Sacramento Kings Summer League Stock Watch

Sacramento Kings Summer League Stock Watch

With summer league coming to a close for the Sacramento Kings, it is time to recap summer league. And summer league is mostly about the individuals. But it was nice to see the Kings as a team have good performances, make a run at a title. And when the team is performing well, that probably means that the individuals are performing well as well. But it is important to remember that a good team performance and good team chemistry in summer league can also help individuals look good and maybe even better than they should compared to others. So we shouldn’t overreact too much to summer league, especially when the Kings did have older players compared to other summer league teams. Not necessarily in terms of professional experience other than a guy like Mason Jones, but just in terms of age. But with that being said, I do think there are a lot of things to be happy about and a lot of good performances to look forward to for this upcoming season. And so I’m going to go through players individually and determine whether they helped their stock, hurt their stock, or stayed relatively the same with their summer league performances. Starting with Nick Clifford, who was one of the most impressive rookies at summer league. started off really hot, slowed down a bit in the last two games, especially with foul trouble, but uh he played really well and was ranked even above Cooper Flag by ESPN as the number one rookie at one point in summer league. But that was kind of the expectation that he would play well as a 23-year-old rookie coming in uh a little more NBA ready than other rookies. And 23-year-old rookies are not exactly seen as super high ceiling players. They’re usually more seen as high floor players who can be really solid role players. And I think Nick has good awareness of himself comparing himself to players like Jaylen Williams, Josh Hart, Derek White. And so coming in, the expectations were for him to show off really good abilities as uh maybe a 3 and D role player with a little bit of playmaking ability. And the Kings have a lot of good role players in their system because they have been drafting older rookies a lot in recent years. uh looking at the very high end with like Keegan and Keon on the NBA roster, but then also other players on this summer league roster as well. But I think Nate Clifford showed that maybe his ceiling is a little bit higher than we first thought as a 23-year-old coming out of the draft. And the reason I say that is because of how much he showed on the offensive end. He showed off great ball handling ability at his size at 66 and with advanced court vision. Compare that with his three-level scoring ability that he showed. He was not just a catch andoot shooter, but he had a lot of self-creation. He was able to create for himself off the dribble with really good footwork that allowed him to hit sideep threes, step back threes, get into the mid-range, walk guys down, and then rise up over the smaller defenders. He showed off his ability to finish through traffic or get to the floater. But while he was doing all this scoring, he was also able to make his teammates better and find open teammates, driving to the rim, hitting cross-court passes to open shooters, or drawing a defender, and then dropping off a pass to his big in the dunker spot for an easy finish. The biggest concern for him throughout this summer league was really the foul trouble, which really came to fruition in the last two games, where you weren’t allowed the 10 fouls anymore. You were only allowed the six fouls. And so, he got into foul trouble, and that really disrupted his game. He was too physical at times, not disciplined enough on the defensive end. There were some worries about him defending the quicker players on the perimeter. He has the length to be a really good defender, especially as a help defender, but if he can improve his onball defense and his discipline, he could be absolutely elite. So, I think his stock absolutely went up in this summer league. Another guy with very high expectations coming into this summer league, a guy that had the highest expectations from me and I think from a lot of people was Devin Carter. Coming in as a secondyear player, you know, he we know he didn’t play last summer league and he missed a lot of his rookie season, but he is still a secondyear player. He was the 13th overall pick last year. And so expectations for him even as an older rookie when he was drafted are very high. And so I expected him to dominate summer league and and how that would translate to the NBA I wasn’t so sure. But I expected him to at least dominate summer league, but he just wasn’t super consistent. He showed what he could do on the defensive end as a very good defender. But the question is is if he can make up for his inconsistencies offensively enough with his defense. I hoped that he would show his ability to be able to be a lead guard, but his processing offensively as a 6-2 guard was just not quick enough. His ball handling