Royal Roundtable: Sacramento Kings’ Defensive Player of the Year
By Rafe Wong
Who was the best defensive player for the Sacramento Kings this season? The A Royal Pain (ARP) squad gives their intake on the subject.
The A Royal Pain team is back with its Royal Roundtable discussion. If you are new to the site or need a refresher, these articles start off with a topic that pertains with the Sacramento Kings.
The members of ARP then give their insights on the topic and can choose to debate with other members throughout the discussion. So without wasting any more time, here is the topic that was selected for this discussion and the responses that were given by the ARP team.
TOPIC:
For the 2016-2017 season, which player on the Sacramento Kings was the most efficient on the defensive side of the ball?
RESPONSES:
Rafe (@rafnation): I think the clear winner for this topic is Garrett Temple. The Kings struggled immensely on the defensive end this season, but Temple was a bright speckle in the mess. Not only was he able to be active and aggressive against players at his position, but he also was able to take on other positions as well. So because he was able to display versatility, and more importantly, motivation on the defensive side of the court is why I think Temple was the best defender for the Sacramento Kings this season.
Jonathan (@jonrxxiii): I would definitely agree with you here. I think Temple really gave it his all on the defensive side night in and night out. His willingness to come in and take on the other team’s hot player was huge for that second unit during the season. I also think his ability to defend multiple positions helped him show his worth defensively.
Michael (@dugger_fern): No debate from me on this one. Temple has the versatility to guard at least three positions and can hold his own when switched on point guards. He led the team in steals as well averaging 1.29 steals per game (only behind Rudy Gay and DeMarcus Cousins). Temple remains to be an underrated player for this Kings team, but his defense stood out this season. I would have made a case for Willie Cauley-Stein based on his post-All-Star production, but the lack of minutes in the first half takes him out of the running. He led the team in blocks, defensive rebounds, and was second in steals after the Boogie trade.
Rafe: It looks like we all agree that Temple is the consensus winner for this topic. But I think it’s fair to give honorable mentions to Willie Cauley-Stein, like you mentioned, Michael, and Kosta Koufos. Both players were bright spots to a Kings’ defense that struggled this season but in different ways.
For WCS, he was able to protect the rim in a solid manner while being able to be a versatile defender. When opponents would try to create switches on the Kings, it wasn’t much of a problem if Cauley-Stein was on the floor. In the case for Kosta, he was more of a bruiser in the interior. Big men from the opposition would have trouble at times whenever they had to go up against #41.
Jonathan: I think another honorable mention should go to Skal. While he only played 33 games he had one of the best defensive ratings on the team at 107.2 (sad I know). He placed better than the trio of Temple (109.7), WCS (108.8), and Koufus (107.7). While defensive metrics don’t always show the whole story, they paint a pretty clear picture and I think given a full season, Skal will be in the discussion next season.