The Kings have made a shakeup in their starting lineup, as Bogdan Bogdanovic will start in place of Buddy Hield in tonight’s contest.
As first reported by Jason Jones of The Athletic, Buddy Hield will be coming off of the bench in tonight’s game between the Sacramento Kings and Chicago Bulls. Bogdan Bogdanovic will instead make his first start of the season.
While the shakeup is certainly news coming from the franchise, this particular move has been rumored and called for for weeks now. Hield has endured quite the regression during the Kings current losing skid, and his decision-making and defense have been questioned throughout the season.
Bogdanovic is far better in both of those categories than Hield is, especially with the decision making. There are few players that can be trusted with the ball in his hands more than Bogdanovic, and inserting him in the starting lineup is worth a shot with the Kings having lost 15 of their last 18 games.
One of the obvious issues with this decision is the happiness of Buddy Hield.
Hield is one of the more vocal players on the Kings, especially in postgame interviews and when speaking to the media in general. There have already been multiple instances this season of Hield’s questionable comments getting out to the media, and fans are well aware of his seemingly short temperament.
One of the issues that Hield had with the coaching staff was his benching down the stretch in certain games in which he struggles. Making him come off of the bench for the first time in almost two full calendar years likely will not sit well with him and his camp.
But the Kings are in desperate need of some kind of change. Aside from the frontcourt injuries, which are a different issue altogether, Sacramento is healthier than they have been in recent memory. Yet, they are still losing games with alarming regularity. A team this talented should not perform this poorly.
The move might be the first of many for the Kings in “Evaluation Mode” as they head for the home stretch of the season. Their playoff hopes are all but extinguished, and there will be questions to be answered this summer. One of them will certainly be “should we pay Bogdan Bogdanovic?”. That decision will go hand in hand with Hield’s future with the team, marking tonight as the start of the experiment.