Mike Brown says Keon Ellis in Kings starting unit to start camp

[sactowndog]

Malik essentially WAS the Kings bench last season. When he didn't have it going the 2nd unit REALLY struggled. Monk scored nearly half the Kings' bench points last season and nobody else even averaged double digit points - Lyles was the next highest scorer at 7.2 ppg. Nobody else even averaged 6 ppg. Even with Huerter potentially playing a reserver role, moving Keon to the bench so Monk could start would make a weak point even weaker. I just don't think the gains outweigh the downside.

I think the right way to view this is that Mike Brown knows Malik's scoring and playmaking are too invaluable to the bench unit to move him into a starting lineup that already has plenty of both. Not to mention, Monk will very likely finish most games he plays in.

more importantly he will get more shots not sharing the ball with Fox and DDR

 

[Double-K]

Keep in mind that there's an explicit acknowledgment here that Huerter is hurt - so there's no guarantee that when Kevin is back that Keon won't get pushed back and come off the bench.

I'd be shocked if Huerter is even ahead of the packing order of Malik from the bench. But then again, it might be that Huerter will be shifted more to the 3 as DDR's back up?

 

[funkykingston]

I'd be shocked if Huerter is even ahead of the packing order of Malik from the bench. But then again, it might be that Huerter will be shifted more to the 3 as DDR's back up?

I think the likely 9 man rotation is a starting five of Fox, Ellis, DeRozan, Murray, and Sabonis with Monk, Huerter, Lyles and Len getting all the reserve minutes.

 

[SacTownKid]

https://twitter.com/statuses/1841206049631846750

Sounds about right, haha. Can't blame him though, the 5 mans say that the typical starting unit is still the best.