Triple Option

Jan. 22 @2:06 PM

By Michael Maynard

The story of the 2018-19 NBA season so far has probably been the remarkable depth of the Western Conference due to LeBron joining the Lakers, the Nuggets taking the next step, and the historic rookie season from Luka Doncic.  However, as the end of January nears, the playoff picture is becoming slightly more clear.  The Warriors, Thunder, Rockets, and Nuggets are virtual locks.  The Trail Blazers, Spurs, and Lakers should all make it.  So dipping into bracketology vocabulary, there’s one bubble spot left.  

The Suns have been out since day one.  The Grizzlies made some early noise with the return to #GrindCity but have fell off.  Luka Legend is singlehandedly keeping Dallas relevant but the Mavs are slipping in the standings. That leaves five teams vying for one spot.  

New Orleans has regressed, but with Anthony Davis we can’t really count them out.  Same with the Jazz, but they were in a similar spot this time last year and caught fire late in the season.  Minnesota has dealt with all the Butler and Thibodeau drama is somehow only 3 games out.  The Clippers have the 7 spot right now.

There’s one team I have yet to mention, and while the headline gives it way, this team has almost been forgotten throughout the years of constant mediocrity.  But really for the first time in my life, I can say that the Sacramento Kings are in the playoff hunt.  At 24-23 and 1.5 games out of the 8 seed, it’s not out of the question playoff basketball could be returning to California’s capital.

I’m giving due credit to “One Shining Podcast” for this next observation.  These next few paragraphs are the college basketball side of me coming out, but take a look of some of the names on the Kings roster:

De’Aaron Fox                    Kentucky

Buddy Hield                     Oklahoma

Willie Cauley-Stein         Kentucky

Marvin Bagley III            Duke

Frank Mason                    Kansas

Harry Giles                       Duke

Justin Jackson                  North Carolina

Yogi Ferrell                       Indiana

Ben McLemore                Kansas

Skal Labissiere                Kentucky

Literally just add Jalen Brunson to this list and we have every significant college basketball player of the past 5 years.  Five of these players were one-and-done, but four of them were 4-year players.  Giles and Bagley were the previous two draft classes’ top high school recruits.  Hield and Mason were Naismath winners.  Jackson won a national title at Carolina and Hield and Cauley-Stein both made Final Fours as well.

While the Kings roster would dominate any college roster in the past 5 years, the NBA is a little tougher.  But again as foreign a concept as this seems, the Sacramento Kings are in the playoff hunt. 

The Kings have not made the playoffs since 2006.  Nobody else is even close to that.  Every other team has made the playoffs in the new decade.  The Suns last made the playoffs in 2010 but they were dominant in the era before that.  They also went 48-34 in 2014 but didn’t make the playoffs which feels made up.

Couple more figures to drive this point home even more. 16 out of the 30 NBA teams make the playoffs every year.  That’s more than half the teams in the league.  Couple that with the fact that missing the playoffs leads to high draft picks.  To go thirteen years without making the playoffs is almost as hard as making the playoffs thirteen years in a row.  

10 different head coaches have led the Kings during this drought.  The Muss Bus had a quick stop in Sacramento, Mike Malone was given a quick boot and now has the Nuggets among the best teams in the league.  George Karl actually came out of retirement to try to revive this team.  From Bibby to Boogie to Jimmer, players have come and gone.  Relocation has been contemplated on multiple occasions.  The team desperately has been trying to get out of the ARCO arena.  You almost have to feel bad for them. 

I can’t say I’ve watched much of the Kings this year-has anyone?  It’s very similar to that 14 Suns team.  The NBA world knows the names, but looks at the standings thinking “no way that’s real.” In all honesty not too many people believe in the Kings.  But like I said, I remember all these guys from college, and looking at that roster, I can see a scenario where we actually have a competent basketball franchise.

Let’s start at the top, or rather the point,  De’Aaron Fox is quietly becoming the top point guard out of the 2017 class that had four in the top 10.  Markelle Fultz can’t shoot a basketball, Lonzo Ball can’t stay on the court, and now Dennis Smith has drama in Dallas.  All the while, Fox is one of the fastest and quickest players in the league, although Westbrook gave him a wake-up call earlier this season.  He also is one of the premiere defenders at his position: 1.78 SPG, 3rd of all PGs.  He is 7th in assists for PGs with 7.3 and averages 17.6 PPG.  ESPN has him 12th for PGs in Player Efficiency rating (PER), a statistical way to say he’s the 12th best point guard in the NBA this season. 

Now go back a little farther to the trade that sparked the re-rebuild of the Kings.  The Kings essentially traded DeMarcus Cousins to the Pelicans for Buddy Hield and a 2017 1st, which they flipped to Portland and ended up with Jackson and Giles.  Both of the latter have become decent role players, but Hield was the centerpiece of the trade.  And while inconsistent early, Hield is coming into his own in Year 3.  A deadly 3pt shooter, Hield is 45.6% for threes on the year, 4th in the NBA.  Just last Saturday Buddy Love dropped 35 on the Pistons and a buzzer beater to win it.  Everyone who watched him in college knows he can get buckets, the electric performance at Allen Fieldhouse the dominant memory.  But the question with Hield was if he was purely a sharpshooter or could become an all around scorer.  That question is still being resolved, but it is apparent the Kings are prepared to ride with Buddy at the 2 going forward.

While the backcourt is set, the frontcourt has been more flexible.  Cauley-Stein has usually started in the middle.  Iman Shumpert and Nemanja Bjelica have been the forwards, meaning the kids and Bogdan Bogdanovic start on the bench and see sporadic playing time.  Marvin Bagley should eventually move into a starting role as the franchise used the #2 pick on him.  Do they regret passing on Doncic?  Maybe a little due to the young European’s immediate impact, but really questions Bagley’s talent and upside.  After all he did reclassify to play a year early at Duke .

Dave Joerger had Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol in Memphis, and the Bagley and Cauley-Stein duo could form a similar dynamic.  Fox may also be a younger and taller Mike Conley.  The parallels exist.  I mean those Grizzlies team were competitive and made playoff runs. 

Here’s the question that defines every small market team in professional sports: Can they get players to come play for them?  Does anybody really want to play in Sacramento?  Is a group resembling an AAU all-star team enough to sell a big name impact player to move their career to Northern California?

It seems unlikely, but finishing with a winning record for the first time in 13 years would be a step in the right direction and show this team has potential to compete.  A four game road trip started yesterday with a loss to the Nets, as the schedule becomes more rigorous.  A five game February stretch sandwiching the All-star break features road contests in Denver, Golden State, Oklahoma City, and Minnesota before returning home to play the league-best Bucks.

I don’t think this winning pace is sustainable, but the bar isn’t set that high.  This season should already be a success in the Kings’ eyes,  In the gauntlet Western Conference, we’re going to see over the next 2 1/2 months how legit this team is and if they can become a factor for the first time in forever,  We’re going to see if a collection of college superstars can mesh together in truly Calipari fashion to play competitive basketball/

At the very least, the Kings are relevant.  Again, for the first time in my lifetimes, the Kings are giving me reason to care about them.  I don’t know anybody personally that roots for Sacramento hoops, but I can’t imagine this past decade plus has been easy.  I mean this last year in a half has been awful as a Bulls fan, I can’t imagine having to put up with that for nearly ten times as long (Though I may need to prepare for that).  The NBA Western Conference truly is wild, and I’m not assuming anything.  As far as I can tell, the Kings are legit enough to be in the picture.