Kings Announce Domantas Sabonis Injury Update on Thursday

What it Means for Sacramento

We don’t know how long Sabonis will be sidelined, but Sacramento can’t afford to lose him for an extended period of time. Already without Keegan Murray to begin the season, Sacramento needs all the help they can get while trying to navigate a tough schedule out of the gate.

The Kings will take on the Los Angeles Lakers, Oklahoma City Thunder twice, Milwaukee Bucks, Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, and Minnesota Timberwolves within the first ten games of the season. That’s seven games that the Kings would’ve been underdogs in even with Murray and Sabonis healthy and now it seems like a 3-7 start is the best the Kings can hope for.

The ideal scenario for the Kings and Sabonis is a grade-1 hamstring strain similar to what Steph Curry suffered in the playoffs last year and even that will likely sideline Sabonis to begin the season. Curry spoke about the tricky nature of hamstring injuries in an interview with ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk and would end up missing the remainder of the series against the Timberwolves.

Worst case, Sabonis could be out for multiple weeks, or even months as the training staff will have to make sure the re-injury risk is low. For the Kings, there really isn’t a replacement for what Sabonis brings every night and multiple players will need to step up to fill the void. 

Who Would (or Should) Start in His Place?

The Kings have Drew Eubanks, Dylan Cardwell, and Maxime Raynaud as the other three centers on the roster, and Eubanks is the only one with NBA experience, while Cardwell is much too raw to start at this point in his career.

Eubanks is who I am expecting to jump into Sabonis' spot, but Raynaud might be the better choice. Eubanks is a solid, tough veteran, but he is nowhere near the playmaker and shooter that Raynaud is. Raynaud is a rookie and still needs to develop a lot of his game, but the Kings wouldn’t need to change their offense nearly as much with him taking Sabonis’ place.

Raynaud is already a good passer for a big man, has the mobility to defend on the perimeter, and can shoot from behind the line. Even if Eubanks is the better overall defender and rebounder at this stage of their careers, Raynaud’s shooting alone might be a good enough reason to give him a shot. 

Another option would be going extremely small and starting Isaac Jones at the five. Jones’ athleticism and wingspan help him play much bigger than he is, but he is still just 6’9”. Both Jones and Raynaud allow the Kings to play five-out, which would make life a lot easier for LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Dennis Schröder offensively.

Defensively is where Jones would really stand out over the other options. Jones is at least on par with Eubanks as a rim protector, but he’s much more mobile, and having him out there would make a big difference with Murray also sidelined. Jones has also been working on his range all summer and clearly won’t hesitate to take threes if they’re open. 

Both Jones and Raynaud feel like far better options than Eubanks while Sabonis nurses his hamstring injury, however, I fully expect Eubanks to get the nod if Domas is out for game one. Eubanks has been the first center off the bench all preseason, and his experience makes it hard to overlook him when the other options have barely played in the NBA.

The issue is that this could be used as time to develop Jones and Raynaud instead of focusing on trying to win games during a season where the team doesn’t look like it has a real shot at the playoffs. With Murray, and likely Sabonis, out for multiple games, this is Christie’s chance to see what he has with some of his younger players as the Kings try to figure out what their identity will be for the future. No matter which direction the Kings choose, more than Sabonis’ replacement will need to step up to help keep the team afloat in his absence.