They’re Wrong About DeMar DeRozan and the Kings…

They’re Wrong About DeMar DeRozan and the Kings…

for all intents and purposes the Kings weren’t a bad team in 2024 they won 46 games they ranked right around League average in both offensive and defensive rating and they of course had a shot at the playoffs but they ultimately missed the cut in the playing tournament now in this scenario a lot of teams normally do one of two things one they could run it back and hope for some better luck next year or two they could blow it up because based on Modern front office philosophy in the NBA if you miss the playoffs then you might as well blow it up because you realistically don’t have a shot but instead of just settling for either mediocrity or outright tanking the Kings went a different direction bringing in Demar D rozan on a $25 million a year contract for the next 3 years deardo Rosen is arguably one of the most consistent players in the entire league right now he’s only missed 120 of his 1,230 total regular season games and he’s an objectively great basketball player so why are people questioning if this was the right move for the Kings to bring him in even just looking at what they gave up they really didn’t have to give up that much to get him they sent Chris Duarte and two second round picks to the Bulls and they sent Harrison Barnes to the Spurs to pull off this three- team deal turning Harrison Barnes Chris Duarte and two second round picks into Demar D rozan seems like a pretty clear upgrade to me Chris Duarte was an extremely late rotation guy who was pretty Hit or Miss for Sacramento for most of the season and Barnes while still capable of contributing in the right context is 32 years old and he’s not really getting any younger so even just off the basis of asset management I think this trade makes a ton of sense for Sacramento but from a basketball perspective I don’t know how you can come to the conclusion that this trade somehow doesn’t make the Kings a better team the biggest complaint that I think most people have with the trade is the issue of fit the Kings attempted threes at the third highest frequency of any team in the NBA last season and it’s pretty well known that D rozan isn’t exactly known for his three-point volume and even his three-point efficiency for that matter the problem is that you can’t really reduce the discussion of his fit in Sacramento to something as simple as three-point volume and three efficiency because it honestly goes a lot deeper than that why does his three-point efficiency in volume matter well it matters because if you attempt a meaningful number of threes and you’re capable of hitting them at a meaningful rate then defenses are going to be far more likely to defend you out to the perimeter thus creating more space for the offense as a whole to work with three-point Volume Plus three-point efficiency equals roughly how much spacing you provide right well as I’ve discussed many times before on this channel there are plenty of other ways that you can provide spacing despite not being a high volume three-point shooter and as a matter of fact I’ve even done an entire video on how damont sabonis spaces the floor without shooting threes D rozan might not hit his threes at a high rate but after watching film of all of his three-point attempts this year Defenders are still closing out on him whenever he’s getting the ball on catch and shoot looks they don’t treat him like your typical non-shooter in the traditional sense and that’s because it’s not just about whether or not D rozan is going to punish you from the perimeter when he gets catch and shoot looks it’s about what he can do with the ball in his hands once he gets that pass and that’s something that becomes far more difficult to defend people seem to have forgotten that dear is one of the best isolation scorers in the entire league among the players that recorded at least 100 isolation possessions this past season thear Rosen was the fourth most efficient isolation scorer the fact that he’s such a dominant scorer in isolation can almost negate the fact that he may have suboptimal impact on your overall spacing because of the fact that he demands so much defensive attention when he has the ball in his hands and he’s looking to score the magic were one of the best defenses in the league yet they’re still having Jonathan Isaac guard him way out to the three-point line when he’s bringing the ball up they know he’s not going to shoot a three but that’s not really the point they know that de is fully capable of using that space that a defense provides to get to his spots so that he can get a shot that he’s comfortable with this is where I see some of the biggest misconceptions when talking about his fit people think that this trade won’t work because dear won’t demand attention out past the three-point line which just isn’t true if you’ve played basketball you know that just because somebody may not be a threat from Deep doesn’t mean that you can just give them all the space in the world to work with dear needs just one dribble inside the arc or a quick couple of moves to get to the Elbow or the free throw line and then he’s already got you beat if dear was only scoring in the paint then this becomes a little bit of a different discussion but that’s just not the case just because he’s not going to be pulling up from three doesn’t mean you can just pack the paint it’s more about the fact that you can’t surrender those first one or two steps inside the ark because