How the Kings can turn Domantas Sabonis into their very own Nikola Jokic

Since the Dallas Mavericks traded for Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington at the 2024 NBA Trade Deadline, they and the Boston Celtics have both had top eight defenses.

Why do I cite this statistic? To hammer home the point that to win big in this league (as these two teams clearly have, you need to build a really good defense.

On the surface, this task seems daunting for the Sacramento Kings, who boast the offensively-inclined Domantas Sabonis as their starting center. This season, the Kings were able to field a respectable 14th-ranked defensive unit (according to Defensive Rating). However, many people believe Sabonis' vertical limitations (15th percentile in block rate among centers, per Cleaning the Glass) put a hard ceiling on this team's defensive potential, making it difficult for them to go from average to good/great.

Those folks clearly haven't been paying much attention to the Denver Nuggets, though. This season, the Nuggets fielded the eighth-best defense in the league despite Jokic (a player whose defense many people criticize) logging over 2,700 minutes. And the year before this one, when they won the NBA freaking title, they did it on the backs of their defense. But how?

Well, we should first admit that Jokic is a little bit better of a defender than Sabonis. He's bigger, has better hands, and a higher overall defensive IQ. But even more important than that, the Nuggets have done a wonderful job of putting a strong defensive ecosystem around him.

Countless studies on NBA defense have proven that rim protection is the most important variable for building a strong defense. Since most rim protection comes from the center position, teams like the Nuggets and Kings are at a disadvantage because their anchors are below average in this area.

With that said, you can compensate for this disadvantage by making sure that all the other members of your lineup are plus rim protectors for their position. The Nuggets have done a great job of that (all the data below was provided by Cleaning the Glass).

Meanwhile, the Kings still have some room to grow in this regard.

For the Nuggets, everyone outside of Jokic is in the 66th percentile or higher for their position in block rate (a solid indicator of a player's rim protection prowess). As for our Kings, only Keegan Murray fits that description (although Fox isn't that far off either).

Kevin Huerter is just an average positional rim protector, and Harrison Barnes is one of the worst at the forward spot. This isn't to say that you can't build a good defense with those two as your starters. It's just very difficult to do when Sabonis is your center.

And since Sabonis is the best player of the three, you need to prioritize his needs over theirs. So, the Kings need to use their draft capital, salary cap, and trade assets to upgrade their rim protection at those two positions.

(Sidebar #1: The Kings may already have a worthy replacement for Huerter in Keon Ellis, who, last season, was in the 95th percentile in block rate among combo guards.)

If the Kings can manage to do that, they may be able to take a page out of the 2023 NBA Champions' book, and build a strong defense around their vertically challenged center.