It should come as no surprise that the last time the Sacramento Kings posted an above-average defensive rating was also the last time that the franchise reached the playoffs. For fifteen long years, the Kings have been looking for a defensive identity. They’ve found one in Davion Mitchell.
In a 10-point win over the Charlotte Hornets on Monday afternoon, Mitchell hounded whoever he was guarding, including breaking up multiple transition opportunities, but it was his performance against fellow lottery selection James Bouknight that was most impressive. In a display reminiscent of Kawhi Leonard gobbling up Ben McLemore’s basketball soul back in 2016, Mitchell completely shut down his competition, as Bouknight did not score a single point in any half-court possession in which Mitchell guarded him. At times, it was almost uncomfortable to watch.
This is what Mitchell does! He is all over his man, takes up so much airspace. He shuts down the drive to the middle and then recovers after the screen and forces the turnover. pic.twitter.com/PeeCZejv2q
— Mo Dakhil (@MoDakhil_NBA) August 9, 2021
I have been checked in and out of the game but this dude is just a ball hawk. Bouknight is going to have nightmares about Mitchell. pic.twitter.com/KRaNXK7eKj
— Mo Dakhil (@MoDakhil_NBA) August 9, 2021
Outside of Mitchell’s defensive masterpiece, there wasn’t a ton to take away from a Summer League game that saw two teams combine for 39 turnovers. For the Hornets, James Bouknight picked up his scoring a bit in the final period, ending the night with 11 points on 11 field goal attempts, while Kai Jones struggled on the offensive end of the floor, sinking just one of his five shots. From Sacramento’s side of things, Jahmi’us Ramsey was the leading scorer, recording 22 points, while Davion Mitchell picked up his game as a distributor, posting a game-high 9 assists to go along with 10 points.
There were legit reasons to have some skepticism in Mitchell, but these holy shit sequences on D were all over his Baylor tape. https://t.co/9ExxcvOLHP
— John Hollinger (@johnhollinger) August 9, 2021
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
THE GOOD:
Ramsey Recovery: After a rough first game in Sacramento, Jahmi’us Ramsey had a much better performance this afternoon. He led the team in scoring with 22 points, and although he wasn’t the most efficient from the floor, it was good to see the second-year guard engage on offense after a relatively invisible outing last week.
THE BAD:
Three-point Marksmanship: This Sacramento roster is not exactly sharp from the three-point line, and that fact was once again evident against the Charlotte Hornets, as they made just 6 of their 26 attempts from deep. Interestingly enough, the Kings brought in Jordan Schakel after the California Classic, a sharpshooter who knocked down 46% of his three-pointers in his last season at San Diego State, but the fourth-year guard didn’t see a minute of playing time.
THE UGLY:
Woodard Stock: What happened to Robert Woodard? After a rookie season that had fans salivating at his potential, Woodard has been straight-up awful in Summer League play, actively hurting the team when he’s seen the floor. Through three games, he’s combined for 16 points on 6/21 (28.5%) shooting from the floor, 3 assists, and 9 turnovers.
Up Next
The Kings will take on the Washington Wizards tomorrow night at 7:00 pm Pacific Time.
Bouknight had an Off Night. I like how Mitchell kept Finding Neemus.
I’ve yet to find the Neemus. I know it exists.
Neemus is one big dude. He has some solid backup big potential, kind of a Javale McGee.
Dude can block shots and also make some nice passes at the center position.
He had Queta game!
Java McGee: NBA champion and Olympic gold medalist
Sounds like a Disney/Pixar joint: Finding Neemus.
I really wanted to watch this movie, but Vlade picked something else.
This gives me a new nickname idea for when Fox and Mitchell share the floor;
Fox and the Hound
Fox and Hound? Now I’m hungry!
If we give someone the nickname “Pony” we can have the:
Dog and Pony show
You lost me at joint…
Or we can go retro and dub him Queta World Peace.
