Who will lead the Sacramento Kings in scoring this season?

With training camp creeping closer, the Sacramento Kings still have one problem. To be fair, the Kings have plenty of problems. But a big one is who will lead the team in scoring this upcoming season?

Not having a go-to scorer on your team can make running an offense incredibly difficult. While it is always great to have multiple players scoring in the double-digits, it is not great when no one is averaging more than fifteen points a game. Which was the case with the Kings last season. So, who will be Sacramento’s top scorer this season?

Buddy Hield

Buddy was the team’s second-leading scorer last season at 13.5 points per game. Because of that, coupled with his elite three-point shooting ability, he is the logical choice to be the Kings’ top guy this year.

Hield’s ability to score from all over the court is what gives him the edge over everyone else. Last season he shot 44.6% from the field and a ridiculous 43.1% from three. That last number, put him above Stephen Curry AND Kevin Durant last season.

Not only can Buddy shoot, but he also nailed 87.7% of his free throws. The Curry comparison by team owner Vivek Ranadive may be slightly lofty, but there is no reason Buddy cannot develop into a twenty-point per game scorer and one of the NBA’s preeminent sharpshooters.

If you are still a bit unsure, check out this tweet from BBallIndex on Twitter.

According to their model, Hield posses a three-point shot on the same level as the NBA’s best, with plus off-the-ball movement and slightly above average playmaking. It sure seems like Hield is headed in the right direction developmentally.

De’Aaron Fox

Last season, Fox was only the Kings’ fifth-leading scorer at 11.6 points per game. Not only that, but his shooting splits are not pretty either as he shot 41.2% from the floor, 30.7% from three, and 72.3% from the free-throw line.

So why is he here? One thing: opportunity. Fox is not the Kings’ best or most efficient scorer, but he is the starting point guard for an extremely young team. Add that onto being a high draft pick, and he is going to have ample opportunities to score this year.

Even if he ups his shooting percentages by, say five percent, his scoring average jumps up to at least thirteen points per game. Fox will certainly have his shot to lead Sacramento in scoring, the only question is if he can?

The Field

Everyone else on the Kings? Yeah, let us just lump them into one category. The favorite here would be Zach Randolph, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Willie Cauley-Stein, and Marvin Bagley III.

Let us start with Z-Bo. Last season he led Sacramento in scoring at 14.5 points per game. So why is he not the number one? The answer is Marvin Bagley III. With the Kings’ new prized rookie projected to eat most of Randolph’s minutes, it does not give many opportunities for Zach to score much, barring injury of course.

Bogdan Bogdanovic is another option, but it is worth wondering whether he will ever be more than a 15-points per game scorer. Bogi is a solid player for the Kings, but he is not a superstar, in my opinion. He likely will never ever be a superstar, but that is not a big deal. Bogdanovic is a good shooter who does a little of everything, and that is just what Sacramento needs from him.

Cauley-Stein averaged over 12 points last season, but his inconsistency makes it hard to buy stock in him. If Cauley-Stein puts together a solid season in a contract year, he has the potential to score upwards of 15 a game. Maybe even average a double-double in the right circumstance, but that is another article for another week.

Lastly, that leaves us with Marvin Bagley. Bagley has the potential to score 20 points a night. He is also a rookie and it is reckless to assume he is going to come in and light it up enough to lead the Kings in scoring, though he is certainly not lacking in MVP confidence. If Utah’s Donovan Mitchell could ONLY pour in 20.5 points last season, it is difficult to see Bagley outdoing that.

All stats from NBA.com unless otherwise noted.