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Opinion
The Sydney Kings have been a fascinating team this season, and after a middling start to the year, they’ve put together a run of form in the NBL that few other teams have been able to match over the last month.
But even on the heels of a six-game win streak, they are still sitting in fifth on the ladder, so can the Kings continue this good run, and truly break the Melbourne/Perth triumvirate, and be legitimate title contenders?
On paper the Kings’ lineup has a lot of things going for it.
They have potentially the best three-man punch anywhere in the league.
Xavier Cooks has emerged as a super versatile forward, capable of fantastic plays in transition, big dunks and flying out of nowhere to block shots. He’s a menace on both ends, hovering around a double double, is up near the league leaders in blocks and what’s more, he’s fantastic to watch in transition.
Point guard Jaylen Adams is solidly in the conversation for MVP, and can both score in droves and create off the pick and roll. He isn’t an elite three-point shooter percentage-wise, but he seems to hit timely threes and has range to step back even further if you leave him alone.
Centre Jarell Martin compliments Adams in that pick and roll, and his strength and versatility can be match-winning, and also gives them a rebounding security, another inside presence, and flexibility to step out to the corner and knock down shots as well.
But for all this on paper heft, the Kings haven’t always fired on all cylinders. They’ve had some pretty dire losses, including getting absolutely blown out of the water twice against Melbourne United, they are one of the few teams to lose to the NZ Breakers who’ve had a really tough season, and the Kings also have one of the league’s worst road records.
Jaylen Adams of the Sydney Kings. (Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)
On these nights, it feels like for all the good stats that players like Adams and Cooks can put up, it doesn’t really amount to anything except a halfway decent buzz, some empty stats box scores and it can leave you scratching your head as to why they fell off through the game.
One area that does stick out as a problem has been defending the three-point shot. Sydney currently allows the most threes attempted per game, and opposing teams make about two more three-pointers per game than they do against any other team in the league.
The Kings only make threes at a league average rate so they can get into deficits when they have an off night shooting the ball or the other team is hot from range.
When you watch them, opposing teams’ space on the outside seems like an intentional strategic decision by the Kings coaching staff. As they set up their defensive set, the players will often sink into the paint and they tend to go under more on screen actions than a lot of other teams.
At times, it’s almost like a ‘mini zone’ – the bigs Martin and Cooks do have license to step out but they’ll almost always get another player to drop back, and they aren’t very aggressive in switching their bigs onto the opposition guards.
The other forward, usually Swani Lo-Buluk, protects the space on the weak side of the lane, meaning there is space for quick ball movement to expose them for shots in the weak side corner or arc.
Instead, they tend to rely on guarding the inside space and focus helping Martin as the centre deal with any inside penetration.
Martin, while a physical presence, isn’t really a rim protector like Will Magnay for the JackJumpers or Zhou Qi for the Phoenix in the traditional sense, but having the athletic Cooks and positioning Lo-Buluk closer to him means that teams struggle to find good paths to the bucket and encounter a bit of a wall of Sydney bigs inside when they do manage to beat the perimeter guards and this also helps the rebound the ball, which they are top three in the league at doing.
In the NBL, this isn’t the worst bet. Teams can be hot and cold from three-point range from game to game, and can struggle on the road with their shooting, but it also means if teams do have their shooting boots on, the Kings can be fighting an up-hill battle to keep up..
This three-point defence and depth problem might be mitigated to some degree with the recent recruitment of former Golden State Warriors player Ian Clark, who has come to the Kings as a mid-season acquisition.
In Clark’s first games as a King he has been more aggressive on defence in going over the screen instead more often and tends to guard his man a bit more closely which has made the perimeter defence a little bit more solid and dynamic.
The signing of Clark also gives the Kings far more wing depth which can be an issue on both ends – as much as players like Shaun Bruce, Dejan Vasiljevic and Angus Glover can be great energy guys, the Kings now can be more flexible to see who might have the spark in this rotation with Clark starting.
Clark’s recruitment has also come at a good time and early indications are that he won’t need much time to blend in. The club won their previous four games before incorporating him into the lineup, and things have not stopped humming with his introduction.
While his stats have not been game-changing, his impact has already been felt in terms of that defensive intensity and he’s also chimed in with some handy buckets, particularly in the recent win over Perth, as he spaces the floor well.
The Kings’ high nights, like when they’ve beaten the Perth Wildcats or South-East Melbourne Phoenix, you see that potential to be one of the best teams in the league – you wonder how people will deal with their stars.
Adding Clark and a now a sustained run of health from Jaylen Adams, they can definitely push for a safe playoff spot, if not outright challenging for a top-two spot.
Their next major hurdle will be coming up with an answer for Melbourne United, who they’ve really struggled with and with the United shooting strength and depth all over the floor, they will prove to be title favourites until proven otherwise.
But at least for now, the Kings are on the road to insert themselves into that picture, and much like how Xavier Cooks flies into the frame off a fast break alley-oop, they could be in that picture sooner than we think.
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