If the Kings ruin Malachi Richardson like they ruined Ben McLemore, I’m gonna be pissed. Richardson and McLemore aren’t exactly the same player (can Richardson even jump? can McLemore create his own shot?), but there are some similarities. The most noticable being that they are both currently being ruined by the Kings organization.
Why is Arron Afflalo even getting minutes? What about Matt Barnes? I get that the Kings are still technically in the 8th-seed playoff hunt, but that shouldn’t be the goal. The goal should be to try to get at least one of the first-round picks other than DeMarcus Cousins going in the NBA. Their track record is abysmal, but it could be less abysmal if they didn’t insist on playing vets in place of rookie talent.
They won this game against the defending champ Cavaliers, and guess what: it was because Richardson scored 12 points. He doesn’t score those points, the Kings don’t win the game. Simple as that. Ignore Afflalo’s 14 points. Those don’t count, because it took him 40 minutes to score them. Richardson only needed 14 minutes for his five buckets, and they weren’t even lame buckets. They were IMPRESSIVE. Some nice pull-up action for the rookie.
Also Georgios Papagiannis needs minutes. Don’t think I forgot about that dude.