We Watched It So You Didn’t Have To: Phoenix Suns vs Sacramento Kings

Free George Hill, chill Cauley-Stein, and the incredible De’Aaron Fox and Josh Jackson disappearing acts

While the rest of the world watched Knicks-Lakers and Sixers-Wolves Tuesday night and dreamed about a bright future, the Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings quietly toiled away out West, proof that not every rebuilding project is TV-worthy. Still, we can learn a lot from two teams that are good enough matches for each other and two rosters chock full of young talent, and every game is a data point.

The game was ugly, with bad offense beating out bad defense much of the night. The teams combined to shoot 14-of-54 behind the arc, a less than sparkling 26%. The Kings shot 46% on twos, right at their league-worst percentage, but a late 13–0 run was enough and Sacramento pulled away to win 99 to 92. So what can we learn from an ugly game between two teams headed for the lottery?

1. Free George Hill

George Hill was the best player on the court, and it wasn’t even close. He was the one player out there that looked like he should be starting on an NBA playoff team.

Hill started in the back court with De’Aaron Fox, and he spent a bulk of his minutes as the de facto two, playing with either Fox or Frank Mason. That’s not a bad role for Hill, who can easily play on the ball or off, but it’s not a great use for Fox or Mason, both really only useful with the ball in their hands.

Hill was excellent. He led all scorers with 18 points and did so on just nine efficient shots, adding seven boards, three assists, and three steals. He was a game-best +12 on the court, and you could feel it. Hill seemed to be looking for his shot often and could find it pretty easily against a terrible Phoenix defense. He showed good off-ball movement and was good with the ball in his hands, and his shot looks great, a career-best 44% from downtown on the season. Hill looked like the one veteran handler out there in a game that sorely lacked it. He played with IQ and game understanding and made the right play at the end of the shot clock and in end-of-quarter two-for-one situations. That’s nothing special on a good team, but it stood out here.

Quite frankly, George Hill looked like a player that didn’t belong in this game. He got duped into thinking the Kings could compete for the playoffs, and now he’s stuck. Hill is on a three-year $54-million contract, but it’s really just two years at $36 million with a $1 million buyout on the third year. That’s a bit rich but a team that doesn’t expect to be a big player in free agency this summer might want to bring Hill aboard.

Would the Pelicans give up a pick and salary fodder to pair Hill with Jrue Holiday and make a playoff push? The Sixers could trade Amir Johnson and a young player or pick and let Hill play off-ball point guard while Markelle Fultz develops. Can I interest you in a Hill, Redick, Covington, Simmons, Embiid playoff lineup? But Philly would have to punt on any big free agency plans until 2019.

What about Denver? Faried or Plumlee might be useful in Sacramento, and the Nuggets could add Lyles, Lydon, Beasley, maybe a pick or two. Hill and Gary Harris would be an efficient back court and play well off-ball while Jokic runs the offense, and Jamal Murray would benefit greatly moving from starting point guard to sixth man scorer. Hill, Harris, Barton, Millsap, and Jokic could win a playoff series out West.

George Hill is good, a tough defender that can hit shots and play on or off the ball with ease. He’s the exact sort of player becoming more valuable to teams like Denver and Philly that run their offense through a non-traditional point man, and it’s depressing that he’s stuck playing in games like this.

Let’s see what Hill thinks about his current situation…

2. The Willie Cauley-Stein project is… not going well

Cauley-Stein was one of my favorite prospects in the 2015 draft. He’s long and agile and feels like a fit for the modern NBA, a rare player that can switch effectively on pick-and-rolls and guard one to five. He was an awesome defender at Kentucky and seems like he could have a Tyson Chandler or DeAndre Jordan type impact offensively as a rim runner. Maybe all that will still happen some day, or maybe it would have on another team with some semblance of player development, but it’s not happening yet.

