Who will start at position 2 alongside De’Aaron Fox in Sacramento this season? Mike Brown does not yet have the answer and will take advantage of the end of the preseason to try to decide. During the last match against Golden State, the Kings coach surprised by starting Chris Duarte instead of Kevin Huerter. And the Dominican was quite comfortable, even if he then injured his knee.
Although he only gave 5 points, 1 rebound and 2 assists in 12 minutes, his overall activity won over Coach Brown, especially at the start of the match, when Chris Duarte contributed to his team’s 23-11 victory. in less than five minutes.
“I think he was very good with the starting group in the first quarter. I found him very good defensively, and offensively, he played as he should.” did he declare before being reassuring about his injury. “Good news, our medical staff have already given him an MRI which revealed nothing. He has a little bone bruise, but the MRI was good.”
His performance was also praised by his teammates, including locker room leader De’Aaron Fox, who also praised his two-way player profile.
“What he brings is good for us. He shoots very well, he can really score. And defensively, he really goes for it, being physical, trying to keep the ball in front of him, communicating. He does everything we need, and I think he was very good on the pitch with us.”underlined the leader, while his friend Domantas Sabonis said that his presence made everyone’s work easier.
The ball in Kevin Huerter’s court
Despite his physical problem, Chris Duarte should quickly return to the group, even if he is already out of the Kings’ last two preseason matches. Mike Brown had anyway planned to alternate again and place Kevin Huerter in the major five, starting with tonight for the “revenge” against Golden State. Just to see if the former Hawks sniper will regain his splendor after a difficult preparation so far (13 points in total, 5/16 shooting, including 2/11 from 3-point range).
Kevin Huerter admits that going from starter to substitute requires adjustmentswhich would partly explain its ignition delay.
“The feeling is different. It’s clear that the energy is different too”he admitted. “I’ve been a starter more often than a substitute in my career, it’s something you have to get used to. So, yeah, it’s just a different energy… We’re getting used to starting games, with the energy of being on the field first, and obviously we have to prepare a little differently.”
It’s up to him to prove to his coach that he deserves to stay in the major five, as was the case throughout last season in his 82 matches played last season between regular season and playoffs.
| Shots | Rebounds | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | L.F. | Off | Def | Early | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Party | Pts |
| De’aaron Fox | 73 | 33.4 | 51.2 | 32.4 | 78.0 | 0.5 | 3.6 | 4.2 | 6.1 | 2.5 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 2.4 | 25.0 |
| Domantas Sabonis | 79 | 34.6 | 61.5 | 37.3 | 74.2 | 3.2 | 9.1 | 12.3 | 7.3 | 2.9 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 3.5 | 19.1 |
| Kevin Huerter | 75 | 29.4 | 48.5 | 40.2 | 72.5 | 0.6 | 2.8 | 3.3 | 2.9 | 1.3 | 1.1 | 0.3 | 2.4 | 15.2 |
| Harrison Barnes | 82 | 32.5 | 47.3 | 37.4 | 84.7 | 1.1 | 3.4 | 4.5 | 1.6 | 1.0 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 15.0 |
| Malik Monk | 77 | 22.3 | 44.8 | 35.9 | 88.9 | 0.4 | 2.2 | 2.6 | 3.9 | 1.9 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 1.6 | 13.5 |
| Keegan Murray | 80 | 29.8 | 45.3 | 41.1 | 76.5 | 1.1 | 3.5 | 4.6 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 2.0 | 12.2 |
| Trey Lyles | 74 | 16.9 | 45.8 | 36.3 | 81.5 | 0.9 | 3.1 | 4.1 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 7.6 |
| Terence Davis | 64 | 13.1 | 42.3 | 36.6 | 79.1 | 0.3 | 1.9 | 2.2 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.2 | 1.6 | 6.7 |
| Davion Mitchell | 80 | 18.1 | 45.4 | 32.0 | 80.6 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 1.3 | 2.3 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 1.4 | 5.6 |
| Chimezie Metu | 66 | 10.4 | 58.9 | 23.7 | 74.0 | 0.7 | 2.3 | 3.0 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 4.9 |
| Kessler Edwards | 22 | 13.9 | 43.5 | 34.9 | 76.9 | 0.8 | 1.4 | 2.1 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 1.7 | 3.9 |
| Richaun Holmes | 42 | 8.3 | 61.8 | 62.5 | 78.9 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 1.9 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 1.2 | 3.1 |
| Neemias Queta | 5 | 5.7 | 66.7 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 2.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 1.4 | 2.4 |
| Alex Len | 26 | 6.2 | 53.3 | 0.0 | 68.8 | 0.9 | 1.4 | 2.3 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 1.7 |
| Keon Ellis | 16 | 4.4 | 43.8 | 50.0 | 57.1 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.6 | 1.5 |
| Matt Dellavedova | 32 | 6.6 | 34.0 | 33.3 | 57.1 | 0.0 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 1.5 |
| Pj Dozier | 16 | 5.0 | 30.3 | 12.5 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.4 | 1.4 |
| Kz Okpala | 35 | 7.1 | 42.1 | 33.3 | 87.5 | 0.2 | 0.8 | 1.0 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 1.3 |
| Chima Moneke | 2 | 4.0 | 50.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.5 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| Deonte Burton | 2 | 3.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
