Ex-NBA All-Star Gets Honest About Kings' Biggest Need

The Sacramento Kings had a lot of excitement coming into the season after what sounded like a great training camp, but after an 0-2 start to the preseason, that excitement is already on the verge of disappearing in Sacramento.

The Kings fell to the Toronto Raptors and Portland Trail Blazers to open up their exhibition schedule and saw many of the same problems that plagued them last season. While the roster is talented, it's still unclear if everything will click for the upcoming season.

The Kings are in an unusual transition, where they possess the talent and desire to win, but may lack the ability to actually compete in the tough Western Conference with the roster as currently constructed.

And to make matters more difficult, they don't have any young stars to be excited about and look to build around going forward, which is something former All-Star Jeff Teague discussed on his recent episode of the Club 520 podcast.

“Sacramento needs to find a young player. I don’t mind having Sabonis; Sabonis is a good player. He probably got four or five good years of basketball left. I would say, they need to find a young player that they can build around. They don’t have a young draft pick that you’re excited about on this team. Keegan Murray was supposed to be good but he doesn’t have star potential. They need a star.”

Sabonis is one of the best centers in the league, but he's a difficult player to build around, and not someone who is going to lead the team in scoring on a nightly basis. He can take over games, but he's not the type of star who can go get a bucket anytime the team needs it. He operates more as the offensive hub and uses his elite rebounding to impact the team, but isn't the star that the Kings need for this rebuild of the roster.

And Keegan Murray had the potential, and is still young enough to blossom into a star, but he appears to be more of a star role player as he enters his fourth season. He hasn't shown the offensive game of a star to put him in that category.

Teague also pointed out how the Kings have traded away the stars that they drafted between Tyrese Haliburton and De'Aaron Fox.

“They gave away Haliburton, they gave away Fox, they need a young star to build around. People that they drafted, they gave away,” Teague stated.