worldK wrote:Cam, i have not followed the kings much at all last year.
My question to you is if hield is the better player, how come he only play 25mins a night on a crappy kings team that is devoid of talent? Wiggins probably automatically play 35mins a night for that kings team when hield can only play 25min.
Per 36 is a tricky stat cam. I know we are dealing with vlade and the kings. But if hield is the better player as you claim, then why will the kings trade him and get stuck with 2 bad contracts?
Both are excellent questions, world, and I know for a fact that Kings fans are wondering the same thing in regards to your first question. I've been on Reddit and Twitter enough to see a number of discussions on that very topic.
The only sensible reason that I can come up with is that Dave Joerger wanted to force Hield into a more ball dominant role coming off the bench and try to balance his starting lineup with offense/defense and youth/veterans. Hield actually started for the Kings for a handful of games to begin the season, but was replaced by Garrett Temple for much of the year. My assumption for this is that Temple's defense and veteran savvy, both of which are highly-touted by those that cover the Kings, was a more logical fit next to a young De'Aaron Fox in the backcourt.
The good news is that Hield led the Kings to having the highest scoring bench in the NBA with 44.4 points per game. As a reserve, Hield was scoring 13.6 of those, or roughly 30.1% of the total bench production. He started 18 of 25 games with Sacramento in 2016-17 and had a USG% of 22.9; in 2017-18 he predominantly came off the bench, but posted a USG% of 24.3. So, what all this tells me is that Joerger just wanted to try and find a way to get Hield more opportunities to control the ball while also supporting his talented rookie point guard.
And while Per 36 is a stat that has its flaws, it is useful when comparing players that both played a significant amount of minutes. The stat is most skewed when a player that plays 15 MPG or less is compared side by side to a starter playing 30+ MPG. This is not one of those cases, however, so I wouldn't throw the comparison away.
And besides the Kings being the Kings, aka poor management and ownership, they have shown indications recently of going after high upside players. We saw them draft Harry Giles at No. 20 in the 2017 NBA Draft after he was ESPN's No. 1 HS player in 2016. They also just offered Zach LaVine an $80M offer sheet. The latter of these moves is significant to me and it says that the Kings are swinging for the fences. Wiggins' perceived ceiling is among the highest of all players under 25-years old. I could see Sacramento having interest in that potential and ignoring what they currently have on their roster.
