Kevin Huerter is in a major shooting slump
Shooting guard Kevin Huerter was a huge part of the Sacramento Kings’ success last year. He is a great three-point shooter with solid playmaking and defense.
However, he has just been flat-out bad recently for the Kings. He is influencing the game in other ways, but Kings fans are waiting for his three-pointers to fall in 2023-24.
Between last season’s playoffs, the preseason, and the first two games of this year, Kevin Huerter has hit just 14 of 71 three-pointers.
— SactownBabyGiraffe (@TimMaxwell22) October 28, 2023
That’s 19%.
First, this is the type of shooting that Kings fans have been seeing recently from Huerter. He shot a whopping 20 percent–8-39–from three in the playoffs. He struggled in preseason and dropped two duds in the first two games of the season.
He has not shot the ball well in a long time and the slump began post-All-Star weekend. Huerter was invited to be in the 3PT shooting contest due to his elite skill. Unfortunately, it was not the ideal outing for his first-ever 3PT contest. Huerter shot 8-40 on threes–20 percent–tied for the second-lowest percentage at the contest.
It seems like Huerter was never able to get hot again after that terrible performance. His struggles since the contest have continued to bleed into the beginning of this season. However, I do want to get one thing straight about this whole situation: Huerter has been good for the Kings since he arrived in Sacramento.
His inaugural season in Sacramento was up and down, but he still shot a fantastic 40.2 percent from beyond the arc. Also, he has never lost confidence in his shot. Now, it will be interesting to see if he can break out of this unfortunate slump.
Sacramento Kings Hot and Cold Starters:
The Kings are 2-2 currently after two matchups with the Warriors and one with the Lakers and Jazz. De’Aaron Fox was a major part of those two wins, averaging 31.3 points and six assists on 48.6 percent shooting this season.
Domantas Sabonis, who is the other All-Star on the team, is averaging a great 19 points and 14 rebounds; Harrison Barnes has been more in the middle, but did go off for 33 points against the Jazz in their season opener.
However, as I mentioned earlier Huerter has been cold to start the year. He is averaging 7.5 points shooting 22.7 percent from 3-point range. Huerter is not the only King struggling, as Keegan Murray might fall into a sophomore slump.
Murray had a fantastic rookie season and was poised for a possible breakout year. He is settling into a new role of being a volume shooter, but his efficiency has not translated at all. I know it is extremely early in the season so these few games might not matter in the long run.
Ultimately, I just want to see Kevin Huerter get past this unfortunate extended shooting slump.
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