
And yet despite that long, difficult road, Kevin Huerter is off to an awesome start this season.
We’re obviously looking at small samples here, as the Kings have only played four games this season. That small sample is even hurt by a rough first game back, where Huerter scored just 2 points on 4 shots in almost 20 minutes against the Timberwolves. But since then the numbers have been really great. Huerter is averaging 12 points on 8.5 shots in 26.5 minutes per game this season. He’s shot 41.7% from beyond the arc on 6 3PAs per game. He’s shot 90% on twos so far, but on just 2.5 attempts per game. Huerter is also chipping in 3 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1 steal and 1 block per game.
I’m going to say once again that I understand we’re looking at an incredibly small sample here, but the numbers are matching the eye test. Huerter looks comfortable, confident, and happy on the floor in a way we haven’t seen in quite some time. I was among those who questioned giving Huerter his starting role back, but so far Kevin has made Mike Brown look good. He’s providing spacing, and chipping in on the small things that teams need from their role players. He’s also been active and engaged on defense, and the lineup data so far (have I mentioned the small sample sizes?) looks great with Huerter alongside the starters.
We’ll see how things go over the course of the season, but with a couple days between games it seemed an opportune time to celebrate Kevin’s return and his early success.
I’m firmly of the belief that Keon should be starting. That being said, more productive players is always a good thing. If nothing else, I feel hopeful about Monte’s ability to balance the roster as needed. A good Huerter gives us more optionality.
I’ve maintained since last year that Huerter actually plays a very important role on this team because of the gravity he creates by being such a high volume (and usually high efficiency) shooter. So far through 4 games this year, the Kings starting unit is #1 in the NBA in net rating (out of all 5 man units) which tells me the starters are generally playing very well together. As Greg said, it matches the eye test!
If Keon gets an offensive game similar to Huerter then he is the one. Usually takes two or three years in the league to get some offensive game established. Could be coming for Keon.
Certainly could be but he’s got to be able to run off his screens and hit 3’s off of movement and he hasn’t shown a ton of that yet. He’s young though so perhaps he can develop that part of his game.
It seems to me that both Huerter and Keegan are going to be the greatest beneficiaries of the DeRozan addition. The Kings now have 3 individuals who require extreme attention on defense, even double teams, which is going to get Huerter and Keegan a lot of nice offensive openings.
In terms of Huerter, if he can just maintain a 12PPG while shooting 40% from three, he will and should remain the starter, and I’m a Keon fan. Hessing and I pointed out on another thread that with Huerter starting, Monk and Ellis coming in together off the bench could be a solid strategy going forward. Those two make a lost of sense being in the backcourt at the same time.
The four headed guard rotation of Fox, Huerter, Monk, and Ellis is pretty fucking solid right now. Brown can plug and play depending on matchups and need. Also, if an injury happens to befall one of the four, three can carry the load. Now, the same can’t be said for the front court rotation, but that’s for another thread.
I would add that McLaughlin has played fairly well in his minutes, starting with the preseason. He’s a nice option to plug in if injuries happen.
Overall, I agree, there’s a really nice mix of distance shooting, middies, paint scoring, and defense between the four of them. It really boils down to MB putting those four in the game to exploit the opposing team’s weaknesses or the team’s momentum.
But for gaia’s sake, can the team stop giving up uncontested 3’s from the corner?
Would only add Huerter needs the shortest leash of the four. If he starts playing like last year his minutes need to drop ASAP.
It would be nice to see both Keegan and Kevin getting those 2 starting slots back up closer to 15 ppg from year 1. And no offense to HB, I respect the hell out of that man, there’s really a bit of addition by subtraction going on a little bit as well. While Barnes didn’t demand much in the way of touches for his offense, it often resulted in not much offense being generated from his position. Keegan averaging. almost 15 and 7 from the PF is an immediate upgrade. Kegan’s old SF position got an immediate upgrade via DeRozan and now the pressure is off Huerter to be a top performer / bucket getter. He can go back to being a pressure relief valve / part time flame thrower making teams pay for overcompensating in the middle or forgetting him when they double Fox/Domas/DBo. Its really a good look when its working. Curious to see how we fare against the Pels playing like this. That’s going to be a bit of a litmus test for this team…
Luckily the Pels don’t have Valancuinas anymore. He gave Domas problems. They don’t have anybody that can guard Domas.
