With just seven games remaining in their season, the Sacramento Kings sit at 36-39, clinging to the tenth seed in the Western Conference and the final Play-In Tournament spot. While Kevin Durant’s ankle injury, which will sideline him for at least three games, could improve their chances, relying on opponents’ misfortune isn’t a sustainable path to the postseason. In reality, some might argue the Kings shouldn’t have been chasing a playoff spot at all.
Rather than leveraging the De’Aaron Fox trade to extract more draft capital or a promising young player from the San Antonio Spurs, Sacramento made a win-now decision by acquiring Zach LaVine. Since then, they’ve tumbled down the standings. Despite having talented players like LaVine, Malik Monk, DeMar DeRozan, and Domantas Sabonis, their roster lacks cohesion. The failures of the Phoenix Suns and last year’s Chicago Bulls have already proven that assembling talent without synergy leads to underwhelming results—yet the Kings appear to have ignored that lesson.
According to The Athletic’s Law Murray, “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 games where both play.” Additionally, the Kings have lost six of their last seven games and won’t return home until April 9.
The Bulls’ experience with LaVine and DeRozan serves as a cautionary tale. Over three seasons together, Chicago made the playoffs just once, suffered a first-round exit, and then failed to finish above .500 in the following two years. Around the league, it was widely recognized that the experiment didn’t work. Now, the Kings seem to be repeating the same mistake.
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