The first problem is that Cauley-Stein plays just about all of his minutes at the four next to Zach Randolph or Kosta Koufos. Willie Cauley-Stein has no real offensive game. The Kings spacing is cramped badly, and playing WCS and ZBo together is a good reason why. (Having the league’s lowest three-point attempt rate probably isn’t helping either.)

The ball is in Cauley-Stein’s hands an alarmingly high amount of the game. He’s developed a nice jumper but still lacks touch around the rim, and yet the Kings used him like they thought they found Chris Webber in a time machine. There are way too many possessions where WCS had the ball in the high post or out on the wing with no real movement around him, like the Kings were just expecting him to put the ball on the floor and make a play. How is that the right role for this guy? Play him at the five, run a screen, and roll to the rim or hit the open jumper. The ball sticks in Cauley-Stein’s hands. Maybe he has no idea why the team keeps giving him the ball there either.

Cauley-Stein struggled on defense too. That great pick-and-roll defense I hoped for is not happening right now. A number of times, WCS chased the handler too far and got stuck in no man’s land, leaving a wide open shooter. He communicates well on defense, and maybe he’s overcompensating for a lack of much defensive help around him, but it’s not great either way.

Cauley-Stein took 12 shots in this one, about twice as many as he’d take in a better role or on a good team. It’s still hard to imagine him not being a useful center for a team like the Warriors or Rockets, and maybe he’ll get there some day, but for now The Trill Experiment is a better band name than basketball project.

3. The best rookie on each team tonight wasn’t even drafted this year

This felt like a Summer League game. There was no real flow, lots of mistakes, too many quick shots, and a weird mix of young guys who don’t get it yet and veterans trying for one last rodeo. Twelve of the 19 guys that played are still on their first deal, and that’s not even counting Justin Jackson’s DNP, the injured Harry Giles, or the exiled Georgios Papagiannis.

Still, I was excited to see what two of this year’s top picks, Josh Jackson and De’Aaron Fox, looked like. I’ll have to tune in another game.

Josh Jackson was terrible. He was routinely ignored by the defense and ended up taking the second most shots on the team, most of them open, and finishing 3-of-14 from the field. He had four turnovers, an impressive feat for a guy that didn’t feel involved in the offense, and got repeatedly roasted on defense by George Hill. He was a game-worst -16.

De’Aaron Fox wasn’t as bad, but if you weren’t looking for him, you might have missed him completely. He finished the game with seven points and no assists and had almost no impact. The Kings play at the third slowest pace in the league, and Fox plays a lot of his minutes with old guys that don’t run. Why draft De’Aaron Fox and not let him run? There was no transition game, and Fox created precious little in the half-court offense.

Fox played just 21 minutes despite starting. That’s been happening a lot with these Kings lineups. Sacramento has started ten different lineups already this year and their minutes are completely unpredictable. Fox’s 21 minutes were actually third most among Kings starters — Garrett Temple and Skal Labissiere finished with 15 and 13, respectively. It’s reflective of a team that has no idea which direction it’s heading, something Haley O'Shaughnessy wrote about for The Ringer NBA Show this week.

But while Fox and Jackson didn’t show much, two older rookies shined.

Mike James began the season on a two-way contract, and he’s now the best Suns point guard. He’s a 27-year-old Summer League All-Star that’s bounced around Europe but looks like he finally has a home. James just makes plays. He keeps his dribble alive and penetrates in and out, moving around the court and looking for a play. He can find his own shot easily and finished well at the rim a few times. He had 17 points and five assists in 20 minutes off the bench. Frank Mason was solid off the bench for the Kings too, playing with good aggression and energy, though the color team comparing him to Chris Paul at one point seemed a bit… ambitious.

