Keon Tyrese Ellis

Should the Kings start Keon Ellis?

  • Yes

  • No

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upinsmoke said:
Defense is hard to measure in stats but my eyes told me we were still weak on that end.
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Defense doesn’t mean anything if you can’t put the ball in the basket at the other end. You need balance. Keon definetly brings balance. Usually you don’t get a player that does both. If they did they would have $120 mil contracts. We have defensive players but they can’t produce on offense.
 
Jdbraver137 said:
Defense doesn’t mean anything if you can’t put the ball in the basket at the other end. You need balance. Keon definetly brings balance. Usually you don’t get a player that does both. If they did they would have $120 mil contracts. We have defensive players but they can’t produce on offense.
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You might be surprised by what Keon does on offense this season. He is capable of more....and will be settling in and getting more comfortable
 
ShastaKingsFan said:
You might be surprised by what Keon does on offense this season. He is capable of more....and will be settling in and getting more comfortable
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And he's had an interesting role since last season. He started off playing PG/backup PG filling in for Fox. As the season moved on he slid more into that true combo G role and even played with Fox and Monk in a G unit here and there.
 
SacTownKid said:
Actually IIRC they climbed to that. I think they were actually number 1 in the league in the last stretch of games which shows how crazy the climb was when Len, Davion, and Keon jumped up.
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I think we will get a better understanding whether Ellis in the starting unit for a whole season will be the makings of a improved defense, of course, Monte needs to make another move or two to bring in additional defenders so it may be safer to hold back on further judgment since we only have a small sample size to work with. One additional note, as long as Sabonis is here, the rim protection will be non-existent so the point of attack defense needs to be top notch if the Kings want to sniff top 10 territory.
 
iowamcnabb said:
It seems like many in Kings media are starting to believe KVon will start this year (not that they necessarily agree just what they are sensing) it seems like the the consensus on this board is Keon should start. I understand we stagger players and starting doesn’t mean playing big minutes but we are going to need a low usage defensive ace in our starting lineup.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1828086811161215314
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You can make an entire highlight clip just of Keon's stops/strips/blocks on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Desmond Bane alone.

The block on Bane at the basket where Keon stares him down afterward is just, *chef kiss*. But my favorite is when Keon blocked him at the three point line after Bane bumped him to clear space and Ellis STILL stuffed him.

Edit: This play right here at just around the 3:30 mark.
 
Last edited:
I hope Huerter of the year we won 48 games is the one we have this coming year. A healthy productive version will do wonders for our spacing and will help us steam roll over other teams.
I would love to see Kevin starting and working with perfection on offense. 20 plus minutes of Huerter and Ellis and see who we use in crunch time.
Decent beginning of the season should decide which way we go.
 
I would be surprised to see Huerter start. We have enough offensive firepower, especially after adding DD. Feels like Keon would be a perfect fit and I feel like he earned the spot. Lockdown defender that can shoot the 3. have Kevin provide shooting off the bench.
 
I don’t think it’s a big deal who starts between Huerter and Ellis. I think both guys will be around 20 mins per game, maybe a little more while Carter is out. I expect Monk to be closing games and playing closer to 30mpg.
 
Huerter over Keon would be a massive mistake with the context of us adding DDR to the starting lineup. I still massively believe in Huerter as a starting caliber player, but he struggled with a reduced role last season and that's just with an uptick in USG from Keegan and Monk. Now, you're adding a primary 25%+ USG guy into the fold. Even if DDR really embraces being a playmaker and is around 22%, that's still a massive USG guy we're trying to insert into the offense.

I believe Keon is a an All-Defensive team guy in a 27+MPG role next season. But that value just gets lost if he's not spending most of his time guarding the Steph/Booker/Dame/Ant type guys.

I also think Huerter could be in contention for a 6MOY off the bench where he's a primary scoring option and gets more shot opportunities than he did as a 4th/5th option with the starters. Just would be silly roster balance to do this.
 
The_Jamal said:
Huerter over Keon would be a massive mistake with the context of us adding DDR to the starting lineup. I still massively believe in Huerter as a starting caliber player, but he struggled with a reduced role last season and that's just with an uptick in USG from Keegan and Monk. Now, you're adding a primary 25%+ USG guy into the fold. Even if DDR really embraces being a playmaker and is around 22%, that's still a massive USG guy we're trying to insert into the offense.

I believe Keon is a an All-Defensive team guy in a 27+MPG role next season. But that value just gets lost if he's not spending most of his time guarding the Steph/Booker/Dame/Ant type guys.

