There were times last season when it felt like the Sacramento Kings simply weren\u2019t big enough. Richaun Holmes is a smaller center, and Damian Jones lacked the bulk to handle some of the league\u2019s bigger centers. Through that lens, it made complete sense when the Kings signed Alex Len to a two-year $7.6 million contract last summer. It was just everything else the Kings did that muddled the evaluation of that decision.<\/p>\n
The Kings entered the year with one logjam (Holmes, Jones, Len, and Tristan Thompson) and finished the season with a different one (Domantas Sabonis, Holmes, Jones and Len). Even in situations where it seemed like the Kings needed Len\u2019s size, he\u2019d often go long stretches without any significant playing time. Len ended up appearing in just 39 games, averaging less than 16 minutes per game.<\/p>\n
It hard to argue that Len\u2019s production warranted a bigger role. Whether poor play resulted in inconsistent minutes or inconsistent minutes resulted in poor play, Len\u2019s season was a letdown. Even adjusted to a per-36 basis, Len put up some of the worst production of his career, and the eye test was as ugly as the raw numbers.<\/p>\n
Len is on the Kings books as a $3.6 million expiring contract next season. I\u2019d guess the Kings will try to trade him the summer, but it seems unlikely that there will be much of a market for him unless he\u2019s included in a trade just for salary matching purposes.<\/p>\n
But if Len stays, it\u2019s fine. He seems to be well-liked in the locker room, he doesn\u2019t complain about his role, and he can comfortably give you spot minutes behind Sabonis as needed. He wouldn\u2019t be my first pick to be Sabonis\u2019 primary backup next year, but the Kings could certainly do worse, especially if he can regain some of his past productivity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There were times last season when it felt like the Sacramento Kings simply weren\u2019t big enough. Richaun Holmes is a smaller center, and Damian Jones lacked the bulk to handle some of the league\u2019s bigger centers. Through that lens, it made complete sense when the Kings signed Alex Len to a two-year $7.6 million contract […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":18214,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8],"tags":[59],"coauthors":[280],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n