The Sacramento Kings proved to everyone last season that they were no longer bottom-feeders in the Western Conference and could compete with the best of the best. A 48-win season is no fluke and the Kings backed up their stellar regular-season play by pushing the Golden State Warriors to seven games in the first round of the playoffs. If it wasn't for a magical 50-point performance by the great Stephen Curry, the Kings may have won their first playoff series since 2004.
Expectations for the Kings were high throughout the summer and the entire Sacramento community was ready for their team to begin the 2023-24 NBA season right where they left off last year. After a 2-1 start where All-NBA guard De'Aaron Fox recorded two 30-point nights, the Kings have seemed to hit a major roadblock.
Fox is currently dealing with a sprained left ankle and without him over their last three games, the Kings have gone 0-3, averaging just 95.7 points per game.
The Kings' offense is what paved the way for them to rise up the Western Conference standings last season, as they ranked first in the league in offensive rating. Fox and fellow All-Star big man Domantas Sabonis were a terrific one-two punch, Harrison Barnes was a stabilizing, veteran presence on the wing, and both Kevin Huerter and Keegan Murray proved to be two effective three-point shooters.
So far this season, the Kings rank just 20th in offensive rating and three-point shooting has been a major problem. Huerter is shooting just 24.2 percent from three-point range to begin the year and Murray, who took some major leaps forward during the offseason, has shot just 26.0 percent from deep. The easygoing flow and the ball movement the Kings had a season ago just doesn't exist right now, especially with Fox on the sideline.
With Fox out of the lineup, it's not necessarily surprising to see the Kings struggle. Any team missing their best player will obviously have their limitations. However, Fox being injured is not necessarily the only problem the Kings are dealing with right now.
Mike Brown sounds off on Kings' recent performances
Ahead of Wednesday night's game against the Portland Trail Blazers, the Kings find themselves 2-4 on the season and trying to figure out ways to end their recent three-game losing skid.
After losing to the Warriors for the second time this season, the Kings went on to drop two straight road games to the Houston Rockets, a team many anticipate finishing around the bottom of the Western Conference standings. In these two games against the Rockets, the Kings were outscored by 43 total points.
Head coach Mike Brown has not been pleased with his team's effort in recent games and it appeared as if he was sending a message to his team during his postgame press conference on Monday night.
“I’ve got to evaluate some things,” Brown said after the team's recent loss in Houston. “In this business, you always have to have a sense of urgency, but you have to believe in what you do whenever you make any type of change or any time you do this instead of that.
“I always have a 24-hour rule, especially after something like this. So, I’m going to sleep on it and I’m going to watch this film, and if you earn a chance to play, I’m going to play you. Nobody’s position on this team is sacred.”
The fact of the matter right now for the Kings is that without Fox, they are left searching for someone to step up into a bigger role. Due to Fox always having the ball in his hands and making plays for himself and his teammates, the Kings have not had a primary source of playmaking since Domantas Sabonis can only do so much.
Whether it is Kevin Huerter, Keegan Murray, Malik Monk off the bench or someone else, the Kings desperately need someone outside of Fox to take on a bigger responsibility offensively. Until this is achieved, Brown is going to continue pondering the question of whether or not he should switch things up.
“Obviously, you have Fox and you have Domas (Sabonis), who have a longer leash probably than everybody else. But everybody gets paid great money,” Brown continued. “Everybody gets paid to perform. And these last two games – now, the Rockets had something to do with it, so I give Ime Udoka, his staff, and the team a lot of credit – but we have to play the way that we’re capable of playing without letting it impact us spiritually, and I’m not seeing that right now.”
Despite their lack of offensive production, the good news for the Kings is that they are still getting a lot of shots up and taking care of the basketball. As of right now, Sacramento ranks second in the league in fewest turnovers per game (12.8) and they are near the top of the list in both field goals and three-point shots attempted.
Opportunity is there for the taking and Sacramento has the personnel to be able to get by offensively without Fox. All it comes down to is their three-point shooters making shots and continuing to find ways to get high-percentage looks around the rim.
How the Kings can get by without De'Aaron Fox
De'Aaron Fox has missed the Kings' last three games due to a left ankle sprain and he will not be playing on Wednesday night when Sacramento takes on the Portland Trail Blazers. Although he is not ready to get back out on the court for games just yet, Fox has been doing individual work behind the scenes and was on the court shooting ahead of the Kings' most recent game against the Rockets.
Still, no timeframe has been given on Fox's injury and he is still considered to be game-to-game with his ankle sprain.
As much as the Kings have problems they need to sort through offensively, everything for them begins on the defensive side of the court. Last season, Sacramento ranked 25th in the league in defensive rating and their problems on this end of the floor were masked by their offensive achievements. With the Kings struggling to score right now, their defense has become a glaring problem.
Sabonis is not known to be a rim-protecting big man, giving the Kings virtually no real defensive depth in their frontcourt. Everything for this group needs to start out on the perimeter with Huerter, Murray, Monk, Davion Mitchell and anyone else keeping their opponents in front of them, not allowing them to drive downhill towards the rim.
Between foul trouble and the lack of discipline when guarding on the perimeter, the Kings have allowed their opponents to get easy looks either in the mid-range area or right at the rim. A fast-paced team that likes to get things going in transition, this has made the Kings' transition offense almost non-existent at times.
With Fox on the court, a lot of the Kings' problems are solved because he can make up for defensive lapses on the offensive side of the court. In order for Sacramento to continue growing and become a real title contender in the Western Conference, they are going to have to rely on their defense.
They have the length and athleticism to really bother teams out on the perimeter, which is why everything at this point comes down to effort. Just six games into the 2023-24 season, the Kings have plenty of time to figure things out. Without their All-Star point guard in the lineup, there is no better time for Sacramento to achieve this.
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