How Does the NBA World Feel About the 2025-26 Sacramento Kings?

Out of the three media personalities I cover, Matthew Geist has the Kings at the highest in his rankings at 22nd. To be frank, this feels quite generous given how the Kings have looked in preseason and the injuries that they will be dealing with to begin the season. B

Both Keegan Murray and Domantas Sabonis are set to miss time, with Murray being out for an extended period as he rehabs from UCL surgery. If you are simply watching box scores, you may not see the impact that Keegan has on the Kings. He is the only plus defender in the starting lineup and the only player on the roster capable of defending bigger wings and guards like Luka Doncic, Kevin Durant, and others. 

Even if Sabonis heals up quickly, the Kings will likely start the season in a big hole with Murray out and the tough schedule ahead of them. Teams ranked behind the Kings, like the Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Pelicans, are dealing with injuries, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them end the season on top of Sacramento. 

Tom Ziller’s Prediction

“After winning at least 40 games in a row for three straight seasons, the Kings return to their roots and fall below that figure, and start a firesale around midseason.”

Ziller’s Substack, Good Morning It’s Basketball, is always a great read, and he covered his 13 Fearless Predictions for the 2025-26 NBA season on Tuesday. To clarify, Ziller definitely doesn’t mean that the Kings have won 40 straight games, and is pointing to the three 40+ win seasons the team has had over the last three seasons. 

Anything can happen, and this team may suddenly click, but I find myself agreeing with Ziller. With the aforementioned injuries and logjam of a rotation, the Kings feel destined to miss the 40-win mark and find themselves in a battle for one of the last Play-In spots. If the Kings do significantly underperform, Scott Perry and the front office should be ready to pivot immediately. 

The question is, will they actually be sellers at the deadline, as most analysts have predicted? 

Kevin O’Connor: Second to Last in the West

“The Kings feel split between timelines. On one hand, the 25-or-under group (Nique Clifford, Keegan Murray, Devin Carter, Keon Ellis, Maxime Raynaud, and others) will flash long-term upside. On the other hand, the rotation around Domantas Sabonis skews older and clunkier, with too many shaky shooters orbiting a hub that needs space: DeMar DeRozan, Russell Westbrook and Dennis Schröder. The ‘Light the Beam’ memories feel distant.”

The quote above is from O’Connor’s latest with Yahoo! Sports and echoes Ziller's (and my) feelings on the team. It’s an inarguable fact that the team is split between timelines. While many teams struggle to hedge between competing for a championship and preparing for the future, Sacramento has found itself doing neither. 

The team hasn’t won a playoff series in over two decades and decided to trade two of their most promising draft picks in Tyrese Haliburton and De’Aaron Fox. Now, the Kings have three players over 30 in their starting lineup, and Sabonis will join them by the end of the season. 

Barring a massive surprise, the Kings will likely miss the playoffs again while having one of the oldest rosters in the league. All signs point to this being the year the Kings finally rebuild, but this team has surprised everyone before. 

Round Up

The tone on the Kings is clearly less than positive. Even the more optimistic takes have the Kings in the bottom half of the league and fighting for a spot in the Play-In tournament. This didn’t even include Zach Lowe and Rob Mahoney ranking the Kings 29th in their league pass rankings, which also feels fair after watching the starting unit in preseason. 

The only saving grace is the under-25 contingent that is legitimately exciting. The problem is, there might not be many minutes for that cohort if Sacramento doesn't look forward instead of trying to compete with teams that are very far ahead of them.