SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 16: (R-L) DeMar DeRozan #10, Domantas Sabonis #11, and Zach LaVine #8 of the Sacramento Kings sit on the bench at the end of the game in their loss to the Dallas Mavericks in othe NBA play-in tournament game at Golden 1 Center on April 16, 2025 in Sacramento, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
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Since Vivek Ranadivé purchased the Sacramento Kings in 2013, they’ve had only two winning seasons and made the playoffs once. During that time, they’ve cycled through eight head coaches and four front office regimes, not counting Joe Dumars’ one-month tenure as interim executive vice president of basketball operations in 2020.
The consistent instability atop the organization has trickled down to the roster, too. They’ve repeatedly whiffed on lottery picks—passing on Luka Dončić to take Marvin Bagley III was a franchise-crippling decision—and have rarely gotten fair value whenever they have decided to trade one of their key players away. As a result, they’ve spent the past decade-plus largely stuck on the NBA’s Treadmill of Mediocrity.
The Kings are now off to a 3-11 start this season after their 123-110 loss to the Victor Wembanyama-less San Antonio Spurs on Sunday. If Zach LaVine picks up his $49.0 million player option for the 2026-27 season, they already project to be well over next year’s salary cap, too. They have no hope of pulling off a reset unless they take a stick of dynamite to their roster.
According to local radio host Carmichael Dave, the Kings appear to be considering that.
In the wake of that report, head coach Doug Christie told reporters that the Kings are “gonna get it right,” but he acknowledged that they’re facing an uphill battle.
“Change is hard,” he said. “It’s hard. But understand—and we understand—that we’re not there yet. But we’re about to work at it like crazy. We will totally get there. And it will be bumpy. It will because change is like that. But buckle up. For the real ones, buckle up.”
If Ranadivé has given new general manager Scott Perry the green light to embark upon an extended rebuild, that’s a long overdue development. But for a rudderless organization that otherwise appears to be going nowhere, it’s better late than never.
Kings Need To Start From The Ground Up
At media day, Perry told reporters that he had six pillars by which he’d judge the Kings this season.
“We want to be competitive, tough, team-oriented, accountable, disciplined and professional,” he said. “Everything that we do this year, I’m going to look at it through those pillars, on the court, off the court, and how we are holding up to those values. That’s what I’m most excited about.”
They’re falling woefully short in most of those facets early on.
The Kings currently have the fifth-worst net rating (minus-10.6) in the NBA. They’re 25th in offensive rating and 27th in defensive rating, in large part because they don’t make many three-pointers (25th leaguewide) or have much rim protection (28th in blocks per game). Therein lies the challenge of building a team around DeMar DeRozan and Domantas Sabonis.
Dennis Schröder, whom the Kings signed to a three-year, $44.4 million contract this offseason with their full non-taxpayer mid-level exception, is off to a horrific start in Sacramento. Through his first 14 games, he’s averaging only 12.3 points, 5.9 assists and 3.6 rebounds in 30.4 minutes per game while shooting only 40.1% overall and 34.4% from three-point range. Russell Westbrook, whom the Kings signed to a veteran-minimum contract in mid-October, has outplayed Schröder in the early going.
Fourth-year forward Keegan Murray has yet to play this year after he suffered a UCL tear in his thumb during the preseason, but his return alone will not fix all that is ailing the Kings. As Perry told reporters at media day, the first step in returning the Kings to relevance is establishing a cultural foundation and an identity.
“If we’re giving everything we have each and every night, whether it’s practice or game, that I can live with whatever the results are going to be,” he said. “But I think it’s extremely important, though, that we identify, just identify and establish this culture this year.
“It’s all about that, because if you want to build a sustainable winner, you have to have a foundation, and our foundation has got to be rooted in how hard we play, how tough we are, and how we do this as a team, to do this together.”
Did The Kings Already Miss Their Sell-High Window?
If the Kings do decide to hold a fire sale between now and the Feb. 5 NBA trade deadline, their biggest issue may be whether their sell-high window has already closed.
LaVine is averaging 22.7 points per game while shooting an efficient 51.1% overall and 42.2% from three-point range, but his current contract is an artifact of the NBA’s previous collective bargaining agreement. If the Atlanta Hawks are balking at handing star point guard Trae Young a four-year max extension, there might not be much appetite around the league in giving up assets of real value for LaVine’s $49 million salary next year.
The same goes for DeRozan, who’s earning $24.75 million this year and already has $10 million of his $25.7 million salary for 2026-27 fully guaranteed. On the surface, his 18.8 points, 3.5 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game are worthy of that price tag, but his reluctance to fire away from deep makes him a quirky fit on most modern-day rosters. Teams with other iffy shooters in their starting lineup might not be willing to embrace the floor-spacing crunch that DeRozan’s arrival would create.
According to Sam Amick of The Athletic, “at least a few teams” would be interested in trading for Sabonis. The big man is owed $42.3 million this year, $45.5 million in 2026-27 and $48.6 million in 2027-28 before he becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2028. Sabonis is a three-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA selection, and he’s one of the best rebounders and best-passing big man in the league. But like DeRozan, he’s a uniquely challenging archetype to build around as a non-rim-protecting center.
The Kings do have all of their first-round picks through 2030, so if they decide to just take what they can get for LaVine, DeRozan, Sabonis and their other veterans, they’d at least reap the draft rewards from their rebuild. According to Carmichael Dave, the Kings are looking to emulate the type of multi-year rebuild that the Spurs or reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder have pulled off in recent years. If they don’t land a marquee talent like Wembanyama or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, they’re also reportedly eyeing the Portland Trail Blazers and Detroit Pistons as models to follow.
Barring at least one or two strokes of draft-lottery luck, there’s no easy way for the Kings to escape from their current predicament. They may have to get much, much worse before they can realistically hope to force their way back into playoff contention. But if they have the stomach to commit to a multi-year rebuild and avoid the temptation to pursue shortcuts, a long-overdue teardown may be in their best big-picture interest.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.
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