What Huerter likely starting for season opener means for Kings originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
With their 2024-25 NBA season opener just one day away, the biggest question looming over Mike Brown and the Kings is who will be starting alongside star point guard De’Aaron Fox in the backcourt.
Brown seemingly put those questions to rest Tuesday, stating Kings shooting guard Kevin Huerter will return to his starting role in Thursday night’s opener against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Golden 1 Center.
“I think he’s close,” Brown told reporters after practice. “They haven’t given me the green light that he’ll be able to play on Thursday. But I think he’s close. He looks good. He doesn’t seem like he’s missed a beat at all.
“If he plays, he’ll probably start. But right now we got to get the green light to see if he’s going to play.”
In doing so, Brown clarified another hot topic regarding the Kings and their 2024-25 identity. Two seasons ago, they thrived off their historic offense and made the playoffs for the first time in 16 seasons. Last season, their shooting numbers dropped but their defense improved. They missed the playoffs.
Entering the new campaign, they must establish their identity. And if Huerter, who hasn’t played a meaningful game since mid-March, indeed is the starter Thursday night over young Kings guard Keon Ellis, then it’s quite obvious.
Defense never will not be important to any team led by Brown. They’ll continue to make defensive strides, individually and as a team, but offense has to be their emphasis.
And getting back to that elite offense will be key to separating themselves from their opponents each night while competing with the best in the Western Conference.
“I think it’s big,” Kings third-year forward Keegan Murray said of the offense (h/t “The Deuce & Mo Podcast”). “Defensively, we want to be there every single night, but obviously there’s going to be times where the other team has it going. Our offense, especially my first year here, kept us in a lot of games.
“Once we get to the fourth quarter with the guys we have on our team, I like our odds.”
The guys on their team include Fox, the double-double, triple-double and rebounding king Domantas Sabonis, and new to Sacramento but established NBA star DeMar DeRozan to round out a new Big Three in the 916.
Murray is the fourth player joining the Big Three in Sacramento’s starting lineup, and, if able, Huerter will complete the puzzle.
Huerter was cleared for full contact court activity on Oct. 11 after a lengthy shoulder recovery, which included surgery in April to repair a torn left labrum. For the first time this offseason, he was a full participant in practice all week and on Wednesday officially was cleared to play in Thursday’s game.
Murray, Sabonis and Brown spoke to the media after Tuesday’s practice, each confident in their assessment and praise of Huerter’s readiness and physique. And, of course, all overjoyed to share the floor with the sharpshooter once again.
When asked how much Huerter can help the team and what he brings to the table, Sabonis didn’t hesitate with his reply.
“Shooting, shooting.” he said, firmly. “He’s a long, athletic wing, and his IQ. He can do more than shoot. I feel like everyone knows that.”
During the 2022-23 season — his first in Sacramento — Huerter averaged a career-high 15.9 points on 48.5-percent shooting from the field and 40.2 percent from 3-point range, with 3.3 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.1 steals in 29.4 minutes through 75 games.
His numbers dropped last season in 64 games and 59 starts, averaging 10.2 points on 44.3-percent shooting from the field and 36.1 percent from downtown in 24.4 minutes.
The shooting slumps and offensive struggles don’t concern Brown, though, and he remains confident in the 26-year-old’s scoring and ability to impact games in other ways. So does the rest of the team.
“He helps a lot,” Brown said. “Last year we didn’t shoot free throws well. We didn’t shoot the 3 ball well. We paid the price by taking huge drops in both those areas throughout the course of the year. Hopefully, we can shoot it at a higher clip from the beginning instead of in spurts like we did last year, and then knock down free throws. And I think that’ll help with our overall offense in general. Whether it’s full court or the half court, you look at a guy like Kevin, and even a guy like Doug [McDermott] and their pace, it just brings a certain level of gravity to the game because of how well they move.
“They know when to cut back door, when to come off a DHO, when to stop, when to go quick, when to slow down. And all that stuff is hard to guard when you have guys with IQ like they have. So it’s definitely a great dimension to have on our team that’s a little something different than the other stuff that we have.”
When Huerter sustained the season-ending injury in March, he was replaced by undrafted-turned-two-way-player-turned-starter Keon Ellis, who singlehandedly sparked a defensive turnaround for the Kings while knocking down open shots when called for.
In those 15 games with Ellis as the starter, he averaged 9.8 points on 47.2-percent shooting from the field and 44.6 percent from beyond the arc, with 3.7 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.5 blocks in 27 minutes.
Ellis was the starter throughout this preseason, in which Sacramento finished 0-5 (at no fault to Ellis, of course), but Brown always made it clear that his starting role never was a guarantee — despite the obvious impact he brings to the defensive end of the floor.
But Brown has made up his mind, and he’s sticking with his guy, Huerter — for now. But that, too, could change.
Sure, defense wins championships. The Kings likely won’t be a top-10 defensive team this season but should loom somewhere in the middle if everyone buys in. For now, though, it will be their offense that carries them to the top of the West as they push to not just make the playoffs, but advance and compete once there.
“That’s kind of been our team since we got here,” Sabonis said of the Kings’ offense. “Coach emphasizes on defense, that’s something that we work on every day and we want to be better at.
“Bbut everyone knows our offense has been top 10 in the league for a couple years now, so we got to maintain that and get it better.”
