The Sacramento Kings are one of the most charitable groups in the league. Through 54 games, the team has given away more possessions than imaginable and they continue to do so under new head coach George Karl. Sacramento is the third-worst club in the league at committing turnovers with 15.9 per contest, a situation Karl must address if he hopes to return the franchise to relevancy.
In a foreshadowing twist, the Kings began the year with a season-high 26-turnover effort in a loss to the Golden State Warriors on opening night. Over the course of the schedule, Sacramento has repeated the same mistakes again and again. Players have telegraphed passes when swinging the ball around the perimeter, and they’ve stubbornly forced throws into shrinking windows. Nearly half the Kings’ turnovers have been unforced too, often the result of overdribbling or drawing offensive fouls.
Star center DeMarcus Cousins leads the NBA with 4.5 turnovers a game. To be fair, he also tops all big men with a 34.0 usage percentage, but the big man has recurringly made head-scratching decisions. Among them, Cousins has shown a liking for personally bringing up the ball, resulting in a wild pass or two per night.
Also making an appearance in the league’s top 30 turnover machines are small forward Rudy Gay (2.6 per game) and point guard Darren Collison (2.5), ranked 25th and 29th respectively among qualified players. Gay has been a culprit of too many dribbles, while Collison has been guilty of forcing feeds. But to be clear, this has been a team-wide epidemic.
“Turnovers, basically, I tell them all the time, don’t be Magic Johnson,” Karl told the media after his first practice. “Just be a good basketball player. And good basketball players don’t make bad decisions. Make good, solid decisions, don’t try to make the Magic Johnson pass, because that’s when I think instead of throwing a pass that gets made 98 percent of the time, which it should be, we throw passes that have a 60/40 ratio, and that’s not even good for a quarterback in football.”
As head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks from 1998 to 2003, Karl’s teams finished in the NBA’s top five in least turnovers three times. Yet his recent eight-and-a-half-year stint with the Denver Nuggets suggests he may not be able to remedy the situation.
Denver ranked 21st or worse in lost possessions seven times. In his last season with the team when he won Coach of the Year, Karl’s club slid to 27th in the league in turnovers.
Karl recognizes there is an issue in Sacramento, as he swayed the Kings’ front office to acquire offensive orchestrator Andre Miller at Thursday’s trade deadline. Miller is a player that not only takes a conservative approach to the game, but he has a long history as a high-end facilitator in his various stops around the league.
Unfortunately for the Kings, Karl’s high-octane attack may play a role in the sloppiness, at least initially. The veteran’s offense predicates increased ball movement, and tossing the rock through multiple touches down the court in a hasty manner. Karl’s plays require quick and smart decisions, which players in Sacramento haven’t been able to consistently achieve, regardless of who is coaching the team.
In Karl’s Friday debut against the Boston Celtics, the Kings recorded 26 assists but lost 24 turnovers. On Saturday, Sacramento improved their turnover count to 17 in a blowout loss to the Clippers. In those games, the team surrendered a combined 66 points off the miscues, proof that bad ball control will inevitably set up the defense to fail.
In his 25 years as an NBA head coach, Karl’s experience will be put to the test. The 63-year-old must reiterate to his roster that selfishness within possessions is detrimental to one’s well-being. The task is tall. Karl will use the next two months of the season to install a new system, but maybe more importantly, to re-teach the game of basketball, break bad habits and begin building something in Sacramento.
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