The Sacramento Kings reportedly pursued various ways of addressing their struggles before finally deciding to fire head coach Mike Brown.
Chicago’s Zach LaVine, New Orleans’ Brandon Ingram, Washington’s Kyle Kuzma and Brooklyn’s Cam Thomas were among the names the Kings inquired about as they slumped through losing 13 out of 18 games in a stretch between November and December.
There were smaller moves considered, too, just to possibly “change things up.”
3-Point Weakness Apparent With Names Pursued
Virtually all the names above would have helped the team address its 3-point shooting woes. When Sacramento had the league’s best offense in 2022-23, it was sixth in 3-point accuracy and 13th in attempt rate, per Cleaning the Glass. This season, the Kings are 24th in 3-point attempt accuracy and 26th in frequency.
LaVine would be the best player of the lot and is shooting 44.7 percent from deep on over seven attempts per game. Thomas is shooting 39.1 percent on the same number of attempts. Ingram has generally looked to operate in the midrange but has prioritized his 3-point shooting this season and is making 37.4 percent of his 6.4 attempts per game. Kuzma may be the most pedestrian option with a career clip of 33.6 percent.
What About Defense?
Playing DeMar DeRozan and Malik Monk together has made the defense worse, and De’Aaron Fox recently spoke to the team’s defense needing to be a priority.
“It’s going to start on the defensive end,” Fox said. “We’ve been in the top 10 in offense the majority of the year, so that’s not where our problem lies. At the end of the day, we have to at some point buckle down and get stops when we need to.”
The big names the Kings pursued would not address issues toward that end. They rank 17th in defensive rating this season.
In trying to address the chemistry and defensive issues, former player Lou Williams indicated that, according to his sources, Brown had asked DeRozan if he’d be willing to come off the bench. The veteran scorer was just acquired in the summer as a major free agent signing but has been eligible for trade since Dec. 15.
The Kings have now lost six straight games and are 13-19 heading into a Monday night tilt with the Dallas Mavericks.