BuT He CaN’T gUaRd ShoOtInG gUaRdS!!!
DavionmeandIcan’tgethimoffme!
This should be his nickname!
♫ Daviiiiiiii….Davion Mitchell……KING of the wild frontier! ♫
Mofo defending like crazy.
Born in Hinesville, East of Tennessee,
plays lights-out defense, can he hit from three?
Man, that first stuntman took quite a dive down those steps. Hope he got paid well.
The second guy looks like he legit got thwacked upside the head too.
Mitchell was a tornado of fists and teeth.
We’ve seen what Woodard can do, and he can play. Is it possible that he’s got an injury, or the old one is lingering?
Maybe Walton was coaching him in the offseason?
Tenacious D(avion) with the Tenacious D, is the Kings’ draft PICK OF DESTINY.
I smell a Summer League championship on the horizon.
Hard to believe that was 2014 when we won it with McCallum, Ben and Stauskas leading the way.
Vivek said the following upon accepting the trophy and delivering his speech:
”one day the sacramento kings are going to win a championship and we’ll remember this as the first step.”
Here we are seven years later, no closer to a championship than we were seven years ago.
I’m starting to think that I’d rather hang out with the actual Grant Napear.
Do not be besmirch Sacramento’s championship.
As someone said on twitter:
(paraphrasing)… Davion playing this on-ball D and then Fox and Haliburton picking off passes……(chef’s kiss). The Kings Guard is going to wreak havoc.
So glad that Doug and Bobby are coaching this team and encouraging them to put a lot of energy on defense.
I’m pumped!
Eh… Kings look great every year in Summer League. Sorry to inform you… it translates to nothing in the regular season. Nothing. 80 percent of these players are at best G League and bench players.
Mitchell definitely looks like a player. But, anointing Davion starter quality is kind of laughable.
Once Davion gets a taste of Booker, Lillard. Curry, Brown, etc… I imagine he won’t look so fierce. Maybe, I am wrong. That would be great.
Summer league is great. But, Pumping the brakes a bit before waving the pom poms.
I’m pumping, I’m pumping!
Not every year, they didn’t win a single summer league game last year.
The Kings rarely look mediocre in SL, let alone actually good.
If anyone had to inform me the kings aren’t good, I’m glad it was you, SelecaoKOJ
I actually do think you’re wrong. No offense. From what I’ve seen, there just aren’t many players in the league with his combination of fast-twitch quickness, footwork, and absolute dog on defense.
He had 5 fouls too, right? Against a guy who is unproven in the NBA.
I like a lot of what we have seen so far from him, but the smaple size is very small and against a lower tier of competition.
Who cares SL is about get excited about someone’s first step, good form or motor. Sl is not normal basket ball. We look for strings to pull, we look for things that might develop, or we look for red flags. As to SL, it means very little in the long run of things. To Vivick, what would you expect him to say about SL,meh it is some rooks and no bodies, who cares.
Saying we are always good in Sl is, one, not true, and two it just means we normally are bad with high picks playing. Mitchell seems like he will be one of those players that you guys cry about for years after he leaves. I am going to get my almost 3 year old to learn the word Luca, and get him to say it when he throws a tantrum. Then when the “adults” throw their Luca tantrums I can get a laugh out of it instead of being annoyed. You can replace Luca; for IT, Dmc, Vlade, Luke, Vivek and probably Mitchell in a few years it should still work.
Hmm my son has been a little over the top lately maybe this could work in reverse. When he throws his tantrum I can just picture him as a grown person crying about Luca, and it should be good for a chuckle. Lol, I can see him now stamping about, I want Luca, I want Luca. At least I know my sons excuse.
Good to see Metu, King, and Ramsey having a good game
Metu: 4 assists and 4 steals
King: 4 assists and 4 steals
Queta did try to look for his teammate, but it ends up with a turnover…Look forwards to see his passing skill.
Nice synopsis 👍
How are things in HK?
Thx for asking.
