From the start of training camp, Sacramento Kings head coach Doug Christie has preached about how this season was going to be about defense, picking up 94 feet and stopping the ball. And from the start of the season, we haven’t seen the players do this with any sort of consistency. The lane gets attacked without much resistance, opponents go on long runs and then the best the Kings can do after that is trade baskets.
The fans have been asking this question since training camp: Can this team defend consistently with so many offense-first guards who have never been expected to be defensive stoppers?
After the 144-117 beatdown at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves Sunday in Sacramento, one of those guards, Zach LaVine, responded to a question about the team’s defense by referencing the personnel on the team.
“I think everybody is understanding that that’s the focus [defense]. I think that’s what they came into the season with obviously. Obviously, there’s a personnel thing with that as well. Guys can go out there and play as tough as they can on defense, I speak for myself, I think we’ve all been trying. I’ve been trying my ass off on defense, but you need a team collective, the right identity, sometimes you need the right personnel out there. You’re not going to ask Rudy Gobert to go out there and average 30, he’s a defensive guy though and that’s his job,” LaVine said.
Domantas Sabonis, who at the end of last season declared that the team needed a point guard (because they did need one), also brought up personnel Sunday after the Timberwolves loss.
“I think that’s still the expectation [defense], just a bit more depending on personnel and who and when. After the preseason games we kind of decided on that,” he said.
If the team’s two best players are referencing how personnel is important when focusing on defense, it just further supports what the fans have known for quite some time: this roster construction doesn’t make sense for a team talking about putting an emphasis on defense.
Not long before these comments, Kings fans were chanting “We want Keon” inside Golden 1 Center during the game because Christie hadn’t put him into the game through the first three quarters, just like in the previous blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Because why wouldn’t the fans want to see the team’s best on-ball defender play more on a team expecting defense?
The recent addition of Precious Achiuwa is a good start for the front office in the direction of having more defensive-minded players on the roster. It is just strange that it took Keegan Murray getting injured and a lot of bad performances to make an addition like that. Achiuwa is a patch, not a blueprint.
But here we are with the Kings sitting at 27th in defensive rating and 28th in points allowed per game.