The Kings’ 2023-24 season has been full of ups and downs. They beat some of the best teams in the West but also lost to some of the worst teams in the league. No opponent in the NBA should be taken lightly, but the Kings just simply shouldn’t lose to teams like Charlotte, Detroit, and Portland.
As a result, Sacramento now sits in eighth place in the West despite having a 31-23 winning record. Much of this can be ascribed to the team’s bad defense and the fact that the offense just isn’t clicking like it did last season.
A lot of it also has to do with players having down seasons and not playing their best basketball. So, let’s look at three Kings who need monster second halves to save their job.
3. Davion Mitchell
Davion Mitchell’s defensive talent is unquestionable but his offense just hasn’t come along yet. Since his rookie season, his minutes plummeted from 27.7 per game to 13.2 and, with it, his production.
Mitchell is a hard worker and has been working relentlessly on his shot, but he is still only shooting 30.9 percent from three in games. The 25-year-old might benefit from being on a team that can allow him to experiment with his offense during games.
For now, he is on the Kings, however, and has to define his role on this squad. The Kings want to win and Coach Mike Brown has shown before that he doesn’t always trust Mitchell to help with that. Playing Keon Ellis over him, proved that point.
Since then, Mitchell has regained his minutes and has been playing fine. Fine might not be enough to save his job, though. The Kings already made Mitchell available on the trade market going into the trade deadline. No move was made, and the roster still has the same holes.
The Kings will probably try to be active this summer, and unless Mitchell has a great rest of the season, he might find himself on another team.