Growing Pains For the Kings
So, the Kings lost the first game of the season to the Houston Rockets. Now, yes, that isn’t the best way to kick off the 2017-18 season, but when the game basically swings on whether or not a ball was deflected off of George Hill in the final minute of the game, you can’t be too angry.
Well, you can, but we’ll get to that. At the end of the day, the Houston Rockets won 55 games last year and will more than likely be in the top three of the Western Conference. With that being said, here are seven things that we saw after game one.
1) Instant replay is apparently a plague in every sport.
We saw last week in the New England Patriots game that replay, even if seemingly conclusive, won’t assure you a victory. In the MLB Playoffs whether or not a player had his body off of a base for a split second can swing an entire series and in the NBA we saw that apparently you can go from a possible turnover that gives your team the ball, down three, with 26 seconds left to a personal foul on George Hill that, for all intents and purposes, loses the game. Take a look at 7:40-8:00.
Now, part of me laughs at just how comically sideways everything went. You went from euphoria that your team will get the ball to outright rage because a foul was called. It was such a switch that the fans yelled “Ref you suck” as loud as they possibly could. Was it fair? No, but, as we’ve seen in sports, those things can happen from time to time.
2) De’Aaron Fox is someone who has the potential to be special
Fox is special. Maybe those John Wall comparisons aren’t fair just yet (28 points, eight rebounds, five assists and two blocks for Wall last night) but you can see the talent that he has. Take a look at the highlights down below. Especially look at 1:30-1:35 and 1:52-2:10.
Fox had 14 points, five assists and four rebounds coming off of the bench. The man is only 19-years-old and is already one of the most explosive point guards in the NBA. Sure, he’s got a long way to go but for the first time in basically a decade you have someone at point guard that you don’t have to worry about for years.
3) They’re going to let the young players see what they have this season.
Last year was the final year where the Kings tried to see what they could get out of DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay. The answer, unsurprisingly, was a 32-50 record and another year without playoff basketball.
This year it’s very different. Willie Cauley-Stein played 32 minutes, Skal Labissière played 33 minutes, Buddy Hield played 33 minutes and Fox played 24 minutes. None of those players are over the age of 24.
Coach Dave Joerger clearly wants to see what these guys can do and go from there. Things may change later in the year, but for now, they’re going to watch the athleticism take the lead.
4) Buddy Hield can get a heat check moment at any time.
Buddy Hield had 19 points last night on 8-of-17 shooting and 3-of-7 from behind the three-point line. Those stats won’t wow anybody but there was about a two-minute stretch where Hield scored ten points and tied the game up at 68-68 where you saw the potential he has and everyone in the arena could feel it.
When he feels it he can hit from anywhere and, even if it was only for a short stint, you could see something that gives you hope.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D26Ww0rwyBQ
5) Their defense looks improved.
We all understand that the Rockets are going to shoot a lot of threes and score a lot of points. Last year they scored 9458 points, shot 3306 threes for the year and made 1181 of them.
That’s a lot of numbers that I just threw at you, but just know that it averages out that the Rockets average roughly 115 points while shooting 14-40 every night from the three-point line.
Last night the Kings held the Rockets to 105 points and 12-45 from behind the line.
Also, throw in that both James Harden and Eric Gordon shot below their averages and you have things to be happy about.
6) You won’t have to worry about fouls like last year.
Here’s something that I don’t think fans realize with DeMarcus Cousins being gone. Yes, he was a phenomenal player who could get you 20 and 10 every night in his sleep and yes, he was basically the only thing making the Kings relevant nationally. It wasn’t always for something great, but beggars cant be choosers sometimes.
However, through all of his talents there was something that fans always worried about with him above seemingly everything else; fouls.
I’m not even talking about technical fouls either, although those would be looming as well. I’m talking about personal fouls that would occur in the first half that would limit his availability.
How many games would you see Cousins have to go to the bench with 9:30 left to go in the half because he picked up his third personal foul? The thing is, those fouls don’t generally go to guards who are the star players.
Sure, Steph Curry or Russell Westbrook could get three quick fouls in the first 11 minutes of a game but the odds of that happening aren’t as likely. Of the top 20 most fouls called last season only two went to guards. (Patrick Beverly and Devin Booker)
So what does that mean? Well, if your star player is on the court more then you don’t have to restructure your offense as much when the big man has to sit. Now of the minutes your star misses will come from needing a breather instead of fear of fouling out. That alone has to be an improvement, even if only a small one.
7) Vince Carter is going to be the fan favorite by a mile.
At fan fest this year, Vince Carter got the loudest ovation and it wasn’t even close. The man is a living legend and, at least through one game, seems perfectly content with being the player-coach type where he tells players like Fox and Buddy what they need to do and what works best.
The man can still play but every time he makes it on the court, fans will cheer their brains out hoping to see one more Vinsanity level dunk that makes it onto his video package at the Hall of Fame.
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