Devin Carter DOMINATES Sacramento Kings Summer League Game 2! | Locked On Kings

Devin Carter DOMINATES Sacramento Kings Summer League Game 2! | Locked On Kings

Devin Carter drops a 30 bomb while Nate Clifford has become the new king of the fourth quarter. Sacramento improves to 2 and 0 in summer league. And you are listening to Locked on Kings. You are Locked on Kings, your daily Sacramento Kings podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. And now, ladies and gentlemen, it is that time. Time for another episode of Locked on Kings. Hello and welcome into Locked on Kings, your podcast hub for Sacramento Kings coverage all offseason long. Today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked on NBA for $20 off of your first purchase. My name is Matt George. I have the privilege of being your host here. I’m a Sacramento sports anchor and reporter for ABC 10 News. And just like last episode, preface this with saying everything of course is under the lens of summer league. So we can overreact, have fun with certain things, but keep in mind it’s just a summer league game. I say that so you don’t have to. Even though my comment section is going to be filled with it again after we celebrate the Sacramento Kings defeating the Chicago Bulls and fantastic individual performances again for the Kings almost across the board. But we of course have to start with Devin Carter, the guy that I and many were critical of after the last summer league game. Look, you can’t say that summer league doesn’t matter when talking about the success of a player, but then say summer league matters when talking about the struggles of a player, right? And the one thing, the thing I was most critical of with Devin Carter after the first game was not him playing the point guard position because as we know, he is learning the point guard position which is not natural to him. It was that in his second year, although you can kind of kind of put an asterisk next to that considering he missed half of last season and training camp with his shoulder injury, but after being the Kings lottery pick last year and having some NBA experience, I think 36 games, I was hoping that Devin Carter would show that he was the best player on this summer league roster. He was the leader of this summer league team. this was an opportunity for, you know, we say a lot of we we undermine a lot of players individual performances in the G-League or in summer league. And yet, if they are truly NBA caliber players or players to the level that the Sacramento Kings are hoping, they need to dominate or succeed on this level. And Devin delivered in tonight’s game. A 30point explosion. He went five of seven from three-point range, eight rebounds, three assists, three steals. Devin Carter all over the stat column. And everybody’s eyes are going to immediately go to those 30 points and that offense and rightfully so. And we’re going to start there, but I want to make sure I emphasize now before we talk about it later the significance of the eight rebounds and the three steals and Devin Carter looking more like himself even though he is focusing on trying to implement a new position and the new responsibilities that that point guard position presents. 30 points for Devin Carter. He had eight points in the span of like 35 to 40 seconds. Three straight possessions in the first quarter. He had a pair of threes. Had a really strong take to the basket where he finished with the right hand through contact. Really impressive offensive performance from Devin Carter that we’ve seen before. I think back to the first time I ever saw Devin Carter play a basketball game. It was inside the Golden One center when Devin Carter made his GLeague debut for the Stockton Kings in one of his first essentially rehab assignments. He went crazy in that game too offensively. I think he scored 30 or more points in that game. So, we’ve seen these offensive explosions from Devin before on this level. Again, that’s a good sign because it suggests that offensively he can be an NBA caliber player if he’s doing this now repeatedly on a smaller stage on the level below NBA. But this was also a great like FU performance for lack of a better term. Like and it doesn’t matter who the FU is too. The FU could be to me. FU Matt, I heard your podcast after game one. I don’t think that’s it. I don’t think he listened to the podcast, but f you fans for saying the things that you were saying to me or about me on social media after that first game. Hey, f you warrior fans who called me the Kings trash that they would give to the Warriors as part of a Jonathan Kaminga deal. Hey, f you Kings for even including me in trade talks. F you new general manager Scott Perry. F you media members or broadcasters, whoever it is. good. I hope it’s fuel for him and I celebrate performances like this when he can give the FU to those people that doubt him. Right? If that’s what motivates him to be the best version of himself, that is what the Sacramento Kings need, right? The Sacramento Kings need Devin Carter to have a chip on his shoulder. The Sacramento Kings need Devin Carter to be stubborn on the basketball court. And I don’t mean