The post Brown excels in managing minutes for Kings after first win first aired on NBC Sports Bay Area
SACRAMENTO – Kings coach Mike Brown was in a good mood after Monday’s 111-98 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, and not just because of the win.
After two games in which he relied heavily on Sacramento’s starters and had them play much longer than he had hoped and planned, Brown has done a much better and more effective job of spreading out his playing time around Monday. did.
All five Kings starting pitchers played at least 33 minutes, but only two, point guard De’Aaron Fox and center Domantas Sabonis, were on the court for more than 35 minutes. The rest of the time was spread out as Brown primarily used a nine-man rotation.
This was in contrast to the Kings’ first two games, where Brown was unable to find help deep on the bench.
DeMar DeRozan and Keegan Murray each played more than 42 1/2 minutes in Sacramento’s season-opening loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Two days later, against the Lakers in Los Angeles, Fox played 41 minutes, Murray nearly 40 minutes and DeRozan over 37 minutes.
We know this is a workload that Brown has to correct, and the Kings coach took a good step in that direction on Monday.
It went so well that Brown stopped to give himself a pat on the back while addressing the media after the game.
“I’m going to pat myself on the back because I’ve killed my guys,” Brown said. “We were very pleased that we were able to get them some decent minutes in tonight’s game and hopefully we can continue to find ways to keep the players in that range that we talked about before the game. ”
It’s a somewhat similar situation to the challenge facing Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, albeit with some twists and turns.
Kerr has repeatedly said Golden State’s roster is the deepest he’s ever coached in the NBA and that he plans to be in the 12th or 13th depth on any given night. That’s because Kerr believes the Warriors have a wealth of talent.
The Kings also have plenty of talent, but most of it is at the top, so Brown had to rely heavily on his starters.
Brown knew he could not maintain the blueprint he had been using. The Kings coach said he would ideally have Fox, Murray and Sabonis play about 36 minutes each game, and limit DeRozan to 34 to 35 minutes.
It’s clearly a flexible plan. Additional adjustments may be necessary depending on the game situation and the health of a particular player.
“If a group is moving, I’ve always tried to get that group moving,” Brown said. “But I’m still feeling all these guys, so I needed to be able to adjust faster on the backside. Game 1 we really didn’t do it. Game 2 we did a better job.”
“I hope we can at least get closer to our goal in the future.”
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