Sacramento Kings: Who Deserves an All-Star Selection?

The Sacramento Kings have never won an NBA championship. They’ve never even played in an NBA Finals. As a fan, especially during the challenging times of recent memory, you want to enjoy seeing your team on the bright stage, whether that be national television, getting some love on ESPN or NBA TV or possibly watching your team’s jersey being worn during All Star Weekend. The question now is: do the Kings have any players worthy of an NBA All-Star selection?

The Kings have had six All-Stars in their 30-plus years of existence. In the 1990s it was “The Rock” Mitch Richmond who earned six trips to the mid-season game. Richmond also took home All-Star MVP in 1995.

To most teams’ fans that isn’t a great accomplishment, but Kings fans aren’t like most fans. Fans still bring that up because it holds a sense of pride seeing a player from your team, your city earning a trophy.

That’s why when the Kings started earning All-Star selections again in the early 2000’s, the fans once again were thrilled. They got to see Chris Webber, Vlade Divac, Brad Miller and Peja Stojakovic donning the Kings uniform on a big stage and it once again made fans in Sacramento feel good.

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Rondo was criticized by many for basically giving up on the Dallas Mavericks after he was traded from Boston, so when the Kings signed Rondo to a one-year deal it turned some heads, and not exactly in a good way.

But now, those heads are spinning as Rondo has been playing at a level we haven’t seen since he was next to the “Big Three” in the Garden. Rondo is averaging 12 points, 11.6 assists and a 6.5 rebounds per game on the year. If he keeps up his rebounding, it’ll be a career high for Rondo, who’s also averaging a career high in three-point percentage.

Rondo hasn’t been all good for the Kings, though. He’s had an off and on ability to control the offense, sometimes trying to do too much. This has led to him also averaging a career high in turnovers at four per game.

With Rondo on the court, though, the Kings have a certain flow that they didn’t have last season with the ability to pick up the pace as well as a ball handler who won’t miss the open man. The pick and roll has become a large success for the Kings with Rondo connecting with Cousins as well as Willie Cauley-Stein and even Kosta Koufos.

While the back court in the West is high on talent, including Russell Westbrook, Stephen Curry, Chris Paul, and Damian Lillard, it’s not insane to think a player who’s had four triple-doubles and has been a rebound away from four other triple-doubles deserves at least consideration.

He didn’t help his case much when he delivered a gay slur to an NBA referee, drawing a ton of negative criticism to himself and being suspended one game.

Advanced stats are also a knock on Rondo, however, which has him 17th best in RPM (Real Plus-Minus) among point guards, according to ESPN. Basketball Reference also has him with his second lowest defensive rating of his career at 106 per 100 possessions.

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But, his 2.1 win shares, not even halfway through the season, are better than his past two seasons and is on pace to meet the levels he earned when he was an All-Star for the Celtics from 2008-2013.

The Kings, at 14-20, will definitely need to keep themselves relevant if they hope to earn one, let alone two, All-Star selection(s), but if they can keep themselves near .500% and can possibly creep into the eighth spot when it’s time for the selections to be made, they could be looking at two All-Stars for the first time since 2004.

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