stubborn when it comes to sharing the basketball or hogging uh the the the the shot selection or whatever. I’m talking about stubborn to where he says, “Yeah, you don’t think I can do this? You don’t think I can handle the point guard position? You think my jump shot is broke? Watch me. Watch what I can do. You think I’m a bust after half a season in the league. You think I was the wrong pick for Monty McNair who no longer has a job to make. Watch me prove you wrong.” If that’s Devin Carter’s approach, I’m all for it. Now, one game doesn’t change one summer league game doesn’t change the doubts that I have about Devin. They still very much exist. But all we can ask for at this stage when there’s nothing else going on, we’re in the middle of July, people. You can’t ask for anything more than what Devin Carter provided. All he could do was either perform or struggle and make all that noise and all that doubt and all that hate louder. He didn’t. He performed. And it’s lazy to just toss it away or throw it under the rug or undermine it by saying it’s just summer league and put your little crying face laughing emojis on social media. It’s not. It is just summer league in terms of the level of competition. The Kings winning and being 2 and 0 in summer league doesn’t matter. Devin Carter putting on a performance like that, more importantly responding to his struggles that he had in the first game. That means something. That means a lot to me. That speaks volumes to me. The 30 points, whatever. Fine. Awesome. the response, the resiliency, the stubbornness. That’s what speaks to me. That’s what I saw from Devin Carter in tonight’s game. But I mentioned the eight rebounds and three steals. One of the things I said after the first game was that I didn’t feel that Devin was able to be himself in that game. You could tell he was focusing on managing the responsibilities of that point guard position. And we didn’t see the defensive scrainess. We didn’t see him crashing the glass the way we know he’s capable of doing despite being an undersized guard, right? That’s what got him to the NBA. That’s what drew the attention of Monty McNair and the Sacramento Kings to draft him in the first place despite his injury. We saw that in this game. We saw Devin Carter look like himself and even on the glass. Like you talk about there are things about the point guard position that Devin Carter has to learn and that doesn’t naturally fit with his game, but there are also ways where he can use his natural game to benefit his play as a point guard. Crashing the glass is a perfect example of that. There was a play in the first half where the Kings were on the defensive end. The Bulls missed a shot. Devin Carter is in the paint, gets the rebound, and immediately starts the fast break. No outlet pass needed, nothing. He gets the ball, he goes, and what does he do? He finds Nick Clifford wide open for a transition three. A beautiful shot to generate because the defense of the Bulls isn’t set. They’re scrambling because the Kings didn’t waste any time. The point guard got the rebound and he pushed and it resulted in a wideopen three. That’s a way that Devin can use his skill set to his advantage as a point guard. Look, I know he only had three assists and I saw people pointing that out. Three assists, Matt, if the Kings are looking for a point guard that’s going to help facilitate for Demar D Rozan and Zack Lavine. I have my concerns. I hear you. I feel the same way. I don’t think Devin Carter is that type of point guard. I also don’t think he’s a scoring first point guard. I was talking to Chris Beerman of the Sacramento Be the other day, fantastic journalist that covers the Kings, and he pointed out like Devin Carter being kind of like Gary Payeyton with the Golden State Warriors, basically a power forward in a guard’s body. If you’re this enforcing point guard, like Devin can be that. Now, I do think the Kings need more playmaking from their point guards. And we saw the best season that Lavine and D Rozan specifically had together in Chicago was when Lonzo Ball, a pass first point guard, was running the offense for them. So, there are still fair questions about Deon’s fit as the point guard for this team and with this group. But what I saw in tonight’s game was Devin not only show off the offensive ability that we know he has and that he can hopefully bring out a time or two in the NBA, but showing off how he can use his strengths to benefit the point guard position. And again, I was really encouraged by that. I’m not expecting him to be a pass first point guard. I’m not I don’t think that’s realistic. But we did get to see some pass first play and playmaking from the Kings rookie and first round pick Nique Clifford as well as more fourth quarter I’d say heroics but more of a fourth quarter showcase. Let’s call it that as the Kings this game wasn’t close in the fourth quarter. I’ll talk about Nick Clifford. Plus we have to talk about Maxim Reno, Dylan Cardwell, even Isaiah Stevens. That’s all coming up here on Locked on Kings. Like I said at the top of the show, today’s episode of the Locked on Kings podcast is brought to you by Game Time. Have you ever decided