The thought of a three-guard lineup has captured the imagination of Kings fans since the moment Sacramento drafted Davion Mitchell with the No. 9 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft.
Kings coach Luke Walton is looking forward to seeing it, too, saying he is intrigued by a number of possibilities given the team’s improved depth and positional versatility. Some creativity will probably be required given the glut of guards and centers and a possible lack of wing depth, but Walton is eager to see what works.
“I can’t wait to find out,” Walton said after the Kings opened training camp with a morning workout Tuesday at the team’s practice facility. “I think everyone wants to see the three guards on the court together and see what that looks like. There are groupings of an Alex Len protecting the rim with Davion getting into the ball and Moe Harkless on the wing, that type of group I want to see, too, so there’s a lot that we’ve talked about as a staff, but we’ve got to see it in action on the court.”
Walton won’t have to wait long. The Kings will play their preseason opener against the Phoenix Suns on Monday at Golden 1 Center.
Walton said all 20 players on the training camp roster were full participants in Tuesday’s morning workout. The team was scheduled to return to the practice facility Tuesday evening for “a lot of competitive scrimmaging.” Walton said he planned to hold at least two days of two-a-day practices in what will be his first real training camp in Sacramento following a preseason trip to India in 2019 and COVID-19 restrictions in 2020.
“It’s what you want as a coach,” Walton said. “… Between the India and the COVID, that’s life sometimes, so we’re very excited to be here in Sacramento. Players sleeping in their own beds. We can do a couple two-a-days. We can get the work in that we want to and I think this gives us the best chance of going into the season at a level that we need to be to compete.”
The Kings can put some interesting guard combinations on the floor with De’Aaron Fox, Tyrese Haliburton, Buddy Hield, Terence Davis and Mitchell, the defensive dynamo who has drawn rave reviews from teammates.
“It’s going to be fun,” Kings center Richaun Holmes said. “I’m not going to give away too much, but it’s going to be a lot of fun. Those guys bring a lot to this team and we’re going to lean on them heavily, and it’s going to be fun to watch them this year.”
Len compared Sacramento’s three-guard set to that of the 2014-15 Suns, saying: “It kind of reminds me of my Phoenix days when we had (Goran) Dragic, (Eric) Bledsoe and IT (Isaiah Thomas).”
The Kings will be giving up some size when they put Mitchell (6-2/205) on the floor with Fox (6-3/185) and Haliburton (6-4 ½, 175). That might not bode well for a team that struggled so much with defense and rebounding last season, but Fox said they’re still intrigued by the possibilities with multiple playmakers on the floor.
“We’ve talked about playing three guards and, at the end of the day, what you give up is size, so that comes from rebounding and defense, but we have to buckle down and do that,” Fox said. “If we can’t, then obviously the three of us won’t be able to play together and coach is going to have to figure something else out, but we all want to play together.”
Kings general manager Monte McNair said he wants to see it, too.
“We’ve already seen them together and playing against each other and pushing each other,” McNair said. “I think those three guys, their personalities complement each other and their games complement each other. I think the way the NBA is played these days, there’s no reason those guys can’t be out there and be incredible on defense and, of course, score the ball on offense. We’re so excited to see how they work together even more as camp starts.”
Kings forward Harrison Barnes predicted they will.
“It’s going to happen,” Barnes said. “That’s not a secret. You’ll definitely see that lineup. I think you’ll see a variety of lineups. Having that flexibility is going to be big for us this year. … We’re going to have to develop chemistry with different lineups, whether that’s a three-guard lineup, whether it’s me sliding to the 4, whether it’s a combination of different bigs that we have and we play two bigs. Whatever it may be, we have a lot of different possibilities, but a three-guard lineup is, for sure in today’s NBA, that’s going to be played and it will probably be played a lot.”
