Come for the Salt N Pepa reference, stay for the basketball. I promise I had this written out before Zach Lowe waxed eloquent about Richaun Holmes’ push shot in his interview with De’Aaron Fox. Art is awfully subjective, but gosh if Richaun Holmes' shot chart from this past Saturday's Kings win over the Nuggets isn't art.
Look at all those green circles in the free throw circle! NBA Advanced Stats euphemistically calls them "floating jump shots" and they represent a push shot that Holmes has perfected.
Squint hard enough and there's an elegance to that shot. Aesthetics aside, Holmes has weaponized that push shot in a big way. On the season, Holmes is shooting a scorching 73% on shots between 10 and 16 feet from the basket and is in the 97th percentile on mid-range shooting per Cleaning The Glass. He is nearly as effective on those push shots as he is at the rim! The Nuggets' PnR defensive scheme, with Jokic showing, played pretty perfectly into this since Holmes has plenty of time and space for the push shot even with an attentive help defender (who is likely expecting a hard roll, or a pass out of the short roll rather than a shot attempt.)
And Holmes isn't a one-trick pony either, showing some nifty passing chops from his sweet spot. I love the little lookoff to Haliburton here that gets Millsap to take the two steps Holmes needs to twist down and squeeze the pass around Jokic.
(Side note: MPJ, whatchu doing? It isn't just that he constantly gets back cut, but that he always seems to quizzically watch his man do it.)
De'Aaron Fox is rightly getting a lot of eyeballs, along with Tyrese Haliburton, for the Kings' surge that peaked with back-to-back wins over the Nuggets and Clippers. It doesn't hurt that the Kings defense had gone from historically bad to league average over that span. Some of that is thanks to Holmes; the Kings allow nearly 10 fewer points per 100 possessions with Holmes on the floor. They also score over 12 more points per 100 with Holmes on the floor; the Kings' net rating with Holmes on vs. off is in the 100th percentile in the league. On Fox, it's worth mentioning that the Kings score a measly 99 points per 100 with Fox on and Holmes off, 7 points less than Minnesota's putrid league-worst offense. That jumps to 120 points per 100 in Fox lineups that include Holmes, essentially on par with Milwaukee's best-in-history offense.
(Side note 2: Most Fox-sans-Holmes lineups are struggling to score, but that number is especially dragged down by small ball lineups with Bagley at the 5. Those lineups are league worst in pretty much every offensive and defensive metric. I thought I was running the filters wrong: Bagley at 5 lineups score 93 points per 100 and give up 133 points per 100.)
I'm not saying that Holmes is more important to the Kings than Fox. But there is a there there, so let's put some respect on Richaun Holmes' name!
I want you to write about someone with a great scoop shot (Trae?), then you can link to our favorite geico ad.