One Area of Improvement for each Sacramento Kings Player: Wings/Forwards

Aug 29, 2024, 8:08 AM | Updated: 8:08 am

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 20: Keegan Murray #13 and Kevin Huerter #9 of the Sacramento Kings...

Keegan Murray #13 and Kevin Huerter #9 of the Sacramento Kings celebrate a basket in the fourth quarter against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Golden 1 Center on January 20, 2023 in Sacramento,(Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)

(Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)

BY BRENDEN NUNES

Sactown Sports writer

External improvement via trades, free agency, and the draft often steal the headlines during an NBA offseason. Because of that, internal improvements can often be overlooked but are just as vital to a team’s progress and development.

Regardless of age, NBA players always aim to improve individually from one season to the next. The Sacramento Kings have just two players in their thirties and plenty of players who could take notable strides heading into the 2023-24 season.

This exercise is divided into three pieces by position — not including rookies or two-way players. To start, I struggle to differentiate positions in today’s NBA. As head coach Mike Brown says, in Sacramento, positions one through four are interchangeable—it’s just about being able to match up defensively with the opposition.

That was seen throughout the seasons with lineups where Keegan Murray is at the typical shooting guard spot and other moments where Kevin Huerter is the second-tallest player on the floor.

So, forgive me if some of the positional definitions for these players seem a bit funky. They’re a somewhat unnecessary title in the modern NBA, particularly with the Kings.

That being said, I separated the players into guards, wings/forwards, and centers.

Here is one area of improvement going into 2024-25 for each of Sacramento’s “wings/forwards”:

DeMar DeRozan (35 years old): Playing in the Point-5

With DeRozan being the oldest player on the Kings and an established future Hall of Famer, ranking 36th in all-time scoring with six All-Star appearances, it’s hard to ask him to continue to improve.

So, for him, it’s more about adjusting to head coach Mike Brown’s schemes in Sacramento, one of which is playing at point five. The point five offense is defined by making decisions with the ball — whether to shoot, drive, or pass — in point five seconds.

DeRozan, King of the pump fake, tends to have a slower, more systematic approach to his offense. Last season with the Bulls, 25.2 percent of his attempts were taken within two seconds of touching the ball, 41.5 percent in 2-6 seconds, and 33.3 percent were in moments where he had possessions for at least six seconds.

For reference, Harrison Barnes (who DeRozan is essentially replacing in the starting lineup) took 60.2 percent of his shots in less than two seconds, 33.7 percent in 2-6 seconds, and just 6.1 percent after six or more seconds of possession.

It’s not simple to compare, as DeRozan has more credible reasons to take his time and get to his spots than Barnes, but it’s a crucial aspect of Sacramento’s offense. Even Malik Monk took 41.5 percent of his shots after less than two seconds of possession.

There will need to be a healthy balance of the former All-Star adapting to their schemes and the scheme adapting to his skillset.

Keegan Murray (24 years old): Offensive aggressiveness

The Sacramento Kings offense is predicated on ball and player movement. It is often referred to as ‘equal opportunity,’ meaning it’s on the players to go and get it when they see fit.

On a team with De’Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, and Malik Monk, it’s understandable for a second-year player to be skittish in claiming possessions as his own.

But he was a top-four pick for a reason and showed flashes of self-creation ability that will be crucial to his long-term development in the NBA.

Murray had 22 games last season with at least 15 field goal attempts, yet 16 instances where he shot the ball fewer than ten times. The Kings were 7-3 when Murray scored at least 25 points and 11-7 when he ended the night in single digits.

“Keegan’s going to have to just be aggressive in the flow of our offense,” Coach Brown said in the middle of last season when asked about getting the young wing additional looks.

With the addition of DeMar DeRozan, that aggressive mindset could be increasingly difficult to muster up, but his teammates and coaching staff have constantly instilled confidence in his ability to call his own number and get buckets.

Kevin Huerter (26 years old): Back to elite three-point shooting

In his exit interview, Huerter said that he “went into last offseason, trying to be really good at the things I think I’d be doing in our offense. I really kind of focused my on-court work on looks I’d get within our offense, how I thought I’d be used, different plays I thought I’d have, and really based my workouts off of those. And maybe I didn’t touch upon everything else that I think I’m capable of doing or can do, things that make you a fully well rounded player.”

“So, that’s kind of my goal going into this year,” he continued. “Getting back to some of the things I did the first four or five offseasons of my career and that’s working on everything. What do you want to get better at? I just want to become a better basketball player.”

I thought that Huerter’s insight at the end of the season was great. Already, we’ve seen him working out with Sabonis and DeRozan in Southern California, and hopefully, that approach will pay off after the worst season of his career (outside of his rookie year) which ended with him sidelined for the final 15 games due to an unfortunate torn left labrum.

The Maryland product knocked down a career-low 36.1 percent from three and was targeted by the opposing team’s best players in switches.

While defensive growth would obviously be ideal, finding his way back to being one of the league’s best deep threats, including off of movement, could lead to a bounce-back year.

Trey Lyles (29 years old): Free throw shooting

This was honestly one of the more difficult ones to pinpoint. At this point, it feels like we know what Trey Lyles is and that he has a valuable bench role on Sacramento’s roster, with the versatility to play anything from the three to a small-ball center.

Eventually, I settled on what is somewhat of a cop-out answer, as it could be said for a majority of players on a Sacramento Kings team that ended the year dead last in free-throw percentage (74.5 percent).

Lyles converted 70 percent (49/70) from the charity stripe last season, which is far from horrible but also the worst conversion rate in his two-and-a-half seasons wearing royal purple.

It’s a contract year for the 6’9 forward, going into the final season of his two-year, $16-million contract.

Jalen McDaniels (27 years old): Solidfying the three in 3&D

McDaniels was the lone player acquired in the Kings’ financially focused deal that sent Davion Mitchell and Sasha Vezenkov to Toronto.

With Harrison Barnes and, to a lesser extent, Kessler Edwards no longer around, his 6’9 frame with a seven-foot wingspan could prove helpful on nights when Coach Brown inevitably thirsts for a new defensive look.

But he has to prove useful on the offensive side of the ball if he’s going to garner a consistent bench role. In 538 minutes throughout 49 games with the Raptors, McDaniels converted 17.5 percent (11/63) of his looks from three.

He’s a 32.2 percent three-point shooter in his five NBA seasons and can’t be someone that opposing teams are willing to ignore on the perimeter.

When is the next Sacramento Kings offseason date of interest?

Now that we know when the Sacramento Kings will suit up for their season-opener, we can look forward to October 24th, when the Beam Team will face the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Training camps will begin at the end of September, meaning general manager Monte McNair could still make a move or two — potentially including signing some of the above NBA free agents — to round out Sacramento before players report to Golden 1 Center.

Be sure to stay locked into Sactown Sports for all of your Sacramento Kings news on player signings, trades, game recaps, and more for the upcoming season.