Sacramento Kings 2022-23 Preview
Sacramento Kings 2022-23 Preview
A breakdown of the Kings preseason motion offense.
Welcome to the 2022-23 previews for every NBA team! These breakdowns are designed to look at stats, film & anything I found interesting in my preparation for the upcoming NBA season.
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Notes
“We’ve got one of the fastest guys arguably in the game, shoot, in the history of the game, when you talk about De’Aaron Fox, so we’ve got to play to his strength,” Brown said. “Davion is extremely fast with the basketball, so we want to get out and run, but not only do we want to get out and run, we also don’t want to give up easy baskets, too, so we’ve got to get our behinds back on defense when it comes to transition defense as well.”
Source: SacBee
Film
Sacramento Kings Preseason Motion Offense
Early Bust Outs
One of the early things that stood out was using Sabonis to trigger the offense (similar to how we have talked bout Jokic/Draymond doing) with Bust Outs.
His ability to grab & go puts immediate pressure on the defense and allows them to flow into their 5-Out actions easier.
Early Push
The Kings will run what I call early “Push” where they dribble right at the corner and look for a backdoor cut right away:
Under Atkinson, this is an action the Nets got a ton of easy scores out of.
If the initial backdoor is denied or covered, then this flows into a side ballscreen with the big setting an empty ballscreen or going to 2-man game action.
Elbow Flash Game
One of the benefits of having Sabonis is his ability to pass and stretch the defense by using his ability to space the floor as an advantage.
By flashing him to the elbows and going into split-cut action and hand offs, the Kings can build a free-flowing motion action just with one basic entry.
Knicks
An action run by the Denver Nuggets all the time with basic quick-hitting action, this play is designed to give multiple reads and options for the offense. The first look is to score or attack off the first dribble handoff on the wing.
If the dribble hand-off attack is not there, then it swings directly to the opposite slot for a step-up ballscreen from the big - what I call Knicks action.
Knicks Elbow
If the reversal is denied or the Kings want to use this as an alternate entry into their “Elbow” action they will pass it to the big at the elbow.
Two main options they use is to screen away at the top of the key in split cut actions that end up in a ballscreen/dribble handoff.
After the pass the player who entered the ball into the elbow can also screen down for the corner - an action I call Quick.
Wide
Where the Kings’ motion offense becomes more apparent is how they flow from the popular “Wide” action into the elbow. The first look is to catch and shoot off the screen for the player in the middle of the floor.
Wide Out
This flows into a screen for the point guard to cut across off the big looking for quick catches and attacks with the defense trailing.
ide Out Ballscreens
If the point guard who comes off the out screen from the big does not have a direct advantage, the big will chase into a ballscreen for him.
Or if the pass is not even open, the big can then screen for the player who came off the “Wide” screen.
Wide Out Elbow
Another option they have is to have the big who sets the out screen sit at the Elbow and go into the same split cut actions, screening slot to slot.
Another option is to look for Quick action as discussed above screening for the player in the ballside corner.
Wide Curl/Reject Spain
If the initial “Wide” screen is not open, the player coming off it has two options - either Curl or Reject. With either one, this then flows into “Spain” action with the player who ends up in the lane setting the backscreen.
Here is the super common reject into Spain action.
Slice Punch Sabonis
One of the rarer sets for Sabonis to get the ball into the post (a lot of his post-up actions this preseason were direct or off a ballscreen/switch read), was a set the Warriors ran for split cuts and the Nuggets run for Jokic to post up.
After a ball reversal, Sabonis hands off to the other wing and then cuts off a slice screen from the player in the corner into a post touch.
If you liked this breakdown feel free to share it & if you have any other scenarios, plays, or thoughts on any future breakdowns let me know in the comments below!
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Note: if you are reading this in the e-mail-only form some of the gifs and videos do not always show up correctly.
Outwork Yesterday.
Coach Pyper
This is excellent, Coach. Looking forward to you breaking down more of this offense as the season progresses! Seems like Mike Brown is gonna layer on a lot more stuff with this group.
Awesome work, really enjoyed this!