Kings’ depth gives them an edge other teams lack
The Kings are going into the 2019-20 season with the deepest and most talented team they’ve had in many years. These guys can shoot. They can score. Some of them rebound; some play defense.
Their path to the playoffs is uncertain and treacherous, but it’s out there somewhere, overgrown with vegetation and guarded by assassins like Lebron James, Kawhi Leonard, Stephen Curry and James Harden. They’re all waiting. And they all have backup.
There are almost a dozen playoff contenders with more established stars in the Western Conference – which only grew stronger in this summer of seismic movement – but with the start of training camp approaching Sept. 29, the Kings have something many teams don’t. General manager Vlade Divac appears to have assembled one of the deepest teams in the league, seizing on the fleeting opportunity to add reinforcements while potential All-stars like De’aaron Fox, Buddy Hield and Marvin Bagley III are under affordable rookie contracts.
The biggest, brightest stars tend to win championships in the NBA. None of these Kings have achieved that status yet, but there is an intriguing constellation of young stars in the skies above Sacramento that might light the way back to the playoffs. The Kings haven’t had this kind of high-end talent and depth since their glory days, when they made eight consecutive playoff appearances beginning in 1998-99.
If you look at Sacramento’s last playoff team, you’d have to think back to when you were much younger. The year was 2006. Some of us have 13-year-old children who were in diapers then. The first iphone hadn’t even been released. Fox was 8 years old and Boston Celtics legend Red Auerbach was still alive.
The Kings won 44 games to claim the eighth seed before losing to the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the playoffs. Their late-season surge was led by Mike Bibby, Brad Miller and Metta World Peace after a mid-season trade sent Peja Stojakovic to the Indiana Pacers. Bonzi Wells, Shareef Abdur-rahim, Kevin Martin, Kenny Thomas, Francisco Garcia and Jason Hart were key contributors.
Everyone on that team is retired now. So, yeah, it’s been a while, but now the Kings believe they have a team that could end the NBA’S longest playoff drought.
They have Fox and Hield, who were just named the eighth-best backcourt in the NBA by Bleacher Report. They have Bagley and Harrison Barnes. They have Dewayne Dedmon, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Harry Giles, Nemanja Bjelica, Cory Joseph, Trevor Ariza, Richaun Holmes and Yogi Ferrell.