The second year shooting guard has his work cut out for him.
Since joining the Sacramento Kings on draft bight in November, shooting guard Jahmi’us Ramsey hasn’t seen many minutes in the purple and black. Through 13 games in the 2020-21 season, Ramsey averaged 3.1 points and almost a rebound. His career-high came on May 16 vs. the Utah Jazz, when he scored 12 points in a blowout loss to the Western Conference’s top seeded team.
Despite his scarce in-game play during the season, Ramsey had an outstanding run during this year’s Summer League tournament in Las Vegas. During the championship game vs. the Boston Celtics, Ramsey poured in 16 points on 8-of-16 shooting shooting from the field, contributing to the Kings’ second Summer League Championship. In fact, Ramsey led the #SummerKings in scoring throughout the entire tournament.
Best-case: Ramsey is able to build on his strong summer.
When rookie Davion Mitchell was asked about Ramsey in the Kings’ most recent media availability, he had nothing but high praise for the second year man out of Texas Tech:
“He looks really good,” Mitchell said. “He he can do everything: he can guard, he can shoot the ball, he makes the right plays. He’s not trying to do too much. Like I said, he goes out there and can play hard.”
It’s easy to look at what Ramsey was able to do in Summer League and think that it will translate to regular season success in some capacity.
I’m hoping that Luke Walton is able to find more minutes for Ramsey and allow for his development to continue. While there’s always room for progress in Stockton, I would love to see him thrive in a Sacramento uniform and continue to build on the flashes he displayed at Thomas and Mack Center.
Worst-case: Ramsey falls out of the rotation, sees too many DNPS.
In what has been the case with many young, developing players, I worry that there won’t be enough room for Ramsey to play outside of garbage time. It’s not a coincidence that his career-high came in a huge loss, or that he shined among rookies and G League hopefuls in the tournament, but seeing it translate night in and night out will need to be seen come October. Otherwise, he may not get opportunities in the NBA this year either.