at the last minute to head to a ball game with your friends and your family? Well, maybe it’s a game day and suddenly you realize you want to be in the stands. Maybe in a baseball scenario, you find out, oh, a pitcher I wanted to see is pitching today or my time freed up. That’s exactly where game time comes in clutch. It’s the easiest way to grab lastminute tickets without the stress. With the money that you save on the tickets, you can splurge on food, drinks, merch, or even invite a bigger group out to the ballpark with you. Game time makes that possible. Game time makes buying tickets fast and simple. Prices on the app actually drop significantly the closer that you get to first pitch. And they’ve got incredible lastminute deals, clear seat views, and a lowest price guarantee that takes the worry out of buying tickets. 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For the second game in a row, Nate Clifford didn’t have the greatest of first halfs offensively, but I never felt that both times he was in over his head or playing poorly. the ball was just going to other people, right? Game one, it was Maxim Reo who exploded in the for the first quarter. Game two, it was Devin Carter. But the biggest difference that I noticed for Nick Clifford in between game one and game two, at least in the first half, was how much Nick actually had the ball in his hands. Right. How much he was facilitating. And I think it’s I mean it’s not a coincidence that he took on a lot of those responsibilities with Devin Carter having the offensive performance that Carter was having. But I told you and I think Scott Perry even talked about it in his interview uh on the NBA TV broadcast during game one of the summer league. But I told you because I I’ I’d heard it a couple of times. The Sacramento Kings view neat Clifford as someone who is an option at that backup point guard spot. He’s someone that can handle the responsibilities of a point guard within reason in limited windows and in limited stretches. Backing up Dennis Shruder or sharing that responsibility with Malik Monk or Devin Carter or whoever the Kings elect as their excuse me as their backup point guard. The the Kings their front office believe that Nick Clifford is capable of handling that. and I thought we were going to get the opportunity in summer league for him to have those responsibilities. We still haven’t really seen Nick as the point guard in lineups, right? Typically, he’s out there playing the two or the three, but it he got significantly more opportunity in this game too today with the ball in his hands with the opportunity to create two-man game with different players including the rookie, his fellow rookie Maxim Reno. And I thought he had some really, really bright spots for the game. Nick Clifford 19 points, eight of 13 from the field. We’ll talk about his offense in a second. 12 rebounds. You love to see that uh from the uh the the wing. Five assists and a steal. The distribution on display. I will say, and it is worth pointing out, Nate Clifford did turn the ball over five times. He forced a couple passes, threw the ball away a couple of times. I’m okay with that. To me, that’s part of the growing pain. Figure it out. Get on the same page with your teammates. Try some things. Try and thread the needle. Challenge the defense a little bit. I’m okay with five turnovers. Right now, now is the time to do it. But he did have the turnovers. He also had some really, really good passes, some really good moments where the ball was running through him and he was looking for the open teammate and finding the open teammate. So, I was really encouraged by the distribution that we saw from Nick Clifford. But then there’s the thing that’s been most consistent with Nick over these first two summer league games. It must be the number five on the jersey. Remember the last guy to wear number five here in Sacramento, De’arren Fox, the first ever clutch player of the year. Yeah, there must be some some some clutch left over in that number here in Sacramento because for the second straight game, Nick Clifford came alive in the fourth quarter. Now, a bit different this time because in the fourth quarter of game one, NE was needed to put that game away against Orlando. In the fourth quarter of game two, because of the great first and third quarters that the Kings had, this game was pretty much out of reach. The Kings were in full control, but Nick Clifford still established himself offensively in the fourth quarter. Had 10 points, four of five shooting from the field, two of two from three-point range, and again, he had 11 points on four of seven shooting in the fourth quarter in game one. So, hey, if Nick Clifford’s going to be one of those guys to come alive for Sacramento and be an option for them in the fourth quarter, I’m all for it. Again, it’s just summer league. He’s going to be fighting with guys like D Rozan and Lavine for shots if Nick Clifford’s even on the floor in the fourth quarter of an NBA game this season. But it’s good to see him be fearless with the ball in the fourth quarter. And one of the things I love about Nick is he was interviewed after the game. First thing he