Going into their third and final faceoff with the Oklahoma City Thunder, no one expected the Sacramento Kings to win. And they didn't. A big part of the reason why was they were outsized and outplayed by the Thunder's bigs, an issue that Sacramento keeps running into.
The Kings have been the home of Domantas Sabonis for several seasons. He's a verified double-double machine, and one of the most dominant rebounders in the history of the league. At the same time, Sabonis isn't effective when it comes to defense, particularly locking down the rim.
When Sacramento had Jonas Valanciunas, Sabonis had backup who could keep the offense moving and also play defense. Then the Kings traded him for Dario Saric, who hasn't played a single minute in weeks. It kind of puts them in a rough spot as Sabonis no longer has elite backup.
The Kings' big man conundrum
Drew Eubanks has turned out to be a solid backup center, though he doesn't quite make up for the loss of Valanciunas. Rookie center Maxime Raynaud has slowly been finding his sea legs on an NBA court, but he has a long way to go before he's going to be a reliable secondary, let alone a starter.
So, the Kings have one backup center who never plays, one who is super green, and one who has flashes of greatness but is also inconsistent. It's a problem that gets a spotlight shined on it when Sabonis is out injured and the other team has dominant bigs. That popped up last night against OKC.
The duo of Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein absolutely crushed the Kings on both ends of the court. Holmgren finished with 21 points, seven rebounds, one assist, one steal, and three blocks. Hartenstein had eight points, 12 rebounds, three assists. and two blocks.
Kings need at least one big man who can defend
Do you want to know how many blocks the entire Kings roster combined for against the Thunder? Zero. No one on the Kings successfully blocked a single shot the entire game, not even Eubanks or Raynaud and blocking shots is literally in their job descriptions.
To be fair, Sabonis isn't much of a shot blocker, either. It's acutally a huge problem for the Kings. They need a center who can dominate the paint. Eubanks has had individual games like that, but nothing consistent. And Raynaud has the potential to be that guy, but will need years of development.
For now, Eubanks is a reasonable backup center and Raynaud is the perfect young star to develop. If the Kings want this rebuild to actually work, they're going to need a legit starting center who can play consistently solid on both defense and offense. Just not Anthony Davis, please and thank you.