{"id":19082,"date":"2022-06-29T08:00:45","date_gmt":"2022-06-29T15:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kingsherald.com\/?p=19082"},"modified":"2022-06-29T08:00:45","modified_gmt":"2022-06-29T15:00:45","slug":"getting-to-know-keon-ellis-sacramentos-newest-two-way-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kingsherald.com\/articles\/getting-to-know-keon-ellis-sacramentos-newest-two-way-player\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting to know Keon Ellis, Sacramento&#8217;s newest two-way player"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After trading away picks 37 and 49 in the 2022 NBA Draft, the Sacramento Kings signed Alabama&#8217;s Keon Ellis to a two-way deal in unrestricted free agency. Many viewed Ellis as a late first or early second-round prospect throughout the season prior to him measuring in at 6&#8217;3.5&#8243; without shoes at the NBA Combine. This contradicted the 6&#8217;6&#8243; that Alabama had listed him at all season long and contributed to him going undrafted.<\/p>\n<p>Standing at 6&#8217;4.75&#8243; in shoes with a 6&#8217;8.5&#8243; wingspan, Keon Ellis will still have an opportunity to carve out a role in the NBA thanks to his impactful defensive anticipation and awareness, ability to knock down shots from beyond the perimeter, and attention to detail.<\/p>\n<p>Ellis, who turned 22 in January, spent the first two seasons of his college career playing at Florida SouthWestern State College. After his sophomore season, Ellis was named a Junior College Second-Team All-American before transferring to Alabama where he would finish his college career.<\/p>\n<p>His head coach at FSW, Eric Murphy, spoke with The Kings Herald regarding his experiences with Ellis as both a player and a person.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s a system guy, so I don&#8217;t want fans to be like &#8216;Ah, man, he only scored four or six points in a Summer League game&#8217;. He&#8217;s a system guy,&#8221; Coach Murphy said. &#8220;He&#8217;s always been a winner and he&#8217;s not all about shooting the basketball. He does the little things that help you win and I think winning plays is what, when people really watch him, they&#8217;ll really value out of his game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Kings desperately need more complementary pieces who make their impact on the margins. De&#8217;Aaron Fox himself highlighted length and shooting as the needed additions for Sacramento this offseason, and Keon Ellis checks both of those boxes. He was an undeniably impressive shooter at Alabama where he knocked down 36.6 percent of his 5.5 three-point attempts in his senior season.<\/p>\n<p>Shooting is Ellis&#8217;s primary contribution on the offensive end, with 65.8 percent of his shot attempts in his senior season coming from beyond the arc. Per Synergy Sports, Ellis finished in the 90th percentile in Spot Up situations and 91st percentile in half-court jump shots. Defenses will regret leaving Ellis open from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n<p>The highlight of his senior season came against Kentucky, where Ellis caught fire from beyond the arc and converted 7\/11 from three en route to a 28-point performance.<\/p>\n<p><noscript><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" title=\"KeonSeven3PM\" src=\"https:\/\/streamable.com\/o\/p17x1e#?secret=Zwi9cRbhkE\" data-secret=\"Zwi9cRbhkE\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"><\/iframe><\/noscript><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content lazyload\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" title=\"KeonSeven3PM\" data-secret=\"Zwi9cRbhkE\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" data-src=\"https:\/\/streamable.com\/o\/p17x1e#?secret=Zwi9cRbhkE\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;In his senior year he shot the ball really well and I think a lot in the Kentucky game is what he can do a lot of if he\u2019s more assertive. I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s the system he was in or anything, Keon is just more of a system guy and he understands how to play basketball. He\u2019s not gonna force shots, he\u2019s a very efficient player and when he\u2019s asked to step up he usually steps up. And when a guy has got it going he\u2019s not gonna force shots or try to outshine them, he\u2019s going to keep feeding them,&#8221; Coach Ellis said. &#8220;That\u2019s the one thing I think people misevaluate on his game because sometimes he won&#8217;t shoot as much. He\u2019s always going to make the right play and, like I said, he\u2019s just a very efficient player.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>As his former coach pointed out, Ellis is an ideal complementary piece on the offensive end who garners respect from opposing defenses with his efficient three-point shooting and comfort playing within himself. When needed, Ellis also showed the ability to attack closeouts or make well-timed cuts and finish at the basket (60.8 percent, per Synergy Sports).