The Whiteboard: Sacramento is settling down and firing up on offense

Things are starting to click in Sacramento. After kicking off a massively hyped 2024-25 campaign with two clutch-time losses to Minnesota and Los Angeles, the Kings have rattled off four wins in five games and have emerged as the high-potency offensive team we all thought they could be.

New addition DeMar DeRozan appears to be a flawless fit, scoring over 25 points in his past four games while leading the Kings in scoring at 25.6 points per game for the season. He looks as comfortable as a dad in a recliner in Mike Brown's offense, and Brown is happy to clear out a side for DeRozan or run a play that allows him to isolate a defender in the midrange — and being one-on-one with DeRozan in the midrange leads to a barbecue more often than not.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of integrating DeRozan into this offense is how its impacted De'Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis; impressive because it's barely impacted them. In an offense that relies so heavily on two players — Fox and Sabonis accounted for over 53 percent of the team's usage rate last year — an addition like DeRozan could have easily thrown a wrench into the chemistry this team had already forged.

That hasn't been the case at all. Fox's scoring is down a touch from last year (23.8 points per game from 26.6) but that has more to do with his 3-point numbers dipping than his involvement in the offense changing at all.

Sabonis is still the same ultra-reliable post presence he's been all along for the Kings, giving the team a near-triple double every time he plays — which is pretty much always. Sabonis played 79 and 82 games the past two years, a figure that shouldn't be overlooked in a league where missing 20 games a season is the norm. I digress!

Through eight games, the Kings are are 5th in offensive rating, sixth in net rating and seventh in true shooting percentage. To be near the top of the league in most team offensive categories isn't surprising because of how much firepower this team has. But it becomes surprising when you look at the Kings 3-point shooting numbers. They're bad! Weirdly, that may be a good sign.

Clear room for improvement for the Kings

Being 23rd in the league in 3-point percentage usually isn't a cause for celebration. And maybe "celebration" is too strong of a word, but Sacramento's offense being this good while shooting this poorly from beyond the arc is a real sign that this team can beat you even when the deep ball isn't falling.

Keegan Murray, Malik Monk and De'Aaron Fox are all shooting between 29 and 31 percent, and should all end the year at least above league average (which usually sits around 36 percent.) But even when the percentages go up, the volume won't go up that much. We knew the Kings wouldn't be a Celtics-level chucking team, and that's proven true. But do they need to be that high-volume 3-point team to reach their ceiling?

A lot of teams in the NBA rely so heavily on the 3-pointer that when it's not going in, their offenses become stagnant, but the Kings refuse to comply. The problem is, when those teams are hitting shots, it's hard for a team that shoots so many 2-pointers to keep up. Sacramento is essentially hoping that consistent 2-point shooting can outlast volatile 3-point shooting.

Of course, this strategy has worked before — the 2023 Nuggets won the NBA Finals while being a relatively low-volume 3-point shooting team. Sacramento is hoping to replicate something like that and it'll be fascinating to see if this team can compete in the postseason while being elite offensively overall, but just fine from deep.

Keegan ... MURRAY

It's impossible to talk about the Kings and ignore Keegan Murray. Like most of his teammates, his 3-pointers aren't falling, but if you think that means he's not contributing, you mustn't be watching the Kings. Maybe you have an early bedtime. It's fine. Murray's rebounding might be the most obvious improvement — he's already matched his double-double total from last season, and it's November 8th.

According to Murray himself, his rebounding improvement stems from and unlikely source. "My brother in Portland... kind of just flies, and gets rebounds, things like that. So, just watching him... has helped me kind of figure out how to just fly and get rebouds... if you do that, the ball is gonna reward you in some way."

Defensively, Murray continues to shine. After being a liability on that end for his first few seasons, Murray took a massive defensive leap last year and that leap is continuing. Sacramento trusts him to be its best ball-stopper, a role that Murray clearly embraces.

This is not the version of Keegan Murray that everyone expected ... but it's a pretty cool version.

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NBA News Roundup

• The "Andre Jackson Jr, starter" experiment went about as well as possible for Doc Rivers on Thursday. AJJ took the starting spot of Gary Trent Jr, who is slumping (to put it nicely) right now, and the second-year player from UCONN shined in his opportunity.

• The New Orleans Pelicans are broken. Jordan Hawkins will miss at least a week with a back injury, adding another name to the Pelicans injury report.

• Russ ain't dead yet ... the Nuggets guard has scored 50 points and dished 12 assists his last two games, both wins for the Nuggets.

Does anyone in the Eastern Conference want a top-three seed?

So far, it doesn't seem that way! Cleveland and Boston have been stellar (Celtics are 7-2 while the Cavs are still undefeated at 9-0) but outside of those two early powerhouses, the conferences has been sluggish to say the least.

Some of that needs context; Orlando looked great before losing its best player Paolo Banchero, and the Knicks are figuring out how to acclimate two big offseason additions to the lineup. Still, there are currently two teams over .500 in the East, while the West has nine teams over that mark. Nine!

Assuming Cleveland and Boston keep the top spots in this conference, who emerges as a third seed? Was Indiana's ECF run a flash in the pan? Will the Sixers play enough games fully healthy to rise in the standings? Does anyone want the third seed in the East? It's up for grabs! You can basically just go take it!