I also think Huerter could be in contention for a 6MOY off the bench where he's a primary scoring option and gets more shot opportunities than he did as a 4th/5th option with the starters. Just would be silly roster balance to do this.
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+1

One additional benefit of Huerter off the bench is that he's a more natural fit to take the backup SF minutes behind DeRozan than Keon is.

I'd like to see Ellis with the starters, Len and Lyles getting the backup C & PF minutes and Monk and Huerter splitting the backup 1-3 minutes. That's a solid 9 man rotation.

As a note, I think anything Devin Carter provides this year will be a bonus. Outside of injury I don't expect him to crack the rotation after missing all of training camp and possibly 1/3 to 1/2 of the regular season.
 
funkykingston said:
One additional benefit of Huerter off the bench is that he's a more natural fit to take the backup SF minutes behind DeRozan than Keon is.
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In fact, he may be the *only* natural fit at backup SF given this roster. Keegan is starting. Keon is a G, so we'd be running a three-guard lineup. Colby is pretty G-ish, and doesn't seem to be a ready option for backup minutes. Crawford on a 2-way is not remotely on the docket here. McDaniels played mostly PF last year and feels like a PF, but he has played 56% SF/41% PF over his career according to BBRef, so maybe he's an option there. But really, nobody seems to be remotely close to Huerter in terms of fitting the backup SF best, as long as he's not starting.
 
Capt. Factorial said:
In fact, he may be the *only* natural fit at backup SF given this roster. Keegan is starting. Keon is a G, so we'd be running a three-guard lineup. Colby is pretty G-ish, and doesn't seem to be a ready option for backup minutes. Crawford on a 2-way is not remotely on the docket here. McDaniels played mostly PF last year and feels like a PF, but he has played 56% SF/41% PF over his career according to BBRef, so maybe he's an option there. But really, nobody seems to be remotely close to Huerter in terms of fitting the backup SF best, as long as he's not starting.
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Also importantly with Fox, DDR, Keegan and Sabonis I’m not sure Huerter or Malik get enough shots which is their forte. If Ellis plays defense and gets only 2-3 C&S 3 ala Micheal Cooper he is fine. But that is not Keegan or Malik’s game.
 
I still prefer Huerter as a starter, solely because I'm not yet confident about Ellis' percentages as an outside shooter. Ellis made an improvement to be adequete as a shooter during his run last year, but I think he still has to prove that he can maintain that efficiency.
 
Insomniacal Fan said:
I still prefer Huerter as a starter, solely because I'm not yet confident about Ellis' percentages as an outside shooter. Ellis made an improvement to be adequete as a shooter during his run last year, but I think he still has to prove that he can maintain that efficiency.
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his shooting over the last 4 years:

38 percent on low volume jr year
36.6 on high volume senior year
44 percent in G league on 5 attempts a game
41 percent last year for us.

combine that with the reports of him often leading or coming in second in shooting drills and I have confidence he is a shooter. Plus, he will likely be just catching and shooting and will be the 5th option on most nights when he is on the floor.
 
iowamcnabb said:
his shooting over the last 4 years:

38 percent on low volume jr year
36.6 on high volume senior year
44 percent in G league on 5 attempts a game
41 percent last year for us.

combine that with the reports of him often leading or coming in second in shooting drills and I have confidence he is a shooter. Plus, he will likely be just catching and shooting and will be the 5th option on most nights when he is on the floor.
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One thing Keon isn't, that Huerter is - a movement shooter. This is largely just due to Keon's funky (but effective) shot mechanics.

For the Kings offense of the last two seasons, it was a big deal to have two starters (Kevin & Keegan) that could both play off Sabonis in DHOs, running off staggered screens etc.

But with the addition of DeMar, the offense is presumably going to run less through Sabonis as both Fox and DeRozan are primarily on ball attackers who get the majority of their assists by drawing double teams and either dumping off for easy looks inside or kicking out for catch-and-shoot threes. And Ellis (at least by the numbers) is slightly better than Huerter on catch and shoot opportunities.

I've repeatedly said that I think Ellis is a better fit with the four guys who will definitely start if healthy (Sabonis, Murray, DeRozan, Fox) but I ALSO think Huerter can be a huge weapon off the bench. Especially if Brown staggers the minutes to get Huerter a lot of time with Sabonis.

This gives you a low usage 3&D guy in the starting lineup who does all the things you need (great POA defense, great help defense, moves the ball well on offense and knocks down open shots) and also gives you lots of bench scoring between Monk, Huerter, and Lyles. Last season when Monk didn't have a great night, the bench as a whole struggled. I think additional bench scoring was a bigger need than most people realize.
 
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