The Sacramento Kings Future Scares Me And Here’s Why

The Sacramento Kings Future Scares Me And Here’s Why

Back in 2023, the Sacramento Kings achieved their first playoff appearance in almost two decades. And since they achieved that feat, it feels like it’s been going downhill since, dropping in wins each year. And I feel like right now we are at rock bottom with this Sacramento Kings team that just went 40 and 42 in the 2025 NBA season. And they got bounced in the first leg of the playin tournament. And right now, we are witnessing so many Western Conference teams on the rise. The San Antonio Spurs just got the number two overall pick and have Victor Wimbeyama. They have their eyes set on Giannis Anen and Koopo this off seasonason. The other Texas teams like the Dallas Mavericks and the Houston Rockets are both set up nicely right now and in the future. You have the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Minnesota Timberwolves in the conference finals. You also have some of the other best players in the NBA in the Western Conference as well with Nicole Joic in Denver and Luca Donic in Los Angeles. And it doesn’t feel like that there is a great path right now for the Sacramento Kings to succeed with this current roster. And I’m going to be honest with you guys, I am scared of the Sacramento Kings future. And here’s why. So, we’ll go back to that 2023 season after years of misery for the Sacramento Kings. That was just failed draft pick after failed draft pick to build around Demarcus Cousins, who was their main prize in the 2010 draft after going 25 and 57. Now, back in 2023, they had Keegan Murray in his rookie year and had a very productive one as a 3 and D role player for this team. They traded for a sharpshooter and Kevin Herder from the Atlanta Hawks that offseason. They signed Malik Monk from their division rival, the LA Lakers. And this was the first full year of Deonta Sabonis and Dearren Fox playing together after they made that very shocking trade by sending off Tyrus Halbert into the Indiana Pacers back at the 2022 trade deadline. The Sacramento Kings were the best offensive team in 2023. They went 48 and 34. They had the number one offensive rating, number eight in net rating overall and they ended up being the three seed and they went to game seven in round number one against the Golden State Warriors. And vibes were really high in Sacramento. Mike Brown won coach of the year and Monty McNair, the GM, won executive of the year as well. Now, we said a lot at that time that I don’t want the Sacramento Kings to get complacent with them being the three seed and going to game seven in round number one just because their top seven guys all played 73 plus games. That is unheard of. They had really good injury luck in that season and you had to assume that was going to regress to the mean somewhat in the 2024 season and it did. And prior to the 2024 season, the Sacramento Kings actually had cap space currently. And I was really interested to see what Monty McNair, the head decision maker in Sacramento, would do to build around this roster and try to make a push around Damont Sabonis and Darren Fox. And they did exactly the opposite of what I wanted them to. They traded Rashawn Holmes and his $12 million contract and their 24th overall pick to the Dallas Mavericks just to dump that Holmes contract. And they used that cap space to extend Harrison Barnes to a three-year $54 million deal. They also paid one of their best players, Damonta Sabonis, that’s going to pay him over $160 million. That’s his current contract that’s going to end in 2028 where he’s going to be making $49.9 million. They also signed European standout Sasha Visenov to a contract worth over $6 million a year that they were eventually going to have to salary dump the following off seasonason. And then in the second round, they drafted Kobe Jones and Jaylen Slawson over guys like Tumani Kamar, Gigi Jackson, and Trace Jackson Davis. In 2024, they ended up going 46 and 36. They ended up as the ninth seed in the Western Conference. They had a little bit of injury regression, but they were still relatively healthy compared to the Western Conference. The offense went down a little bit. They finished 13th in offensive rating, but the defense improved. And then they ended up finishing 17th overall in that rating and lost to the New Orleans Pelicans in the second leg of the playin tournament. So then here’s the 2024 offseason a year ago where they ended up being a little bit more aggressive. They ended up drafting Devin Carter in the lottery. And I really like the pick at the time. I was very high on Devin Carter coming out of Providence and I was excited to see how he could look for a team as a complimentary piece, but he ended up having an injury riddled rookie season this year with the shoulder injury. They signed and traded for Demar De Rozan, which a year later they probably regret doing so, giving up a future first round pick to the San Antonio Spurs to help orchestrate this deal because