We grade the performances by the Sacramento Kings bench unit in Friday’s victory over the Utah Jazz
There have been struggles for nearly every player on the Sacramento Kings roster so far this season, and especially for the guys coming off of the bench. The team has not gotten a lot of production from their second unit, and their go-to option has been anything but.
But things might be turning for the Kings bench, evidenced by their mostly-solid play and contributions in Friday night’s victory over the Utah Jazz. Head coach Luke Walton opted to have both Bogdan Bogdanovic and Dewayne Dedmon in the lineup during crunch time, which is a huge vote of confidence for both, given their struggles through the first five games.
Here are the grades from Friday’s game for the four members of the second unit.
Had Dedmon shot the ball better and limited his personal fouls, he would have received an A.
It could be because of recency bias, or the fact that Dedmon performed so poorly in the first five contests, but any production out of him would be considered a victory. But the man played his tail off, and hit arguably the biggest shot of the night for the Kings.
He had a couple of emphatic dunks at the expense of Rudy Gobert, and pulled down seven rebounds and blocked two shots. Dedmon limited his turnovers, giving up the ball just once after averaging nearly three per contest in the previous games.
Dedmon’s performance bodes well for the team, giving the Kings a much-needed spark off of the bench and providing Walton with a (possibly) reliable option behind Richaun Holmes.
Bogdanovic gave the Kings exactly what they needed and expected out of him.
The second unit needs a go-to guy off the bench, and the lack of one has been one of the reasons that Sacramento has been unsuccessful this year. In Friday’s game, Bogdanovic shot 5/8 from the floor and 3/6 from deep, exercising the shooting demons that have followed him through the first five games.
The shots he hit were big ones, keeping the Kings in the game late in the third quarter when the starters were getting a breather. Bogdanovic needs to regain the form that we saw him display in the FIBA World Cup in order for Sacramento to pull themselves out of the hole they’ve dug for themselves.
Friday’s performance from Trevor Ariza was a curious one. He played 32 minutes, second only to De’Aaron Fox, yet did not record a single shot attempt. He had five rebounds and an assist, recorded no turnovers and committed just one personal foul.
Ariza was one of the first players that Walton mentioned in his postgame press conference, alluding to the fact that he was shifting Ariza defensively to whoever had the hot hand for Utah, which proved to be effective for the Kings.
Of course, you’d like to see some production in the scoring column for someone who plays 32 minutes. But Sacramento didn’t sign Ariza to be a scorer. Instead, they signed him to provide veteran leadership and presence as well as his defensive abilities, the two things that he displayed most in the game against the Jazz.
Cory Joseph played by far the least amount of minutes of anyone on the team. In fact, his 11 minutes was the only total lower than 20 for the game.
He didn’t do much with his playing time. Joseph had a nice layup and-1 in the second quarter, but that lone made basket was sandwiched between his five missed shots, two turnovers, and goose eggs in all other statistical categories.
Walton subbed Joseph in for the Jazz’ final possession for defensive purposes, who mirrored Joe Ingles who never saw the ball.
Joseph has been underwhelming so far this season, averaging 5.5 points on just 38.7% from the field.