2015-16 NBA Season Preview: Sacramento Kings

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Sacramento Kings

2014-15

Offseason Roundup

Projected Starting 5

• PG Rajon Rondo
• SG Darren Collison
• SF Ben McLemore
• PF Rudy Gay
• C DeMarcus Cousins

MVP: DeMarcus Cousins

The drama and dysfunction in Sacramento last season couldn't slow Cousins' inexorable march to superstardom, and the mercurial big man deservedly notched his first All-Star and All-NBA nods.

Before getting hit with a bout of viral meningitis in November, he was playing at an MVP level, and had his team riding a 9-5 start. By the time he returned, the Kings were under .500 and head coach Mike Malone (who Cousins had come to respect and trust a great deal) had been fired. Things pretty much spiraled from there.

But even as the Kings moved on to their third coach of the season, and even as Cousins succumbed to some of his crankiest impulses as the campaign wore on and grew increasingly dreary, he continued to produce.

Put simply, Cousins is both extremely skilled and extremely large, a combination that makes him virtually impossible to guard on the block without double- or triple-teaming, or fouling. He's a monster on the boards, has fantastic touch around the hoop, balletic footwork, and an ever-improving mid-range stroke. He also runs the floor as well as any big in the league. The 29-53 Kings outscored opponents when he was on the floor.

Breakout Player: Ben McLemore

The Kings struggled with spacing all last season. They ranked in the bottom 10 in 3-point percentage, and created just 16.6 percent of their points from beyond the arc - the third-lowest mark in the league. That inability to stretch defenses forced them to squeeze the ball into tight spaces, and they subsequently turned the ball over at the league's fifth-highest rate. That made things particularly cumbersome for Cousins, who got swarmed as defenses collapsed into the paint.

Offseason additions like Seth Curry and Marco Belinelli should help in that regard - though Rajon Rondo won't - but the Kings will be primarily relying on McLemore, who came into his own in his sophomore season. He averaged 12.1 points per game while goosing his true shooting percentage by 67 points over his rookie year, and the Kings were 8.6 points per 100 possessions better with him on the floor.

McLemore needs to improve as a cutter and off-ball mover, but he's long and rangy with a smooth stroke, and has the raw tools to be the platonic ideal of the 3-and-D wing.

Season Expectations

The Kings have the league's second-longest playoff drought at nine years and counting, and haven't even cracked 30 wins in any of the last seven seasons.

The team undoubtedly added some talent in Rondo, Kosta Koufos, and Belinelli, among others, and remain held together by one of the game's greatest pure talents in Cousins, but the talent around Boogie just doesn't seem to fit together as seamlessly as needed in the punishing Western Conference.

The Kings should be improved, especially if Cousins can stay healthy, and the organization's expectations clearly center around ending that aforementioned postseason drought, but Sacramento remains too far away in too tough of a conference.

To make matters worse, if the Kings end up in the dreaded middle - not good enough to play playoff basketball, but not bad enough to truly capitalize on the lottery - they may not even have a pick to show for it, as the Bulls own their 2016 first-rounder, provided it doesn't fall in the top 10.