Point Guard Search: Mario Chalmers
By Rafe Wong
The Sacramento Kings enter this upcoming season with a trio of point guards in Darren Collison, Ty Lawson, and Isaiah Cousins. With that being said, should the purple and white add another facilitator to their team? In this article, A Royal Pain continues its series on analyzing current free agent point guards that could be potential fits.
Player: Mario Chalmers
Height: 6’2” Weight: 190 lbs
During his 8-year NBA career (580 games), Mario Chalmers has averaged 9 points, 3.8 assists, and 2.5 rebounds per games. Chalmers has also started 390 of those games and earned two NBA Championship rings with the Miami Heat.
In his most recent season with the Miami Heat and Memphis Grizzlies, Chalmers averaged 10.3 points, 3.8 assists, and 2.6 rebounds per contest.
Listed down below are highlights of Chalmers from last season.
What Does Chalmers Bring?
If the Sacramento Kings decide to sign Chalmers for this season it would add variety to the point guard position. There isn’t any part of Chalmers’s game where he is a savant at, but he can provide production in multiple ways.
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Last season with both the Heat and Grizzlies, Chalmers shot 41% from the floor which is around his career percentage of 42.1%, but in the case of his perimeter shooting he suffered a dramatic drop.
Chalmers in his career has been a solid shooter from beyond the arc, recording a career percentage of 35.8%. But last season he faced inconsistency which resulted in a sub-par 30.9% from the perimeter.
In recent years, Chalmers has struggled in his perimeter shooting. He may be more of a slasher to the basket than a shooter in this time of his career.
In terms of distributing, Chalmers was able to average 3.8 assists while averaging 22.5 minutes of play which is solid. For a player that played a backup role mostly last season, he still was able to record 7 or more assists in 8 of his games.
Defensively, Chalmers showed some efficiency as well. Last season he recorded a defensive rating of 100.8 and averaged 1.4 steals per game, which is around his career average of 1.5.
Chalmers is nowhere from elite on the defensive side of the ball, but he can potentially help in the perimeter defense.
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The Kings were the worst team last season in points allowed per game, and based on what Chalmers did last year defensively, he should be able to contribute in a positive manner. I mean, it can’t get worse, right?
Summary
If the Kings were to add Chalmers to the roster, it would be a sneaky good signing, in my opinion. That is if he signs a minimum veteran contract.
Chalmers’s best days are behind of him at the moment, but the guy can still play at an effective level based off what he did last year. Chalmers also played with the Grizzlies last season, where the Kings’ current head coach Dave Joerger was at as well.
The familiarity between the two could help spark some chemistry right off the bat. It could also help other players get acclimated with Joerger’s style of play by having a guy that has played under Joerger be a mentor.
Bottom line, if the Kings decide to sign Chalmers it be a good signing. He is a player that brings versatility and experience to a team that can definitely use some of that.