Kingston Flemings: Made in Houston.

Written By: Kekoa O’Neil

Contributor | Sideline Society Media

The modern point guard is built on speed, shiftiness, and the vision to make everyone around him better, and that is exactly the mold Kingston Flemings came out of. The number one player in the state of Texas and the number 22 recruit on the ESPN Top 100, Flemings left William J. Brennan High School as a coveted five star and made the kind of decision that tells you who he is. He stayed home. He chose the Houston Cougars and Kelvin Sampson, a program built on toughness, defensive identity, and true team basketball, the same culture that keeps producing two and three loss seasons.

The jump never rattled him. As a freshman he averaged 16.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 5.2 assists on 47.6 percent from the field, 38.7 percent from three, and 84.5 percent from the line, the kind of efficiency that makes front offices lean in. The three is the price of admission in today's league. If you cannot shoot it, you cannot stay on the floor.

At 6 foot 4 with a standing reach of eight feet two and a half inches, Flemings has the length to defend multiple spots and the frame to grow into more. ESPN mock drafts have him in the lottery, projected to Sacramento, and the fit is clean. The Kings need a true point guard to steady the offense, someone who can run a team next to scorers like Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan and a playmaking big in Domantas Sabonis.

The players he calls to mind are Tyrese Maxey and De'Aaron Fox, both a touch smaller but built on the same scoring and playmaking upside. The downhill burst those two live on is not all the way there yet, but speed is teachable and the foundation is already in place. Fox landed in Sacramento and gave the franchise an immediate jolt. Flemings could write the same story.

Winning and defense are all he has ever known, and a player who does not know any other way is exactly the kind of player you build around.