FIRST TAKE | With Derozan joins D. Fox & Sabonis, the Kings have the best Big-3 of NBA – Tim Legler

FIRST TAKE | With Derozan joins D. Fox & Sabonis, the Kings have the best Big-3 of NBA – Tim Legler

well I think the kings were the one team with real interest beyond their mid-level exception uh in Demar D rozan so they were pretty persistent in the last week of trying to get Chicago engaged in this sign and trade listen when you trade for Demar D rozan especially as he’s about to turn 35 you are trading for offense he can still score the ball you have certainly seen his defensive tier rate as he’s gotten older but this is still a 24 25 point a game score the Kings look at the West they see other teams improving and you know they moved Harrison Barnes out who played significant role in getting this team back into the post season but they still believe the Roan has you know some good basketball left in him and now he’ll take center stage with you know dearon Fox sabonis and and this is a team in Sacramento that wants to get out of the playin and back into the playoffs where they’re on the doorstep of title contention I don’t think they would consider them true title contenders they are on the fringes Harrison Barnes to Demar D rozan that’s an upgrade is it a good fit I I think it is uh because I think what they were getting offensively Adam was capped out at what you were seeing between dear Fox and sabonis I just you know sabonis has some offensive limitations in his game as great a player as he is and and you know he nobody works harder um he’s a great passer a phenomenal rebounder but his scoring has a c on it and I think we’ve seen it and it’s not enough what that team has even with the strides that Keegan Murray made a year ago as you could see it’s just not enough in the Western Conference this is a totally different caliber offensive player they’re adding to the mix now you know he’s up there a little bit he turns 35 in about a month but still put up great numbers this year 24 points a game in Chicago um the guy is just a a you know we call these guys professional scorers I don’t really like the term that much I think it applies perfectly to DeMar he gets his number man and he gets it every night and he gets it one way or another whether it’s making a bunch of mid-rangers or getting to the line 10 12 times on a given night he will get to his number almost every night um and so now I think for Sacramento this is a significant step forward on a team two years ago number three seed in the western conference right and we knew that that was a little bit skewed because they were healthy all year and no body else was and they took advantage of that last year they came back to the pack a little bit as the the West improved but still firmly in the mix and a threat in the west like they’re they’re they’re a solid playoff team and now demard Rosen to me gives them reason to think they can challenge for the top four in the Western Conference and and I think they’re probably right because he’s just such a consistent pencil it in production guy and it’s so much better than what they had at the at that spot and I think now their offense is just a much more diverse in the ways that they can score and the ways that they can beat you so I love this move for Sacramento I love what you said in the beginning you didn’t see it come neither did I this one caught me completely off guard I I did not hear anything about this prior to really the news getting released so credit the Kings they got it done he met with Mike Brown I have a lot of faith in Mike Brown and I like this team a lot more than I did before this trade it I’m curious to see this the pecking order and not even the pecking order because I think we kind of know who the guys are on the team but more how do you fit people in because dearen Fox is clearly the centerpiece of the team you play through Damonte sabonis a lot he’s like the fulcrum dearon fox has been the star how do you see Demar de Rosen because he’s a guy that traditionally has been more of a you give him the ball and let him operate from his spots so how do you blend that high post action with with uh sabonis and fox that two man game with the ISO game of DeMar rosen they’ve got to they’ve got to restructure their offense to a certain degree you can’t have DeMar rosen out there kind of spotting up standing around waiting for dearen Fox and sabonis to run their action now dear rosan is a really good dribble handoff player in terms of receiving dribble handoff so right there there’s going to be stuff where you can run it twice on the same possession you know you come down you run some Fox and sabonis action the ball ends up back in the hands of sabonis a lot of times out of that action at the top of the key and then he will run quickly do a dribble hand off on the opposite side of the floor sabonis probably next to joic I don’t know I don’t know the numbers on this I might be making this up but it seems to me it’s the second most usage rate with the dho behind behind yic anybody in the NBA so if you can run both of those multiple of Tribble handoffs in the same possession and the second time you’re handing the ball off to a guy like dear Rosen who really knows how to come off those screens tight now he’s not using it as much to create offense for other people as he is for himself but that’s going to be a major part of their offense but I also think obviously if you got DeMar rosen on team you got to have more primary usage with getting the ball to him to start the possession in specific spots what this might do also is create other opportunities for sabonis on the offensive glass because DeMar rosen is going to get his share of double teams when he starts to back guys into that middle area the floor he gets hit with late double teams all the time that ball comes out and the shots Tak and you’re in rotation mode against sabonis good luck trying to get a body on him to keep him off the glass so that could be another way if you cut back a little bit of the usage rate for sabonis initially because you got the Rosen there’s other ways for him to go be effective and go get the basketball I think Mike Brown is good at adjusting to his Personnel I think it’s one of his strengths and one of the thoughts from when he took over from Alvin Gentry I thought that they added a lot of off ball stuff for guys like Kevin herder now that Keegan Murray is there things for him so I actually have faith that Mike Brown will be a good coach at doing this exact thing like okay on the Fly we’re going to have to make some adjustments here but the big question now is like how good is this team they retained Malik monk I was worried they were gonna lose him in the offseason I actually thought he was going to be you know out the door they retain him you still have Keon Ellis who I like a lot um Keegan Murray