Going into their most recent loss to the Spurs, the Sacramento Kings were missing De'Andre Hunter due to illness. Instead of playing one of several players on the main roster looking for minutes, they went with recent two-way acquisition Leaky Black. It was an incredibly confusing decision.
First and foremost, I want to make it clear that this is not about Black in the least. He was a smart signing by the Kings, and someone who could potentially be a big developmental player for them. That's assuming Sacramento actually handles his long-term development correctly. Uh-oh.
The problem is who the Kings passed over to start at small forward. Black is a two-way player who has been on Sactown's roster for only a few weeks. The Kings chose him over players on standard contracts looking for minutes, like Nique Clifford, Alex Karaban, and Daeqwon Plowden.
Making it even worse was the fact that Black played nearly 40 minutes. Karaban got 10+ minutes off the bench, Clifford four and a half in garbage time, and Plowden was a healthy scratch. This was a strange decision that not only didn't help win the game, but it also passed over other key players.
Do the Kings know what they're doing?
In the 2025 draft, the Kings worked hard to get a first-round pick that would let them secure Clifford. The same thing happened in 2026 with Karaban. For the most part, they have both gotten garbage-time minutes all season, except for Karaban in their second loss to the Spurs last night.
Fans and pundits have been questioning since the beginning of the season why Clifford and Karaban are seeing so little action. The same is true for Plowden. These are all young players that the Kings supposedly bet heavily on, yet are also putting little or no effort into their ongoing development.
Last season, the Kings used their swath of injuries to develop Clifford alongside Dylan Cardwell and Maxime Raynaud. Plowden, who was a two-way player at the time, got bigger minutes. Because of that opportunity, both Cardwell and Plowden ended up getting main roster contracts.
The Kings could be exploring that option with Black, and fair play on that. But the reason all those young players got those opportunities last season was that Sacramento had no other options. Right now, they do have other options, and those players are looking for chances to develop as well.
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