Darius Acuff Jr. is giving Sacramento something it has been short on for a while: a real reason to look ahead.
The Kings’ newest guard arrives with plenty of buzz, and he’s being talked about as the kind of player who could finally settle the point guard spot for years to come. That’s no small thing for a franchise that has cycled through lottery guards in recent seasons. Acuff is Sacramento’s fourth lottery guard drafted since 2017, following De’Aaron Fox, Tyrese Haliburton and Davion Mitchell.
Fox came in at No. 5 in 2017. Haliburton went 12th in 2020.
Mitchell was the No. 9 pick in 2021. Fox brought speed and scoring.
Haliburton stretched the floor as a top-tier shooter. Mitchell, known as “Off Night,” made his name by hounding the best perimeter scorers.
The Kings had all three - and moved on from all three.
Acuff, though, is giving the team a fresh shot at stability during a rebuild. As a freshman at Arkansas, he led the SEC in scoring at 23.5 points per game and also paced the league with 6.3 assists per game.
That production has already turned heads in Sacramento, where preseason begins next Monday. Kings radio host Matt George, who hosts the “Matt and Kayla Show” and the “Matt George Podcast,” said Acuff can score more as a rookie than Fox did in his first season. George went even further, saying Acuff could “threaten” Fox’s second-year numbers.
Fox averaged 11.6 points, 2.8 rebounds and 4.4 assists as a rookie. Those are the marks Acuff is expected to clear without much trouble. The tougher target is Fox’s Year 2 leap, when he put up 17.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 7.3 assists.
What makes Acuff intriguing is the way he gets to his spots. He operates at his own pace, handles the ball with craft and changes speed well. He can blow by a defender and finish at the rim, or plant and rise into a mid-range pull-up.
At 6-foot-3, he’s a difficult matchup, but summer league also showed the adjustment he still has to make. Acuff said NBA defenders were speeding him up, and his efficiency suffered. He flashed the ability to create separation with slick dribble work and get to his favorite areas, but the finishing touch wasn’t there, especially from beyond the arc.
Those are the kind of rookie growing pains Sacramento expects over an 82-game season. If Acuff works through them, the payoff could be bigger than just one promising rookie year. The Kings believe they may have found their point guard for the next several seasons, with general manager Scott Perry building around him.
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