Being a Sacramento Kings fan has always required patience, but lately, it has started to feel less like loyalty and more like acceptance of mediocrity. Every season begins with hope, every offseason with promises of growth, yet the result always seems to land in the same uncomfortable place: not bad enough to rebuild, but nowhere near good enough to matter. And as the current season unfolds, that familiar frustration has become impossible to ignore.
The Sacramento Kings should commit to a full rebuild because the roster, as currently constructed, has clearly reached its ceiling. Continuing to chase short-term competitiveness will only delay what has become a necessary reset.
Since the move to bring in Zach LaVine, the Kings have failed to establish a true, consistent point guard. After moving on from De’Aaron Fox, who was traded to the San Antonio Spurs, Sacramento experimented with several options to run the offense, including attempts to place increased responsibility on players like Malik Monk and Devin Carter, but none of those solutions truly worked long-term. This season, the hope was that veteran free-agent signing Dennis Schröder could provide that stability. However, less than a month into the year, his role was reduced, and the team turned to another experienced option in Russell Westbrook. While Westbrook has provided energy and flashes of production, being in Year 18 of his career makes it clear that he is not a long-term solution. The constant reshuffling at point guard has made one thing obvious: this roster lacks both structure and a clear offensive identity.
Age is an equally pressing concern. By both average age and impact minutes, the Kings rank among the older teams in the league. LaVine is 30, Domantas Sabonis is 29, DeMar DeRozan is 36, and Russell Westbrook is 37. Even the youngest consistent starter, Keegan Murray, is already 25 years old, which is not particularly young in a league where marquee stars like Anthony Edwards are just 24. Sacramento’s 2024 first-round pick, Carter, and 2025 selection Nique Clifford both entered the league as older prospects and are both 23. For a franchise that is supposedly building toward the future, the current core is already approaching, or moving past, its athletic prime.
Size has also been a long-standing weakness. As the NBA continues shifting away from “small ball” and toward length, versatility, and switchability, the Kings remain behind the curve. That issue became especially clear during the early stretch of the season when Murray missed time due to injury. At 6-foot-8-inches, he is already slightly undersized for a modern power forward, and the lack of depth behind him exposed just how thin Sacramento is in the frontcourt. Sabonis, while highly skilled, is also smaller than many of the league’s current starting centers and does not provide consistent vertical rim protection. The Kings’ starting lineup averages around 6-foot-seven-inches in height, significantly smaller than top teams in the Western Conference, such as the Houston Rockets, who lead the league at an average height of 6-foot-10-inches, shortest starter being 6-foot-7-inches, Amen Thompson, who has a 44-inch vertical jump. In an increasingly length-driven NBA, Sacramento is built for a version of the league that is rapidly disappearing.
With Sacramento’s core aging out of sync with the rest of the Western Conference’s contenders, the most logical path forward is to move older, win-now talent to teams whose timelines actually match their experience and contracts. Veterans still hold value around the league, especially for playoff-hopeful teams looking for shooting, leadership, or secondary scoring. Instead of trying to squeeze one last run out of a flawed roster, the Kings should be flipping those pieces for draft capital. Doing so would give them much-needed flexibility in what is shaping up to be a talent-rich and deep draft, and finally push the franchise toward a real rebuild instead of another year of underperforming.
This is also the first season for a brand-new front office, and new general manager Scott Perry should not be expected, or even encouraged, to build around the leftovers of the previous regime. In fact, he should want the chance to start fresh and shape the team in his own vision. Accumulating draft picks and young assets gives Perry the freedom to construct a roster that actually makes sense, rather than trying to force synergy out of a mismatched group he didn’t assemble in the first place.
Beyond the long-term benefits on paper, this approach would immediately open up real developmental opportunities for the younger players already on the roster. With more minutes available and less pressure to force wins, young talent can be evaluated in meaningful roles rather than being stuck in limited, inconsistent rotations. Increased playing time leads to faster growth, stronger confidence, and clearer answers about who truly belongs in the future core. Rather than continuing to chase short-term success with a broken foundation, Sacramento can finally commit to development and identity, the basic ingredients of a sustainable rebuild.
Indeed, a rebuild is never guaranteed to succeed, and Kings fans know the frustration of failed lottery picks, wasted years, and dashed hopes. Trading proven players for potential can backfire, and Sacramento’s history is full of cautionary examples.
However, staying the course is an even worse guarantee. This roster isn’t close to contention. Continuing to patch together mismatched veterans only prolongs subpar results. The Oklahoma City Thunder provide a blueprint: after trading stars like Paul George and Westbrook, they committed fully to youth and draft capital. Years of patience and development have turned them into one of the strongest young cores in the league, which eventually led to the team’s NBA Championship last season.
A rebuild doesn’t promise a championship, but it does give the Kings a plan, something this franchise has lacked for far too long. Without it, the team is almost guaranteed to keep spinning its wheels, losing valuable time that could be spent building a contender from the ground up.
The Kings have spent too long stuck in the middle, with a roster that can’t compete and a patchwork approach that leads nowhere. Committing to a full rebuild won’t be easy, and there are no guarantees, but it is the only path that offers real control over the team’s future. Anything less is just prolonging the same cycle of unremarkable results.