they didn’t have the cap space to absorb Demar D Rozan’s contract. So, they had to send off Harrison Barnes and that first to San Antonio. And remember how I mentioned before that they had a sour dum Sasha Visenov. They traded away him and former top 10 pick in the 2021 draft, Da’Von Mitchell, who had a very nice 2025 season with Toronto and Miami, as well as the pick rights to Jamal Shed, another solid defensive rookie to the Toronto Raptors for Jaylen McDaniels, who they basically traded 3 months later before the season started to the Spurs for a second round pick swap. And the 2025 season, where we are today, was an absolute disaster for the Sacramento Kings. They ended up going 40 and 42. They finished ninth in the Western Conference, but they lost that first leg of the playing tournament. The offense was still top 10 in the NBA, but they were a bottom 10 team in terms of defensive rating. But it really just wasn’t the record. That’s the worst part of it because they had to trade away their franchise star De’arren Fox, somebody they were building around, somebody they chose over Tyrus Halbert and back in that 2022 season. And the reason why they had to trade away De’arren Fox because a couple weeks prior to that trade, they fired Mike Brown, somebody Dear Fox had a good relationship with. He felt backstabbed and they had to hear from Shams who reported that Dear and Fox was not going to sign an extension with the Sacramento Kings because Fox can be a free agent at the end of the 2026 season. So, they thought it’d be best to trade him. And honestly, in my opinion, I know they lost leverage when Fox came out with that trade request. But, they did not get a great enough return for Darren Fox, somebody that was the heart and soul of the Sacramento Kings. And even if things flamed out, he was the guy you’re going to be building around. It ended up being a three-team trade with the Chicago Bulls and the San Antonio Spurs. They sent De’arren Fox to San Antonio. They were also able to get off the Kevin Herder contract. The Bulls absorbed that. And the main player that they got back was Zack Lavine, who’s somebody that’s had his injury history. He’s 30 years old and he’s making a lot of money going forward. $44 million in the 2025 season, $47.4 million next year and $48.9 million in 2027 on a player option. And honestly, the draft pick capital they got back wasn’t enough for Dear Fox in my opinion. They got the Charlotte Hornets lottery protected pick in 2025. Well, yeah, they ended up with the fourth overall pick, so that turned into some second rounders. They were also able to get San Antonio’s first round pick in the 2027 draft, but you assume with Victor Wyam and Darren Fox, that pick isn’t going to have a ton of value. They got Minnesota’s 2031 first round pick that San Antonio got on draft night back in 2024 when Minnesota traded up for Rob Dillingham. They’re going to have Anthony Edwards most likely. So, I don’t know if that pick is going to have too much value. And you know what’s even crazier? The San Antonio Spurs owned their 2031 pick swap from the Demar D Rozan signing trade that happened last off seasonason. The fact that they weren’t able to get that swap lifted in this trade is kind of mind-blowing. I would have told San Antonio we are not making this trade unless that swap is involved. So now here’s where the Sacramento Kings are headed in the 2025 offseason. I mentioned before that the Western Conference is just getting better around them. There are eight, nine, and maybe 10 teams that I think could be better than the Sacramento Kings next season. They resigned Doug Christie. They brought in Scott Perry, a former Knicks GM who’s had a inconsistent GM track record to be the main decision maker there. They have Zack Lavine’s unfavorable contract that’s going to pay him over $90 million for the next two years. Demar De Rozan is 36 years old and has two years left on their deal. They acquired Jonas Machunis back at the trade deadline. He’s 33 years old. Deonta Sabonis is slated to make over $43 million for the next three seasons. And although he’s an all-star caliber player, I don’t believe that he could be a number one on a deep playoff team just because when you’re trying to build around a team in the clutch late in the game, Damont Sabonis is somebody that just can’t take over on either end of the floor. Keegan Murray feels like he’s been regressing every single year since his rookie season. They passed up on guys like Jaden Ivy, Jaden Sharp, Dyson Daniels, Benedict Mathn to take somebody that could help them right away in Keegan Murray. And while he did help them in 2023, they’re paying the consequences of going somebody with a high floor over a high ceiling right now. I would feel better if this was Shaden Sharp on this team than Keegan Murray going forward. And he’s extension eligible this offseason. What is that contract going to look like? Keon Ellis could get extended this offseason as well because he’s one of the best role players in the league. He