Coming into the preseason it seemed as though the Sacramento Kings shooting guard spot was pretty straight forward with incumbent starter Ben McLemore remaining there and Marco Belinelli being his backup. The Kings haven't been too thrilled with McLemore's development though and that has opened the door at the position for somebody like James Anderson. Anderson had a good preseason for the Kings and has caught George Karl's eye so he likely earned himself some minutes and may even have a chance to start, according to James Ham of CSN Bay Area.
Anderson signed a two year contract with the Kings this offseason for the league minimum with the second year being a player option. The entire contract was guaranteed money so he was always expected to make the team but it seemed likely that he would just be there for depth. Now Anderson has impressed his head coach so much that he is considering starting him.
"James brings us, in my opinion our best defender, our best defender on the perimeter. There's times I think we have to get contagious there. The more good defenders we can put on the court the better we'll play," said Karl.
Karl's focus this year seems to be on defense and Anderson is certainly his best defensive option at the two guard spot as McLemore hasn't been great on that end in his first two seasons. Anderson, on the other hand, has been a solid defender in the NBA before and can also make the three so he could be the perfect fit as a "three and D" guy.
McLemore is coming off a preseason where he struggled and Karl thinks it was because of the added competition at his position. In his first two seasons McLemore was basically handed the starting spot and a bunch of minutes but this year he had some other players in the mix and Karl thinks that has gotten to him.
Karl hasn't named a starting shooting guard yet for the opening game on Wednesday but Anderson seems to be in the mix. Karl has already said he won't start Belinelli because he wants to be able to bring him off the bench with backup point guard Darren Collison so it comes down to McLemore and Anderson. The likelihood is that McLemore will start because he is the more talented of the two players but Karl clearly likes Anderson and he will likely have a role regardless of whether it's starting or off the bench.
Anderson spent last season playing in Lithuania but before that he spent four seasons in the NBA the last of which he started 62 games for the Philadelphia 76ers and averaged 10.1 points and 3.8 rebounds on 43 percent shooting from the field.
