Nov 11, 2014; Dallas, TX, USA; Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins (15) celebrates with guard Ben McLemore (23) after a score during the first quarter against the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
The Sacramento Kings, the team with the NBA’s second-longest active playoff drought, are the biggest surprise of this young season. Few could have seen it coming.
This offseason was an odd and much-criticized one for the Kings and their fanbase. For starters, there was that quirky Draft 3.0 crowd-sourcing analytics experiment, which Grantland later produced for a mini feature. The inside view actually painted a negative picture of the organization in my mind, however. It seemed like Sacramento had no knowledge of modern basketball stats and how to incorporate them effectively. It seemed like a desperate plea for attention. It wasn’t a good look.
The biggest news of the Kings offseason, unfortunately, was then the departure of diminutive star Isaiah Thomas to the Phoenix Suns. But before that restricted free agent situation even got handled, the Kings had already tabbed perennially underachieving Darren Collison as his replacement.
Those back-to-back moves were as confusing as any in a long time. Did the Kings not see any value in Thomas, who just averaged 20.3 points and 6.3 assists at age 24? Why Collison, who shined in spurts for the Clippers, but had seemed to regress over the years?! It was certainly very head scratching. Was there a plan?
They only otherwise added a hilarious Big Three [1. All are former Cleveland Cavaliers over the last four years, in fact.] of Ryan Hollins, Omri Casspi and Ramon Sessions in free agency. Rookie Nik Stauskas was a fun-ish draft selection, but his immediate contributions seemed limited. Analytics punch bag Rudy Gay [3. My stance on Gay is similar to my stance on most #hottakes: He’s neither as bad nor as good as both sides might think. I wrote about him and other free agent small forwards back in June at WFNY.] exercised his $19.3 million option, as expected. Carl Landry was set to make a comeback.
The rehashing of all of those events just makes Sacramento’s impressive 5-3 start even more unbelievable. Yes, their innovative owner Vivek Ranadive intriguingly managed to poach analytics legend Dean Oliver from ESPN to shore up those numbers issues. But what in the world is occurring on the basketball court right now? Let’s look quickly at Oliver’s own Four Factors for some insight.
Here are the top three reasons I’ll cite for Sacramento’s shocking start:
1) Michael Malone’s defense is working – For years, the Kings have been no better than paupers on defense. They’ve been below average, per Basketball-Reference, for each of the seven years of their playoff drought. So far this year? Things are quite encouraging, with the Kings cracking on the doorsteps of the top-10 in defensive efficiency. Malone had worked under Mike Brown in Cleveland for many years, so he came highly regarded in terms of his defensive backing. Collison’s length and other internal improvements have helped them make tremendous strides here.
2) They’re getting to the line at a historic rate – How does a team produce average offense efficiency in 2014 while shooting just 30% from three-point range? Free throws. All of the free throws. The three-point era record for Free Throw Rate [4. Free throws attempted / Field goals attempted.] is 0.433 by the 1997-98 Utah Jazz. The Kings are at 0.467 right now. Gay and Collison are drawing fouls way in excess of career rates. But the biggest factor is the team’s biggest star…
3) DeMarcus Cousins is getting better and better – And he’s only 24 years old. He’s averaging his usual 22-11 with nice helpings of assists, steals and blocks. But he’s just doing it in a much more controlled, effective way. He’s helping the Kings be the NBA’s second-best rebounding margin team. He’s emerging into a very strong team defender. He held back his coach from a tirade recently. As much as we’re salivating over Anthony Davis’ long-term potential, Cousins is likely the better all-around player right now.
Tom Ziller said the Kings could be this year’s Suns. Andrew Sharp declared them as America’s Team. So far, it is the season of the Kings, and they certainly would’ve gotten much more buzz if they held onto Tuesday night’s 20-point lead against the Dallas Mavericks.
But here we are. Sacramento is finally looking like they’ll win more than 28 games for the first time in seven years. They could hover around 0.500 for good.
We can’t finish with the Kings there either—they’re also up to one of the most ridiculously innovative professional basketball experiment ever. Daryl Morey’s D-League shenanigans have nothing on what’s happened in two under-the-radar preseason games for the Kings affiliate, the Reno Bighorns.
Last month, Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on the Kings hiring Grinnell College assistant David Arseneault Jr to coach the Bighorns. David’s dad is the long time Grinnell coach. You probably remember Grinnell. That one school that shoots threes and presses like mad? That one school that destroyed any semblance of NCAA records purity? The one with that 138-point scorer? Yup, that Grinnell.
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And voila, the Reno Bighorns stats through two preseason games:
267 points scored, 284 points allowed
92-for-244 (37.7%) on field goals
32-for-113 (28.3%) on three-pointers
43 turnovers, 75 turnovers forced
Recall, that’s two games. The box scores to the right (game one; game two) should be rated as NC-17 for professional basketball obscenities. The record for most three-pointers in a regulation NBA game was 49 by the New York Knicks in 1996. The Bighorns went for 51 in the preseason opener … and then smashed that mark with 63 in game two. It’s also preseason, so we don’t have the joy of shot charts or easy-to-access advanced stats.
It’s not just the sheer volume of threes that is most exhilarating, but it is Reno’s entire pace of play. No individual player is getting 30 minutes per game, while 10-12 are all getting at least double-digits. The individual stat-lines, especially for steals, are otherworldly. Gonzaga’s David Stockton, John’s son, had 15-3-7-7 last night off the bench. Oregon’s Tajuan Porter had 24-2-3-6 off the bench in game one.
There is no knowing if Reno’s adaption of Grinnell’s system could soon make its way into Sacramento’s schemes. But for now, both teams are off to ridiculous paces that would’ve been difficult to comprehend until you saw it with your own eyes. And somehow, someway, the Kings are rocking again.