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In our annual September series, we ask 30 questions over 30 days as we prepare for another season of Kings basketball. Today we consider how often we might see incumbent point guard Isaiah Thomas on the court at the same time as newly acquired Greivis Vasquez.
I'm not even going to get into the Stockholm Syndrome at play here where we Kings fans insist on speculating about random rotational pairings that don't really make much sense. Let's just take this question at face value.
It's easy to understand why some may speculate that Thomas and Vasquez could play together. While Isaiah is undersized and more of a scoring guard, Vasquez has great size and is more of a distributor. Vasquez is 6'6" and has a nice wingspan, so it seems like he should be able to cover the opposing team's shooting guard on the defensive end.
But while this is a nice theory, I believe it's simply a theory. Sure, we'll probably see them on the court together at least once or twice, but I would expect it to be for very limited minutes, and only when there's a particular match up that Coach Malone is looking to exploit.
If the team is focused on improving defensively, a Thomas-Vasquez line-up makes no sense. Both players have struggled on defense throughout their careers. Could a new, defense-oriented coach cause one or both to improve on the defensive side of the ball? If so, then the two point guard line-up makes more sense.
I'm also not seeing the pairing based on the glut of guards the team currently employs. Playing Thomas and Vasquez at the same time means that you're sitting Marcus Thornton, Ben McLemore, and Jimmer Fredette (unless you're forcing McLemore or Thornton into a small forward role). If a trade or two lightens up the logjam at shooting guard, then once again the Thomas-Thornton pairing makes more sense.
I'm not betting against Isaiah Thomas committing to defense and showing dramatic improvement. I'm not betting against trades happening this season. I'm just betting against the two point guard line-up until we see one of those other scenarios come true first.