Keon Ellis is ensuring that he never gets benched ever again

In their Saturday game loss against the Los Angeles Lakers, head coach Mike Brown (one of the more well-regarded coaches in the association) made the decision not to play third-year guard Keon Ellis a single second, gifting him with the dreaded DNP-CD.

This decision shocked the general NBA consciousness, leading many people (A Royal Pain included) to advocate for a larger role in the rotation for Ellis.

While Brown likely wasn't scrolling through Twitter looking for coaching wisdom, he has since chosen to play Ellis more frequently. And to his credit, Ellis didn't waste any time sulking about the Lakers blunder. Instead, he's responded by putting together two quietly productive performances.

Keon Ellis is better than the box score suggests

If you take a quick glance at Ellis' numbers since the DNP-CD, you probably won't be very impressed. In the last two games, Ellis is playing 15.9 minutes per game and posting averages of 4.0 PPG, 3.5 RPG, 1.5 APG, 2.0 BPG, and 1.5 SPG.

Outside of the blocks and steals, none of those numbers suggest anything more than a back-end rotation player. But points, rebounds, and assists are missing the point of having a player like Ellis.

The Kings already have De'Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, DeMar DeRozan, Malik Monk, and, to some degree, Keegan Murray to put up the big counting stats. What they need is a player who can do all the little things alongside them to give the team good lineup cohesion. Remember, in the NBA, you need talent and fit to win big.

Ellis is that guy. Not only does he space the floor with his sound 3-point stroke (career 41.8% 3-point shooter) and keep the ball moving with his underrated drive game, but he's also one of the best (yes, we said "best") perimeter defenders in the league (94th percentile in Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus, per Dunks & Threes).

Ellis' defensive impact shows up in the Kings' plus-minus data when he's on the floor. Over the last two games, the Kings have been a +17 in Ellis' 32 minutes. For the season, the Kings' defense is 21.7 points stouter with Ellis on the floor than they are with him off it (per Cleaning the Glass).

Don't let Ellis' 4.0 PPG fool you. He is absolutely balling out in his role right now – so much so that Brown should never make the mistake of not playing him ever again.