f there has been one bright spot in yet another abysmal Kings season, it has been the play of two of Sacramento's youngsters: Willie Cauley-Stein and Seth Curry. Curry especially has come on strong as of late now that he's finally getting an extended look on the floor as the season winds down, and he's producing in a big way. He's tallied double digits in 6 of his last 7 games, scoring a career-high 21 points in two of those games.
It's unfortunate that Curry is only getting this opportunity now when Sacramento's shooting guard position has been such a mess all season. A big part of that was because of Marco Belinelli. Belinelli was supposed to be the guy that would come off the bench and provided a spark and offensive punch. Instead he's having perhaps the worst season of his career, shooting just 38.6% from the field and an abysmal 30.6% from three, both the lowest percentages of his career. Despite these struggles, Belinelli was given an exceptionally long leash by George Karl with 24.6 minutes a game. If he hadn't gone down with a foot injury he might still be playing 20 minutes a game.
That's a shame, because Seth Curry is proving lately that he might have been the answer that Karl had been looking for all season. To be fair to Karl, there were two occasions when Curry could have had major opportunity to play, both after games in which he did well, in which he suffered an ankle injury and had to miss time. That has to be frustrating for everyone involved, especially since the first injury coincided with Darren Collison also missing some time.
This recent stretch has been fun to watch though. Curry was finally given the green light and also got the first starts of his career. He's responded with averages of 15 points, 2.2 assists. 2.0 rebounds, and 1.0 steals on 52.5% from the field and 50% from three point range in the past 6 games. Those numbers are definitely a small sample size, but his raw numbers over the entire season have been pretty good as well. Despite limited minutes and inconsistent playing time, he's still managing to shoot 47.2% from the field and a whopping 44% from three.
He also manages to bring some defensive effort to the table, something Belinelli does not do even on his best day. Curry is one of the few Kings who manages to make the team a better offensive and defensive team when he's on the floor per basketball-reference's On-Off stats.
Seth isn't nearly the player his brother is, and he never will be. But he can be a good player in this league and he should be considered a part of this team's future. Efficient shooting is always a premium in the NBA, and Curry provides that in spades. He's got a big decision to make in the near future about his player option for next season, and I hope he chooses to take it, and I hope the Kings realize what they have in him and utilize him better and more often going into next season.
