Sacramento Kings: Breaking down the Kings’ three best five-man lineups in 2018-19

1. Corey Brewer – Bogan Bogdanovic – Yogi Ferrell – Harry Giles – Marvin Bagley

30 Minutes – 127 Offensive Rating – 98.5 Defensive Rating – Plus-28.5 Net Rating

Admittedly, Corey Brewer and Yogi Ferrell aren’t he reason this lineup is so good, but it’s nonetheless surprising that the Kings’ best five-man lineup features Brewer and Ferrell — two players that rarely played more than 15 minutes.

Still, in six games — two wins and four losses — this lineup posted the highest net rating of all five-man lineups to play at least 30 minutes, thanks in part to a phenomenal 127 offensive rating. It’s also noteworthy that of the three lineups featured, this one had the slowest pace at 104.52, which would’ve ranked 13th in the NBA.

While it’s not likely this lineup will get significant run next season, the quartet of Bogdanovic, Bagley, Ferrell and Giles are all under contract for next season and Brewer has signaled a desire to return to Sacramento next season.

The biggest reason for this lineups success likely lies with the play down the stretch of Bagley and Giles, who went from an unplayable duo to one of the Kings’ best after the All-Star Break. In 127 minutes after the ASB, the Bagley-Giles duo posted a plus-5.6 net rating — higher than the net rating of any other pairs in this lineup.

Should Bogdanovic return to form and Corey Brewer just return next season, this could be a very good change-of-pace lineup for the Sacramento Kings in 2019-20 — even if Bagley plays more with the starters.

2. De’Aaron Fox – Buddy Hield – Harrison Barnes – Marvin Bagley – Willie Cauley-Stein

88 Minutes – 103.9 Offensive Rating – 98.6 Defensive Rating – Plus-5.3 Net Rating

This lineup features the core-four of the Sacramento Kings going forward and it also happens to be the starting lineup the Kings ran after acquiring Harrison Barnes at the deadline. In short: this bodes well for future success.

While we don’t know if Luke Walton (or another coach should he be removed following the results NBA’s joint investigation into him with the Kings) will utilize the same or similar lineups that former-Head Coach Dave Joerger did, but whoever’s at the helm should make note of this one.

Willie Cauley-Stein’s future with the Kings may be cloudy, but the real reason this lineup is it’s balance. The lineup features an assist percentage of 60.3%, a defensive rebounding percentage of 81.1% (!), a 53.3% true shooting percentage and a blistering pace of 114.44.

The best part is that swapping Cauley-Stein with a more defense-minded center would boost this lineups production exponentially while also likely boosting the groups efficiency as Barnes came over as Cauley-Stein’s production was dropping dramatically.

In fact, you can already see that if you swap Cauley-Stein with Harry Giles in this lineup. While that five-man grouping only played 24 minutes, they posted a net rating of plus-6.5 while also posting a TS% of 57% and a 108.2 offensive rating.

Giles may not be ready for a starting role by the time the 2019-20 season rolls around, but it’s good to know that running out those four will likely find success so long as an average to above-average Center is running the floor with them.

3. De’Aaron Fox – Buddy Hield – Bogdan Bogdanovic – Nemanja Bjelica – Willie Cauley-Stein

150 Minutes – 108.4 Offensive Rating- 106.8 Defensive Rating- Plus-1.6 Net Rating

This is the final five-man lineup with a positive net rating and it’s a pretty surprising one at that. Fox and Hield aren’t surprising, but Bogdanovic and Cauley-Stein struggled mightily at times this season — as did Nemanja Bjelica as the season wound down.

Still, in 150 minutes of play over 25 games, this lineup ended with a positive rating in substantial play time with a lineup that will likely return four of the five players listed.

None of this lineups metrics really pop, but their solid efficiency (54.8 TS%) and low(er) turnover percentage (10.4%) buoyed a lineup that features two players in Cauley-Stein and Bogdanovic that struggled with efficiency for most of the season. Though the Hield-Fox-Cauley-Stein trio was the Kings’ most utilized this season and finished with a plus-2.4 net rating in 1,642 minutes which helped this lineup be among the Kings’ best five-man groupings.

As we head into the start of next season, we’re likely to see much more of the Bogdanovic-Hield-Fox-Bjelica quartet as this likely would’ve been the team’s starting lineup had Bogdanovic not suffered an offseason knee injury that kept him out for the season’s first few weeks.

Unlike the previous lineup, however, this lineup’s production drops off a cliff when Cauley-Stein is subbed out, with the Fox-Hield-Bogdanovic-Bagley-Bjelica five-man posting an abysmal minus-42.8 net rating in 19 minutes this season.

Heading into next season though, it’s unlikely this lineup will see as much play time as it did as it’s likely the team will use Bogdanovic and Bjelica off the bench and look to stagger Fox and Bogi’s minutes in order to avoid the black hole that was the backup point guard position this season.

All lineup stats from NBA.com unless otherwise noted