Brown improves in Kings minutes management after first win originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SACRAMENTO – Kings coach Mike Brown was in good spirits after Monday’s 111-98 victory against the Portland Trail Blazers, but it wasn’t just because of the victory.
After two games where he leaned heavily on Sacramento’s starters and made them play much longer than he had hoped and expected, Brown did a much better and more efficient job of distributing the minutes on Monday.
While all five Kings starters played at least 33 minutes, only two — point guard De’Aaron Fox and center Domantas Sabonis — stayed on the court for more than 35 minutes. The rest of the minutes were spread out as Brown primarily used a nine-man rotation.
This was in contrast to the Kings’ first two games, when Brown didn’t really look too far off the bench for help.
At the season opener in Sacramento loss to the Minnesota TimberwolvesDeMar DeRozan and Keegan Murray each played more than 42 1/2 minutes.
Two days later against the Lakers in Los Angeles, Fox played 41 minutes, Murray almost 40 minutes and DeRozan more than 37 minutes.
It was a workload that Brown knew he had to correct, and the Kings coach took a good step in that direction on Monday.
It worked so well that Brown took a break while speaking to the media after the game to give himself a pat on the back.
“I’m going to pat myself on the back because I killed our guys,” Brown said. “Having these guys in a decent number of minutes in tonight’s game is very nice. Hopefully we can continue to try to find ways to keep these guys in that range that we talked about before the game.
It’s a situation that somewhat resembles the challenge facing Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, although with a twist.
Kerr has repeatedly said that Golden State’s roster is the deepest he’s coached in the NBA, and he’s willing to go up to 12 or 13 players every night. This is due to the abundance of talent Kerr believes the Warriors possess.
The Kings also have a lot of talent, but most of it is at the top, which is why Brown has had to rely so heavily on his starters.
Brown knew he couldn’t maintain the plan he was using. Ideally, the Kings coach said he would prefer to play Fox, Murray and Sabonis for about 36 minutes each game while limiting DeRozan to 34-35 minutes.
This is obviously a flexible plan. Game situations and the health of certain players may require additional adjustments.
“If we have a group riding, I’ve always tried to let a group ride,” Brown said. “But then, because I still feel all those guys on the sidelines, I need to be able to adapt quicker at the back. Game 1, I really didn’t do it. In the second game I did a better job.
“I hope that in the future I will be at least close to the goal that we need to achieve.”
