The NBA announced the All-Rookie Teams yesterday and Kings rookie center Maxime Raynaud made the 2nd Team. He tied with Pelicans center Derik Queen for the most votes of players that didn’t make the 1st team, but he did have the most first place votes of anybody else on the 2nd Team. The full teams are as follows:
1st Team: VJ Edgecombe, Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, Dylan Harper, Cedric Coward
2nd Team: Maxime Raynaud, Derik Queen, Jeremiah Fears, Ace Bailey, Collin Murray-Boyles
Max was not only the only second round pick named to one of the All-Rookie Teams, he was the only non-lottery pick. He also became the first Kings rookie taken in the 2nd round to make an All-Rookie team in the Sacramento-era. Max had a strong rookie season, averaging 12.5 points (7th among rookies) on 57.1% from the field (6th), 7.5 rebounds (1st) and 1.4 assists in 26.5 minutes per game. He was also the rookie leader in double-doubles with 18. Over the final two months of the season, Raynaud was even better, averaging 17.8 points on 60.2% from the field and 43.3% from three to go with 8.8 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 0.7 blocks and 0.6 steals.
Raynaud, along with fellow rookies Nique Clifford and Dylan Cardwell, was one of the lone bright spots for the Kings this season, and I’m excited to see how he grows as a player. Hopefully the best is yet to come.
Congrats Max!
Congrats to Max. He may have been the only ray of sunshine in an otherwise bleak season.
I have been pondering for a few moments, and I cannot come up with anything else. This felt like the season our bench bigs were Ralph Sampson, Bill Wennington, and Erick Leckner. Bleak af.
Cardwell possibly filling that four decade long Tank Thompson sized hole on the roster perhaps?
Pre-season I had hoped that Maxime was Raef Lafrentz, the Re-Deux, and oui delivered. Bon appe-swish, as it were. C’est la three. Bon score.
I definitely add Cardwell to the bright side list. If Max manages to get more comfortable with his 3 point shot there’s a real path to him and Cardwell being able to share the court for longer stretches, which could be fun. Won’t result in success next year, but they’re gonna suck anyway, so my rooting interest is fun over results.
Kind of nuts to think that had Sabonis not been as hurt, the Kings might have been marginally better, but we likely wouldn’t have seen much from Maxi.
As much as this season sucked, imagine if the Kings had won a few more games, are slotted to pick around #10 in the draft, and Maxi had spent most of the season in Stockton. There would be no silver linings to that cloud.
There are no silver linings to this cloud either. We are just deluding ourselves that there is because we need a sliver of hope.
Under this ownership there is no realistic chance of sustainable success.
Abandon all hope. Embrace the sucktitude.
Came here to say this. He was literally the only good thing that happened on the Kings this year that might matter going forward.
Good for him and well-deserved.
Worked hard and showed some stuff. Has some offensive chops. Hope he can keep developing.
that photo reminds me of the old “deal with it” memes from SacTownRoyalty days.
Really hope the rumors of us shopping Domas for draft capital are true. Much as I love The Ox, Maxi is the future and we should go all in on developing him. Bring along Cardwell cause the guy is pure vibes and effort.
Agree on shopping Domas, but am nowhere near “Maxi is the future”. I think he is a 3rd center(someone to develop) and if he can become passable on D he can be a solid backup center. He has a long way to go to become a decent starter IMO.
I’m glad he got the 2nd team recognition. Well done!
This. There are at least 30 other centers I’d trade him for right now. He shows promise, but has a long ways to go, especially on the defensive end.
For the record, I don’t think he’s even to the Goga Bitadze level of play yet. Goga wrapped up his 6th season and is 26. Maxi just finished his first, but is already 23.
Maxi is still a 3rd string center on a good team. He could be a backup center on a middling team, and we already know he’s a starting center on a bad team. Time will tell, but at least there is some hope there.
Yeah. I’ve been impressed with his offensive skillset, but the lack of lateral movement on D and only 0.7 blocks per 36 for a 7′-1″ center are worrying.
Yup, that’s a major reason I don’t think he can play the 4. He just doesn’t have the foot and lateral speed to defend on the perimeter in today’s NBA. Couple that with the fact he doesn’t have Sabonis’ pure strength so I worry about him defending physical players.
If I had to peg his comp at this moment I go with a Kelly Olynyk meets Harry Giles kind of vibe. That means promise and offensive skills, but he needs more to his game to be a consistent rotation member.
Agree with the lateral movement but BPG is rarely a good indicator of sound defense. Max needs to learn to slide those feet whenever somebody drives to the rim. And the Kangz desperately need a four who can cover Max when his feet get tangled.
Case in point, for 25-26 season:
Center A: 0.7 BPG
Center B: 0.8 BPG
Center B: Nikola Jokic
Not saying that Max is the 2nd coming of the Joker, btw.
Is Jokic considered a good defender? I never thought so. Even in their championship season the team was 16th in DRtg.
But yeah blocks are to interior D as steals are to perimeter D. It’s something, but definitely not everything.
By future I didn’t mean automatic starting center just more in the vein of give him maximum chance to develop in what is going to be another bad year. If Domas is around we know that won’t happen.
He’s OUR future, and you’d better get used to it.
Our future’s “so” bright we don’t even own shades.
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