Sacramento Kings Report Card: Langston Galloway
By Rafe Wong
This article is part of a series that A Royal Pain is writing where we grade each player on the Sacramento Kings individually.
For this article specifically, we will evaluate the performance of Langston Galloway. We will grade Galloway based on his offensive, defensive, and overall performances since becoming a King.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: For this series, the players on the Kings will be graded on a curve, meaning that the grades handed out to each player say more about their ranking on the team rather than their actual performance grade.
Offense: Grade C-
During Galloway’s tenure for the Kings this season, he showcased flashes of being an excellent shooter. In the 19 games he played wearing purple, Galloway was able to shoot 40.4% from the floor, an outstanding 47.5% from the perimeter, and 91.7% from the free-throw line. The only knock someone can say about Galloway’s shooting is that his overall field-goal percentage is a bit low and that his sample size is too small to definitely say he’s a sharpshooter from the three-point line.
Although Galloway showed he can make shots at a high rate, the reason why he deserves an average offensive grade is because all he did was shoot the ball.
For a player that is placed in that combo-guard role for his team, it was expected that Galloway would display more efficiency as a distributor, but that was not the case as he averaged just 1.5 assists per contest.
Also, when the season was all said and done, Galloway was ranked dead last on the Kings in offensive efficiency with a rating of 98.9 (per Basketball RealGM).
Defense: Grade D
On the defensive side of the ball, Galloway was no better than he was on offense. As a result of his poor defensive play, Galloway was ranked last out of his teammate in defensive efficiency with a rating of 117.2 (per Basketball RealGM). Although he showed effort defensively, there were many times where Galloway played a role in the struggles that the perimeter defense experienced for Sacramento this season.
Final Thoughts
Galloway did have some bright spots during his time with the Kings. Performances that stood out were his 15-point game against the Dallas Mavericks and the time when he scored 17 points in just 15 minutes when he played against the Minnesota Timberwolves. But overall, Langston just wasn’t a very good player for the Kings this season.
To be fair, Galloway didn’t receive significant playing time until the very late stages of the season. But based on his seasonal numbers and the eye test, it showed that Galloway mostly contributed to the team with his ability to shoot the basketball.