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Kings desperately need to add shooting to the roster

By Aykis16
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

In Tuesday night's loss to the Dallas Mavericks, much was made of Tyson Chandler's egregious flop as well as Tyrone Corbin's inexplicable decision to let 11 seconds run off the clock before fouling Monta Ellis in overtime, but Sacramento's three-point shooting (or lack thereof) deserves a spotlight as well.  The Kings shot just 1-18 from long range for the game, with many of those attempts being wide open.  Darren Collison was 0 for 6, Ben McLemore 0 for 5, Derrick Williams and Ray McCallm both 0 for 2 and Nik Stauskas just 1 for 3.  Dallas wasn't exactly lighting it up from downtown themselves, going just 6 for 24, but in a game that's decided by such a small margin, any little thing counts.

For the season, the Kings are among the worst three point shooting teams in the league.  They're 29th in both makes and attempts and just 23rd in percentage.  As of now the Kings don't have a single player shooting better than 37.6% from three point range.  Ben McLemore had been shooting very well from three early this season, but after struggling for a couple weeks he's back down to 36.5%.  Rudy Gay (37.6%), Darren Collison (37.5%), Ben McLemore (36.5%) and Derrick Williams (31.4%) are the only guys on the roster even shooting above 30% on the team (not counting DeMarcus Cousins, who is 1 for 2).

Kings 104, Mavericks 108: Epic gut punch

 The Kings couldn't buy a three against the Mavericks

The Kings knew they needed to add better shooting this offseason and hoped that the selection of rookie Nik Stauskas would help.  In college, Stauskas was one of the best shooters around, averaging 44.1% from long range on more than 5 attempts a game over two years.  In the NBA however he's only shooting 27.2%, an abysmal number for someone touted as a great shooter.  Sacramento's other offseason moves didn't necessarily upgrade the shooting either, as Ramon Sessions has never been a shooter, and Darren Collison has only been a marginally better long range shooter than Isaiah Thomas over his career.

Since Tyrone Corbin has taken over for Michael Malone, we've seen the Kings try to take advantage of the three point line a little more.  Under Malone, Sacramento shot just 14.6 attempts a game and made 33.1% of them.  Under Corbin they've upped both numbers to 17.4 and 34.2%.  However, those numbers still aren't very good.

The Kings possess arguably one of the best low post players in the NBA right now in DeMarcus Cousins.  He sees double teams on a nightly basis and is a willing passer.  Surrounding him with shooters not only makes it more dangerous for other teams to double, it gets our other guys better looks;  Consider this chart from NBA.com.  In it, we can see that the 3P% of players that Cousins passes to beyond the arc are considerably above their normal averages, aside from Rudy Gay's outlier of 16.7% (on just 0.2 attempts a game from Cousins passes above the arc).  That's because those players are normally left wide open after their man has gone to double Cousins.

The rumored Sacramento deal of Ramon Sessions for Jordan Farmar (which doesn't appear like it's going to happen given that Nate Robinson appears to be going to the Clippers), shows that this front office is trying to add some more shooting to the team.  However, they need to be more aggressive in doing so, both now until the trade deadline and later this summer during Free Agency.

Below is a list of all players in the NBA that are currently shooting above 38% from three point range that aren't stars (aka guys the Kings could actually think of acquiring):

