Payton Pritchard (left) talks with other injured Ducks Louis King (center) and Will Richardson (right) during Oregon's exhibition game.

It’s a question I've been asked on social media and on our message boards constantly over the past few weeks.

"When will Louis King play"? numerous fans have asked.

The five-star forward did not suit up in month of November, and was once again absent on Saturday night for the team’s 65-61 loss to Houston. For the first seven games of the season, King has essentially acted as that new sports car sitting in your driveway begging to be driven.

Head coach Dana Altman said earlier this week that King had resumed basketball activities and is closing in on a debut.

"He's adding a lot of energy [in practice]," Altman said. "We are following exactly what the doctors described of bringing him back over a month period. We are in the third week of that."

With the team’s struggles, King’s debut, whenever it will come, will be met with much fanfare, but also pressure. As an elite high school prospect, he was known as a big-time perimeter with a knack for scoring the rock. Guess what Oregon has lacked during a miserable 4-3 start? A perimeter player known as a capable scorer.

Right or wrong, King will be expected to be more than just capable, he’ll be expected to be excellent. Part of that is due to the recruiting ranking, he was the 20th-ranked recruit in the nation in 2018. But even more of that will have to do with how poorly this team has played so far.

The team’s shortcomings, and there are many, were on full display on Saturday night at the Fertitta Center. The Ducks were killed on the glass and left shooters open, but the inability to score from the perimeters may have been the chief issue.

No Oregon perimeter player made a field goal until 6:42 left in the first half. That’s when Will Richardson made a layup and drew a foul. By that point, the Ducks already trailed by 13 points.

They got a little bit more of that in the second half when Payton Pritchard emerged from a first half slumber and when Richardson leapt out for 15 points. But, the point remains, the Ducks need that alpha dog on the perimeter.

It feels like a bit of deja vu typing that. Last year on Nov. 26, I wrote about the need for that sort of player to emerge. That never happened. The team won 23 games and missed the NCAA tournament for the first since 2012.

Oregon cannot repeat that this season.

The good news is that this year they have a weapon sitting on the bench. King is capable of being that player. But, it’s no sure thing he will be. Five stars aren't shoe-ins to be great immediately or even at all. Many pegged Troy Brown as the likely candidate to be that player last year. He never became close to that.

We’ll see the first of King in the coming weeks. We probably won’t know right away what he’s capable of being, and let’s be clear, King’s debut, regardless of what he provides, won’t solve all this team’s issues. They’ll still need to discover some toughness, someone will need to block out and attack rebounds, and someone better find his range to become a consistent perimeter shooter.

The Ducks better sort something out before they travel to Baylor on Dec. 21. The Ducks cannot lose another game in non-league play. At 4-3, including a loss to two-win Texas Southern, the Ducks are living out the worst-case scenario. I’m not sure how many more wounds this team can take if it hopes to earn a respectable NCAA tournament seed — if at all.