The Sacramento Kings are off to a disappointing start to say the least as they are 1-6 and they have lost their last five games. While there is some good news in that DeMarcus Cousins is expected to play on Monday after missing four straight games there is also bad news in that Darren Collison is out indefinitely. Collison is the Kings backup point guard and now they will have to fill that void with what they have on their roster.
The options head coach George Karl currently has at his disposal for backup point guard are Seth Curry, Ben McLemore and Marco Belinelli. Belinelli and McLemore are both shooting guards first without much of any experience at the point guard spot. Curry, while also being a natural shooting guard, has played some point guard in college at Duke and is likely the best suited of the three to handle it.
In the Kings first game without Collison, Karl basically went without a backup point guard as he played starter Rajon Rondo a ridiculous 44 minutes. Rondo played great as he posted a triple-double but 44 minutes is an insane amount of minutes that he will not be able to sustain while Collison is out. The Kings are going to need to trust somebody also to handle the ball for the near future in order to keep Rondo fresh for the full year.
Karl clearly has a lot of trust in Belinelli as he has been playing him more minutes than the starting shooting guards and he has played OK but he is not the type of player that is going to be able to run an offense and see the floor all that well. For his career Belinelli has averaged 2.6 assists per 36 minutes which is not something you want from a backup point guard.
McLemore seems to be falling out of favor in Sacramento fast as he has not played well and his minutes have been greatly reduced so that leaves Curry as the final option. Curry is currently dealing with an ankle injury but he was active for the Kings game on Saturday and should be good to go moving forward. Curry's assist numbers in college weren't much better than Belinelli's but that is because they needed him to score. This Kings team does not need Curry as their number one scoring option, or even second or third, and he is an adequate passer with good court vision.
Another reason to use Curry as the backup point guard is to get him on the floor. So far Curry has only appeared in four games and averaged 6.8 minutes but he has shot the ball very well in his limited opportunities and is coming off a great preseason so he deserves an opportunity. Curry is blocked at the shooting guard position because they have so much depth there but now that there is an opening at point guard it makes sense to give him the opportunity as he will be able to run the offense better than the other options anyway.