Right now in Hong Kong, majority of people are getting vaccinated. (Wearing mask is a must for us)
And we are enjoying the great performance of Hong Kong in Olympic game. (1 Gold medal, 2 silver, 3 Bronze), to over-shadowed the bad political environment of Hong Kong.
and of course, for me, watching Kings game and Louis King, Ramsey, Metu is an enjoyment.
How did you come to be a kings fan, out of curiosity?
Hi, I have been Kings fan like for 20 years ?
I think like most of the foreign fans…partially because of White Chocolate, partially because of C-Webb…his mid-range jumper is WET !!
Just fun to watch…
and happy to be able to attend “home game” in Sac last year (although that game being torched by Dort)
There’s a fair amount of King’s fans around the globe, mainly due to the popularity of those early 2000 teams.
I even randomly met an Israeli tourist in Thailand few years back that was a big King’s fan due to Omri.
Oh, to come to sac and watch your team from across the world and get destroyed by Dort haha
Nice, never been to HK, was supposed to go right before Covid hit, hopefully in 2022. Stay safe 🤙
VICTORY!
https://twitter.com/kfippin/status/1424904077624844292
Like I said pre-draft. The idea of Davion pressing full court with Hali and Fox lurking at half court to trap/ jump passes could be thrilling!
But most here say the three can’t share the court, which I completely disagree with.
I don’t see why not. Haliburton has enough length to play the wing if the matchups are right.
I want to see Tyrese throwing bombs to Fox & Mitchell as they run away from defenders toward the goal.
My concern about Hali at the 3 is not about his length, but more about his strength.
All that said, OKC make the playoffs with a SGA, CP3 and Schroder set, so you never know.
However, this kind of idea is moot with Buddy on the roster. Something has to give.
You’d definitely be giving up size and strength with Tyrese at small forward. He’ll get stronger of course, but all I want right now is to watch an absolute track meet with two of the fastest guys in the league. I want opponents sucking oxygen tanks by the second quarter. I want to hear their pleadings and lamentations as we leave not one of them alive to warn others.
I’m sorry, what were we talking about?
That lineup doesn’t have to play the entire game together. Eight minutes a night of that potential hell could help shift momentum.
We’re talking about Luke Walton not giving you the track meet you want. 😉
Given this headline clearly Monte is a genius Buy season tickets suckers.
Or it is just nice see some d.
If you just want to see some D, just ask nicely.
At least as a rookie, feel like Mitchell might have a number of stat lines that read 25 mins, 4/9 FG, 8 pts, 4 asts but…+9 plus or minus.
Metu
Me2win !
Please go get Simmons, Monte. I don’t care if he hits the broad side of a barn. Every night you put him on Lebron, Kawhi, Booker, Doncic, etc, then let Mitchell abuse the ball handler. Wins.
After watching defense-less, “finesse” (read: soft and apathetic) teams for years, the thought of a Mitchell/Simmons combo is so enticing. It could change the entire franchise’s identity overnight. How loud would G1C get watching those two get after it?
Totally! I can see the James Harden rule changes this year shifting the fortunes of teams committed to defense. Have the courage to get ahead of the game, Monte!
Basketball 3.0
Buddy or Barnes, Bagley, 3 top 3 protected 1sts.
I don’t think it happens without Fox.
Is it so crazy to dangle Fox for Simmons? We could probably keep most or all of the picks we would otherwise give up, and swap one could-be-an-All-Star for one guaranteed, proven All-Star who is practically the same age, under contract for several more years, and is less reliant on pure athleticism (read: less susceptible to career-changing injury). Fox has been upheld as the leader/savior of this team for 3 years now, but we traded a leader/savior once before (Richmond) and it worked out OK.
If Mitchell is what he is billed to be, a Simmons and Mitchell point of attack defense would be lethal. Offenses would struggle to screen and switch. It could be a game changer.
