We are now officially 13 games into the 2025-26 Sacramento Kings season, and we are officially running desperately low on reasons to watch the games.
Is that blunt? Sure, but I will not lie in this article.
Every so often, there’s gonna be a game where something cool happens, be it a Russ Triple-Double or maybe a clutch scoring run from LaVine. But from what I can tell right now, those moments are going to be few and far between.
More often than not, we are going to be treated to a real-life, NBA Basketball game that will make you run for the nearest eyewash.
13 games in, Doug Christie has already publicly called out this team for its lack of heart and desire.
Gone are the days of the scrappy Kings who would fight until their very last breath; now, we’re in the era of one-punch knockouts.
I could go on and spend more time looking through a thesaurus for every possible synonym of “uninteresting” I could find. That would probably kill 30 minutes or so, and I think I would much rather spend 30 minutes doing that than 30 minutes watching more Kings basketball. Since their win against Golden State on November 5th, the Kings have lost by 31, 27, 14, 33, and 14. Nothing about any of those games was remotely competitive. It’s all just bad.
And you know what? Good. Lose, and keep losing.
Credit: Sacramento Kings-Twitter/XSince Vivek Ranadive bought the team about 12 years ago, the Kings have shunned every possible opportunity to rebuild. Ownership has consistently jaded itself into thinking that, no matter the situation, it is salvageable. Just a couple of moves and, boom, play-in here we come! Ironically enough, a couple of moves to get some length and forward depth could’ve prevented this situation entirely, but that’s the past. Unchangeable and unmoving.
What is constantly in motion is the future, and specifically, lottery odds. Despite some of the worst roster construction in the modern NBA, the Kings have completely flamed out. Sabonis trade rumors are heating up; LaVine is playing decently enough. Maybe this will start some trade discussions by the time February’s deadline rolls around, and the trade rumors around DeMar DeRozan and Malik Monk are still just as present as they have been since the offseason.
What does all that mean?
Somehow, someway, the Kings have accidentally tripped over their own feet, stumbled headfirst into a concrete wall, and ended up….in the most obvious rebuild ever.
Trading the “core” of this team wouldn’t yield a haul, but it would give us more assets than we currently have. The 2026 draft class just so happens to be an incredibly deep one, with guys like AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, and Cam Boozer being the headliners. Do I think the basketball gods will smile upon the Kings’ futility and reward them with one of those 3 future stars? Nope, not one bit. But at least being in contention for them is a much better outlook for the future than somehow accidentally ending up in contention for the play-in.
I’ve said this multiple times, but this year should be and should have always been about letting the young guys we have develop and see what they can do.
With the logjam of “talent” we have starting games, that’s not gonna happen. But the minute this team pulls the plug and lets the water go down the drain, it’ll be in the position it should be in—a bad team, looking forward to the lottery.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