who was one of your guys that you were very interested to see which way he goes so actually before we ask how good they are let me ask the Keegan Murray part he was on this climb becoming a player that was okay maybe there’s more to the game his game do you feel like this halts it at all does he now take a lesser role in the offense ands out I think so but I do think he’s got areas of improvement with his catch and shoot three still to come and that could be more opportunities there and if you know if if the shot quality is better because of the amount of attention now that you’ve got to give other people you know you might see him have an incredible year shooting the B because the looks are going to be cleaner so maybe he’s got a little bit more uh Reliance on the three-point shot solely uh than he did before but look there what are you gonna do DeMar rosen is a better player and he’s got he he plays a certain way so when you’ve got four deep in terms of your top guys one of those guys is gonna have to do a lot more catch and shoot and that in this case is going to have to be Keegan Murray right so how good do you think they are now now that you see this move like are you elevating them up a tier are they where do you slot them in in the west I’m saying this man like there are I guess you’d say depending how you look at this three or four teams clearly better and I don’t even know if the fourth team you would even go necessarily go there but I think we’re going to agree just going into the season based on what happened last year any addition or subtractions do the math on it these teams are going to be better on paper going in Oklahoma City we agree with that right yep 100% I think they’re the best team by far Minnesota okay Dallas okay Denver yeah that’s it you you you can’t tell me that you can’t make a c first of all you might even get Sacramento even in that Dallas Denver mix in terms of regular season wins man it’s not going to shock me I me Denver’s got Denver’s got some stuff to prove this year in my opinion so let’s let’s see I mean I I I said I was thought this was more than a one championship team but you know last year losing the way that they did it you know you and you now you’ve got to continue to reinvent yourself you lose kcp you got to figure out where those where that contribution is coming from that level defense that that level three-point shooter where’s it coming from we don’t know if that’s going to be Christian Brown yet if he can step up and fill that role so Denver has something to prove I think we ac we expect Oklahoma City Minnesota and Dallas are still ascending we’re not sure yet about Denver yeah so that leaves the next tier of teams Beyond those teams you’re talking Clippers Phoenix Phoenix yeah New Orleans the Lakers Warriors like these are the next group of teams so for me absolutely you could say Sacramento’s right there four five mix that’s where they are in the regular season I I mean I I don’t know that there’s anybody else outside those those teams I mentioned that you’d say oh yeah they’re better going in going in I I I’m not saying that about Phoenix I’m certainly not saying that about Clippers they took a step back Clearly Now Phoenix might be better with Mike buher and we’ll see but there’s no reason to think based just on what you saw last year oh yeah they’re GNA figure it out this year they had a lot of they had a lot of deficiencies on that team so let’s see but clearly Oklahoma City Minnesota and Dallas I think and then Denver would probably be half a notch above where I think the Kings could finish but I think in that four five range that’s their ceiling I think the other thing about Sacramento is all of their key guys including damont sabonis should be better next season than they were last season or at the very least the same they’re all guys who are ascending dearen Fox is even still ascending as a player Keegan Murray and Kevin her are definitely ascending as players Malik monk ascending so you talk about just naturally I mean there is always the risk of staleness in a team you know they there is an expiration date on every team no matter how good they are so you worry about that but adding D rozan all of those guys should be better and we think D rozan is better than Harrison baren so I look at this and I go they’ve been a good team they’ve been on the doorstep this there’s reason to hope that one it’s a great culture fit demard Rosen has always been well-liked by his teammates you know he cares about the right things he’s going to go into a team that I think has a lot of guys that care about the right things and want to win and are hungry to win so I think it’s a good culture fit I think you have you can buy that these guys all have a little bit more in them that they can show and I like it I think the kings are interesting I probably agree with you about where they’re at they’re in that Phoenix tier of teams and probably the Clippers and by the and by the way I’m seeing some comments over here so we should address it because I’ve seen multiple people mention it the Grizzlies um I hear you I they won 27 games I understand they were decimated by injuries they didn’t have John Mor I get it but look John Mor’s got himself into some situations on and off the court on the court with injuries because the way he plays is is a little bit reckless in the way that he attacks at his body weight with the with the amount of time he spins in the air and how little he weighs doesn’t take a lot of contact to send johnar flying it doesn’t take a lot of contact for johnar to land in awkward spots and so he’s always going to be to me susceptible to injuries and he’s also well we got to find out make sure he’s got his act cleaned up off the court with some of the stuff that has going on with them now I’m not going to automatically just go say yep let’s go pencil them in for 55 wins I don’t know give me time you might be right talent-wise and on paper they should be a team that were is very interesting next year and is somewhere in the mix in that middle pack you know anywhere from three to six that’s where they should be let’s see it first I got to see that first you know let’s get to Christmas the Grizzlies before I before I know what that’s going to look like but you can at least assume that they have a chance to be good and I think that’s part of that’s part of the talent to do it without a doubt no doubt about and that Kings Clippers Suns they’re in that mix with those teams I don’t I’m not gonna think they’re gonna be as good as Oklahoma City or Minnesota or in my view Dallas and probably Denver yeah I think those are the top four teams in the Western Conference and I don’t know what Memphis would do to change my mind about that right

FIRST TAKE | With Derozan joins De’Aaron Fox & Domantas Sabonis, the Kings have the best Big-3 of NBA – Tim Legler