Grading Sacramento Kings' Final 15-Man Roster
The 15-man roster is set, and the regular season is here for the Sacramento Kings. To get to this point, the team had to cut a few players, including Sim Bhullar and, most recently, Trey Johnson.
Now that it's finalized, how does it stack up? What positions figure to be a strength for the Kings? Are there any spots that look to be a weakness? Let's break it all down and provide a grade for all five positions.
Since we don't have a ton to go off in terms of a sample size for this season, we'll also consider expectations for each position when assigning a grade. For some, like center, getting a realistic barometer is pretty easy. For others—like shooting guard, where two youngsters are manning the position—it's a bit more difficult.
Also worth evaluating is the way the Kings stack up at each spot compared to other teams in the NBA. Are they likely to have the advantage there on most nights, will it be pretty even or will the opposition have an upper hand?
With the criteria set up, let's get to the grades.
Point Guard
1 of 5
Point guard is an interesting spot for the Kings. They don't have any single player who's considered above average, but they have three guys who would be worthy of playing time on most teams.
Darren Collison figures to be the starter—at least he was in the team's first game. He logged a team-high 36 minutes in the loss to Golden State.
Collison was also productive in that playing time, despite only making four of his 12 field-goal attempts. He finished with 13 points, eight assists, four rebounds, five steals, one block and only one turnover.
As head coach Mike Malone said, Collison will take ownership of the team when he's on the court.
“He’s that coach on the floor, so when he’s out there, he’s running the team, and he and I will be in constant communication," the coach said, per Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee. “I know the players all trust him, but that’s only going to get better as the season goes on.”
Sessions figures to be the primary backup at point guard. He only played 10 minutes in the contest, which seems a bit lower than expected coming into it. Then again, when you commit four turnovers in that time, it'll tend to cut down your playing time.
Still, with Sessions' ability to play both guard positions (he played 48 percent of his minutes at the 2 and 52 percent at the 1 last season over his stops with the Milwaukee Bucks and Charlotte Bobcats), he'll get plenty of chances.
Ray McCallum will be the odd-man out of the trio. It's unfortunate because the second-year player showed some promise late in his rookie season and during summer league. However, he only got 1:31 of playing time in a game that was out of reach for the last half of the fourth quarter.
If it weren't for the presence of both veterans in front of him, McCallum would get a lot more run and would get opportunities in a different situation.
Grade: C-
Shooting Guard
2 of 5
If the grades were based more on potential and less on current value/expectations, shooting guard may be one of the Kings' better spots. The team has two promising players manning the position, but neither is close to a finished product.
Of the two, Ben McLemore is "the veteran." He's also the starter at this point. McLemore logged 26:27 of playing time against the Golden State Warriors. However, he wasn't very productive. The 21-year-old scored zero points on 0-of-5 shooting, with two rebounds, one assist, one steal and two turnovers.
Despite coming off the bench, Nik Stauskas got similar playing time. He managed 25:59 on the court, but his results weren't much better. Stauskas did score nine points, but he only made 3 of 10 field goals. He also failed to grab a rebound, dish an assist or get a steal.
Ramon Sessions will also receive some playing time at the 2. But this figures to mostly be a platoon between McLemore and Stauskas. Either way, it's unlikely that shooting guard becomes a key position for the Kings this season.
Grade: D
Small Forward
3 of 5
For the first time in years—since the then-Ron Artest was on the team—the Kings open the season with an above-average starter at small forward. Sacramento also has a solid backup, making this one of its strongest positions.
The Sacramento version of Rudy Gay—the one who averaged 20.1 points on 48.2 percent shooting last season—is one of the better small forwards the league has to offer. Like virtually everyone on the team, Gay got off to a slow start in the season opener against the Warriors. He finished with only 14 points on 5-of-15 shooting.
Still, based on the larger sample size from last season and his inclusion on Team USA in the FIBA Basketball World Cup, expectations are high for Gay. He's got the skills to live up to them, though.
