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Why the Sacramento Kings Are Finals Competitors, in the Near Future

With seeding basically finalised, let's look at how the most criticised franchise in the last decade is suddenly turning heads.

By Jake AlstonPublished 5 years ago 6 min read
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Noisy Neighbours: Sacramento has made a case for being a Playoff team in the coming years...

Okay. Okay. Wait. Just wait.

I know what you're thinking. This team, in itself, is not a contender for the next year, or maybe not even the year after that, and I know that the Lakers are, eventually, going to add another star to their roster and probably make a run at a championship. However, don't count out this young and improving Kings team with a high ceiling. Although it doesn't look it right now, the Kings are Finals competitors, and I'm going to tell you why.

Stats don't lie.

The Sacramento Kings, stats-wise and overall, have not been a good team since Divac, Bibby, and Webber. They have been going through a constant rebuild that seems to be stopping and restarting every year. This year, however, has been a little different. They are up on wins by 10 so far and have had their first .400 season since 2005, which was 14 years ago! Also, they have winnable games to round off their season, despite 5 of their last 8 games being against post-season contenders. Meaning, the Kings could become a 40 Win team for the first time since 2005. When you look at it, it is really only Utah and San Antonio that will have to play to improve their standing, which leaves New Orleans, Houston (who really have nothing to play for) and Portland.

Since the addition of Bagley and Heild, and the overall progression of Fox, the pace of Sacramento's game has gone from last in the league to 2nd in the space of less than a year. They play explosive and unrelenting basketball over the span of 48 minutes. Constantly pressuring the opponent and punishing any turnover that happens with authority. They are Top 5 in turnovers for and against, in turn leads to fast-break points, which perfectly compliments the Kings' overall game. Their overall point scoring hasn't been anything shy of impressive, either. With their fast pace, the Kings are in the Top 15 in the league in points per game as a team, improving from being that last in the league last season. As far as three point shooting goes, they are no Golden State, but the Kings are making a strong case for being a top 3-point shooting team in the coming years. With the addition of the league's top 10 best 3-point percentage shooter Buddy Hield (43.1%), Sacramento has stayed in the top 5 of 3 point % (37.6%), whilst holding an opposing teams 3 point % to 34.1%, which is 4th overall in the league, an accessory of the overall 3 point league that we now watch. I guess you can say, the Kings are only on the up, but there are flaws.

Their overall defensive rating may have gone up, but if you look deeper into the stats, (which is kind of the point of this) then you can still see a lot of improvements to be made in the Kings' defensive effort. There were only three stats that Kings excelled on defensively this year and that was turnovers, turnover percentage and Opponent 3 Point %, which shows that they excel at perimeter defending. However, with shot blockers such as Cauley-Stein and Bagley in the team's rotation, you would think that the Kings would be in, at least, the top 20 in rebounds allowed and blocks per game, but no, sporting a league last in both rebound categories and not breaking the top 20 in blocks. If the Kings are to become more successful, they have to break that top 10 barrier for overall defence and become a No Paint team (meaning little layups and mid range attempts during a game). That overall ferociousness on the perimeter and offensive end now needs to transit to the inside defensive factor for the Kings to become playoff contenders. Even James Harden has started to become more defensive minded by leading the league in steals per-game.

Youth, Buddy, and Starting with Success

9 of the 17 players on the current Kings roster have all attended winning college programmes and been under winning coaches. Be it Mike Krzyzewski and Duke (Marvin Bagley III and Harry Giles), Roy Williams and North Carolina (Harrison Barnes (Golden State Warriors)) or John Calipari and University of Kentucky (De'Aaron Fox, Willy Cauley-Stein and Weyen Gabriel --> The One and Done). From playing at pedigree college programmes, the ceiling on these players are extremely high. We have already seen that Fox is an All-Star caliber player in the coming years, whilst Bagley has consistently been an efficient force on the floor (19,4 PER), and these are just rookies, and their effectiveness can only go higher from this point on.

In the past, the Kings have been known for splashing money on ageing talent such as Zach Randolph and Vince Carter. However, this season, only 4 of the players on the roster have played 5+ years in the NBA, which shows that the Kings are all for moving with the times. This team is the 7th Youngest team in the NBA, (an age of 25.7 years, of which is just under 4 years shy of the unofficial NBA prime age) with 3 of their betters being playoff teams and one including LeBron James. The first youngest (Denver) was, at one point, the best team in the Western Conference for a good few weeks of this season, which makes me even more excited for the future of Sacramento.

As far as depth goes, the Kings don't compare to roster of the Bucks, Bulls, or even the Pacers. Be that as it may, they still have exciting G-League talent in the forms of rookie international forward Wenyen Gabriel (Kentucky Alumni) and 2nd Year talent Troy Williams, both on two way contracts. Williams is still young, but is becoming more efficient as a player on the floor, while Gabriel was an unknown at Kentucky, but hey, he must've gotten to Kentucky by doing something special?

In the overall scheme of things, the Kings have kept this idea to get everybody the ball on equal playing time. However, the only 3 constants have been standout players this year, De'Aaron Fox, Marvin Bagley III, and Buddy Heild. Heild in particular has been a very useful asset when the Kings acquired him from the Pelicans last season. He is averaging career highs in FT%, 2P% and 3P%, whilst leading the team in all Total, Per 36 mins, Per 100 Poss., Shooting and Play-by-Play stats. Even Kobe Bryant has hinted that Buddy is the next big thing in the NBA. The 26-year-old Oklahoma Shooting guard has already gone off twice this season, dropping 37 points on a very strong OKC team and then putting up 35 against a talented Pistons team whilst drilling the game winner. Very Kobe-esque, so to speak. This happening while being the 10th highest paid player on the Kings roster, demonstrating that he just wants to play.

Now, this isn't a premonition for the coming years. Nor is it a statement that I am going to retract if it doesn't happen in a 5 year span. It is simple an opinionated post that I believe is going to happen, and with the way that the NBA is going in with higher volumes of Offense and the highest 3 Point rating in years, the Kings aren't that far behind what is an ever-changing league.

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About the Creator

Jake Alston

I write about Music and the like.

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