When Sacramento Kings general manager Vlade Divac announced this his team was a “super team, just young” a day after the NBA Draft this past June, he was ridiculed and thought to be delusional.
Fast-forward to now, however, and we see a Kings team that boasts a 6-4 record, buoyed by a five-game win streak that only just got snapped Sunday by the 8-2 Milwaukee Bucks.
A 6-4 record doesn’t exactly mean the Kings are now world-beaters, but it does lend some credence to Divac’s assertion that he does have a very talented, young team that could become one of the NBA’s best.
For now, the Kings aren’t in that tier yet. Their opponent Wednesday night, the Toronto Raptors, are though.
At 10-1 and boasting the second best offensive rating in the league (114.8) and the No. 9 ranked defence (106.1), Toronto has never flown higher before.
But, as the Raptors soar above the clouds with an eye towards a destination in June it’s important for them not to get slowed down by would-be challengers hoping to knock one of the NBA’s elite off course momentarily.
The Kings are such a team who would love to do just this, and they have the talent to do so if Toronto isn’t careful.
Here’s why the Raptors shouldn’t sleep on the Kings and try to finish off what has been a very successful mini west coast road swing strong.
A royal backcourt
Probably the biggest reason why the Kings have looked much improved early on in the season has been because of the play of their starting backcourt.
Shooting guard Buddy Hield, in his fourth NBA season, now is finally starting to look like the superstar who lit it up at Oklahoma and turn himself into a sixth-overall selection in 2016. The 24-year-old is the leading Kings scorer, averaging 19.7 points per game on a very efficient 53.1 per cent shooting from the floor and 48 per cent from deep.
More impressive than Hield, however, has been the massive leap second-year point guard De’Aaron Fox has taken. The 20-year-old leads Sacramento in assists (7.6) and steals (1.3) and has since become a League Pass must-watch player after going for a 31-point, 10-rebound, 15-assist triple-double on Nov. 1 against the Atlanta Hawks.
In Hield and, certainly, in Fox, the Kings have the kind of foundational star power they’ve been missing for more than a decade. The Raptors can’t afford to ignore these two Wednesday night.
Pace
Outside of their improved talent, head coach Dave Joerger has employed it in a manner that’s been bringing success.
A lot’s been made about the pace that the Raptors play at that’s led to the hot offensive start they’ve gotten out to. The truth, however, is the Raptors only boast the 14th highest pace in the league, averaging just 102.05 possessions per game, meaning it isn’t that their playing incredibly fast, it’s more they’re playing incredibly efficiently.
The Kings, on the other hand, average 108.1 possessions per game, meaning they want to play a whole lot faster than Toronto does, which could cause some complications for the Raptors should they get sped up.
A major part of what the Kings try to do offensively is get out in transition, where they average 21.2 fastbreak points per game. The Raptors are comfortable in a track meet as they average 20.1 fastbreak points per, but they’d likely be better served keeping things a tad slower than the Kings would prefer.
Shooting accuracy
Another point of concern if you’re the Raptors heading into this Wednesday night matchup is just how accurate the Kings have been.
On the season, the Kings are shooting 39.9 per cent from three-point range and 49.7 per cent from the field, figures that rank second only to the might Golden State Warriors.
The Raptors on the other hand are shooting 35.1 per cent from outside and 49.2 per cent from the field.
A big kicker here is the fact the Raptors take so many more threes per game than the Kings (35.1 to 27.1) and thus make more
But the Kings average more field goal attempts, in general, because of how fast they play, and they do so with greater accuracy than Toronto.
An old Raptors identity
Lastly, if you’re a believer in these kinds of historical trends, there’s the fact the Kings have defeated the Raptors in four of their last six matchups.
Toronto managed to rack off two straight wins last season, but prior to that, over the span of two seasons, Toronto lost four straight.
In those two seasons that saw the Raptors only lose to the Kings, it was a Dwane Casey-coached bunch that had a tendency to play down to the level of its competition. Last season, the Raptors corrected that habit and they will look to continue that trend under the watchful eye of Nick Nurse and quite possibly the best Raptors roster ever, something that should stop a letdown in its tracks.
[relatedlinks]