Omri Casspi, in his return to Sacramento, is Gay's primary backup. He'll be a nice addition to the team.
Although he didn't show it against Golden State, Casspi will be able to stretch the floor (35.1 percent from downtown during his career). For a team that made only 33 percent of its three-pointers last season and only 16.7 percent in the season opener, that's an area that's lacking. He'll also provide a solid defender off the bench.
Derrick Williams is a hybrid forward, but he's worth mentioning here since most of his playing time in the opener came at the 3. Williams logged nearly 13 minutes. It was behind the primary backups at each respective forward position (Casspi and Carl Landry) but ahead of Reggie Evans.
Based on athleticism and potential, Williams is still a nice piece to have. It's also nice to know he won't log a ton of minutes since the forward seems to let the game come to him when he has a smaller role.
Grade: B
Power Forward
4 of 5
Power forward is similar to point guard. The Kings have multiple players who would garner minutes on nearly any team, but none of those options are above average.
With the way things shook out in the season opener, and much of last season, Jason Thompson is still at the top of the pecking order. He started the game and led all power forwards in playing time, with over 21 minutes of action.
In his time on the court, Thompson managed two points, seven rebounds, two steals and one block. However, he also turned the ball over four times.
Carl Landry appears to be No. 2 on the depth chart, and perhaps he had the best game of any player on the team when factoring in expectations. Landry managed eight points and seven rebounds, including five offensive boards, in 17:23 of playing time.
Considering Landry was hurt so often last year and had subpar performances when he did play, this was an encouraging sign.
Reggie Evans appeared for fewer than seven minutes in the opener. The power forward didn't get on the scoreboard. The one thing Evans did was rebound, hauling in five rebounds. That's not really newsworthy with him, though, as he's averaged 13.3 boards per 36 minutes during his career.
As an energy guy off the bench who can clean the glass and provide some defense, Evans is a good player to have.
The wild card of the bunch is Eric Moreland. He's an unknown for a couple reasons. For one, he's the only player on the roster who didn't appear against Golden State (he didn't even dress for the game). But Moreland is also a mystery because, despite being undrafted, he showed potential in summer league.
The power forward averaged 8.8 points and 2.7 blocks in 19.8 minutes for Sacramento's team in the Las Vegas Summer League. His shot-blocking ability is intriguing for a Kings team that's lacking a bona fide rim protector, but as Cowbell Kingdom's James Ham points out, the team will take it slow with the rookie.
"Barring injury, the idea is to bring the defensive specialist along slowly, including a few trips to Reno to get some D-League action in. The Kings like his potential, but at this point, Moreland is raw and will need time."
Grade: C-
Center
5 of 5
In terms of positional grade, center is the Kings' best. Not surprisingly, it's due to the presence of DeMarcus Cousins.
Cousins established himself as one of the league's best big men last season. He led all centers in scoring, was fourth in rebounding, second in free-throw attempts per game, third in assists, first in steals and second in double-doubles.
Granted, his season didn't get off to the best of starts. While he managed to score 20 points and grab 11 rebounds in the loss, he was only 4-of-14 shooting and had a game-high six turnovers in 30:47 of action.
However, at 24 years old, coming off the best season in his career and a summer spent with Team USA at the World Cup, it's hard to imagine his woes continuing much longer. Cousins will be one of the league's best centers once again, and that obviously adds to the Kings' strength at the position.
The addition of Ryan Hollins as a backup is a good one for Sacramento. Hollins only logged 1:31 against Golden State, but he should have a more prominent role than that as we get deeper into the season. He's been a solid backup for the duration of his career, averaging 3.8 points, 2.2 rebounds and 0.5 blocks in 12 minutes per game. There's no reason why that won't continue.
Despite being the starting power forward, Thompson should also get some time at center. He did against Golden State and logged over 30 percent of his minutes at the 5 last season.
Grade: A-
What do you think of the grades? Let me know on Twitter @SimRisso
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
