Kings coach Mike Brown hints at starting lineup for preseason game vs. Los Angeles Lakers

Coach Mike Brown offered a few clues to his plans for the starting lineup and the team’s rotation as the Kings prepared to play the Los Angeles Lakers in Monday’s preseason opener at Crypto.com Arena.

Following Saturday’s practice, Brown confirmed he will start De’Aaron Fox at point guard, Harrison Barnes at small forward and Domantas Sabonis at center, but he said the shooting guard and power forward positions are somewhat undecided.

“Obviously, Fox is going to start for us,” Brown said. “Domas is going to start for us. HB is going to start for us. But we’re kind of up in the air a little bit with the 2 and the 4 spot, and there are some guys that we feel have a real good chance to start for us in those spots, but we’re going to keep mixing those two spots around to see what we can get.”

Kevin Huerter and Malik Monk are competing for the starting job at shooting guard with Terence Davis likely vying for minutes off the bench. Rookie Keegan Murray is competing with KZ Okpala, Trey Lyles and Chimezie Metu at power forward.

When reporters were allowed to enter the team’s practice facility Saturday, the Kings were running a 5-on-5 scrimmage with general manager Monte McNair and assistant general manager Wes Wilcox looking on. Fox, Huerter, Barnes, Okpala and Sabonis led one group against a second group that included Davion Mitchell, Monk, Murray, Lyles and Richaun Holmes.

Brown likes what Okpala brings to the team as a strong and versatile defender, traits he displayed while locking down Murray on one of the scrimmage’s final possessions. Okpala, who came out of Stanford as the 32nd overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft, appeared in 63 games for the Miami Heat over the past three seasons. He averaged only 11.4 minutes per game, but he could be on the verge a bigger opportunity in Sacramento after signing a partially guaranteed two-year deal with the Kings over the summer.

Brown said he wants to go deep into his bench in the team’s first preseason game with starters logging limited minutes.

“Everybody’s been busting their behinds here, so if I can I’m going to try to play everybody this first game,” Brown said. “We’ll give guys that are probably going to be in the starting lineup and be in the heavy mix, we may give them one or two goes in the first half, but if we can we’d like to get everybody on the floor, especially in this first game.”

Brown said he will tighten up his rotation as the Kings get closer to their season opener against the Portland Trail Blazers on Oct. 19 at Golden 1 Center, saying he prefers a nine- or 10-man rotation. Brown went on to say he learned to utilize his bench more over six seasons as Steve Kerr’s lead assistant with the Golden State Warriors.

“I’ll be the first to admit, when I was a younger coach — I’m still young by the way, I just wanted to put that out there — you’re tight all the time and you want to win and be perfect all the time,” Brown said. “But I learned a lot from Steve, and one of the things that he does is he tries to go 11 deep.

“I actually handled the rotations for us in Golden State the last six years, and it was hard to go 11 deep, but if I can go 10 deep during the regular season, that would be great. Because what it does is it keeps guys engaged, and that ninth or 10th guy can change from game to game or whatever, so if we can figure out a way to go 10 deep, for me, that’s ideal. Nine, for sure, is something that I’d definitely like to hit during the regular season. As you know, injuries are a huge part of the game, and you want to make sure everybody is game-ready as much as possible.”