Sacramento Kings: The Questions Leading To Wednesday
Dec 9, 2013; Sacramento, CA, USA; Sacramento Kings forward Rudy Gay high fives a fan during the fourth quarter of the game against the Dallas Mavericks at Sleep Train Arena. The Sacramento Kings defeated the Dallas Mavericks 112-97. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports
It has now become official as the Sacramento Kings have now acquired Rudy Gay from the Toronto Raptors in a seven-player deal. The Kings traded away Greivis Vasquez, Patrick Patterson, John Salmons and Chuck Hayes. In return the Kings received Rudy Gay, Quincy Acy and Aaron Gray.
This was a pretty big move for Sacramento; they acquire an All-Star caliber player that also fills the void that the Kings have been missing since Ron Artest and that is a producing small forward. Rudy Gay will come to a rebuilding Sacramento Kings organization that has been showing promise through the entire season. Some may even say that the record the Kings have does not really show how good the Kings have been playing as of late.
Why some could say that the Kings record really doesn’t resemble how the Kings are playing, is because during Sacramento’s last eight games, the Kings have had games be decided by seven points or fewer. The Kings have now won two straight games and will have a chance to build on that streak on Wednesday against the Utah Jazz, where Rudy Gay, Quincy Acy and Aaron Gray will make their Kings’ debut.
The Kings roster has a ton of talent, but now until their next game the Kings have some new questions.
First, once the Kings traded away Greivis Vasquez it was all but certain that Isaiah Thomas was going to take over the position. Thomas has been playing great all season and he was even making a case for the starting role while Vasquez was still a King. Now that he is a starter it leaves a big hole on the bench and leaving Kings fans wondering who will be the backup point guard and where will the scoring spark that Thomas was providing in the sixth man role come from, which players will step up?
There are three players that really come to mind to fill those voids: Marcus Thornton, Jimmer Fredette, and rookie Ray McCallum. Coach Michael Malone has already said that both Fredette and McCallum will have a chance to become the backup behind Thomas. Marcus Thornton will have to try and find a way to get out of his shooting slump that he has been in all year to really help the Kings with their bench scoring. He has been playing a bit better as of late but still needs to take a major step forward and prove he is worth the money he is making.
The next question is who starts at power forward? Early projections have put Derrick Williams sliding to the 4 spot next to DeMarcus Cousins, but as we have seen the past few years, the Kings seem to always bring in new players that leapfrog over current starter Jason Thompson. What seems to happen, however, is Jason Thompson seems to find a way to earn his starting role back. Thompson has not been playing very well this season and it seems that Coach Malone has been making him play more as stretch 4 and less as a player down in the post. Maybe that is why Williams fits the position better and has been projected as the started, but only time will tell and it looks like fans will find out there answer sooner rather than later.
As of now the Kings are projected to have a starting line-up of Isaiah Thomas, Ben McLemore, Rudy Gay, Derrick Williams, and Demarcus Cousins. This Kings team looks to be very athletic and now have quite a bit of offensive weapons that will be very interesting to see how they will mesh together.
Kings play the Utah Jazz on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Pacific.