ESPN Reveals Sacramento Kings' NBA Championship Chances

Between Wednesday’s NBA Draft, free agency, and trades, the Kings' roster could look very different on opening night in October than it does today. However, that hasn’t stopped some from predicting the team’s success for next season. 

ESPN released two separate projections for every team’s success for next season, and the projections were not particularly exciting for the Kings. On Monday, ESPN put out their Way-Too-Early NBA Power Rankings, with the Kings landing at 20. 

“The Kings will have more time to rebalance this summer after remaking their roster by swapping De'Aaron Fox for Zach LaVine just before the trade deadline. New GM Scott Perry called the lack of a true point guard an "obvious need." How Sacramento gets one is less obvious. Sacramento sent a lottery pick to Atlanta to complete the Kevin Huerter trade and might not have access to the entire non-taxpayer midlevel exception. It'll depend on new contracts for reserves Keon Ellis (who would be unrestricted next summer if the Kings exercise his team option), Jake LaRavia and Trey Lyles. -- Kevin Pelton” 

Concurrently, on Monday morning, ESPN also released a list called How close is every franchise to a title? which put the teams in tiers, and needless to say, it didn’t paint a particularly pretty picture for Sacramento’s success next season. The Kings found themselves in the “Stuck in purgatory” tier. 

“New lead executive Scott Perry takes over an unbalanced Kings roster. Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Malik Monk all have overlapping skill sets, and the De'Aaron Fox trade left the team without an obvious point guard option on the roster. Perry has an intriguing decision to make on Keon Ellis, who has a $2.3 million team option and has turned into a nice developmental story as a 3-and-D guard, a necessity for a roster devoid of many defensive options. But the Fox move seemed like the first of a two-step process; and though Perry didn't make that first move, it will be up to him to make the second.”

The Kings appear intent on continuing to try to build around All-NBA center Domantas Sabonis, which has proved difficult. While dynamic on the offensive end, he is average at best on the defensive end, meaning he needs to be surrounded by defensive-minded players, especially those who can shoot threes, for the Kings to be competitive. Keon Ellis and Keegan Murray fit that mold and will be crucial to the team’s success. 

The next step for the team’s rebuild is Wednesday’s NBA draft. The team currently holds only one pick, 42 overall, but there are rumors that GM Perry is looking to land a first-round pick in a trade. It will be very interesting to see what happens on Wednesday and the rest of the offseason.