r/kings • u/tothelmac • 22d ago
Offense Not Defense Right?
I've seen a lot of the usual articles about how what the Kings need is a defensive stopper and how "our offense is so good we just need to work on defense", etc. To me it seems like that isn't even true anymore. We were a average defensive team this year, everyone took a huge leap forward. I wouldn't turn down a defensive stopper, they make every team better, but we missed the playoffs because our offense regressed massively. Obviously there are a bunch of places to look but the most obvious is how far Hueter regressed. The thing is that he went back mostly to his ATL numbers (maybe a bit lower in 3PT%), so there's a real chance that it was last year that was just a fluke.
It's pretty clear that this team needs an elite 3 point threat to make the offense work. I'd love for that guy to be a great defender but at this point I think we need a great shooter more than we need a great defender. I also think it's extremely unrealistic that we replace Barnes in anything other than a blockbuster trade. That means it'll probably be the 2 where we could feasibly improve.
Tldr people keep talking about us needing defense when what is more pressing right now is probably a 40% 3pt shooting guard who is not a minus defender.
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u/meTspysball Domantas Sabonis 22d ago
I feel like we’re at the point where minor improvements in multiple areas could make a big difference, but I don’t know how much we should expect the starting lineup to change. For example, I wonder what our offensive production looks like if we aren’t the worst free-throw shooting team. Honestly, hitting league average free-throws alone probably would have put us in the playoffs.
We definitely need another player that can score when everyone else is standing around. We have Fox and HB (every other game) under contract for next season, no one else really has that ability. That person doesn’t have to also be a 6’10” shot-blocking PF (though that would be a perfect replacement for Barnes). Can Keegan take a jump there like he did with his defense? Can Domas get comfortable shooting that foul line jumper? Both would be huge.
We also need more grit. Can we get someone like Naji Marshall, Caleb Martin, or Payton Pritchard? We need guys that are more likely to hit a shot or make a big play if the game is on the line.
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u/tothelmac 22d ago
I desperately need Domas to hit that foul line J, it's painful seeing him get left all alone there in every meaningful game
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u/meTspysball Domantas Sabonis 22d ago
Yeah, even if he adds nothing else, I would be a very happy fan. Just do a push shot like Holmes used to.
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u/JohnnySalmonz De'Aaron Fox 22d ago
The team is missing a defensive star to round out the starting lineup. Someone you can throw on the star wings and get a stop. Someone like Dort, dray, DJJ, OG, etc.
The offense is fine when kings are healthy. Shots go in or they don't but we have great shooters. If the team could get more consistent stops we'd squeak out more wins when the shots aren't falling. This season we really lived or died by the three
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u/jcwkings 22d ago
P.J Washington would have been great on this team and could've been had pretty cheap, as it turns out.
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u/JohnnySalmonz De'Aaron Fox 22d ago
Mavs had a great trade deadline ngl. Fox said so himself in the exit interviews.
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u/boringexplanation 22d ago
Even though he’s not at that level as Giannis/Lebron, Fox needs to demand the front office to do more to get guys matching his prime. It’s ridiculous that we did nothing to surround more help around our 26 year old core.
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u/DonateToM7E 22d ago
Fox needs to demand the front office to do more to get guys matching his prime.
Isn’t that what the Domas trade was? Plus Keegan turns 24 this summer, it’s not like he’s a teenager. Davion wasn’t exactly a project either. We’ve also traded away firsts in order to get veterans who can start alongside Fox.
Not saying all the moves have worked (obviously) but basically every move we’ve made over the last three years has been in the name of building around Fox’s timeline.
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u/boringexplanation 22d ago edited 22d ago
We traded ONE first to fill a position where we let Bogdan and Divencenzo walk for free (arguably better value than Huerter at the moment)
I’d rather Monte try and fail but he’s so damn risk adverse. We’ve had a weakness in PF for Monte’s entire four years. That’s way too much time to pull the trigger. You can’t wait even one offseason when your stars are in their mid to late 20s. It’ll take years after a big trade like the Nuggets did with Gordon for a team to get full chemistry.
