The Sacramento Kings roster needs a realignment. Guard heavy is an understatement. Shooting guard heavy doesn’t even quite capture the post DeMarcus Cousins era.
Buddy Hield, Ben McLemore, Arron Afflalo, Garrett Temple, Malachi Richardson (once healthy) and even Tyreke Evans are all better suited to play the off guard position than any other spot on the floor. You could make the argument that Langston Galloway belongs in this discussion as well and we haven't even mentioned Darren Collison, who started at the position in Monday night’s 108-96 loss in Denver.
Losing Cousins left a hole, but Sacramento has options at the center position. Without small forwards Rudy Gay (ruptured Achilles), Omri Casspi (traded to New Orleans) and Matt Barnes (waived), the Kings have a gap in size. They have plenty of 6-foot-5 wings, but only one player on the roster listed between 6-foot-7 and 6-foot-11 and that is stretch four, Anthony Tolliver.
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With so many shooting guards and no true small forward on the team, the Kings were run over by the Nuggets’ Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari.
“It’s just part of the nature of our team right now,” Afflalo told reporters following the game. “It’s not really much I can do to make an excuse about it. You just have to get out there and physically battle them.”
Listed at 6-foot-8, Chandler has spent most of his career playing the small forward position. With Nikola Jokic sitting due to illness, Chandler started at the four against 7-footer Willie Cauley-Stein and instantly went to work against a much bigger player.
Chandler scored 16 of his career-high 36 points in the first quarter. Dave Joerger tried different options to try to slow him, but the Kings just don’t have the personnel to defend a player of this size, let alone two of them.
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“Wilson Chandler was fantastic tonight, he started right off the jump,” Joerger said in his postgame press conference.
Gallinari towered over Afflalo at the three, standing five inches taller than the veteran wing. Where Chandler took Cauley-Stein off the dribble, Gallinari used his size advantage to shoot over the top of a a smaller player. He posted 18 points in 31 minutes of action, but took just seven shots from the field as Denver ran away with the wire-to-wire victory.
There is no way to fix the hole in the Kings roster this season. With 15 players under contract, they cannot add another piece to the puzzle for the final 19 games. Joerger will have to mix and match guards at the small forward position and hope for the best.
In fairness to Sacramento, they were playing one of the more difficult back-to-back spots in the league. After losing a buzzer beater in overtime Sunday at Golden 1 Center against Utah, the Kings looked completely gassed against Denver.
“I think a lot of it tonight had to do with fatigue,” Collison told media members. “But that’s when you have to be more mentally tough to get over the hump and really find a way to win a game when you’re playing on a back-to-back or when you don’t have your legs under you.”
“Mentally, we just have to be a little more engaged, a little more focused and a little more prepped,” Afflalo added.
Collison led the Kings with 17 points in 25 minutes of action. He was one of seven Sacramento players to score in double-figures as Joerger went deep into his bench.
Joerger turned to his veterans against the Jazz on Sunday, but with plenty of players showing fatigue Monday night, it was the young guns that shined in the loss in Denver.
Hield scored 14 on 4-of-7 shooting from the field in 23 minutes. He turned the ball over four times, but he has now scored in double-figures in all but one of his six games since coming over from the Pelicans.
Fellow rookie, Skal Labissiere continues to impress in limited minutes. The 20-year-old Haitian dropped in 10 points and six rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench. His fall away baseline jumper is a thing of beauty and his ability to rebound outside of his zone should earn him minutes down the stretch.
The Kings return to the court Wednesday looking to snap their five-game losing streak. They’ll face MVP candidate Kawhi Leonard and his San Antonio Spurs team that currently sits at 49-13 and is riding an eight-game win streak.