All-Decade Team: Kings didn’t have much success in 2010s, but they had some players
Over the years, professional sports have given us generational stars and championship teams who dominate entire decades, legendary figures who define eras and lead fabled teams to sustained success.
The New York Yankees won the World Series six times in the 1950s. The Boston Celtics won nine NBA championships in the 1960s. The San Francisco 49ers won four Super Bowls in the 1980s. The New England Patriots, the Chicago Bulls, the Los Angeles Lakers – we know greatness when we see it.
Historians will note this was not that kind of era in Sacramento, where the Kings are trying to plot a new course following a decade of futility, with zero playoff appearances. They haven’t finished higher than third in the Western Conference since 2005. They haven’t been to the playoffs since 2006, the NBA’s longest current postseason drought. They’ve churned through 10 head coaches since Rick Adelman left town following the 2005-06 season, including seven in the past nine seasons.
In this decade, the Kings drafted the likes of Thomas Robinson, Jimmer Fredette and Nik Stauskas while passing on stars such as Damian Lillard, Klay Thompson, C.J. McCollum and, most recently, Luka Doncic. They have made mistakes, but they’ve also brought in several talented players who treated fans to some memorable occasions.
None of those players enjoyed much success given the way their teams were constructed at the time, but maybe we can do better. As we say so long to the Blunder Years and look ahead to 2020, let’s take a look at the Kings’ All-Decade Team for the 2010s.
Point guard: Isaiah Thomas
The Kings drafted their loveable little 5-foot-9 point guard with the 60th and final pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. He outplayed Fredette, the seventh overall pick, and emerged as the starter, averaging 15.3 points and 4.8 assists in three seasons with the Kings. He averaged 20.3 points in 2013-14 and went on to become an All-Star with the Boston Celtics.
De’Aaron Fox is making a bid to supplant Thomas on this list based on his enormous potential and a breakout sophomore campaign, but he has been hurt this season and needs a bigger body of work. The competition might be close enough to require further review if Fox comes back to have a strong, healthy finish in 2019-20.
Shooting guard: Buddy Hield
The Kings acquired Hield in the trade that sent DeMarcus Cousins to the New Orleans Pelicans in 2017. Critics howled that Kings general manager Vlade Divac got fleeced in the deal, but Hield has proven them wrong, emerging as one of the league’s most lethal 3-point shooters.
He has averaged 17.4 points and 4.4 rebounds in 268 games over three-plus seasons in Sacramento, shooting 45.1 percent from the field and 41.9 percent from 3-point range. He finished third in the 3-point contest at All-Star Weekend last season and was fourth behind Fox in Most Improved Player voting. Hield is currently averaging a team-high 21.5 points per game. He had a career-high 41 points against the Celtics earlier this season.
The Kings signed Hield to a four-year, $86 million contract extension in October. They have invested heavily in his future, hoping he becomes a good enough defender to be considered one of the game’s best two-way players.
Small forward: Tyreke Evans
Evans only logged 25 percent of his minutes with the Kings at small forward, according to basketballreference.com. We’re putting him there anyway because 1) positional norms have changed in the NBA over the latter half of the decade; 2) at 6-6 and 220 pounds, Evans had the size and length for the position; and 3) moving Rudy Gay from small forward to power forward allows us to avoid starting Carl Landry or Jason Thompson on the All-Decade Team.
Evans was named Rookie of the Year after the Kings selected him with the fourth pick in the 2009 draft. He became the fourth rookie in league history to average at least 20 points, 5.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists, joining Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan and LeBron James.
Evans averaged 17.2 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.7 assists over five seasons in Sacramento. He helped the Kings overcome a 35-point deficit to beat the Chicago Bulls on Dec. 21, 2009, and made a half-court heave at the buzzer to beat the Memphis Grizzlies on Dec. 29, 2010.
Power forward: Rudy Gay
Gay played only 16 percent of his minutes at power forward over four seasons in Sacramento, but that number has increased to 79 percent over his past three seasons with the San Antonio Spurs.
The Kings acquired Gay in a trade with the Toronto Raptors in December 2013. He averaged 19.3 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 223 games for the Kings from 2013-2017, posting a career-high 21.1 points in 2014-15. Gay ruptured his left Achilles in January 2017 and never played another game for the Kings.
Gay also earned two gold medals with the U.S. National Team, helping Team USA win the FIBA World Championship in 2010 and the FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2014.
Center: DeMarcus Cousins
The Kings drafted Cousins out of Kentucky with the fifth pick in 2010. He would go on to become one of the best players in franchise history in Sacramento, where he averaged 21.1 points, 10.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.2 blocks over seven seasons.
Cousins was an NBA All-Rookie First Team selection and a two-time All-NBA Second Team selection. He made three of his four All-Star Game appearances as a member of the Kings from 2015-17, becoming the first Sacramento player chosen since Brad Miller and Peja Stojakovic in 2004.
There were never any doubts about Cousins’ talent, but he was a polarizing figure whose brooding personality led to confrontations with teammates, coaches, fans, officials and members of the media. The Kings finally traded Cousins to New Orleans in February 2017. Cousins was surrounded by reporters with cameras rolling following the All-Star Game in New Orleans, of all places, when a team staffer leaned in to tell him news of trade talks between the Kings and Pelicans had broken during the game.
That move started the rebuild that brought Fox, Hield, Harrison Barnes, Bogdan Bogdanovic and Marvin Bagley III to Sacramento to lead the franchise into a new era.
Sixth man: Bogdan Bogdanovic
The Kings acquired the rights to Bogdanovic in a 2016 trade with the Phoenix Suns, who drafted him in 2014. Bogdanovic chose to continue playing professionally overseas and was already a highly decorated international player before he came to Sacramento to begin his NBA career in 2017.
He was named MVP of the 2018 Rising Stars Challenge after leading Team World over Team USA at All-Star Weekend. He was later named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team. Bogdanovic started 53 games as a rookie, but he settled into a backup role last season after Hield solidified himself as the starter while Bogdanovic recovered from a knee injury.
Now in his third season with the Kings, Bogdanovic has appeared in 170 games, averaging 13.1 points, 3.6 assists and 3.1 rebounds. He delivered the most memorable moment of the 2018-19 season when he made a 3-pointer at the buzzer to beat the Los Angeles Lakers at Golden 1 Center.
This story was originally published December 16, 2019 at 5:00 AM.