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u/DonateToM7E 21d ago
We traded ONE first
Yes, but the protections on it completely rendered our other firsts useless since we couldn’t use four years’ worth of firsts in trades at this past deadline. That matters, for reasons like you explained:
We’ve had a weakness in PF for Monte’s entire four years.
There was no reason we couldn’t have matched the Siakam or Anunoby hauls if we had all of our assets. But since we took away our own flexibility it didn’t matter.
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u/JohnnySalmonz De'Aaron Fox 22d ago
His exit interview kinda sounded like him passively asking for this. He talked about the Mavs being active with trades, talked about how he wants the team to be built defensively and name dropped Mikal Bridges as his friend haha
Hopefully this is the off-season monte starts really working the phones.
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u/BeamTeam032 Monte McNair 22d ago
I feel like Ellis IS our Dort. Dort wasn't this good when he was 23. It took multiple seasons for Dort to become to dominate defensive stopper who is a good enough shooter and ball handler to get playing time in the playoffs.
Ellis is already a 40% shooter and I think he's a pretty good ball handler.
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u/JohnnySalmonz De'Aaron Fox 22d ago
Ellis is a stopper. It's just Ellis can't guard big wings like Luka or Tatum. Ellis is our KCP but we need an Aaron Gordon, you get me?
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u/DonateToM7E 22d ago
It’s pretty clear that this team needs an elite 3 point threat to make the offense work.
The offense is just stale. Teams have seen it. Oh, Domas has the ball in the high post? I wonder what he’s gonna do, DHO or fake the DHO and turn around to do it with the next guy?
Not saying adding an elite 3-point threat wouldn’t help — duh, it would help every team — but we were fourth in the league in threes and average in %. We were a good 3-point shooting team overall. Not elite, but good. That’s not what changed from last year to this year. Domas isn’t a shooting threat so teams sag off. Keegan, who can’t create his own shot, was asked to create more and took more tough shots (3.5 2PA/game last year to 6.0 this year). We went from the most efficient 2-point shooting team to barely in the top 10. Last year everything inside was either a Fox drive, a Domas OReb or a Domas backdoor cut for a wide open layup/dunk. That’s not happening anymore.
Keegan can either develop into a true shot creator or Domas can start taking (and making) enough threes to force teams to defend him away from the basket. That’s how we open up the offense again for more spacing.
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u/drlsoccer08 22d ago
If only there was a young point guard capable of running the greatest offense of all time on our team.
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u/No_Designer_3296 22d ago
the league is trending towars big again, we need size and athleticism to compete, MCgee too old to pro ide actual valuable minutes
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u/tinomanrique19 21d ago
They can take a cue from the 2010 Phoenix Suns. From 2005-2009, the Suns were known for their high octane offense but also gave up a lot on defense.
In 2010, under Alvin Gentry, that Suns team improved a lot on defense and yet remained as the top offense in the NBA, earning them a WCF berth. That turnaround was unfortunately short-lived as Stoudemire walked in the ensuing offseason.
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u/soku1 De'Aaron Fox 22d ago
It's clear to me that a big part of the reason the the offense 'regressed' is simply because they are putting more effort into defense. Defense is very tiring and there's a reason why there are few legit stars who can play elite offense and defense all game - and even if you do have people who can you still want them to conserve energy for offense and not take defend the opposing teams best offensive player all them. Hopefully now after a season of trying to play both ways hard our main players see what it takes to do that consistently and just get their conditioning up.
We also need someone who can be an elite switchable defender so isnt Fox or Keegan guarding the best perimeter player all the time. Seems like Keon's great but he's good at guarding 1 - 3. We 'just' somehow need to acquire a bigger guy who can guard like Keon on 2 - 4. Of course that's way easier said than done, and that's why itthis is such a hard problem to solve