2021-2022 ROSTER TALK: [ARCHIVED]

[mvossman]

https://theathletic.com/3131848/2022/02/...l-injured/

Harper ranks the top 5.

McGee
Collins
Ayton
Sabonis
Holmes

For a brief moment in time, Richaun Holmes was flashing the ability to knock down a jumper. It happened in his second season in Philadelphia, as the Sixers were letting him and really anybody experiment with their skill set, as long as it helped development without affecting the tanking process. Since that season, in which he hit 27 of 77 (35.1 percent) 3-pointers, Holmes has kept it mostly inside the arc. He’s only attempted 47 3-pointers since then, and he’s only made eight of them. Holmes knows his bread is buttered at the rim, and that’s exactly where the Kings have tried to place him on the court.
The easiest way to do that? Run the pick-and-roll stuff with him as the screener, and watch him try to tear the rim down when somebody delivers him the ball. Holmes has only five possessions this season in which he’s popped to the perimeter and tried to score. He turned the ball over on three of those possessions. This is a man who uses his momentum to get to the rim, and he’s spectacular when he does.
The Kings put him in either high pick-and-rolls, or they run that action on the right side of the floor with him. When he rolls to the basket or slips the pick altogether, Holmes scores just over 133 points per 100 possessions. That’s incredible. However, he has a new teammate in town — the aforementioned Sabonis. Putting them both in the pick-and-roll a lot probably won’t happen much. Holmes is far more likely to extend on pick-and-pops than we are to see Sabonis knocking down those perimeter jumpers, even though Holmes hasn’t done it much over the past five seasons.

I would have felt a lot better about this TDL if we could have worked in a trade for Holmes.  He is a distressed asset right now and would not have taken much.  Would have made it a lot easier to stomach that Bertans contract.  This team would be so much better with Holmes starting at center.