ability was pretty sketchy when put under pressure, especially fullcourt pressure. And when his first option was not available on drives, he would get stuck in no man’s land, picking up his dribble in the paint and really having nowhere to go with the ball. He plays a little like a big man with a score burst instinct but at 6’2. He likes to post up and use his strength and he needs a lot of space and time to get his three-point shot off. I’ve seen him compared to Gary Payeyton II lately and I think that’s a pretty accurate comp. And so I’m worried that the ceiling really is not much higher than just a defensive rotational player for him as you know a first round lottery pick last year. That’s not exactly what you want. He can occasionally get hot from three, has a little bit of spurt ability on the offensive end, can get hot, but his slow release from three makes him less effective as a catch and shoot shooter. And there are too many red flags for him offensively for him to cover up with his very solid defense at just 62. And so while coming into summer league I wasn’t necessarily the highest on him as a prospect, I still think with his inconsistencies offensively in summer league his stock went down. Next up is second round pick Maxim Renault who came out very hot in his summer league debut. Just in the first few minutes was dominating hitting threes scoring inside showing off his handle at 71. But after that he slowed down a bit. the three-point shot was not going down as consistently. But if he can be a consistent three-point shooter at his size of 7-1 and with his offensive skills, he could be a very, very impactful player. But even when he wasn’t hitting his threes consistently, he was still able to make an impact in other ways. He showed off his ability to have the offense run through him. He has the ball handling ability. He has the passing ability. He has a postgame and touch around the rim. and he has the ability to attack closeouts against slower footed bigs that come out to the three-point line. And that’s why his three-point shot is very important because if he’s knocking that down and forces guys to come out onto him, then he can create off the dribble. On the defensive end, he has the ability with his size to protect the rim and he he was a shot blocker throughout summer league and he was also okay when it came to moving his feet on the perimeter. Is a bit slow, but he was okay. The big question really came with his physicality inside. He wasn’t strong enough against the other bigs and was easily knocked off balance and that hurt both his rim protection ability and his ability to rebound the basketball on the defensive end. If he can get in the weight room and learn how to deal with that physicality better against guys like Demon Sabonis in the NBA, then he could be a big piece for the Kings and someone who I think they should really invest in. So, I think his stock went up. Then we have Isaac Jones who came into summer league off a very successful season last season where he was converted from a two-way contract to a standard NBA contract. And in this summer league, he showed why he deserved that. Throughout summer league with each passing game, he just got better and better and better except for maybe from the semi-final to the final because I don’t know how he could have improved off that great semi-final performance where he scored 36 points and was just super dominant. And I think that improvement throughout summer league is consistent with what we’ve seen on a bigger scale where he’s just been constantly improving throughout the past year at 69 245 lbs. He was an absolute force inside. But at that size, he also has the athleticism and mobility vertically and laterally to just be a dominant four and dominate all the other power forwards in summer league. He’s a physical beast but with a very soft touch inside and that leads to and one after and one after and one because he’s just able to finish through contact with that soft finish. He was a force on the offensive glass solid on the defensive glass as well and the place where I really wanted to see him improve. Well, I guess there was two places. One from the three-point line and I think we saw that developing. He knocked down a very clutch three late in the title game and he has been working on that corner three. But then the other place I was hoping to see improvement was on the defensive end and I think we saw that improvement because he has the physical tools, right? He’s 6’9 with that size and athleticism and length and so it’s just a matter of him being able to use it and I do think he used it very well. He was able to impact shots around the rim with his length and vertical ability and he used his strength to keep opposing players out of the paint. He also has the ability to swish onto perimeter players because he has good lateral quickness. So, a great summer league for Isaac and that could lead to rotational minutes for him this upcoming NBA season. His stock absolutely went up. Then moving on to a guy who came into the league with Isaac Jones