Posted By: Anthony Bertacchi – Cowbell Kingdom
For the Sacramento Kings, this current season (2016-17) isn’t about making a deep playoff run. This season isn’t about challenging the Warriors in the first round of the playoffs or even making the playoffs at all for that matter. For the first time in years, this team is completely without a legitimate NBA star.
DeMarcus Cousins was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans last month and Rudy Gay was lost for the year because of an Achilles injury before that.
In the meantime, the team’s job will be to look at the young talent they have on the roster and go from there. The Kings have Willie Cauley-Stein, Buddy Hield, Malachi Richardson and Skal Labissiere to work with and they are all 23 years old or younger.
Right now they are all question marks, but it’s also intriguing to see if any of these young players become a star. Today, we’ll take a closer look at Labissiere.
A few years ago, the thought of getting Labissiere was something that any team would love. He was the number two overall prospect coming out of high school and committed to Kentucky. However, once he got to Lexington he struggled.
Usually, a Calipari big man comes in with a lot of hype; puts up good numbers, leaves after a year and becomes a high pick. Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Davis and former King DeMarcus Cousins are prime examples.
For Labissiere, it wasn’t exactly like that. By the end of the year he averaged only 6.6 points and 3.1 rebounds playing just 15.8 minutes a night. Mix in the fact that he started just 18 of the 36 games for the Wildcats and it was a rough year for Labissiere. Nevertheless, he decided to enter the draft anyways.
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