Davion looked good! He has a nice speed and rhythm to his game. He was awesome on the defensive end and seemed to always make the correct pass on the offensive end. His shot is TBD but I like what I see so far.
I wasn’t able to watch the game but see the 9 assists from Mitchell. Can someone describe his play making ability? Was he running and controlling the offense?
Seemed calm, pushed at the right times, rarely got himself into tough positions or really forced much. Able to abuse a big on the switch several times for layups or dump offs. Prolly could have had 2-3 more assists if team could actually shoot.
I would guess he will end up off the ball some this year which I think is fine. He will be tough to deal with on kick outs because he will be able to kill the close out defender off the dribble if he can shoot even just a little.
He is looking for teammates, most of the teammates made the basket.
not fancy pass, basic and simple pass.
not much drive and kick.
And noted that his shot always short and hit the front rim through 3 games.
There was a great read off a scramble to the ball (which he timed perfectly, too) and then made a perfect pass to Queta inside for a dunk. That wad the best play I saw but I was only half watching, too.
For fifteen long years, the Kings have been looking for a defensive identity. They’ve found one in Davion Mitchell.
While it’s exciting to see defense being played, I sure hope that a performance against G-league level players in a summer league game is not the future of the Sacramento Kings’ defensive identity.
Crazy that a twenty-two year old, despite small stature, might be able to make teenagers barely out of high school wish that they had stayed in college.
The bias against these older players, and the negative effect it has on their draft stock has never made sense to me. As if getting only a decade of quality play out of a guy who’s ready to go from his rookie season is worse than a guy with a fifteen-year career and who needed to play for a bunch of teams before he came into his own.
A guy like Marvin Bagley, and there are plenty of them, would have to have been better off if he’d been drafted at 21 instead of 19, and would likely have been twenty or thirty pounds heavier, and a hell of a lot stronger. A guy could do worse than spending additional time letting Coach K teach him how to play basketball.
You’ve got your Lebrons and Lukas, who are mostly full-grown at an early age, and are absolute prodigies, but the majority of drafts don’t have one like that. What’s a couple of extra years to mature in all kinds of ways?
Admittedly, this is not a strong argument to direct at a teenager who could be literally become a multi-millionaire, but front offices have no obligation to draft these guys. Paying a teenager seven or eight figures to learn how to no longer be a teenager is generally a bad investment. If a kid isn’t absolutely special, let some other organization babysit him while you grab up a young man who’s ready to play with grown men.
Circumstances should always dictate decisions, but I’m glad that McNair looked past Mitchell’s horrible decrepitness to get the Kings a ballplayer.
And Bagley would have been better off being drafted at 21 instead of 2.
Love to see it.
You got to hope that Mitchell will shame Fox and Walton into caring about defense.
Unless you have the whole team being aggressive on D from the get-go and setting the tone, Mitchell will stand out like a sore thumb and rack up fouls, especially as a rookie.
Someone being tenacious on d, is infectious, and if others are lazy they will hear it.
This really does not inspire confidence in Monte McNair as a leader of men.
https://twitter.com/SeanCunningham/status/1424959261491171330?s=20
Can we somehow pin this on Vivek, too?
I’ve been pinning everything on Vivek for the better part of a decade so no reason to stop now. He’s the constant through all of the losing. I don’t suspect we’ll see any meaningful change while he’s the managing partner. I just keep hoping that eventually he’ll lose so much he’ll get bored and sell the team.
I mean, the fact that he didn’t hear from a single person associated with the Kings is weird. Could also be telling of not just the players and staff, but of him too.
And telling about Bogi and Bjeli, who had similar complaints?
I think this speaks directly to the communication skills of Monte, and how he perhaps views players more as assets than as human beings. he is from the Morley GM tree, after all.
I suppose we could go back to a GM who wanted to be friends with everyone so that no one said bad things about him. Pick a lane.
As for the Serbs, both of them reneged on contracts, so it’s tough for me to get emotional about them not getting tearful hugs from the General Manager.
