Welcome Kevin Huerter
- Thread starter Tetsujin
- Start date
alden.viado
G-League
Dude meant Holiday right
Tetsujin
The Game Thread Dude
Josh Giddey had the double whammy of being bad at shooting and being on a team with both Shai and Lu Dort absolutely warping all the team defensive metrics.
whatever metrics they used apparently hate ball dominant guards because Luka, CP3, Trae Young, and Harden are right there with him (along with Giannis, which makes sense considering he a run protector who avoids taking perimeter shots).
Plus according to this chart and this chart alone, Buddy Hield is better than Lebron and I’m now mad at Monte for not somehow trading Buddy for Bron last offseason.
Tetsujin
The Game Thread Dude
Guys in the positive quadrant. I’m guessing his C&S numbers are skewed because he doesn’t take enough of them and he doesn’t spend enough time guarding the other team’s best player to move further along the axis.
LPKingsFan
All-Star
Important clarification in the Twitter replies:
Seems to be based on match ups, not necessarily outcomes. “Typically” is doing a lot of work here.
Seems to be based on match ups, not necessarily outcomes. “Typically” is doing a lot of work here.
Yeah I saw Giannis down on the bottom left and was like wait a minute....
Barnes in the upper right with Huerter.
My thought as well. And it helps explain where Huerter appears. Of course he took on the tougher defensive matchups when he was in Atlanta. The alternative was having Trae Young defend the best opposing guard.
PorchSurfin
Starter
His footwork is really good. Dude gets set quickly. Why didn't he work in Atl, Bogie?
Kings49ers
Bench
I wouldn’t say he didn’t work, he just never quite took that next step with them that they were expecting. I think he had some injury issues too, or atleast from what I remember although his box scores don’t show any considerable amount of missed time.
I'm pretty sure they overspent at the position and kept adding guys. The Bogi pickup really made no sense at the time. And they added another 2 afterwards I think? Then they were like oh we gotta pay Collins and have been rueing that too. Such a strange thing they have going on there.
Agree. Just too many salaries. Paying $15 million to him and $17 mil to Bogi - when they are playing behind Trae, Dejounte Murray and maybe Hunter = need to dump salary. And they picked up a first round pick doing it.
Huerter is a legitimate staring wing and way better as a secondary creator than most think. This is an example of Monte playing chess, letting Bogi get signed away, and then taking advantage of the salary crunch.
Huerter is a legitimate staring wing and way better as a secondary creator than most think. This is an example of Monte playing chess, letting Bogi get signed away, and then taking advantage of the salary crunch.
Tetsujin
The Game Thread Dude
Yeah, they added Bogi then Rondo then Lou Williams then the year after that they added Delon Wright and then this year they traded for Dejounte Murray.
It's not that Kevin Huerter never worked out for them (he was their best player in stretches of their 2021 playoff run), it's more that their GM just couldn't stop himself from constantly tinkering with his roster and adding expensive guys of similar skill levels.
Adding onto what everyone else said, he was drafted in the same year they took Trae Young. They gave free reign to both guys to do whatever they wanted, but Huerter just never took advantage of that opportunity. He didn't really progress the way they were hoping for, and he hasn't really developed much since his rookie year.
He's still young, but after very little growth in 4 years, the player we see is probably he player we'll get. Maybe + a coupe ppg.
Their salary situation made him very expendable. However, it wasn't a DDV situation where they just gave him away for free. Atlanta got a really good return for him. A Kings 1st round pick could be anywhere from pick 12-19 (assuming it conveys). They didn't see Huerter as their long-term SG, and at the same time, they also thought Bogdan was better.
Kings49ers
Bench
Agree with a lot of it except the very end. I don’t think they believe Bogdan is better. I actually think they greatly regret that signing. He’s older, more expensive, less available and equally as effective as Huerter. Huerter was moved however cause like you stated, he still holds value, enough for the Kings to trade a protected 1st for and not single person bats an eye at the value.
This - if they could have traded Bogi for a first, he’d be gone, not Huerter. Bogie’s injury history + salary made that impossible (plus he’s still recovering from surgery - physical would be a problem). That said, I hope he’s healthy and he could be a good piece off the bench for Atlanta next year.
It was tough for Huerter to make a leap playing next to Trae. One has to play Trae’s way. If the Kings install a motion offense (finally have the players for it), I think Huerter could really pop.
serbiangoat
Starter
It won't be easier with Fox unless he's getting a huge amount of minutes when Fox is resting, Huerter to me is the biggest boom or bust pick up the Kings have made imo he's got way higher expectation than Monk/KZ/new guy, playing with Sabonis should help him a lot but, While I still question the Kings overall talent level they have put offensively a team around Sabonis/Fox with 3 point shooting in Huerter/Barnes/Murray/Monk.
Modern NBA style does not worry too much about what position people play or what number they are. It is common for players to be able to play two different positions. Line-ups are starting to change to fit the opposition.
To me Huerter is a pretty ideal compliment to Fox.
Tyrese and Fox didn't work well together because they were both best with the ball in their hands. Fox and Buddy did work well together (at least on offense) because Buddy was not ball dominant, but Hield was a poor defender and didn't have a great BBIQ.
Huerter offers better defense (especially team defense) and is a good shooter who isn't ball dominant, while offering a higher BBIQ and some secondary playmaking.
I think we'll see Huerter start at the 2 and often slide to the 3 when Monk comes in to spell Murray or Barnes. I'm not sure how he's a boom or bust pickup. The Kings will ask him to play exactly to his strengths.
Not only Fox, but giving Sabonis an elite C&S spacer who can work off ball as well. Anyone who can open up the floor a bit more for Sabonis just enhances his game that much further.
Rob-The-Great
Starter
In the same token, I think buddy would have played great next to sabonis in the same way. If he knew his role and shut his candy ass mouth. But... buddy is buddy.
Never seen a guy go from one of my favs to my most hated in my life. Kenny Is up there
Oh definitely. I was just addressing the idea that Huerter wasn't a good fit with Fox, but he should definitely work well with Sabonis.
If the starting lineup is
Sabonis
Murray
Barnes
Huerter
Fox
There should be a lot of smart ball movement. Sabonis is a great passer for a big and Fox is actually a sneaky good playmaker IMO but the other three guys are just smart players who make the right read and move the ball. Should be fun.
Yeah, I think that unit has very sneaky like top 5-7 offense type of potential. Even the most basic PnR sets with Fox/Sabonis gives defenses a lot to think about. Do you try and play it straight up and stay home on the shooters? Or double and let 2 elite (and one hopeful elite) spacer burn you?
I don't have a ton of hope for the defense, but it should be better naturally with Brown, a full off-season/training camp with everyone playing together. It's hard to build any sort of consistency mid-season when you trade half your team. But I think even just a minor improvement on defense can still get you to the playoffs if the offense pops as it should on paper.
I think what McNair saw this off-season is there really wasn't an avenue to drastically overhaul the defense so he double/triple down on improving the offense/shooting with excellent fits next to Fox/Sabonis
