‘You get booed’: Kings feel sting after failing to meet expectations over first half
Autumn arrived with high hopes in Sacramento at the start of this NBA campaign, but the Kings have fallen far short of expectations over the first half of the season.
Injuries to some of their best players have hindered the team’s ability to establish continuity and chemistry under first-year coach Luke Walton. That is an unfortunate reality and not an excuse, but patience is wearing thin for a fan base that has endured 13 consecutive losing seasons.
The Kings were booed at home repeatedly while going 15-26 over the first half of the season. They hit the midway point with a 127-123 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday at Golden 1 Center. Emerging megastar Luka Doncic posted a monster triple-double with 25 points, 17 assists and 15 rebounds, reminding Kings fans their front office passed on the 20-year-old Slovenian sensation when they had the No. 2 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft.
Fans are fed up. The love affair between this city and its basketball team is being tested in ways we haven’t seen before.
“Everybody’s frustrated, not only them,” Kings guard Buddy Hield said. “We’re trying to figure it out, too, but if it’s the home team (and) you get booed – we don’t agree with it, but they’re going to voice their opinion. I understand their frustration. … That’s how Sacramento fans are, so you’ve got to embrace it. It’s fun, though. You’ve just got to keep competing. They want to win. They need to get back to the playoffs, so I feel their pain.”
Midterm Kings grade: F
This might be harsh given extended injury absences for De’Aaron Fox, Marvin Bagley III, Bogdan Bogdanovic and, now, Richaun Holmes. Those four players have combined to miss 63 games and counting, and maybe there’s no way to overcome that, but the Kings have flat-out failed to reach their potential. Maybe it’s coming. Maybe it’s not.
Walton and Kings general manager Vlade Divac have vowed to bring a winning brand of basketball back to Sacramento, a promise they must fulfill if they want to keep their jobs. Divac signed a four-year contract extension in April, immediately fired former coach Dave Joerger and agreed to a four-year deal with Walton 48 hours later. Their fates are intertwined now.
At the midway point in their first season together, the Kings are 11 games under .500 and on pace for 30 wins after winning 39 games under Joerger in 2018-19. That team ran like crazy, finishing fourth in the NBA in pace. That up-tempo style is essential to their success, but Walton has slowed them down to learn the finer points of half-court execution and defense, and he doesn’t want to budge.
“I feel like the foundation is being set, and that’s something that is really important to me,” Walton said.
The Kings have picked up the pace considerably since Fox and Hield said it was “go time” following a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on New Year’s Eve. They were second in the NBA in pace over the first six games in January. This is what Walton wants, too, but he believes there are other things the Kings must master before they can win in the playoffs.
“We’ve talked about it all year,” Walton said. “It’s one of those things that, when we have the fastest point guard in the league, we’re going to play fast. When he’s hurt, we’re not going to play as fast, but just as important – probably more important than our pace – is we have to get better at executing offensive sets, crunch-time package that we have towards the end, down the stretch, final five minutes, how we want to play. Those are things that we spend a lot of time focusing on, watching film on, that are just as important as pace. And, so, yes, the pace is getting better, but it’s not the only thing we’re focused on.”
Walton is right about what it takes to win in the playoffs, but at the moment the Kings can’t even win during the regular season. No one is likely to be fired now, but if this team is floundering at this time next year, there could be mass upheaval.
Midseason MVP: Richaun Holmes
Holmes has been the steadiest, most able-bodied player on the team, but now he’s hurt, too. He was expected to miss at least two to three weeks after injuring his right shoulder joint against the Golden State Warriors on Jan. 6.
The Kings signed Holmes to a two-year, $10 million deal in July. He was expected to compete for backup minutes. Instead, he won the starting job at center five games into the season after Dewayne Dedmon struggled to fit in.
Holmes is averaging career highs of 13.1 points, 8.5 rebounds, 1.4 blocks and 1.1 steals. According to basketballreference.com, he has an offensive rating of 133 and a defensive rating of 107, giving him a net rating of plus-26 per 100 possessions. The only other player with a positive net rating is Nemanja Bjelica at plus-six.
Holmes is shooting 66 percent from the field. He knows his role and he is playing it exceptionally well, scoring efficiently and defending with intensity.
Leadership award: De’Aaron Fox
Fox missed 17 games with a grade-3 ankle sprain and another game due to back spasms. Somehow the Kings have gone 3-11 since he returned from the ankle injury, but Fox’s recent play suggests he is doing everything possible to lead this team through very difficult circumstances.
Over the past seven games, Fox is averaging 24.1 points, 8.4 assists, 5.6 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 1.0 blocks. He’s also shooting seven free throws per game over that stretch, repeatedly throwing himself into the jaws of the defense to draw fouls.
“I’m just going out there trying to do what I can do,” Fox said. “Obviously, it hasn’t been enough, so if I have to do more, then I’ll do more.”
Needs improvement
Walton has to figure out why Hield is shooting 36.9 percent from 3-point range this season. Hield shot 42.8 percent last season and became the first player in NBA history to make 600 3-pointers over his first three seasons.
Hield is still averaging 20.3 points and career highs of 5.0 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 0.8 steals, but the decline in his 3-point shooting, an increase in turnovers and his defensive struggles are alarming. His shooting woes are due in part to heightened attention from defenses, but there’s more to it than that.
The Kings invested heavily in Hield when they signed him to a four-year, $86 million extension in October. Walton is trying to turn Hield into a complete player. He believes Hield will have to become a two-way standout for the Kings to be a real contender, but the results haven’t been good so far. Hield had a recent stretch in which his defensive field-goal percentage improved considerably from his season mark of 52.2 percent, but he will have to be able to maintain that level of focus and intensity in order to make this team a winner. In the meantime, Walton has to figure out what he’s doing offensively that has reduced his most lethal offensive weapon into a mere mortal.
Unexcused absence: Dewayne Dedmon
Dedmon signed a three-year, $40 million deal with the Kings in July, but he never showed up in any meaningful way. He looked lost at the start of the season, surrendered his starting job to Holmes after four games and eventually fell out of the rotation completely.
He averaged 10.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 1.1 blocks and 1.1 steals while shooting 38.2 percent from 3-point range for the Atlanta Hawks last season. For the Kings, he’s averaging 4.9 points, 4.0 rebounds, 0.3 assists, 0.5 blocks and 0.3 steals, shooting 40.8 percent from the field and an unsightly 21.4 percent from 3-point range.
Dedmon was expected to be a stretch big who would pair well with Bagley and space the floor for Fox, unlocking the full fury and firepower of a run-and-gun offense that could have continued to evolve into something special this season. Instead, he has been a free-agency bust who requested a trade less than six months after the Kings paid him handsomely to do a job he has failed to perform.
Kings upcoming schedule
Jan. 18 at Utah, 6 p.m.
Jan. 20 at Miami, 2 p.m.
Jan. 22 at Detroit, 4 p.m.
Jan. 24 at Chicago, 5 p.m.
Jan. 27 at Minnesota, 5 p.m.
This story was originally published January 16, 2020 at 3:34 AM.
