Amid injuries and rumors, Sacramento Kings are off to a slow start

By Jarren Murillo

The Sacramento Kings are off to a very slow start this season, going 1-7 after Monday night’s loss against the San Antonio Spurs. The Kings haven’t been fully healthy since the start of the season. Their star player, DeMarcus Cousins, has only played four games this season, while their key backup point guard, Darren Collison has recently been banged up. It’s still early in the season, but the Sacramento Kings should be weary of their position.

Looking at their statistics, the Kings have been good in some key areas. They are in the top ten in FG%, 3P%, assist, steals, and points. Despite putting up some impressive stat lines thus far, the Kings’ record doesn’t reflect it. The main reason as to why the Kings haven’t been winning games is because of their defense. The team as a whole does not have great defensive awareness. They have a lot of offensive talent on the team, but vastly lack defense. Cousins, Rudy Gay, Marco Belinelli and a few other key players are not the best on defense.

During Monday’s game, the Kings showed some lack of interest on the defensive end, leading to easy buckets for the Spurs. Sacramento was able to keep pace with the Spurs for about two and a half quarters before the Spurs ran away with the game. Either the Kings got tired as the game went on, or they simply lost focus on defensive. Their offense can only carry them so far. As the game went on, shots stopped falling, while they let up on defense.

Even though they have struggled defensively through the start of the season, the Kings have been looking better offensively. Although Cousins has only played four games this season, he has been looking great for the most part averaging a double-double with about 21 points and 11 rebounds. However, Cousins has been shooting very poorly, only shooting about 37% from the field. Part of the reason why Cousins’ FG% is significantly lower than his last year average (48 percent) is because he has been shooting more threes. Cousins went 4-5 from three-point range in the season opener. Since then he has gone 0-9. Sacramento hasn’t been the strongest three-point shooting team the last couple of years, but they are looking to change that this year with the signing of Belinelli and the increase of three-point shots from Cousins. If Cousins can successfully add the three to his game, he along with the rest of the team can become much more dangerous.

The signing of Rajon Rondo hasn’t quite paid off yet, but Rondo has found new life in Sacramento. He recorded a triple double last week, and flirted with yet another one Monday night. Sacramento is getting almost exactly what they wanted out of Rondo, but it hasn’t translated into wins. It will take some time before the Kings can translate their games into wins. After making a lot of roster changes, the Kings will have to further develop team chemistry. Most importantly they will have to improve their defense if they want to win games. There are brighter days ahead for the Kings. The season is still young, but if they don’t make any changes defensively, the Kings will face yet another rough season.

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