King Keegan
- Thread starter Tetsujin
- Start date
Today was probably Keegan’s best game of the season given the magnitude. He showed his floor game, some hesi threes, deep movement threes and aggressive play on defense. He got a lot of blame (a fair amount of it deserved) for the first three games so here is some credit for this one. A lot to build on moving forward in his career
Seems about right. I think he was the 4th best rookie this year by a fairly clearly margin over Mathurin and Ivey. This probably sets up him being first-team all rookie (hopefully).
Him being a starter on a winning team does count for something, but I just don't think there was any statistical case for him over Paolo/Williams/Kessler this year. And he was pretty a clear level or 2 ahead of Mathurin and Ivey imo
On Sabonis and Murray in the second half of the article. Very illuminating.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/36304836/sacramento-kings-playoff-hopes-run-domantas-sabonis
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/36304836/sacramento-kings-playoff-hopes-run-domantas-sabonis
Banchero for RoY was a foregone conclusion but he won this with volume not efficiency. I'd rather have Keegan than anyone else on that list with apologies to Ben Mathurin who edged him out as my favorite prospect in the draft back in June and is already getting himself to the line like crazy (15th in the league in FTA as a rookie). Mathurin will be a big-time scorer for Indiana but Keegan is better on defense and an elite three-point shooter already so he's a better fit for us. I'd also keep an eye out for Mark Williams on Charlotte. Nobody talked about him this year but he was very good in limited minutes.
Don't know whether Murray has it in him yet, but would like to see him up his scoring average to around 15 points per game and about 6 rebounds next season. Also not having have to live and die by the three. He has shown that he could get into that mid range shot. On the other hand driving to the hoop will be a work in progress with his shaky handles, so it's hard to expect anything too significant from that area for now.
I’m so excited to see what Keegan does next season. I really think his career could end up in a couple different directions. Either he is a top tier complementary piece, or the guy ends up with a reputation as one of the games best silent assassins. He’s already talked about focusing on his d this offseason which is great. I doubted he was up to the task after the first couple games in the series but he came back with balls of steel. He just needs to learn how to make his presence felt the whole game vs. sometimes disappearing. Familiarity breeds confidence with Keegan so I think he takes a major leap next year.