Godspeed Red Velvet.
Bring the 3 Point Hammer.
Heurters slump last season was a very small sample size in comparison to his career. Keon’s play last year was his entirely small career as his sample size. The Kings thriving last year with him was an end of season panic to make the playoffs that failed.
I say this as my opinion as to what happened last year. Keon is a success because we picked up an average NBA player for nothing. That is hard to do in the draft as we have proven so many times. So to pick up a talent like Keon on the market after nobody wanted him in the draft is a solid basketball pick up.
Huerter is back to what his career has been which is awesome for this team. Keon is back to fighting for a spot as a starter which is unexpected and awesome for Keon. For the first time in many years there is a legitimate battle for starting minutes at a position. I love to see that for this team. I think people fail to see that Keon is actually taking some minutes from Monk as well. Keon is a solid player and is the beginning of a solid bench if they can get more like him.
Glad to have Huerter back as his average self because that is pretty damn good.
You make some good points.
I would counter that the bad play sample size with his Kings career is not small, it’s actually half. With the Kings we have seen a good first year, a bad second year and a good couple games to start his third season.
If he is playing well I have no problem with Huerter starting and getting minutes. I did have a problem with last year and him keeping his minutes for way too long when there was a viable option (Ellis) waiting on the bench. I think it’s the main reason the Kings missed the playoffs.
Half of Huerter’s career is exponentially bigger than Keon’s entire career. Last year was rough for him. I think Brown was playing him through his slump because that is how slumps end. Brown needed his best to get to the playoffs. He had no idea Keon would do what he did.
MB had no idea Keon would do what he did because he had not given him minutes.
My main point of this is MB is sometimes too slow to try something different.
I saw very early last year KH’s play was an issue and was calling for Keon early in the season. I think MB gets enamored with KH’s occasional hot shooting streaks and ignores large gaps in his game. It’s almost a gambler’s fallacy, he keeps missing but he will hit the next one…
You saw it before anyone else even though he barely played. You just see practice and have a Chrystal ball.
Why didn’t you call Brown and tell him what you clearly knew?
Not sure I agree there. Huerter’s two-point shot was right at his career average last season. His three point shot was down from his average, but he’s only shot 40% from three once in his career, so that 40% season was as much an outlier in the other direction as the 36% season was last year.
Huerter’s scoring being down seemed to be a function of the offense and reduced minutes. Adding DeRozan is going to reduce everyone’s scoring, so barring injury, I wouldn’t expect Huerter to put up numbers like he did two seasons ago, even if he’s as efficient as he was then.
It looks like he is right on track for his career numbers at this point. I simply like seeing him play well.
Was it the headband this whole time?
I’m of the mind that if you’re a playoff team and the moment is too big for some players, you move those players off the roster. Championship teams are no question driven by stars, but they also tend to have role players who can step up when the pressure is on.
I’m not a “Championship or bust!” person, but the goal here shouldn’t be a team that could win a first round series if everything goes perfectly. I kinda think maybe that is in fact the goal, or all the front office thinks they can attain, or maybe all they can actually attain. But we’re now in our third season at that level and my personal expectations are higher.
The question is whether Huerter is a guy who can step up in a playoff series. I have my opinion on that, but I am often wrong.
What is your opinion that?
I don’t know what it is.
I dig Huerter. Along with his three point shooting, he’s really solid at finishing at the rim. In part because of his finishing ability, his two man game with Domas is really excellent. His individual defense is pretty questionable but I think his team defense is solid.
Last year, he looked like a man who had completely lost confidence in himself. Dude is a baller when he’s on. I just kept feeling like someone needed to get it into his head that he’s capable of dominating games. But the lack of confidence really snowballed. Seems like the time off allowed him to get out of his own head and find his game again.
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