Sacramento Kings guard Keon Ellis played 13 minutes Wednesday against the Phoenix Suns. In the loss, Ellis scored 9 points on 4-5 from the field to go along with a steal and a rebound.
As the Suns gradually erased the Kings halftime lead in the third quarter, took over control in the fourth, and repeatedly attacked Malik Monk on defense, Ellis’ minute count on the stat sheet continued to be more glaring considering he is a guy who can help stop an opponent from taking over leads.
Following the loss, head coach Doug Christie was asked about Ellis’ minutes.
“Keon is an ultimate professional and he is always ready to play. In these situations, we have a logjam so it’s going to be whose playing, but his aggressiveness and his ability to knock down shots and his defensive ability – he’s going to be on the floor,” Christie said.
Ellis can knock down shots, which makes not getting more playing time even more perplexing.
Dude can shoot.
Last season, he shot 43% from three and 48% from the field. Him going 4/5 from the field on Wednesday against the Suns was yet another reminder that there isn’t a big offensive void when he is on the floor.
Which is why adding Russell Westbrook to this roster (even though yes, the team didn’t technically have a true, pure answer for the backup point guard start) makes little sense. Ellis needs floor time in a season where the writing was on the wall weeks ago about how this year’s campaign is going to end, and what really matters right now is the future beyond this current roster.
At practice Thursday Ellis said he is “upmost comfortable” in his role and that nothing that he wasn’t expecting is going on. He had this to say when asked about playing time and conversations he has had with Christie about it.
“There’s a lot of guards on the team, trying to figure things out. We added Russ late so we’re trying to figure out everything. How everything is going to look – rotations and minutes and all that. But whatever is going to happen is going to happen so whatever situation I am in, whenever I am in, the minutes, I just make the most of them and do what I do. That’s all I can do anyway. Don’t get upset about anything,” he said.
Ellis’s minutes have been oddly low going back to when Mike Brown was the head coach. But the mixed signal here with all of this is why did the Kings reportedly make Keegan Murray AND Ellis “off limits” in the trade talks over Jonathan Kuminga during the summer if he isn’t going to be a priority?
We’re already playing guard ball from the 1-4 positions at this point.
If the Kings want to be a defensive team like we heard all training camp and preseason, then it would make sense to play the defensive players.
And let’s just briefly review some lineup stats from last season, per Cleaning The Glass:
The lineup with the best differential featured Keon Ellis
The top SIX lineups in points per possession featured Keon Ellis
The top FOUR lineups with the best effective field goal percentage featured Keon Ellis
The lineup with the best turnover percentage featured Keon Ellis
The top FOUR lineups with the best offensive rebound percentage featured Keon Ellis
The lineup with the best free throw rate featured Keon Ellis
Now to defense:
The lineup with the best points per possession allowed featured Keon Ellis
The lineup with the best opponent effective field goal percentage featured Keon Ellis
The top two lineups with the best turnover percentage featured Keon Ellis
Ellis needs minutes.
Let’s see how things land with his minutes tonight against the Utah Jazz, especially with the team even more short-handed with Nique Clifford injured.