The NBA regular season wrapped up with a Kings victory over the top-seeded Houston Rockets on Wednesday night, but hotly-contested debates for award picks are only beginning to percolate.
While Sacramento’s intriguing collection of young players showed tremendous promise, De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield, Bogdan Bogdanovic and company will likely need to wait at least a year to find their names scribbled on individual-award ballots tabulated by Ernst & Young. This season, the only certainty is that Nos. 5 and 8 will garner votes for the two All-Rookie Teams among a strong class of first-year peers.
However, we don’t have to wait until the official announcements on June 25 to determine which Kings standouts deserve to take home team-only hardware in the major categories. After crunching the numbers and reviewing game film, here’s how one writer cast his All-Kings awards ballot.
Most Improved Player
Buddy Hield
Hield’s staggering improvement began over the second half of 2016-17, when he nearly doubled his scoring output in 25 games with the Kings (15.1 points per game) compared to his first 57 contests in New Orleans (8.6), and connected on 42.8 percent from downtown in Sacramento after shooting 36.9 percent from deep with the Pelicans.
In his second season, No. 24 averaged more points per 36 minutes (19.2) while maintaining nearly the same level of efficiency (55.7 percent effective field goal percentage) and ranking ninth in the League in three-point accuracy (43.1 percent). Developing into an even more potent offensive threat, Hield was the best in the game at catch-and-shoot triples (49.6 percent) among players with as many attempts, per NBA.com, and made opposing defenses pay handsomely for leaving him wide open by converting 47 percent of those looks – a tick behind Stephen Curry (47.1).
But while he’s earned a reputation as a pure scorer, the Oklahoma product made even bigger strides as a playmaker as the season progressed. After averaging 1.5 assists over the first half of the season, Hield dished out 2.8 dimes following the All-Star break, leading the team in the category in back-to-back games on March 16 vs. the Warriors (a career-high seven) and the next night against the Jazz (six). His assist rate jumped from 10.5 percent over the first five months, to 17.5 in March and 16.9 in April, putting him in the 71st percentile among wings on the season – up from the 48th percentile last season, according to Cleaning the Glass.
Hield’s defensive rating followed a similar positive trajectory, improving by nearly five points per 100 possessions over the second half, from 108.0 to 103.6; Sacramento’s defense was, in fact, nearly eight points better with No. 24 on the court post-All-Star.
Entering his third season, Hield is trending toward becoming an invaluable asset who could soon join the elusive 50/40/90 club, while making game-changing contributions on both sides of the ball.
Defensive Player of the Year
Garrett Temple
Temple’s true defensive impact isn’t fully captured in his counting statistics (0.9 steals and 0.4 blocks per game), considering he’s frequently tasked with covering the opposing team’s most-prolific perimeter players, from point guards to small forwards, often late in games. More so, the eighth-year veteran is constantly diving after loose balls, deflecting passes and keeping possessions alive with heads-up plays that don’t show up in traditional box scores.
Sacramento’s defense allowed 0.9 points per 100 possessions fewer with Temple on the court, a number which, again, can be misleading considering the superior quality of his opposition. Following the All-Star break, the Kings recorded a demonstratively lower 99.1 defensive rating with No. 17 on the floor, compared to 109.2 when he was on the bench, via NBA.com.
A deeper dive into the numbers illustrates why Temple is one of the more under appreciated perimeter defenders in the NBA.
According to Synergy Sports, the 6-foot-6 guard limited opponents to only 27.3 percent from the field and 0.58 points per possession (PPP) in isolation situations, an impressive mark that places him in the 94th percentile across the League. Fighting to contest shots from players running off screens, Temple also held his counterparts to 32.7 percent shooting and 0.88 PPP (69th percentile) in those situations.
Relentless and persistent in slowing down opposing scorers, the Louisiana native ranked in the 81st percentile in block percentage (0.9) and in the 73rd percentile in steal percentage (1.7) among all wing players, per Cleaning the Glass, a year after placing in the 88th and 90th percentiles in the key categories, respectively.
6th Man of the Year
Buddy Hield
After starting the first seven games of the season, Hield came off the bench in 68 of his final 73 contests, providing a much-needed scoring punch from the moment he stepped on the floor. No. 24 found his rhythm as an indelibly reliable, floor-spacing, deep-shooting super-sub, knocking down 153 triples at a 44.6 percent clip in the role; as a starter, his three-point percentage dipped to a modest 35.4 percent.
Not only was Sacramento’s offense three points per 100 possessions better with Hield in the lineup – 102.6 points compared to 99.6 when he rested – but he led the Kings with a plus-8.1 points on-off court net rating, according to NBA.com.
Despite playing only 25.3 minutes per game, the Bahamas native led the Kings in points (1,079), threes made (176) and steals (85), while converting on 43.1 percent from downtown and 87.7 percent from the foul line.