<\/p>\n<p>That being said, don&#8217;t expect Ellis to initiate an offense. His handle is subpar and his vision wasn&#8217;t particularly impressive, but there&#8217;s potential for him to be an important connective piece in the right situations, especially if his defense translates to the next level.<\/p>\n<p>Ellis utilized his aforementioned 6&#8217;8.5&#8243; wingspan to average an absurd 1.9 steals per game in his final season at Alabama. It was all too easy for Sacramento&#8217;s matchup on any given night to easily go through their actions and Ellis could help muck up the game.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">2 minute compilation of Keon Ellis being an elite on-ball defender.<\/p>\n<p>Last thing I&#39;m posting about him for a while, got my full breakdown coming out tomorrow on YT. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jqQZbGRqoB\">pic.twitter.com\/jqQZbGRqoB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Kings Film Room (@SacFilmRoom) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SacFilmRoom\/status\/1541574345587167232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 28, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Him being able to keep the ball in front, I think, is the biggest thing he did at Alabama really well,&#8221; Coach Murphy said of Ellis&#8217;s defense. &#8220;His length is a lot longer than what people think. He&#8217;s got good anticipation skills. I think he does a good job of doing that, staying in front, and making people hit contested shots over top of him. He\u2019s got good athletic ability and his wingspan and long arms makes it difficult for shorter guards to score over top of him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Sacramento&#8217;s need for perimeter containment was obvious last season, and that&#8217;s an area where Keon Ellis projects to make a positive impact early on. His defensive IQ, along with the length and anticipation that Coach Murphy mentioned, was on full display during his time at Alabama.<\/p>\n<p>The appeal of Keon Ellis comes in the details. He hands are active and disruptive on every single defensive possession both on and off the ball. He appeared to play a role in orchestrating Alabama&#8217;s defense by often pointing and communicating during rotations with his teammates, but he&#8217;s someone who primarily lets his game do the talking.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cHe\u2019s a quiet guy but he\u2019s got some toughness in him. He\u2019s not gonna tell you he\u2019s the toughest guy out there but you\u2019ll see it in his play,&#8221; Coach Murphy said of Ellis&#8217;s personality. &#8220;A guy who&#8217;s not the biggest that goes and gets six rebounds in the SEC, goes up and challenges guards, or at the rim, tough plays, gets 50\/50 balls, doing those types of things. Going through screens and stuff, switching onto bigger guys, you\u2019ll see the toughness in his game without him actually telling people. So, I think, that\u2019s the kind of person that he is. He\u2019s got a quiet toughness to him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t expect Keon Ellis to initiate an offense or make any flashy highlight plays, but he could find himself playing a role alongside Fox and Domantas Sabonis sooner rather than later if his disruptive hands, impressive anticipation, high IQ and stellar three-point shooting translate to the next level.<\/p>\n<p>As Coach Eric Murphy pointed out, Keon Ellis is a system player and his success is highly dependent on him being placed in the right situation. His size may limit him to guarding opposing ones and twos at the next level, but the potential is there. Ellis is expected to suit up for the Sacramento Kings Summer League team this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After trading away picks 37 and 49 in the 2022 NBA Draft, the Sacramento Kings signed Alabama&#8217;s Keon Ellis to a two-way deal in unrestricted free agency. Many viewed Ellis as a late first or early second-round prospect throughout the season prior to him measuring in at 6&#8217;3.5&#8243; without shoes at the NBA Combine. This [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":474,"featured_media":19096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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":[3,116,13,20],"tags":[5002],"coauthors":[313],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Getting to know Keon Ellis, Sacramento&#039;s newest two-way player - The Kings Herald<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/kingsherald.com\/articles\/getting-to-know-keon-ellis-sacramentos-newest-two-way-player\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Getting to know Keon Ellis, Sacramento&#039;s newest two-way player - The Kings Herald\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After trading away picks 37 and 49 in the 2022 NBA Draft, the Sacramento Kings signed Alabama&#8217;s Keon Ellis to a two-way deal in unrestricted free agency. 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