Recent Sacramento Kings acquisitions, George Hill and Zach Randolph, have been getting the Kings killed by analysts. Read more to see why they are wrong.
The Sacramento Kings signed free agents George Hill and Zach Randolph to be players who offer veteran leadership and effective on-the-court performance.
Free agent George Hill has reached agreement on a three-year, $57M deal with the Sacramento Kings, league sources tell The Vertical.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 4, 2017
Free agent Zach Randolph has agreed to a two-year, $24M deal with the Kings, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 4, 2017
The Sacramento Kings have recently drafted two point guards in De’Aaron Fox and Frank Mason and also have found promising big men in Skal Labissiere, Willie Cauley-Stein, Georgios Papagiannis, and the recently drafted Harry Giles. This lead fans and analysts to believe the Kings would let the young men play out the season on their own. However, Sacramento had different plans.
Although many analysts and fans are disappointed with the recent signings, George Hill and Zach Randolph are quite the perfect players for Sacramento. They were anxious to see a 19-year-old point guard receive the keys to a rebuilding franchise right off the bat, but this is obviously now being postponed with Hill in the fold.
Do you think the Kings, right now, have the young core of a solid playoff team someday? They don't. Just killed best chance to add to it.
— Nate Duncan (@NateDuncanNBA) July 4, 2017
Starting Hill may seem like a bad thing, but it is quite the contrary. Being thrown into the fire that is the NBA is not always rewarding.
As a prime example, look no further than former Sacramento King Ben McLemore. The Kings decided to start him early in his career and the results were not pretty. McLemore’s career was terribly damaged and he has yet to bounce back. Putting all your eggs in one basket, which happens to be a 19-year-old rookie, is very risky. It seems Sacramento is finally learning from their prior mistakes.
George Hill
For Sacramento, George Hill was the perfect point guard free agent. He does not demand the ball and is a great leader who will help out Fox. Not that it is a good thing, but Hill has had a track record of being very injury prone. An injury would give Fox some starting experience. If things do not ultimately work out for Hill and Sacramento, his contract his very movable and he still has decent value in the NBA.
Zach Randolph
As for Randolph, he is another role model for this young Kings team. Z-Bo once had a reputation of a player that is hard to work with, but he transformed into a stellar teammate and mentor in Memphis.
Randolph has been a great player to have on and off the court. He is a multiple time All-Star under, and now has experience playing for now Sacramento head coach, Dave Joerger. Joerger and Randolph have a great relationship and that could be a huge advantage to the signing. Randolph brings a physical toughness and grit to a young Kings team who could really use it.
Final Thoughts:
Sacramento has been wrongly slandered for these recent signings. Both players are on good contracts and can contribute to the team in numerous ways. To also address the argument that the Kings should have decided to tank next season, fans fail to understand Hill and Randolph are not impact players.
Next: Sacramento Kings projected 2017-2018 depth chart
The argument that not many teams are trying to tank next season is false. Teams like Atlanta, Orlando, and Indiana are still in the mix. Sacramento has also shown a strong resistance against tanking. With their current team, Sacramento would not be able to make a playoff push if they wanted to. The Western Conference has recently become more competitive and Sacramento will likely end up with a high lottery pick anyway.