The Kings have been largely disappointing this season. DeMarcus Cousins has played at his usual level after a rocky start(although personally I feel he should get to the rim more and settle for jumpers less), but he’s also been his usual temperamental self. Cousins has received 6 technical fouls, and has been ejected once so far this season. Rajon Rondo has looked fantastic for stretches, but hesitant on offense or lazy on defense at times. After the team’s recent loss to the lowly Philadelphia 76ers, head coach George Karl was(rightfully) upset. Karl voiced his concerns. Via Jason Jones of the Sacramento Kings:
“I told the team inconsistent intensity, inconsistent focus, inconsistent toughness and mental discipline,” Kings coach George Karl said. “Too many times we’ve come out on this court and been the quiet team, or the soft team or the cool team and not the man team.”
The effort left fans booing the Kings (12-20) more than once, including at the final buzzer.
“I was disappointed the fans booed,” Karl said. “But my gut says when you get outworked on your home court, you have a right to be booed.”
…
“When you just get out-hustled and a team puts forth more effort on the court than you, it’s a terrible way to lose,” Cousins said.
The loss left Karl wondering if he had the players with the grit to play tough when it matters and consistently or does he have too many players who care only about offense.
“My feeling is we have too many offensive players and not enough defensive players,” Karl said. “We don’t have enough guts to make stops.”
That’s a very good point made by Karl. The Kings don’t really have any defensive specialists. Cousins is solid defensively, but is by no means elite. The only player known for his defense is Rondo, but that was more in his Celtics days. Rondo is an excellent defender at times, but at other times plays lazy on that end.
The rest of their team is, as Karl pointed out, mainly offensive players. Marco Belinelli and Omri Casspi are essentially offense-only players. Ben McLemore projects as a 3-and-D player long-term, but for now he’s not a terrific defender. The best defender on the Kings is probably a rookie, and an injured one at that, in Willie Cauley-Stein.
Perhaps a trade is coming for the Kings. There are a lot of good defenders in the NBA, and maybe it’s time for Vlade Divac to look into acquiring one or two of them.
