Early Predictions for Sacramento Kings' Starting Lineup Next Season
As things currently stand with the Sacramento Kings, much is still up in the air with the team's starting lineup.
We know DeMarcus Cousins will be the starting center. Darren Collison is the only real option to be the starting point guard to open the season. It's also clear Rudy Gay will be a starter, but where he plays is still up in the air.
The good thing is Sacramento has some depth on the team and a few players with the versatility to play multiple positions. That'll give head coach Michael Malone the flexibility to tinker with things during training camp and preseason until he finds what fits best.
The downside, at least for our purposes, is that it makes predicting the starting lineup a difficult task. Still, using the knowledge at hand and some educated guessing, here's an early prediction for the Sacramento Kings' starting lineup next season.
The Prediction
Point guard: Darren Collison
Shooting guard: Ben McLemore
Small forward: Rudy Gay
Power Forward: Reggie Evans
Center: DeMarcus Cousins
The Reasoning
Point Guard
There are only two realistic options to start at point guard for the Kings: Collison and Ray McCallum. In actuality, though, Collison is the only one who has a shot to start the season as the starter.
The Kings didn't sign him to a three-year deal and let Isaiah Thomas walk only to have the point guard come off the bench. Plus, Sacramento pretty much told Collison he'd be the starter when it signed him back in July.
Not to mention Collison is the more experienced player at this stage of the game.
McCallum showed some nice things as a rookie—especially at the end of the season, when he averaged 13.5 points and 6.8 assists over the final 12 games—and during summer league, but he needs more experience before he can be counted on as a long-term starter at point guard.
Other than those two, there's nobody else on the team who could fill in on an extended basis. Shooting guard Nik Stauskas can play some point guard, but it will only be for short stretches of time. Ben McLemore isn't suited to be a point guard, either.
That leaves only Collison and McCallum, and we already know who's going to start between the two.
Shooting Guard
As with point guard, the two options are pretty clear. There's the second-year player in McLemore and the rookie, Stauskas. Unlike point guard, however, this position could go either way as far as the starer is concerned.
At the current time, all we have to go on in comparing the two is summer league stats, as both players were on Sacramento's Las Vegas Summer League team.
Interestingly enough, both McLemore and Stauskas played more minutes than any other players on the team, and they were both pretty close in playing time and production.
Stauskas played 28.9 minutes and averaged 9.9 points, 2.0 assists, 2.3 rebounds and 1.9 turnovers. He also shot 43.4 percent from the field and 47.8 percent from downtown.
McLemore, on the other hand, averaged 29.1 minutes and scored 12.6 points, grabbed 4.1 rebounds, dished out 1.3 assists and committed 3.9 turnovers per contest. The second-year player also shot 44.8 percent from the field and 30.4 percent from three-point range.
As you can see, each player had his strengths. Stauskas was the better shooter and distributor while McLemore was the better scorer and rebounder. However, the reason McLemore gets the nod is because of his experience.
It showed after the first couple games of summer league, when the shooting guard started to slow things down and let the game come to him.
"He stopped trying to do too much, too quickly," Malone said, per Jason Jones of The Sacramento Bee. "He slowed down, attacked, shot the ball, he was under control and he played terrific. I was really proud and happy because he’s worked so hard this summer."
The head coach was only speaking of one game, but those traits held up throughout the summer league. After only making 33 percent of his shots in the first two games, McLemore was much more efficient throughout, leading to the nearly 45 percent field-goal percentage.
Ultimately, though, the reason McLemore gets the nod is because of his NBA experience. He's got a full season under his belt and was the starter for the second half of last year.
There will be plenty of opportunites for Stauskas from the get-go. If either McLemore falters or Stauskas plays better than expected, it wouldn't be surprising to see the rookie supplant him in the starting lineup.
Small Forward
Rudy Gay is penciled in as the starting small forward mainly out of necessity. You may wonder why it's a necessity since Gay is one of the team's best players and logged 78 percent of his minutes at the 3 last year.
The reason is a lack of depth at the position. Omri Casspi, who has yet to sign but is reportedly still in the plans, is probably the best option other than Gay.
Granted, Derrick Williams can play some small forward, but he only made 28.6 percent of his shots from 17 feet or further from the basket.
With Cousins manning the post, the Kings need someone who can stretch the floor with his shooting, and Williams' jump shot won't do the trick.
There is another option, which we'll get to momentarily, of where Gay could play. Yet the most important thing is getting their best players on the floor to start the game, and having a frontcourt of Gay and Reggie Evans is better than having one of Gay and Casspi.
Plus, Casspi's three-point shooting (career 35.2 percent) would be a nice addition to stretch the floor with the second unit—especially with players like Carl Landry, Jason Thompson and Williams on the floor, who do most of their work near the hoop.
Power Forward
Between Evans, Thompson, Landry and Williams, the Kings have four options to start at power forward.
Despite four possibilities, the Kings really only have one. What's meant by that is they all play similar close-to-the-basket games. With that being the case, Sacramento should go with the one who does it best.
While Evans isn't much of a scorer, perhaps he's the Kings' best rebounder. The power forward averaged a team-high 13.3 rebounds per 36 minutes last year. Of those options, Thompson is next with 9.5, followed by Landry (8.8) and Williams (6.4).
Another option, which was alluded to previously, was the idea of playing Gay at power forward. It's something he's done with Team USA at the FIBA Basketball World Cup, and it would help spread the floor more than having any of the other players in there.
But starting Gay at power forward would require either Casspi or Williams starting at the 3. Since there are more viable alternatives at power forward, the Kings would be better off with Gay playing on the wing.
Center
This is the one position that's undoubtedly set in stone. Barring some sort of injury, Cousins will be the Kings' starting center in 2014-15. Hell, DMC will be the team's starting center for the three years following that, too.
Simply put, there aren't many centers better than Cousins in the league. He was first in scoring, second in free-throw attempts per game, fourth in rebounds, third in assists, first in steals and second in double-doubles.
If there's maybe one or two centers better than Cousins in the league, none of them play for the Kings. That makes him a no-brainer as the starter.
As things currently stand, the most likely backup is Thompson. Nearly one-third of his minutes came at center last year, and that was with Aaron Gray also on the roster. With Gray now gone, that only leaves Thompson as the backup.
Of course, JT will also get playing time at power forward as well. But given so many options at that position, playing center will allow him a way to get on the court.
There's a chance my long lost—and much bigger—brother, Sim Bhullar, could make the team and get some time at the 5.
However, despite his immense size (7'5"), Sim went undrafted (I get to speak in the third person), so it's hard to imagine him making the roster out of training camp. He seems more like a project player.
If the Kings are going to take on a project, it might as well be someone like Bhullar, who could be a handful if he ever figures it out.
Final Thoughts
This is just one prediction. The Kings could go in any number of directions. And with training camp and preseason still left to play out, there's plenty of time for one or more players to distinguish themselves.
In a way, that's a nice position to be in. It means there are a few players who are capable of contributing. Yet it also means there aren't many players, with the exception of Cousins and Gay, who truly stand out. So while Malone has flexibility on the roster, the coach may prefer less options if it meant more players were head and shoulders above their teammates.
Unless noted otherwise, all stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.
Who do you think should be in Sacramento's starting lineup? Let me know on Twitter @SimRisso
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