on a two-way contract who right now is not currently signed by the Kings but could fill their last two-way slot and that is Isaiah Crawford. I was hoping for big things this summer league from Isaiah Crawford. I was hoping that he had improved on his on his ability to really impact the game in many different ways. At his size at 66 with length and strength, he has all the tools to be a good defender. He’s able to get steals. He’s able to get blocks, but he didn’t really impose his will on the game. And he he doesn’t ever go above and beyond to make plays and really impose himself on the game. He didn’t stand out. He didn’t rebound the basketball. He didn’t shoot it all that well. He he didn’t have a good handle. Couldn’t play make for others or or score for himself off the dribble. He just wasn’t able to really impact the game in many ways and didn’t show much improvement from last season. So, a disappointing summer league for him. his stock goes down. Then we move on to the guys who are currently on two waves for the Kings. Starting with Isaiah Stevens. I didn’t know much about Isaiah Stevens coming into this summer league, so I didn’t really have expectations for him, but as a six-foot guard, he showed that he was a solid facilitator. He has good vision, was able to set guys up, was a steady hand most of the time, apart from the tile game where he really struggled. Other than that, he was very solid throughout summer league. his size could be exploited defensively and that’s definitely a worry. But he’s able to move his feet very quickly on the defensive end, has good hands on that end. So there’s something there defensively. It’s just, you know, the size is always going to be a bit of an issue. And so he’s always going to be fighting an uphill battle there. But on the offensive end, he was able to push the pace really well, push the ball forward with hit ahead passes, was able to get to his spots in the mid-range and knock those down. He knocked down catch and shoot threes. I feel like the one improvement he could really make to his game is the ability to hit the off the dribble three when coming around a screen because when guys go under, he really needs to be able to punish that. And it he didn’t look super comfortable taking the off the dribble threes coming around the screens. But overall, I think he showed he deserves that two-way spot he was given. So, I would say his stock stays even. And then we have Dylan Cardwell who is also on a two-way contract who came in just to play on the defensive end as a 611 force of nature physically and he brought the chaos. He brought a very chaotic nature and that means that sometimes it was really good, sometimes it was not so good. He has very good hands defensively, has great athletic ability, has the ability to impact plays that it feels like he has no business impacting. had an amazing chase down block at one point, but the touch on offense is a massive question. But it did improve the last few games of summer league. His touch looked pretty solid and he so he showed flashes of that touch offensively. The free throw shooting still looks very rough. He’s very much just a dunker spot type of guy on offense, but he can make an impact through his rebounding on both ends of the court. I don’t know if the offense will ever really get where it needs to be for him to be an NBA player, but I think he showed he deserves uh the two-way spot with his intriguing play. So, I would say his stock stays even as well. And then the last guy that I really just wanted to shout out is Mason Jones. He was playing through an injury in the last few games of the summer league. Didn’t make the summer league about himself. I think that’s what people were worried about coming in, taking away from the younger guys as a veteran himself, but I think he was just a solid vet facilitator for the team with the Kings filling their last roster spot with Doug McDermott. It doesn’t look like Mason will stay with the organization, but I do appreciate what he has done in his time here, especially in Stockton. I mean, maybe he could stay in Stockton bringing the uh the Stockton Kings a G-League title. But anyways, that is it for my Summer League Sacramento Kings stockwatch. Let me know what what you guys think of the performances in Summer League. Who played well? Who didn’t? Who are you intrigued to see in this upcoming season? But with the end of summer league now, we are deprived of NBA basketball for a very long time. But I will still be here making content throughout the off season. So, make sure to subscribe, hit the notification bell so you know when I’m posting, and I will see you guys in the next one. Peace.

Welcome to The Royal Report

In this episode of The Royal Report I discuss who improved their stock on the Kings going into next season and who hurt their case going forward.

0:00 Intro
1:02 Nique Clifford
3:47 Devin Carter
5:54 Maxime Raynaud
7:31 Isaac Jones
9:32 Isaiah Crawford
10:31 Isaiah Stevens
11:49 Dylan Cardwell
12:52 Mason Jones
13:26 Outro

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