Head Coach Mike Brown starts the 2024-25 season by making the right decision

Over the course of a given season, head coaches have thousands of decisions that they have to make. They need to decide when to call timeouts, when to use challenges, when to fire off a motivational speech, etc. And, of course, they need to decide who will and will not be in their starting lineup.

For Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown, the decision of who to start has been a daunting one. Four of the five spots are no-brainers – De'Aaron Fox, DeMar DeRozan, Keegan Murray, and Domantas Sabonis. The issue is that there isn't a clear-cut answer as to who should start at shooting guard.

As we've discussed all offseason long, Malik Monk, Keon Ellis, and Kevin Huerter all have valid arguments for being the one to begin games at the two-guard spot. Unfortunately, only one of them can have the job.

After playing coy all summer long, Brown finally revealed who the starting shooting guard will be going into training camp, and based on his response, it seems like he made the right choice.

Sacramento Kings Starting Shooting Guard

On Monday, at media day, Brown shared who the starting shooting guard will be going into training camp. Here is what he had to say:

"[Ellis], by default, is going to start heading into training camp," Brown told Sactown Sports during media day.

As noted by Brown, the reason for this is that Huerter is still recovering from the shoulder injury that prematurely ended his 2023-24 season, and the team wants to keep Monk in that 6th man/Manu Ginobili role.  

Regardless of what got him to this point, Brown is making the right decision. Both Monk and Huerter are offensively-slanted players. The Kings already have enough of that in their starting lineup between Fox, DeRozan, and Sabonis.

What the Kings need is another player like Murray – a two-way role player who offers you defense, shooting, and some closeout attacking. And as we've been hammering home all offseason, that is exactly what Ellis brings to the table.

Now, we're not suggesting that Ellis is the one who closes games at that spot. That is a completely different conversation for a completely different article. But for this team and this roster, he should certainly be the one starting the games.

If he sticks with it, Brown's first decision of the season was a raging success. Now, let's just hope he keeps that trend going for the rest of the season.