{"id":709956,"date":"2026-04-13T23:41:48","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T23:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/709956\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T23:41:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T23:41:48","slug":"maxime-raynauds-stellar-first-kings-season-fueled-by-patience-nbc-sports-bay-area-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/709956\/","title":{"rendered":"Maxime Raynaud\u2019s stellar first Kings season fueled by patience \u2013 NBC Sports Bay Area & California"},"content":{"rendered":"

SACRAMENTO \u2013 Not taking himself too seriously after having two big games early in his first NBA season might have been the smartest move made by Kings center Maxime Raynaud<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After hitting the Utah Jazz for a then-season high of 19 points on Nov. 28, the 23-year-old Frenchman came back five days later and lit up the Houston Rockets for 25 points on Dec. 3.<\/p>\n

Rather than puff his chest out and gloat, Raynaud knew better and simply stayed on the grind.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt no point I ever was, \u2018OK, I’m there. I’ve arrived,’ ” Raynaud told reporters at Golden 1 Center Monday, one day after the Kings’ season ended with a 122-110 thud of a loss in Portland. \u201cI want to be like, \u2018I can’t just rest and (be) like this is good enough.’ Once you start to settle a little bit, that’s when it comes back and kind of bites you in the butt.\u201d<\/p>\n

With that attitude, it was no surprise to see Raynaud’s rapid and stellar development<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The No. 42\u00a0overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, the 7-foot-1 Raynaud was one of the NBA’s most productive rookies.<\/p>\n

He had 18 double-doubles, tops amongst all rookies, 45 games when he reached double figures in scoring, and scored 30 or more in back-to-back games, only the fourth rookie in franchise history to accomplish that feat.<\/p>\n

With apologies to Charlotte Hornets rookie Kon Knueppel and Dallas Mavericks star Cooper Flagg, it\u2019s a plausible argument that neither of those two had the type of impact on their respective teams that Raynaud did with the Kings.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been able to take his opportunity and kind of fulfill it, just being a focal point of other teams\u2019 game plan,\u201d Kings forward Keegan Murray said. \u201cHe had a lot of success with that. There\u2019s a lot of opportunity for him to grow as a player, especially with his frame, his strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maybe the best part of Raynaud\u2019s season is that it came while the Kings\u2019 other big man, Domantas Sabonis<\/a>, was on the bench recovering from a left knee injury.<\/p>\n

Sabonis underwent successful surgery but kept a close eye on his younger teammate while rehabbing. The two only played a handful of minutes together during the regular season, but that was enough for Sabonis to form a glowing opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been great, his aggressiveness, learning how to play in different situations,\u201d Sabonis said. \u201cAt first he was getting a lot of pick-and-rolls with Russ (Westbrook) and then you see him on the 3-point line, shooting, pump-faking, driving, making plays.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the growth you want to see. He\u2019s proved that he can be an impact in all different areas on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Download and follow The Deuce & Mo Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SACRAMENTO \u2013 Not taking himself too seriously after having two big games early in his first NBA season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":709957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3792],"tags":[7,4056,3538,6,986,477,4055],"class_list":{"0":"post-709956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento-kings","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-kings","10":"tag-maxime-raynaud","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sacramento","13":"tag-sacramento-kings","14":"tag-sacramentokings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116400052186189926","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=709956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/709956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/709957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=709956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=709956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=709956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}