Why Kings are last in NBA 3-point shooting, but among league leaders in surprising places
While pleased with a couple of quality wins early in this NBA season, some fans are beginning to wonder why the Kings aren’t playing to their expected strengths.
The Kings were 21st in the NBA in pace and 30th in 3-point attempts over the first three games of the season. Coach Luke Walton wants the team’s pace to improve and believes more 3-point opportunities will come, but he has been fairly happy with the shots the Kings are getting.
“We want to get across halfcourt quick,” Walton said. “We’re looking to attack before a defense gets set, and then if that’s not there, be patient. We’re not just trying to jack up shots and get the first look we can.”
The Kings (2-1) took a day off Monday before concluding a threegame homestand against the Denver Nuggets (0-2) at Golden 1 Center on Tuesday. Sacramento opened the season with wins over the Nuggets and Phoenix Suns before falling to the Suns on the second night of a back-to-back Sunday.
Walton vowed to push the pace and increase the volume of 3-point shooting when he was hired in 2019. General manager Monte Mcnair promised more of the same when he was brought in to replace Vlade Divac in September.
The Kings displayed some of that run-and-gun game when they launched 171 3-point attempts in four preseason contests — an average of 42.8 per game — but that style hasn’t surfaced yet in the regular season. The Kings attempted only 77 3-pointers in their first three games and Walton felt they should have passed up several of those.
“I thought in the first half we took about six or seven 3s I was not happy with,” Walton said following Saturday’s 106-103 win over Phoenix.
No one in the organization campaigned on the idea of being last in
the league in 3-point shooting, but Walton and Mcnair have both explained they would rather get shots at the rim. They want their guards to get into the paint, draw in the defense and then pass out to open shooters if they can’t create an opportunity around the basket. The Kings have executed that game plan and early data indicates it’s working with improvements in some major areas of weakness.
Sacramento is 10th in the NBA in field-goal attempts inside of five feet, up from 23rd in 2019-20. The Kings are fourth in shots inside of nine feet. These are the highest-percentage shots on the floor aside from free throws. Statistics like these might represent the first fingerprints we’ve seen from Mcnair, a basketball analytics expert who put data and percentages in motion for 14 years with the Houston Rockets.
As a result of getting the ball inside, the Kings are fourth in the NBA in freethrow attempts (29.7) and fifth in points in the paint (55.3). Last season, they were 28th in free-throw attempts (20.3) and 16th in paint points (47.1).
De’aaron Fox led the team with 6.7 free-throw attempts per game last season. Harrison Barnes was second at 3.7 followed by Kent Bazemore at 3.0. This season, four players are averaging 3.7 free throws or more, led by Fox at 6.3. Buddy Hield, an 86.5% career free-throw shooter, is attempting 3.7 per game this season after averaging 1.9 in 2019-20.
The Kings have 11 players attempting two or more free throws per game this season. They had six last season.
“We have multiple guys attacking the basket, getting to the free-throw line,” Fox said. “That’s a big step, getting to the line. ... Guys are getting to the basket. We’re finding other ways to score the ball.”
The Kings rank sixth in blocked shots and rebounds after ranking 27th in those categories in 2019-20, a sign they’ve also gotten tougher defensively. They are second in opponent’s free-throw attempts (16.0) and sixth in opponent’s 3-point percentage (.306).
Sacramento has one of the quickest point guards in the league in Fox and one of the game’s most prolific 3-pointer shooters in Hield. The Kings want to maximize the elite abilities those players possess, but they are showing progress in some of the fundamental areas Walton has emphasized.
It’s too early to tell which of these trends will continue over the course of the season, but Walton is pleased with what he has seen in those areas thus far. He wants to see the Kings pick up the pace as their conditioning improves, but he believes getting to the basket, drawing fouls and defending without fouling are more critical to the team’s success.
“What we have is the goal and the concept that we want to aggressively attack the rim,” Walton said. “If we’re doing that, we want to take layups first, and if defenses are collapsing, then we want to kick out for 3s.”
That data shows the Kings are executing that game plan and the numbers are all interconnected.
“The most important part of that equation is getting to the rim and putting pressure on the other team’s defense,” Walton said. “When you’re playing like that, you’re going to get some good free throw numbers out of it. We’ve just got to keep doing it and doing it and doing it. I suspect some games (opponents will) start loading the paint more and then our 3-point numbers should go up.”