When Will the Sacramento Kings Have a Championship Window?

The Kings have made just one playoff appearance over the last 20 years, and were knocked out in the first round in their lone postseason trip. Obviously, this team is far from competing for a title.

The Kings' last championship window seemingly ended after the 2003-04 season, with their peak coming in a Western Conference Finals loss in 2002. If any NBA franchise is due to get back on top, it is the Kings, but it is hard to envision exactly how and when they will get there.

Unfortunately for the Kings, it might not come until the team changes ownership.

"The Sacramento Kings, as long as they have the current owners, will never win the title," Bill Simmons recently said on The Bill Simmons Podcast.

Still, assuming that the Kings actually can fight through poor ownership and get into title contention at some point, when would that be? For starters, it will not come until the Kings blow up their current core.

Domantas Sabonis, Zach LaVine, and DeMar DeRozan will never compete for a championship, much less a playoff spot, while in Sacramento. The Kings might not be able to find trades for all of them, so waiting until they are off their books is the immediate earliest we will see Sacramento start to be competitive.

By the 2028 offseason, all three will be out of Sacramento, and the only two current players still under contract will be Keegan Murray and Nique Clifford, with Maxime Raynaud likely a roster lock as well.

With a revamped core and development of their young guys, the Kings will be in a much better position in two years. Of course, landing a top-three pick in this loaded 2026 draft would have been a game-changer, but they will have to hope the No. 7 pick turns out to be just as good.

Fortunately, the Kings own all of their first-round picks through 2032, so they should be able to stick out a couple of rebuilding years to continue to put together an improved young core.

Even though it is impossible to tell what the Kings' roster will look like in five years, that seems to be the earliest they will be able to compete again. If they hit on their draft picks, there is no reason why the Kings cannot be a serious franchise again by 2031. Will they be competing for championships? Maybe not, but they should at least be in a better spot than they are now.

Committing to the rebuild, rather than bringing in veterans to "try to stay competitive," is the best thing the Kings can do right now, and their quickest route into a slim championship window. Granted, the proposed draft lottery change will make a rebuild much more difficult, but they will simply have to hope things fall their way.

It might be a tough few years for the Kings, but if they can stay on track, they can turn things around sooner than expected. While telling when a championship window will open for this franchise is near impossible, we can hope they are closer to that conversation by 2031-32.

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