Player Age Tm 3P 3PA FG% 2P% 3P% eFG% FT% TS%
Hedo Turkoglu 35 LAC 14 28 0.489 0.474 0.5 0.638 0.5 0.637
Courtney Lee 29 MEM 49 99 0.5 0.503 0.495 0.582 0.877 0.614
Luke Babbitt 25 NOP 36 73 0.419 0.15 0.493 0.613 0.75 0.622
Kevin Martin 31 MIN 26 54 0.483 0.485 0.481 0.592 0.875 0.652
Rasual Butler 35 WAS 59 125 0.478 0.483 0.472 0.587 0.8 0.604
Meyers Leonard 22 POR 13 30 0.493 0.538 0.433 0.587 0.857 0.619
Patrick Patterson 25 TOR 57 132 0.464 0.5 0.432 0.579 0.75 0.593
Richard Jefferson 34 DAL 28 65 0.449 0.463 0.431 0.544 0.612 0.564
J.J. Redick 30 LAC 96 226 0.465 0.513 0.425 0.58 0.851 0.622
Aaron Brooks 30 CHI 56 132 0.437 0.444 0.424 0.517 0.877 0.562
Dorell Wright 29 POR 14 33 0.37 0.286 0.424 0.5 0.833 0.557
Shawne Williams 28 MIA 55 130 0.444 0.48 0.423 0.578 0.839 0.601
Kent Bazemore 25 ATL 13 31 0.407 0.4 0.419 0.478 0.55 0.491
Mike Dunleavy 34 CHI 60 144 0.447 0.49 0.417 0.569 0.766 0.592
Justin Holiday 25 GSW 17 41 0.456 0.49 0.415 0.55 0.737 0.574
Shabazz Muhammad 22 MIN 19 46 0.488 0.498 0.413 0.513 0.722 0.555
C.J. Watson 30 IND 26 63 0.458 0.482 0.413 0.531 0.833 0.59
Kyle Singler 26 DET 54 131 0.413 0.414 0.412 0.522 0.769 0.538
Isaiah Canaan 23 HOU 32 78 0.427 0.457 0.41 0.556 0.762 0.578
Khris Middleton 23 MIL 42 103 0.446 0.465 0.408 0.515 0.842 0.549
Robert Covington 24 PHI 62 152 0.402 0.395 0.408 0.517 0.815 0.564
Matthew Dellavedova 24 CLE 28 69 0.322 0.196 0.406 0.443 0.625 0.451
Jose Calderon 33 NYK 40 99 0.4 0.397 0.404 0.485 1 0.51
Jared Dudley 29 MIL 39 97 0.48 0.538 0.402 0.566 0.806 0.589
Brandon Knight 23 MIL 76 190 0.451 0.478 0.4 0.52 0.893 0.572
Danny Green 27 SAS 95 238 0.433 0.484 0.399 0.553 0.836 0.578
Jason Terry 37 HOU 67 168 0.427 0.493 0.399 0.567 0.783 0.58
Wayne Ellington 27 LAL 33 83 0.437 0.466 0.398 0.52 0.762 0.535
Matt Barnes 34 LAC 60 151 0.475 0.582 0.397 0.59 0.796 0.614
Marcus Thornton 27 BOS 25 63 0.41 0.418 0.397 0.483 0.813 0.516
Channing Frye 31 ORL 80 202 0.394 0.39 0.396 0.535 0.786 0.543
Patrick Beverley 26 HOU 65 165 0.407 0.427 0.394 0.525 0.7 0.542
Marcus Morris 25 PHO 56 142 0.453 0.493 0.394 0.533 0.651 0.543
Mike Scott 26 ATL 36 92 0.454 0.496 0.391 0.533 0.822 0.565
Kendall Marshall 23 MIL 18 46 0.455 0.509 0.391 0.545 0.889 0.562
Charlie Villanueva 30 DAL 30 77 0.451 0.556 0.39 0.574 0.8 0.58
P.J. Tucker 29 PHO 44 113 0.472 0.55 0.389 0.567 0.78 0.594
Deron Williams 30 BRK 44 113 0.396 0.399 0.389 0.456 0.862 0.527
Paul Pierce 37 WAS 54 139 0.46 0.507 0.388 0.537 0.795 0.588
Isaiah Thomas 25 PHO 50 129 0.424 0.445 0.388 0.496 0.866 0.577
Anthony Morrow 29 OKC 50 129 0.429 0.472 0.388 0.528 0.857 0.558
Matt Bonner 34 SAS 33 85 0.427 0.472 0.388 0.532 0.792 0.555
Jodie Meeks 27 DET 26 67 0.424 0.445 0.388 0.497 0.95 0.55
C.J. McCollum 23 POR 19 49 0.354 0.32 0.388 0.449 0.708 0.484
DeMarre Carroll 28 ATL 55 142 0.456 0.515 0.387 0.545 0.691 0.574
Nick Young 29 LAL 60 156 0.369 0.356 0.385 0.455 0.919 0.521
Reggie Bullock 23 LAC 15 39 0.426 0.533 0.385 0.565 0.8 0.578
Eric Gordon 26 NOP 25 65 0.421 0.447 0.385 0.5 0.75 0.525
Ben Gordon 31 ORL 28 73 0.469 0.51 0.384 0.531 0.855 0.574
Pablo Prigioni 37 NYK 41 107 0.43 0.545 0.383 0.566 0.818 0.588
Allen Crabbe 22 POR 21 55 0.422 0.486 0.382 0.539 0.889 0.559
Joe Harris 23 CLE 24 63 0.395 0.435 0.381 0.535 0.625 0.542

That list is far from complete, as it also leaves guys off who have shown they can be good shooters, guys like Gary Neal, Marco Belinelli, Ryan Anderson etc. who haven't reached the 38% mark this season.

The Kings don't really have the assets to make a big move before the trade deadline, but I'd still like to see a move or two made to bolster our perimeter, and then a real push this summer to add even more shooting when guys like Danny Green and Gerald Green will be Free Agents.  That, combined with improvement from young guys like Ben and Nik, will really help this team's spacing and offensive efficiency.

We don't need the second coming of Peja.  But having someone, anyone, that we can rely on to knock down open shots on a consistent basis will help.

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