Sacramento Kings Are Learning Unnecessary Lesson the Hard Way

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By JH Kubicek | Last updated Apr 1, 2025 5:55 PM ET

With seven games left on their schedule, the Sacramento Kings are 36-39 and own the tenth spot in the Western Conference, holding onto the last spot in the Play-In Tournament. Kevin Durant's ankle sprain that will keep him out for at least three games might be enough for the Kings to make the Play-In, but they shouldn't rely on injury luck for a postseason chance.

Instead, one could argue, the Kings should have never been trying to make the postseason in the first place. In the De'Aaron Fox trade, instead of forcing the San Antonio Spurs to part ways with a promising young player or more draft capital than they received, the Kings made a win-now move to add Zach LaVine.

Since then, they have slid down the standings.

Between LaVine, Malik Monk, DeMar DeRozan, and Domantas Sabonis, the Kings have plenty of talent but none of it fits together. The Suns and last year's Chicgao Bulls have showcased that building a roster that way simply doesn't work, and the Kings instead opted to spit in the face of the Bulls' franchise by repeating their mistakes.

"Kings lineups with DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine sharing the floor have been outscored by 58 points this season, and Sacramento is 10-15 in the games in which both play," wrote The Athletic's Law Murray. "The Kings have lost six of their last seven games and don’t return home until April 9."

In three seasons of having both LaVine and DeRozan on the roster, the Bulls made the playoffs once, lost in the first round, and then didn't crack .500 over the next two seasons. It was clear that the two simply couldn't share the floor, and was generally understood around the league to be a failed experiment.

The Kings instead decided to run the exact same experiment just months after the Bulls ended theirs, and seem puzzled that the results are similar, if not identical.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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