Bogdan Bogdanovic is a guy I fell in love with at this summer’s EuroBasket, where he led Serbia on a surprising run to the finals. Bog Squared was the star for Serbia, but he’s a role player in the NBA. What really catches my eye with Bogdanovic is how often he makes the right basketball decision. He plays with a high IQ and has a great feel for the game, taking what’s available or moving the ball along to a better option. He has good vision and can do some secondary creating and, in stark contrast to the younger guys in this game, sees a step ahead. Bogdanovic plays within himself and plays winning basketball. He feels like a rotation wing on a good winning team, though he’ll need a more consistent three. He finished with 10 points, five boards, and four assists and made a handful of impact plays.

It’s early in the season, and way too early to lose any sleep on De’Aaron Fox and Josh Jackson looking invisible in a December game. But Mike James and Bogdan Bogdanovic showed veteran savvy with all that European experience paying off, rookies that are hardly rookies, winning basketball players.

Ten parting shots

1. Seriously, what is Sacramento doing? Why start Hill, Temple, and ZBo they need to develop young talent and secure a high draft pick? Why start Skal Labissiere, then play him 13 minutes? Why no minutes for Justin Jackson, after 33 minutes the previous game and G League time the week before? The Kings are trying to build a winning culture, but at what price? They traded down from Donovan Mitchell or Malik Monk for a 22-year-old wing they can’t find minutes for and a guy with no knees. They spent big on Hill, ZBo, and Vince Carter so they could block their young talent from developing. They’re 6–7 over the last 13, one win away from the #9 pick in next year’s draft, and they don’t own their pick in 2019. Instead of taking on wayward contracts for picks, they’re playing old guys and can’t find time for Fox, Skal, Jackson, Malachi Richardson, and Papagiannis. Hope the winning culture is worth it, cuz the price tag is prohibitive.
2. The offense was really primitive on both sides. After five minutes the score was Suns 6, Kings 4, Turnovers 7, on pace for under 100 points combined, and the offense didn’t pick up much from there. There was an inordinate number of early shots, many possessions with one screen or pass and a shot. Neither team hit 100, not on the strength of any defense, but on poor point guard creation and sloppy offense.
3. ZBo’s still got it. Randolph entered the game averaging 24/11 in December, and he took over late, dominating Dragan Bender and Tyson Chandler in the post to help the Kings pull away. ZBo had no shot on defense in the pick-and-roll or against Chandler’s athleticism, but he can still score in the post with the best of them. He finished with 17/7/5.
4. Tyson Chandler still looks like he could play useful minutes for a playoff team. He struggled to defend one-on-one but is still an effective help defender, and he can still set screens and roll to the rim well. If you look at everyone that played in this game and try to find them a role on a team like the Rockets or Celtics right now, it feels like Chandler, Hill, and Bogdanovic are the only three guys that really stick.
5. Buddy Hield is shooting and scoring well after a move to the bench, which is probably not a coincidence. Hield had 14 points on 14 shots, and the jumper looks good, but can he do it against starters and can he learn to play any defense?
6. I remain lukewarm on T.J. Warren. He led the Suns with 18 points and was their only real offensive weapon at times, but he still can’t shoot much and his game clogs the paint and seems to stall the flow. It took him 24 shots to score those 18 points.
7. Last year’s first-round picks did not impress. Marquese Chriss and Dragan Bender tend to float around the perimeter or, worse yet, just stand there spotting up. They don’t really move or cut on offense and they’re both terrible on defense. Skal Labissiere was a little more involved for the Kings but also ineffective in limited minutes.
8. The game featured a couple extended stretches of Alex Len and Kosta Koufos matched up at the five in a throwback to the 90s. No thanks. Len and Koufos have no future on these teams, and they’re clogging the paint and slowing the game down. What’s the point?
9. The most exciting part of the game? Probably just before halftime when the Kings managed to have two wedgies in a 90-second stretch.
10. The Kings alternate home court is awesome. The lion at center court looks straight out of Game of Thrones (or Chelsea FC) and the black is a clean look, plus some March Madness-y brackets around the edge. The all-black Sacto jerseys on a black court were rough but the court design was sweet.

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