One of the most consistent criticisms when the national media prognosticates Sacramento’s upcoming season is the idea that the Sacramento Kings were too healthy last season. I’ve already written about how I reject the general premise of this argument. The Kings played through significant injuries, most notably Domantas Sabonis’ fractured thumb, leading to a “missed games” stat that looks rosier than the reality of Sacramento’s health last year.
But let’s take the criticism at face value for a moment. While the Kings absolutely played through injuries, we also know that some injuries you can’t play through. The Kings could suffer injuries this season where it doesn’t matter how tough a player is, surgery and time off may be required. In fact, history suggests that is the more likely outcome for any team in any given season. Just this weekend the Grizzlies announced that Steven Adams will miss the entire season after undergoing knee surgery.
Would an injury or injuries like that validate some of the more negative predictions in the national landscape? I don’t think they do. Obviously any significant injury to Sabonis or De’Aaron Fox would have a big impact, but any team suffers more if their stars get hurt. That isn’t exclusive to the Kings. And there’s no injury history that makes those two more likely to miss time this year, unlike the stars on several other teams throughout the Western Conference.
Outside a truly significant injury to one of Sacramento’s two All-NBA players, the Kings are in a position to weather an injury. As we enter the regular season, Kings fans are debating and trying to figure out how Mike Brown will find minutes for everyone. How does Brown find minutes for Colby Jones or Kessler Edwards? Or opportunity for Keon Ellis and Jordan Ford? Where does Sasha Vezenkov fit into the picture? When your preseason leaves you wondering how all the deserving players will find minutes, that means the team is built with proper depth. Depth is how you get through injuries and missed games.
None of this is to suggest that injuries could be handled with zero drop-off in play, but the Kings are positioned to have NBA-capable players at every position even if they are forced to tap into their third string reserves. That’s the depth that makes me believe that this team will be fine, even if we accept the premise that they won’t be as healthy as last season.
Now, if you’ve excuse me, I need to go knock on wood.
Opening night roster set:
This is a shitty way to find out that I’ve been cut.
Quite surprised that Slawson made the roster. He’s seems years away from even competing for minutes. I don’t really understand what they see in him. I don’t mean to bash the young man, but just confused about his inclusion.
I wish they would’ve kept Nemi over him, especially when Vezenkov, Duarte, Edwards & even Jones are ahead of Slawson at PF & SF.
agree.
But Nemi’s agent wanted more than another 2 way and a chance.
I do believe that the plan all along was to use the first pick on a trade for money freedom. and the second + third would be used to make the team or be a two way.
That’s what I thought the main issue was too, but didn’t he end up accepting the two-way with the Celts? I guess he was willing to, if he was starting over with a new franchise. Damn, it just sucks though.
He is on a 2 way. In a sense, that is “making the roster” but not really. Ford is on a 2 way as well. The thought at that time was Kings needed a third PG but now Colby may have that.
At the end of the second round, Kings had few options. JS was defensive player of the year and was a college vet- characteristics that the front office values. The other serious option was Trace Jackson-Davis who went undrafted but signed with the duds. Rumor on the street was that since his agent was Dunleavey’s brother and he was cranky for dropping, that he told teams he would not sign a second-round deal. Duds wrapped him up with lucrative second round deal. He cannot shoot outside of 6 feet. While there are plenty of NBA players with that profile, he was also only 6-9. This was a choice.
JS looked absolutely terrible early on but in last couple of games, I could see the defense- quick in anticipation, covers a lot of ground. Sort of K. Edwards lite.
While I think the Kings have depth, most all teams right now claim the same. Is the Kings depth better than duds, Suns, LAL?
I think so and I think the teams that pay for 4 “stars” sacrifice or could sacrifice “depth”. We will see when injuries occur.
my mistake- TJD was drafted next to last by Wizards and treaded to duds. But the rest is accurate.
I think they have pretty good depth at many positions throughout the lineup….even if Hollinger only thinks they have 6-7 good players haha
You must be following the Athletics NBA coverage. Hollingers reasoning for the Kings predictions this year are based on health. The Kings are young and more likely to be healthy than these other teams in the conference/division who had poor health last season and are old so they’re more likely to have poor health this season. A majority of the national media simply like theses teams that are already established with the big name stars. This is the season where the Kings need to prove them wrong by going out and taking the media’s respect.
I don’t think we have nearly the depth we’d like to think we have. In all honesty we have a solid 1-8. Not even great, just solid. If Keegan Murray takes leaps like Fox did, we can talk about a top 5 1-8 in the West.
Our first 3 off the bench are all very good; Mitchell, Lyles, and Monk are the epitome of above average role players (or should be, based off last year,) whose floor is high enough they could start for some teams. But after that, I have a hard time seeing Edwards, Vezenkov, Ellis, Jones, McGee, etc. al. making a starting cut for any NBA roster. Edwards and Jones look like they could reach rotational status and maybe Vezenkov earns rotational status if he can continue to rebound and not be a complete defensive sieve.
The bench looks a lot deeper than last year, sure. But a long term injury to either of our two all-pros is an injury that we can’t really afford. There is still a significant drop off in talent between our second and 4th best player. Other teams have a little more luxury with their top 5 and that’s hard to beat even when they’re not all healthy. Which is why I’m grateful the Kings have had a pretty decent history with their medical and training staff. It definitely seems to have a positive impact on these guys being able to stay on the court.
I think Chris Duarte is another above average role player which puts us nine deep in the solid or better player department. I also have hopes for Jones and Edwards to develop. McGee and Len can be shot blockers in limited minutes with the right lineups.
I was high on Vezenkov until I saw him play defense. Every team is going to pick on him relentlessly. He might fit into bench lineups with Mitchell, Edwards and McGee to cover for him defensively. Hopefully he is just adjusting to the NBA and will learn to keep people in front of him so his obvious offensive skills can shine. It’s crazy how much better his movement looks on offense than on defense!
I think a good regular season goal is winning 50 games and I think we have the depth to do it!
50 games would be a real feat in this year’s West Conf
I did forget about Duarte, but I also didn’t see enough of him in preseason to make me feel like he’s an automatic rotational piece to be honest. Maybe his rapport with Bones helps his game elevate a bit more, maybe…
And I agree, 50 games is attainable, even in the West. You can do that with a historic offense under your belt combined with an actual commitment to defense.
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