In today’s NBA, one of the most valuable assets for any NBA team is length, particularly on the wing. Just take a look at what the Minnesota Timberwolves have done this season and are currently doing in the playoffs, or how much the Kings struggled against tall athletic teams like the New Orleans Pelicans and Houston Rockets.
The Kings don’t have much length of their own, but they were able to add Kessler Edwards, a 6’8 wing with a 6’11 wingspan, a season ago in a trade with the Nets. The Nets were simply looking to dump salary, but for the Kings it was an opportunity to take a look at a young player who could give them that added dimension they were lacking. Edwards showed flashes early on with the Kings, particularly in a game against the Phoenix Suns where he scored 12 points, grabbed 7 rebounds and played excellent defense against Devin Booker. He became a regular part of the rotation after that but ended up not seeing much time in the playoffs.
Coming into this season, the hope was that Edwards could build up from last year’s experience and become a more regular rotation player, but the opportunities came infrequently as the team seemed to prioritize newcomer Sasha Vezenkov instead. His first real opportunities of the season came during injuries for other players or during garbage time of blowouts. From Thanksgiving to February, Edwards didn’t have a single game played with double digit minutes, either coming in only at the end of already decided games or spot minutes when the Kings needed an extra possession of defense. That didn’t change much throughout the rest of the season either, with no opportunity or increased role like the end of the prior season.
By the end of the season, Edwards finished with averages of just 1.7 points, 0.8 rebounds, 0.3 assists, 0.2 steals in just 5.1 minutes a game. He did shoot a career-high 38.5% from three, making 20 of his 52 attempts as his offense largely came down to spot up shooting (he only shot 30 two-pointers in comparison, most of which came at the rim).
Should the Kings have played Edwards more? There’s definitely an argument for it, especially given how ineffective Chris Duarte was despite a much larger opportunity. Edwards’ on-off numbers are hard to judge considering most of his minutes came in garbage time, playing with other players who struggled to create for themselves or others, and as such the Kings offense was 11.8 points per 100 possessions worse when Edwards…
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