Last year, the Kings had no players ranked in Sports Illustrated’s Top 100 players list. This year was much different.
Sacramento clocked in with three members of its squad on the yearly rankings heading into the 2019-20 campaign.
De’Aaron Fox was the highest ranked Kings player – being tabbed at No. 33 by SI.
“These are exciting times for the Sacramento Kings, who are on the cusp of something because of the way De'Aaron Fox has come of age as a point guard,” wrote Rob Mahoney.
“Some fairly advanced maneuvers found their way into his game early in his second season, providing exciting new means for a player who was already too quick for many opponents.”
The second Sactown representative on the list was Buddy Hield who, like Fox, made the leap from being unranked last year to on the list in 2019. Hield was placed at No. 54 in the Top 100 as Mahoney shared his praise for the sharpshooter.
“Hield can put pressure on a defense just by running the floor, and does so tirelessly,” noted Mahoney.
“Becoming a 20-point scorer based on that shooting, however, requires all sorts of supplemental skills (ball-handling, footwork, intuition, timing, and balance, to name a few) that Hield has in spades.”
Rounding out the Kings inclusion on Sports Illustrated’s list was Harrison Barnes.
HB was included on last year’s edition of the list and made the cut again this year as he was ranked at No. 72.
“It’s encouraging that Barnes is coming off the best three-point shooting season of his career (39.4% on 5.7 attempts per game) and remains a solid, multi-positional defender,” said Mahoney.