Looking at George Karl’s rotation after two games

George Karl has been head coach of the Sacramento Kings for just two games and a handful of practices. Is it too early to look at how the Kings have changed since his arrival?

Yes, of course, but Karl has made a few minor tweaks in the rotation that have already piqued my interest, and I think they’re worth talking about.

In his first game against the Boston Celtics, Karl opted to start Carl Landry at power forward in place of Jason Thompson. Landry would play five first quarter minutes and never see the court again. It was a strange move, and very typical of Jason Thompson’s career. Seventh coach in seven seasons, and another opportunity for a head coach to send him to the bench.

I’m not criticizing Karl here. Jason Thompson is better served as a bench combo forward / center, the Kings just don’t have a power forward talented enough to remove him from the starting unit. We’ve been down this road before with Thompson many times. It took Karl just one game to realize that Thompson is the best power forward on this roster, as Jason was back in the starting lineup when the Kings played the Clippers the following night.

For two straight games, Karl has used Omri Casspi in a backup shooting guard role, playing Casspi, Rudy Gay, and Derrick Williams at the same time. That lineup has produced mixed results, but Karl is playing Casspi a lot of minutes, and that is a strategy I can really get behind.

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In two games under Karl, Casspi has played 31 minutes and 28 minutes, good for two of his top three ‘off the bench’ minute totals this season. He’s been the Kings best bench contributor all year (that isn’t saying much) and it’s nice to see Karl’s quick recognition of that.

Darren Collison is still recovering from a strained abdominal/hip, so it’s hard to say how the point guard rotation will change once he’s healthy. Karl has been relying heavily on Andre Miller, particularly when the Kings offense goes into a funk. Ray McCallum has played well in Collison’s absence, but I think McCallum is going to be the odd man out once Collison returns to the lineup.

Nik Stauskas received a DNP-CD in Karl’s first game as head coach against Boston. I found this somewhat interesting only because Karl had mentioned the need to find Stauskas consistent minutes. Nik played 14 minutes against the Clippers, but that felt more like garbage time minutes than anything else. It’ll be very interesting to see how Karl uses Stauskas moving forward.

Friday nights 109-101 win over the Boston Celtics felt like a much better gauge of what George Karl wants this rotation to look like. Outside of Landry’s five minute stint as the teams starting power forward, Karl used a tight eight man rotation that mixed the starters and bench players, unlike the complete ‘line shifts’ we’ve seen at various times under both Michael Malone and Tyrone Corbin.

It’s early, but that is an encouraging sign.

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