If Guy’s story is true, that’s disappointing, although not as disappointing as I’d find it if McNair’s job duties included all aspects of offboarding employees.
I don’t think that it’s too much to ask for the person making such decisions to reach out to the involved player, but you having your confidence shaken about McNair’s ability as a leader of men? Nothingburger with cheese. Switch up the narrative from time to time so that the rest of us will know to pay attention when you take issue with some aspect of McNair’s performance.
Yes, these are the only two options. There are just two lanes.
Haven’t read anything from Bogi other than being upset about getting traded. For Bjeli, the ones I saw were pretty centered on being shots at Walton. Was there more?
Low class organization.
Do we know what the Spurs (or any team) do or don’t do in this situation?
does it matter?
or do we take everything and twist it into KANGZ?
Well, while one summer league game in the grand scheme of things I am sooooo glad that it looks like #15 can play
Just wish he had a more exciting number, and a change of nickname….I’m sorry but “off night” seems terrible to me. Easily reversed/made fun of and too many words.
and trust me, I’m a pro licensed nit picker so I know what I’m talking about when I say that the number and nickname are big issue’s
Maybe TKH will do a “come up with nicknames for the new players” thread soon. Always fun!
Completely disagree on the nickname.
I think it’s awesome!
It’s original and he seems to embrace it.
As far as it being used against him as a negative, I would bet he is fully aware, and uses it as fuel to try and shut the other guy down every night.
happy to see my original disappointment with the pick is changing. Dude seems to legit want to lead/win
“Off-night” is one of the best nicknames I’ve ever heard.
Better than Craig “Eggs” Ehlo!
About the same as “Foots Walker”!
Worse than Corey “Bad Porn” Magette!
Better than Sauce Castillo.
Davion “Bobby Christie Jr” Mitchell.
Who is Bobby Christie Jr.?
The love child of Bobby Jackson and Doug Christie.
First of all let me make this abundantly clear… Not trading Buddy and or Bagley already is deeeeeeeeply concerning. Failing on that Lakers trade after failing on the Bucks trade last year is deeeeeeply concerning. It’s two major failures by a GM. As a fan, those things are painful.
Trying to move past that and find some optimism with what appears to be the reality of our roster for this season and I have come to this.——— Buddy and Bagley on the roster is likely happening so it’s best we get used to the idea now is what I’m thinking. Pretty difficult to do so but I’m trying really hard. Come with me on this little exercise of talking yourself in to feeling optimistic:
when I look at the current roster I see this as a potentially positive roster if conducted in this manner.
starting 5:
G: Davion
G: Fox
SF: Burt
PF: Barnes
C : Holmes
Rotation back ups (at least 1 of the starting 5 always being on the floor with these 2nd unit guys):
G: Buddy
G: Davis
SF: Harkless
PF: Bagley
C: Len
deep bench: Metu, Justin James, Tristan Thompson, Rahmsey and King.
if Walton commits to Bagley as a backup PF and Buddy as a potential 6th man of the year award winner, this could be a solid team that MIGHT actually surprise us. Clearly we’ll have to hope Fox and Burt have each gotten better which I fully expect.
Am I high?
While Len is the sort of situational player you absolutely, 100% need if your starting center is on the smaller side he also isn’t the guy you want in the normal rotation because he’s useless outside the restricted area. I’d much prefer Metu in that spot even if does leave the normal rotation pretty small.
Sitting behind the Kings bench, back a section, one thing that was noticeable was Doug Christie working the bench during the game, saw him pick up the small white board and diagram part of the D for Cueta and also working with Coleman and Metu and Davion. Good to see the teaching going on along the bench.
Bobby Jackson was standing way behind the Kings bench in the 3rd quarter near half court. A Ref gently waved him back toward the bench. Bobby went two or three more feet toward the Hornets bench to yell out D points to players.
Just my two cents, these two coaching changes will show up in long term development and play of Kings players emphasizing playing D in the NBA.
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