points out because they point like, “Man, your fourth quarter great second straight game.” Nak goes, “Yeah, I got to get better at getting myself going offensively earlier, though. I got to be better earlier.” Kid just gets it. I shouldn’t even call him a kid. He’s a young man. He’s in his 20s. five years of college experience. His expectations are higher than that. Hopefully, we do at some point during this summer le summer league get a get a glimpse at what like a full four quarter offensive performance looks like for Nick Clifford. But I’m very encouraged, very encouraged by what I’m seeing. The versatility is obvious, right? We saw the rebounding. We saw what he can do on the defensive end. Saw more of the playmaking. The offense has been consistent through the first two games. The three-point shot is there. looks good. The vis the versatility of Neique Clifford is on display. There is nothing about that man that doesn’t scream NBA player and he’s someone that I think should be able to contribute for the Sacramento Kings main roster right away. And he’s proven that with how he’s playing in the G-League. But I also want to talk about his former teammate at Colorado State, Isaiah Stevens. Isaiah Stevens came off the bench with 10 points, four of six shooting from the field, two of four from three-point range, had four assists, two steals. A reminder, Isaiah Stevens led the G-League in total assists last season as part of the Miami Heat uh system. He was a plus 28 off of the bench. Plus minus, not the greatest stat in the world, but when there’s massive positives and massive negatives, usually that tells a little bit of the story. Isaiah Stevens when he was on the floor, great things were happening for the Kings and he did a really good job on the defensive end, too. The Kings in general did a really good job on the defensive end and that clearly is a major focus for this summer league team is establishing themselves defensively. They let their foot off the gas a little bit in the second quarter to let the Bulls battle back from like 17 or 18 down. The Kings had near 20point leads in the first half of both of these games so far, which is great to see with the offense getting going so strong. But the Kings held the Bulls to 14 points in the first quarter and 17 points in the third quarter. Defensively, that’s really encouraging to see. Isaiah Stevens was a good a big part of that, as of course was Nick Clifford. But we still have to talk about Maxim Reno on the defensive end. There are still some negatives to point out. There are still some things to be critical about, but the offense, man, the offense just looks smooth. We’ll talk about it. Devin Carter oneuped Maxim Reno in his first half from game one a little bit in tonight’s game, but that’s okay. Maxim, while he wasn’t redot offensively in any one particular quarter, I thought he was solid and consistent throughout all four. Another solid performance for for him. 17 points, eight of 15 from the field. 15 field goals led the Sacramento Kings just like he did at Stanford. Maxi Marino offensively is not afraid to look to score. And that’s a breath of fresh air considering Demand Sabonis, while as great of a distributor and team player and rebounder as Demand Sabonis is here in Sacramento, he doesn’t exactly have that scoring first mentality. And I know Maxim Reno is looking to learn a lot from playing with Damont Sabonis. Hopefully, he can teach Sabonis a thing or two about looking for his own shot. But Maxim Reno, one of four from three-point range, five rebounds, one steel. His offensive game is NBA ready. like his his offensive game is good. It’s smooth. It’s polished. The floor spacing fantastic. No hesitation on threes. The pick and roll game, oh my goodness, his pick and roll game is so good. His movement on the pick and roll. Even his passing in the pick and roll. He had a couple of twoman game moments with Devin Carter where Devin would get him the ball and then Maxim would pump fake, draw a defender, get him up in the air and drop the back the ball right back off to Devin for an easy bucket. That happened a couple of times in this game. I thought M I just offensively I think Maxim Reno is polished, smooth, brilliant, comfortable, whatever word you want to use, Maxim Reno is an NBA caliber player on the offensive end. Defensively, we still need some work. A lot of the same gripes and the same criticisms that I had after game one. He is not strong enough in the paint for me. And I’m not talking about like physically battling and going blow forblow with another sevenfooter in the post. That’s not what I’m talking about. He does not attack the ball when he goes up to block shots. He had he didn’t have a block in this game. Again, he does. He just is not aggressive enough attacking the basketball. teams are naturally forced, opponents are naturally naturally forced to shoot floaters over the top of him just to get that that shot off because he’s so long. But he needs to close out stronger and attack the basketball stronger in the paint defensively. One thing that I asked for though from him defensively in game uh two after game one, he delivered on. Maxim Marino had seven