It's safe to call the Sacramento Kings' preseason and regular season injury-plagued. But there were several players who didn't touch the court in the Kings' win over the Utah Jazz who weren't injured. It may be a vision of the rest of the season, which could harm the team's future development.
The Kings' preseason was absolutely riddled with injuries. Keegan Murray, Domantas Sabonis, and even DeMar DeRozan missed games with various issues. That doesn't even count the illness that kept Malik Monk and Isaac Jones on the bench for a bit.
Fortunately, Sabonis, DeRozan, Monk, and Jones all seem to be fine and are back playing. Unfortunately, Murray will be out for a few more weeks, and rookie Nique Clifford is out with a hamstring strain. Hopefully, he shouldn't be gone much longer as the injury isn't too severe.
The Kings sat a lot of uninjured players
It's not uncommon in the NBA to have benchers who simply don't get a lot of minutes. Usually, they only play when the game is basically over with a few minutes left, normally because one team is in the lead by so much that the other team has literally zero chance of catching up.
That obviously did not happen against the Jazz as the Kings won the game by one point. Benchers aren't likely to get minutes in a tight game. Still, the Kings sat five players who were all listed as "DNP - Coach's Decision," meaning it was the coach's call that they didn't play.
For the Kings, those names were Dylan Cardwell, Devin Carter, Doug McDermott, Daeqwon Plowden, and Maxime Raynaud. Outside of four of their first names starting with the letter D, most of them are young players. Except for McDermott, who is an 11-year league veteran.
Kings' development needs to change
One game isn't a big deal for all of these rookies and second-year players to sit. Well, unless it becomes a pattern. Then it's time to start getting concerned about the Kings' development cycle, which is an issue when you consider this is one of the oldest teams in the league.
Cardwell and Raynaud both had solid performances in training camp and in their preseason appearances. Now is the time to be building on that by getting reps in during the regular season, not losing momentum by languishing on the bench. The same can be said for Carter and Plowden.
The fight for minutes on the Kings is going to be tough, particularly once Murray and Clifford are back. Sacramento has no idea how much longer players like DeRozan, Westbrook, and LaVine will be on the roster. Now is the time to get the rookies up to speed, not once the vets have left.