The Sacramento Kings are a team that has a lot of things going on right now. Turmoil is an understatement with this franchise, as the head coach and members of the organization don't get along and they haven't made the playoffs since 2006.
With the Kings already having been eliminated from the playoffs this season, they are in the mode of trying to get their young players more minutes to see what they have in them moving forward. Some Kings fans think that head coach George Karl took too long to get into this mode, but that can't be changed.
Two of the young players being focused on are rookie Willie Cauley-Stein and Seth Curry. Cauley-Stein is someone that the Kings really like and think will be a key piece moving forward. Curry, on the other hand, is more of a mystery. Steph's younger brother has only appeared in 38 games this year, but he has had some extremely impressive moments.
Curry is known for his shooting ability and offense as a whole, but Karl called him the team's best perimeter defender earlier in the season. If Karl truly believed that Curry was the Kings' best perimeter defender, he didn't show it because he has been out of the rotation for much of the season.
Curry's biggest problem in the NBA is that he is a bit of a tweener. The 25-year-old isn't a true point guard, but he also doesn't have the size to play shooting guard either at just 6-foot-2. Karl has said that one of the reasons Curry hasn't gotten more playing time throughout the season is because he needs to become more of a playmaker. Curry has always been a scorer, so he naturally looks to score more often than not. Karl wants to see him progress to setting up his teammates more often.
Over the last five games, Curry has recieved a lot of playing time, and he has done well with those minutes. The former Duke Blue Devil has scored 21 points, which is a career high, in two of his last three games and overall has shot the ball very well this season (44 percent from three). One of Curry's recent performances even got DeMarcus Cousins' endorsement, as he interrupted his postgame interview, saying, "you're going to be in this league a long time."
Curry will have an interesting decision to make this offseason, as he has a player option with the Kings for a little more than $1 million. Curry has said that he is unsure what he will do about that option, but he likes the Kings and the direction that they are going in. At this point, it is clear that Seth belongs in the NBA after a couple of years in the D-League, but it is just a matter of whether he thinks he can get more money by opting out and becoming a free agent. The safe play for Curry would be to pick up the option and prove over a full season that he deserves more money. If Curry believes that he can make more on the open market, though, he could decide to opt out. However, opting out would be very risky considering he has played in about half of the Kings' games this season.
