Only five games into the season and the Sacramento Kings are latching onto an identity we have seen for much of the last 20 years: an offense-first, defense optional team lacking physicality or discipline.
Head coach Doug Christie wants to change that. The defensive-minded player he was probably is dying for it. Especially as he watched the Chicago Bulls score 70 points in the paint Wednesday, getting downhill with ease. But he needs less injuries, defensive players, better roster fit and probably a little more time in the head coaching experience category to do it. And apparently, he needs guys who have energy to play and don’t find all that fundamental stuff on defense boring.
“Fundamentally when they do it the correct way we see that it can be done, but it’s almost like sometimes we get a little bored with the monotony of doing things the right way and having success at it,” Christie said after Wednesday’s loss to Chicago, in which the Bulls scored 70 points in the paint. Christie wants them to stand their ground and be in gaps, things he has seen glimpses of this season.
So, the 1-4 Kings can play the right way in spurts, but don’t really enjoy doing it all the time.
Sigh. It all sounds too familiar.
Aside from the Beam Team year, this has been the mentality of pretty much every Kings team from the time Ron Artest left up until now. They all wanted to get shots up and could play defense every now and then, but never did it consistently, and never played for a full 48 minutes with a strong set of fundamentals. They would beat good teams randomly and lose to all the teams they were “better than.” They would get pushed around and not be able to defend home court.
“The ability to consistently be present and stay fundamentally sound, it’s difficult but good teams do it and right now. … we’re not ready for that type of success because sometimes you’ll have success and it’s not really what it is and you’ll start believing it and we need to actually be doing it consistently for 48 minutes,” Christie said.
This current team has more overall talent than most of those other teams during that 20-year stretch, but it is a collection of talent that doesn’t fit combined with a lack of discipline.
Teams like the DeMarcus Cousins-Rudy Gay-Darren Collison Kings actually fit better together than this year’s team. That 2016 team lacked direction and defense (26th in defensive rating) but at least the pieces complemented one another. The 2018-19 “Scores” team fit decently and played a fun, fast-paced style of offense. It came with a 21st ranked defensive rating. This year’s team looks talented on paper but can’t figure itself out.
Christie is a rookie coach in a bad situation dealing with a lot, but he’s dedicated to changing things while he is here.
“Continuously move the ball and trust each other, and play for each other with next actions and next actions – that’s who the Sacramento Kings are and are going to be while I am here. We’re going to figure out a way to be physical, to rebound the basketball, and to share the basketball. You’ve got to defend, rebound and share, that’s our core principles,” he said.
He has the right intentions and I’m sure most Kings fans are still rooting for him to succeed, but shedding the ghosts of Kangz might be one of the most difficult tasks in all of sports.
Words must become habits, even the boring ones.