Luke Walton unhappy with rebounding, threatens to make lineup changes

After the Sacramento Kings’ disappointing 105-103 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday, Luke Walton voiced his frustration with his team’s struggles to secure rebounds, specifically from his guards.

“To me, it really came down to us not boxing out, guards boxing out guards,” Walton said. “We’ve talked about it since day one of training camp and we feel like we have units out there that are offensively our best shot at playing the way we want to play but if we’re not willing to box out, we’re just going to have make more changes. We’ll look into that.”

It’s hard to guess what kind of changes Walton is indicating here, but one would guess it has something to do with potentially subbing out one of the guards from the starting lineup for a bigger player. In the majority of their contests this season, the Kings have lost the battle of the boards, so that move could help that deficiency, but might make the team’s offense worse if you sub out a guard from that starting unit for someone like Moe Harkless.

Rebounding challenges were always going to be an obstacle with the roster chalked full of so many guards that need minutes.

When asked about how the team plans to get through their struggles in this regard, Walton didn’t get too specific and said it was a matter of staying connected as a team.

“How we get through it? We stick together and keep working, stick together and keep working, stick together and keep working. That’s the recipe for success.”