Kings Rookie Darius Acuff Jr. Pinpoints The Part Of His Game That Is Nba-ready

Kings rookie Darius Acuff Jr. pinpoints the part of his game that is NBA-ready originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Kings’ future plans look murky at the moment but the franchise is moving toward a youth movement built around No. 7 overall draft pick Darius Acuff Jr.’s skill set.

While sitting down with NBC Sports California’s Deuce Mason and Morgan Ragan at Media Day on Sept. 28, Acuff mentioned how his spark-plug ability is NBA-ready.

“I think offensively, the way I pace the game out is pretty good,” Acuff told Mason and Ragan. “I think my passing is very, very underrated but I think my ability to just get hot at any moment, like you look up and you think I’m struggling and then in two minutes, something else is going on.

“I think that part of my game is pretty interesting because some nights, it might not look like I had that many points but I did, or I had this many assists but I did. So I think that just being an unexpected player, I love that about myself.”

Acuff averaged an SEC-leading 23.5 points and 6.4 assists per game as a freshman at Arkansas en route to being named a unanimous First Team All-American selection last year.

Mentally, Acuff believes his resilience is key to moving on to the next possession and turning up the scoring at any point in the game.

“I’ve always been like that for some reason, especially when it comes to basketball,” Acuff said. “It’s always one of them quarters where I’m terrible, and then you look up, now I’m doing it. It be weird but it’s fun for me to learn and like I said, everything is about learning lessons and just getting better every game, every day at practice.”

Offensively, the Kings are hopeful to improve from 28th in scoring at 111 points per game with the addition of Acuff and the return of center Domantas Sabonis, who missed 63 games with a knee injury.

Sacramento, which finished 14th in the Western Conference with a 22-60 record last season, will also feature Zach LaVine, a career 20.7 points-per-game scorer, and Malik Monk off the bench.

The offseason was also quiet for the Kings, who let DeMar DeRozan walk in free agency and signed Ben Simmons to a one-year contract in September.

Sacramento is projected to finish at the bottom of the Western Conference standings in the 2026-2027 NBA season but Acuff’s play is the biggest question surrounding the team’s future prospects.

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