Few bench players across the entire League matched Hield’s combination of offensive firepower and efficiency while commanding the second-unit offense. Among 367 eligible Sixth Man candidates, he finished sixth in scoring, fifth in treys and fourth in long-range accuracy, per basketball-reference.com.
Although he didn’t start many games, Hield not only finished nearly every close contest – easily leading the team in fourth-quarter minutes – but routinely came through in the clutch with long-range daggers. The 6-foot-4 guard ranked second on the team with a 115.1 offensive rating in the final two minutes of games decided by five points or fewer, while knocking down six three-pointers in those situations – tied for the fourth-most in the League.
Rookie of the Year
De'Aaron Fox
Perhaps the most incredible statistic of the year? Fox drilled 6-of-7 shots (85.7 percent) in the final 30 seconds of games decided by two points or fewer. All rookies from the 29 other teams combined to shoot just 8-of-35 from the floor (22.9 percent) in such situations, per NBA.com.
In addition to unparalleled crunch-time heroics, Fox was one of only four qualified rookies to rank in the top-10 among first-year players in points (11.6), assists (4.4) and steals (1.0).
No. 5 demonstrated the speed and ball-handling ability to zigzag past nearly anyone in his path, athleticism to finish above the rim, and fearlessness to challenge defenders at the basket as early as his first game, but his confidence and decision-making noticeably improved over the course of the season.
34 of Fox’s 48 double-digit scoring games – and all five of his outings with 20 or more points – came after Jan. 1, while his three-point attempts doubled from 1.3 to 2.6 per outing since that time. While the dynamic playmaker’s passing remained steady all year long, following the All-Star break, Fox posted a 2.04 assist-to-turnover ratio compared to 1.77 over the first half.
Although the 20-year-old’s top offseason priority will be improving his efficiency and extending his range to behind the arc, there are reasons for optimism with his jump shot. Fox made the fourth-most two-point pull-ups (119) among all rookies – including his first game-winner against the 76ers on Nov. 9, 2017 – and connected on a scorching 6-of-6 from long distance vs. the Spurs on Jan. 29.
With all the physical tools to develop into an All-Star, as well as an already-established winning pedigree, it’s conceivable that Fox stands to follow a similar trajectory to the two NBA superstars he’s most often compared to: John Wall and Russell Westbrook.
Most Valuable Player
Bogdan Bogdanovic
(Yes, “Bogi” qualifies as an NBA rookie – despite five years of professional basketball experience overseas – and as such, would deserve Kings Rookie of the Year honors if he’s the recipient of the MVP award. But his own teammates have repeatedly said they don’t consider the savvy 25-year-old to be a first-year player, so we’ll take them at their word.)
In the MVP race, Bogdanovic gets the edge over Hield and Fox for his night-in and night-out consistency, polished all-around game, and uncanny knack for making the right play nearly every time he touched the basketball.
The Serbia native played the most minutes of any Kings player (2,175), and the team’s offense was 1.5 points per 100 possessions better when he was on the court. Although he didn’t lead the Kings in scoring (11.8 points per game; fourth), passing (3.3 assists; second) or three-point accuracy (39.4 percent; second), Bogdanovic operated as the engine behind Sacramento’s offense, rating among the game’s elite in nearly every efficiency metric.
His 1.18 PPP in spot-up situations ranked in the 88th percentile, per Synergy Sports, ahead of Klay Thompson, Kemba Walker and Bradley Beal. On pull-up jumpers, No. 8 finished with the 11th-highest effective field goal percentage among players with as many attempts, while his 39.3 mark on pull-up triples outpaced the likes of James Harden and Devin Booker.
Even more impressive was his innate ability to read defenses and recognize when to create his own offense and when to find open teammates with precise bounce passes or alley-oops as the pick-and-roll ball handler. When accounting for passes, Bogdanovic accumulated a team-leading 0.92 PPP in such situations; when he recognized single coverage, that number rose to 0.99 PPP.
Already one of the top playmakers at his position, he ranked in the 87th percentile among wings in assist rate (18.3), and in the 90th percentile in assist-to-usage ratio (0.90), per Cleaning the Glass.
While isolation plays accounted for only 5.1 percent of his possessions, Bogdanovic made the most of those opportunities, as well, placing in the 87th percentile with 1.08 PPP. Two of his one-on-one scoring chances resulted in game-winning baskets in the clutch – a driving floater against the defending-champion Warriors on Nov. 27, 2017 and a pull-up jumper from the foul line at Memphis on April 6; another – a quick-release step-back – gave Sacramento the lead over the Knicks in the final minute on March 4.
Now fully accustomed to the schedule, speed and physicality of the NBA game, the ever-confident Bogdanovic – who knocked down 7-of-13 from deep en route to 26 points and MVP honors in the All-Star Weekend Rising Stars Game – has the skill set and knowhow to lead the youthful Kings to prominence.