Kings' Jalen Duren Pursuit Hints at Maxime Raynaud's Future

One of the biggest questions heading into the new season is how the Kings are going to handle their crowded center rotation. Not only do they have Sabonis, Raynaud, and Cardwell, but Precious Achiuwa and Jonathan Mogbo can both man the five-spot as well. Whether it ends up being Sabonis or Duren, the Kings will have the same questions.

There just aren't enough minutes to go around for all of those players, which means Doug Christie is going to have to get creative with his rotations. The choices are to either cut players out of the rotation or play two bigs at a time in the trendy two-big lineups making their way back into the NBA.

Achiuwa will mainly play the four spot, but another likely candidate to pair with Sabonis or Duren in the frontcourt is Raynaud, who flirted with the idea in Summer League during the offseason. He and Cardwell started games when they were both playing, and while it didn't go great, it is an early indication that the Kings are going to at least flirt with the idea of having Raynaud slide down to the power forward spot.

The All-Rookie's three-point shooting and defense will be crucial to the experiment, but in a year where the Kings are finding out as many answers as possible, as compared to trying to rack up wins, it's worth finding out.

Duren's Pursuit

At a glance, the Kings going after Duren suggests they might not trust Raynaud to become an All-Star-caliber big, but on the flip side, it could mean they trust him even more than we think to become a true stretch four.

A frontcourt of Duren, Raynaud, and Keegan Murray would give the Kings more size than they've had in years. Are there defensive and shooting concerns? Absolutely. But at the very least, the Kings seem to have a plan in place for their prized young big. Much like the other dozen questions surrounding the Kings' future, we'll just have to wait and find out what the plan is once the season gets underway in a few weeks.