once you do you’ve already given him enough time to go through his routine and figure out how to counter and burn you he’s in incredibly creative when looking to score in the mid-range and you can’t just surrender that space just look at all these clips opposing teams have strong Defenders on him guarding him out to the three-point line because they know if they sag off of him then he’s going to find a way to use that space to get a bucket because even against good defense he’s still capable of making those tough shots on them he shot 46% from the mid-range during the 2023 24 season which puts him among the best mid-range scorers in the league when you factor in the volume at which he’s scoring in that area and if dear were simply a black hole on offense that wasn’t capable of turning advantages into high percentage offense then maybe we could talk about this fit being pretty bad but again people seem to either be forgetting or they’re just completely unaware of how reliable of a playmaking presence to Rosen could be his drives do a great job of collapsing defenses something that I’m sure the kings are going to take full advantage of having two guys that can penetrate defenses at any given moment is is going to do wonders for Sacramento’s ability to collapse defenses and generate open looks for their Shooters on this play even though Dort isn’t super focused on dear as a corner shooter Dort helping off a little bit gives dear plenty of space to get ahead of steam going downhill putting the defense into rotation with the weak side help coming over leaving two Shooters wide open for dear to choose from to sling it out two for three he had great chemistry with Nicola vuvi being fully capable of finding him in the pick and roll taking advantage of when teams hedge him off of ball screens and splitting his Defenders or feeding it over top to Vu on the short roll this kind of stuff is going to do a lot for Sacramento just having another guy that can operate with sabonis in the pick and roll allowing you to get even more out of dearon fox when defenses play off of him and try to slow down dear and sabonis in a two-man situation it flew under the radar but dearen Fox quietly shot 39% on catch and shoot threes last year on pretty significant volume he’s going to do some major damage to teams when he’s playing off ball instead of having the ball in his hands and listen that’s not to say that I think D rozan is going to come in on day one and need the ball in his hands at all times I think he’s going to be perfectly fine working off ball for a few reasons the Kings can operate in a similar way to how the Bulls do on this possession with Vu getting the entry pass and drawing two Defenders prompting dumu to make this cut to the basket even though the Pelicans aren’t honoring dear out to the perimeter all that ends up happening is dear gets plenty of space to work with on the cut to get to the basket and throw it down imagine in this situation it’s Fox driving in place of Caruso and sabonis in the dunker spot making this same kind of pass to d rozan d rozan can knock these down when he’s left open he might have his foot on the line but he can definitely knock them down and take advantage of a collapsed defense on this possession against the Pistons they have him come off of these staggered screens ultimately getting him a good clean look but in the context of the Kings if it’s Fox with the ball in his hands he could theoretically take advantage of the confusion that Demar creates on this offb action to drive into all this space and finish at the basket there’s far more possibilities that the Kings unlocked with this trade than what I’ve seen them get credit for and their offense is likely going to be significantly better as a result of it now of course there’s the issue of their defense Sacramento was right around League average last season in defensive rating and they’re not going to be holding teams under 100 points for very often this was a move to double down on their strengths add another scoring threat and continue to raise the floor of this team do I think this move takes the Sacramento Kings over the top probably not I think they’ve still got a ways to go but is it a move that takes the Kings from fighting to stay in a playing spot to instead being a team in the mix for a top six seed absolutely really hope you guys enjoyed this video if you did it would mean a lot if you considered subscribing and leaving a like it seriously helps me out a ton regardless thank you guys for watching and I’ll see you in the next one [Music]

The Sacramento Kings made a BIG move by acquiring DeMar DeRozan via sign and trade, and now the question is whether or not he moves the needle for the Kings in a tightly contested Western Conference.

But a lot of people are wrong about DeMar DeRozan. DeRozan is still one of the most consistent players in the entire NBA. Even with the questions about how exactly he’s going to fit alongside De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis, the Kings are making a smart move: get the talent, figure the rest out later.

And the concerns about DeRozan’s fit might be a bit overblown. Although his lack of three point shooting may not mesh perfectly with Sacramento’s high-volume, three point heavy offense, he’s still going to offer more than enough to help bolster their offense and double down on their strengths. The DeMar DeRozan trade might just be what the Sacramento Kings need.

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