Yahoo Sports senior NBA analyst Kevin O’Connor and senior NBA writer Dan Devine discuss DeMar DeRozan’s Kings preseason debut and whether he gives the Kings enough juice to compete for a West title. Hear the full conversation on “The Kevin O’Connor Show” and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen.

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Demar de Rozan made his debut preseason debut with the Kings earlier this week, he had 15 points.

He was perfect from the field six of six, he had one corner three pointer.

I came away, impressed.

Uh I think De Rozan, one of the things that's been underrated for with him a long time now is his passing ability.

De Rozan is more than just a bucket getter.

His passing ability is gonna fit into the flow of this offense pretty seamlessly and a super low turnover guy too, right?

Like among high usage players, one of the lowest turnover rates over the last handful of years.

I think that there's reason to be skeptical of the fit of like how a midrange heavy doesn't shoot threes, not a great defender, higher usage player is going to fit into a spot that was previously occupied by Harrison Barnes.

And then you watch for a few minutes of that game and you're like, oh right, this guy is really, really good and he's really, really smart and he's played a ton of basketball with a ton of different kinds of teammates in very different systems, in very different role responsibilities and you're putting him next to an elite hub of offense in demons bonus, somebody that he can work off of in the two main game in the pick and roll and the dribble handoff, you're putting him next to Darin Fox as a guy who's gonna generate or demand a ton of attention on his own.

I have a pretty high level of belief that smart guys with that level of talent can figure out how to play off of one another pretty quickly and, and they were like reasonably good defensively last year and then really good in the second half when Kon Ellis got into the lineup.

So to me, it's like, is that enough top end talent when you got to win a series against, you're looking at Minnesota at the top of the West, you're looking at Dallas, you're looking at Denver, you're looking at Oklahoma City, like the teams that they might have to deal with.

Just have say what, what feels to me, like maybe a significant edge in that top end talent.

But then Fox and Sabonis are all NBA players.

It's only a couple of years since De Rosen did.

That was an all an all star player too.

Yeah, in the East.

But like this is probably the biggest free agent the Kings have ever landed.

I, I'm, I don't know, I'm, I'm choosing to be optimistic about this.

I think that the fit questions are real but I think the talent might be good enough to overcome them.

Yeah.

And I mean, I think you have Sabonis jacking up more midrange jumpers.

We'll see if he continues.

I'd still love to see Sabonis extend and shoot more threes.

And even De Rozan last season attempted a career high number of three pointers per game.

Maybe he is willing to take a few more as well in order to help that fit issue that we're talking about with the kings.

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