{"id":21846,"date":"2023-01-10T19:05:03","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T03:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kingsherald.com\/?p=21846"},"modified":"2023-01-10T19:05:03","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T03:05:03","slug":"its-time-for-chimezie-metu-to-be-the-permanent-backup-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kingsherald.com\/articles\/its-time-for-chimezie-metu-to-be-the-permanent-backup-center\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s time for Chimezie Metu to be the permanent backup center"},"content":{"rendered":"

From November 5th to December 9th, Chimezie Metu was the go-to backup center for the Sacramento Kings. In that stretch, he never played fewer than 10 minutes in a game. He averaged a meager 6.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, 0.8 assists and 0.2 blocks per game, but was overall a net positive. He had five games in that stretch where he scored 10 points each. He wasn’t great, but he wasn’t horrible, but he started to slip.<\/p>\n

December 7th against Milwaukee, Metu finished with 5 points, 3 rebounds, and 1 assist. December 9th against Cleveland he finished with 6 points, 2 rebounds, and 1 assist. December 11th against the Knicks, Metu finished with 0 points, 2 rebounds, and 1 steal. That was the final straw for Mike Brown, who played Metu in just 5 of the team’s next 12 contests, averaging just 4.5 minutes per game, mostly in garbage time.<\/p>\n

Mike Brown spoke to the Sacramento Bee’s Chris Biderman about Metu’s benching<\/a>, with Brown explaining the reason he made a change in December.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he relaxed just a little bit,\u201d Kings coach Mike Brown said of Metu.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Brown went back to Metu on Monday, with excellent results. Metu finished Monday’s contest with 11 points, 9 rebounds (including 3 offensive rebounds)and 2 assists. It was a bounce back performance that should cement Metu’s spot in the rotation.<\/p>\n

More from Biderman:<\/p>\n

\u201c(Metu) just gives us a different look than what Sabonis does, and you kind of want that as your backup,\u201d Brown said. \u201cWe hadn\u2019t been really good on either side of the ball, especially with that second unit. So we made some changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown said he approached Metu about giving him another chance before Monday\u2019s game, explaining why he took him out of the rotation in the first place and what he needed from him to help answer one of Sacramento\u2019s glaring questions going forward.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Metu seemed to have gotten the message:<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely a learning experience,\u201d Metu said. \u201cI\u2019ve yet to play a full season, so I\u2019m still just trying to find my groove in terms of being able to just be consistent. … Obviously, he took me out of the rotation and let me know, so now I kind of know what to do.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Beyond last night’s performance, both the eye test and the numbers support continuing with Metu going forward. I mentioned earlier that Metu had 5 performances with 10 points in a game before being benched. He had 11 points last night. In the month in between the Kings had just a single non-Sabonis center score in double digits, and that was when Neemias Queta dropped 10 on the Lakers on December 11th. The Kings went nearly a month without double-digit scoring from a back-up center.<\/p>\n

A quick note, with all respect to Queta, he’s simply too raw at this point (and hasn’t played enought. I believe in his potential but he’s not ready yet, so I’m going to focus on the remaining centers from here on out.<\/p>\n

While I understand that the back-up center role is about more than just scoring, Metu opens up the second unit in so many way. He’s a cutting and above-the-rim lob threat in a way that Holmes and Len aren’t. With his athleticism, movement, and the ability to (sometimes) hit an open three, Metu also doesn’t clog the paint like Holmes and Len do. And, not to be overly harsh about it, but Holmes in particularly (who has been given a much larger opportunity than Len) has been downright bad in most of his minutes.<\/p>\n

The Kings second unit has been a mess over the last month. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we saw that regression align with Metu’s benching.<\/p>\n

I would still love to see the Kings bring in an upgrade at the backup center position, but unless Monte McNair makes an impact acquisition, the job should be Chimezie’s.<\/p>\n

He’s earned it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From November 5th to December 9th, Chimezie Metu was the go-to backup center for the Sacramento Kings. In that stretch, he never played fewer than 10 minutes in a game. He averaged a meager 6.6 points, 3.6 rebounds, 0.8 assists and 0.2 blocks per game, but was overall a net positive. He had five games […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":21847,"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":[3,8,20],"tags":[59,714,984,40],"coauthors":[280],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIt's time for Chimezie Metu to be the permanent backup center - 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\/its-time-for-chimezie-metu-to-be-the-permanent-backup-center\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It's time for Chimezie Metu to be the permanent backup center - The Kings Herald\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From November 5th to December 9th, Chimezie Metu was the go-to backup center for the Sacramento Kings. 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