Kings path forward is complicated, sixth straight loss is only one aspect

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The Doug Christie era of Kings basketball began on Saturday and it looked eerily similar to the end of the Mike Brown era that concluded on Friday. This is an unfair assessment, with Christie having a little over 24 hours to prepare for his first game, but it doesn’t change the look, feel or result for the team. 

Christie kept the same basic rotations that we saw from Brown through the first 31 games of the season, although there were a few new wrinkles. This makes sense when you consider that Christie was in charge of substitutions under Brown.

This isn’t to say that Christie made all the decisions on who played and who didn’t. Those decisions fall on the head coach. But Christie had the substitution sheet that Jordi Fernandez handled the year before and he kept the basic rotation going, especially in the first half of games.

Some of the differences we saw in game one from Christie were the combinations of players used together. Brown centered on a trio of Malik Monk, Domantas Sabonis and DeMar DeRozan as one grouping and the combo of De’Aaron Fox and Keegan Murray as a second pairing. 

In Christie’s first game, he tweaked these rotations, using Monk, Sabonis and Murray in one set and Fox and DeRozan as a different set when he mixed in the second unit. In theory, this should have given Murray a lot more opportunities as an off-ball shooter playing alongside the two-man game of Monk and Sabonis. Unfortunately, Murray shot 2-for-7 from the field and just 1-of-6 from three for five points.

Similar to Brown’s rotations, Christie relied on both Kevin Huerter and Trey Lyles as his two primary bench players with Keon Ellis and Alex Len getting limited minutes. Neither Huerter nor Lyles had standout games and Christie went away from Len in the second half, in the same way that Brown routinely did this season.

The Ellis conundrum is something that Christie must deal with. The fan favorite continues to shine on both sides of the ball. He is the Kings’ best perimeter defender and he’s also one of the team leaders in 3-point percentage, hitting a quality 42.6 percent on 3.1 attempts per game. 

In game one, Christie played Ellis for just 13 minutes and the 24-year-old responded by hitting 4-for-4 from the field and scoring 11 points. There is an energy and intensity that Ellis brings to the court that the Kings need, but he’s competing for minutes with Fox and Monk in the backcourt. 

Christie’s Kings still lack the size, length and athleticism in the frontcourt to compete with most NBA teams, which needs to be addressed by general manager Monte McNair and assistant GM Wes Wilcox. Ellis can’t help in that area and his path to an increased role is about to get more complicated.