fouls. Now, you might be going, Matt, that’s not good. That’s a He He would have fouled out of the game. Fouls don’t matter in summer league. Rack up 17 of them. Who cares? Attack the ball. Be physical. Be aggressive. I don’t care if you get into foul trouble. Learn what you can and can’t get away with. I’m okay with seven fouls from Maxim Renault. I’m more than okay with it. I want more of it. Be aggressive. Attack the basketball. Get a block at some point. But more specifically, make sure when a when an opponent, especially a guard, comes into the paint. They know you’re there. And make them think make them a little more scared than I, okay, I just have to put up a floater and hope it goes in, right? Make them make sure they know that you’re there. I still am looking for that. I still want to see that from Maxi Marino because if they can do this to him on the the summer league level, he’s going to get pushed around on the NBA level. And guards that have mastered that floater are going to have a field day against him if he doesn’t attack the basketball and try and block their shots in that way. But a guy that attacks the basketball, Dylan Cardwell, the Kings undrafted two-way player out of Auburn. Man, he he gave us a glimpse of why the Sacramento Kings went out and got him. He rejected what looked like a wideopen transition alley for the Chicago Bulls. Came in out of nowhere to pin that ball against the glass. And here’s the thing, like the next possession or two down the floor, the guy that he blocked put him on a poster, completely dunked on him, and I was thrilled to see it. Now, don’t get me wrong, I didn’t want my guy to get embarrassed, but the reason why he was put on a poster is because he tried to make sure that that dunk could not get off cleanly or he tried for that block again. I’m all for it. get dunked on. Doesn’t matter at the summer league level. Hypes up the bench a little bit. Your team’s winning. Your job is to be an enforcer around the rim. Be physical. If you get dunked on, so be it. People are going to remember the blocked alley more than you getting dunked on. At least I do. I was happy to see that from Dylan Cardwell. I’m very excited about this young man to see what he can do for the Sacramento Kings or more the Stockton Kings really with that two-way contract. The Kings are in desperate need of like an enforcer as a center. I’ve drawn the comparison before and other people have talked about how Scott Perry when he was with the New York Knicks went out and uh got Mitchell Robinson and Mitchell Robinson has turned into a really important enforcing center for New York. Maybe Dylan Cardwell could be that. I certainly hope he could because the Kings desperately could use it. I say wins don’t matter in the G-League or excuse me in the summer league because they don’t. Kings could lose by 30, but if they’re getting these individual performances from their players, especially their their NBA guys, I’m very excited about that. But the Kings are winning. They’re 2 and 0. They’ve looked really good in both games. Dare I say they’re on a hunt for a third summer league championship. Never been done before. Just saying. The Kings are one of a few franchises to have multiple summer league titles. This team is good, man. And I haven’t even talked about Isaac Jones who played well. Uh Isaiah um I’m blanking on a couple of guys that I wanted to talk about that I didn’t even write down and shame on me. Isaiah Crawford had a really really good game. Like this Kings summer league team’s pretty stacked. That starting lineup’s really good. Hey man, call it meaningless hardware if you want to. I wouldn’t mind this team bringing another summer league title home to Sacramento with them ahead of of next season. That would that would make us all feel pretty good. So, I think this Kings team absolutely can do it. Now, I want to hear from you. Your thoughts on Devin Carter’s big performance. Have you heed your tune on him a little bit? Is there anything else you want to see more of? Like, the most important thing for Devin Carter is consistency at this point. Like, be consistent. You had the bad struggling first game. You responded in a phenomenal way in this game. You showed that resiliency. That’s great. Now, where does it balance out? Can you find that balance for the remainder of this summer league? That’s what we’re looking for from him. But you want to share your thoughts on Devin Carter, your thoughts on on Nick or Maxim or anybody else on this summer league team? Hit me up. Let me know on Twitter. Email me [email protected] or of course leave your thoughts in the YouTube comment section down below. Appreciate your support. Can’t wait to have you join me on the next episode of Locked Onings. Until then, my name is Matt George. You’ve been listening to the Locked On podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network.

Matt George reacts to Devin Carter’s 30 point Summer League performance, and Nique Clifford becoming the new 4th quarter King.

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Devin Carter DOMINATES Sacramento Kings Summer League Game 2!
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