There’s no other way to put it, the Sacramento Kings season so far has been, well, eventful. From the inconsistent starting rotations, to the injury riddled roster and all the way back to the player-coach relationship that center DeMarcus Cousins and head coach George Karl share (or lack thereof) it’s been a wild ride through these 9 games for Kings fans.
After a hideous 1-7 start to the season, the team was understandably on edge. DeMarcus Cousins ripped George Karl a new one after the teams seventh loss of the season in a profanity-laced shouting match in front of the rest of the team. Coach Karl then went to the front office and wanted his star center suspended two games for conduct detrimental to the team. Karl never got his wish, and Cousins later apologized publicly. Nevertheless, the question is pretty clear. Can Karl and Cousins coexist? That’s totally up for debate. The two have reportedly not been too fond of each other ever since Karl took over last season, but they continue to say their relationship is fine. Whatever they say. Only time can answer the question.
It’s certainly up for debate whether George Karl is to blame for the downs of the season. He’s rolled out SEVEN different starting lineups this year, and Rajon Rondo is the only one left who’s started in all nine games. Yes, it’s mostly by necessity, DeMarcus Cousins missed time with an Achilles strain, Rudy Gay missed tonight’s game with an illness and so on. However, George has shown a very quick trigger for struggling players. Ben Mclemore started opening night, and is now hardly in the rotation after his preseason/early season struggles became too much the take. Karl just doesn’t seem to fully trust rookie Willie Cauley-Stein, yet. Plus, he’s still trying to figure out how to use his plethora of offseason additions in Marco Belinelli (one start) Kosta Koufos (four starts) James Anderson (five starts??) among others. I can’t be the only one who thinks some consistency could only be beneficial for the team. Even Quincy Acy drew a start. Which is bad, if you didn’t know.
Yet, here we are, the Kings are riding a two game winning streak after tonight’s hard-fought win over the Nets. Rajon Rondo is on one of his triple-double streaks we saw from his hey-day with three in his last four games. All while only sitting out 8 combined minutes in that stretch. Plus, he’s avoided being in a coaches doghouse for a whole nine games, which is pretty good for him. Boogie did Boogie things and went absolute bonkers for 21 points in the 3rd quarter during a game they were losing at the time, and the team just really played solid basketball. Who knows, maybe every team should yell at their coach to start a winning streak.
Rondo, Cousins and company will try to extend their impressive streak on Sunday against the Raptors at home.
The Heat Check Magazine 