During the first quarter of Thursday’s game between the Pelicans and the Kings, also winless, Sacramento rookie Darius Acuff Jr. ran the length of the court in transition and had a dunk sweeping away a late streak from Jeremiah Fears and a half-hearted contest from Trey Murphy III. It was an incredible play, which is why Acuff took a second to bend over and jeer at the dozens of fans in New Orleans. It was also a live game, and as Acuff set up, the Pelicans dropped back and Murphy got an easy dunk, after Acuff’s absence forced Domantas Sabonis out of the paint.
This sequence serves as a useful Rorschach test for the Acuff observer: Do you see Acuff’s fluid athleticism and ability to produce not only sturdy but also beautiful buckets? Or do you see an undersized guard whose lack of interest in the ground game is matched only by his inability to influence it? Both are completely valid readings of the most (and only) fascinating player on the worst team in basketball, although I think proponents of both positions would agree that Acuff’s first five games in the NBA have been remarkable.
No one in the league has attempted or missed as many shots. No recruit has Never attempted as many shots in their first games. Acuff sits comfortably between Steph Curry and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in usage rankings, with the sixth-highest rate in the NBA. It’s both fantastic theater and a compelling new front in the Real Hooper Wars; the Kings, meanwhile, are so bad that whether it matters will be entirely moot for a while. This leaves us all free to appreciate Acuff’s game and use it as a plank from which to argue about how basketball should work.
As for the theatrical element: Acuff’s performance against New Orleans was special. He lost 34 points and 14 assists, with unprecedented efficiency. The rookie was killing everyone who turned his attention, pulling him from deep, nailing his little floater and pushing him in transition. Coming from Arkansas, the knocks on Acuff as an offensive engine had to do with his size and decision-making. I saw him less as a ball hog and more as a player with historic confidence. All 14 assists were well-earned, and if Precious Achiuwa had softer hands, Acuff would have gotten closer to 17. Acuff had a jumper blocked by Herb Jones, but otherwise had no problem hitting the spots he wanted.
In his NBA debut, a 121-96 loss to the Clippers, Acuff posted a 5-of-24 shooting line that I found impressive. Ideally, yes, some of those 19 misses come into play, but he was dribbling with clean looks against Derrick Jones Jr. and Kris Dunn in his first NBA game. Against the Pelicans, these shots were successful.
The Kings lost Thursday, of course, 132-120. This team is just as broken and mismanaged as last year, except this season Zach LaVine is even more checked out; the interesting and deep center rotation is ravaged by injuries; and the rest of the league is trying. The stupidly mismanaged tank-off games in which the Kings racked up victories last year are gone. But in the loss to New Orleans, Acuff wasn’t part of the problem. One of the most surprising elements of the game was how much worse and less effective LaVine was than his 19-year-old teammate: lazily dribbling into contested pull-ups, drifting toward the ball handler on offense instead of spacing out, and staying perfectly still with the basketball. LaVine finished a game-worst minus-25 in 39 minutes; Acuff finished at +3 in 41.
However, any true supporter of Acuff probably tried to avoid the quantitative mode. His shooting efficiency is poor, his on-ball defense is worse, and his team’s defense is functionally non-existent. The Memphis Grizzlies staged a comeback on October 25 exclusively by targeting Acuff on the perimeter, and it worked every time. When he doesn’t smell a harvestable bucket, he stands like a statue. The Kings have yet to win an NBA game.
Instead, the true believer would ask you to believe your eyes. Acuff is the platonic ideal of a bucket-getter, an object of devotion for the cult of the Real Hooper, a player that Instagram Reels would have you mistake for 4K Allen Iverson. It’s crazy what this guy can do with the ball. I can’t look at anyone else when he’s on the field. I saw someone wondering the other day how Acuff is somehow the cornerstone of the franchise while Cam Thomas is out of the league. Thomas could never dribble like that, never passed the ball and was five percent as fluid as Acuff. The Kings rookie is an offense to himself.
One of the expected outcomes of the NBA’s anti-tank reforms was more stable records across the league. The Kings provide a hilarious counterpoint: with everyone trying, rather than parity, we could see pronounced extremes at the lower end. This team is beyond desperate, with no good defenders, a bunch of useless veterans playing out their contracts because no one else in the league wants them – even if Ben Simmons hadn’t torn his Achilles, he would have made as big a difference as an air freshener in a gas station toilet – and a head coach, Doug Christie, whose anachronistic schemes obscure his idiotic rotations and odd decision-making. Somehow they are also quite watchable. That’s all Acuff.
You don’t have to believe your eyes. Maybe he’ll never become the superstar his supporters think he already is. The margins are slim for someone so small who can only play one side of the ball. There is no upper middle class for this type of player. You can be Damian Lillard or Jalen Brunson, or you can be worthless. What a thrill that is. Darius Acuff Jr. is either a problem or he is a problem.
Gn sports
