Sacramento Kings 2016-17 Season Outlook: Finally Finding A Path?
Wings
Rudy Gay, Ben McLemore, Arron Afflalo, Matt Barnes, and Omri Casspi will be flanking Darren Collison and the point guards this season. Not exactly a murderer’s row. Gay will still probably spend most of his time at the three, despite Joerger’s chatter about wanting to play small.
With the frontcourt situation the way it is and a star that isn’t best suited to play small, I see the transition into small ball being a very slow one.
As with Cauley-Stein, Gay is stuck in a situation where he just won’t have a ton of space; he’s become a viable mid range player (50% effective field goal percentage last season), but his favorite spot up around the elbows will hopefully be occupied by Boogie more than it has been in the past.
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A Royal Pain
The good news is that Gay doesn’t need a tremendous amount of volume to be an effective player any longer. He averaged 17.1 points and 6.5 boards a game last year while his usage percentage mercifully dropped about five points. `
He’s a useful three but not much more than that.
The jury is somehow still out on McLemore, which may just mean that he is who he is: despite a ton of athletic ability and a nice looking shot, a so-so player that can contribute semi-solid minutes off the bench or as a third or fourth option on a good team.
His usage percentage last year was a measly 17.2, and he’s probably best suited to run in the fast break anyways, something he won’t be able to do all that much in a Dave Joerger system. Hopefully Joerger sticks with him enough to find his stroke from outside so he can provide some much needed spacing.
McLemore will probably end up playing behind Arron Afflalo, which is . . . unfortunate. Afflalo is at least a known quantity, but he doesn’t grade out much better than McLemore. The things that McLemore has to improve on are largely fixable and things that Joerger teams are known for, like defensive effort and rotations, looking to pass more, and his willingness to create off the dribble.
Outside of Cousins, McLemore is the most athletic player on the roster who will get major minutes this season; if he commits himself to on-ball defense, he could play a big role on this team.
Maybe he can learn some defensive tenacity from Matt Barnes, who, in fairness, hasn’t actually played much defense over the last couple years, preferring instead to just commit fouls of all stripes. Still, he can at least stand in the corner and knock down the odd three, which is a plus at this point.
Anything to free up space in and around the lane. He’s also a vet that has been on some successful teams, so – even though he’s pretty clearly a little crazy – hopefully he can provide a good presence in a locker room that has seen nonstop turmoil since before the new ownership group took over.