The Kings Are Shuffling Their Lineup, But Darius Acuff Jr. Is The Only Reason To Watch

The Sacramento Kings are rolling out a new starting five on Monday against the Dallas Mavericks, and it looks like a 2K MyLeague simulation that accidentally auto-generated after a power outage.

Underdog NBA confirmed Sacramento is starting rookie Darius Acuff Jr., Zach LaVine, De'Andre Hunter, Precious Achiuwa, and Domantas Sabonis. If you had that exact combination on your preseason bingo card, you are either a time traveler or a liar.

"Underdog NBA: 'Lineup alert: Kings will start Acuff Jr., LaVine, Hunter, Achiuwa, Sabonis on Monday.'"

The Kings are currently sitting at a pristine 0-3, having just given up 136 points to the Memphis Grizzlies after already getting cooked by the San Antonio Spurs and New Orleans Pelicans. They are bleeding points at a historic rate, which explains why preseason projected starters like Ben Simmons and Keegan Murray are nowhere to be found in this Monday night configuration.

But the real story here is Acuff Jr. The 19-year-old rookie point guard is on an absolute scoring bender. He just dropped 38 points and hit nine threes against Memphis, becoming the youngest player in NBA history to do so. He is also the second-fastest player ever to reach 150 career points. The kid is basically the only thing keeping Sacramento fans from throwing their televisions into the Sacramento River.

For anyone looking at the prop markets, this lineup shift is a massive green light for Acuff's usage rate. With Achiuwa and Hunter stepping in to presumably stop the defensive bleeding, Acuff and LaVine are going to have the ultimate clearance to launch from the parking lot.

Sacramento tips off against Dallas on Monday night. We will see if this defensive duct-tape job actually slows down the bleeding, or if Acuff is just going to have to score 50 to keep them within single digits.