2016 Roundtable Report Cards: Shooting Guards are going to need parent signatures on these

Yesterday we took a look back at how Sacramento's Point Guards did, but today we focus on their backcourt partners, the shooting guards.  I think it's safe to say that this was Sacramento's most disappointing position this season, with George Karl searching for an answer all season and not getting any help.

As per the poll, the grading scale I used was as follows:

A: Excels

B: Exceeds Expectations

C: Met Expectations

D: Below Expectations

F: Fails

Feel free to share what your own individual grades are in the comments below!

***

Marco Belinelli

Blake: F

Belinelli lit it up in preseason and it looked like Vlade Divac was a genius for brining the sharp shooter in. I figured the dip in his shooting percentages during his last season in San Antonio weren't too much of a concern, but Belinelli brought it with him to Sacramento and was shooting bricks from everywhere on the floor. He finished the season shooting .386 percent from the field -€” the worst of his career. And when Belinelli is not making his shot, he isn't contributing much else to the game. But Karl still gave him the green light, and the team paid the price.

Bryant: D-

Maybe Marco is only as good as the team around him, but he was brought in as a shooter and he couldn't shoot. Hopefully this turns around next year.

Greg: F

No excuses here. Marco was a disaster. Brought in as a shooter, he had the worst shooting season of his career. He checked out early in the season and never showed any glimpses of bouncing back.

Will: F

Marco started the season in a slump that continued into the All-Star Break and then ended with the sounding of the horn at the end of the Kings 82nd game. I didn't expect an All-Star year from Marco, but I did expect much more than we got from him. Better luck next year, Marco.

Brad: D-

He had a couple good games that prevented the F. If he can find his jumper, and we can play to his ability to catch and shoot, his grade could go way up next year.

section214: D-

As is the case for all of these guys/grades, they may be a victim of their environment/scheme/locusts. But the bottom line is that Marco Belinelli was brought in here at a more than nominal expense to provide spacing and off-the-bench punch for the Kings, and he failed in a gloriously miserable fashion. Here's hoping that a new year and a new coach will bring the best out of him, because what we saw this year I would prefer not to see again.

Akis: F

When you're signed to a 3 year deal to be a "designated shooter" and you take 297 three pointers and then you only shoot 30.6% from three and even DeMarcus Cousins and Rajon Rondo shoot a better percentage from three than you do, you failed.

Commenters: D-

Out of 1,053 responses, 46.2% voted for F, 43.4% voted for D, 8.5% voted for C, 1.3% voted for B and 0.7% voted for A. On a 4 point grading scale, this comes out to a 0.67, a D- and easily the worst grade for an individual player on the team.

Ben McLemore

Blake: F

I like Ben, he seems like a good kid, but too often he looks like he is lost and not sure what he is supposed to be doing in a team concept of basketball. I suspect he got lost in the mix of all the veterans added to the team last summer and didn't ever quite figure out how to blend in. Shooting remains a big hole for this team.

Bryant: C-

It's almost certainly time for Ben to go. Some smart team is going to develop him into a stud slash and shoot player, but his confidence in Sacramento is shot and his development plateaued at the beginning of his sophomore year. Sorry you had to be drafted at such a bad time, Ben, but you sure don't look like you have the mental fortitude to become the third option this team needs.

Greg: D

I'm so tired of waiting for Ben to take the next step. I won't be upset if the Kings trade him this summer.

Will: D-

Ben was probably my biggest disappointment this year. Every season seems to show that he's one more season away from breaking out, and coming into this season, the hope was he could finally turn the corner and be the starting shooting guard the Kings so desperately need. He was not. I root so very hard for Ben, and I think that his career could have been completely different had he not been drafted by a team with so much internal bickering as the front office and locker room seem to have, but this season did nothing to advance hope in Ben McLemore's career with the Kings.

Brad: D

Ben was bad this year. I really like Ben, and I want him to do better, but he was bad this year. I think that he is his own worst enemy, as he seems to psyche himself out and run around like a chicken with his head chopped off. Maybe a change of scenery can save him, but my faith in him is fading fast.

section214: D-

I might be a little generous here (as I was with Marco Belinelli). McLemore and Belinelli were easily the most disappointing players on the roster this year, as they comprised perhaps the worst shooting guard tandem in the league...a tandem so bad that James Anderson was seen as an alternative. McLemore either failed to progress or backslid in almost every category in his third NBA season, playing to a level that really began to call his NBA future into question. From any angle, this season was a disaster for Ben McLemore.

Akis: F

I don't know if I was disappointed in any one more than I was in Ben.  His second year growth was enough to get me excited about his future possibilities, but he took a step back in his third year.  That third year is typically the year in which young players tend to make their mark in the league and if anything Ben failed to leave any lasting impression whatsoever.  What's even more disappointing is that Sacramento's other shooting guards were so bad, Ben had a great opportunity to prove himself and that just wasn't the case.  At this point I'm wondering if Ben will ever even be a rotation player in the league, let alone the star some of us hoped he could become when we took him in the lottery.

Commenters: D

Out of 1,065 responses, 49.4% voted for D, 35.2% voted for F, 13.9% voted for C, 0.8% voted for B and 0.8% voted for A.  On a 4 point grading scale, this averaged out to a 0.82, somewhere between a D and a D-.

James Anderson

Blake: F

Poor James Anderson. He was not appreciated much by the fans this season, mainly because he was getting minutes over a guy like Steph Curry and making some pretty poor basketball decisions on the floor along the way. Karl preferred Anderson for his size and defense, but playing Anderson became a futile task. He did score 17 points in a game against the New Orleans Pelicans, so there's that.

Bryant: D

It's not James Anderson's fault that Karl mistook him for Wesley Matthews. He just should be a 15th man on an NBA roster.

Greg: B

He exceeded my expectation for minutes played.

Will: C-

James Anderson didn't do anything great this year, but he wasn't the worst player in the NBA.  I expected nothing from James Anderson, and that's about what it evened out to.

Brad: F

Next question...

section214: C

And while my "C+" for Seth Curry was probably viewed as low, my "C" for James Anderson may be the high water mark here. But when you look at this logically -€” that he was signed as an end-of-the-bench guy and logged 721 minutes, and that those minutes were really the result of Marco Belinelli and Ben McLemore repeatedly spitting the bit -€” Anderson pretty much was who he was supposed to be. He shot it a lot less per 100 possessions than any of the other wings and guards on the team, and he at least had an enthusiasm for playing defense. He turned it over too much, and pretty much looked lost offensively most of the time, but again, for an end-of-the-bench guy, he answered the call. I'm not going to blame James Anderson for the inability of Belinelli and McLemore to do their jobs.

Akis: D

I didn't really have any expectations in James Anderson and they still were somehow not met.  He's a 3 and D guy who can't play defense or make threes.  I still can't believe he opted out of $1.1 million.

Commenters: D

Out of 1,055 responses, 39.6% voted for D, 30.2% voted for C, 24.6% voted for C, 4.5% voted for B and 1.0% voted for A.  On a 4 point grading scale, this averaged out to a 1.13, a D.

Coming Tomorrow: Small Forwards