was an undrafted pickup by Sacramento. One of their best moves over the last few years, but he’s been playing on a bargain of a contract since he entered the league. So, what will he get paid this off seasonason? They have to bring him back. They are $5.9 million to the first apron. They are $16.7 million to the second apron. So, there’s a good chance this team goes over the first apron this off seasonason. And they don’t own their first round pick in the 2025 draft from the Kevin Herder trade a couple years ago. That pick was Lauder protected for the 2023 draft. We know they didn’t make the playoffs, so they were able to keep that pick, select Deon Carter. Their pick was top 12 protected this year and it ended up at pick number 13 cuz of course it did. They do have pick number 42 in this draft. I think they should target guys in that front court because their big man depth is not great at the moment. They can target guys like Consen Young from China, Janai Broom from Auburn, Yanakon, Nita Hower from Penn State or maybe somebody like Muhammad Fay from Sagal because they got to get more athletic and guys that can get up and down the floor in that front court that can maybe play out there with Damonte Sabonis and could eventually replace Yonis Vunis as a backup big. I don’t think they can operate with Trey LS in that front court anymore. I haven’t touched on Malik Monk yet, but you could make an argument that he is their best trade asset this off seasonason because he’s a very good combo guard at the moment that’s under a nice contract. But at the end of the contract, Monk is going to be 30 years old. We know that he’s a good three-point shooter and he could be a starting shooting guard and a backup point guard for you, which I do think is very valuable in today’s NBA. But Sacramento owns all their first round picks from 2026 to 2030. And I think it would be wise for them to take a little bit of a step back. There’s a three-headed monster in the 2026 draft with Cameron Boozer, Agent Abansa, and Darren Peterson. These guys are projected to be franchise changing talents at the top of the draft and I think they should be better suited to try to get one of those guys by trading off some of their top guys this off seasonason. They’re not making the playoffs next year unless some things go their way. So I know Kings fans don’t want to enter into another rebuild. They basically been rebuilding for the last 20 years until that 2023 season. But if you’re just looking at the bigger picture here, there’s nowhere for them to go in the West. And what kind of stinks as well is I think if they made Zack, Demard Rosen, and Deonta Sabonis available, they’re not going to like the returns that they get back in those packages just because of how big some of these contracts are and some of the defensive deficiencies that they have. Sacramento could get lucky and get somebody like a Tai Jerome type veteran minimum free agent this offseason if they want to target an Amir Coffee, a Dano Banton, a Dante Exom, a Tayon Horton Tucker or Trey Jones. Maybe somebody can excel next year, but they need to add a point guard. They need to add more big man depth and they need Keegan Murray to take another step if they want to have any chance at succeeding with this current core because the Kings have one of the best fan bases in the NBA and they want to see a good product out there. Golden one center has one of the best environments out there as well and I would just hate to see this team enter into mediocrity for the next few years and you never know as well with the draft lottery because we’ve seen teams like the Atlanta Hawks, the New Orleans Pelicans, and the Dallas Mavericks end up closer to the eight seed and just miss the playoffs but still end up getting some lottery walk. So you never know how that can go. I think that would be better than Sacramento scraping their way to the eight seed every year just to get blown out by San Antonio or OKC or one of the top Western Conference teams in round number one. So, that is going to be it for me. I hope you guys did enjoy this video. Let me know what you think the Sacramento Kings should do this off seasonason and going forward. Do you think they should do a little bit of a retool, a reset, or should they push their chips forward and go after a big name this off season and see if there’s a team like the Phoenix Suns or the Denver Nuggets that are willing to make a trade with them this summer? And let me know in the comments if you’d like to see any other offseason previews or just current team state videos with a specific team. Let me know down below. Subscribe if you’re not already and I’ll catch you guys in the next one. Peace.

🟣 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/matt_sros/

📘Twitter – https://twitter.com/sixringsofsteei

🏀2K Channel – https://www.youtube.com/user/SixringsofsteeI

📷TikTok – https://www.tiktok.com/@sixringsofsteel

🏈NFL Channel – https://www.youtube.com/@MatthewGeist1

⚾MLB Channel – https://www.youtube.com/mgbaseball