Kings star DeMar DeRozan didn’t hold back while describing the chaos that ensued during his first season in Sacramento.
DeRozan addressed the turmoil the team faced last season during a media day scrum with reporters Monday at the team’s Golden 1 Center practice facility.
“Just call it what it was,” DeRozan said. “Last year was, internally, a s— show, and this time around we’ve got a chance to make right the wrongs that happened.”
DeRozan didn’t point fingers, but he made it clear he has higher hopes for the upcoming season as the Kings prepare to start training camp Tuesday.
“It’s not nobody’s fault,” DeRozan said. “We all have issues internally with our jobs and everything. Sometimes you’ve got to learn how to pivot and maneuver through that, and I think that’s just what it was.”
Kings center Domantas Sabonis agreed with DeRozan’s assessment.
“I won’t say those words, but, yeah, exactly,” Sabonis said. “It definitely was tough. I feel like a lot of us, especially me personally, went through a lot of new experiences for the first time throughout a season. And, yeah, just learning how to deal with it, move forward, it was tough because no one know who was staying, who was going to be here, and we just tried to do the best we could.”
DeRozan came to Sacramento last summer after signing a three-year, $74 million contract as part of a sign-and-trade deal with the Chicago Bulls. The Kings expected to get back to the playoffs after falling short in 2023-24, but they fell far short of expectations.
The Kings fired coach Mike Brown after going 13-18 to start the 2024-25 season, appointed Doug Christie as interim head coach and sent star point guard De’Aaron Fox ahead of the February trade deadline. The Kings finished 40-42 and parted ways with general manager Monte McNair after losing to the Dallas Mavericks in the play-in tournament.
“Last year was one for the books for me,” DeRozan said. “There was so much stuff from start to end. Just to be honest with you, there was just a lot of s— that was going on that, internally, we tried to fight through as players, and I can only imagine as a coaching staff. Y’all know there was a lot going on, but with the guys that were here, we still tried to manage to make something out of it.”
DeRozan averaged 22.2 points, 3.9 rebounds and 4.4 assists last season. He is 25th on the NBA’s all-time scoring list going into his 17th NBA season.
DeRozan thinks the Kings can have a bounce-back year in their first full season with Christie at the helm.
“From that moment on when things started to change, I knew if we had an opportunity to be under Doug and see Doug’s vision, and having a training camp with the players we needed, we could do something,” DeRozan said. “We didn’t have that last year because so much stuff was happening, but I think this time around you’ll see a much different team.”