First Impressions Of The Summer League Kings

Another California Classic has wrapped up at Golden 1 Center.

The Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings concluded their two-day, four-game basketball exhibition. The first thing that jumped out to me was how great it is to have basketball again in front of passionate fans. The G1C was truly a melting pot of mainly Kings, Warriors and Lakers fans with a little representation from Miami.

The point being that there were a good amount of fans there and the energy could be felt.

What most people came to see are the picks that we all saw selected in the NBA draft. We had to wait a day to see Kuminga and Moody from the Warriors but they looked good. For the Kings, I had my eyes glued on lottery pick Davion Mitchell.

My first question I always ask on a new player, especially a draft pick, is do they belong? There is no doubt in my mind that Mitchell does belong and will be an asset to this team.

Breaking down his two days of action included some good and bad. I thought he was a little sloppy at times with his ball handling, his stat line in game two wasn’t as good as the first night and at times his decision making could have been better.

The positives though, far outweigh the negatives. His size didn’t appear to be an issue. I love how he attacks the game defensively and you can see how he can impact a game on that end of the floor. His start and stops on offense were good and he could get all the way to the basket and finish in traffic. I have a feeling he will look even better when surrounded by skilled NBA veterans.

The Kings second round pick Neemias Queta didn’t play until the second night and played sparingly. In his minutes he did show flashes. For one, his size just jumps out.

He has worked on his body to get trimmer and that has helped his mobility. He moves well, is big and certainly will be a work in progress but with hard work, and constant player development the Kings may have something there.

I wasn’t as impressed with a couple of holdovers from the previous team. Granted, this was just two days of action and next week in Las Vegas things could change but I didn’t feel that Robert Woodard or Jahmi’us Ramsey did much to impress. I was hoping for more, I am sure they were hoping for more and I know the Kings were too.

Overall, it was great to have hoops and fans back in the building. Mitchell will be a guy that will compete and make it more difficult on the current guards on the team. He will push Fox, Haliburton, Hield and Terrance Davis. The competition for minutes is needed and will make the team better in the back court.

Now let’s see how the next step goes when the team heads to Las Vegas for the Summer League

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